OpenKM authentication

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Authentication (from Greek: αυθεντικός; real or genuine, from authentes; author) is the act of establishing or confirming something (or someone) as authentic, that is, that claims made by or about the subject are true. This might involve confirming the identity of a person, the origins of an artifact, or assuring that a computer program is a trusted one. This task is addressed by JAAS.

JAAS uses a service provider approach to its authentication features, meaning that it is possible to configure different login modules for an application without changing any code. The application remains unaware of the underlying authentication logic. It's even possible for an application to contain multiple login modules, somewhat akin to a stack of authentication procedures.


Nota idea.png Read Debugging JAAS configuration to learn how to debug a problematic JAAS configuration.

OpenKM relies the authentication on the standard JAAS implemented in JBoss application server. JBoss comes with some interesting modules which can be used to authenticate against a plain-text file, a database or an LDAP, for example. On recent versions, OpenKM uses the DatabaseServerLoginModule class to manage authentication.


Nota clasica.png The JBoss security is configured in the file $JBOSS_HOME/server/default/conf/login-config.xml.

Also remember the principal.adapter configuration option. OpenKM need this configuration to create a list of users and roles available in the changing permissions dialog. This is done by the DatabasePrincipalAdapter class. This is an implementation of the com.openkm.principal.PrincipalAdapter interface: 

public interface PrincipalAdapter {
    /**
     * Method to retrieve all users from a authentication source.
     *
     * @return A Collection with all the users.
     * @throws PrincipalAdapterException If any error occurs.
     */
    public Collection<String> getUsers() throws PrincipalAdapterException;

    /**
     * Method to retrieve all roles from a authentication source.
     *
     * @return A Collection with all the roles.
     * @throws PrincipalAdapterException If any error occurs.
     */
    public Collection<String> getRoles() throws PrincipalAdapterException;

    /**
     * Method to retrieve the mail from a list of users.
     *
     * @param users A list of users.
     * @return A list of user emails.
     * @throws PrincipalAdapterException If any error occurs.
     */
    public Collection<String> getMails(Collection<String> users) throws PrincipalAdapterException;
}

Roles

In OpenKM are defined by default two roles AdminRole and UserRole.

UserRole is mandatory for all users, because is internally used by OpenKM for connection grant purpose. Without this grant users can not connect to OpenKM and you'll get a 403 status code error.

You can set AdminRole to any user, and it'll get administrator privileges seeing any folder and making any operation without retrictions. Users with AdminRole have access to administrator tab in UI.

Plain-text file

This is the simplest security configuration. This was the default authentication method in older OpenKM versions. It is achieved using the JBoss UsersRolesLoginModule login module. User are stored in the file $JBOSS_HOME/server/default/conf/props/openkm-users.properties in this form: 

user1=pass1
user2=pass2
...

The password in not encrypted. The roles are in the file $JBOSS_HOME/server/default/conf/props/openkm-roles.properties in this form: 

user1=UserRole,Rol1,Rol2,...
user1=UserRole,Rol1,Rol2,...
...

This is the JBoss configuration for this method: 

<application-policy name = "OpenKM">
   <authentication>
     <login-module code="org.jboss.security.auth.spi.UsersRolesLoginModule" flag = "required">
        <module-option name="usersProperties">props/openkm-users.properties</module-option>
        <module-option name="rolesProperties">props/openkm-roles.properties</module-option>
     </login-module>
     <login-module code="org.jboss.security.ClientLoginModule" flag="required" />
   </authentication>
</application-policy>

The principal.adapter should be set to es.git.openkm.principal.UsersRolesPrincipalAdapter.

Database

This is the default security configuration for recent OpenKM version. Is a good option because simplifies user and role management: now user and roles can be managed from OpenKM administration. This module connect to the database using a data-source. 

<application-policy name = "OpenKM">
  <authentication>
    <login-module code="org.jboss.security.auth.spi.DatabaseServerLoginModule" flag = "required">
      <module-option name="dsJndiName">java:/OKMAuthDS</module-option>
      <module-option name="principalsQuery">select usr_pass as PASSWD from users where usr_id=? and usr_active='true'</module-option>
      <module-option name="rolesQuery">select ur_role as ROLEID, 'Roles' from user_role where ur_user=?</module-option>
      <module-option name="hashAlgorithm">md5</module-option>
      <module-option name="hashEncoding">hex</module-option>
    </login-module>
  </authentication>
</application-policy>

The principal.adapter should be set to com.openkm.principal.DatabasePrincipalAdapter, which is the default value.

LDAP (Active Directory, Open Directory)

You can get LDAP integration through the LdapExtLoginModule login module. 

<application-policy name="OpenKM">
  <authentication>
     <login-module code="org.jboss.security.auth.spi.LdapExtLoginModule" flag="required" >
       <module-option name="java.naming.provider.url">ldap://my-company.com:389</module-option>
       <module-option name="bindDN">cn=My_adm_account,ou=Admin Accounts,dc=my-company,dc=br</module-option>
       <module-option name="java.naming.security.authentication">simple</module-option>
       <module-option name="bindCredential">My_adm_account_password</module-option>
       <module-option name="baseCtxDN">ou=Users Accounts,dc=my-company,dc=com</module-option>
       <module-option name="baseFilter">(sAMAccountName={0})</module-option>
       <module-option name="rolesCtxDN">ou=Users Accounts,dc=my-company,dc=com</module-option>
       <module-option name="roleFilter">(sAMAccountName={0})</module-option>
       <module-option name="roleAttributeID">memberOf</module-option>
       <module-option name="roleAttributeIsDN">true</module-option>
       <module-option name="roleNameAttributeID">cn</module-option>
       <module-option name="roleRecursion">-1</module-option>
       <module-option name="searchScope">SUBTREE_SCOPE</module-option>
       <module-option name="defaultRole">UserRole</module-option>
     </login-module>
  </authentication>
</application-policy>

Here are some configuration comments:

  • bindDN: This is some DN with read/search permissions on the baseCtxDN and rolesCtxDN.
  • bindCredential: The password for the bindDN.
  • baseCtxDN: The fixed DN of the context to start the user search from.
  • rolesCtxDN: The fixed DN of the context to search for user roles.

Don't forget the <module-option name="defaultRole">UserRole</module-option> (adds this role to every authenticated user, because only users with that role are allowed to access OpenKM).

See also:

Changes from version 3.0. to 4.0

  • UserRol now is called UserRole
  • AdminRol now is called AdminRole

More information

More information about JASS and other login modules can be found at:

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