security constraint - not working

[Sushma Sharma]

Hi All,
I am trying to constrain access to a file jstlChoose.do, which is a jsp and I have mapped it to jstlChoose.do in web.xml.
I did the following in my web.xml for the security constraints
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
<code>
<security-constraint>
<web-resource-collection>
<web-resource-name>JSTL Choose</web-resource-name>
<url-patterns>/jstlChoose.do</url-patterns>
<http-method>GET</http-method>
</web-resource-collection>
<auth-constraint>
<role-name>admin</role-name>
<role-name>manager</role-name>
</auth-constraint>
</security-constraint>

<login-config>
<auth-method>BASIC</auth-method>
</login-config>

<security-role>
<role-name>admin</role-name>
</security-role>
<security-role>
<role-name>manager</role-name>
</security-role>
<security-role>
<role-name>guest</role-name>
</security-role>
</code>
-------------------------------------------------------------

Now, if I understand correctly, only admin and manager are allowed to call GET method on this jstlChoose.do. SO, when I try to access this file using

http://localhost:8080/TestJSP/jstlChoose.do

I should get a browser's standard pop-up form asking for user name and password.
But, it is not asking for any user name and password and I am still able to see the result.
Am I doing something wrong? Do I have to explicitly set some variable to a user role first and then try accessing this file? I am really confused...
Any help is welcome,

Regards,

Sushma

[Frank Zammetti]

Your understanding is *mostly* correct. Two points however...

Constraint-based security works by constraining resources, as the name implies. Keep in mind though that you are only constraining the GET method... *any* user can still use POST or other methods to access that constrained resources. This isn't causing you a problem, I don't think, but it is worth noteing because it trips people up a lot at first.

I think the cause of your problem is that you haven't completed the configuration... remember that the settings in web.xml do nothing without your container being made aware of the constraints. For instance, in Tomcat you would add entries to tomcat-users.xml for your admin and manager. In Websphere it's mappings in application.xml and ibm-application-bnd.xmi, other containers will be different still.

Otherwise, I don't see anything wrong with your configuration at first glance. So, Google for details on configuring whatever container you are in and I'd expect it to work.

[Sushma Sharma]

Hi,

I am using tomcat and I did created admin and manager roles before even trying this security constraint and that's why I can't understand why it's not working...
Is there anybody who got this problem before???

[K Vidhyakar]

Hi,

Even i too have the same problem.

This is by tomcat-users.xml

  
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<tomcat-users>
  <role rolename="role2"/>
  <role rolename="tomcat"/>
  <role rolename="role1"/>
  <role rolename="manager"/>
  <user username="role2" password="tomcat" roles="role2"/>
  <user username="tomcat" password="tomcat" roles="tomcat"/>
  <user username="role1" password="tomcat" roles="role1"/>
  <user username="both" password="tomcat" roles="tomcat,role1"/>
  <user username="admin" password="admin" roles="manager"/>
  <user username="" password="" roles="manager"/>
</tomcat-users>
 
  

and my web.xml is

  
<security-constraint>
   <display-name>secure</display-name>
   <web-resource-collection>
    <web-resource-name>home</web-resource-name>
    <url-pattern>/JSP/jsp/*</url-pattern>
    <http-method>GET</http-method>
   </web-resource-collection>
   <auth-constraint>
    <role-name>role2</role-name>
   </auth-constraint>
  </security-constraint>
  
  <login-config>
   <auth-method>BASIC</auth-method>
  </login-config>
  
  <security-role>
   <description>role2</description>
   <role-name>role2</role-name>
 </security-role>
 
  

still i am able to access the page.
If my configuration is correct, am i need to do any other changes other than in these two files ?