View the steps required to configure HCL Digital Experience for SSL client certificate
authentication. The supported scenario is a "client certificate only" setup that switches
completely to this authentication method and does not allow form-based login via username
and password. Other configuration scenarios are possible, but are neither recommended nor
supported.
About this task
Complete the following steps to configure HCL Digital Experience for SSL client
certificate authentication:Note: See related references section on how to setup WAS for
SSL support with client certification.
Procedure
- Ensure you complete the following steps when you configure IBM® WebSphere® Application Server for SSL support
with client certificates:
- When you define the Quality of protection (QoP) settings
for the new SSL Repertoire, do the following:
- Choose Required from the Client
Authentication list
- Choose SSL_TLS from the Protocol list.
- In the Provider section, select Predefined
JSSE provider then choose IBMJSSE from
the Select provider list.
For more information, see the
Quality of Protection topic
in the
WebSphere® Application Server Information
Center.
- Ensure you reference the correct key and trust files.
You should create new key and trust files using the IKEYMAN tool and
the PKCS12 format for maximum browser compatibility.
Note: The
key file must contain the server certificate. The trust file must
contain either all the client certificates of users that will be authenticated
or a certification authority certificate (CA key) that can be used
to verify the client certificates of users.
- Associate the secure transport chain with the new SSL
Repertoire.
- Configure your advanced LDAP security settings. Certificate-based
authentication requires that you configure the authentication mechanism
so that one of the following conditions apply:
- WebSphere® Application Server maps the
entire Distinguished Name (DN) from the subject field of the certificate
to a corresponding Distinguished Name in your LDAP. To use this option,
set the mapping technique in the LDAP configuration panel to exact.
- WebSphere® Application Server maps the
entry in the subject field to a different attribute than the Distinguished
Name in your user registry. To use this option, set up the mapping
technique in the LDAP configuration panel to use the certificate filter
option. Using the certificate filter option allows you more flexibility
in using attributes other than the Distinguished Name to identify
the users. For example, the filter uid=${SubjectCN} maps
the SubjectCN field of the client certificate
to the uid attribute in your LDAP.
- Complete the following steps if you use an external HTTP
server:
- Regenerate the plug-in. Go to . Select the Web
server and click Generate Plug-in.
Update the HTTP server with the generated plug-in.
- Restart the HTTP server for the changes to take effect.
- Enable client certificate authentication in your Web
server. For IBM HTTP Server (IHS), refer to http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/ and search
for security handbook for the latest information about WebSphere® Application Server.
- Update wps.ear to change the authentication
method and transport guarantee setting to support client certificate
authentication.
Clustered environments: Complete this step on the primary node, then complete
a full resynchronize to propagate the changes to all nodes.
- Export wps.ear.
See
the following topic title in the Related task section for instructions: Exporting
the portal EAR file.
- Go to the directory where you exported wps.ear: path_to_exported_EAR/installedApps/node_name/wps.ear/wps.war/WEB-INF
Note: You might need to extract the exported EAR
before you can edit any files.
- Edit the web.xml file located in
the exported ear directory under /wps.war/WEB-INF.
- Change the login-config tag to the client certificate
authentication method.
<login-config id="LoginConfig_1">
<auth-method>CLIENT-CERT</auth-method>
<realm-name>WPS</realm-name>
<!--<form-login-config id="FormLoginConfig_1">
<form-login-page>/redirect</form-login-page>
<form-error-page>/error.html</form-error-page>
</form-login-config> -->
</login-config>
- Change the transport guarantee setting in the security
constraint for the protected area to CONFIDENTIAL:
<security-constraint id="SecurityConstraint_1">
<web-resource-collection id="WebResourceCollection_1">
<web-resource-name/>
<url-pattern>/myportal/*</url-pattern>
<http-method>DELETE</http-method>
<http-method>GET</http-method>
<http-method>POST</http-method>
<http-method>PUT</http-method>
<http-method>HEAD</http-method>
</web-resource-collection>
<auth-constraint id="AuthConstraint_1">
<description/>
<role-name>All Role</role-name>
</auth-constraint>
<user-data-constraint id="UserDataConstraint_4">
<transport-guarantee>CONFIDENTIAL</transport-guarantee>
</user-data-constraint>
</security-constraint>
- Save and close web.xml.
- Redeploy wps.ear.
See
the following topic title in the Related task section for instructions: Redeploying
the portal EAR file.
-
Clustered environments: Synchronize the nodes.
- Log in to the Deployment Manager.
- Select .
- Select the nodes to synchronize from the list.
- Click Full Resynchronize.
- Update the themes and settings.
- Modify the URLs for login and logout in the themes that
are used in your scenario. In the default theme,
these are located in the banner_toolbar.jspf and mainMenu.jsp files
in the PortalServer_root/installer/wp.ear/installableApps/wps.ear/wps.war/themes/ directory.The files that contain the login and logout links
can be different, depending on the theme. In more recent themes, these
links might be located in Default.jsp. In older
themes, these links might be located in either banner.jspf or mainMenu.jsp.
Finding theme resources: See the Location
of theme resources link in the Related section.
Clustered environments: Complete the following steps. Notice that in a clustered
environment, the steps must be completed on the Deployment Manager.
- Remove the login portlet from all pages where it is
placed; for example, the welcome and the login page.
-
If you want to completely disable the entry points 'login portlet' and
'login URL' to HCL Digital Experience, complete the following
steps: set the command.login
property in the configuration service to the value
LoginUserBlocked. This ensures that a login
can only be triggered after being authenticated by WebSphere® Application Server, in
this case by the client certificate handshake.
- Log on to the WebSphere® Integrated Solutions Console.
- Go to .
- Click WP ConfigService.
- Click Custom Properties under the
Additional Properties heading.
- Click command.login and change the value
from LoginUserAuth to
LoginUserBlocked.
- Click Save to save the changes to the
master configuration.
- Log out of the WebSphere® Integrated Solutions Console.
- Stop and restart the appropriate servers
to propagate the changes. For specific instructions, see Starting and stopping servers, deployment managers, and node agents.
- Verify your setup.
- Import one of the client certificates that are accepted
by the server to your browser.
- Launch the home page in this browser through an HTTP
URL that is not secure; for example, http://hostname.example.com:10039/wps/portal,
where hostname.example.com is the fully qualified host name of the server where
Portal is running and 10039 is the default transport port that is created by WebSphere® Application Server. The port number might be different
for your environment..
- Click the login link.
- Verify that the server switches to HTTPS and you are
prompted for the client certificate.
- After selecting and confirming the correct client certificate,
you are redirected to the protected area served with HTTPS.