Axis2 comes with a module based on WSS4J [1] to provide WS-Security features. This section explains how to engage and configure the security module. Since the security module inserts handlers in the system specific pre-dispatch phase, it must be engaged globally. But it is possible to activate the security module for the inflow or the outflow when required by the service or the clients.
The security module (security.mar) is available in the axis2.war but it is not engaged by default.
First it should be engaged by inserting the following in the axis2.xml file.
<module ref="security"/>
The web admin interface can be used when Axis2 is deployed in a servlet container such as Apache Tomcat.
At the server it is possible to provide security on a per service basis. The configuration parameters should be set in the service.xml file of the service. The client side config parameters should be set in the axis2.xml of the client's Axis2 repository.
The security module uses two parameters:
The configuration that can go in each of these parameters are described below:
This parameter is used to configure the outflow security handler. The outflow handler can be invoked more than once in the outflow one can provide configuration for each of these invocations. The 'action' element describes one of these configurations. Therefore the 'OutflowSecurity' parameter can contain more than one 'action' elements. The schema of this 'action' element is available here.
An outflow configuration to add a timestamp, sing and encrypt the message once, is shown in Example 1 and Example 2 shows how to sign the message twice by chaining the outflow handler (using two 'action' elements)
Following is a description of the elements that can go in an 'action' element of the OutflowSecurity parameter
| Parameter | Description | Example |
| items | Security actions for the inflow | Add a Timestamp, Sign the SOAP body and Encrypt the SOAP body <items> Timestamp Signature Encrypt</items> |
| user | The user's name | Set alias of the key to be used to sign <user> bob</user> |
| passwordCallbackClass | Callback class used to provide the password required to create the UsernameToken or to sign the message | <passwordCallbackClass> org.apache.axis2.security.PWCallback</passwordCallbackClass> |
| signaturePropFile | property file used to get the signature parameters such as crypto provider, keystore and its password | Set example.properties file as the signature property file <signaturePropFile> example.properties</signaturePropFile> |
| signatureKeyIdentifier | Key identifier to be used in referring the key in the signature | Use the serial number of the certificate <signatureKeyIdentifier> IssuerSerial</signatureKeyIdentifier> |
| encryptionKeyIdentifier | Key identifier to be used in referring the key in encryption | Use the serial number of the certificate <encryptionKeyIdentifier>IssuerSerial</encryptionKeyIdentifier> |
| encryptionUser | The user's name for encryption. | <encryptionUser>alice</encryptionUser> |
| encryptionSymAlgorithm | Symmetric algorithm to be used for encryption | Use AES-128 <encryptionSymAlgorithm> http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#aes128-cbc</encryptionSymAlgorithm> |
| encryptionKeyTransportAlgorithm | Key encryption algorithm | Use RSA-OAEP <parameter name="encryptionSymAlgorithm"> http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#rsa-oaep-mgf1p</parameter> |
| signatureParts | Sign multiple parts in the SOAP message | Sign Foo and Bar elements qualified by "http://app.ns/ns" <signatureParts> {Element}{http://app.ns/ns}Foo;{Element}{http://app.ns/ns}Bar </signatureParts> |
| optimizeParts | MTOM Optimize the elements specified by the XPath query | Optimize the CipherValue <optimizeParts> //xenc:EncryptedData/xenc:CipherData/xenc:CipherValue </optimizeParts> |
This parameter is used to configure the inflow security handler. The 'action' element is used to encapsulate the configuration elements here as well. The schema of the 'action' element is available here. Example 3 shows the configuration to decrypt, verify signature and validate timestamp.
| Parameter | Description | Example |
| items | Security actions for the inflow | first the incoming message should be decrypted and then the signatures should be
verified and should be checked for the availability of the Timestamp <items> Timestamp Signature Encrypt</items> |
| passwordCallbackClass | Callback class used to obtain password for decryption and UsernameToken verification | <passwordCallbackClass> org.apache.axis2.security.PWCallback</passwordCallbackClass> |
| signaturePropFile | Property file used for signature verification | <signaturePropFile> sig.properties</signaturePropFile> |
| decryptionPropFile | Property file used for decryption | <decryptionPropFile> dec.properties</decryptionPropFile> |
Please note that the '.properties' files used in properties such as OutSignaturePropFile are the same property files that are using in the WSS4J project. Following shows the properties defined in a sample property file
org.apache.ws.security.crypto.provider=org.apache.ws.security.components.crypto.Merlin
org.apache.ws.security.crypto.merlin.keystore.type=pkcs12
org.apache.ws.security.crypto.merlin.keystore.password=security
org.apache.ws.security.crypto.merlin.keystore.alias=16c73ab6-b892-458f-abf5-2f875f74882e
org.apache.ws.security.crypto.merlin.alias.password=security
org.apache.ws.security.crypto.merlin.file=keys/x509.PFX.MSFT
org.apache.ws.security.crypto.provider defines the implementation of the org.apache.ws.security.components.crypto.Crypto interface to provide the crypto information required by WSS4J. The other properties defined are the configuration properties used by the implementation class (org.apache.ws.security.components.crypto.Merlin).
References
1. Apache WSS4J
Examples
Example 1: An outflow configuration to add a timestamp, sing and encrypt the message once
Example 2: An outflow configuration to sign the message twice and add a timestamp
Example 3: An inflow configuration to decrypt, verify signature and validate timestamp
