X509UserPlugin
X509 Authentication support
This plugin supports the authentication of users using X.509 certificates.
Overview
This plugin relies on the X509UserMapping, X509Login and X509PasswdUser modules, which are included in the kit.
As a whole, this allows Foswiki contributors to be automagically identified by X.509 certificate.
This plugin is used in the administration of a Foswiki, and is not particularly useful for other contributors.
There are a number of configurable policy options, discussed below. However, I'm sure I didn't anticipate everyone's requrements - I stopped a while after I met mine.
The plugin proper allows you access to fields in the user certificate. This is used on the
UserRegistration topic (Yours should, of course be in
UserRegistration), where it allows you to specify most of the form fields from the certificate.
The %X509 variable can not be used on other pages unless you have CHANGE access to the Registration topic because a malicious user could mis-use it to expose arbitrary Foswiki server state.
Syntax Rules
There are several syntaxes for the %X509% variable. First, the syntax of an X.509 Distinguished Name (DN):
An X.509 certificate's distingushed name looks like:
/C=US/ST=NewYork/L=Albany/O=Megalith Corporation/OU=Executives/OU=Wayward/CN=Myway, Lost II/emailAddress=rich@megalith.example.com
A typical X.509 certificate has 2 Distinguished Names: that of the certificate's
issuer and that of the
subject. The issuer is the authority that asserts that the certificate content is valid. The subject is the person (or in some cases, thing) that is being identified. As used here, the subject is the Foswiki user. Thus, the subject's DN is of primary interest for authentication.
The subject's DN is placed in the
SSL_CLIENT_S_DN environment variable by the webserver. It's also placed in the
REMOTE_USER variable under
FakeBasicAuth, which is the environment expected by this plugin.
Each /XX= is called an
element. An element can occur multiple times; in the example,
Executives and
Wayard are both occurances of the
OU element. Foswiki's X509 subsystem names the first occurance
OU and the second
OU.2. The next would be
OU.3 and so on.
With OpenSSL, you can extract the DN from a certificate in PEM format using :
openssl x509 -noout -subject -inform pem (or der) -in filename
The %X509 variable returns certificate-related information, primarily from the client certificate.
Common parameters
The following optional parameters are used by more than one form of the %X509% variable.
remove="regexp"
The value returned by the %X509% variable is modified by applying
regexp as the left side of a
s/// operator. This usually specifies what string is to be removed from the value, although the full power of
s/// is available.
replace="string"
When the
remove parameter is specified,
replace specifies the replacement string. You can specify backreferences to make the substitution as powerful as you like.
from="issuer"
To extract data from the Issuer fields of a certificate, specify
from=issuer. The default is
from="user'.
login="DN"
The %X509% variable normally obtains its data from the
SSL_CLIENT_S_DN environment variable. To use another DN, specify
login="DN" (in the /xx=... format). Note that this overrides
from="issuer" if both are specified.
%X509{element="ele" remove="regexp" replace="string" login="DN" from="issuer"}%
Extracts
element from the certificate. Typical elements are
CN,
O,
OU.
%X509{getloginname="1" remove="regexp" replace="string" login="DN" from="issuer"}%
Returns the login name (the full DN).
%X509{getcert="component" remove="regexp" replace="string" from="issuer"}%
Extracts
component from the certificate, contained in the
SSL_CLIENT_S_component environment variable. This provides access to country codes (C ⇒ /C=), Localities (L ⇒ /L=), etc.
%X509{getwikiname="1" remove="regexp" replace="string" login="DN" from="issuer"}%
Computes the (probable) wikiname that would be assigned to the specified certificate at registration.
A different wikiname may be assigned - in particular, the one offered could be claimed by somone else who registers between the expansion of this variable and the registration agent's action.
Examples
-
%X509{getcert="Email"}% ⇒ rich@megalith.example.com
-
%X509{"CN"}% ⇒ Myway, Lost II
-
%X509{"CN" remove="^.*, "}% ⇒ Myway
-
%X509{"CN" remove="^(.*), (.*$)" replace="$2$1"}% ⇒ LostIIMyway
-
%X509{"emailAddress" from="issuer" remove="(?:\@(.*))$" replace=" at $1.NOSPAM" }% ⇒ certificates at security.megalith.example.com.NOSPAM
-
%X509{"CN" from="issuer"}% ⇒ Megalith Certificate Authority
Plugin Settings
All settings for this plugin are stored in the configure database, and are managed by the system administrator. They are described below.
Plugin Installation Instructions
Note: You do not need to install anything on the browser to use this plugin. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the plugin on the Foswiki server.
- Download the ZIP file from the Plugin Home (see below)
- Unzip X509UserPlugin.zip in your Foswiki installation directory. Content:
| File: |
Description: |
data/System/X509UserPlugin.txt |
Plugin topic |
data/Sandbox/UserRegistration.txt |
Sample registration topic |
lib/Foswiki/Plugins/X509UserPlugin.pm |
Perl module |
lib/Foswiki/Plugins/X509UserPlugin/Config.spec |
Configure specification |
lib/Foswiki/Configure/Checkers/Plugins/X509UserPlugin/System.pm |
Configuration checker |
lib/Foswiki/LoginManager/X509Login.pm |
Perl module |
lib/Foswiki/Users/X509PasswdUser.pm |
Perl module |
lib/Foswiki/Users/X509UserMapping.pm |
Perl module |
lib/Foswiki/Users/X509UserMapping/Cert.pm |
Perl module |
- Prepare your environment
- If you have previously been using Apache login, edit your .htpasswd file to include WikiName before the email field.
- Modify your webserver's configuration to support SSL and FakeBasicAuth - see below for an example.
- Configure the Plugin:
- Run the configure script to enable the Plugin
- Change the Plugin settings as needed
- Update your Registration topic
- Test if the installation was successful:
Here are the configure settings for this facility.
{Plugins}{X509UserPlugin}{Debug}
Enables debugging - currently mostly log messages from the plugin. May be useful to determine why things aren't working as you expect.
{Plugins}{X509UserPlugin}{ForceAuthentication}
Because X.509 Certificates are automatically presented by the browser (assuming your webserver is properly setup), it is convenient to automagically login every user. Enable this option to cause authentication requests for all views except your registration page.
To force authentication for other scripts, add them to the {AuthScripts} configuration variable
{Plugins}{X509UserPlugin}{RegistrationTopic}
The topic name (Don't include the webname, which is either the main or the System web) of the user registration topic - normally
UserRegistration. Only this topic (or users with CHANGE access to it) can use the X509 variable. Only this topic will bypass {ForceAuthentication}. Changing and renaming this topic should be restricted to the
AdminGroup.
{Plugins}{X509UserPlugin}{RequireWikinameFromCertificate}
Select this option to force a user's
WikiName to be derived from his/her X.509 distingushed name. When not selected, the user's
WikiName is suggested from the certificate name, but can be overridded by the registration form.
{Plugins}{X509UserPlugin}{RegisterInUsersTopic}
Select this option if you want users registerd in the %UsersWeb.%UsersTopicName%. This is handy, but not required.
{Plugins}{X509UserPlugin}{RegisterUsersWithLoginName}
X.509 certificate names not only look like line noise, they often contain characters that will confuse Foswiki if they are placed on the Users Topic. By default, they are omitted. If you really want to deal with the problems, set this option.
{Plugins}{X509UserPlugin}{Cert2Wiki}
Certificate authorities vary greatly in how they format a DN.
While the X509UserMapping code isn't infinitely flexible, it does allow the Foswiki administrator to specify how to derive a wikiname from their certificates' DNs.
{X509UserPlugin}{Cert2Wiki} specifies the algorithm as a mapping string.
The mapping string is parsed into commands to fetch and format elements of the DN. The string is applied to the DN iteratively.
Each pass applies all the commands specified for that pass. If the resultingWikiname is unique, it stops. If not, it tries again, adding the commands for the next pass.
If the name still isn't unique after all commands have been tried, a sequence number is added to the result of the last pass.
Commands in the mapping string are separated by spaces.
Each command consists of optional flags, an element name, and an optional formatter.
The flags are:
- ^ will ucfirst each word in an element of the DN
- n? - will add this element in the nth pass only if the generated name is ambiguous at the start of the pass.
The
element name is as found in the DN. If a name (such as OU) occurs more than once, the second occurance will be name.2; the third name.3 and so on.
The formatter is applied to the element as an s/// command. The formatter must contain its delimiters, and any flags. You can use this to extract or re-order subfields of an element, or pretty much anything else that's necessary.
After the formatter runs, any remaining spaces are removed (they're not valid in a wikiname).
A given element can be used as many or as few times as required. If an element isn't present in a particular certificate, its formatter will not be applied.
If the formatter is sufficiently ugly, you may need to quote the whole command.
Some examples:
The default of
^CN will give
/CN=John a McSmith the
WikiName JohnAMcSmith.
"^CN/(\w+), (.)/$2$1/" ^OU.2 would give
/OU=megalith/OU=widget sales/CN=smith, jan the
WikiName JanSmithWidgetSales.
If you want the first
smith, jan to be
JanSmith, but subsequent to be
JanSmithWidgetSales, you might use
"CN{^(\w+),\s*(.*)$}($2$1)" ^1?OU.2/^([\w\s-]*?)(Department|Dept|Group|Team).*$/$1/
There's quite a bit of room for creativity to mapthe often stilted formats used by the Certificate Authorities into friendly
WikiNames. Or not - whatever meets your needs.
Quotes are necessary only if you embed spaces in your regexp. You can \-quote your quote - but any other \ is sent as-is to the s-command.
Update your Registration topic
A sample is provided in the sandbox. You'll want to update it with your rules for filling out the fields from your certificates. The sample may work for you if your CN fields are Firstname {middle names, intitials...} Last name.
Update your ResetPassword, ChangePassword, and ChangeEmail Topics
These don't apply to X.509 authentication - or when they do, they're some site-specific means of communicating with some other server. How to do that is beyond the scope of this document.
If you have a simple environment, you can simply make these topic say "No" (politely, of course.)
Webserver configuration
Your webserver needs to be configured for SSL. Here is an extract of mine - an apache server. The key is how the
bin directory is setup. You also need to setup the webserver's certificates - that's well documented elsewhere.
DocumentRoot "/var/www/foswiki/webroot"
SSLOptions +FakeBasicAuth +StrictRequire +OptRenegotiate
SSLVerifyClient require
SSLVerifyDepth 10
ScriptAlias /foswiki/bin "/var/www/foswiki/bin"
Alias /foswiki "/var/www/foswiki"
#Default / to /bin/view (which gets the main page)
RedirectMatch ^/$ https://wiki.example.com/foswiki/bin/view
<Directory "/var/www/foswiki/bin">
SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
AllowOverride None
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from all
Deny from env=blockAccess
Satisfy all
Options ExecCGI FollowSymLinks
SetHandler cgi-script
AuthUserFile /var/www/foswiki/data/.htpasswd
AuthName 'Select your personal identity certificate for wiki access, or click "cancel" to register.'
AuthType Basic
# File to return on access control error (e.g. no certificate)
ErrorDocument 401 /foswiki/bin/view/Main/UserRegistration
<FilesMatch "(passwd).*">
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
# The images are inserted to ensure that the error page is above the
# microsoft threshhold (512 bytes) for "friendly error messages".
ErrorDocument 403 "<img src=\"/Images/topleftimage.gif\"> \
<B>This site is protected by X.509 certificates. Password resets are neither useful or permitted. </B>\
<img src=\"/Images/toprightimage.gif\">"
</FilesMatch>
<FilesMatch "^(configure)$">
SetHandler cgi-script
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from SpecificWorkstations.example.com
AuthName 'example.com personal identity certificate must be authorized for wiki administrtion'
Require user "/C=..."
ErrorDocument 401 default
Satisfy all
</FilesMatch>
# When using Apache type login the following defines the Foswiki scripts
# that makes Apache ask the browser to authenticate. It is correct that
# the view script is not authenticated, as it's used for registration.
<FilesMatch "(attach|edit|manage|rename|save|upload|mail|logon|rest|.*auth).*">
require valid-user
</FilesMatch>
</Directory>
Plugin Info
- Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = Authenticate & identify users using X.509 certificates
Related Topics: Plugins,
DeveloperDocumentationCategory,
AdminDocumentationCategory,
DefaultPreferences
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