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Secure a Web application, Java-style

Use Java's multiple-layer security implementation to protect your Web

By Michael Cymerman, JavaWorld.com, 04/28/00

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Web security can be defined in various ways, depending on individual points of view. The main focus of security in this article is the safety of applications developed and deployed for the Internet. Here, I will outline some software security measures that you can take to secure your application. While none of them is completely infallible, combining these approaches with hardware can help prevent malicious attacks on your business.

The two main concepts of security are authentication and authorization. I will describe each of them in the following sections and provide examples of how you can implement them in your applications. In addition, I will discuss some key classes of the Java Security API to prepare for a more detailed example that combines form-based authentication with Java's security model. The concepts outlined in the example should enable your enterprise to produce a security policy for your Java-based applications.

Authentication

Authentication is the process by which users' access privileges are verified prior to their entering a Website's protected area. There are two major authentication approaches: basic authentication and form-based authentication.

Basic authentication

Basic authentication relies on the Web server for authentication to protected areas. Sites protected by basic authentication let the user browse through unprotected areas without requiring the user to enter a password. However, the browser will automatically prompt the user for a password and username should he or she attempt to access a secure page. This prompt comes in the form of a dialog box.

The username and password combination is then encoded (base 64) and passed in an unencrypted form to the Web server. The Web server compares the encoded value against values stored in a flat file, a database, or a directory server.

If the user is authenticated, the server then verifies that the user has the privilege to access the requested page against a file, such as httpd.conf. If the user has access, the Web server then serves the page. If the user is denied access, the server either requests the username/password combination again or presents an error message on the browser window.

Because the actual syntax of the basic authentication varies between servers, I do not present any here. There are numerous Web resources describing the syntax of the various servers.

Form-based authentication

The majority of sites use an approach called form-based lazy authentication, which lets users navigate through unprotected areas of the site without requiring a password. Only when the user wants to access protected areas, such as ordering or account status, does the site present a login form. This is the most common security approach and is used by large e-commerce firms, such as Barnes & Noble. The benefit of this approach is that users are not subjected to the wait times associated with authentication unless they truly need access to a protected page.

As the most common security scheme on the Web, form-based lazy authentication lends itself to the example presented in this article.

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