The NetBeans E-commerce Tutorial - Securing the Application

This tutorial unit focuses on web application security. When securing web applications,
there are two primary concerns that need to be addressed:
- Preventing unauthorized users from gaining access to protected content.
- Preventing protected content from being read while it is being transmitted.
The first concern, access control, is typically a two-step process that
involves (1) determining whether a user is who he or she claims to be (i.e.,
authentication), and then (2) either granting or denying the user
access to the requested resource (i.e., authorization). A simple and
common way to implement access control for web applications is with a login
form that enables the server to compare user credentials with a pre-existing list
of authenticated users.
The second concern, protecting data while it is in transit, typically involves
using Transport Layer Security (TLS), or its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer
(SSL), in order to encrypt any data communicated between the client and server.
Upon reviewing the Affable Bean staff's list of
requirements, we'll need to secure the application in the following ways:
- Set up a login form for the administration console that enables staff
members access to the console's services, and blocks unauthorized users.
- Configure secure data transport for both the customer checkout process, and
for any data transmitted to and from the administration console.
In order to implement the above, we'll take advantage of NetBeans' visual editor
for the web.xml deployment descriptor. We'll also work in the
GlassFish Administration Console to configure a "user group" that
corresponds to Affable Bean staff members, and verify SSL support.
You can view a live demo of the application that you build in this tutorial:
NetBeans
E-commerce Tutorial Demo Application.
Notes:
- The NetBeans IDE requires the Java Development Kit (JDK) to run properly.
If you do not have any of the resources listed above, the JDK should be
the first item that you download and install.
- The NetBeans IDE Java Bundle includes Java Web and EE technologies, which are
required for the application you build in this tutorial.
- The NetBeans IDE Java Bundle also includes the GlassFish server,
which you require for this tutorial. You could
download
the GlassFish server independently, but the version provided with the
NetBeans download has the added benefit of being automatically registered with
the IDE.
- You can follow this tutorial unit without having completed previous units. To
do so, see the setup instructions, which describe how
to prepare the database and establish connectivity between the IDE, GlassFish,
and MySQL.
- Java EE security is an expansive topic that spans well beyond the scope of this
tutorial unit. In order to fully appreciate the range of implementation options
that are available to you, refer to the Java EE 6 Tutorial, Part VII: Security. This unit provides
ample references to relevant sub-sections within the Java EE Tutorial.
Examining the Project Snapshot
The beginning state of the snapshot helps to illustrate the need for security
in the application.
- Open the project
snapshot for this tutorial unit in the IDE. Click the Open Project (
) button and use the wizard to navigate to the location
on your computer where you downloaded the project.
- Run the project (
) to ensure that it is properly configured with your database
and application server.
If you receive an error when running the project, revisit the
setup instructions, which describe how to prepare the
database and establish connectivity between the IDE, GlassFish, and MySQL.
- Test the application's functionality in your browser. This snapshot provides an
implementation of the administration console, as specified in the
customer requirements. To examine the
administration console, enter the following URL in your browser:
http://localhost:8080/AffableBean/admin/
The administration console enables you to view all customers and orders contained
in the database. When you click either of the links in the left panel, the page will
update to display a table listing customers or orders, depending on your choice. (The
'log out' link currently does not "log out" an authenticated user.)
Note: The customers and orders that you see displayed
in the administration console are dependent on the data stored in your database. You can
create new records by stepping through the checkout process in the website. Alternatively,
you can run the affablebean_sample_data.sql
script on your affablebean database to have your data correspond to the
records displayed in the following screenshots. (If you need help with this task, refer
to step 2 in the setup instructions.)
You can view details for each customer record by hovering your mouse and selecting an individual
record.
Likewise, you can view an order summary for each customer either by selecting an order from the
administration console's "orders" table, or by clicking the "view order summary"
link in a "customer details" display.
Naturally, none of this information should be available to an anonymous site visitor. In the
coming steps, you'll create login and error pages, so that when an unauthenticated user attempts
to access the administration console, he or she will be directed to the login page. Upon successful
login, the user is then redirected to the administration console's menu; upon login failure, the
error page is displayed.
- Examine the project snapshot in the Projects window.
 |
This implementation of the administration console
primarily relies on the following project resources:
- An
admin directory within the project's webroot,
which contains all page view files.
- An
AdminServlet , contained in the controller
package, which forwards requests to page views within the admin
directory.
Also, the following files have been modified from the previous snapshot:
WEB-INF/web.xml : Contains a new <jsp-property-group>
that includes the header and footer fragments for page views contained in the admin
directory.
css/affablebean.css : Includes new style definitions for
elements in the administration console
If you have been following the NetBeans E-commerce Tutorial
sequentially, you'll find that there is nothing contained in the implementation for
the administration console which hasn't already been covered in previous units.
Essentially, the AdminServlet processes requests from the admin/index.jsp
page, EJBs and entity classes are employed to retrieve information from the database,
and the information is then forwarded back to the admin/index.jsp page
to be displayed.
|
- In the browser, return to the customer website by clicking the Affable Bean
logo in the upper left corner of the web page. Step through the entire business
process flow of the application and note that the checkout process is handled over a non-secure channel.
When customers reach the checkout page, they are expected to submit sensitive personal information
in order to complete their orders. Part of your task in this tutorial unit is to ensure that this
data is sent over a secure channel. Because the administration console also enables authenticated
users to view customers' personal information, it too needs to be configured so that data is sent
over the Internet securely.
In this section, you set up form-based authentication for the AffableBean
administration console. Form-based authentication enables the server to authenticate users based
on the credentials they enter into a login form. With these credentials, the server is able to
make a decision on whether to grant the user access to protected resources. In order to implement
this, you'll create login and error pages, and will rely on declarative security by
entering security settings in the application's web.xml deployment descriptor.
Before you begin implementing a form-based authentication mechanism for the AffableBean
application, the following background information is provided to help clarify the security terms
relevant to our scenario.
Declarative and Programmatic Security
With declarative security, you specify all security settings for your
application, including authentication requirements, access control, and security
roles, using annotations and/or deployment descriptors. In other words, the security
for your application is in a form that is external to the application, and relies
on the mechanisms provided by the Java EE container for its management.
With programmatic security, your classes, entities, servlets, and page views
manage security themselves. In this case, security logic is integrated directly
into your application, and is used to handle authentication and authorization, and
ensure that data is sent over a secure network protocol when necessary.
For the AffableBean application, we'll use declarative security by
declaring all security information in the web.xml deployment descriptor.
For more information on declarative and programmatic security types,
see the Java EE 6 Tutorial: Overview of Web Application Security.
Choosing an Authentication Mechanism
An authentication mechanism is used to determine how a user gains access to
restricted content. The Java EE platform supports various authentication mechanisms,
such as HTTP basic authentication, form-based authentication, and
client authentication. The authentication mechanism behind our login form
will be form-based authentication. You'll learn what form-based authentication
is when you begin setting up the login form for the
AffableBean administration console below.
See the Java EE 6 Tutorial:
Specifying Authentication Mechanisms for further information.
Form-based authentication has the advantage of enabling the developer to design the
appearance of the login form so that it better suits the application which it belongs to.
Our implementation for the form-based authentication mechanism can be divided into two
steps. Begin by creating page views for the required login form and error message. Then
add entries to the web.xml deployment descriptor to inform the servlet
container that the application requires form-based authentication for access to the
resources that comprise the administration console.
- Create Pages for Login and Login Failure
- Add Security Entries to the Deployment Descriptor
Create Pages for Login and Login Failure
In form-based authentication, the process of authentication and authorization is
shown in the following four steps:
- The client sends a request to the server for a protected resource.
- The server recognizes that a protected resource has been requested, and returns
the login page to the client.
- The client sends username and password credentials using the provided form.
- The server processes the credentials, and if an authorized user is identified
the protected resource is returned, otherwise the error page is returned.
For more information on form-based authentication, see the Java EE 6 Tutorial:
Form-Based
Authentication.
The j_security_check keyword represents the destination in
the servlet container that handles authentication and authorization. When implementing
the HTML login form, you apply it as the value for the form's action attribute.
You also apply the "j_username " and "j_password "
keywords, as in the following template:
<form action="j_security_check" method=post>
<p>username: <input type="text" name="j_username"></p>
<p>password: <input type="password" name="j_password"></p>
<p><input type="submit" value="submit"></p>
</form>
Perform the following steps.
- In the Projects window, right-click the
admin folder node and choose New > JSP.
- Name the file
login , then click Finish. The new login.jsp file is created
and opens in the editor.
- Repeat the previous two steps to create a new
error.jsp file. In the New JSP wizard,
name the file error . When you finish, you'll have two new files listed in the Projects
window.

- Open the project's web deployment descriptor. Press Alt-Shift-O (Ctrl-Shift-O on Mac)
and in the Go to File dialog, type '
web ', then click OK.

- In the editor, scroll to the bottom of the
web.xml file and note the
<jsp-property-group> entry created for JSP pages in the administration
console. Add the new login and error JSP pages as <url-pattern>
entries. (Changes in bold.)
<jsp-property-group>
<description>JSP configuration for the admin console</description>
<url-pattern>/admin/index.jsp</url-pattern>
<url-pattern>/admin/login.jsp</url-pattern>
<url-pattern>/admin/error.jsp</url-pattern>
<include-prelude>/admin/jspf/header.jspf</include-prelude>
<include-coda>/admin/jspf/footer.jspf</include-coda>
</jsp-property-group>
This step ensures that when these two pages are returned to a client, they
will be prepended and appended with the defined header.jspf and
footer.jspf fragments, respectively.
You can equally configure the <jsp-property-group>
entry from the web.xml 's visual editor. Click the Pages tab along
the top of the editor, and enter the URL patterns into the respective JSP
Property Group.
- Press Ctrl-Tab to switch to the
login.jsp file in the editor.
Delete the entire template contents for the file, then enter the following
HTML form.
<form action="j_security_check" method=post>
<div id="loginBox">
<p><strong>username:</strong>
<input type="text" size="20" name="j_username"></p>
<p><strong>password:</strong>
<input type="password" size="20" name="j_password"></p>
<p><input type="submit" value="submit"></p>
</div>
</form>
Note that the HTML form is based on the template provided above.
Here, you use the "j_security_check " keyword as the value for the
form's action attribute, and the "j_username " and
"j_password " keywords as the values for the name
attribute of the username and password text fields. The style of the form is implemented
by encapsulating the form widgets within a <div> element, then defining
a set of rules for the loginBox ID in affablebean.css .
- Press Ctrl-Tab and switch to the
error.jsp file in the editor. Delete the
entire template contents for the file, then enter the following.
<div id="loginBox">
<p class="error">Invalid username or password.</p>
<p>Return to <strong><a href="login.jsp">admin login</a></strong>.</p>
</div>
The above content includes a simple message indicating that login has failed, and
provides a link that allows the user to return to the login form.
Add Security Entries to the Deployment Descriptor
In order to instruct the servlet container that form-based authentication is to be
used, you add entries to the web.xml deployment descriptor. This is
essentially a three-step process, which can be followed by specifying settings under
the three headings in the web.xml file's Security tab. These are: (1)
Login Configuration, (2) Security Roles, and (3) Security Constraints.
- Open the project's
web.xml file in the editor. (If it is already opened,
you can press Ctrl-Tab and select it.)
- Click the Security tab along the top of the editor. The IDE's visual editor enables
you to specify security settings under the Security tab.
- Expand the Login Configuration heading, select Form, then enter the following
details:
- Form Login Page:
/admin/login.jsp
- Form Error Page:
/admin/error.jsp
- Realm Name:
file

- Click the XML tab along the top of the editor and verify the changes made to
the deployment descriptor. The following entry has been added to the bottom of
the file:
<login-config>
<auth-method>FORM</auth-method>
<realm-name>file</realm-name>
<form-login-config>
<form-login-page>/admin/login.jsp</form-login-page>
<form-error-page>/admin/error.jsp</form-error-page>
</form-login-config>
</login-config>
This entry informs the servlet container that form-based authentication is used,
the realm named file should be checked for user credentials, and specifies
the whereabouts of the login and error pages.
- Click the Security tab again, then expand the Security Roles heading
and click Add.
- In the Add Security Role dialog, type in
affableBeanAdmin for the role
name, then click OK. The new role entry is added beneath Security Roles.
- Click the XML tab to examine how the file has been affected. Note that the following
entry has been added:
<security-role>
<description/>
<role-name>affableBeanAdmin</role-name>
</security-role>
Here we've specified the name of a security role used with the application. We'll
need to associate this role with the protected resources that define the administration
console (under the Security Constraints heading below), and later we'll
create this role on the GlassFish server.
- Click the Security tab again, then click the Add Security Constraint button.
- Type in
Admin for the Display Name, then under Web Resource Collection
click the Add button. Enter the following details, then when you are finished, click OK.
- Resource Name:
Affable Bean Administration
- URL Pattern(s):
/admin/*
- HTTP Method(s):
All HTTP Methods

- Under the new Admin security constraint, select the Enable
Authentication Constraint option and click the Edit button next to the Role Name(s)
text field.
- In the dialog that displays, select the
affableBeanAdmin role in the
left column, then click Add. The role is moved to the right column.

- Click OK. The role is added to the Role Name(s) text field.

- Click the XML tab to examine how the file has been affected. Note that the following
entry has been added:
<security-constraint>
<display-name>Admin</display-name>
<web-resource-collection>
<web-resource-name>Affable Bean Administration</web-resource-name>
<description/>
<url-pattern>/admin/*</url-pattern>
</web-resource-collection>
<auth-constraint>
<description/>
<role-name>affableBeanAdmin</role-name>
</auth-constraint>
</security-constraint>
In these previous six steps, you've created a security constraint that specifies which
resources need to be protected, and identifies the role(s) that are granted access to them.
Since the administration console implementation is essentially everything contained
within the application's admin folder, you use a wildcard (* ).
Although you've specified that all HTTP methods should be protected, you could have
equally selected just GET and POST, since these are the only two that are handled by
the AdminServlet . As previously mentioned, the affableBeanAdmin
role that we declared still needs to be created on the GlassFish server.
- Run the project (
) to examine how the application now handles access to the
administration console.
- When the application opens in the browser, attempt to access the administration console
by entering the following URL into the browser's address bar:
http://localhost:8080/AffableBean/admin/
When you attempt to access the administration console, the login page is now presented.

- Click the 'submit' button to attempt login. You see the error page displayed.
Setting up Users, Groups and Roles
Much of our security implementation is dependent on configuration between the application
and the GlassFish server we are using. This involves setting up users, groups,
and roles between the two, and using one of the preconfigured security policy
domains, or realms, on the server. Start by reading some background information
relevant to our scenario, then proceed by configuring users, groups and roles between
the application and the GlassFish server.
Understanding Users, Groups, and Roles
A user is a unique identity recognized by the server. You define users on the
server so that it can be able to determine who should have access to protected resources.
You can optionally cluster users together into a group, which can be understood
as a set of authenticated users. In order to specify which users and/or groups have access
to protected resources, you create roles. As stated in the Java EE 6 Tutorial,
A role is an abstract name for the permission to access a particular set of resources
in an application. A role can be compared to a key that can open a lock. Many people
might have a copy of the key. The lock doesn’t care who you are, only that you have
the right key.
The role that a user or group is assigned to is what specifically allows the server to
determine whether protected resources can be accessed. Users and groups can be assigned
to multiple roles. As will be demonstrated below, you accomplish this by defining the
role in the application, then mapping it to users and groups on the server.
The relationship between users, groups, and roles, and the process in which you establish
them in the application and on the server, is presented in the following diagram.
For more information on groups, users, and roles, see
Working
with Realms, Users, Groups, and Roles in the Java EE 6 Tutorial.
Understanding Realms on the GlassFish Server
When you define users and groups on the server, you do so by entering details into
a security policy domain, otherwise known as a realm. A realm protects user
credentials (e.g., user names and passwords) through an authentication scheme. For
example, user credentials can be stored in a local text file, or maintained in a
certificate database.
The GlassFish server provides three preconfigured realms by default. These are the
file , admin-realm , and certificate realms.
Briefly, the file realm stores user credentials in a local text file
named keyfile . The admin-realm also stores credentials
in a local text file, and is reserved for server administrator users. The
certificate realm, the server stores user credentials in a certificate
database.
When defining users, groups and roles for the AffableBean administration
console, we'll use the server's preconfigured file realm.
In order to set up users, groups and roles to satisfy the form-based authentication
mechanism we've created, perform the following three steps corresponding to the
diagram above.
- Create Users and/or Groups on the Server
- Define Roles in the Application
- Map Roles to Users and/or Groups
Create Users and/or Groups on the Server
In this step, we'll use the GlassFish Administration Console to create a user named
nbuser within the preexisting file security realm. We'll
also assign the new nbuser to a group that we'll create called
affableBeanAdmin .
- Open the Services window (Ctrl-5; ⌘-5 on Mac) and expand the Servers node
so that the GlassFish server node is visible.
- Ensure that the GlassFish server is running. If the server is running, a small green
arrow is displayed next to the GlassFish icon (
). If you need to start it, right-click
the server node and choose Start.
- Right-click the GlassFish server node and choose View Admin Console. The login form
for the GlassFish Administration Console opens in a browser.
- Log into the Administration Console by typing
admin / adminadmin
for the username / password.
- In the Tree which displays in the left column of the Administration Console, expand
the Configuration > Security > Realms nodes, then click the
file realm.

- In the main panel of the GlassFish Administration Console, under Edit Realm, click
the Manage Users button.
- Under File Users, click the New button.
- Under New File Realm User, enter the following details:
- User ID:
nbuser
- Group List:
affableBeanAdmin
- New Password:
secret
- Confirm New Password:
secret
Here, we are creating a user for the file security realm, which
we've randomly named nbuser . We have also assigned the new user
to a randomly named affableBeanAdmin group. Remember the secret
password you set, as you will require it to later log into the AffableBean
administration console.
- Click OK. The new
nbuser user is now listed under File Users in the
GlassFish Administration Console.
Optionally close the browser window for the GlassFish Administration Console, or
leave it open for the time being. You will need to return to the Administration Console
in the Map Roles to Users and/or Groups step below.
Define Roles in the Application
By "defining roles in the application," you specify which roles have access
to EJB session beans, servlets, and/or specific methods that they contain. You can accomplish this
declaratively by creating entries in the deployment descriptor, or using annotations.
For the AffableBean administration console, we've actually already
completed this step when we added the affableBeanAdmin
role to the security constraint that we created when implementing form-based
authentication. However, in more complicated scenarios you may have multiple roles,
each with varying degrees of access. In such cases, implementation requires a more
fine-grained access control.
The Java EE 6 API includes various security annotations that you can use in place of the
XML entries you add to deployment descriptors. The availability of annotations primarily
aims to offer ease of development and flexibility when coding. One common method is to use
annotations within classes, but override them when necessary using deployment descriptors.
Using Security Annotations in Servlets
The following table lists some of the annotations available to you when applying roles
to servlets.
@ServletSecurity |
Used to specify security constraints to be enforced by a Servlet container on HTTP protocol messages. |
@HttpConstraint |
Used within the ServletSecurity annotation to represent the security constraints to be applied to all HTTP protocol methods. |
If we wanted to apply the Servlet 3.0 annotations to declare the affableBeanAdmin role
on the AdminServlet , we could do so as follows. (Changes in bold.)
@WebServlet(name = "AdminServlet",
urlPatterns = {"/admin/",
"/admin/viewOrders",
"/admin/viewCustomers",
"/admin/customerRecord",
"/admin/orderRecord",
"/admin/logout"})
@ServletSecurity( @HttpConstraint(rolesAllowed = {"affableBeanAdmin"}) )
public class AdminServlet extends HttpServlet { ... }
In this case, we could then remove the corresponding entry in the web.xml
deployment descriptor. (Removed content displayed as strike-through text.)
<login-config>
<auth-method>FORM</auth-method>
<realm-name>file</realm-name>
<form-login-config>
<form-login-page>/admin/login.jsp</form-login-page>
<form-error-page>/admin/error.jsp</form-error-page>
</form-login-config>
</login-config>
<security-constraint>
<display-name>Admin</display-name>
<web-resource-collection>
<web-resource-name>Affable Bean Administration</web-resource-name>
<description/>
<url-pattern>/admin/*</url-pattern>
</web-resource-collection>
<auth-constraint>
<description/>
<role-name>affableBeanAdmin</role-name>
</auth-constraint>
</security-constraint>
<security-role>
<description/>
<role-name>affableBeanAdmin</role-name>
</security-role>
Using Security Annotations in EJBs
The following table lists some of the annotations available to you when applying roles to EJBs.
@DeclareRoles |
Used by application to declare roles. It can be specified on a class. |
@RolesAllowed |
Specifies the list of roles permitted to access method(s) in an application. |
To demonstrate the use of EJB security annotations, we'll apply the @RolesAllowed
annotation to a method that should only be called when a user has been identified as belonging
to the affableBeanAdmin role.
- Reexamine the snapshot implementation for the
AffableBean
administration console. Note that in the CustomerOrderFacade session bean,
a new findByCustomer method enables the AdminServlet to access a
specified Customer .
- Open the
CustomerOrderFacade bean in the editor, then add the @RolesAllowed
annotation to the findByCustomer method.
@RolesAllowed("affableBeanAdmin")
public CustomerOrder findByCustomer(Object customer) { ... }
- Press Ctrl-Shift-I (⌘-Shift-I on Mac) to fix imports. An import statement
for
javax.annotation.security.RolesAllowed is added to the top of
the class.
The findByCustomer method is only called by the AdminServlet ,
which is previously authenticated into the affableBeanAdmin role using
our implementation of form-based authentication. The use of the @RolesAllowed
annotation here is not strictly necessary - its application simply guarantees that the
method can only be called by a user who has been authenticated in the affableBeanAdmin
role.
Map Roles to Users and/or Groups
We have so far accomplished the following:
- Defined the
affableBeanAdmin role for our form-based authentication
mechanism (either in the web.xml deployment descriptor, or as an
annotation in the AdminServlet ).
- Created a user named
nbuser on the GlassFish server, and associated
it with a group named affableBeanAdmin .
It is no coincidence that the group and role names are the same. While it is not
necessary that these names be identical, this makes sense if we are only creating
one-to-one matching between roles and groups. In more complicated scenarios, you
can map users and groups to multiple roles providing access to different resources.
In such cases, you would give unique names to groups and roles.
In order to map the affableBeanAdmin role to the affableBeanAdmin
group, you have a choice of performing one of two actions. You can either create a
<security-role-mapping> entry in GlassFish' sun-web.xml
deployment descriptor. (In the Projects window, sun-web.xml is located
within the project's Configuration Files). This would look as follows:
<security-role-mapping>
<role-name>affableBeanAdmin</role-name>
<group-name>affableBeanAdmin</group-name>
</security-role-mapping>
This action explicitly maps the affableBeanAdmin role to the
affableBeanAdmin group. Otherwise, you can enable GlassFish' Default
Principal To Role Mapping service so that roles are automatically assigned to groups
of the same name.
The following steps demonstrate how to enable the Default Principal To Role Mapping
service in the GlassFish Administration Console.
- Open the Services window (Ctrl-5; ⌘-5 on Mac) and expand the Servers node
so that the GlassFish server node is visible.
- Ensure that the GlassFish server is running. If the server is running, a small green
arrow is displayed next to the GlassFish icon (
). If you need to start it, right-click
the server node and choose Start.
- Right-click the GlassFish server node and choose View Admin Console. The login form
for the GlassFish Administration Console opens in a browser.
- Log into the Administration Console by typing
admin / adminadmin
for the username / password.
- In the Tree which displays in the left column of the Administration Console, expand
the Configuration node, then click the Security node.
- In the main panel of the Administration Console, select the Default Principal To Role
Mapping option.
The Java EE 6 Tutorial defines the term principal as, "An
entity that can be authenticated by an authentication protocol in a security service
that is deployed in an enterprise. A principal is identified by using a principal
name and authenticated by using authentication data." See
Working
with Realms, Users, Groups, and Roles: Some Other Terminology for more information.
- Click the Save button.
At this stage, you have taken the necessary steps to enable you to log into the
AffableBean administration console using the nbuser /
secret username / password combination that you set earlier.
- Run the project (
). When the application opens in the browser, attempt
the access the administration console by entering the following URL into the browser's
address bar:
http://localhost:8080/AffableBean/admin/
- When the login page displays, enter the username and password you set earlier in the
GlassFish Administration Console (
nbuser / secret ), then click
'submit'.
Using form-based authentication, the server authenticates the client using the username
and password credentials sent from the form. Because the nbuser belongs to
the affableBeanAdmin group, and that group is associated with the
affableBeanAdmin role, access is granted to the administration console.
- Click the 'log out' link provided in the administration console. The
nbuser
is logged out of the administration console, and you are returned to the login page.
The AdminServlet handles the '/logout ' URL pattern by invalidating
the user session:
// if logout is requested
if (userPath.equals("/admin/logout")) {
session = request.getSession();
session.invalidate(); // terminate session
response.sendRedirect("/AffableBean/admin/");
return;
}
Calling invalidate() terminates the user session. As a consequence, the
authenticated user is dissociated from the active session and would need to login in
again in order to access protected resources.
Configuring Secure Data Transport
There are two instances in the AffableBean application that require a secure connection
when data is transmitted over the Internet. The first is when a user initiates the checkout process.
On the checkout page, a user must fill in his or her personal details to complete an order. This
sensitive data must be protected while it is sent to the server. The second instance occurs when
a user logs into the administration console, as the console is used to access sensitive data, i.e.,
customer and order details.
Secure data transport is typically implemented using Transport Layer Security (TLS) or Secure Sockets
Layer (SSL). HTTP is applied on top of the TLS/SSL protocol to provide both encrypted communication
and secure identification of the server. The combination of HTTP with TLS or SSL results in an HTTPS
connection, which can readily be identified in a browser's address bar (e.g.,
https:// ).
The GlassFish server has a secure (HTTPS) service enabled by default. This service uses a self-signed
digital certificate, which is adequate for development purposes. Your production server however would
require a certificate signed by a trusted third-party Certificate Authority (CA), such as
VeriSign or Thawte.
You can find the generated certificate in:
<gf-install-dir>/glassfish/domains/domain1/config/keystore.jks
Begin this section by verifying that GlassFish' HTTPS service is enabled. Then configure the application
so that a secure HTTPS connection is applied to the checkout process and administration console.
Verify HTTPS Support on the Server
- Open the Services window (Ctrl-5; ⌘-5 on Mac) and expand the Servers node
so that the GlassFish server node is visible.
- Ensure that the GlassFish server is running. If the server is running, a small green
arrow is displayed next to the GlassFish icon (
). If you need to start it, right-click
the server node and choose Start.
- Switch to your browser and type the following URL into the browser's address bar:
https://localhost:8181/
The browser displays a warning, indicating that the server is presenting you with
a self-signed certificate. In Firefox for example, the warning looks as follows.

- Enable your browser to accept the self-signed certificate. With Firefox, click the Add
Exception button displayed in the warning. The following pane displays, allowing you to
view the certificate.
Click Confirm Security Exception. A secure connection is established on port 8181, and
your local development server, GlassFish, is then able to display the following page.
Aside from the HTTPS protocol displayed in the browser's address bar, Firefox
indicates that a secure connection is established with the blue background behind
localhost in the address bar. Also, a lock (
) icon displays in the lower right corner of the browser.
You can click the lock icon for secure pages to review certificate details.
The following optional steps demonstrate how you can identify this security support in
the GlassFish Administration Console.
- Open the GlassFish Administration Console in the browser. (Either type '
http://localhost:4848/ '
in your browser, or click the 'go to the Administration Console ' link in the GlassFish
server's welcome page, as displayed in the image above.)
- In the Tree which displays in the left column of the Administration Console, expand the
Configuration > Network Config nodes, then click the Network Listeners node.
The main panel displays the three network listeners enabled by default on the GlassFish server.
http-listener-2 , which has been configured to listen over port 8181, is the network
listener used for secure connections.
For more information on network listeners, see the Oracle GlassFish Server 3.0.1
Administration Guide:
About
HTTP Network Listeners.
- Under the Name column, click the link for
http-listener-2 . In the main panel, note
that the Security checkbox is selected.

- Click the SSL tab. Note that TLS is selected. In the lower portion of the SSL panel, you see the
Cipher Suites that are available for the connection. As stated in the Oracle GlassFish Server 3.0.1
Administration Guide, Chapter
11: Administering System Security,
A cipher is a cryptographic algorithm used for encryption or decryption. SSL and TLS
protocols support a variety of ciphers used to authenticate the server and client to
each other, transmit certificates, and establish session keys. Some ciphers are stronger
and more secure than others. Clients and servers can support different cipher suites.
During a secure connection, the client and the server agree to use the strongest cipher
that they both have enabled for communication, so it is usually sufficient to enable
all ciphers.
At this stage, you have an understanding of how the GlassFish server supports secure connections
out-of-the-box. Naturally, you could set up your own network listener, have it listen on a port
other than 8181, enable SSL 3 instead of TLS (or both), or generate and sign your own digital
certificates using Java's keytool management utility. You can find instructions on how to
accomplish all of these tasks from the following resources:
This example demonstrates how to specify a secure connection using both XML in the web deployment
descriptor, as well as Servlet 3.0 annotations directly in a servlet. You begin by creating an
<security-constraint> entry in web.xml for the customer checkout
process. Then, to create a secure connection for access to the administration console, you specify
a TransportGuarantee constraint for the @HttpConstraint annotation in
the AdminServlet .
- Open the project's
web.xml file in the editor. (If it is already opened,
you can press Ctrl-Tab and select it.)
- Click the Security tab along the top of the editor, then click the Add Security Constraint button.
- Type in
Checkout for the Display Name, then under Web Resource Collection
click the Add button. Enter the following details, then when you are finished, click OK.
- Resource Name:
Checkout
- URL Pattern(s):
/checkout
- HTTP Method(s):
Selected HTTP Methods (GET )
Note: Recall that the /checkout URL pattern is
handled by the ControllerServlet 's doGet method, and forwards the
user to the checkout page.
- Under the new Checkout security constraint, select the Enable User Data Constraint option,
then in the Transport Guarantee drop-down, select
CONFIDENTIAL .
When you choose CONFIDENTIAL as a security constraint, you are
instructing the server to encrypt data using TLS/SSL so that it cannot be read while in
transit. For more information, see the Java EE 6 Tutorial,
Specifying a Secure Connection.
- Click the XML tab along the top of the editor. Note that the following
<security-constraint> entry has been added.
<security-constraint>
<display-name>Checkout</display-name>
<web-resource-collection>
<web-resource-name>Checkout</web-resource-name>
<url-pattern>/checkout</url-pattern>
<http-method>GET</http-method>
</web-resource-collection>
<user-data-constraint>
<description/>
<transport-guarantee>CONFIDENTIAL</transport-guarantee>
</user-data-constraint>
</security-constraint>
Configuration for the customer checkout process is now complete. To ensure that a
secure connection is applied for access to the administration console, simply specify
that any requests handled by the AdminServlet are transmitted over a
secure channel.
- Open the
AdminServlet . Press Alt-Shift-O (Ctrl-Shift-O on Mac)
and in the Go to File dialog, type 'admin ', then click OK.
- Use the
@HttpConstraint annotation's transportGuarantee
element to specify a CONFIDENTIAL security constraint. Make the following
change (in bold).
@WebServlet(name = "AdminServlet",
urlPatterns = {"/admin/",
"/admin/viewOrders",
"/admin/viewCustomers",
"/admin/customerRecord",
"/admin/orderRecord",
"/admin/logout"})
@ServletSecurity(
@HttpConstraint(transportGuarantee = TransportGuarantee.CONFIDENTIAL,
rolesAllowed = {"affableBeanAdmin"})
)
public class AdminServlet extends HttpServlet { ... }
- Press Ctrl-Shift-I (⌘-Shift-I on Mac) to fix imports. An import statement
for
javax.servlet.annotation.ServletSecurity.TransportGuarantee is
added to the top of the class.
- Run the project (
) to examine the application's behavior in a browser.
- In the browser, step through the
AffableBean website by selecting
a product category and adding several items to your shopping cart. Then click the
'proceed to checkout' button. The website now automatically switches to a secure
channel when presenting the checkout page. You see the HTTPS protocol displayed
in the browser's address bar, and the port is changed to 8181.
Also, in Firefox, note the lock (
) icon displayed in the lower right corner of the browser.
- Investigate security for the administration console. Type in the following URL into the browser's
address bar:
http://localhost:8080/AffableBean/admin/
The website now automatically switches to a secure
channel when presenting the checkout page. You see the HTTPS protocol displayed
in the browser's address bar, and the port is changed to 8181.
Note: You way wonder at this point how it is possible
to switch from a secure connection back to a normal, unsecured one. This practice
however is not recommended. The Java EE 6 Tutorial explains as follows:
If you are using sessions, after you switch to SSL you should never accept any
further requests for that session that are non-SSL. For example, a shopping site
might not use SSL until the checkout page, and then it might switch to using SSL
to accept your card number. After switching to SSL, you should stop listening to
non-SSL requests for this session. The reason for this practice is that the session
ID itself was not encrypted on the earlier communications. This is not so bad when
you’re only doing your shopping, but after the credit card information is stored
in the session, you don’t want a bad guy trying to fake the purchase transaction
against your credit card. This practice could be easily implemented using a filter.
You have now successfully secured the AffableBean application according to the defined
customer requirements. You've set up a login form for the administration console to authorize or deny
access based on user credentials, and you configured the application and server to create a secure
connection for access to the administration console, as well as the customer checkout process.
You can compare your work with the completed
AffableBean project. The completed project includes the security implementation
demonstrated in this unit, and also provides a basic implementation for web page error customization,
such as when a request for a nonexistent resource is made, and the server returns an HTTP 404
'Not Found' error message.
See Also
NetBeans Resources
External Resources
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