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IBM WebSphere Application Server v7.0 Security
IBM WebSphere Application Server v7.0 Security

IBM WebSphere Application Server v7.0 Security: For IBM WebSphere users, this is the complete guide to securing your applications with Java EE and JAAS security standards. From a far-ranging overview to the fundamentals of data encryption, all the essentials are here.

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Profile Icon Omar P Siliceo (USD)
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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3 (2 Ratings)
Paperback Feb 2011 312 pages 1st Edition
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Profile Icon Omar P Siliceo (USD)
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Paperback Feb 2011 312 pages 1st Edition
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IBM WebSphere Application Server v7.0 Security

Chapter 2. Securing the Administrative Interface

Did your parents, or other adults, ever tell you when you were a child, "make sure you lock the door when you leave the house"? Why was that? Normally, you have a lock on the front door so only those persons who have the correct key can get in the house. I say normally, because there may be people out there like my late grandfather in-law, who used to live in a small town in Tennessee. He would keep his house locked while he was at home and would keep it unlocked when nobody was home in case a relative or friend would need to go inside his home. The same applies to your WebSphere Application Server (WAS ND7) infrastructure. Not having a secured administrative interface (that is, having global security disabled) is equivalent to your house having a front door without a lock.

Out of the box, there is no security enabled. Why? IBM gives the freedom to use whatever user registry infrastructure is already used by your company. Such registry will...

Information needed: Planning for security


Continuing our analogy, if you want to secure your front door, you need to know what tools and parts you will need to install a lock. Similarly, in order to implement global security for your WebSphere environment, we need to figure out what is needed to enable it and what procedure to follow to accomplish this task. Therefore the purpose of this major section is to identify possible values and sources for the parameters that are required throughout the Enabling security section. Consequently, there may be a need in the rest of this chapter to reference the table in the following subsection "The LDAP and security table", that summarizes this chapter's required parameters and values. So, it may be a good idea to place a bookmark on the page where the table starts for easy reference.

Note

In order to simplify references from the rest of the chapter to the table presented at the end of this section, it will be denoted as the LDAP and security table.

The...

Enabling security


After coming back from the hardware store with the parts (locks, keys, and so on) and tools (drill, screwdriver, and so on) and perhaps some advice from the hardware store assistant, you can confidently start the task of installing that lock system you just bought for your front door. In a similar way, now you can begin to configure your WebSphere global security.

As in many IT tasks, there may be more than one way to accomplish such a task. This section will guide you thru enabling global security using the Integrated Solutions Console. Throughout this chapter, we will also refer to the Integrated Solutions Console by the names of the WebSphere Console and the Deployment Manager Console.

Note

If your organization has a large base of WebSphere Application Server domains and you are considering enabling global security on multiple consoles, it may be a good idea to automate this task using the WebSphere administrative scripting interface, wsadmin.

The procedure we are going...

Administrative roles


Let's assume for a moment that the type of lock system you installed in your house is a very sophisticated one. With that lock system, you have the capability to issue different kinds of keys. The master key, which very likely you will take charge of, would be enabled to open all of the locks installed throughout your house. There would be other keys that may not have the same capability. All of the keys will open the front door. In addition, some may open the kitchen pantry and the door to the garage; other keys may open the office but not the locks in the kitchen to the pantry or the garage. OK, I admit: this is stretching the front door analogy a little bit too far. Nevertheless, I hope the point is made.

WebSphere provides several user roles; the most common ones will be briefly described next.

  • Monitor: Capable of viewing the current WebSphere configuration and the state of the application servers (JVM's).

  • Configurator: In addition to being able to do what the Monitor...

Disabling security


Like many analogies, there is always a place where they don't completely hold. Our front door lock scenario is no different and it falls short when it comes to disabling security, unless removing the front door lock would make any sense and it could be considered as a possibility.

There are going to be situations in which you will need to temporarily disable global security. For instance, during the installation of WebSphere Portal, which installs on top of a WebSphere Application Server layer, you are asked to disable global security to perform some of the configuration tasks.

In this chapter so far, we have been using the WebSphere Console. You will see in the next few paragraphs how easily global security can be disabled. The word 'easily' in the last sentence implies simplicity, not that it is unsecure. For this task, you will need the following additional information:

  • Connection type: Protocol to be used between the wsadmin.sh JVM and the deployment manager. We will...

Summary


In this chapter, you have learned about locks. Well, not really what you have learned is that there are different types of user registry, LDAP being the most common. You also learned the type of information you will need to be able to configure global security. In addition, you learned that setting the SSO domain name and selecting and configuring the user registry are prerequisites to enabling the administrative security. Furthermore, you gained experience setting up global security using the WebSphere Console. You now know some of the most common security roles that could be used in your organization. Finally, you learned how to disable global security using the administrative command line interface and how to re-enable it using the same interface. This is quite an accomplishment. Congratulations. Time for a coffee break, you've earned it!

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Key benefits

  • Discover the salient and new security features offered by WebSphere Application Server version 7.0 to create secure installations
  • Explore and learn how to secure Application Servers, Java Applications, and EJB Applications along with setting up user authentication and authorization
  • With the help of extensive hands-on exercises and mini-projects, explore the various aspects needed to produce secure IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment v7.0 infrastructures
  • A practical reference with ready-to-implement best practices and tricks for configuring, hardening, tuning, and troubleshooting secure IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment v7.0 environments

Description

In these days of high-profile hacking, server security is no less important than securing your application or network. In addition many companies must comply with government security regulations. No matter how secure your application is, your business is still at risk if your server is vulnerable. Here is how you solve your WebSphere server security worries in the best possible way. This tutorial is focused towards ways in which you can avoid security loop holes. You will learn to solve issues that can cause bother when getting started with securing your IBM WebSphere Application Server v7.0 installation. Moreover, the author has documented details in an easy-to-read format, by providing engaging hands-on exercises and mini-projects. The book starts with an in-depth analysis of the global and administrative security features of WebSphere Application Server v7.0, followed by comprehensive coverage of user registries for user authentication and authorization information. Moving on you will build on the concepts introduced and get hands-on with a mini project. From the next chapter you work with the different front-end architectures of WAS along with the Secure Socket Layer protocol, which offer transport layer security through data encryption. You learn user authentication and data encryption, which demonstrate how a clear text channel can be made safer by using SSL transport to encrypt its data. The book will show you how to enable an enterprise application hosted in a WebSphere Application Server environment to interact with other applications, resources, and services available in a corporate infrastructure. Platform hardening, tuning parameters for tightening security, and troubleshooting are some of the aspects of WebSphere Application Server v7.0 security that are explored in the book. Every chapter builds strong security foundations, by demonstrating concepts and practicing them through the use of dynamic, web-based mini-projects.

Who is this book for?

If you are a system administrator or an IT professional who wants to learn about the security side of the IBM WebSphere Application Server v7.0, this book will walk you through the key aspects of security and show you how to implement them. You do not need any previous experience in WebSphere Application Server, but some understanding of Java EE technologies will be helpful. In addition, Java EE application developers and architects who want to understand how the security of a WebSphere environment affects Java EE enterprise applications will find this book useful.

What you will learn

  • Create security domains using the wsadmin scripting tool
  • Get hands-on experience working with a mini-project to protect a Java EE Application Server
  • Secure your frontend with Secure Socket Layer Protocol and IBM HTTP Server
  • Get to grips with user authentication and authorization by building a multi-module Enterprise Web Application; packaging, deploying, and testing it
  • Work around to secure an EJB application by building on the existing mini-project
  • Configure authentication and resource access (authorization) using user registry groups and application-defined roles
  • Configure WebSphere Application Server v7.0 for SSO and LTPA and work across remote servers
  • Explore the powerful concepts of data encryption and SSL certificates practically
  • Practice platform hardening with respect to the Operating System, File System, and network configuration

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Feb 23, 2011
Length: 312 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849681483
Vendor :
IBM
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Product Details

Publication date : Feb 23, 2011
Length: 312 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849681483
Vendor :
IBM
Concepts :

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Table of Contents

11 Chapters
A Threefold View of WebSphere Application Server Security Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Securing the Administrative Interface Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Configuring User Authentication and Access Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Front-End Communication Security Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Securing Web Applications Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Securing Enterprise Java Beans Applications Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Securing Back-end Communication Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Secure Enterprise Infrastructure Architectures Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
WebSphere Default Installation Hardening Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Platform Hardening Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Security Tuning and Troubleshooting Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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(2 Ratings)
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3 star 100%
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1 star 0%
Jacek Laskowski Nov 09, 2011
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I found the announcement about "IBM WebSphere Application Server v7.0 Security" book in the WebSphere SME's group on LinkedIn and asked Packt for a review copy. They graciously provided one and I dived into its reading.I'm an IT Specialist for IBM WebSphere product family who works for IBM Poland for over 5 years now. I'm not a security specialist, and I doubt I'll ever be, but am constantly exposed to security issues with IBM WebSphere Application Server, since the version 6.1. The security concepts have always lagged behind. I felt I needed to renew my efforts to get the necessary security skills reinforced. And the book's title seemed to have promised it.The book has got 280 pages split into 11 chapters that aim at "building strong security foundations, by demonstrating concepts and practicing them through the use of dynamic, web-based mini projects." (from "Preface", page 1). Well said, it caught my attention even more.The author, Omar Siliceo, "is currently Senior WebSphere Suite consultant" (from "About the Author") and with his experience (he seemed to have been an IBMer, too), and the book's reviewers who also were IBMers working with IBM WebSphere AS, guaranteed a good understanding of the topic (not necessarily its reading!). The reviewers include Domenico Cantatore who's a senior IT Specialist in IBM Software Group in Dublin, and Jose Mariano Ruiz Martin who is a IT Specialist in IBM Spain. With three experienced IBMers engaged in the book writing project I was quite assured I can finally delve into WAS7's security topics in a organized manner.But I was disappointed quite often, likely for the title and Preface that rose my expectations very high. The book had ups and downs, and although the time I spent on the book's reading was way too long, I could find many places that ultimately filled the bill. The book requires a lot of patience to read from a cover to cover and I don't think it's a kind of book to read in one sitting. I believe it reads fine when a single chapter is picked for a single go.It's a book about IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment version 7.0 and according to "Who this book is for" it's for "a system administrator or an IT professional who wants to learn about the security side of the IBM WebSphere Application Server v7.0[...] You do not need any previous experience in WebSphere Application Server". Sorry, but I can't agree on that. The use of "node", "WebSphere cell", "DMgr", "deployment manager", "synchronizing nodes", "node agent" vocabulary in WAS7's book before they're explained was not (and could not have been) accidental and despite the assumption the book's not aimed at people who've got some experience in WAS7, it was proved otherwise many times.At some point you'll realize that the book assumes you had already created a fully functional WAS environment with Dmgr and a federated server. Don't expect it's explained though - it's not. Could it be that the number of pages constrained it a bit? I don't think so since there are many that should not have existed at all. It turns out that the book missed a clear planning on its structure and how to introduce a reader to it. Take Chapter 5 that paid too much attention to develop a very "primitive" (page 166) MVC-based portal application and explained the gory details of JSP files (even though they're against the rule of not including Java snippets within JSPs). Or take the application as a sample to explain EJB security? If the author meant to get readers bored to death, he scored very high. Oracle's Java EE 5 tutorial would've done a better job for such learnings.You'll eventually reach page 156 where it reads: "As stated before, the author is not a developer, so there may be better ways to code the JSP file to avoid the caching side effect". He couldn't have been right more.Another example for wasting pages for unnecessary stuff? Take Chapter 1. I read it twice to finally figured out I should have not. I'm still uncertain what the author tried to get across. It's an architectural overview of WAS7, but it's incomplete (as its features go, esp. about so-called "flexible management topology") and less focused on WAS7. I doubt the book would diminish substantially in value if the chapter were to be removed. Ditch it to save time.I could not understand why "the second major component [...] is the implementation of a JVM" (page 13). The author has freely used the term "A WebSphere JVM" for "WebSphere Application Server" and although I could agree upon its principles, JVM is not a Java EE application server. Neither is it "a messaging engine" (page 13). Note it's a book about WAS7 and these terms have their well-known meaning for WebSpherians.There are many "hows" and too less "whys" with their explanations. It's not clear why we set up SSO before enabling administrative security. Why is only a simple user name supplied to log into the system? How come we use LDAP and only wasadm is given, not FQDN?! The book reminded silent about it. Alas, there were more questions left unanswered. Take another example - the LDAP server in this book is Sun Java System Directory Server, but there are no steps how to install and configure it. I'd like to have some introductory pages about it.It's not that the book had just only downs. There were ups, too. They ultimately made the reading bearable and worth the time.The security concepts were introduced with factious scenarios or corporate standards and almost every chapter began with a real-life story that I found compelling and helpful to get a point across. The author made sure that the material was presented in a more friendly manner with references to daily activities. The author seemed to have gained a lot of experience in his career, and it sprung from the pages often. Real-life examples introduced to WAS parlance world very well. The writing style was often humorous and so I kept my faith in further reading till the very end.Typos in the text as well as in the commands were annoying and reminded me to be very careful not to take all this without a pinch of salt. You should not, neither! Jython was used for administration scripts, but the author insisted on specifying -lang jython command line parameter to wsadmin while setting it up in the properties files would be preferred. Wasn't the aim of the book to introduce WAS7 to newcomers? Such tips might help a lot!Why didn't Chapter 5 provide wsadmin scripts to create users and groups, or at least check their existence? Should it be acceptable in a book like this? I don't think so. Same for figures. They could've been better drawn. They're too small and don't invite for their study. There were a few figures and diagrams, but they're hardly informative. Why did Application name have to change to match the DataSource? (page 71) Not explained. Assumed known?!The book was often too focused on the theory, not practice. There seem to be a gradual shift towards this kind of explaining WAS7's security.Wait! Wasn't I supposed to provide the ups? It's not such a tough task, after all.Excellent Chapter 4 with configuring SSL. There were much explained. A complete procedure of configuring SSL for LDAP communication is described. It's accompanied with many screenshots, so people who are tasked to perform it shouldn't be concerned with its complexities. The book encouraged a habit to create separate virtual hosts and security domains for different webapps. I'm getting used to it and liked the idea greatly. I learnt about the policy of a clean split between executables, configuration, and log files of WAS on different file systems. I liked the scheme so much! I had only a vague understanding of its benefits before. I've never bothered myself with the ports WAS listens to, but having read Chapter 9 I will. Changing it doesn't cost much, as the book showed, but may introduce a clear structure for different WAS environments - prod, uat or test. The book put much focus on silent installations with response files. Finally, the book concluded with a chapter that was packed with useful tips I'm going to use in my WAS7 assignments.And again, back to the downs.On page 160, a EJB was accessed via InitialContext.lookup() not @EJB. Oh, how could it have slipped through the review process?! I think it's unfortunate that the pages about application development were added to the book at all. The aim of the book was security not development of a very primitive portal application. I wished Chapter 8 had presented a bit more hands-on samples of using the security concepts with ready-to-use sample applications.In "JDBC: WebSphere-managed authentication" section I could read about "brief general descriptions of a concept (...) using one or two of the most popular databases used in a WebSphere v7 environment." (page 180) Guess what, beside Oracle and DB2, Sybase was mentioned. Is Sybase "one of the most popular database"? Really? Contrary to the book's main concept of WAS7 security, the section presented how to define a JDBC provider and DataSource for a database with no security. Too bad.Netegrity SiteMinder was presented, but I was hoping to learn IBM Tivoli Access Manager instead. I missed that.The book needs more practical tips for WAS7 itself not its entire hosting environment. I missed the bits that delve into intricacies of IBM WebSphere Application Server V7's security layer. I'm thus still on a lookout for a serious book about WAS7 Security.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
AmazonBuyer Mar 08, 2011
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The Websphere Security V 7.0 Security is a good reference book, for a reader that is interesed in getting aware about the security aspects in dealing with the default components like DB JDBC, Admin Console, User registries in a WAS system, secured connections with the front end web servers, and the application server components like EJBs etc, and secured entraprise architecture. IMHO, many of the Red books already provide such information.My expectation was that this book would show us some light ( for distributed systems) in implementing SSO systems between Unix ( AIX ) systems and the AD Windows ( 2003 an 2008 systems) usually on which the AD system is hosted. Hope the author plans to have such a book (soon in the market) dealing with implemenatton and maintenance of SSL features for a distributed systems like thosebetween a WAS 7 and Windows ( AD) systems along with some interesting case histories. In summary this book is good for someone that is wanting to learn the basics of security features on A WAS 7 ND system. We look forward from the author, about a book that deals with the Kerberos /SSO configurations, deployments and maintenance for a distributed system like AIX Kerberos enhabled system working with a Windows ( 2003 b/ 2008) AD hosting system ina business enterprise. Thanks
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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