JSP/servlet authentication

You can define authentication in the web.xml deployment descriptor of a web application.

1. Define roles
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   <security-role>     <role-name>admin</role-name>    </security-role>    <security-role>      <role-name>boss</role-name>    </security-role> User definition is web container dependent.

2. Define protected resources
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   <security-constraint>     <display-name>Goodies</display-name>      <web-resource-collection>        <web-resource-name>Goodies</web-resource-name>        <description/>        <url-pattern>/Cookies</url-pattern>        <url-pattern>/Smarties/*</url-pattern>      </web-resource-collection>      <auth-constraint>        <description/>        <role-name>admin</role-name>        <role-name>boss</role-name>      </auth-constraint>    </security-constraint>

   Take care:
   • Is only guaranteed for cookie based sessions
   • Does not apply to forward and include
3. Define authentication method
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   <login-config>     <auth-method>FORM</auth-method>      <realm-name/>      <form-login-config>        <form-login-page>/login.jsp</form-login-page>        <form-error-page>/login-error.jsp</form-error-page>      </form-login-config>    </login-config>

   The authentication form is supposed to have a POST action called j_security_check and j_username and j_password input fields.
   Other HTTP authentication methods are
   • BASIC: clear text password (base64 encoded)
   • DIGEST: hashed password (works in Firefox and IE 7+)
   • CLIENT-CERT: mutual certified SSL