Enabling security

The following provides information on how to configure security when security was not enabled during the WebSphere® Application Sever profile creation.

1. Start the WebSphere Application Server administrative console.

   If security is disabled, you are prompted for a user ID. Log in with any user ID. However, if security is enabled, you are prompted for both a user ID and a password. Log in with a predefined administrative user ID and password.

2. Click Security > Global security.

   Use the Security Configuration Wizard, or configure security manually. The configuration order is not important.

   Avoid trouble: You must separately enable administrative security, and application security. Because of this split, WebSphere Application Server clients must know whether application security is disabled at the target server. Administrative security is enabled, by default. Application security is disabled, by default. Before you attempt to enable application security on the target server, verify that administrative security is enabled on that server. Application security can be in effect only when administrative security is enabled.

   For more information on manual configuration, see Authenticating users.

3. Configure the user account repository.
   For more information, see Selecting a registry or repository. On the Global security panel, you can configure user account repositories such as federated repositories, local operating system, stand-alone Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) registry, and stand-alone custom registry.

   Note: You can choose to specify either a server ID and password for interoperability or enable a WebSphere Application Server installation to automatically generate an internal server ID. For more information about automatically generating server IDs, see Local operating system settings.

   One of the details common to all user registries or repositories is the Primary administrative user name. This ID is a member of the chosen repository, but also has special privileges in WebSphere Application Server. The privileges for this ID and the privileges that are associated with the administrative role ID are the same. The Primary administrative user name can access all of the protected administrative methods.

   The ID must not be the same name as the machine name of your system because the repository sometimes returns machine-specific information when querying a user of the same name.

   In stand-alone LDAP registries, verify that the Primary administrative user name is a member of the repository and not just the LDAP administrative role ID. The entry must be searchable.

   The Primary administrative user name does not run WebSphere Application Server processes. Rather, the process ID runs the WebSphere Application Server processes.

   The process ID is determined by the way the process starts. For example, if you use a command line to start processes, the user ID that is logged into the system is the process ID. If running as a service, the user ID that is logged into the system is the user ID running the service. If you choose the local operating system registry, the process ID requires special privileges to call the operating system APIs. The process ID must have the following platform-specific privileges:

   • Act as Part of Operating System privileges
   • Root privileges
4. Select the Set as current option after you configure the user account repository.
   When you click Apply and the Enable administrative security option is set, a verification occurs to see if an administrative user ID has been configured and is present in the active user registry. The administrative user ID can be specified at the active user registry panel or from the console users link. If you do not configure an administrative ID for the active user registry, the validation fails.

   Note: When you switch user registries, the admin-authz.xml file should be cleared of existing administrative ids and application names. Exceptions will occur in the logs for ids that exist in the admin-authz.xml file but do not exist in the current user registry.
5. Configure the authentication mechanism.

   Configure Lightweight Third-Party Authentication (LTPA) or Kerberos, which is new to this release of WebSphere Application Server, under Authentication mechanisms and expiration. LTPA credentials can be forwarded to other machines. For security reasons, credential expire; however, you can configure the expiration dates on the console. LTPA credentials enable browsers to visit different product servers, which means you do not have to authenticate multiple times. For more information, see Configuring the LTPA mechanism

   Note: You can configure Simple WebSphere Authentication Mechanism (SWAM) as your authentication mechanism. However, SWAM was deprecated in WebSphere Application Server Version 8.5 and will be removed in a future release. SWAM credentials are not forwardable to other machines and for that reason do not expire.
6. Optional: Import and export the LTPA keys for cross-cell single Sign-on (SSO) between cells.
   For more information, see the following articles:

   • Exporting Lightweight Third Party Authentication keys.
   • Importing Lightweight Third Party Authentication keys

   Avoid trouble: If one of the cells you are connecting to resides on a Version 6.0.x system, see the topic Configuring Lightweight Third Party Authentication keys in the Version 6.0.x documentation for more information.
7. Configure the authentication protocol for special security requirements from Java™ clients, if needed.

   You can configure Common Secure Interoperability Version 2 (CSIv2) through links on the Global security panel. The Security Authentication Service (SAS) protocol is provided for backwards compatibility with previous product releases, but is deprecated. Links to the SAS protocol panels display on the Global security panel if your environment contains servers that use previous versions of WebSphere Application Server and support the SAS protocol. For details on configuring CSIv2 or SAS, see the article, Configuring Common Secure Interoperability Version 2 (CSIV2) inbound and outbound communication settings.

   Attention: IBM® no longer ships or supports the Secure Authentication Service (SAS) IIOP security protocol. It is recommended that you use the Common Secure Interoperability version 2 (CSIv2) protocol.
8. Secure Socket Layers (SSL) is pre-configured by default, changes are not necessary unless you have custom SSL requirements.
   You can modify or a create a new SSL configuration. This action protects the integrity of the messages sent across the Internet. The product provides a centralized location to configure SSL configurations that the various WebSphere Application Server features that use SSL can utilize, including the LDAP registry, web container and the RMI/IIOP authentication protocol (CSIv2). For more information, see Creating a Secure Sockets Layer configuration. After you modify a configuration or create a new configuration, specify it on the SSL configurations panel. To get to the SSL configurations panel, complete the following steps:

   1. Click Security > SSL certificate and key management.
   2. Under Configuration settings, click Manage endpoint security configurations > configuration_name.
   3. Under Related items for each scope (for example, node, cluster, server), select one of the many configuration links that can be scoped to the resource you are visiting.

   You can either edit the DefaultSSLConfig file or create a new SSL configuration with a new alias name. If you create a new alias name for your new keystore and truststore files, change every location that references the DefaultSSLConfig SSL configuration alias. The following list specifies the locations of where the SSL configuration repertoire aliases are used in the WebSphere Application Server configuration.

   For any transports that use the new network input/output channel chains, including HTTP and Java Message Service (JMS), you can modify the SSL configuration repertoire aliases in the following locations for each server:

   • Click Server > Application server > server_name. Under Communications, click Ports. Locate a transport chain where SSL is enabled and click View associated transports. Click transport_channel_name. Under Transport Channels, click SSL Inbound Channel (SSL_2).

   For the Object Request Broker (ORB) SSL transports, you can modify the SSL configuration repertoire aliases in the following locations. These configurations are for the server-level for WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Application Server Express® and the cell level for WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment.

   • Click Security > Global security. Under RMI/IIOP security, click CSIv2 inbound communications.
   • Click Security > Global security. Under RMI/IIOP security, click CSIv2 outbound communications.

   For the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) SSL transport, you can modify the SSL configuration repertoire aliases by clicking Security > Global security. Under User account repository, click the Available realm definitions drop-down list, and select Standalone LDAP registry.

9. Click Security > Global security to configure the rest of the security settings and enable security.
   For information about these settings, see Global security settings.
10. Validate the completed security configuration by clicking OK or Apply. If problems occur, they display in red type.
11. If there are no validation problems, click Save to save the settings to a file that the server uses when it restarts.
    Saving writes the settings to the configuration repository.

    Important: If you do not click Apply or OK in the Global security panel before you click Save, your changes are not written to the repository. The server must be restarted for any changes to take effect when you start the administrative console.
12. Start the WebSphere Application Server administrative console.

    If security is currently disabled, log in with any user ID. If security is currently enabled, log in with a predefined administrative ID and password. This ID is typically the server user ID that is specified when you configured the user registry.