SAF directives
These configuration parameters control the System Authorization Facility (SAF) feature for IBM® HTTP Server. Use the SAF directives to provide IBM HTTP Server with user authentication.
- AuthSAFAuthoritative directive
- AuthSAFExpiration directive
- AuthSAFExpiredRedirect directive
- AuthSAFReEnter directive
- SAFAPPLID directive
- SAFRunAs directive
- SAFRunAsEarly directive
AuthSAFAuthoritative directive
For previous releases, the AuthSAFAuthoritative directive sets whether authorization is passed to lower-level modules. Due to changes in the Apache HTTP Server API in this release, AuthSAFAuthoritative is no longer needed or accepted.
Directive | Description |
---|---|
Syntax | AuthSAFAuthoritative on | off |
Default | on |
Context | directory, .htaccess |
Module | mod_authnz_saf |
Values | on | off |
For previous releases, the AuthSAFAuthoritative directive sets whether authorization is passed to lower-level modules. Due to changes in the Apache HTTP Server API in this release, AuthSAFAuthoritative is no longer needed or accepted. If used in a previous release, it should be removed from the configuration.
AuthSAFExpiration directive
The AuthSAFExpiration directive sets the value displayed in the browser prompt. The server sends the value specified for the AuthName directive and this short phrase in an HTTP response header, and then the browser displays them to the user in a password prompt window. The short phrase is subject to the same character limitations as the specified value for the AuthName directive. Therefore, to display a special character in the password prompt window, the server must translate the special character from the EBCDIC CharsetSourceEnc codepage to the ASCII CharsetDefault codepage. For example, if you want to display a lowercase 'a' with umlaut, and the httpd.conf file contains the German language EBCDIC codepage CharsetSourceEnc IBM-1141 and the ASCII codepage CharsetDefault ISO08859-1, then you must code the phrase using the hex value 43, which translates to the correct ASCII character.
Directive | Description |
---|---|
Syntax | AuthSAFExpiration short_phrase |
Default | off |
Context | directory, .htaccess |
Module | mod_authnz_saf |
Values | off or short_phrase |
Setting the AuthSAFExpiration directive to a phrase allows IBM HTTP Server to prompt the user to update his SAF password if it expires. When the user enters a valid ID and SAF password but the password has expired, the server will return an Authentication Required reply with a special prompt to allow the user to update the expired password. The prompt consists of the realm (the value from the AuthName directive) followed by the short_phrase value from the AuthSAFExpiration directive.
<Location /js>
AuthType basic
AuthName "zwasa051_SAF"
AuthBasicProvider saf
Require valid-user
Require saf-group SYS1 WASUSER
AuthSAFExpiration "EXPIRED! oldpw/newpw/newpw"
</Location>
If the user attempts to access a file whose URL starts with /js, then the server prompts for a SAF ID and password. The browser will display a prompt containing the realm. The realm is the value from the AuthName directive, which is zwasa051_SAF in this example.
When the user supplies a valid ID and password, if the password has expired, the server will repeat the prompt, but this time with the value zwasa051_SAF EXPIRED! oldpw/newpw/newpw. Whatever the prompt, the user must then re-enter the expired password, followed by a slash, the new password, another slash, and the new password again.
If the password update is successful, the server will send another Authentication Required reply with a distinct special prompt. This last interaction is necessary in order to force the browser to understand which password it should cache. The prompt this time will consist of the realm followed by the prompt Re-enter new password. In this example, it would be zwasa051_SAF Re-enter new password.
AuthSAFExpiredRedirect directive
The AuthSAFExpiredRedirect directive specifies a URL that a request should be redirected to if your password is expired when you are using mod_authnz_saf for authentication on z/OS®.
This is an alternative to using AuthSAFExpiration.
Directive | Description |
---|---|
Syntax | AuthSAFExpiredRedirect url |
Default | off |
Context | directory, .htaccess |
Module | mod_authnz_saf |
Values | off or url |
AuthSAFReEnter directive
The AuthSAFReEnter directive sets the value appended to realm after a successful password change. For information about coding special characters, see the BAuthSAFExpiration directive.
Directive | Description |
---|---|
Syntax | AuthSAFReEnter short_phrase |
Default | Re-enter new password |
Context | directory, .htaccess |
Module | mod_authnz_saf |
Values | off or short_phrase |
Setting the AuthSAFReEnter directive explicitly to a phrase other than Re-enter new password allows the administrator to display an alternative message after an expired password has been updated successfully. If AuthSAFExpiration has been set to off, this directive has no effect.
<Location /js>
AuthType basic
AuthName "zwasa051_SAF"
AuthBasicProvider saf
Require saf-user SYSADM USER152 BABAR
AuthSAFExpiration "EXPIRED! oldpw/newpw/newpw"
AuthSAFReEnter "Enter new password one more time"
</Location>
In this example, after the expired password is updated successfully, the server will send another Authentication Required reply with the value from the AuthSAFReEnter directive. This last interaction is necessary in order to force the browser to understand which password it should cache. The prompt this time will consist of the realm followed by a special phrase. In this example, it would be zwasa051_SAF Enter new password one more time.
AuthSAFStatusHeader directive
Allow details of SAF authentication to be added to a custom response header and to the body of the 401 responses. The header is specified by the AuthSAFStatusHeader directive.
Directive | Description |
---|---|
Syntax | AuthSAFStatusHeader header name |
Default | not specified |
Context | server, directory, .htaccess |
Module | mod_authnz_saf |
Values | not specified, off, or valid header name |
SAFAPPLID directive
Overrides the application ID, APPLID, parameter that is passed to operating systems pthread_security_applid_np() subroutine by using configurations with SAFRunAs.
Directive | Description |
---|---|
Syntax | SAFAPPLID application-id |
Default | None Some OS configurations implicitly treat it as OMVSAPPL. |
Context | directory, .htaccess |
Module | mod_authnz_saf |
Values | application-id |
When the SAFRunAs directive is used with some security product configurations where the APPL class is active, the security product verifies that the authenticated user has access to the OMVSAPPL class. If SAFAPPLID is configured, the specified application ID is used instead.
SAFRunAs directive
The SAFRunAs directive sets the SAF user ID that is used to process the request.
Directive | Description |
---|---|
Syntax | SAFRunAs value |
Default | off |
Context | directory, .htaccess |
Module | mod_authnz_saf |
Values | off | %%CLIENT%% | %%CERTIF%% | %%CERTIF_REQ%% | %%CERTIF%% /prefix |
surrogate-username /prefix | <surrogate ID>
|
IBM HTTP Server can communicate with FastCGI applications using either TCP sockets or UNIX sockets. However, when using SAFRunAs for FastCGI requests, you must use TCP sockets for communication with the application. UNIX sockets that are created for FastCGI applications are accessible by the Web server user ID only. The alternate user ID controlled with the SAFRunAs directive does not have permission to access the UNIX sockets, so requests will fail.
To configure FastCGI to use TCP sockets, define the FastCGI application to the mod_fastcgi module using the FastCGIServer directive with the -port option or using the FastCGIExternalServer directive. Dynamic FastCGI servers that you do not configure with the FastCGIServer or FastCGIExternalServer are not usable with SAFRunAs.
If you do not enable SAFRunAs for FastCGI requests, TCP sockets are not required.
<Location /context-root-A/>
SAFRunAS %%CLIENT%%
</Location>
Requests
to paths that contain the /context-root-A/* prefix run as the remote user.# Process *.phtml with the "php-script" handler.
AddHandler php-script .phtml
# Define the "php-script" handler as an existing CGI.
Action php-script /cgi-bin/php-cgi
The Action directive turns a request for the /context-root-A/hello.phtml file
into a request for a path that contains the /cgi-bin/php-cgi parameter with a
command-line argument of /context-root-A/hello.phtml.<Location /cgi-bin/php-cgi>
SAFRunAS %%CLIENT%%
</Location>
If you need multiple SAFRunAs settings, forgo the Action directive entirely or create multiple Action directives with different second parameters.
gotchaSAFRunAsEarly directive
The SAFRunAsEarly directive allows SAFRunAs to run before any directories are accessed.
Directive | Description |
---|---|
Syntax | SAFRunAsEarly on | off |
Default | off |
Context | location |
Module | mod_authnz_saf |
Values | on | off |
[Tue Aug 11 14:03:16 2015] [error] [client x.x.x.x] (111)EDC5111I Permission denied. (errno2=0x5B4B0002):
access to /saf/privileged/index.html deniedIf SAFRunAsEarly is set to on with SAFRunAs set to %%CLIENT%%, IHS will switch
user before any directory/file access are attempted.
If SAFRunAsEarly is set to on with SAFRunAs set to %%CLIENT%%, IHS will switch user before any directory/file access are attempted.
SAFRunAsEarly must be used in <Location> contexts, or the global context. It cannot be used in <Directory> contexts.
LoadModule auth_basic_module modules/mod_auth_basic.so
LoadModule authnz_saf_module modules/mod_authnz_saf.so
LoadModule authz_default_module modules/mod_authz_default.so
...
<Location /saf_protected>
AuthType basic
AuthName x1
AuthBasicProvider saf
# Code "Require valid-user" if you want any valid
# SAF user to be able to access the resource.
Require valid-user
#
# Alternately, you can provide a list of specific SAF users
# who may access the resource.
# Require saf-user USER84 USER85
#
# Alternatively, you can provide a list of specific SAF groups
# whose members may access the resource.
# Require saf-group WASGRP1 WASGRP2
</Location>
LoadModule auth_basic_module modules/mod_auth_basic.so
LoadModule authnz_saf_module modules/mod_authnz_saf.so
LoadModule authz_groupfile_module modules/mod_authz_groupfile.so
LoadModule authz_default_module modules/mod_authz_default.so
...
<Location /saf_password>
AuthType basic
AuthName "SAF auth with hfs groupfile"
AuthBasicProvider saf
AuthGroupFile /www/config/foo.grp
# Code "Require file-group" and a list of groups if you want
# a user in any of the groups in the specified group file to be able
# to access the resource.
# Note: Any authorization module, with its standard configuration, can be used here.
Require group admin1 admin2
</Location>
LoadModule auth_basic_module modules/mod_auth_basic.so
LoadModule authnz_saf_module modules/mod_authnz_saf.so
LoadModule authz_groupfile_module modules/mod_authz_groupfile.so
LoadModule authz_default_module modules/mod_authz_default.so
...
<Location /either_group>
AuthType basic
AuthName "SAF auth with SAF groups and hfs groupfile"
AuthBasicProvider saf
AuthGroupFile /www/groupfiles/foo.grp
Require saf-group WASGRP
Require saf-group ADMINS
</Location>
LoadModule auth_basic_module modules/mod_auth_basic.so
LoadModule authnz_saf_module modules/mod_authnz_saf.so
LoadModule authz_default_module modules/mod_authz_default.so
...
<Location /runas_admin_bin>
AuthName "SAF RunAs client"
AuthType basic
Require valid-user
AuthBasicProvider saf
SAFRunAs %%CLIENT%%
</Location>
LoadModule auth_basic_module modules/mod_auth_basic.so
LoadModule authnz_saf_module modules/mod_authnz_saf.so
LoadModule authz_default_module modules/mod_authz_default.so
...
<Location /custom_password_change>
AuthType basic
AuthName "Support expired PW"
Require valid-user
AuthBasicProvider saf
AuthSAFEXpiration "EXPIRED PW: oldpw/newpw/newpw"
AuthSAFReEnter "New PW again:"
</Location>
If you want to require a client certificate before a user can access a resource, use the mod_ibm_ssl directive. The mod_authnz_saf directive is not needed for this configuration. For additional information, see the documentation for the SSLClientAuth and SSLClientAuthRequire directives.
LoadModule authnz_saf_module modules/mod_authnz_saf.so
LoadModule ibm_ssl_module modules/mod_ibm_ssl.so
...
<Location /certificate_required>
SAFRunAs %%CERTIF_REQ%%
</Location>
<Location /certificate_or_basic>
AuthName "SAF RunAs certif"
AuthType basic
Require saf-user USER84 USER103
AuthBasicProvider saf
SAFRunAs %%CERTIF%%
</Location>
<Location /runas_public>
SAFRunAs PUBLIC
# This can be combined with SAF or non-SAF authentication/authorization
</Location>