Question

I have been creating a page, which have been working fine on local machine. Time to deploy. Exception in Application_Start(). I made a check and throw a new exception to confirm what i belived: My FederatedAuthentication.WSFederationAuthenticationModule is null.

protected void Application_Start()
{
    AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();

    WebApiConfig.Register(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration);
    FilterConfig.RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
    RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
    BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles);
    AuthConfig.RegisterAuth();
    if (FederatedAuthentication.WSFederationAuthenticationModule == null)
        throw new Exception("HELLO");

    FederatedAuthentication.WSFederationAuthenticationModule.SecurityTokenValidated += WSFederationAuthenticationModule_SecurityTokenValidated;


}

I have been using NET 4.0 and heres my webconfig without db connections:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--
  For more information on how to configure your ASP.NET application, please visit
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=169433
  -->
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <!-- For more information on Entity Framework configuration, visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=237468 -->
    <section name="entityFramework" type="System.Data.Entity.Internal.ConfigFile.EntityFrameworkSection, EntityFramework, Version=4.4.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" requirePermission="false" />
    <section name="microsoft.identityModel" type="Microsoft.IdentityModel.Configuration.MicrosoftIdentityModelSection, Microsoft.IdentityModel, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" />
  </configSections>

  <appSettings>
    <add key="webpages:Version" value="2.0.0.0" />
    <add key="webpages:Enabled" value="false" />
    <add key="PreserveLoginUrl" value="true" />
    <add key="ClientValidationEnabled" value="true" />
    <add key="UnobtrusiveJavaScriptEnabled" value="true" />
    <add key="ida:FederationMetadataLocation" value="https://traffictheory.accesscontrol.windows.net/FederationMetadata/2007-06/FederationMetadata.xml" />
    <add key="ida:ProviderSelection" value="ACS" />
  </appSettings>
  <location path="FederationMetadata">
    <system.web>
      <authorization>
        <allow users="*" />
      </authorization>
    </system.web>
  </location>
  <system.web>
    <!--<authorization>
      <deny users="?" />
    </authorization>-->
    <authentication mode="None" />
    <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0" />
    <!--Commented out by Identity and Access VS Package-->
    <!--<authentication mode="Forms"><forms loginUrl="~/Account/Login" timeout="2880" /></authentication>-->
    <pages>
      <namespaces>
        <add namespace="System.Web.Helpers" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Optimization" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.WebPages" />
      </namespaces>
    </pages>
    <httpRuntime requestValidationMode="2.0" />
    <customErrors mode="Off"/>

  </system.web>
  <system.webServer>
    <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false" />
    <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true">
      <add name="WSFederationAuthenticationModule" type="Microsoft.IdentityModel.Web.WSFederationAuthenticationModule, Microsoft.IdentityModel, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" />
      <add name="SessionAuthenticationModule" type="Microsoft.IdentityModel.Web.SessionAuthenticationModule, Microsoft.IdentityModel, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" />
      <add name="ClaimsAuthorizationModule" type="Microsoft.IdentityModel.Web.ClaimsAuthorizationModule, Microsoft.IdentityModel, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" />
    </modules>
    <handlers>
      <remove name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_32bit" />
      <remove name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_64bit" />
      <remove name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-Integrated-4.0" />
      <add name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_32bit" path="*." verb="GET,HEAD,POST,DEBUG,PUT,DELETE,PATCH,OPTIONS" modules="IsapiModule" scriptProcessor="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\aspnet_isapi.dll" preCondition="classicMode,runtimeVersionv4.0,bitness32" responseBufferLimit="0" />
      <add name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-ISAPI-4.0_64bit" path="*." verb="GET,HEAD,POST,DEBUG,PUT,DELETE,PATCH,OPTIONS" modules="IsapiModule" scriptProcessor="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_isapi.dll" preCondition="classicMode,runtimeVersionv4.0,bitness64" responseBufferLimit="0" />
      <add name="ExtensionlessUrlHandler-Integrated-4.0" path="*." verb="GET,HEAD,POST,DEBUG,PUT,DELETE,PATCH,OPTIONS" type="System.Web.Handlers.TransferRequestHandler" preCondition="integratedMode,runtimeVersionv4.0" />
    </handlers>
  </system.webServer>
  <runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Helpers" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-2.0.0.0" newVersion="2.0.0.0" />
      </dependentAssembly>
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Mvc" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-4.0.0.0" newVersion="4.0.0.0" />
      </dependentAssembly>
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.WebPages" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-2.0.0.0" newVersion="2.0.0.0" />
      </dependentAssembly>
    </assemblyBinding>
  </runtime>
  <entityFramework>
    <defaultConnectionFactory type="System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.SqlConnectionFactory, EntityFramework" />
  </entityFramework>
  <microsoft.identityModel>
    <service>
      <audienceUris>
        <!--<add value="http://traffictheory.cloudapp.net/" />-->
        <add value="http://localhost:48451/" />
      </audienceUris>
      <issuerNameRegistry type="Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens.ConfigurationBasedIssuerNameRegistry, Microsoft.IdentityModel, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35">
        <trustedIssuers>
          <add thumbprint="..." name="https://traffictheory.accesscontrol.windows.net/" />
        </trustedIssuers>
      </issuerNameRegistry>
      <claimsAuthenticationManager type="S_Innovations.TrafficTheory.Web.Security.TrafficTheoryClaimsAuthenticationManager, S-Innovations.TrafficTheory.Web.Security" />
      <federatedAuthentication>
        <cookieHandler requireSsl="false" />
        <wsFederation passiveRedirectEnabled="true" issuer="https://traffictheory.accesscontrol.windows.net/v2/wsfederation" realm="http://localhost:48451/" reply="http://localhost:48451/" requireHttps="false" />
      </federatedAuthentication>
      <certificateValidation certificateValidationMode="None" />
    </service>
  </microsoft.identityModel>
</configuration>

I have updated localhost to deployment also.

Answer 1

Could you try accessing the WSFederationAuthenticationModule when the service configuration is created?

void Application_Start()
{
    FederatedAuthentication.ServiceConfigurationCreated += OnServiceConfigurationCreated;
}    

private void OnServiceConfigurationCreated(object sender, ServiceConfigurationCreatedEventArgs e)
{
    FederatedAuthentication.WSFederationAuthenticationModule.SecurityTokenValidated += WSFederationAuthenticationModule_SecurityTokenValidated;
} 

If you’re using a Web Role, you also need to make sure WIF is correctly installed (easy to do with Azure Plugin Library).