Home/ Questions/Q 9134367
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-06-17T08:38:50+00:00

I want to read the user’s name from the Kerberos ticket in the Authorization

  • 0

I want to read the user’s name from the Kerberos ticket in the Authorization HTTP header. I am using Java.

I have spent days trying to achieve this by reading through a bunch of sites on the subject but have not been able to do this. Kerberos is new/foreign to me.

This is what I’ve achieved:

  • When a user first accesses the site – without the Authorization header, the server responds with 401 + header: WWW-Authenticate=Negotiate.
  • All sorts of magical things happen on the client’s side.
  • User returns with a HTTP request that contains the Authorization header with a value like: “Negotiate YHcGB…==”
  • Decode the base64 encoded ticket to a byte array.

From here on it’s a terrifying journey through the unknown. As far as I can tell, the next steps should be:

  • Login to AD/Kerberos/ Server with a user.
  • Decode the ticket.

This is what I have:

login.conf

 ServicePrincipalLoginContext
{
      com.sun.security.auth.module.Krb5LoginModule 
      required 
      principal="HTTP/some.server.com@MY.DOMAIN.COM" 
      doNotPrompt=true
      useTicketCache=true
      password=mYpasSword
      debug=true;
};

JavaClass.java

String encodedTicket = authorization.substring("Negotiate ".length());
byte[] ticket = Base64.decode(encodedTicket);       

LoginContext lc = new LoginContext("ServicePrincipalLoginContext");
lc.login();
Subject serviceSubject = lc.getSubject();
Subject.doAs(serviceSubject, new ServiceTicketDecoder(ticket));

ServiceTicketDecoder.java

public String run() throws Exception {
    Oid kerberos5Oid = new Oid("1.2.840.113554.1.2.2");

    GSSManager gssManager = GSSManager.getInstance();

    String service = "krbtgt/MY.DOMAIN.COM@MY.DOMAIN.COM";
    GSSName serviceName = gssManager.createName(service, GSSName.NT_USER_NAME);

    GSSCredential serviceCredentials = gssManager.createCredential(serviceName, GSSCredential.INDEFINITE_LIFETIME, kerberos5Oid, GSSCredential.ACCEPT_ONLY);

    GSSContext gssContext = gssManager.createContext(serviceCredentials);
    gssContext.acceptSecContext(this.serviceTicket, 0, this.serviceTicket.length);

    GSSName srcName = gssContext.getSrcName();
    return srcName.toString;
}

The login in JavaClass.java works ok, so I’m assuming the login.conf is ok. On “GSSCredential serviceCredentials = gssManager.createCredential(…” in the ServiceTicketDecoder.java the following exception is thrown:

java.security.PrivilegedActionException: GSSException: No valid credentials provided (Mechanism level: Failed to find any Kerberos Key)

I am not sure if this is the right approach. I also don’t know what the value of the “String service” should be or how to get that information. Can you help me?

EDIT:
login.conf 

 ServicePrincipalLoginContext
{
      com.sun.security.auth.module.Krb5LoginModule 
      required 
      principal="HTTP/some.server.com@MY.DOMAIN.COM" 
      doNotPrompt=true
      useTicketCache=true
      keyTab="C:/server-http.keytab" 
      debug=true;
};

I have received a keytab file. Apparently the HTTP/some.server.com user’s account was already a service principal account. I now have a problem on JavaClass.java at lc.login():

javax.security.auth.login.LoginException: KDC has no support for encryption type (14)
Caused by: KrbException: KDC has no support for encryption type (14)
Caused by: KrbException: Identifier doesn't match expected value (906)

The keytab file is encrypted with des-cbc-md5 and I have the following defined in the krb.conf file:

[libdefaults]
default_realm = MY.DOMAIN.COM
default_tkt_enctypes = des-cbc-md5
default_tgs_enctypes = des-cbc-md5

If I change the default enctypes to e.g. aes128-cts, I get the following exception:

javax.security.auth.login.LoginException: Do not have keys of types listed in default_tkt_enctypes available; only have keys of following type: DES CBC mode with MD5

I don’t understand what is wrong…

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Kerberos is a trusted third-party security system: the security token you receive from the client is decryptable only by you, and without contacting any Kerberos infrastructure servers (such as the KDC). You are on the right track; however, it appears you are missing this piece of background Kerberos knowledge to guide you in your further research.

    The way this is achieved is that on the server you need a keytab file that contains your server’s secret key. The Kerberos server (Microsoft Windows Server, I presume) must have a service principal account created for your service. An administrator can supply you with the keytab file generated for this account, which will contain the secret key.

    You then need to configure the server to find this keytab file; it is used in the server-side step involving LoginContext.login. Your code that accepts the security context must be executed inside a doPrivileged code segment within which your server-side credentials are in effect.

    • 0