Question

I’m fairly new to WCF development and have run into a couple problems whilst learning the framework. I have a service api which must support both REST & SOAP. So far this has been easy to implement especially with WCF4 and routing.

I am currently working on authorization and have managed to extend AuthorizationManager by creating two new manager classes: “ApiKeyAuthorizationManager” & “ApiKeyAndTokenAuthorizationManager”

Most of my services will require an ApiKey and Token (GUIDS) to be present; when initially authenticating, you simply need a valid ApiKey and password to receive a Token.

So far REST is working perfectly as the Authorization managers look to the query string to get ApiKey and/or Token.

So for example a service uri would look like:
*http://api.domain.com/Service/Operation/{someVariableValue}?ApiKey=GUID&Token=GUID

My problem now comes with authorizing SOAP service calls. I’ve done a little bit of research and have come to a few conclusions I wanted to verify are correct before implementing.

In order to authorize SOAP with custom credentials I should:

1. Create custom service token (MSDN)
2. Extend WCF by creating a custom SecurityTokenProvider, SecurityTokenAuthenticator, and SecurityTokenSerializer (MSDN)
3. Extend WCF by creating custom AuthorizationPolicies (MSDN)

Am I on the right track for this? Are all these steps needed to fit my scenario? Seems like so much customization for just verifying a credential made up of two GUIDs.

Thanks!

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[EDIT #1]

This has been a very difficult task. Custom credentials and security tokens is nearly undocumented. Finding quality blog posts itself has proven near impossible. I’ve kept plugging away and am so close to have a working solution. I’ve even hit the same road blocks as described in this post.

When I try to access my service to uncover the wsdl or mex I receive this error:

The service encountered an error.

An ExceptionDetail, likely created by IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults=true, whose value is:
System.InvalidOperationException: An exception was thrown in a call to a policy export extension.
Extension: System.ServiceModel.Channels.SymmetricSecurityBindingElement
Error: Specified argument was out of the range of valid values.
Parameter name: parameters ----> System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Specified argument was out of the range of valid values.
Parameter name: parameters
   at System.ServiceModel.Security.WSSecurityPolicy.CreateTokenAssertion(MetadataExporter exporter, SecurityTokenParameters parameters, Boolean isOptional)
   at System.ServiceModel.Security.WSSecurityPolicy.CreateWsspSignedSupportingTokensAssertion(MetadataExporter exporter, Collection`1 signed, Collection`1 signedEncrypted, Collection`1 optionalSigned, Collection`1 optionalSignedEncrypted)
   at System.ServiceModel.Security.WSSecurityPolicy.CreateWsspSupportingTokensAssertion(MetadataExporter exporter, Collection`1 signed, Collection`1 signedEncrypted, Collection`1 endorsing, Collection`1 signedEndorsing, Collection`1 optionalSigned, Collection`1 optionalSignedEncrypted, Collection`1 optionalEndorsing, Collection`1 optionalSignedEndorsing, AddressingVersion addressingVersion)
   at System.ServiceModel.Security.WSSecurityPolicy.CreateWsspSupportingTokensAssertion(MetadataExporter exporter, Collection`1 signed, Collection`1 signedEncrypted, Collection`1 endorsing, Collection`1 signedEndorsing, Collection`1 optionalSigned, Collection`1 optionalSignedEncrypted, Collection`1 optionalEndorsing, Collection`1 optionalSignedEndorsing)
   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.SecurityBindingElement.ExportSymmetricSecurityBindingElement(SymmetricSecurityBindingElement binding, MetadataExporter exporter, PolicyConversionContext policyContext)
   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.SecurityBindingElement.ExportPolicy(MetadataExporter exporter, PolicyConversionContext context)
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.MetadataExporter.ExportPolicy(ServiceEndpoint endpoint)
   --- End of inner ExceptionDetail stack trace ---
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataBehavior.MetadataExtensionInitializer.GenerateMetadata()
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataExtension.EnsureInitialized()
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataExtension.HttpGetImpl.InitializationData.InitializeFrom(ServiceMetadataExtension extension)
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataExtension.HttpGetImpl.GetInitData()
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataExtension.HttpGetImpl.TryHandleDocumentationRequest(Message httpGetRequest, String[] queries, Message& replyMessage)
   at System.ServiceModel.Description.ServiceMetadataExtension.HttpGetImpl.ProcessHttpRequest(Message httpGetRequest)
   at SyncInvokeGet(Object , Object[] , Object[] )
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.SyncMethodInvoker.Invoke(Object instance, Object[] inputs, Object[]& outputs)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.DispatchOperationRuntime.InvokeBegin(MessageRpc& rpc)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage5(MessageRpc& rpc)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage31(MessageRpc& rpc)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.MessageRpc.Process(Boolean isOperationContextSet)

If you have any idea what might be causing this I’d love some help.

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[EDIT #2]

It seems Microsoft doesn’t want to update their samples to show how to allow wsdl support for custom credentials / tokens. See here.
Anyone have an idea how to get this working? What’s the point of making a framework extensible if there’s no documentation how to extend it?!?

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[EDIT #3]

As stated in my comment below…
I have TransportWithMessageCredential working just fine using UserNameSecurityToken. Unfortunately, my services will end up requiring custom tokens when it’s time to implement some more advanced features that I have planned.

What I’m looking for as an answer would be:

How to support custom service credentials and tokens with WSDL support?

Currently, following Microsoft’s examples, you can only use custom credentials by using ChannelFactory and creating a custom binding on the client. I would rather not deal with that.

If this question remains unanswered, I’ll keep upping the bounty. As soon as I can get this all working I’ll write up a blog tutorial on all the steps required to creating a custom security solution.

Answer 1

I would advise you look to Windows Identity Foundation, and move in the direction of claim based security/federation. This model supports custom credentials much better as they are just a different set of claims.