DO NOT REPLY [Bug 10526] New: - Authenticators do not always cache the Principal

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http://nagoya.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=10526

Authenticators do not always cache the Principal

           Summary: Authenticators do not always cache the Principal
           Product: Tomcat 4
           Version: Nightly Build
          Platform: Other
        OS/Version: Other
            Status: NEW
          Severity: Normal
          Priority: Other
         Component: Catalina
        AssignedTo: tomcat-dev@jakarta.apache.org
        ReportedBy: j.g.holman@qmul.ac.uk


Once a user is authenticated a Principal object is supposed to be cached for 
the duration of the user's session. This is especially important when using 
JDBCRealm or JNDIRealm to reduce the load on external authentication services.

Most authenticators (BasicAuthenticator, SSLAuthenticator and 
DigestAuthenticator) call AuthenticatorBase.register()to cache the Principal. 
However register() does nothing if a session object does not already exist, so 
caching does not occur when the application does not create a session object 
itself. The problem can be seen by setting a security constraint on tomcat-docs 
and then browsing the Tomcat documentation - the external authentication 
service is hit on every request.

The problem does not occur with form based login, because FormAuthenticator 
caches the Principal itself and creates a new session if necessary to do it.

Probably the best fix would be to change AuthenticatorBase.register() to create 
a new session by calling getSession(request, true) instead of getSession
(request, false). However, perhaps there is a reason why this is not being 
done - though if so I cannot see what it is.

An alternative is to change the concrete authentication classes to make sure a 
session exists before calling register(), e.g.

--- BasicAuthenticator.java     23 Mar 2002 17:52:16 -0000      1.12
+++ BasicAuthenticator.java     6 Jul 2002 12:46:30 -0000
@@ -160,6 +160,7 @@
         String password = parsePassword(authorization);
         principal = context.getRealm().authenticate(username, password);
         if (principal != null) {
+           Session session = getSession(request, true);
             register(request, response, principal, Constants.BASIC_METHOD,
                      username, password);
             return (true);

Similar patches would be required for SSLAuthenticator and DigestAuthenticator 
of course.

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