Using CASFilter

CAS Filter

The CAS filter is the simplest way of CAS-protecting your Java Servlets application.

Configuring CASFilter

Just a few lines of XML need to be added to your web application's deployment descriptor (web.xml):

<web-app>
  ...
  <filter>
    <filter-name>CAS Filter</filter-name>
    <filter-class>edu.yale.its.tp.cas.client.filter.CASFilter</filter-class>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>edu.yale.its.tp.cas.client.filter.loginUrl</param-name>
      <param-value>https://secure.its.yale.edu/cas/login</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>edu.yale.its.tp.cas.client.filter.validateUrl</param-name>
      <param-value>https://secure.its.yale.edu/cas/serviceValidate</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>edu.yale.its.tp.cas.client.filter.serverName</param-name>
      <param-value>your server name and port (e.g., www.yale.edu:8080)</param-value>
    </init-param>
  </filter>

  <filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>CAS Filter</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/cas-protected/*</url-pattern>
  </filter-mapping>
  ...
</web-app>

In this case, any URL beneath /webapp/cas-protected would require a CAS login. If you want to protect your entire web application, you can simply put /* for the URL pattern:

  <filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>CAS Filter</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
  </filter-mapping>

The serverName initialization parameter does not require a port number if you are using the standard HTTP port (80).

You can specify other initialization parameters to configure the behavior of the filter:

Required CASFilter init-params

init-param name	usage
edu.yale.its.tp.cas.client.filter.serverName	This parameter specifies the server name and port of the service being filtered (not of the CAS Server itself). E.g., www.yale.edu:8080
edu.yale.its.tp.cas.client.filter.serviceUrl	this parameter replaces the serverName parameter above. It becomes the URL that CAS redirects to after login. If you have one specific point of entry to your web application and you want all logins to proceed through that page, you would specify the full URL of that page here.

Optional CASFilter init-params

init-param	usage
edu.yale.its.tp.cas.client.filter.authorizedProxy	to allow the filter to accept proxy tickets, you need to specify valid proxies through which the authorization must have proceeded. This initialization parameter accepts a whitespace-delimited list of valid proxy URLs. Only one URL needs to match for the login to be successful. Note that if you do want to accept proxy tickets, you will have to change the validateUrl above to proxyValidate rather than serviceValidate
edu.yale.its.tp.cas.client.filter.renew	if set to the string, true, this is the equivalent of authenticating a ticket with renew=true passed as a parameter. This may be used for high-security applications where the user must enter his/her credentials again before accessing the filtered URLs.
edu.yale.its.tp.cas.client.filter.wrapRequest	if set to the string "true" the CASFilter will wrap the request such that calls to getRemoteUser() return the authenticated username.

Consuming the results of CASFilter

Once the user has logged into your application through the filter, the application may access the user's name through the session attribute, edu.yale.its.tp.cas.client.filter.user, or if you import edu.yale.its.tp.cas.client.filter.CASFilter in your JSP or servlet, simply CASFilter.CAS_FILTER_USER.

// either of these will work:
session.getAttribute(CASFilter.CAS_FILTER_USER);
session.getAttribute("edu.yale.its.tp.cas.client.filter.user");

Additionally, the client application may access a CASReceipt JavaBean-style object which exposes the username as well as additional information about the successful authentication, in the session attribute edu.yale.its.tp.cas.client.filter.receipt .

// either of these will work:
session.getAttribute(CASFilter.CAS_FILTER_RECEIPT);
session.getAttribute("edu.yale.its.tp.cas.client.filter.receipt");

Session attributes set by CASFilter

Session attribute	usage
edu.yale.its.tp.cas.client.filter.user	String representing the authenticated NetID
edu.yale.its.tp.cas.client.filter.receipt	CASReceipt representing the results of CAS authentication. Use this object to programmatically access the proxy chain, whether the authentication was required to have been by presentation of primary credentials, etc.