Single sign-on

Single sign-on for Ntlm and Kerberos is a Xima® Formcycle license module which is subject to additional costs.

We would like to inform you that in future we will say goodbye to Ntlm as an option for single sign-on. We are following a general recommendation from Microsoft, according to which Ntlm should no longer be used by applications in the future due to insufficient security mechanisms (statement from Microsoft or statement in the forum under Chapter 3). Microsoft then published patches to improve security, but these will no longer work with the current Ntlm implementation in FORMCYCLE. Since it is not recommended to continue using the module, we will stop further development of the module from FORMCYCLE version 7 onwards.

For existing customers we offer to switch to Kerberos for free. The activation for Kerberos is done automatically in the licence of V7, if Ntlm has already been licensed.

User interface for setting up Ldap authentication via Ntlm. Available only if the license allows it.

Ntlm (NT LAN Manager) can be used to authenticate users of a form.

A common use case are forms used internally by some company, and that may be accessed only by the employees of that company. The user data of the active directory can be accessed via Ntlm.

Ntlm may not be available depending on your license.

Using NTLM

Activate this option to use Ntlm.

Synchronize with frontend server

Activate this option to transmit the current configuration to all connected and available frontend servers when saving these settings.

Domain controller host

The host (FQN) of the active directory controller used for authenticating users via Ntlm and transmitting their data over Ldap.

Example: domain.example.com

Connection to the Ldap server for the Ldap search account has been established successfully

NTLM authentication

The following settings are required for enabling users to authenticate via Ntlm.

Host name of the domain controller host

The host name of the active directory controller.

Example: domain

Windows domain name

Different forms of the domain name can be used depending on the active directory.

Example: example.de oder example0

Here you must specify the domain name to which the user accounts to be authenticated belong.
This domain name may be different from the domain of the computer account (This is the computer's NetBIOS name, not the DNS / FQDN name).

The Windows domain name to be used can be determined, for example, by opening a Windows console (Start / Run / cmd) on a client logged into the domain and entering the following command:
echo %userdomain%

Computer account

The computer account must have been granted permission to perform user verification. It must not be a regular user account.

A computer account is recognizable by the '$' character in the domain name. e.g. example$@domain.de

We are currently unable to provide a description of the procedure for creating a computer account in the Active Directory server and this must be referred from external sources in the relevant documentation.

computer account password

Password of the computer account.

LDAP user lookup

The following settings concern the user lookup after a successful Ntlm authenication.

Port

The port for connecting to the Ldap server for the user lookup.

SSL encryption

Enables SSL encryption when communicating the the Ldap server.

Hop count

The number of hop counts or referrals. Setting this to 0 disables following references.

User account (with domain)

Account to be used for looking up users. It must have been granted permission to perform user lookup.

Example: ldap@example.de

User account password

Password of the user account.

Base DN für user lookup

Ldap base DN used for looking up authenticated users.

Example: ou="users", dc="example", dc="de"

Settings for Kerberos authentication

User interface for editing the settings for Kerberos authentication. Available only when the license includes this option.

Kerberos can be used to authenticate form users. This is often used for internal forms meant only for the employees of a company. The data of the current user can be retrieved from an active directory as well.

Kerberos authentication is available only when the license includes this option.

Use Kerberos

Activate this switch to enable Kerberos authentication.

Synchronize with frontend server

When activated, all changes to the configuration will be sent to all available frontend servers.

Username

The Window Domain account required for accessing the Key Distribution Center (KDC) and beginning the authentication process.

Normally this is the user account of the active directory that is setup as a service account.

When no default_realm has been specified in the section [libdefaults] of the file krb5.conf, you will need to enter the username with a domain (FQDN).
Example: user@EXCAMPLE.COM

To this user you must, in Active Directory for example, register the hosts of the urls and the computer name (computer name and FQDN inside the domain) to be used as ServicePrincipalName (SPN) beginning with the service class HTTP. You can find more information here or here.

Password

Password of the service account.

File krb5.conf

Enter the content of the file krb5.conf, ie. the configuration file for Kerberos.

Among other settings, the available encryption methods, the current real and its mapping to a KDC should be set.

File structure

The file format is similar to Windows INI files. It contains of individual sections, introduced by their names in brackets. Each section may or may not contain several key-value pairs:

foo = bar

foobar = {
foo = bar
some = input
}

Section names

[libdefaults]
Contains settings used by the Kerberos library v5.
[realms]}} Realm-specific settings and contact information.{{/litem}}
- {{litem title=
  A list of supported session key encryption methods that should be requested by the client when performing an AS (authentication server) request. The priority of each method is given by the order in which they have been specified, the first one being the method with the highest priority. Several methods can be separated with commas or spaces.
{{litem title="default_tgs_enctypes}}A list of supported session key encryption methods that should be requested by the client when performing a TGS (ticket granting server) request. The priority of each method is given by the order in which they have been specified, the first one being the method with the highest priority. Several methods can be separated with commas or spaces.{{/litem}}
permitted_enctypes
A list of all allowed session key encryption methods.

A simple configuration for the [libdefaults] section might look as follows:

[libdefaults]
default_realm = EXAMPLE.COM
default_tkt_enctypes = aes256-cts-hmac-sha1-96 aes128-cts-hmac-sha1-96 des3-cbc-sha1 arcfour-hmac-md5 camellia256-cts-cmac camellia128-cts-cmac des-cbc-crc des-cbc-md5 des-cbc-md4
default_tgs_enctypes = aes256-cts-hmac-sha1-96 aes128-cts-hmac-sha1-96 des3-cbc-sha1 arcfour-hmac-md5 camellia256-cts-cmac camellia128-cts-cmac des-cbc-crc des-cbc-md5 des-cbc-md4
permitted_enctypes = aes256-cts-hmac-sha1-96 aes128-cts-hmac-sha1-96 des3-cbc-sha1 arcfour-hmac-md5 camellia256-cts-cmac camellia128-cts-cmac des-cbc-crc des-cbc-md5 des-cbc-md4

[realms]

Each key in the [realms] section represents the name of a Kerberos realm. The value is a list of mappings, defining the properties of each realm. The following properties can be set:

kdc: The name or address of a server running a KDC (key distribution center) for this realm, usually the server with the active directory. When necessary, the port number can be specified by appending it separated by a column.

A simple configuration for the [realms] section might look as follows:

[realms]
EXAMPLE.COM = {
kdc = domain.example.com
}

[domain_realm]

The section [domain_realm] contains a mapping from domain names or host names to Kerberos realm names. The key can be a host or domain name, but domain names must be prefixed with a period. The value must be the name of a Kerberos realm for this host or domain. Host and domain names should be spelled with lower case letters.

A simple configuration for the [domain_realm] section might look as follows:

[domain_realm]
.example.com = EXAMPLE.COM

File login.conf

The content of the file login.conf, which contains login-related settings such as the authentication method between clients and servers.

A sample configuration might look as follows:

spnego-client {
   com.sun.security.auth.module.Krb5LoginModule required;
};

spnego-server {
   com.sun.security.auth.module.Krb5LoginModule required
   refreshKrb5Config=true
   storeKey=true
   isInitiator=false;
};

Client module name

The name in the login.conf file for the client to be used, eg. spnego-client.

Server module name

The name in the login.conf file for the server to be used, eg. spnego-server.

When you keep getting a HTTP 400 error with Kerberos activated, the most likely cause is that the HTTP header size of the Kerberos ticket exceeds the default header size limit of the application server, eg. Tomcat of JBoss. See the help pages on changing the HTTP header size limit.

LDAP user search

The following settings are required to retrieve information about the authenticated user from an Ldap (MS active directory). This data is then available in the form and can be accessed by JavaScript code.

Domain controller host

FQN (fully qualified name) and port of the active directory controller.

Example: domain.example.com Port: 389

SSL connection

When activated, all communications with the LDAP server will be encrypted with SSL.

Referral hops

The maximum number of referral hops that may be performed on the LDAP server. Setting this to 0 deactivates referral hops and no references will be followed.

User account (with domain)

This account must have been granted permission to send search queries to the active directory.

This needs to be a username suffixed with the domain.
Example: user@EXCAMPLE.COM

User account password

Password for the user account.

Base DN for user lookup

The LDAP baseDN used for looking up the authenticated user.

Example: ou="intern", dc="example", dc="com"

Theoretical consideration of the connection of several KDCs/domains

If multiple KDC servers or domains are desired for a global Kerberos login ability, this is theoretically possible via the standard MIT Kerberos implementation provided by Java and used by FORMCYCLE. However, the following configurations should be noted here:

For each KDC server/domain a separate realm must be defined.
The list to be defined under [domain_realm] must be used to specify which request URL should be handled by which realm.
If cross realm authentication is desired, a cross realm trust must be established. This serves to the purpose that a user from realm A can also log in within the realm B. For example, this can be realized with a direct realm trust where principals are created on each relevant server against the other realms. For the realms A.REALM.COM and B.REALM.COM this would be for exemplary krbtgt/A.REALM.COM@B.REALM.COM and krbtgt/B.REALM.COM@A.REALM.COM.
Use the same name and a strong password for the service principal or configure a keytab file.
To query the correct user data after the Kerberos login, either an LDAP server with access to the whole forest of the realms or the functionality of the client-specific LDAP servers must be configured. It may also be necessary to adjust the responsible LDAP filter.

Make user data available to forms

The LDAP user data for the currently authenticated user are stored in the JavaScript object window.XFC_METADATA.user.rawData and can be accessed via JavaScript.

Which data the JSON structure contains under the rawData property depends mainly on the read rights of the LDAP account, which executes the user search in the LDAP system.

To access the property //userPrincipalName// of the user from JavaScript, use the following code:

try {
   // Auslesen der Property und Anzeige in einem Label
   var elem = $('[name=txt1]');
   var ldap = XFC_METADATA.user.rawData;
   if(ldap.hasOwnProperty('userPrincipalName')) {
        elem.html(ldap.userPrincipalName);
    }
} catch (err) {}