J2EE Security

Simon P. Chappell writes "Security is not just for the paranoid anymore. There is plenty of documented evidence to show that there are people that are out to get you (and your information). Sun's J2EE framework brings a work-chest with many powerful tools in it, but with power there is always complexity, and many of these tools, especially the security-oriented tools, are under-used because of this. Pankaj Kumar's book J2EE Security is a guide to using these tools when building security into your Servlets, EJBs, web services and web applications." Read on for the rest of Chappell's review. J2EE Security for Servlets, EJBs, and Web Services author Pankaj Kumar pages 426 (12 page index) publisher Prentice Hall rating 9 reviewer Simon P. Chappell ISBN 0131402641 summary A great combination of security primer and cookbook. What is J2EE Security? J2EE Security covers a very wide range of techniques and mechanisms: Access control based on permissions and authentication of identity; encryption of data passing in or out of an application; and validation of presented credentials. These are the big things: needless to say, there are levels of detail below each of these three. What do I know about J2EE Security? More than I did when I started reading this book! In my experience, security is either bolted on at the last minute or badly implemented using home-grown techniques. As one who has seen or tried both of these approaches, I was determined to seek out the better way, so when the chance to review this book came along I jumped at it. Overview The first section, with chapter one and two, is "The Background." Chapter one is a security primer and should be old hat to most of the readership of Slashdot. Chapter two is a tour of the Java language strictly from a security perspective. This is interesting and very informative, even for a long-time Java programmer like me.

The second section is "The Technology," and includes chapters three through seven. Chapter three is a discussion of cryptography with Java and would have been worth the price of the whole book for me if (I hadn't have gotten it for free as a review copy)! :-) Chapter four covers PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) with Java. Managing certificates is explained as well as the steps necessary to issue and revoke your own. Chapter five is a discussion of access control. Access control in Java is available based on the origin of the code (the applet effect), the signer of the code or the logged-in user. Chapter six concerns securing the wire. This is the use of encryption for the transmission channel, SSL in a web browser being the most obvious example, where everything served over HTTPS is encrypted. Chapter seven secures the message. This covers message encryption for those times in life where you have to use a non-encrypted transfer medium as well as techniques for authentication, so that the message you do send can be guaranteed to be authentic and provably from you.

The third section is "The Application." Chapter eight discusses the security aspects of RMI based applications, especially using the Java security managers. Chapter nine reviews web application security using both declarative and programmatic security, giving examples using Apache Tomcat.Chapter ten discusses EJB security, including JNDI-based client authentication, SSL and declarative access control. Chapter eleven talks about the security issues associated with web services using the Apache Axis tool to illustrate the points. Chapter twelve is a wrap up of the whole book.

What's To Like The book is logically divided into chapters on each of the main aspects of security that apply to J2EE. These chapters are then located within three sections: background, technology and application. This sequence worked nicely for me, each chapter getting more detailed. This way I knew how deep I was by how far into the book I'd gotten.

The main thing that struck me about this book was that it was designed to be practical. Mr. Kumar not only explains his point and gives you example source code, but he has written a freely available security toolkit, to demonstrate each of the points he makes. The Java Security Tool Kit (JSTK) is a very nice addition to the book's text. Being able to try out the concept being explained really helps. This approach takes example code to another level and I hope other authors will take note.

What's To Consider There is almost nothing to nit-pick concerning the book, but I do have one complaint about the JSTK software. The supplied shell scripts in the bin directory all had MS-DOS end-of-lines. This prevented them running unmodified on my OS X iBook. I had to remove all of the ^M's. This may also be a problem under Linux, but I have not had an opportunity to test there yet. Once the end-of-line problem was fixed, the software worked like a charm. Summary A great combination of security primer and cookbook. If you're a serious crypto-freak then you probably don't need this book. If you're a regular Java programmer looking to move to the next level in your understanding and practice of security in your J2EE applications, then this is an excellent book to purchase and learn from. Table Of Contents

1. A Security Primer
2. A Quick Tour of the Java Platform
3. Cryptography with Java
4. PKI with Java
5. Access Control
6. Securing the Wire
7. Securing the Message
8. RMI Security
9. Web Application Security
10. EJB Security
11. Web Service Security
12. Conclusions
Appendix A: Public Key Cryptography Standards
Appendix B: Standard Names - Java Cryptographic Services
Appendix C: JSTK Tools
Appendix D: Example Programs
Appendix E: Products Used For Examples Appendix F: Standardization Bodies

Simon P. Chappel would like Tim O'Reilly to call him to discuss the great Java book he's itching to write. You can purchase J2EE Security from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to submit a review for consideration, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Re:Slashbot book review

[Anonymous Coward]

go to your local bookstore once in a while, your community depends on it

Programming primadonnas

[Anonymous Coward]

but with power there is always complexity, and many of these tools, especially the security-oriented tools, are under-used because of this.

Security models and tools that are so complex as be underutilized are worthless. It only takes one unsecured app to ruin all the rest of your security. Ultimately security will have to come automagically from the framework, compiler, or language itself. It will be a fight because programmers will feel too constrained in such an environment (thinking they can do it better, which may be true). If only experts can write secure code, we will never have security. This business will always have amateurs working in it. If we have to depend on expertise, we will never have security.

Not so

[be-fan]

"with power there is always complexity"
---------------
Some of the most powerful concepts are also among the most simple. One of the principle weaknesses of the Java (and C#, and before that Win32 and MFC) API is that they fail to grasp that.

Re:Not so

[MSBob]

Your statement is so vague to the point of being meaningless. Which parts of the Java API do you consider too complex? The power of Java lies in the simplification of a number of APIs that previously were nearly undecipherable. Consider the API to DirectShow versue Java Media Framework. I can certainly tell which one I'd rather work with.

Java APIs make things as simple as possible. But not simpler.

Re:Not so

[Unoti]

Java itself is simple and elegant, generally. But it's really strayed in later years. If you talk about basic Java, most of J2SE, it's pretty well on target. Most of J2EE, though, is a fine example of technology bloat that's just too complex. (People may flame me for this, but I really thik some things in J2SE are somewhat out of control too. Like JTable, for example.)

Re:J2EE security? should be just Java 2 security

[ebuck]

Yes, you're correct, but consider that many of the "seasoned" programmers don't have a good concept of what security is in the first place.

I know it's a shame to have programmers who think that telnet is "secure" because they are prompted with a login, but usually these programmers are not stupid, they are just uninformed. As soon as they realize the issues involved, they take steps to correct them. That is why I am happy to see that the foundations of "what we mean by security" was laid out before the "how we do it in J2EE"

That said, I am sorry to see that they didn't devote a chapter to Java's authentication and authorization service (JAAS), as in my humble opinion, for all of its power, its not terribly straightforward or simple. In a mixed application environment, the pressures for "single sign-on" capabilites usually require JAAS or a home brew implementation which most likely would be even less secure.