Book Image

IBM WebSphere Application Server v7.0 Security

By : Omar P Siliceo (USD)
Book Image

IBM WebSphere Application Server v7.0 Security

By: Omar P Siliceo (USD)

Overview of this book

In these days of high-profile hacking, server security is no less important than securing your application or network. In addition many companies must comply with government security regulations. No matter how secure your application is, your business is still at risk if your server is vulnerable. Here is how you solve your WebSphere server security worries in the best possible way. This tutorial is focused towards ways in which you can avoid security loop holes. You will learn to solve issues that can cause bother when getting started with securing your IBM WebSphere Application Server v7.0 installation. Moreover, the author has documented details in an easy-to-read format, by providing engaging hands-on exercises and mini-projects. The book starts with an in-depth analysis of the global and administrative security features of WebSphere Application Server v7.0, followed by comprehensive coverage of user registries for user authentication and authorization information. Moving on you will build on the concepts introduced and get hands-on with a mini project. From the next chapter you work with the different front-end architectures of WAS along with the Secure Socket Layer protocol, which offer transport layer security through data encryption. You learn user authentication and data encryption, which demonstrate how a clear text channel can be made safer by using SSL transport to encrypt its data. The book will show you how to enable an enterprise application hosted in a WebSphere Application Server environment to interact with other applications, resources, and services available in a corporate infrastructure. Platform hardening, tuning parameters for tightening security, and troubleshooting are some of the aspects of WebSphere Application Server v7.0 security that are explored in the book. Every chapter builds strong security foundations, by demonstrating concepts and practicing them through the use of dynamic, web-based mini-projects.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
IBM WebSphere Application Server v7.0 Security
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface

Securing the enterprise infrastructure using LTPA


The first area mentioned in the introduction of the chapter is the use of an IBM proprietary security protocol named LTPA, which stands for Lightweight Third-Party Authentication. You may have already discovered that when, in Chapter 2, the administrative (that is, global) security was enabled, the LTPA authentication mechanism was selected as the default authentication using default trust stores and other encryption components.

In order to visualize this, log in to the Administrative Console and follow the breadcrumb Security | Global Security and review the authentication section, which can be found on the right-hand side of the page. It should look similar to the screenshot shown as follows:

Why use the LTPA mechanism

So the question that might arise is, why do we have to bother with the LTPA authentication mechanism? However, perhaps a better question might be, when do we have to pay attention as to how LTPA is configured in a WebSphere...