Implementing Single Signon

This chapter provides an overview of single signon and discusses how to:

• Implement PeopleSoft-only single signon.

• Implement single signon between Oracle and PeopleSoft applications.

Understanding Single Signon

This section discusses:

• Single Signon Options.

• PS_TOKEN.

Understanding Single Signon Options

Single signon refers to the ability of users to navigate freely within a system of multiple applications after only being authenticated once. There are three different ways to configure single signon, depending on the participating applications that you have installed, and the middleware platforms on which they run. The following table displays the single signon options.

Note. You must ensure that before users attempt to use the single signon functionality, a valid user profile is defined for each user in each participating application database. You can accomplish this in a variety of ways, such as automatically generating user profiles based on users' LDAP information, replicating user profiles through Integration Broker at initial signon, or manually defining user profiles for the authorized users before going live.

Understanding the PS_TOKEN Cookie

When the system authenticates a user, it distributes the PS_TOKEN cookie to the browser. The PS_TOKEN cookie holds user authentication information in the browser that a PeopleSoft system uses to verify user access. Having the token in the browser memory allows the user to navigate freely within the system without having to provide user credentials repeatedly.

The key security features of the PS_TOKEN cookie authentication are:

• The cookie exists in memory; it is not written to disk.

• There is no password stored in the cookie.

• You can set the expiration of the cookie to be a matter of minutes or hours; so if a cookie is intercepted it will only be usable for the duration you specify.

The following table presents the fields that appear in the PeopleSoft authentication token:

signature =  SHA1_Hash ( UserID + Lang + Date 
Time issued + Issuing System + Local Node Pswd )

Note. Single signon does not depend on Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory authentication. You can implement single signon and not LDAP, you can implement LDAP and not single signon, or you can implement both LDAP and single signon.

Implementing PeopleSoft-Only Single Signon

This section provides an overview of PeopleSoft-only single signon and discusses:

• Working with the Single Signon page.

• Defining nodes for single signon.

• Sample single signon transaction.

• Single signon configuration considerations.

• Single signon configuration examples.

• Making the PeopleSoft single signon token secure.

• Using the single signon API.

• Configuring single signoff.

Note. In this configuration, you must create PeopleSoft node definitions for each of the participating applications. You can run any of the participating applications on Oracle Application Server 10g, BEA WebLogic, or IBM WebSphere. You can use passwords or digital certificates for single signon authentication.

Understanding PeopleSoft-Only Single Signon

PeopleSoft software supports single signon within PeopleSoft applications. Within the context of your PeopleSoft system, single signon means that after a user has been authenticated by one PeopleSoft application server, that user can access a second PeopleSoft application server without entering an ID or a password. Although the user is actually accessing different applications and databases, the user navigates seamlessly through the system. Recall that each suite of PeopleSoft applications, such as HR or CRM, resides in its own database.

Note. The PeopleSoft-only single signon solution applies only to PeopleSoft applications.

After the first application server/node authenticates a user, the system delivers a web browser cookie containing an authentication token (PS_TOKEN). PeopleSoft uses web browser cookies to store a unique access token for each user after they are authenticated initially. When the user connects to another PeopleSoft application server/node, the second application server uses the token in the browser cookie to re-authenticate users automatically so they don’t have to complete the signon process repeatedly.

Single signon is critical for PeopleSoft portal implementations because the portal integrates content from various data sources and application servers and presents them in a unified interface. When the users sign on through the portal, they always take advantage of single signon. Users need to signon once and be able to navigate freely without encountering numerous signon screens. Because single signon is so integral to the portal, you always need to configure it before deploying a live portal solution.

Note. The browser cookie is an in-memory cookie and is never written to disk. The cookie is also encrypted to prevent snooping and digitally signed to prevent tampering.

Working with the Single Signon Page

Select PeopleTools, Security, Security Objects, Single Signon to access the Single Signon page.

Expiration time in minutes	You need to set an expiration time for tokens this system accepts for authentication. Otherwise, once the user is authenticated, the user could be authenticated and signed on to the system with the token for as long as it stays up and running. You can set the authentication interval to be minutes, hours, or days depending on your signon strategy. The value is in minutes. For example, 480 minutes is 8 hours. This is global setting for all users of your PeopleSoft system that get issued the cookie. A short expiration period is more secure, but less convenient because users need to enter their passwords more frequently. The system accepting the token controls the expiration time, not the issuing system. For example, Node HCM_WEST, which has an expiration time of 100 minutes, issues a token to a user. The user attempts to use that token to sign on to Node FIN_EAST, which has an expiration time set to 60 minutes. If a period greater than 60 minutes has transpired, Node FIN_EAST rejects the token. When a node rejects a single signon token, the system prompts the user to enter a user ID and password on the standard signon screen. Note. This expiration time is separate from the timeouts you specify in the Permission Lists and the web server configuration files.
Message Node name	Shows the name of the Message Node. In order to share authentication tokens between nodes, the nodes need to trust each other. By adding a node to this grid, you indicate that a particular node is known to the system and trusted. When a node is trusted, the local node accepts tokens issued by it. By default, no nodes appear in the trusted nodes list. If you want to implement single signon, you need to explicitly configure your system to support it by adding trusted nodes. First, you need to add the local node to the grid as a node must be able to trust its own tokens. When you sign on to the portal, the system authenticates users with a single signon token issued by the local system. The portal won't be able to sign on unless the local node is trusted. Then you add the names of other nodes in the system that should be trusted. Note. You define nodes in Portal, Node Definitions.
Local Node	Indicates whether the node is local or not.

Note. After you update the list of trusted nodes, the system automatically recognizes the new list. Rebooting the application server is not required.

Defining Nodes for Single Signon

Select PeopleTools, Portal, Node Definitions to access the Node Definitions page.

The two options related to single signon are:

See Also

Adding and Configuring Nodes

Implementing Nonrepudiation

Setting up Certificate Authentication

This section provides additional details and steps to assist the configuration of certificate authentication used in a single signon implementation.

The assumption in the following sections is that single signon is being set up between two PeopleSoft systems. The master PeopleSoft Portal has Default Local Node defined as QE_LOCAL and remote node as PTNTAS05. The slave PeopleSoft Content Portal has a Default Local Node defined as PTNTAS05 and remote node as QE_LOCAL.

Step 1: Define QE_LOCAL Portal System (master) to use Certificate as Authentication option

To Define QE_LOCAL Portal System (master) to use Certificate as Authentication option:

1. Log on to the portal master.

2. Navigate to PeopleTools, Portal, Node Definition.

3. Click the QE_LOCAL default local Node.

4. For Authentication Option, choose Certificate from the drop-down list.

5. Make sure PTNTAS05 is defined as Remote Node.

Step 2: Define the Content-side (slave) to recognize Portal to establish the trust

To Define the Content-side (slave) to recognize Portal to establish the trust:

1. Log on to the Content-side Portal (slave).

2. Select PeopleTools, Portal, Node Definition.

3. Make sure that the QE_LOCAL node is defined as remote Node, and click the QE_LOCAL remote Node.

4. For Authentication Option, choose Certificate from the drop-down list.

5. Select PeopleTools, Security, Security Objects, Single Signonand confirm that the QE_LOCAL message node appears in list of trusted nodes in the Trust Authentication Tokens issued by these Nodes group box.

Step 3: Create Private Key and Install Digital Certificate for Local Node

To Create Private Key and Install Digital Certificate for Local Node:

1. Login to the Portal.

2. Select PeopleTools, Security, Security Objects, Digital Certifcates.

   Note. Make sure that Root CA with Issuer Alias = PeopleTools is available.

3. Click the Add a new row button (+).

4. Select Local Node, Type QE_LOCAL, and select Issuer Alias=PeopleTools. Click Request and fill the following form. Use Key Size=512 bits for UNIX Application Server Common Name = QE_LOCAL Click OK.

5. Select all and copy the request.

6. Go to the certificate provider and select Request a certificate.

7. Select “Submit a certificate request by using a base-64-encoded CMC or PKCS #10 file, or submit a renewal request by using a base-64-encoded PKCS #7 file.”

8. Paste the request, and click submit and download.

9. Open the certificate with a text editor, such as c:\temp\newcert.

10. Select All and copy the certificate.

11. Return to Portal - Digital Certificate page.

12. Click Import.

13. Paste the certificate into the text box.

    Note. Make sure no space after END CERTIFICATE, otherwise, you are not allowed to save. Click the OK button .

Step 4: Install Digital Certificate for Remote Node on Content-Side.

To Install Digital Certificate for Remote Node on Content-Side:

1. Log onto Content-side (Slave) Portal.

2. Navigate to PeopleTools, Security, Security Objects, Digital Certifcates.

3. Click Add a new row button (+).

4. Select Remote Node, Type QE_LOCAL, and select Issuer Alias = PeopleTool.

5. Click Import.

6. Open c:\temp\newcert with a text editor and copy and paste the digital certificate into the empty text box.

7. Click OK.

Sample Single Signon Transaction

Now that you have a general understanding of why a single signon implementation is useful, and some of the details involved with PeopleSoft-only single signon, this section presents an example of how the PeopleSoft—only single signon scheme works.

Suppose there are two databases, or nodes: an HCM database and Financials database. Recall that the terms database and node are synonymous. Each database has one application server and one web server. The following steps describe the "under-the-covers" events that occur when a user signs on to the HCM database, completes a transaction, and then click a link that targets a page in the Financials database.

Step 1: User Signs on to HCM Application

The following occurs:

• User PTDMO goes to link http://HCM.peoplesoft.com/peoplesoft8/signon.html

• User enters ID and Password at the signon page, clicks login.

Step 2: Application Server Authenticates User

The following occurs:

• Web server relays login request to HCM application server.

• Application server authenticates the user.

Step 3: Application Server Generates Single Signon Token

The following occurs:

• If the signon attempt to the HCM application server is successful, the application server generates a single signon token.

• Application server encrypts and encodes the token (base 64).

• Application server sends the token to the web server, along with a return code indicating that the system authenticated the user.

Step 4: Web Server Creates Cookie in User's Browser

When the web server receives the single signon token from the application server, it creates a cookie and inserts the cookie in the user's browser.

If the browser is configured to show the Security Alert dialog, then the user sees a message similar to the following example. In most cases, you don't configure browsers to show this dialog; this dialog box is just an example of the data that the browser receives.

The cookie that the web server distributes for PeopleSoft single signon is named PS_TOKEN. In this case the domain rt-sun23.peoplesoft.com set the cookie.

Notice that the cookie expires at the end of session. This indicates that the system never writes the cookie to disk, the cookie exists in the memory of the browser for the duration of the session.

The web server inserts the single signon token within the Data field of the cookie. So that the system can send the binary data across the HTTP protocol, the token data is encrypted and base 64 encoded.

Step 5: User Needs to Access Financial Application

After the user completes a few transactions in the HCM system, suppose they arrive at a page containing a link to the Financial system. The user clicks the link, and because they've already signed on (entered their ID and Password) to the HCM system they don't need to sign on again.

The user's browser sends the PS_TOKEN cookie to the Financials web server.

Step 6: Financials Web Server Receives PS_TOKEN Cookie

The Financials web server detects that the user hasn't been authenticated by the Financials system yet, however, because the web server received the signon cookie it does not display the signon page.

To retrieve the page the user requested (by way of the link in the HCM application), the Financials web server attempts to connect to the Financials application server. It passes only the Data field from the PS_TOKEN cookie because the application server needs only the information in the Data portion.

Step 7: Financials Application Server Authenticates PS_TOKEN

The Financials application server performs the following checks against the PS_TOKEN Data field before allowing the user to connect:

• Is this a trusted node?

  The application server checks to see that the message node name listed as the Issuing System is a trusted node. The list of trusted nodes for the Financials system resides in the PSTRUSTNODES table. You configure the list using PeopleTools, Security Objects, Single Signon. The Single Signon page enables the administrator of the Financials system to "trust" authentication tokens generated from HCM as well as any other nodes deemed trusted.

• Has the token expired?

  The application server checks that the authentication token hasn't expired. Using the Issued Date and Time field within the token, the Financials application server makes sure that the token was issued within the interval between the timeout minutes value and the current time. You configure a token's expiration time on the Single Signon page.

  Note. It is important to note that the expiration parameter specified in the Financials system is the relevant value, not the expiration value specified in HCM. This enables the Financials administrator to control the maximum age of an acceptable token. It's also important to consider that all times are in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), so it doesn't matter what time zones the systems are in.

• Has the signature been tampered with?

  The application server checks that the signature is valid. The Financials application server takes all the fields in the token and the Node password for the issuing node and generates a hash. The token is valid only if the signature within the token exactly matches the one generated by the Financials application server. Because an exact match is the only acceptable situation, Financials can be sure that HCM generated the token, and that it hasn't been tampered with since it was generated. If a hacker intercepted the token in transit and changed the User ID, Language, and so on, the signatures wouldn't match and as a result the Financials application server would reject the token.

  Note. You should use digital certificate authentication when implementing single signon.

PeopleSoft-Only Single Signon Configuration Considerations

The following topics describe some items you might want to consider as you implement your single signon configuration.

Single Authentication Domain Limitation

Web servers must be assigned to the same authentication domain — the server name in the URLs used to access them must contain the same domain name. A browser sends a cookie back only to the same domain from which it received the cookie.

On PeopleSoft systems, an authentication domain is not the same thing as an internet protocol (IP) address. It's a logical URL address that you specify during Pure Internet Architecture setup, and its purpose is to associate different web servers (even at different physical locations) so that they appear to be at the same location to the PeopleSoft applications that use those web servers.

Important! Specifying authentication domains incorrectly for multiple Pure Internet Architecture installations can produce single signon errors.

If you want to keep two PeopleSoft applications from erroneously attempting to employ single signon, make sure that the authentication domain you specify for one application's web server is not a subset of the authentication domain you specify for the other. For example, if your CRM web server has an authentication domain of .user.mycompany.com, your Financials web server authentication domain must not be .mycompany.com (the parent of the CRM server domain) or .fin.user.mycompany.com (a child of the CRM server domain). It can, however, be .fin.mycompany.com (or any child of that domain).

If you do want two PeopleSoft applications to employ single signon, you must ensure that each application contains a definition of the other as a trusted node, and you must specify the same authentication domain for both applications' web servers during Pure Internet Architecture setup.

Furthermore, the web server that generates the cookie must have the domain that shares the PS_TOKEN cookie specified in the web profile of the local Pure Internet Architecture web site. For example, in the context of our HCM to Financials example, the web profile for the HCM web server must contain the value of .peoplesoft8.com in the Authentication Domain property.

Note. You must specify the leading dot (.).

The single domain issues occur in the following situations:

• You're using straight Pure Internet Architecture, as in you are deploying applications but not by way of the portal.

• You're using the portal with frame-based templates. All PeopleSoft portal solutions products (Enterprise, Employee, Customer, Supplier portals) are built using frame-based templates.

Frame-based templates aren't proxied automatically. Proxying refers to when the system rewrites the URL to point to a location on the portal servlet, rather than the original location of the URL.

Single Signon Between Machines without DNS Entries

If you're setting up single signon between machines that don't have DNS entries, you need to modify the hosts file on the machine that's running the web browser. For example, let’s say that you are using machine a.peoplesoft.com to signon to the web server a.peoplesoft.com, and then access b.peoplesoft.com using single signon. In this situation, you would need to update the hosts file on a.peoplesoft.com as follows.

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

127.0.0.1       localhost
216.131.221.88  a.peoplesoft.com
66.122.220.101  b.peoplesoft.com

See Enterprise PeopleTools 8.49 PeopleBook: Internet Technology.

Domain Names

You need to use a fully qualified domain name when addressing the web server in your browser. For example, you would need to enter the following:

http://hcm.peoplesoft.com/myapplication/signon.html

as opposed to the following:

http://hcm/myapplication/signon.html

When using the portal, the domain name that you specified in the Portal URI Text edit box on the Content Provider administration pages needs to match the fully qualified domain name you entered for the authentication domain. For example, you would need to specify serverX.peoplesoft.com/servlets, not serverX/servlets.

Cross Domain Single Signon

The current PeopleSoft single signon solution deals mainly with systems where there is only one DNS domain. Many sites need to deploy the PeopleSoft Portal in multi-domain environments. For example, you might want to have the portal in one domain—www.PSFT_ecenter.com, for example—and the HCM database in another domain, such as www.yourcompany.com.

You can configure your environment to support cross-domain single signon by completing the following configuration tasks.

• Setup a third-party web security product that supports multi-domain single signon and supports LDAP user profiles.

  There are several industry-standard products on the market.

• Configure the portal and content provider web servers to trust the web server for authentication.

  For PeopleSoft software, this involves enabling the public access feature.

• Set up the PeopleSoft systems to download the user profiles from the same LDAP server that the web security product uses.

  This means that the DN that comes from the subject field of the certificate has to be a valid DN for the directory that the LDAP_profilesynch function references. Because of this you need to build a user profile cache map that points to the same directory that generated the subject's DN.

Note. This cross-domain limitation does not apply to the portal if the content from the provider in a different domain is wrapped in an HTML template. However, this limitation does apply for any content in the portal that is wrapped in a frame template. Because the Enterprise, Customer, Supplier, and Employee portals shipped with PeopleTools all include frame templates as defaults, you'll need to perform the extra configuration steps to support cross-domain single signon in multi-domain environments. This limitation also applies to Pure Internet Architecture-to-Pure Internet Architecture (iClient-to-iClient) single signon.

PeopleSoft-Only Single Signon Configuration Examples

The following topics describe examples of single signon configurations and the steps required to implement them.

One Database and Two Web Servers

In this scenario there is one database and two or more web servers. While single signon is configured at the database level (that is, you specify timeout minutes and trusted nodes for the entire database), it’s actually used any time two different PeopleSoft servlets connect to the same database.

To set up single signon with one database and multiple web servers:

1. Select PeopleTools, Portal, Node Definitions and make sure that at least one node is defined as the Default Local Node.

   In the results on the search page, you can determine this by looking for a Y in the Default Local Node column.

2. Select PeopleTools, Security, Security Objects, Single Signon and set the following:

   • Make sure the Default Local Node appears in the list under Trust Authentication Tokens issued by these Nodes.

   • Set the timeout minutes to an appropriate value (the default is 720).

3. Access the web profile for each web server and modify the Authentication Domain property.

   Because single signon is implemented using browser cookies, it must be configured so that the user's browser sends the single signon cookie to each web server machine involved. By default, the browser only sends cookies back to the machine that set the cookie. So if web server a.peoplesoft.com sets a cookie after the user is authenticated, the browser (by default) only sends the cookie to a.peoplesoft.com. By default, the browser would not send the cookie to b.peoplesoft.com. To make the browser send the single signon cookie to all servers at in a domain (peoplesoft.com), access the Web Profile Configuration - General page and set a value of .peoplesoft.com for the Authentication Domain property.

   Note. You need the leading period (.) before the domain. It should appear as “.peoplesoft.com,” not “peoplesoft.com.”
   
   If you use only one web server, you don’t need to modify the Authentication Domain property. A web server is designed to accept the cookies it distributes.

Two Databases and Two Web Servers

To set up single signon with multiple databases and multiple web servers:

1. Select PeopleTools, Portal, Node Definitions for each node that you want to involve in the single signon configuration and check the following:

   • Make sure that at least one node definition is defined as the Default Local Node for each database.

     In the results on the search page, you can determine this by looking for a Y in the Default Local Node column.

   • Make sure that each database contains a node definition for the other nodes in the single signon configuration.

   • Make sure that the Authentication Option is set correctly.

     For example, if you are using password authentication make sure that the node password for node ‘X’ is the same in each node definition for node ‘X’ in each database.

     You should use digital certificate authentication. Make sure the certificates are properly installed in the PeopleSoft Keystore before setting the node’s Authentication Option to Certificate.

2. Select PeopleTools, Security, Security Objects, Single Signon and set the following:

   • Make sure the Default Local Node appears in the list under Trust Authentication Tokens issued by these Nodes.

   • Set the timeout minutes to an appropriate value (the default is 720).

3. Access the web profile on your web server and modify the Authentication Domain property.

   Because single signon is implemented using browser cookies, it must be configured so that the user's browser sends the single signon cookie to each web server machine involved. By default, the browser only sends cookies back to the machine that set the cookie. So if web server a.peoplesoft.com sets a cookie after the user is authenticated, the browser (by default) only sends the cookie to a.peoplesoft.com. By default, the browser would not send the cookie to b.peoplesoft.com. To make the browser send the single signon cookie to all servers at in a domain (peoplesoft.com), modify the authentication domain as follows.

See Working with SSL and Digital Certificates, Employing LDAP Directory Services.

Single Signon with Third Party Authentication

This section presents a simple example of how to implement single signon when you have implemented a third-party authentication system at the web server level. This applies to both portal and intranet web servers.

Note. This example does not cover authentication. This example assumes that you have set up your third-party authentication correctly. Third-party authentication is out of the scope for PeopleSoft support and documentation.

Note. Also, this discussion assumes that you have enabled public user access in the web profile for the appropriate site.

For PeopleSoft application single signon, the PeopleSoft system needs to know the user ID to be used for the web session. If implementing this configuration, you are required to address the following:

1. Authenticate the web user.

2. Determine which PeopleSoft User ID to use for this web user.

3. Send the User ID to the PeopleSoft application server.

4. Write signon PeopleCode to retrieve the User ID from wherever step 3 sent it.

5. Reauthenticate the User ID during signon PeopleCode.

6. Indicate to the PeopleSoft application server to use the User ID for all subsequent service requests.

The following examples address items 3, 4, and 6.

The following HTML applies to step 3 above. You can change the JavaScript function to set the cookie name and value that you want. Also, change the location to point to the PeopleSoft page to which you want to redirect users, for example:

<html>
<head>
<title>PeopleSoft 8 Single Sign-On Example</title>
</head>

<!--
PeopleSoft 8 Single Sign-On Example

In this example, security is non-existent.  In a production
system, the UserId could come from your site's single signon
tool.  Other information could also be included.  For this
example, only the UserId is saved into cookie.  This cookie then
gets sent to the PIA Web Servlet which passes it on to the
PeopleSoft Application Server.  A piece of signon PeopleCode is
needed to extract the UserId from the cookie and call
SetAuthorizationResult in order to "sign on" the user.

o  Change the domain value of the cookie to your domain.
o  Change the location ref to the target URL within your PeopleSoft site.
//-->

<body>
<script language=JavaScript>
var cookie = "ThirdPartyUserId=PS; Domain=.peoplesoft.com; path=/; MaxAge=1";
document.cookie = cookie;
location="https://hcm.peoplesoft.com/servlets/iclientservlet/hrdb/?ICType=Panel
&Menu=ROLE_EMPLOYEE&Market=GBL&PanelGroupName=IT_TIME_OFF&RL=&target=main1"
</script>
</body>

</html>

The following Signon PeopleCode example applies to steps 4 and 6 above. The Signon PeopleCode needs to retrieve &UserID from where the third-party portal put it in the HTTP Request. For example,

Function SSO_EXAMPLE()
   
/*This is step 4*/
   &TPUserId = %Request.GetCookieValue("ThirdPartyUserId");
   /*This is step 6*/
   If &TPUserId <> "" Then
      SetAuthenticationResult( True, &TPUserId, "", False);
   End-If
End-Function;

After you write the program, you need to enable the program using the Signon PeopleCode page. (PeopleTools, Security, Security Objects, Signon PeopleCode.

Making the PeopleSoft-Only Single Signon Token Secure

PeopleSoft single signon functionality also applies at the web server level. For example, let's say that you have two web servers: server X and server Y. Assume that web server X is a SSL site, and assume that web server Y is not. In these situations, many organizations want server Y to trust the authentication token, PS_TOKEN, issued by server X. This requires that the PS_TOKEN be set to be secure.

If the PS_TOKEN is not marked as secure, then when a user signs on through server Y, the browser sends PS_TOKEN to server Y over the unencrypted, non-SSL link. This is typical behavior for browsers when dealing with non-secure cookies. Potentially, in this situation a hacker could identify this token from the clear network and use it to signon to the SSL-secure server X.

Another important use of this feature relates specifically to the PeopleSoft Portal. When the portal proxies content with an HTML template, it should forward PS_TOKEN cookies that are marked secure only over SSL connections.

To resolve this potential security issue, select the Secure Cookie with SSL check box on the Web Profile Configuration - Security page. You use this property to control the secure attribute of the single signon cookie. If you enable the property, and the scheme of the current request is HTTPS (an SSL server), the system sets the secure attribute of the single signon cookie (PS_TOKEN) to true. This prevents the single signon token from travelling over an insecure network.

Note. If you enable this property, you are effectively disabling single signon to any non-SSL servers.

If, at your site, you want users to signon to an HTTPS server, and then want to do single signon with HTTP servers, set this property to false, which allows single signon between HTTPS and HTTP servers.

Note. If you can tolerate the security risk, and want single signon between secure and non-secure links, you can set this flag to false. However, before doing this you need to make sure you are aware of all the security implications, such as the security of the HTTPS server may be compromised.

Using the Single Signon API

PeopleSoft provides a component interface named PRTL_SS_CI that enables external applications to seamlessly integrate a single signon solution with the PeopleSoft portal applications. This ensures that users who have already signed in to the portal don't have to sign in again for every system you reference in your portal.

To take advantage of the Single Signon API, you need to create a custom API, which includes building the dynamic link libraries, classes, and registry settings necessary to enable an external application to communicate with PeopleSoft software.

Note. Due to constraints imposed by the PeopleCode SwitchUser built-in function, PRTL_SS_CI does not work properly when called from PeopleCode. Only external applications, such as Java, Visual Basic, and C/C++ programs, can access PRTL_SS_CI.

The files of your custom API need to reside on the client machine; that is, the web server for ASP, and the machine running the Java program for Java. The registry file may also need to be executed to update the registry with the new libraries.

Understanding the Signon Process with the API

The PRTL_SS_CI Component Interface contains two user-defined methods:

• Authenticate

  Your external authentication program distributes an authentication token that can be retrieved from a cookie in the browser. The Authenticate function determines if an authentication token is valid.

• GetUserID

  If the token is valid, you use the GetUserID function to retrieve the User ID associated with the authentication token.

Before we describe the development requirements of your API, PeopleSoft recommends that you take a moment to examine the steps that occur internally when you use the API in conjunction with the delivered PRTL_SS_CI.

Developing your External Application to Support Single Signon

Developers of the external applications need to alter the signon process to conform to the following requirements.

1. Check for the PS_TOKEN cookie.

   If the cookie doesn’t exist, continue with your normal signon process. Otherwise, bypass the signon screen.

2. Retrieve the authentication token from the PS_TOKEN cookie.

3. Make a connection to the PeopleSoft system through the PRTL_SS_CI API.

4. Pass the authentication token to the Authenticate function of the API.

5. If Authenticate returns True, you then retrieve the User ID associated with the authentication token by using the Get_UserID function.

Note. The component interface is not mapped to data because the key field for the data would be the authentication token. This token is dynamically assigned when the user signs on to the portal, and it is not stored anywhere in the system as data. Therefore, there are no key fields and the token is passed directly to the user defined functions.

Configuring PeopleSoft-Only Single Signoff

In addition to single signon, the PeopleSoft system also signs the user off of content providers when the user signs off. However, there are some exceptions to the sign-off functionality.

The portal only signs off content providers that meet the following criteria:

• Content providers are accessed only through HTML templates.

• Content providers are all PeopleSoft 8.x applications.

This means that for content providers accessed through frame templates, single sign-out is not automatically enabled when you configure single signon. This section describes the steps you need to complete to configure single sign-off for content providers being accessed through frame templates, which includes all of the PeopleSoft Portal solutions (Employee, Customer, and so on).

The following procedure covers inserting an HTML image tag (img) containing a logout command into a set of files on the web server. When the user signs off, the browser attempts to download the images using an "HTTP get," which causes the system to send the logout command to each specified content provider.

This procedure is not appropriate for content that is never accessed using a frame, as in it is accessed from the content source using an iScript and a business interlink, such as Lotus Notes integration.

To configure single sign-off for frame content:

1. On your web server, locate and open signin.html.

2. Open signin.html, select Save As, and enter the name signout.html.

3. Open signout.html, expire.html, and exception.html.

4. Add the following image tags to these files.

   You need to add one image tag to each of these files for each content provider that requires single signoff.

   Add the tags just before the closing body tag, as shown:

   <! add tags here>
   </body>

   If you have three content providers that require single signoff, such as HCM, FIN, and HTML Access, you need to add three image tags to each file.

   For example:

   <IMG src="http://hcm.peoplesoft.com/servlets/psp/ps/hrdb/?cmd=logout"
   height=0 width=0 border=0>
   <IMG src="http://fin.peoplesoft.com/servlets/psp/ps/hrdb/?cmd=logout"
   height=0 width=0 border=0>
   <IMG src="http://htmlaccess.peoplesoft.com/html_access/system/init_asp/
   logout.asp?cmd=dummy"
   height=0 width=0 border=0>

   The previous code is an example. To determine the exact URL you need to add for your implementation, right-click the logout link of each content provider. You can usually view the logout link when accessing the application outside of the portal. Examine the properties of this link, and add the specified URL to the image tag.

   Note. The string "cmd=dummy" is required in the image tag for HTML Access to make sure that the browser doesn't attempt to cache the image, which would prevent it from issuing the logout command.

5. In PIA, select PeopleTools, Web Profile, Web Profile Configuration, Look and Feel on your web server.

   In the Signon/Logout Pages group box, change the value of the Logout Page field to signout.html.

Implementing Single Signon Between PeopleSoft and Oracle Applications

This section provides an overview and discusses how to:

• Implement Oracle as a trusted node.

• Implement Oracle as a partner application.

Note. The additional software (as in, SSOPlugin and PSTokenClear) required to implement single signon between PeopleSoft and Oracle applications is in the following location of your PeopleTools installation: <PS_HOME>\SecurityAddIns\OracleSSO.

Understanding Single Signon Between Oracle and PeopleSoft Applications

It is assumed that anyone configuring single signon between PeopleSoft and Oracle is familiar with the Oracle system and its delivered documentation as well as the single signon functionality of PeopleSoft. This documentation covers the required elements you need to configure and provides configuration examples. Keep in mind that you may vary the implementation to meet the requirements of your system.

Components and concepts of the Oracle system that you should be familiar with include:

• Oracle Single Signon Server.

• Oracle Internet Directory.

• Oracle Identity Management Infrastructure.

• mod_osso.

• Partner and external applications.

Specifically, you should be familiar with the information within Oracle Application Server Single Sign-On Administrator's Guide.

Implementing Oracle as a Trusted Node

Because PeopleSoft applications use the PS_TOKEN cookie as the method of verifying user credentials, in order for users of Oracle applications to access PeopleSoft applications, they need the PS_TOKEN cookie in their browser. Oracle applications use the PS_TOKEN plug-in to generate a domain-level PS_TOKEN cookie that PeopleSoft accepts as a user credential. With this plug-in in place, you can configure any PeopleSoft application to trust the Oracle system as a single signon node. In this configuration, you must create PeopleSoft node definitions for each of the participating Oracle applications.

Implementing Oracle as a trusted node, involves the following items:

• Oracle SSO server.

• mod_osso.

• PS_TOKEN plug-in, which generates the PS_TOKEN cookie on the Oracle system.

Note. PeopleSoft digital certificates cannot be used for single signon authentication for this configuration.

See Oracle HTTP Server Administrator's Guide for information on setting up proxy and reverse proxy configurations.

Viewing the Single Signon Elements Interact

To illustrate how the elements of this single signon configuration interact, this section describes a scenario of a user accessing PeopleSoft applications from a link in Oracle applications.

1. User accesses the Oracle application.

2. The Oracle Single Signon server authenticates the user and distributes a PS_TOKEN cookie.

3. User clicks a link in the Oracle application that is pointing to a PeopleSoft application.

4. The mod_osso Oracle Apache module intercepts the request for access to PeopleSoft applications.

5. The mod_osso Oracle Apache module redirects the user to the appropriate PeopleSoft page.

6. The PeopleSoft application authenticates the Oracle application user, by examining the PS_TOKEN cookie generated by the Oracle system.

Example: Setting Up Oracle as a Trusted Node

There are a variety of ways you can setup Oracle as a trusted node for single signon. This section provides an example of one approach to this configuration, providing a sample procedure for setting up Oracle as a trusted node using a URL link in an HTML page to a PeopleSoft application.

Note. You can also configure the Oracle HTTP server to use a proxy/reverse proxy server to redirect users to the PeopleSoft application. For example, you could set up a reverse proxy such that a certain URL pattern will be reconstructed to a real PeopleSoft URL.

To set up Oracle as a trusted node using a URL link in an HTML Page:

1. Make sure that Oracle Internet Directory and Oracle Single Signon Server have been installed.

2. Add the appropriate PeopleSoft application as a partner application.

   Access the Sever Administration page (http://<OIDserver>:<port>/pls/orasso), and click Administer Partner Applications.

3. Install the PS_TOKEN plug-in onto the Oracle Single Signon server.

   The PS_TOKEN plug-in is contained in the ssoplugin.zip, which needs to extracted into the ORACLE_HOME/sso directory.

   1. Unzip ssoplugin.zip into the ORACLE_HOME/sso directory.

   2. Edit the tokengen.ini file and assign the appropriate values to these parameters:

      NodeName	The name of the Oracle node generating the PS_TOKEN cookie. This is the node that PeopleSoft will be configured to trust.
      NodePwd	The password associated with the NodeName.
      TokenDomain	The domain for your site, such as .mycompany.com.

      Note. Ignore the other parameters in the file; they are not used for this configuration.

4. Add the node specified in the previous step to the list of trusted nodes on the Single Signon page in your PeopleSoft application.

   Access the Single Signon page by selecting PeopleTools, Security, Security Objects, Single Signon.

5. On the Oracle HTTP Server, create an HTML page with links to the PeopleSoft application.

   For example, assume this HTML appears in the file psft_link.html:

   <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
   <html>
   <head>
   <title>A link to PeopleSoft</title>
   </head>
   <body bgcolor=#006633 topmargin="0" leftmargin="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0"
   onload="preloadImages();">
   <a href="http://ple-server1.peoplesoft.com:7080/psp/ps/EMPLOYEE/PT_LOCAL/c/MAINTAIN_SECURITY.PSDSSETUP
   .GBL?FolderPath=PORTAL_ROOT_OBJECT.PT_PEOPLETOOLS.PT_SECURITY.PT_DIRECTORY.PT_PSDSSETUP_GBL&IsFolder=
   false&IgnoreParamTempl=FolderPath%2cIsFolder"
   >PeopleSoft</a>

6. Modify the mod_osso.conf file, located in ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/conf.

   Make sure you modify the location and the HTML file name accordingly based on your configuration. For example,

   <Location /psft_link.html>
   	require valid-user
   	AuthType Basic
   </Location>

7. Modify the policy.properties file, located in ORACLE_HOME/sso/conf.

   Add the following parameters:

   CustomCookie_ProviderPlugin = peoplesoft.security.ssoplugin.PSToken
   CustomCookieAuthLevel = MediumSecurity

8. Restart the Oracle HTTP Server and the Oracle OC4J_SECURITY instance.

9. Add a URL link in your Oracle application to the page you created (in this case psft_link.html).

Implementing Oracle as a Partner Application

To set up Oracle as a partner application, you must be running the PeopleSoft applications on Oracle Application Server 10g. Neither PeopleSoft node definitions nor PeopleSoft digital certificates are required for this single signon option. All single signon authentication is provided by the Oracle system, which requires additional configuration to interoperate with PeopleSoft. This single signon approach takes full advantage of the Oracle Apache module, mod_osso. As such, this option is more in line with how a partner application is typically integrated with the Oracle Single Signon Server (as opposed to using the PS_TOKEN plug-in option, which is tailored for sites running their PeopleSoft applications on BEA WebLogic or IBM WebSphere).

Setting up Oracle as a partner application is similar to using the WWW_AUTHENTICATION signon PeopleCode function in PeopleSoft applications, where you trust another system's authentication. In this case, the authentication PeopleSoft trusts comes from mod_osso.

See Enterprise PeopleTools 8.49 PeopleBook: Security Administration, Employing Signon PeopleCode and User Exits.

Before you begin configuring this single signon option, the following items need to be in place:

• Oracle Application Server 10g needs to be installed.

  See Oracle Application Server Administrator's Guide.

• It is recommended (but not required) to have SSL enabled on Oracle Application Server 10g.

  See Oracle Application Server Administrator's Guide.

• PeopleSoft Internet Architecture needs to be installed on Oracle Application Server 10g.

  See Enterprise PeopleTools Installation Guide for your platform

• If you are using Oracle Identity Management (10.1.2 or 10.1.4), you must manually configure your OAS Release 3 (10.1.3) middle-tier instance to use Oracle Identity Management.

  See Oracle Application Server Administrator's Guide 10g Release 3 (10.1.3), “Configuring Instances to Use 10.1.2 and 9.0.4 Oracle Identity Management”

  See Oracle Application Server Single Sign-On Administrator's Guide 10g (10.1.4.0.1) “Configuring and Administering Partner Applications.

Setting up Oracle as a Partner Application

To set up Oracle as a partner application:

1. Configure Oracle Application Server to use the Oracle Single Signon Server.

   Access the Oracle Enterprise Manager's Infrastructure tab, and click the Change button in the Identity Management section to specify the appropriate Oracle Single Signon Server.

   Note. This only needs to be completed once per Oracle Application Server installation. You do not need to perform this for each PeopleSoft installation on the Oracle Application Server.

2. Create a default user ID, just as you do when implementing the web server security exit in PeopleSoft.

   See Enterprise PeopleTools 8.49 PeopleBook: Security Administration: Employing Signon PeopleCode and User Exits, Using the Web Server Security Exit, "Creating a Default User"

3. Modify the web profile to contain default user signon information, and make sure it is set to Allow Public Access.

   Make sure to refer to the same user ID you created previously.

   To prevent a user ID from being the default user on the signon page, set the Days to Autofill User ID property to 0.

   See Enterprise PeopleTools 8.49 PeopleBook: Security Administration: Employing Signon PeopleCode and User Exits, Using the Web Server Security Exit, "Modifying the Web Profile"

   See Enterprise PeopleTools 8.49 PeopleBook: Internet Technology, Configuring the Portal Environment, Configuring Web Profiles, Configuring Portal Security

4. Determine and implement your Signon PeopleCode approach.

   You have these options:

   • You can write your own custom PeopleCode program to create the user as needed.

   • You can also make sure that the OID user information exists in PeopleSoft, which can be done with a delivered Signon PeopleCode function. This option requires you to make sure that user profiles that exist in the Oracle Internet Directory are also defined in PeopleSoft. PeopleSoft provides the OSSO_AUTHENTICATION Signon PeopleCode function to get user profile and role information from the Oracle Internet Directory. To use it, add and enable OSSO_AUTHENTICATION in the FUNCLIB_LDAP record definition using the Signon PeopleCode page (PeopleTools, Security, Security Objects, Signon PeopleCode). It is recommended that you modify the entry for SSO_AUTHENTICATION and change the function name to OSSO_AUTHENTICATION. This avoids mixing single signon options. In your Signon PeopleCode program, modify the getWWWAuthConfig( ) function to assign the value of the default user you created to the &defaultuserId variable.

     Note. Make sure that OSSO_AUTHENTICATION appears before LDAP_PROFILESYNC in the grid on the Signon PeopleCode page.

     See Enterprise PeopleTools 8.49 PeopleBook: Security Administration, Employing Signon PeopleCode and User Exits, Using the Web Server Security Exit, "Enabling Signon PeopleCode"

5. Configure LDAP authentication on your PeopleSoft system to use the Oracle Internet Directory.

   This includes setting up directory schema caching, user profile maps, authentication maps, and so on.

   See Enterprise PeopleTools 8.49 PeopleBook: Security Administration, "Employing LDAP Directory Services"

6. Modify mod_osso.conf file, located in <ORACLE_HOME>/apache/apache/conf/, to protect PeopleSoft.

   For example,

   <Location /PORTAL>
   		require valid-user
   		AuthType Basic
   </Location>

7. Restart Oracle Application Server and Oracle Internet Directory.

8. If you are integrating PeopleSoft with JPDK, make sure to configure the PeopleSoft container to expect single signon with Oracle set up as a partner application.

   This is done by setting the <contex-param> to true. You find this parameter in the web.xml file of the /pspc web application within the PeopleSoft domain on the OAS instance acting as the web provider for the Oracle Portal. Setting the <context-param> to true enables the portlet container to respond to SSO information coming from the Oracle Portal rather than requiring a PeopleSoft signon for each JPDK portlet.

   <context-param>
   <param-name>EnableJPDKSingleSignon</param-name>
   <param-value>true</param-value>
   </context-param>
   

   Note. This parameter only applies to JPDK portlets within the Oracle Portal. It does not affect WSRP technology.

Example: Sample PeopleCode For Setting up Oracle as a Partner Application

This section illustrates how PeopleCode may be used to configure Oracle as a partner application.

You can retrieve user information from the HTTP headers, as follows:

%Request.getHeader("Osso-User-Dn");

The following PeopleCode shows an example of signon PeopleCode that could be used in conjunction with the LDAP_PROFILESYNCH option.

Function OSSO_AUTHENTICATION()
   If %PSAuthResult = True And
         &authMethod <> "LDAP" And
         &authMethod <> "WWW" And
         &authMethod <> "SSO" Then
      getWWWAuthConfig();
      &tempUser = %SignonUserId;
      If %SignonUserId = &defaultUserId Then
         &global_DN = %Request.GetHeader("Osso-User-Dn");
         If &global_DN <> "" Then
            If &bConfigRead = False Then
               getLDAPConfig();
            End-If;
            For &I = 1 To &authMaps.Len
               &userID = DNToId(&global_DN, &authMaps [&I]);
               If &userID <> "" Then
                  SetAuthenticationResult( True, Upper(&userID), "", False);
                  &authMethod = "OSSO";
                  &idxAuthMap = &I;
                  Return;
               End-If;
            End-For;
         End-If;
      End-If;
   End-If;
End-Function;

Function LDAP_PROFILESYNCH()
   If &global_DN <> "" Then
      If &bConfigRead = False Then
         getLDAPConfig();
      End-If;
      updateUserProfile();
   End-If;
End-Function;

Implementing Single Sign off between Oracle and PeopleSoft Applications

Whether you have configured Oracle as a trusted node or a partner application, it is recommended that you also configure single sign off, which enables the system to log out users from both applications (Oracle and PeopleSoft) when a user logs out of either application. This ensures that there are not orphan sessions open that can hamper performance and increase security risks.

Implementing Single Signoff Initiated by Your PeopleSoft Application

Setting up single signoff initiated by PeopleSoft refers to setting up the PeopleSoft system to sign users off of the Oracle system when they sign off from the PeopleSoft system. To do this, PeopleSoft recommends redirecting the user to the Oracle SSO server's single signoff page/servlet when the logout event on PeopleSoft occurs. In the Oracle system, when a user signs off of one partner application, the Oracle SSO server's signoff page (osso_logout servlet) terminates a single signon session and logs the user out of all active partner applications simultaneously.

Note. PeopleSoft recommends using this approach whether you've implemented single signon with Oracle as a trusted node or Oracle as a partner application.

In your PeopleSoft system, you can modify the web profile Logout Page value (on the Look and Feel tab in the Signon/Logout group box) to point to an HTML page designed to redirect a user to the Oracle SSO server’s osso_logout servelet. The following is an example of the HTML in the logout page that redirects the user to the Oracle SSO logout page/servlet.

<html>
<head>
<title>
</title>
</head>
<body>
<meta content="0; URL=http://pt1.peoplesoft.com:7777/osso_logout" http-equiv="Refresh">
   Redirecting to <a href="http://pt1.peoplesoft.com:7777/osso_logout">Oracle Single Sign-Off Redirect</a>
</body>
</html>

Note. This is just an example of one approach. There are other technologies and approaches that could be used to achieve the same task of redirecting the user to Oracle SSO server’s single signoff URL.

Removing PS_TOKEN Cookies

Configuring single signoff between Oracle and PeopleSoft requires you to install the PSTokenClear servlet. This servlet needs to be installed whether you've configured Oracle to be a trusted node or a partner application. A PS_TOKEN cookie gets generated using either single signon option. The PSTokenClear servlet ensures that no PeopleSoft authentication token information exists in the browser after a user has signed off.

The PSTokenClear servlet is delivered as an .ear file. To install it on your Oracle system, use the Oracle Enterprise Manager to deploy the .ear file by following the steps outlined in the Oracle documentation describing the installation of OC4J applications.

Note. The server on which you install PSTokenClear depends on the way you've configured single signon. If you've configured Oracle as a trusted node, install PSTokenClear on the Oracle SSO server. If you've configured Oracle as a partner application, install PSTokenClear on the Oracle Application Server.

The following table distinguishes the behavior and purpose of the PSTokenClear servlet depending on your configuration.

If you are installing the PSTokenClear servlet on the Oracle SSO server for the “trusted node” option, you need to:

• Set the PeopleSoft sign off URL on the Partner Application Login page (in Enterprise Manager) to point to the PSTokenClear servlet.

• Set the cookieDomain and cookiePath the same as the cookie domain in tokengen.ini.

• Set the redirectURL parameter to point to the URL of the osso_logout_success page on the Oracle Application Server to complete signon signoff from Oracle SSO.

For example:

http://ptldap00.peoplesoft.com:7777/j2ee/servlet/PSTokenClear?cookieDomain=.peoplesoft.com&cookiePath=/&redirectURL=http://ptldap00.peoplesoft.com:7777/osso_logout_success

If you are installing the PSTokenClear servlet on the Oracle Application Server for the “trusted node” option, you need to make sure that you replace the logout_success_url with the URL pointing to the PSTokenClear servlet. For example:

dhttps://ptldap02.peoplesoft.com:4443/j2ee/servlet/PSTokenClear?redirectURL=https://ptldap02.peoplesoft.com:4443/osso_logout_success