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vincent_munier_'s avatar
vincent_munier_
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Oct 03, 2013

How to use APM external logon pages?

Hi, I need to authenticate users accessing to my web application. To do that i'm using an authentication profile with the built-in logon page (linked with a radius server). It's working perfectly. But for design purposes, i need to use an authentication form specilly designed for my web application (css, fonts, ...). I can't do that with the built-in logon page. So i would use an external logon page to do that (just to externalizing the html form, but not for externalizing the authentication process which must be managed by the F5 APM). I read documentation about external logon pages ( http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_apm/manuals/product/apm-config-11-4-0/apm_config_general_actions.html195539 ) but it's not very clear for me. Can you give me some exemples of external logon pages implementation? Does i need to add an irules to capture and pass variables (user and password) to the F5 APM anthentication process? (because my external form will just present the html form, but will not do the authentication). Thank you for your help. Vincent

 

APM
application delivery
deployment
design
devops
iRules
security

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  • kmurphy_130520's avatar
    kmurphy_130520
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Nov 20, 2014

    How would this solution differ if the backend server (http://logon.acme.com/ in this case) was the one performing the authentication and not the F5?

     

    Is there a way for APM to still capture the username that was entered on the external logon page?

     

  • Mark_van_D's avatar
    Mark_van_D
    Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
    Dec 19, 2014

    As long as after a successful authentication the backend server posts the username back to my.policy it should work. If you need to capture anything other than username/password you will need to use an irule and use: ACCESS::restrict_irule_events disable.

     

    Out of curiosity what are you trying to do?

     

  • kmurphy_130520's avatar
    kmurphy_130520
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Dec 19, 2014

    I'm trying to capture the username inputted on a backend login page and store it in an APM session. I don't have the ability to change the POST action on the web application, so it can't be posted directly back to my.policy.

     

    I'm currently trying to achieve this with an iRule but no luck yet...

     

  • kmurphy_130520's avatar
    kmurphy_130520
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Dec 19, 2014

    To anyone else looking to achieve this, I was able to do it using an iRule provided by an F5 resource:

     

    start of irule

    when RULE_INIT { must recognize attempts to login to application (e.g., CareLink) set static::login_action "/EpicCareLink/common/epic_check.asp" set static::uid_field "Account_ID" }

     

    when HTTP_REQUEST { set savecreds false if {([HTTP::uri] eq $static::login_action) && ([HTTP::method] eq "POST")} { client is attempting application login, so we will save the username set savecreds true set uid "" set clen [HTTP::header Content-Length] set clen [expr {(($clen eq "") || ($clen > 10240)) ? 10240 : $clen}] if {$clen > 0} { HTTP::collect $clen } return } }

     

    when HTTP_REQUEST_DATA { foreach field [split [HTTP::payload] "&"] { foreach {n v} [split $field "="] { if {$n eq $static::uid_field} { set uid [URI::decode $v] } } if {$uid ne ""} { break } } HTTP::release }

     

    when ACCESS_ACL_ALLOWED { if { $savecreds } { ACCESS::session data set session.custom.carelinkusername $uid } }

     

    end of irule
    • kmurphy_130520's avatar
      kmurphy_130520
      Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
      Dec 19, 2014
      sorry the format was absolutely butchered there. If a moderator could edit that into a code block that'd be great. Thanks
    • DenisG_22372's avatar
      DenisG_22372
      Historic F5 Account
      Jul 29, 2016
      when RULE_INIT {
    must recognize attempts to login to application (e.g., CareLink) 
    set static::login_action "/EpicCareLink/common/epic_check.asp" 
    set static::uid_field "Account_ID" }

when HTTP_REQUEST {
    set savecreds false
    if {([HTTP::uri] eq $static::login_action) && ([HTTP::method] eq "POST")} {
        client is attempting application login, so we will save the username 
        set savecreds true 
        set uid "" 
        set clen [HTTP::header Content-Length] 
        set clen [expr {(($clen eq "") || ($clen > 10240)) ? 10240 : $clen}] 
        if {$clen > 0} { HTTP::collect $clen } 
        return
    }
}

when HTTP_REQUEST_DATA {
    foreach field [split [HTTP::payload] "&"] {
        foreach {n v} [split $field "="] {
            if {$n eq $static::uid_field} {
                set uid [URI::decode $v] 
            }
        }
        if {$uid ne ""} { break }
    }
    HTTP::release
}

when ACCESS_ACL_ALLOWED {
    if { $savecreds } {
        ACCESS::session data set session.custom.carelinkusername $uid
    }
}
  • brad_11480's avatar
    brad_11480
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Nov 20, 2015
    when RULE_INIT { 
must recognize attempts to login to application (e.g., CareLink) 
    set static::login_action "/EpicCareLink/common/epic_check.asp" 
    set static::uid_field "Account_ID" 
}

when HTTP_REQUEST { 
   set savecreds false 
   if {([HTTP::uri] eq $static::login_action) && ([HTTP::method] eq "POST")} { 
client is attempting application login, so we will save the username 
     set savecreds true 
     set uid "" 
     set clen [HTTP::header Content-Length] 
     set clen [expr {(($clen eq "") || ($clen > 10240)) ? 10240 : $clen}] 
     if {$clen > 0} { HTTP::collect $clen } 
     return 
   }
}

when HTTP_REQUEST_DATA { 
   foreach field [split [HTTP::payload] "&"] { 
     foreach {n v} [split $field "="] { 
       if {$n eq $static::uid_field} { 
         set uid [URI::decode $v] 
       } 
     } 
     if {$uid ne ""} { break } 
   } 
   HTTP::release
}

when ACCESS_ACL_ALLOWED { 
   if { $savecreds } { 
     ACCESS::session data set session.custom.carelinkusername $uid 
   }
}