If you want to secure Aspire access to the Administration UI using the ConfigFile method, the best and most secure way is by encrypting the passwords and validating them against policy rules. Complete the following steps.

  1. Run bin/encryptPassword. This script will create passwords of the "administrator" and "developer" users to be encrypted inside the settings.xml file when you use the optional "username" parameter. The password you pass to the script for encryption will also be validated against defined policy rules (see the explanation later in this article)

  2. Enable the ConfigFile authentication on the settings.xml file:

    settings.xml
    <authentication>
  <type>ConfigFile</type>
</authentication>
  3. Start Aspire and use the "administrator" or "developer" users to log in using the recently added passwords. When starting Aspire the passwords will also be validated against defined policy rules.

How to configure UI password policy

There are 3 files in config/security folder where the UI password policy is defined:

  • passwordPolicy.xml
  • passwordDictionary
  • passwordHistory.xml

Those files have default content from installation process.

passwordPolicy.xml

The file defines password policy rules for UI passwords. It also defines maximum password age after which the password is no longer valid.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<passwordPolicy>
  <rules>
    <!-- password must be between min and max chars long -->
    <lengthRule>
      <minimum>8</minimum>
      <maximum>15</maximum>
    </lengthRule>
    <!-- don't allow whitespace -->
    <whitespaceRule/>
    <!-- Control allowed characters -->
    <characterCharacteristicsRule>
      <!-- require at least 1 upper case char -->
      <uppercase>1</uppercase>
      <!-- require at least 1 lower case char -->
      <lowercase>1</lowercase>
      <!-- require at least 1 digit in passwords -->
      <digit>1</digit>
      <!-- require at least 1 non-alphanumeric char -->
      <nonalphanumeric>1</nonalphanumeric>
      <!-- require at least x of the previous rules be met -->
      <numberOfCharacteristics>3</numberOfCharacteristics>
    </characterCharacteristicsRule>
    <!-- don't allow alphabetical sequences -->
    <alphabeticalSequenceRule/>
    <!-- don't allow numerical sequences -->
    <numericalSequenceRule/>
    <!-- don't allow qwerty sequences -->
    <qwertySequenceRule/>
    <!-- don't allow 4 repeat characters -->
    <repeatCharacterRule/>
    <!-- do not allow matching against history -->
    <historyRule/>
    <!-- do not allow matching against Dictionary -->
    <dictionaryRule>
      <wordLength>4</wordLength>
      <matchBackwards>true</matchBackwards>
    </dictionaryRule>
  </rules>

  <!-- uncomment if you do not want default values -->
  <!--passwordHistory>
    <historyFile>config/security/passwordHistory.xml</historyFile>
  </passwordHistory-->
  <!--dictionary>
    <dictionaryFile>config/security/passwordDictionary</dictionaryFile>
  </dictionary-->

  <!-- maximum password age - The suffix of the value should be one of ms,s,m,h,d  -->
  <maximumPasswordAge>5000d</maximumPasswordAge>
</passwordPolicy>

dictionary

The file defines words which cannot be used in passwords if dictionaryRule is defined in passwordPolicy.

ABI
ACL
ACPI
ADSL
AGP
AMD
API
APIC
ATAPI
ATX
AVI
AXP
AfterStep
AlphaBIOS
Appletalk
Athlon
.....

passwordHistory.xml (PRELIMINARY)

The file maintains history of used passwords. If historyRule is defined in passwordPolicy the password is validated against this file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<passwordHistory>
  <!-- last modified in ms; e.g. 1535712347811 =  08/31/2018 12:45 CET -->
  <user name="admin" lastModified="1535712347811">
    <password>MwRLPWHiwj49VmNSmTsSBeFECqk=</password>
  </user>
  <user name="developer" lastModified="1535712347811">
  </user>
</passwordHistory>

Preliminary function

In this version the function is considered to be preliminary as it still does not have any support regarding maintaining the list of used password automatically. It must be maintained manually following the next steps:

  • Run encryptPassword for creating new password.
  • 3 properties are created by the script and stored in your distribution's settings.xml file:
    • usernamePassword - encrypted password
    • usernamePasswordHistoryHash - hash of the password
    • usernamePasswordHistoryLastModified - the time of creation
  • Update the "lastModified" attribute of the template user in the passwordHistory file with the value of the usernamePasswordHistoryLastModified property. When started Aspire will use the maximumPasswordAge value from policy file to check if the password is still valid.
    • NOTICE: it´s important that the very first time you generate the encrypted password, that you don´t update the password field in the passwordHistory file, otherwise Aspire will report that it has already been used even though this is the first time. Only update the "lastModified" attribute.
  • If you want to change the password later, do this :
    • create a new password element in the history file with the hash of previous password stored in usernamePasswordHistoryHash property
    • repeat the process for creating the new encrypted password - the new password will be validated against the history file




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