Learning WCF

Building a Claims-Based Security Model

The identity model in WCF supports a rich, claims-based approach to authorization, but so far in this chapter, you haven’t seen it in action. That’s because discussions so far have centered on Windows, UserName, and Certificate credentials—each of which rely on authentication and authorization features that have nothing to do with claims. As I mentioned earlier, all credentials are ultimately mapped to a set of claims when they are authenticated at the service. In this section, I’ll elaborate on this and other important concepts related to building a claims-based security model, including:

• Security tokens and claims

• Working with custom claims

• Custom authorization policies

• Claims-based authorization and related utilities

Security Tokens and Claims

Security tokens are abstractions of credentials that are passed in the security headers of a message and validated against the security policy. When security tokens are validated and processed at the service, claims representative of the token are placed into the security context for the operation being executed. Consider the following examples:

• Windows credential (Windows token) claims include the Windows identity and the groups to which it belongs.

• UserName credential (UserName token) claims include the username.

• Certificate credential (X.509 token) claims include the subject key, thumbprint, public key blob, and other certificate properties.

Each claim describes an individual right or action applicable to ...