mod_authnz_persona is a module for Apache 2.0 or later that allows you to quickly add Persona authentication to a site hosted with Apache.

Use on people.mozilla.org

If you would like to enable LDAP authentication on your Mozilla people space, add a file named .htaccess in the folder you would like to secure. It should have the following contents:

SSLRequireSSL On
AuthType Persona
require valid-user

For example, if you would like to require Persona authentication for https://people.mozilla.org/~username/secure you would put .htaccess in ~/public_html/secure/

Remember to browse the website via HTTPS as it won't work otherwise.

Installation

First, install the dependencies:

• apache 2.2 or later
• libcurl 7.10.8 or later (for remote verification)
• yajl 2.0 or later (for JSON parsing)

On Red Hat-derivative distributions, this might help:

yum install httpd httpd-devel curl-devel cmake
wget http://fedora.mirror.nexicom.net/linux/development/rawhide/source/SRPMS/y/yajl-2.0.4-3.fc20.src.rpm
rpmbuild --rebuild yajl-*.src.rpm
sudo yum install ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/`uname -i`/yajl-*.rpm

(CMake is a build-time yajl dependency.)

Then, clone the source and build:

git clone https://github.com/gozer-mozilla/mod_authn_persona.git
cd mod_authnz_persona
./buildconf
./configure --with-apxs=/usr/sbin/apxs
sudo make install

(this assumes apxs is behaving properly on your system; use --with-apxs to point to your apxs or apxs2 binary of choice)

Configuration

Configure the module:

LoadModule authnz_persona_module modules/mod_authnz_persona.so

#AuthPersonaServerSecret XXXSomeVerySecretUniqueString
#AuthPersonaCookieName   Persona
#AuthPersonaVerifierURL  https://verifier.login.anosrep.org/verify
#AuthPersonaLoginURL     /login.shtml

<Location />
   AuthType Persona
   Require valid-user
   # Or, require users with host/IdP example.com:
   # Require persona-idp example.com
   # Or, require specific users (requires mod_authz_user)
   # Require user user@example.com
</Location>

This will cause the module to require Persona authentication for all requests to the server.

Dependencies

• apache 2.0.x or 2.2.x (mostly tested with 2.2 so far)
• libcurl 7.10.8 or later
• json-c
• OpenSSL

Features

• zero configuration - The module is designed with reasonable defaults, so you can simply drop it in.
• automatic re-auth - The module is designed to use session cookies and automatically re-authenticate.

How it works

The module works by intercepting requests bound for protected resources, and checking for the presence of a session cookie.

If the cookie is not found, the user agent is served an HTML document that presents a Persona login page.

Upon successful authentication with Persona, this page will send a request to the server with a Persona assertion in an HTTP header. The module, upon detecting no cookie is present, will look for this header, validate the assertion, and set a short session cookie.

The authentication page will then reload the desired resource.

Further configuration settings

• AuthPersonaServerSecret: (default: generated) A secret that will be used to sign cookies. Must be set in a server or VirtualHost context. If not provided, upon server start a secret will be generated automatically. Given re-authentication is automatic, it is only required to set a cookie secret if your application is hosted on multiple load-balanced Apache servers.

• AuthPersonaCookieName: (default: Persona)

  The name for the Persona Session cookie

• AuthPersonaCookieDomain: (default: None)

  The domain that the cookie is valid for, so for instance '.domain.com'

• AuthPersonaCookieSecure: (default: Off)

  If the cookie should be limited to SSL connections or not

  Sending this cookie via non-SSL connections is dangereous, as stealing this cookie steals your identity.

• AuthPersonaCookieDuration: (default: 1 day)

  The lifetime of the session itself, after that, the user will be re-authed

• AuthPersonaAuthoritative: (default: Off)

  Wherever the module will let other modules try their luck at authenticating users

• AuthPersonaVerifierURL: (default: https://verifier.login.persona.org/verify)

  This module uses a web service to verify recieved assertions, this is the URL of the service providing that service. It needs to be trusted

• AuthPersonaLoginURL: (default: /login.shtml)

  The location of the login page, it's never accessed directly. But it needs to be accessible by unauthenticated users.

• AuthPersonaLogoutURL (default: unset)

  The location where logout happens, accessing it triggers a session logout, but the location is responsible for the Persona JavaScript logout itself

• AuthPersonaLogoutReturnTo (default: /)

  When the logout page is accessed, where to redirect the now logged-out user to

• AuthPersonaFakeBasicAuth: (default: Off)

  When set, this will set a fake Authorization: header with the Persona userid and a fake password

• Require persona-idp: Only allow users with email addresses backed by the given Identity Provider. Note that this will often, but not necessarily, be the host part of the verified email address, in the case of email addresses backed by a secondary IdP (like the fallback IdP or a bridging IdP).