Why Thread.CurrentPrincipal.Identity.IsAuthenticated is always false?

Question

I have this WCF service and I'm trying to apply authentication and authorization mechanism in it.
It's my first time to do this, what I have is this web.config serviceModel tag for the service:

  <system.serviceModel>
<services>
  <service name="RoleBasedServices.SecureServiceExternal" behaviorConfiguration="externalServiceBehavior">
    <endpoint contract="AuthService.IService1" binding="wsHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="wsHttpUsername" />
  </service>
</services>
<bindings>
  <wsHttpBinding>
    <binding name="wsHttpUsername">
      <security mode="Message">
        <message clientCredentialType="UserName" negotiateServiceCredential="false" establishSecurityContext="false" />
      </security>
    </binding>
  </wsHttpBinding>
</bindings>
<behaviors>
  <serviceBehaviors>
    <behavior>
       <!--To avoid disclosing metadata information, set the values below to false before deployment--> 
      <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" httpsGetEnabled="true"/>
       <!--To receive exception details in faults for debugging purposes, set the value below to true.  Set to false before deployment to avoid disclosing exception information--> 
      <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false"/>
    </behavior>
    <behavior name="externalServiceBehavior">
      <serviceAuthorization principalPermissionMode="UseAspNetRoles" />
      <serviceCredentials>
        <userNameAuthentication userNamePasswordValidationMode="MembershipProvider" />
        <serviceCertificate findValue="RPKey" x509FindType="FindBySubjectName" storeLocation="LocalMachine" storeName="My"/>
      </serviceCredentials>
    </behavior>
  </serviceBehaviors>
</behaviors>
<protocolMapping>
    <add binding="basicHttpsBinding" scheme="https" />
</protocolMapping>    
<serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true" multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" />

What I want to do is very simple, I don't know if I need all this tags I'm just trying. What I want to do is from the client side to add reference for the service and first call the MyLogin :

    AuthService.Service1Client s = new AuthService.Service1Client();
    s.Login();

Then call the other restricted method and let it be GetData :

s.GetData()  

At service side in Login method, and only for test purposes, I'm doing this:

public void Login()
{
    Thread.CurrentPrincipal = new GenericPrincipal(new GenericIdentity("Bob"), new[] { "Admin" });
    FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie("BobUserName", false);
}

An the restricted method will be:

[PrincipalPermission(SecurityAction.Demand, Role = "Admin")]
public void GetData()
{
    return "Hello";
}

That all I have in service and client, what I'm missing? Every time ,in debug, I check Thread.CurrentPrincipal in Login method I found Thread.CurrentPrincipal.Identity.IsAuthenticated equals true but even though when the client calls the GetData() method it's Access Denied .
PS: I'm using console application to do my tests does it make any difference ?
Thanks

Answer 1

Here is a very nice article that could possibly lead to a solution.

The general idea is that you have 2 object for the Principal. HttpContext.Current.User and Thread.CurrentPrincipal . You are setting the Thread.CurrentPrincipal at the time HttpContext.Current.User is already instantiated and the role of it is left to default.
You may want to try something like:

HttpContext.Current.User = new GenericPrincipal(new GenericIdentity("Bob"), new[] { "Admin" });

Answer 2

The reason calls to GetData() are denied is because WCF doesn't know anything about the Forms Authentication cookie that was set during Login() .

It doesn't make a difference that you're a using console app. You could try the following approach.

Set the cookie in Login() :

var cookie = FormsAuthentication.GetAuthCookie(username, true);
var ticket = FormsAuthentication.Decrypt(cookie.Value);

HttpContext.Current.User = new GenericPrincipal(new FormsIdentity(ticket), null);
FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie(HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name, true);

Then in your console app:

public static void TestLoginAndGetData()
{
    var sharedCookie = string.Empty;

    using (var client = new YourClient())
    using (new OperationContextScope(client.InnerChannel))
    {
        client.Login("username", "password");

        // get the cookie from the response
        HttpResponseMessageProperty response = (HttpResponseMessageProperty)
            OperationContext.Current.IncomingMessageProperties[
            HttpResponseMessageProperty.Name];
        sharedCookie = response.Headers["Set-Cookie"];

        // add it to the request
        HttpRequestMessageProperty request = new HttpRequestMessageProperty();
        request.Headers["Cookie"] = sharedCookie;
        OperationContext.Current.OutgoingMessageProperties[
            HttpRequestMessageProperty.Name] = request;

        var result = client.GetData();

        Console.WriteLine(result);
    }
}

You might also consider changing the return type of GetData() to string .