CAS SSO with multiple web applications

Question

I've spent the last day or so looking in CAS and have managed to get the server working with a simple test application. When I enter a protected area, I'm redirect to a login page - when I log in, I'm taken back to my previous page.

From there, the next step would be deploy two client applications, log into client A, visit the client B protected area and have the system handle the authentication for me (since I'm already logged into client A).

This isn't actually working however. I have to log into the client B site whether I'm logged into the client A site or not.

CAS is running on Tomcat, client A and B are the same project deployed as separate wars on a single instance of JBoss AS 6.

Any ideas how I can achieve the suggested behavior?

EDIT: Yes, both are using CAS. The issue is that it doesn't seem to be recognizing that the user is already logged in. It's as if the CAS isn't able to determine that there is a 'link' between the two services and that when one service has been authenticated, the other service should be automatically authenticated.

I should note that at this stage, I am not using SSL within the application. I'm focused on getting a simple example up and going using HTTP before I look at introducing SSL.

Answer 1

Both of your applications need to be configured to use the CAS server for authentication. The normal procedure would be that application A redirects you to your CAS login page, lets you log in and redirects you back to A. If you then try to log into B, it checks with the CAs server whether you're already logged in and, if so, sends back information about the logged in user.

Again, both your applications need to support CAS as a login mechanism, which I am not sure about from your description.

Detailed description of the CAS protocol can be found here .

Answer 2

CAS was working without SSL in that it would take you to the login site and authenticate you correctly. The issue was if you tried to access via another site, it would ask you to sign in again.

Once I enabled SSL and tried it, it was working correctly. Once logged into client A, it would automatically authenticate you in client B. I had spent some time on the wiki and while it spoke of the importance of using SSL, I do not recall it explicitly stating that SSO will not work without SSL enabled. Maybe a warning should be added to the wiki?

Answer 3

If you want to focus on your applications and make your life easier, use a cloud provider for the CAS server: http://www.casinthecloud.com (free servers are available for tests).