Latest versions Payara and WildFly improve Java EE 7 authentication compliance

Two months ago we looked at the state of portable authentication for GlassFish, Payara, JBoss/WildFly, WebLogic and Liberty in Java EE 7. With the exception of WebLogic 12.2.1, most servers performed pretty well, but there were still a number of bugs present.

Since then both Payara and WildFly have seen bug fixes that again reduce the number of bugs present where it concerns portable Java EE authentication. Do note that both updated servers have not had an official (supported) release yet, but pre-release resp. rc/cr builds containing those fixes can be downloaded from the vendors.

In anticipation of the final version of those Java EE 7 servers we already took a look at how they improved. The results are shown in the table below. For reference we show several older versions as well. For Payara we took the GlassFish release upon which Payara based its additional fixes, while for WildFly it's a selection of older builds. (no less than 29 builds were released for WildFly 8,9,10/EAP 7 alpha,beta).

Running the Java EE 7 samples JASPIC tests
Module Test Payara 4.1.1.161-pre GlassFish 4.1.1 WildFly 10rc5 WildFly 10rc4 WildFly 9.0.1 WildFly 8.0.0
async-authentication testBasicAsync
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Failed
basic-authentication testProtectedPageNotLoggedin
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
basic-authentication testProtectedPageLoggedin
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
basic-authentication testPublicPageLoggedin
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
basic-authentication testPublicPageNotLoggedin
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
basic-authentication testPublicAccessIsStateless
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
basic-authentication testProtectedAccessIsStateless
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
basic-authentication testProtectedAccessIsStateless2
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
basic-authentication testProtectedThenPublicAccessIsStateless
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
custom-principal testProtectedPageLoggedin
Passed
Failure
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
custom-principal testPublicPageLoggedin
Passed
Failure
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
custom-principal testPublicAccessIsStateless
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
custom-principal testProtectedAccessIsStateless
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
custom-principal testProtectedAccessIsStateless2
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
custom-principal testProtectedThenPublicAccessIsStateless
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
dispatching testBasicForwardViaProtectedResource
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
dispatching testBasicForwardViaPublicResource
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
dispatching testBasicIncludeViaPublicResource
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Failure
dispatching-jsf-cdi testCDIForwardViaProtectedResource
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
dispatching-jsf-cdi testCDIForwardViaPublicResource
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
dispatching-jsf-cdi testCDIIncludeViaPublicResource
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Failure
dispatching-jsf-cdi testJSFwithCDIForwardViaPublicResource
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
dispatching-jsf-cdi testJSFwithCDIForwardViaProtectedResource
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
dispatching-jsf-cdi testJSFwithCDIIncludeViaPublicResource
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
dispatching-jsf-cdi testJSFForwardViaPublicResource
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
dispatching-jsf-cdi testJSFForwardViaProtectedResource
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
dispatching-jsf-cdi testJSFIncludeViaPublicResource
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
ejb-propagation publicServletCallingProtectedEJB
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Failure
ejb-propagation protectedServletCallingProtectedEJB
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Failure
ejb-propagation publicServletCallingPublicEJBThenLogout
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Failure
ejb-propagation protectedServletCallingPublicEJB
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
invoke-ejb-cdi protectedInvokeCDIFromSecureResponse
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Failure
Failure
invoke-ejb-cdi protectedInvokeCDIFromCleanSubject
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
invoke-ejb-cdi protectedInvokeCDIFromValidateRequest
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
invoke-ejb-cdi publicInvokeCDIFromSecureResponse
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Failure
Failure
invoke-ejb-cdi publicInvokeCDIFromValidateRequest
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
invoke-ejb-cdi publicInvokeCDIFromCleanSubject
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
invoke-ejb-cdi protectedInvokeEJBFromSecureResponse
Passed
Failure
Passed
Passed
Failure
Passed
invoke-ejb-cdi protectedInvokeEJBFromCleanSubject
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
invoke-ejb-cdi protectedInvokeEJBFromValidateRequest
Passed
Failure
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
invoke-ejb-cdi publicInvokeEJBFromSecureResponse
Passed
Failure
Passed
Passed
Failure
Passed
invoke-ejb-cdi publicInvokeEJBFromValidateRequest
Passed
Failure
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
invoke-ejb-cdi publicInvokeEJBFromCleanSubject
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
jacc-propagation callingJACCWhenAuthenticated
Passed
Passed
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
jacc-propagation callingJACCWhenAuthenticated
Passed
Passed
Failure
Failure
Failure
Failure
jacc-propagation callingJACCWhenNotAuthenticated
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
lifecycle testBasicSAMMethodsCalled
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Failure
Passed
lifecycle testLogout
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
register-session testJoinSessionIsOptional
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
register-session testRemembersSession
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
status-codes test404inResponse
Passed
Passed
Passed
Failure
Failure
Passed
status-codes test404inResponse
Passed
Passed
Passed
Failure
Failure
Passed
wrapping testResponseWrapping
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
wrapping testRequestWrapping
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed
Passed

Not shown in the table, but the absolute greatest improvement since JBoss switched to its new JASPIC implementation all the way back in WildFly 8.0.0.Alpha1 is the fact that JASPIC now finally works without the need of modifying WildFly by putting a dummy fragment in its standalone.xml file. It's not 100% perfect yet as the application archive (.war) still needs what is effectively a marker file to activate JASPIC, but this is much, much preferred over having to modify a server in order to activate a standard Java EE API that should just be there. Kudos to the JBoss team and a special thanks to Jason Greene for finally making this happen!

As can be seen, WildFly has seen many improvements over the years. Along the way a few regressions were introduced, but they were fixed again and now WildFly10rc5 is almost perfect with respect to the known bugs. Role propagation to JACC however still doesn't work. Although the usage of custom JACC providers is not that high, the test in question here uses the default provider for a rather useful query; "Can the authenticated user access a given resource?", e.g. "Can Pete access http://example.com/assets/someresource?".

The top performer as of now is Payarra, which passes all tests except for one of minor importance where a JSF based resource is included by an authentication module. As mentioned in the previous report this likely has to be fixed on the JSF side of things.

If all goes well we'll see a new beta of Liberty 9 this month which should also contain a number of fixes. The most problematic server at this moment is still WebLogic, which introduced a major regression between 12.1.3 and 12.2.1. Hopefully WebLogic will fix this regression soon. We'll repeat this test again when either of those publish their latest version.

Arjan Tijms

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