Groups | Blog | Home
all groups > iis security > july 2007 >

iis security : Auto log in with basic authentication


jwgoerlich NO[at]SPAM gmail.com
7/27/2007 8:29:34 AM
There is no workaround. The automatic login option in IE works with
integrated authentication only. This is because basic authentication
exposes the password (at both the network and application layers).
Prompting the user is meant as an additional security precaution to
address this exposure.

Can you enable both integrated and basic authentication on this
intranet site?

Regards,

J Wolfgang Goerlich

[quoted text, click to view]

Scott McDaniel
7/27/2007 12:20:37 PM
[quoted text, click to view]

In addition to microsoft.public.inetserver.iis.security and microsoft.public.security, you've posted this message to the
"microsoft.public.access" newsgroup, which is devoted to security matters involving Microsoft Access, the database
product.The name of this group is somewhat misleading, however this group has nothing to do with the other two (which
are, apparently, relevant to your issue).


[quoted text, click to view]

Scott McDaniel
scott@takemeout_infotrakker.com
ThatsIT.net.au
7/27/2007 11:07:58 PM
I am currently setting up a intranet that will not be available from outside
the network, also a extranet that will be available from outside the
network.
The extranet has basic authentication and SSL. it passes though a ISA 2000
firewall and for various reasons we need to use basic authentication, but as
it is over SSL it is encrypted so it does not matter that basic uses clear
text.
Certain pages that need to be accessed from outside I will put on the
extranet but I don't want to have to recreate these pages on the intranet
also so internal users will access these pages from the extranet.
All seems fine but one point. when internal users access the extranet they
are prompted to log in, even though their browsers are set to log in
automatically with current username and password. this is annoying to say
the least.
Is there any solution?
Is this normal for basic over SSL to prompt even when set to auto login in
IE?
any suggestions

Roger Abell [MVP]
7/27/2007 11:12:55 PM
Remember that use of integrate authentication behind the scenes is
not just a matter of whether the website is configured to negotiate
its use. The browsing client (i.e. IE) must also be configured to
allow its use (in the Internet Options on the Advanced tab) and the
site must be recognized as one with which it will attempt is use
(usually that mean recognizing the site as being in the intranet
zone).

Roger


[quoted text, click to view]

ThatsIT.net.au
7/28/2007 12:00:00 AM
I will check this out on Monday.

But I can authenticate using LAN cable, but not though card.

ill get back to you on Monday if you are still around

[quoted text, click to view]

ThatsIT.net.au
7/28/2007 12:00:00 AM

[quoted text, click to view]


Sorry


[quoted text, click to view]

ThatsIT.net.au
7/28/2007 12:00:00 AM

[quoted text, click to view]


I think i did try that combination before, i will try again,

sorry just tried it seems to be working.


[quoted text, click to view]

ThatsIT.net.au
7/28/2007 12:00:00 AM
Actually I think I spoke too soon.

we have some laptops that need to connect though PC mobile phone cards. for
some reason I'm not sure they do not seem to want to connect to the web site
with intergraded security, I think this is what happened last time I choose
this configuration. I don't have one with me at the moment I would have to
wait till Monday to find out for sure.

This brings up another question. why wont the laptop's authenticate with
windows authentication when connecting with pc mobile phone cards?

[quoted text, click to view]

Roger Abell [MVP]
7/28/2007 10:59:06 AM

[quoted text, click to view]

I missed that piece of info.
So much fir cliebt settings.
You are likely dealing with ports disallowed via
the wireless access points' routing then.

[quoted text, click to view]

ThatsIT.net.au
7/29/2007 12:00:00 AM

[quoted text, click to view]

Its not your normal wireless, its a mobile phone card for a laptop. You
connect though a mobile phone tower
http://www.cnet.com.au/wireless/accessories/0,239028911,339272208,00.htm?feed=rss

but your point probably still applies.




[quoted text, click to view]

Ken Schaefer
7/29/2007 12:00:00 AM
IN order of transparent auto-login to work with IE, all the following
conditions must be satisfied. It's not just a matter of configuring
something on the server:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=258063

Cheers
Ken

[quoted text, click to view]
Roger Abell [MVP]
7/29/2007 7:19:13 AM
Nice KB Ken, which I had overlooked previously. Thanks.

Given poster can access as expected with direct wire, and
that issue is when using public provider, it sounds to me that
it is not a configuration issue on poster's part, client or server,
but with port protocols supported over that air-linked network.

Roger

[quoted text, click to view]

Ken Schaefer
7/30/2007 12:00:00 AM
Well, it may be that the server is being accessed as http://servername
internally, and http://servername.domain.com externally (or something like
that), or perhaps it matter of how OP has configured ISA Server.

I don't really know about the port issue - unless we're using Kerberos
authentication (and ISA Server would have to be explicity configured for
Kerberos IIRC) then the only port used is 80 (or 443 as OP has SSL enabled).

Cheers
Ken


[quoted text, click to view]
ThatsIT.net.au
7/30/2007 1:00:03 AM
Thanks for that, much clearer now

[quoted text, click to view]

Roger Abell [MVP]
7/30/2007 6:30:43 AM
Yes, some unknowns here. I was thinking OS would not try to
use Kerberos due to external name not matchine DNS domain
of AD, so trying NTLM; and also assuming a public provider of
this air-link filtering out NetBt based ports - resulting in authN
falling back to basic.

Roger

[quoted text, click to view]

Ken Schaefer
7/31/2007 12:00:00 AM
IE does not "fall back" to some other type of authentication.

It tries a sinlge type, and if it doesn't work, then authentication fails.

NTLM auth from browser to IIS does not rely on NetBT ports - it all works
over port 80 (or 443)

Cheers
Ken


[quoted text, click to view]
Roger Abell [MVP]
7/31/2007 12:11:11 AM
Then I am totally in the dark as to what is happening for this poster.

Roger

[quoted text, click to view]
ThatsIT.net.au
7/31/2007 10:59:14 PM

[quoted text, click to view]

what I did was enabled both integrated and basic authentication, but this
did not work as it seems that the laptops were trying to use integrated and
failing, I assumed that they would fail and then try basic, but this did not
seem to happen. So I disabled integrated authentication from the IE advanced
options and it all seems to work. I did a bit of reading into the mobile PC
cards we are using on the laptops and they have some sort of compression
software to save on downloads I assume that this is making integrated
authentication fail. I am trying to get them to disable it(as I read you can
have done) but they haven't called me back yet.

So the scenario I have now is both Integrated Authentication and Basic
authentication. The clients on the network login automatically with
integrated and the mobile OC card laptops have integrated disabled and use
basic over ssl. Seems to be working well.



[quoted text, click to view]
Ken Schaefer
8/5/2007 10:54:29 PM
Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA) is actually two possible authN
mechanisms: NTLM and Kerberos.

NTLM doesn't work through most forward proxies, which may be why your AuthN
is failing (the service's compression proxy that you are using). Or, if the
client thinks the site is in the Intranet security zone, it may attempt
Kerberos AuthN, but Kerberos AuthN requires access to a KDC (i.e. one of
your internal domain controllers), which is probably also not going to work.

Cheers
Ken

[quoted text, click to view]