Custom Authentication Module on Identity Server

Question

Hi,
I have a custom authentication module which I am trying to access through the policy agent.
I have set the following property in AMAgent.properties file
com.sun.am.policy.am.loginURL= http://host:port/amserver/UI/Login?module=CustomLoginModule.
My login module code is something like this:
package com.iplanet.am.samples.authentication.providers;
import java.util.*;
import javax.security.auth.Subject;
import javax.security.auth.callback.Callback;
import javax.security.auth.callback.NameCallback;
import javax.security.auth.callback.PasswordCallback;
import javax.security.auth.login.LoginException;
import com.sun.identity.authentication.spi.AMLoginModule;
import com.sun.identity.authentication.spi.AuthLoginException;
import java.rmi.RemoteException;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.util.Properties;
public class LoginModule1 extends AMLoginModule
private String userName;
private String userTokenId;
private HashMap usersMap;
private java.security.Principal userPrincipal = null;
public LoginModule1() throws LoginException
public void init(Subject subject, Map sharedState, Map options)
          System.out.println("LoginModule1 initialization");
          usersMap = new HashMap();
          ResourceBundle bundle = ResourceBundle.getBundle("users");
          Enumeration users = bundle.getKeys();
          while (users.hasMoreElements())
               String user = (String)users.nextElement();
               String password = bundle.getString(user.trim());
               usersMap.put(user, password);
public int process(Callback[] callbacks, int state) throws AuthLoginException
          int currentState = state;
          if (currentState == 1)
               userName = ((NameCallback) callbacks[0]).getName().trim();
               char[] passwd = ((PasswordCallback) callbacks[1]).getPassword();
               String passwdString = new String (passwd);
               if (userName.equals(""))
                    throw new AuthLoginException("names must not be empty");
               if (userName.equals("testuser") && passwdString.equals("testuser"))
                    userTokenId = userName;
                    return -1;
               if (usersMap.containsKey(userName))
                    if (usersMap.get(userName).equals(new String(passwd)))
                         userTokenId = userName;
                         return -1;
               return 0;
     public java.security.Principal getPrincipal()
          if (userPrincipal != null)
               return userPrincipal;
          else
          if (userTokenId != null)
               userPrincipal = new SamplePrincipal("testuser");
               return userPrincipal;
          else
               return null;
So When the user requests a protected resource, the policy agent forwards the user to Identity Server with the module as CustomLoginModule. However, after this, authentication does not succeed and I get the following error message in the agent log file.
2004-08-09 15:24:08.640 Error 2712:130f060 PolicyAgent: validate_session_policy() access allowed to unknown user
2004-08-09 15:24:09.030 Error 2712:24fda5e8 PolicyAgent: validate_session_policy() access allowed to unknown user
2004-08-09 15:24:23.484 Error 2712:130f060 PolicyAgent: validate_session_policy() access allowed to unknown user
2004-08-09 15:24:28.281 Error 2712:24fda5e8 PolicyEngine: am_policy_evaluate: InternalException in Service::construct_auth_svc with error message:Application authentication failed during service creation. and code:20
2004-08-09 15:24:28.281 Error 2712:24fda5e8 PolicyAgent: validate_session_policy() access allowed to unknown user
2004-08-09 15:24:29.484 Error 2712:130f060 PolicyAgent: validate_session_policy() access allowed to unknown user
2004-08-09 15:24:29.499 Error 2712:24fda5e8 PolicyEngine: am_policy_evaluate: InternalException in Service::construct_auth_svc with error message:Application authentication failed during service creation. and code:20
2004-08-09 15:24:29.499 128 2712:24fda5e8 RemoteLog: User unknown was denied access to http://ps0391.persistent.co.in:80/test/index.html.
2004-08-09 15:24:29.499 Error 2712:24fda5e8 LogService: LogService::logMessage() loggedBy SSOTokenID is invalid.
2004-08-09 15:24:29.499 Error 2712:24fda5e8 all: am_log_vlog() failed with status AM_REMOTE_LOG_FAILURE.
2004-08-09 15:24:29.499 -1 2712:24fda5e8 PolicyAgent: validate_session_policy() access denied to unknown user
The necessary policy object is already created in Identity Server. Please send your suggestions to fix this problem.
Thanks
Srinivas

Answer 1

Does the principal "testuser" exist in your realm? If I understand your module correctly, it looks like it always returns "testuser".
I am guessing that Access Manager is not finding your principal. Typically if access manager cannot associate the principal returned by the custom AMLoginModule it will fail the authentication.
I am wondering if this is related to a seperate problem I have seen with custom login modules. Try chaning the code to return an LDAP style principal it may work:
so return "uid=testuser,ou=People,dc=yourdomain,dc=com" for example. In theory this should not be necessary but it solved some problems for me, though I am not sure why.