ServiceSecurityContext Class

Represents the security context of a remote party. On the client side, represents the service identity and, on the service side, represents the client identity.

Namespace: System.ServiceModel
Assembly: System.ServiceModel (in system.servicemodel.dll)

'Declaration
Public Class ServiceSecurityContext
'Usage
Dim instance As ServiceSecurityContext

public class ServiceSecurityContext
public class ServiceSecurityContext
Not applicable.

The data is part of the SecurityMessageProperty for a message.

Use this class to obtain information about a remote security context at run time. A security context is created when a client is successfully authenticated and authorized to access a method. When a message is successfully authenticated and authorized, the security information from the client and for the current service instance can be obtained from an instance of this class.

You can retrieve an instance of the ServiceSecurityContext from the Current property of the OperationContext class, or use it from within a service operation method, as shown below.

Parsing a ClaimSet

A common use of the class is to retrieve the current set of claims for the purpose of identifying or authorizing a client when accessing a method. The ClaimSet class contains a collection of Claim objects, and each can be parsed to determine whether a specific claim is present. If the specified claim is provided, authorization can be granted. This functionality is provided by overriding the CheckAccessCore method of the ServiceAuthorizationManager class. For a complete example, see the Authorization Policy Sample.

Cookie Mode and IsAuthenticated

Note that under some circumstances, the IsAuthenticated property of the IIdentity interface will return true even if the remote client is authenticated as an anonymous user. (The PrimaryIdentity property returns an implementation of the IIdentity interface.) The following circumstances must be true for this to occur:

  • The service uses Windows authentication.

  • The service allows anonymous logons.

  • The binding is a customBinding Element.

  • The custom binding includes a <security> element.

  • The <security> element includes a secureConversationBootstrap element with the requireSecurityContextCancellation attribute set to false.

The following example uses the ServiceSecurityContext class to provide information about the current security context. The code creates an instance of the StreamWriter class to write the information to a file.

' When this method runs, the caller must be an authenticated user and the ServiceSecurityContext 
' will not be a null instance. 
Public Function Add(ByVal n1 As Double, ByVal n2 As Double) As Double Implements ICalculator.Add
    ' Write data from the ServiceSecurityContext to a file using the StreamWriter class.
    Dim sw As New StreamWriter("c:\ServiceSecurityContextInfo.txt")
    Try
        ' Write the primary identity and Windows identity. The primary identity is derived from the
        ' the credentials used to authenticate the user. The Windows identity may be a null string.
        sw.WriteLine("PrimaryIdentity: {0}", ServiceSecurityContext.Current.PrimaryIdentity.Name)
        sw.WriteLine("WindowsIdentity: {0}", ServiceSecurityContext.Current.WindowsIdentity.Name)

        ' Write the claimsets in the authorization context. By default, there is only one claimset
        ' provided by the system. 
        Dim claimset As ClaimSet
        For Each claimset In ServiceSecurityContext.Current.AuthorizationContext.ClaimSets
            Dim claim As Claim
            For Each claim In claimset
                ' Write out each claim type, claim value, and the right. There are two
                ' possible values for the right: "identity" and "possessproperty". 
                sw.WriteLine("Claim Type: {0}, Resource: {1} Right: {2}", _
                claim.ClaimType, _
                claim.Resource.ToString(), _
                claim.Right)
                sw.WriteLine()
            Next claim
        Next claimset
    Finally
        sw.Dispose()
    End Try
    Return n1 + n2
End Function

The following example shows an implementation of the CheckAccessCore method that uses the ServiceSecurityContext to parse a set of claims.

Public Class MyServiceAuthorizationManager
    Inherits ServiceAuthorizationManager
    
    Protected Overrides Function CheckAccessCore(ByVal operationContext As OperationContext) As Boolean 
        ' Extract the action URI from the OperationContext. Match this against the claims
        ' in the AuthorizationContext.
        Dim action As String = operationContext.RequestContext.RequestMessage.Headers.Action
        Console.WriteLine("action: {0}", action)
        
        ' Iterate through the various claimsets in the authorizationcontext
        Dim cs As ClaimSet
        For Each cs In  operationContext.ServiceSecurityContext.AuthorizationContext.ClaimSets
            ' Examine only those claim sets issued by System.
            If cs.Issuer Is ClaimSet.System Then
                ' Iterate through claims of type "http://example.org/claims/allowedoperation".
                Dim c As Claim
                For Each c In  cs.FindClaims("http://example.org/claims/allowedoperation", _
                        Rights.PossessProperty)
                    ' Write the Claim resource to the console.
                    Console.WriteLine("resource: {0}", c.Resource.ToString())
                    
                    ' If the Claim resource matches the action URI then return true to allow access.
                    If action = c.Resource.ToString() Then
                        Return True
                    End If
                Next c
            End If
        Next cs 
        ' If we get here, return false, denying access.
        Return False
    
    End Function 
End Class 

System.Object
  System.ServiceModel.ServiceSecurityContext

Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.

Windows 98, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows CE, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Starter Edition

The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 is supported on Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP SP2, and Windows Server 2003 SP1.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.0

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