Ways of logging on to MQWEB on z/OS.

There are different ways of connecting to the MQ Web Server on z/OS (this is based on the z/OS Liberty Web server). Some ways use the SAF interface. This is an interface to the z/OS security manager. IBM provides RACF, there are other security managers such as TOP SECRET, and ACF2. Userid information is stored in the security manager database.

The ways of connecting to the MQ Web server on z/OS.

• No security. Use no_security.xml to set up the MQ Web Server.
• Hard coded userids and passwords in a file. Using the basic_registry.xml. This defines userid information like <user name=”mqadmin” password=”mqadmin”> . This is suitable only for a sandbox. The password can be obscured or left in plain text.
• Logon by z/OS userid and password. Use zos_saf_registry.xml. Logon is by userid and password and checked by a SAF call to the z/OS security manager. The userid is checked for access to a resource like MQWEB.com.ibm.mq.console.MQWebAdmin in class(EJBROLE) and MQWEB in class(APPL).
• Connect with a client certificate, and authenticate using userid and password. This uses zos_saf_registry.xml plus additional configuration. The userid, password and access to the EJBROLE and APPL resources is checked by the SAF interface. The certificate id is not used to check access, it is just used to do the TLS handshake.
• Certificate authentication, a password is not required. Connecting use a client certificate. This uses zos_saf_registry.xml plus additional configuration. Using the SAF interface, the certificate maps to a z/OS userid; this ID is used for checking access to the EJBROLE and APPL resource.

The configuration for using TLS is not clear.

I found the documentation for the TLS configuration to be unclear. Two parameters are <ssl clientAuthentication clientAuthenticationSupported…/> The documentation says

• If you specify clientAuthentication="true", the server requests that a client sends a certificate. However, if the client does not have a certificate, or the certificate is not trusted by the server, the handshake does not succeed.
• If you specify clientAuthenticationSupported="true", the server requests that a client sends a certificate. However, if the client does not have a certificate, or the certificate is not trusted by the server, the handshake might still succeed.
• If you do not specify either clientAuthentication or clientAuthenticationSupported, or you specify clientAuthentication="false" or clientAuthenticationSupported="false", the server does not request that a client send a certificate during the handshake.

I experimented with the different options and the results are below.

1. I used a web browser with several possible certificates that could be used for authentication. I was given a pop up which listed them. Chrome remembers the choice. With Firefox, you can click an option “set as default“. If this is unticked you get prompted every time.
2. I used a browser with no certificates for authentication.

When a session was not allowed, I got (from Firefox) Secure Connection Failed. An error occurred during a connection to 10.1.1.2:9443. PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR

Client Authentication	Client Authentication Supported	Browser with certificates	Browser without certificates
true	ignored	Pick certificate, userid and password NOT required	PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR
false	true	Pick certificate, userid and password NOT required	A variety of results. One of PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR, Blank screen Userid and password required
false	false	Userid and password required	Userid and password required

When using certificates, you can chose to specify userid and password instead of client authentication, by using the appropriate URL with https://10.1.1.2:9443/ibmmq/console/login.html, instead of https://10.1.1.2:9443/ibmmq/console .

Note well.

The server caches credential information. If you change the configuration and refresh the server, the change may not be picked up immediately.

Once you have logged on successfully, a cookie is stored in your browser. This may be used to authenticate, until the token has expired. To be sure of clearing this token I restarted my browser.