Does WCF with TransportWithMessageCredential use SSL? - wcf

I'm configuring a WCF service in the intranet between a client and a server.
I've set it up for wsHttpBinding with TransportWithMessageCredentia without certificate authentication.
Am I correct that service now use ssl/tls and encrypts the messages?
Is this secure or do I need to use certificates too?

Yes, we should bind a certificate to the particular port, so as to secure the communication.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/http/add-sslcert
If hosting the service in IIS, we are supposed to add an https binding to the site binding module.
The certificate is used to provide integrity, confidentially, and authentication while SOAP message security provides client authentication.
Therefore, please consider the below configuration.
WSHttpBinding binding = new WSHttpBinding();
binding.Security.Mode = SecurityMode.TransportWithMessageCredential;
binding.Security.Message.ClientCredentialType = MessageCredentialType.UserName;
the service base address is https style and authenticates the client with a pair of username/password.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.servicemodel.securitymode?view=netframework-4.8#System_ServiceModel_SecurityMode_TransportWithMessageCredential
Feel free to let me know if there is anything I can help with.

Related

When we create SSL enabled Service, do we have to hand out certificates to each client?

One of my teammate just enabled SSL on one of the service that we are using and I had to install a Certificate that he gave me to each of the client machines who intend to consume that service. Now, I am not very well-versed when it comes to SSL security and that raised a question in my mind that
WHENEVER we create a SSl enabled service, do we have to hand out certificate to all the clients
Is there any kind of configuration using which we create an SSL enabled service without having to hand out certificate to all the clients?
IF it is possible then how secured that service be than the service which requires each client to install certificate on the machine?
Also, is there any easy to understand article on WCF SSL security?
Que : WHENEVER we create a SSl enabled service, do we have to hand out certificate to all the clients
Ans : No. For SSL enabled service one do not need to handout certificates to clients.
SSL certificate on server (in this case service) side gives confidence to clients that they are talking to legitimate server.
Clients needs certificates only in case of when service needs its clients to prove their identity using client certificate. With client certificate server (service) gets confidence that its sending data to legitimate clients.
Que : Is there any kind of configuration using which we create an SSL enabled service without having to hand out certificate to all the clients?
Ans : Certainly there is way with which you can make service enabled without requiring client certificate. Check SSL Settings option for website where service is hosted.
Que: IF it is possible then how secured that service be than the service which requires each client to install certificate on the machine?
Ans : Obliviously using SSL certificate doesn't stop any clients from consuming it. Any client who knows service endpoint can consume it. Client certificate is one way to authenticate clients. Only those clients who has valid client certificate will be able to consume service.
Que: Also, is there any easy to understand article on WCF SSL security?
Ans : Check out this link : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff650862.aspx Its WCF regarding security as whole and not just SSL security.

Encrypt WCF messages without authentication from the client

i want to encrypt messages in a WCF scenario where the binding is tcp.NetBinding and the security is bound on transport.
I found out, that if i dont encrypt the messages, i dont have to make client credentialhandling between client and server.
But if i want to encryt, it seems that there has to be some kind of
client-authentication (Windows credentials, Certificate ...).
The WCF server wont start with credentials are set to Null and encryption is on.
Is it possible to encrypt messages between the client and the server without authenticating the client?
Thanks a lot
Yes, the scenario is called Transport Security with an Anonymous Client:
This Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) scenario uses transport
security (HTTPS) to ensure confidentiality and integrity. The server
must be authenticated with a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate,
and the clients must trust the server's certificate. The client is not
authenticated by any mechanism and is, therefore, anonymous.
The bare bones binding is setup as follows:
var binding = new NetTcpBinding();
binding.Security.Mode = SecurityMode.Transport;
binding.Security.Transport.ClientCredentialType = TcpClientCredentialType.None;
Also in this particular scenario, the security is provided by TLS over TCP to ensure confidentiality and integrity. Again all that is required is to have the client trust the certificate provided by the server. The client is not authenticated by the server and is therefore known as an anonymous client.

WCF transport security with encryption

I have client server application which using WCF service with Transport security mode and NetTCP binding. I heard like Transport security is best for local intranet, not for internet. Now my scenario is I need to access WCF service over internet (from another country), but dont want to use Message security (cause it need to purchase and install certificate on server and each client). I want to use Transport security and also encrypt my data, so no one can hack it from internet.
So please someone guide me how can I encrypt my data with Transport security ?
Thanks
Transport is just SSL, so after the initial setup on the host and client sides, there's really nothing special to it. SSL will encrypt all the bytes starting at byte 0 and only the host that distributed the public key portion of the SSL cert will be able to decrypt the transmission since it and only it should have the private key part of the certificate.
SSL does present some potential problems if you have a load balancer or proxy fronting your service - i.e. if the proxy or LB server didn't begin the SSL transmission, it won't know what to do with the inbound message. But SSL encryption can be offloaded to a LB or proxy, so there are ways around that.
Here's a link to a stackoverflow question about SSL over WCF
Enable SSL for my WCF service

WCF service with both HTTPS and HTTP endpoint

I have successfully configured a WCF service that uses mutual certificate authentication with a WCF client over SSL.
For the mutual authentication over HTTPS the client and server both have certificates, and have exchanged their public keys out of band, so WCF is explicitly checking the client or server respectively to make sure the right certificate is used.
Problem:
I now need to expose an HTTP endpoint for a PHP client where the message will be encrypted manually at the client and decrypted manually at the WCF service.
Initially I had the 'Require SSL' setting set to 'Require' in IIS 7, but now I tried to change that to 'Accept' so that IIS would accept the non-https traffic and configured another wsHttpBinding endpoint with no security on the service. Both endpoints have relative addresses.
I am getting the following error:
The SSL settings for the service 'SslRequireCert' does not match those of the IIS 'SslNegotiateCert'.
Is what I am attempting to do possible with WCF and IIS? I thought it would be relatively simple to set up an additional endpoint with a different binding.

WCF how to send username token to WCF service

In a WSE3.0 web service, in order for me to call any methods of the web service I needed to set the client credentials to a UsernameToken object. How is this done from the client application for a WCF service?
This totally depends on the security settings on your WCF service:
if you use Windows client credentials, you don't have to do anything; your Windows credentials will be passed to and checked by the WCF service automagically
if you use Certificates to secure your callers, you need to make sure the certificate is installed in the right place and the client is configured properly to send that certificate
if you use Username client credentials, then you need to set the user name and password in your WCF client code - and you can only set it in code, there's currently no way to configure this in config:
YourWCFClient.ClientCredentials.UserName.UserName = "Your-User-Name-Here";
YourWCFClient.ClientCredentials.UserName.Password = "top$secret";