MVC 4 Intranet Authentication with Custom Roles - asp.net-mvc-4

Question

I have spent some time searching and found a lot of confusing answers, so I will post here for clarification.
I am using MVC4 VS2012 created an Intranet site using domain authentication. Everything works. However, to manage the users that have access to different areas of this webapp I prefer not to use AD groups that I cannot manage and nor can the users of the webapp.
Is there an alternative? I assume this would involve associating/storing domain names belonging to custom roles and using the Authorize attribute to control access.
[Authorize(Roles = "Managers")]
Can anyone suggest the best pattern for this or point me in the right direction?
I see a similar solution link, but I am still not sure how to use this against a stored list of roles and validate the user against those roles. Can anyone elaborate if this solution would work?
protected void Application_AuthenticateRequest(object sender, EventArgs args)
{
if (HttpContext.Current != null)
{
String[] roles = GetRolesFromSomeDataTable(HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name);
GenericPrincipal principal = new GenericPrincipal(HttpContext.Current.User.Identity, roles);
Thread.CurrentPrincipal = HttpContext.Current.User = principal;
}
}

Answer 1

I'm using this configuration with SQL Server and MVC3.
Web.config:
<system.web>
<roleManager enabled="true" defaultProvider="SqlRoleManager">
<providers>
<clear />
<add name="SqlRoleManager" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider" connectionStringName="SqlRoleManagerConnection" applicationName="YourAppName" />
</providers>
</roleManager>
....
<authentication mode="Windows" />
....
<connectionStrings>
<add name="SqlRoleManagerConnection" connectionString="Data Source=YourDBServer;Initial Catalog=AppServices;Integrated Security=True;" providerName=".NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB" />
</connectionStrings>
To inicialize roles:
Global.asax.cs
using System.Web.Security;
////
protected void Application_Start()
{
//You could run this code one time and then manage the rest in your application.
// For example:
// Roles.CreateRole("Administrator");
// Roles.AddUserToRole("YourDomain\\AdminUser", "Administrator");
Roles.CreateRole("CustomRole");
Roles.AddUserToRole("YourDomain\\DomainUser", "CustomRole");
}
In your Controller
[Authorize(Roles ="CustomRole")]
public class HomeController : Controller
{
To manage users
public class Usuario
{
public string UserName { get; set; }
public string RoleName { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public const string Domain = "YourDomain\\";
public void Delete()
{
Roles.RemoveUserFromRole(this.UserName, this.RoleName);
}
public void Save()
{
if (Roles.IsUserInRole(Usuario.Domain + this.UserName, this.RoleName) == false)
{
Roles.AddUserToRole(Usuario.Domain + this.UserName, this.RoleName);
}
}
}
Users Class
public class Usuarios : List<Usuario>
{
public void GetUsuarios() //Get application's users
{
if (Roles.RoleExists("CustomRole"))
{
foreach (string _usuario in Roles.GetUsersInRole("CustomRole"))
{
var usuario = new Usuario();
usuario.UserName = _usuario;
usuario.RoleName = "CustomRole";
this.Add(usuario);
}
}
//
public void GetUsuariosRed() //Get Network Users (AD)
{
var domainContext = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain);
var groupPrincipal = GroupPrincipal.FindByIdentity(domainContext, IdentityType.SamAccountName, "Domain Users");
foreach (var item in groupPrincipal.Members)
{
var usuario = new Usuario();
usuario.UserName = item.SamAccountName;
usuario.Name = item.Name;
this.Add(usuario);
}
}
You can create an "Admin" controller like this, to manage the users:
[Authorize(Roles = "AdminCustomRole")]
public class AdminController : Controller
{
//
public ActionResult Index()
{
var Usuarios = new Usuarios();
Usuarios.GetUsuarios();
return View(Usuarios);
}
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult CreateUser()
{
var Usuarios = new Usuarios();
Usuarios.GetUsuariosRed();
return View(Usuarios);
}
//
In my application, custom roles are fixed.