Java MFA Integration

Introduction

The following instructions demonstrate how to integrate Acceptto multi-factor authentication with your Java codebase.

Requirement

Before being able to use this sample you need to obtain an Acceptto MFA Application UID and Secret:

  1. Signup for a new Acceptto account or Login to your Acceptto dashboard
  2. Navigate to Applications through the side menu
  3. Click on the New Application button to create a new application, and then
    1. Choose a Name for your application which you're going to enable the multi-factor authentication for
    2. Set the Redirect URL to http://localhost:9000/auth/mfa/callback
    3. Set the Color to whatever you like, this is the color band that the user will see next to your application name in the Acceptto It'sMe app
  4. Find the new create application in the list and click on the Details button
  5. Copy and keep the UID and Secret. You will need them in the next steps

Run the sample project
  1. Install sbt
  2. git clone git@github.com:acceptto-corp/mfa-web-java.git and go to mfa-web-java directory
  3. Update mfa.app.uid, mfa.app.secret values in conf/application.conf as obtained in the previous section
  4. Run sbt run and browse to localhost:9000
  5. Apply evolution (You'll be asked only for the first time in order to setup the database)
How it works

Although you can go ahead and look at the code to see how it works, for better understanding we explain the key components that are needed in order to enable MFA on an existing Java application.

This guide uses Play Framework (Java version) but the concepts are the same for any other Java framework. You can use most parts of the provided code as it is in any other framework.

Data model

The following fields are added to the normal User model in LocalUser.java:

    public String mfa_email;

    public Boolean mfa_authenticated;
  • mfa_email represents the corresponding email which is used to register with Acceptto
  • mfa_authenticated indicates whether the user second factor authentication was successful or not

Authentication

The user token is stored in session, but in addition to that when mfa_email is set (which means MFA is enabled for the account), user is not considered authenticated unless mfa_authenticated is true. Here is the piece of code which retrieves the current authenticated user in app/controllers/Secured.java:

    public String getUsername(Http.Context ctx) {
        String email = ctx.session().get("email");
        if (email == "" || email == null) {
            return null;
        }

        LocalUser user = LocalUser.findByEmail(email);
        if (user == null || (user.mfa_email != null && user.mfa_email != "" && (user.mfa_authenticated == null || !user.mfa_authenticated))) {
            return null;
        }

        return email;
    }

More about MFA email

In this sample app, email (in models/LocalUser.java) is basically the username, but we also have mfa_email to be able to connect Acceptto It'sMe accounts to the accounts in this sample app.

Here is an example to make it easier to understand the relationship between mfa_email and email:

Scenario 1

  1. You've created an account in Acceptto It'sMe application using A@email.com
  2. You run this sample Java app and use the same email A@email.com in the sign up form
  3. As this email has already been registered with It'sMe, you'll be asked for MFA in your next login in this sample app
  4. You receive MFA confirmations on your It'sMe app which is logged in with A@email.com

In this scenario, both email and mfa_email was set to A@email.com.

Scenario 2

  1. You run this sample Java app and use the same email B@email.com in the sign up form
  2. You'll be able to login to the sample app only with email and password
  3. You'll see Enable MFA link after login and you click on the link
  4. You enter A@email.com as Acceptto's MFA email and click on Enable
  5. This enables the MFA, connects B@email.com in this sample app to A@email.com in It'sMe
  6. When you login using B@email.com in this sample app, you receive MFA confirmations on your It'sMe app which is logged in with A@email.com

In this scenario, email was set to B@email.com and mfa_email was set to A@email.com.

Enabling the MFA during the sign up

We'll check the registered email (by calling /api/v9/is_user_valid API) to see if an Acceptto account has already been created using that email. If that was the case by setting mfa_email to the same email as LocalUser.email, we'll be able to use that in the further API calls and basically we've enabled the MFA automatically. If the email wasn't registered in Acceptto we allow the user to it later.

Here is the block of the code in Signup.java that checks the sign up email:

    LocalUser user = new LocalUser();
    user.email = register.email;
    user.fullname = register.fullname;
    user.passwordHash = Hash.createPassword(register.inputPassword);
    user.confirmationToken = UUID.randomUUID().toString();

    // Temporary confirm user
    user.validated = true;

    final String mfaSite = Play.application().configuration().getString("mfa.site");

    F.Promise<WSResponse> responsePromise = WS.url(mfaSite + "/api/v9/is_user_valid")
            .setQueryParameter("email", register.email)
            .setQueryParameter("uid", Application.appUID)
            .setQueryParameter("secret", Application.appSecret)
            .setContentType("application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
            .post("");

    F.Promise<Result> resultPromise = responsePromise.map(new F.Function<WSResponse, Result>() {
        @Override
        public Result apply(WSResponse wsResponse) throws Throwable {
            JsonNode json = wsResponse.asJson();

            if (json.has("valid") && json.get("valid").asBoolean()) {
                if (json.has("registration_state") && json.get("registration_state").asText().equals("finished")) {
                    // Using the same email as Acceptto one.
                    user.mfa_email = register.email;
                    Logger.debug("MFA email has set to " + register.email);
                } else {
                    Logger.warn("User has started registration in Acceptto but hasn't finished");
                }
            }

            user.save();

            return ok(created.render());
        }
    });

Add enabling MFA link to view

When mfa_email is null, it shows that the email used for sign up hasn't been registered in Acceptto's It'sMe App. So we need to show the user how he/she can enable the MFA by creating a new Acceptto account (using the existing email) or use and existing one and connect them to their account in this Java sample application.

We do this by showing a link to /auth/mfa/enable (which simply renders mfa/enablemfa.scala.html) in dashboard when mfa_email is null. In Enable MFA page we've provided links to Acceptto apps and a text box to get the Acceptto's account email through which the user wants to enable the MFA.

MFA authentication process

Here is what happens when the user logs in, while MFA is enabled:

  1. mfa_authenticated will be set to false (authenticate method in app/controllers/Application.java)
  2. /api/v9/authenticate_with_options will be called (accepttoAuthenticate method in app/controllers/Mfa.java)
  3. Returned channel will be stored in session
  4. The user will be redirected to Acceptto's /mfa/index page
  5. The callback will post the data to /auth/mfa_check (check method in app/controllers/Mfa.java)
  6. /api/v9/check will be called to validate the callback
  7. If successful, the user will be marked as authenticated by setting mfa_authenticated to true

Support

If you require assistance, please email us at support@acceptto.com


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