Security

This is a high level overview of recommended configuration options and some security best practices. Properly securing a CAS server means understanding your specific security requirements and any unique aspects of your setup. This is not intended to be a comprehensive security guide. It is important to understand each component of your specific stack and ensure it is configured properly.

MamaCAS Configuration

Open vs. Closed

By default, MamaCAS operates in an “open” mode that authenticates or redirects any service URL. It is recommended that a production server be configured as “closed” by specifying approved services with MAMA_CAS_VALID_SERVICES. Services not matching one of these patterns will be unable to validate tickets or redirect clients.

Django Configuration

Sessions

MamaCAS relies on standard Django sessions to govern single sign-on sessions. In particular, there are two Django session settings that should be considered:

SESSION_COOKIE_AGE
It is recommended this be set shorter than the default of two weeks. This setting controls the duration of single sign-on sessions as well as the duration of proxy-granting tickets.
SESSION_EXPIRE_AT_BROWSER_CLOSE
This should be set to True to conform to the CAS specification. Note that some browsers can be configured to retain cookies across browser restarts, even cookies set to be removed on browser close.

Additional session settings may need to be configured. For more information, see the Django session documentation.

Best Practices

The Django documentation includes some great security best practices that are useful to review. Some of them do not apply to a dedicated CAS server, but many are both applicable and recommended.

Web Server

Securing a web server is a vast topic completely outside the scope of this guide, and many details depend on the specific server in use. Here are some broadly applicable configuration options that ought to be considered.

SSL

Obviously, a login server should require SSL. Without it, login credentials and CAS tickets are exposed to anyone with access to the network traffic. Additionally, all services utilizing CAS should communicate with the server via SSL.

HTTP Strict Transport Security

HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) headers tell browsers that the site should only be accessed via HTTPS and not HTTP. When a browser encounters this header, it will automatically use HTTPS for future visits. This prevents some man-in-the-middle attacks caused by browsers initially accessing the page via HTTP, even if they are subsequently redirected.

X-Frame-Options

The X-Frame-Options header indicates whether a page may appear inside a <frame>, <iframe> or <object> element to mitigate clickjacking attacks. If the site should legitimately appear within one of these elements, valid domains may be whitelisted.