Introduction and Roadmap

The WebLogic Security Service combines several layers of security features to prevent unauthorized access to your WebLogic Server® domains. This document describes using roles and policies to determine who can access resources in a domain. The roles and policies feature fulfills the same function as the familiar Access Control List (ACL), but offers an improvement over ACLs: an ACL is static while roles and policies specify conditions under which users can access resources, and these conditions are evaluated at runtime.

Document Scope and Audience

This document contains information that is useful for security architects and security administrators who are designing a security strategy for resources within a WebLogic Server domain. It includes information about resource types, options for securing Web applications and EJBs, different types of security roles and policies, and the components of a role and policy.

It is assumed that the reader is familiar with J2EE security and the other features of the WebLogic Security Service.

The information in this document is relevant during the design and development phases of a software project. This document does not address production phase administration topics. For links to WebLogic Server documentation and resources related to these topics, see Related Information.

Guide to This Document

This chapter, Introduction and Roadmap, introduces the organization of this guide.
Understanding WebLogic Resource Security, introduces terms and concepts, provides a workflow summary, and outlines the main steps for securing WebLogic resources.
Resource Types You Can Secure with Policies, describes the different types of WebLogic resources that can be secured using the WebLogic Server Administration Console.
Options for Securing Web Application and EJB Resources, describes options for securing EJB and Web application resources using deployment descriptors and/or the WebLogic Server Administration Console.
Users, Groups, And Security Roles, describes users and groups who access WebLogic resources, including WebLogic Server default groups. Also describes scoped security roles and global security roles, including WebLogic Server default global roles. A final section describes the components of a security role.
Security Policies, describes security policies, including WebLogic Server default security policies. Also describes the components of a security policy.

Related Information

Other WebLogic Server documents that may be of interest to security administrators wanting to secure WebLogic resources are:

Understanding WebLogic Security—Summarizes the features of the WebLogic Security Service, including an overview of its architecture and capabilities. It is the starting point for understanding WebLogic security.
Securing WebLogic Server—Describes how to ensure that security is comprehensively configured for a WebLogic Server® installation, including information about security providers, identity and trust and SSL.
Secure WebLogic Resources in Administration Console Online Help—Provides step-by-step instructions for using the WebLogic Server Administration Console to complete the tasks that this document describes.

Securing Web Applications, Securing Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) and Using Java Security to Protect WebLogic Resources in Programming WebLogic Security.
Configuring Access Control in Programming WebLogic jCOM (COM resources).
Security in Programming WebLogic Resource Adapters (EIS resources).
Configuring Security in Programming WebLogic Web Services (Web Services resources).

Tutorials and Samples

New and Changed Features

See What's New in WebLogic Server 9.2 and Introduction and Roadmap in Securing WebLogic Resources for WebLogic Server 9.0. WebLogic Server 9.2 contains no changes in WebLogic resources, roles, or policies. However, several new and changed features were introduced in WebLogic Server 9.0