Configuring security for an Oracle WebLogic Server environment starts with a creating a secure installation of WebLogic Server. It also includes choosing the security configuration options that are appropriate for the environment in which the domain runs, such as obtaining and storing certificates, protecting user accounts, and securing the network on which the domain runs.
This chapter includes the following sections:
Obtaining Private Keys, Digital Certificates, and Trusted Certificate Authority Certificates
Storing Private Keys, Digital Certificates, and Trusted Certificate Authority Certificates
For a complete checklist of all components in the WebLogic Server that should be secured in a production environment, including specific tasks recommended for securing the WebLogic Server host, the WebLogic Security Service, files and databases used by WebLogic Server, see Ensuring the Security of Your Production Environment in Securing a Production Environment for Oracle WebLogic Server.
Performing a secure installation includes steps to secure the host machine on which WebLogic Server is installed, to limit access to that host to only authorized users, and to install Critical Patch Updates immediately after installation is complete.
If you are installing WebLogic Server in a production environment, Oracle strongly recommends the guidelines described in the following sections:
Before you start the WebLogic Server installation program, complete the following tasks:
Create a My Oracle Support account so that you can register your WebLogic Server installation with Oracle and receive security updates automatically. Visit http://www.oracle.com/support/index.html.
Secure the host machine, operating system, and file system to ensure that access is restricted only to authorized users. For example:
Keep your hardware in a secured area to prevent unauthorized operating system users from gaining access to the machine and its network connections.
Make sure the host machine has the latest operating system patches and security updates.
Note:
As new patches become available, you should download and install them promptly.
Secure networking services and the file system that the operating system provides to prevent unauthorized access. For example, make sure that any file system sharing is secured.
Set operating system file access permissions to restrict access to data stored on disk that will be used or managed by WebLogic Server, such as the security LDAP database and directories into which keystores are created and managed.
Limit the number of user accounts on the host machine. Create a group to contain only the following user accounts:
The user who installs WebLogic Server only.
The user who creates the WebLogic domain and uses Node Manager to start the Administration Server and each Managed Server instance in the domain.
Restrict the privileges of these user accounts to only the following directories:
Oracle home — Root directory created for all Oracle Fusion Middleware products on a host computer
WebLogic home — Root directory of the WebLogic Server installation
Domain home — Root directory of the WebLogic domain
Note:
Some processes also need access to temporary directories by default, such as /tmp on Unix platforms. If the privileges of a user account are restricted to only the Oracle home, WebLogic home, and WebLogic domain directories, the user must change environment variables, such as TEMP or TMP, to point to a directory to which that user does have access.
Ensure that any Web servers on the host machine run only as an unprivileged user, never as root. See also "Security Practices & Evaluations" information available from the CERT Coordination Center at http://www.cert.org/.
Ensure no software development tools or sample software is installed.
Consider using additional software to secure your operating system, such as a reputable intrusion detection system (IDS).
See Securing the WebLogic Server Host in Securing a Production Environment for Oracle WebLogic Server .
During installation, make sure you do the following:
Do not install the sample applications component.
On the Specify Security Updates installer screen, select I wish to receive security updates via My Oracle Support.
See Read Security Publications and Install WebLogic Server in a Secure Manner in Securing a Production Environment for Oracle WebLogic Server.
Remove the Derby DBMS database, which is bundled with WebLogic Server for use by the sample applications and code examples as a demonstration database. Derby DBMS is located in the WL_HOME/common/derby directory.
Visit the Critical Patch Updates and Security Alerts page at the following location to review WebLogic Server security advisories:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/alerts-086861.html
Limit access to internal applications by disabling unused internal applications and enabling the Administration port. For more information about how to limit access to internal applications, see Install and Configure WebLogic Server in a Secure Manner in Securing a Production Environment for Oracle WebLogic Server .
To create a WebLogic domain for production use, consider the environment in which the domain will run, such as whether it will interoperate with other WebLogic domains, and how best to secure the accounts of users who have access to the domain.
When configuring a WebLogic domain for use in a production environment, using tools such as the Configuration Wizard, the pack/unpack commands, WLST, or the WebLogic Server Administration Console, consider the following:
Configure the domain to run in either production mode or secured production mode. The domain mode determines default settings regarding security and logging.
In production mode, the security configuration is relatively stringent, such as requiring a user name and password to deploy applications and start the Administration Server. If you are using the unpack command to create a full WebLogic domain, or a subset of a domain that is used for a Managed Server domain directory on a remote machine, use the -server_start_mode=prod parameter to configure production mode.
See Secure your production domain in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help for information about enabling secured production mode and related security settings using the Administration Console.
Use the setOption WLST offline command while creating a domain, and set the ServerStartMode argument to secure to create a domain in secured production mode. See setOption in WLST Command Reference for Oracle WebLogic Server.
See Using WLST Online to Update an Existing WebLogic Domain in Understanding the WebLogic Scripting Tool to learn how to change your domain environment from production mode to secured production mode.
See Configure domain security in Administering Oracle WebLogic Server with Fusion Middleware Control to enable secured production mode and related security settings using Fusion Middleware Control.
Note:
It is possible to change the domain mode from development to production, production to development, and from production to secured production mode. However, it is important to remember that to enable secured production mode, your domain must be in production mode.For production environments with more stringent security requirements, Oracle recommends setting the production domain mode at the time you create the domain (as opposed to changing a development mode domain to production mode). See Development and Production Modes in Understanding Domain Configuration for Oracle WebLogic Server for more information about how to modify domain modes.
If the domain will interoperate with other WebLogic domains, or has the potential for that use at some future point, choose resource names carefully. Many resource names are fixed at the time a domain is created, and stringent requirements must be observed for resource names when using Cross-Domain Security, transactions, and messaging.
See Requirements for Transaction Communication in Developing JTA Applications for Oracle WebLogic Server.
When creating domains using WLST, do not enter unencrypted passwords in commands for configuring entities that require them, such as passwords for:
Domain administrator
Node Manager user
Database user
JKS keystores (both when creating the keystores and again when configuring them with WebLogic Server)
Wallet
Specifying unencrypted passwords in WLST commands is a security risk: they can be easily viewed from the monitor screen by others, and they are displayed in process listings that log the execution of those commands. Instead, omit the password from the command. When the command is executed, WLST automatically prompts you for any passwords needed to complete the domain configuration.
For production environments, Oracle strongly recommends obtaining private keys and digital certificates only from a reputable certificate authority such as Entrust or Symantec Corporation. See Obtaining and Storing Certificates for Production Environments.
For development environments only, you can use the digital certificates, private keys, and trusted CA certificates provided by WebLogic Server. You can also use keytool or the CertGen utility to generate self-signed certificates. See Using Keystores and Certificates in a Development Environment.
| For information about . . . | . . . see the following topic |
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Creating a keystore |
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Configuring a keystore to be used with WebLogic Server |
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A step-by-step example of using the keytool utility to create a keystore and store keys and certificates in it |
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Displaying the certificates contained in a keystore |
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Updating certificates that are due to expire |
As a system administrator, you have the option of turning off all the configuration options, increasing the number of login attempts before a user account is locked, increasing the time period in which invalid login attempts are made before locking the user account, and changing the amount of time a user account is locked. Remember that changing the configuration options lessens security and leaves user accounts vulnerable to security attacks. See Set user lockout attributes in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.
Note:
The User Lockout options apply to the default security realm and all its security providers. User Lockout works in all security realms, is layered on top of all configured providers, including custom ones, and is enabled by default.
If you are using an Authentication provider that has its own mechanism for protecting user accounts, consider if disabling User Lockout on the security realm is appropriate because other Authentication providers might be configured in the security realm.
If a user account becomes locked and you delete the user account and add another user account with the same name and password, the User Lockout configuration options will not be reset.
For information about unlocking a locked user account, see Unlock user accounts in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help. Unlocking a locked user account can be done through either the WebLogic Server Administration Console or the clearLockout attribute on the UserLockoutManagerRuntimeMBean.
Connection filters are particularly useful when using the Administration port. Depending on your network firewall configuration, you may be able to use a connection filter to further restrict administration access. A typical use might be to restrict access to the Administration port to only the servers and machines in the WebLogic domain. An attacker who gets access to a machine inside the firewall, still cannot perform administration operations unless the attacker is on one of the permitted machines.
WebLogic Server provides a default connection filter called weblogic.security.net.ConnectionFilterImpl. This connection filter accepts all incoming connections and also provides static factory methods that allow the server to obtain the current connection filter. To configure this connection filter to deny access, simply enter the connection filters rules in the WebLogic Server Administration Console.
You can also use a custom connection filter by implementing the classes in the weblogic.security.net package. For information about writing a connection filter, see Using Network Connection Filters in Developing Applications with the WebLogic Security Service. Like the default connection filter, custom connection filters are configured in the WebLogic Server Administration Console.
To configure a connection filter:
Refer to the following topics:
See Configure connection filtering in the Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console Online Help.
For information about connection filter rules and writing a custom connection filter, see Using Network Connection Filters and Developing Custom Connection Filters in Developing Applications with the WebLogic Security Service.
You can also use the WebLogic Scripting Tool or Java Management Extensions (JMX) APIs to create a new security configuration.
To improve security, WebLogic Server uses the JDK JEP 290 mechanism to filter incoming serialized Java objects and limit the classes that can be deserialized. The filter helps to protect against attacks from specially crafted, malicious serialized objects that can cause denial of service (DOS) or remote code execution (RCE) attacks.
WebLogic Server uses JEP 290 as follows:
Implements a WebLogic Server-specific object input filter to enforce a blocklist of prohibited classes and packages for input streams used by WebLogic Server. The filter also enforces a default value for the maximum depth of a deserialized object tree.
Provides system properties that you can use to add or remove classes and packages from the default filter to block or allow particular classes. You can also use the system properties to filter deserialized classes based on the nesting depth of the deserialized object, the number of internal references in the deserialized object, the size of arrays, and/or the maximum size in bytes of a deserialized object.
For more information on JEP 290, see http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/290.
For the minimum JDK level required for JEP 290 support in this release, see Securing Network Connections in Securing a Production Environment for Oracle WebLogic Server.
WebLogic Server includes system properties that you can use to customize, replace, or disable the JEP 290 default filter if desired.
The following table describes the system properties and includes sample usage.
Table 4-2 WebLogic Server JEP 290 System Properties
| Property | Description |
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Use this property to set a custom JEP 290 filter for WebLogic Server, using the standard JEP 290 filter syntax. For JEP 290 filter syntax, see the Process-wide Filter section in By default, this custom filter is combined with the default WebLogic Server filter, with the custom filter taking precedence over the default filter for any filter elements that conflict. For example, to set a custom filter by adding a class named -Dweblogic.oif.serialFilter=”!foo.bar.Mumble” This setting blocks the class |
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Use this property to specify the filter mode for the custom filter, which provides the ability to combine, replace, or disable the default WebLogic Server filter. Valid values are:
For example, to replace the default WebLogic Server filter with the custom filter, use: -Dweblogic.oif.serialFilterMode=replace |
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Use this property to specify whether the filter should apply globally to the entire JVM (as if it had been configured using the Java SE For example, to apply the WebLogic Server default or custom filter to internal WebLogic Server deserialization only, instead of to the entire JVM, use: -Dweblogic.oif.serialFilterScope=weblogic |