Custom Authentication in ASP.Net-Core

Question

I am working on a web app that needs to integrate with an existing user database. I would still like to use the [Authorize] attributes, but I don't want to use the Identity framework. If I did want to use the Identity framework I would add something like this in the startup.cs file:

services.AddIdentity<ApplicationUser, IdentityRole>(options =>
{
    options.Password.RequireNonLetterOrDigit = false;
}).AddEntityFrameworkStores<ApplicationDbContext>()
  .AddDefaultTokenProviders();

I'm assuming I have to add something else there, and then create some kind of class that implements a specific interface? Can somebody point me in the right direction? I'm using RC1 of of asp.net 5 right now.

Solution 1

Creating custom authentication in ASP.NET Core can be done in a variety of ways. If you want to build off existing components (but don't want to use identity), checkout the "Security" category of docs on docs.asp.net. https://docs.asp.net/en/latest/security/index.html

Some articles you might find helpful:

Using Cookie Middleware without ASP.NET Identity

Custom Policy-Based Authorization

And of course, if that fails or docs aren't clear enough, the source code is at https://github.com/dotnet/aspnetcore/tree/master/src/Security which includes some samples.

Solution 2

From what I learned after several days of research, Here is the Guide for ASP .Net Core MVC 2.x Custom User Authentication

In Startup.cs :

Add below lines to ConfigureServices method :

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{

services.AddAuthentication(
    CookieAuthenticationDefaults.AuthenticationScheme
).AddCookie(CookieAuthenticationDefaults.AuthenticationScheme,
    options =>
    {
        options.LoginPath = "/Account/Login";
        options.LogoutPath = "/Account/Logout";
    });

    services.AddMvc();

    // authentication 
    services.AddAuthentication(options =>
    {
       options.DefaultScheme = CookieAuthenticationDefaults.AuthenticationScheme;
    });

    services.AddTransient(
        m => new UserManager(
            Configuration
                .GetValue<string>(
                    DEFAULT_CONNECTIONSTRING //this is a string constant
                )
            )
        );
     services.AddDistributedMemoryCache();
}

keep in mind that in above code we said that if any unauthenticated user requests an action which is annotated with [Authorize] , they well force redirect to /Account/Login url.

Add below lines to Configure method :

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env)
{
    if (env.IsDevelopment())
    {
        app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
        app.UseBrowserLink();
        app.UseDatabaseErrorPage();
    }
    else
    {
        app.UseExceptionHandler(ERROR_URL);
    }
     app.UseStaticFiles();
     app.UseAuthentication();
     app.UseMvc(routes =>
    {
        routes.MapRoute(
            name: "default",
            template: DEFAULT_ROUTING);
    });
}

Create your UserManager class that will also manage login and logout. it should look like below snippet (note that i'm using dapper):

public class UserManager
{
    string _connectionString;

    public UserManager(string connectionString)
    {
        _connectionString = connectionString;
    }

    public async void SignIn(HttpContext httpContext, UserDbModel user, bool isPersistent = false)
    {
        using (var con = new SqlConnection(_connectionString))
        {
            var queryString = "sp_user_login";
            var dbUserData = con.Query<UserDbModel>(
                queryString,
                new
                {
                    UserEmail = user.UserEmail,
                    UserPassword = user.UserPassword,
                    UserCellphone = user.UserCellphone
                },
                commandType: CommandType.StoredProcedure
            ).FirstOrDefault();

            ClaimsIdentity identity = new ClaimsIdentity(this.GetUserClaims(dbUserData), CookieAuthenticationDefaults.AuthenticationScheme);
            ClaimsPrincipal principal = new ClaimsPrincipal(identity);

            await httpContext.SignInAsync(CookieAuthenticationDefaults.AuthenticationScheme, principal);
        }
    }

    public async void SignOut(HttpContext httpContext)
    {
        await httpContext.SignOutAsync();
    }

    private IEnumerable<Claim> GetUserClaims(UserDbModel user)
    {
        List<Claim> claims = new List<Claim>();

        claims.Add(new Claim(ClaimTypes.NameIdentifier, user.Id().ToString()));
        claims.Add(new Claim(ClaimTypes.Name, user.UserFirstName));
        claims.Add(new Claim(ClaimTypes.Email, user.UserEmail));
        claims.AddRange(this.GetUserRoleClaims(user));
        return claims;
    }

    private IEnumerable<Claim> GetUserRoleClaims(UserDbModel user)
    {
        List<Claim> claims = new List<Claim>();

        claims.Add(new Claim(ClaimTypes.NameIdentifier, user.Id().ToString()));
        claims.Add(new Claim(ClaimTypes.Role, user.UserPermissionType.ToString()));
        return claims;
    }
}

Then maybe you have an AccountController which has a Login Action that should look like below :

public class AccountController : Controller
{
    UserManager _userManager;

    public AccountController(UserManager userManager)
    {
        _userManager = userManager;
    }

    [HttpPost]
    public IActionResult LogIn(LogInViewModel form)
    {
        if (!ModelState.IsValid)
            return View(form);
         try
        {
            //authenticate
            var user = new UserDbModel()
            {
                UserEmail = form.Email,
                UserCellphone = form.Cellphone,
                UserPassword = form.Password
            };
            _userManager.SignIn(this.HttpContext, user);
             return RedirectToAction("Search", "Home", null);
         }
         catch (Exception ex)
         {
            ModelState.AddModelError("summary", ex.Message);
            return View(form);
         }
    }
}

Now you are able to use [Authorize] annotation on any Action or Controller.

Feel free to comment any questions or bug's.

Solution 3

I would like to add something to brilliant @AmiNadimi answer for everyone who going implement his solution in .NET Core 3:

First of all, you should change signature of SignIn method in UserManager class from:

public async void SignIn(HttpContext httpContext, UserDbModel user, bool isPersistent = false)

to:

public async Task SignIn(HttpContext httpContext, UserDbModel user, bool isPersistent = false)

It's because you should never use async void, especially if you work with HttpContext. Source: Microsoft Docs

The last, but not least, your Configure() method in Startup.cs should contains app.UseAuthorization and app.UseAuthentication in proper order:

if (env.IsDevelopment())
{
    app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
}
else
{
    app.UseExceptionHandler("/Home/Error");
    // The default HSTS value is 30 days. You may want to change this for production scenarios, see https://aka.ms/aspnetcore-hsts.
    app.UseHsts();
}

app.UseHttpsRedirection();
app.UseStaticFiles();
app.UseAuthentication();
app.UseRouting();
app.UseAuthorization();
app.UseEndpoints(endpoints =>
{
    endpoints.MapControllerRoute(
        name: "default",
        pattern: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
});

Solution 4

@Manish Jain, I suggest to implement the method with boolean return:

public class UserManager
{

    // Additional code here...            

    public async Task<bool> SignIn(HttpContext httpContext, UserDbModel user)
    {
        // Additional code here...            

        // Here the real authentication against a DB or Web Services or whatever 
        if (user.Email != null)
            return false;                    

        ClaimsIdentity identity = new ClaimsIdentity(this.GetUserClaims(dbUserData), CookieAuthenticationDefaults.AuthenticationScheme);
        ClaimsPrincipal principal = new ClaimsPrincipal(identity);

        // This is for give the authentication cookie to the user when authentication condition was met
        await httpContext.SignInAsync(CookieAuthenticationDefaults.AuthenticationScheme, principal);
        return true;
    }
}

View more solutions

Comments

[Jon49]

This answer is also very good stackoverflow.com/a/31688792/632495

[xhafan]

Thanks man! Here's an implementation inspired by this answer, using nhibernate to authenticate users. It's a mix of asp.net 3 project template code modified from asp.net core 2.1 scaffolded identity UI code - github.com/xhafan/emailmaker/tree/master/src/…

[lcssanches]

Where is the right place to put UserManager class in?

[ibubi]

you have two times AddAuthentication code inside your ConfigureServices. Is it by mistake or something?

[N-ate]

You also add NameIdentifier claim twice.

[AmiNadimi]

@lcssanches src/yourProjectCore/Authorization/Users/AppUserManager.cs check this out

[AmiNadimi]

– @N-ate one is for role name and the other for user itself. it's not a duplicate. And both are a pointer to their owning user.

[N-ate]

But you just add it to the same List<Claim>. There are definitely 2 claims for NameIdentifier that are exactly the same when calling GetUserClaims.

[Wibisono Indrawan]

is there any way to render a view based on login status and call user data from view ? like render logout button and show user name if the user logged in

[rkochev]

Thank you, this was quite educational. Took me like 30 minutes to realize what to change and where, but it works very well! Minimal changes and works great on 3.1 also.

[Syroot]

AFAIK, UseAuthentication() is recommended to be placed after UseRouting().