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IuCasAuthentication

A CAS authentication object that works with CAS @ IU. Using CAS at IU isn't complicated, and UITS even provides some sample code for PHP. This helper class aims to make the process even easier.

Note that this library does not provide any authorization (permissions based on user name), only authentication (verifying a user's credentials).

Follows PSR-4 and PSR-2 standards. Requires PHP >= 7.1. Tested against PHP v7.1 – v7.3

Installation

The preferred method of installation is with Composer.

Install with Composer

Add the following to your composer.json file:

Or, install the Composer package:

Install without Composer

Download the IuCasAuthentication class, and include or require it on your page(s).

Using IuCasAuthentication

1. Create a new authentication object. All arguments to the constructor are optional.

   • The first is the URL if your application that CAS should redirect to after log in. Must be the same during authentication and validation steps. Defaults to the current URL.
   • An optional second argument must be one of the CAS application codes at IU. Defaults to 'IU'.
   • An optional third argument is a reference to a PSR-3 logger (such as Monolog). Used to log remote errors, if available. Defaults to `null``.
2. Call #authenticate(). Optional arguments are avaialable to override default behavior.

Because CAS expects applications to only authenticate once per session, the IuCasAuthentication class stores a successful authentication in $_SESSION, so it is safe to use on every page (or as Middleware) to test authentication.

If the username is in $_SESSION, #authenticate() considers the user successfully authenticated, and does not attempt to check against CAS.

Simplest method

Let the IuCasAuthentication helper do all of the work for you. Requires $_SESSION to currently be writable.

This code would need to be called on every page you wish protected.

Recommended method

Rather than relying on the built-in behavior, pass explicit callback functions for authentication failure or success.

The two callbacks are:

1. On Failure: Defaults to setting a "401 Unauthorized" header and exit;.
2. On Success: Defaults to putting the user name returned from CAS in $_SESSION and returning.

Manage login and validation manually

Although the #authenticate() function does all of the work for you, it's possible to manage the authentication process manually if you wish.

Example with login and validation on different pages in your app

You might use this example code to only implement CAS authentication at a specific URL. Instead of calling #authenticate(), you might do the following:

Slim Framework example

The following code would work with the Slim Framework. This example also uses a PSR-3 logger and anonymous callback functions. The login functionality would be better implemented as Middleware, but this example highlights some features of the IuCasAuthentication helper.

Logging

You may pass an optional PSR-3 logger as the third parameter of the constructor. If the validation step fails, details are sent to the logger, if available.

Environment variables

In most cases, it is not necessary to create environment variables to modify the default behavior of this library for use with CAS at IU. Everything should already work without additional configuration. However, if you wish to change the default behavior, several environment variables are available.

Best practice in PHP is to put important configuration options in environment variables, perhaps in your virtual host configuration (e.g., httpd.conf or .htacess) or in a .env file. Several libraries are available via Composer to assit in loading .env files.

The three necessary URLs (login, validation, logout) as described by https://kb.iu.edu/d/atfc are included by default but may be overridden through the use of the following environment variables.

• CAS_LOGIN_URL defaults to 'https://cas.iu.edu/cas/login'
• CAS_VALIDATION_URL defaults to 'https://cas.iu.edu/cas/validate'
• CAS_LOGOUT_URL defaults to 'https://cas.iu.edu/cas/logout'

Two additional environment variables are used:

• CAS_SESSION_VAR defaults to 'CAS_USER', therefore the user name of the active user is available at $_SESSION[getenv('CAS_SESSION_VAR')]. Current value is returned by #getSessionVar(). The session variable is used by #getUserName() and #setUserName(), which in turn are used by #logout() and the default success handler for #authenticate() to store the user name response from CAS in $_SESSION.
• CAS_TIMEOUT Sets the timeout of service requests to CAS validation and logout services. Defaults to 5.

If storing authentication status somewhere other than the session variable, it's probably best to use the callback variation of #authenticate().

Each of these environment variable defaults is also available as a class constant. e.g., IuCasAuthentication::CAS_VALIDATION_URL. (Exception: Timeout constant is named IuCasAuthentication::CAS_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT.)

Release history

• v1.0
  • Stable
  • PHP 7.1 minimum requirement
  • Simplified code, callbacks now the only way to interact with #authenticate(), this is a compatibility break with v0.3
  • Code checked against PSR-2 with PHP_CodeSniffer
  • Static analysis with phpstan at maximum level
• v0.3
  • Stable
  • Last full release that supports PHP 5.6+