JMS Security Example

To run the example, simply type mvn verify from this directory, 
or mvn -PnoServer verify if you want to start and create the server manually.

This example shows how to configure and use security using ActiveMQ Artemis.

With security properly configured, ActiveMQ Artemis can restrict client access to its resources, including connection creation, message sending/receiving, etc. This is done by configuring users and roles as well as permissions in the configuration files.

ActiveMQ Artemis supports wild-card security configuration. This feature makes security configuration very flexible and enables fine-grained control over permissions in an efficient way.

For a full description of how to configure security with ActiveMQ Artemis, please consult the user manual.

This example demonstrates how to configure users/roles, how to configure topics with proper permissions using wild-card expressions, and how they take effects in a simple program.

First we need to configure users with roles. For this example, users and roles are configured in artemis-users.properties and artemis-roles.properties. The artemis-users.properties file follows the syntax of <user>=<password>. This example has four users configured as below

     
         bill=activemq
         andrew=activemq1
         frank=activemq2
         sam=activemq3
     
     

The artemis-roles.properties file follows the syntax of <role>=<users> where <users> can be a comma-separated list of users from artemis-users.properties (since more than one user can belong in a particular role). This example has four roles configured as below

     
         user=bill,andrew,frank,sam
         europe-user=andrew
         news-user=frank,sam
         us-user=frank
     
     

User name and password consists of a valid account that can be used to establish connections to a ActiveMQ Artemis server, while roles are used in controlling the access privileges against ActiveMQ Artemis topics and queues. You can achieve this control by configuring proper permissions in broker.xml, like the following


      <security-settings>
         <!-- any user can have full control of generic topics -->
		   <security-setting match="jms.topic.#">
		      <permission type="createDurableQueue" roles="user"/>
		      <permission type="deleteDurableQueue" roles="user"/>
		      <permission type="createNonDurableQueue" roles="user"/>
		      <permission type="deleteNonDurableQueue" roles="user"/>
		      <permission type="send" roles="user"/>
		      <permission type="consume" roles="user"/>
		   </security-setting>

		   <security-setting match="jms.topic.news.europe.#">
		      <permission type="createDurableQueue" roles="user"/>
		      <permission type="deleteDurableQueue" roles="user"/>
		      <permission type="createNonDurableQueue" roles="user"/>
		      <permission type="deleteNonDurableQueue" roles="user"/>
		      <permission type="send" roles="europe-user"/>
		      <permission type="consume" roles="news-user"/>
		   </security-setting>

		   <security-setting match="jms.topic.news.us.#">
		      <permission type="createDurableQueue" roles="user"/>
		      <permission type="deleteDurableQueue" roles="user"/>
		      <permission type="createNonDurableQueue" roles="user"/>
		      <permission type="deleteNonDurableQueue" roles="user"/>
		      <permission type="send" roles="us-user"/>
		      <permission type="consume" roles="news-user"/>
		   </security-setting>
     </security-settings>
     

Permissions can be defined on any group of queues, by using a wildcard. You can easily specify wildcards to apply certain permissions to a set of matching queues and topics. In the above configuration we have created four sets of permissions, each set matches against a special group of targets, indicated by wild-card match attributes.

You can provide a very broad permission control as a default and then add more strict control over specific addresses. By the above we define the following access rules:

  • Only role 'us-user' can create/delete and pulish messages to topics whose names match wild-card pattern 'news.us.#'.
  • Only role 'europe-user' can create/delete and publish messages to topics whose names match wild-card pattern 'news.europe.#'.
  • Only role 'news-user' can subscribe messages to topics whose names match wild-card pattern 'news.us.#' and 'news.europe.#'.
  • For any other topics that don't match any of the above wild-card patterns, permissions are granted to users of role 'user'.
  • To illustrate the effect of permissions, three topics are deployed. Topic 'genericTopic' matches 'jms.topic.#' wild-card, topic 'news.europe.europeTopic' matches jms.topic.news.europe.#' wild-cards, and topic 'news.us.usTopic' matches 'jms.topic.news.us.#'.

    Example step-by-step

    To run the example, simply type mvn verify from this directory

    1. First we need to get an initial context so we can look-up the JMS connection factory and destination objects from JNDI. This initial context will get it's properties from the client-jndi.properties file in the directory ../common/config
    2.            
                 InitialContext initialContext = getContext(0);
                 
              
    3. We perform lookup on the topics
    4.            
                 Topic genericTopic = (Topic) initialContext.lookup("/topic/genericTopic");
                 Topic europeTopic = (Topic) initialContext.lookup("/topic/europeTopic");
                 Topic usTopic = (Topic) initialContext.lookup("/topic/usTopic");
                 
              
    5. We perform a lookup on the Connection Factory
    6.            
                 ConnectionFactory cf = (ConnectionFactory) initialContext.lookup("/ConnectionFactory");
                 
              
    7. We try to create a JMS Connection without user/password. It will fail.
    8.            
                 try
                 {
                    cf.createConnection();
                    result = false;
                 }
                 catch (JMSSecurityException e)
                 {
                    System.out.println("Default user cannot get a connection. Details: " + e.getMessage());
                 }
                 
              
    9. Bill tries to make a connection using wrong password
    10.            
                 billConnection = null;
                 try
                 {
                    billConnection = createConnection("bill", "activemq1", cf);
                    result = false;
                 }
                 catch (JMSException e)
                 {
                    System.out.println("User bill failed to connect. Details: " + e.getMessage());
                 }
                 
              
    11. Bill makes a good connection.
    12.           
                 billConnection = createConnection("bill", "activemq", cf);
                 billConnection.start();
                
             
    13. Andrew makes a good connection
    14.            
                 andrewConnection = createConnection("andrew", "activemq1", cf);
                 andrewConnection.start();
                 
               
    15. Frank makes a good connection
    16.            
                 frankConnection = createConnection("frank", "activemq2", cf);
                 frankConnection.start();
                 
              
    17. Sam makes a good connection
    18.            
                 samConnection = createConnection("sam", "activemq3", cf);
                 samConnection.start();
                 
              
    19. We check every user can publish/subscribe genericTopics
    20.            
                 checkUserSendAndReceive(genericTopic, billConnection, "bill");
                 checkUserSendAndReceive(genericTopic, andrewConnection, "andrew");
                 checkUserSendAndReceive(genericTopic, frankConnection, "frank");
                 checkUserSendAndReceive(genericTopic, samConnection, "sam");
                 
              
    21. We check permissions on news.europe.europeTopic for bill: can't send and can't receive
    22.            
                 checkUserNoSendNoReceive(europeTopic, billConnection, "bill", andrewConnection, frankConnection);
                 
              
    23. We check permissions on news.europe.europeTopic for andrew: can send but can't receive
    24.            
                 checkUserSendNoReceive(europeTopic, andrewConnection, "andrew", frankConnection);
                 
              
    25. We check permissions on news.europe.europeTopic for frank: can't send but can receive
    26.            
                 checkUserReceiveNoSend(europeTopic, frankConnection, "frank", andrewConnection);
                 
              
    27. We check permissions on news.europe.europeTopic for sam: can't send but can receive
    28.            
                 checkUserReceiveNoSend(europeTopic, samConnection, "sam", andrewConnection);
                 
              
    29. We check permissions on news.us.usTopic for bill: can't send and can't receive
    30.            
                 checkUserNoSendNoReceive(usTopic, billConnection, "bill");
                 
              
    31. We check permissions on news.us.usTopic for andrew: can't send and can't receive
    32.            
                 checkUserNoSendNoReceive(usTopic, andrewConnection, "andrew");
                 
              
    33. We check permissions on news.us.usTopic for frank: can both send and receive
    34.            
                 checkUserSendAndReceive(usTopic, frankConnection, "frank");
                 
              
    35. We check permissions on news.us.usTopic for sam: can't send but can receive
    36.            
                 checkUserReceiveNoSend(usTopic, samConnection, "sam", frankConnection);
                 
              
    37. And finally, always remember to close your JMS connections and resources after use, in a finally block. Closing a JMS connection will automatically close all of its sessions, consumers, producer and browser objects
    38.            
                 finally
                 {
                    if (billConnection != null)
                    {
                       billConnection.close();
                    }
                    if (andrewConnection != null)
                    {
                       andrewConnection.close();
                    }
                    if (frankConnection != null)
                    {
                       frankConnection.close();
                    }
                    if (samConnection != null)
                    {
                       samConnection.close();
                    }
      
                    // Also the initialContext
                    if (initialContext != null)
                    {
                       initialContext.close();
                    }
                 }