Is SSRS custom basic authentication possible?
Is it possible to configure SSRS with a custom HttpModule to combine http basic access authentication with a custom authentication module? I've got a custom authentication module that works fine in combination with form authentication, but with basic I end up with a ServerConfigurationErrorException of "Could not load Authentication extension". This all revolves around trying to make report builder available to non-domain users.
December 1st, 2011 5:48pm

Hi, You can develop your custom security extension for SSRS. Please read this article about the requirements and with samples: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms155029.aspx I hope it helps. J.There are 10 type of people. Those who understand binary and those who do not. My Blog
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
December 4th, 2011 5:22am

Thanks for the response J. I already have custom forms authentication working with a solution based on those articles. What isn't clear is how to apply the same concepts with custom basic authentication. I have now been able to get the report builder to connect using custom basic authentication. What was tripping me up was the need for the name of the Authentication Extension within rsreportserver.config to match the authentication mode setting in Web.config. I'm now trying to figure out how to get the report manager working as the report manager is not passing the Authorization header along when it calls the ReportServices and when running in basic authentication mode the PassThroughCookie setting appears to be ignored. Harry
December 5th, 2011 5:36pm

Hi HFryCol, Another related thread for your reference: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/mybasicauthentication.aspx Regards, Lola TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tnmff@microsoft.com. Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
December 6th, 2011 6:35am

Hi HFryCol, Another related thread for your reference: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/mybasicauthentication.aspx Regards, Lola TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tnmff@microsoft.com. Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
December 6th, 2011 6:35am

Hi Lola, I've got an HttpHandler that handles the basic authentication and have it working with the web services portion of SSRS. The big problem I'm facing is the pass through from the report manager to the web services. When the report manager makes a web service request with basic authentication it adds an Authorization header to the request but the encoded value only contains the user name. Apparently it's using the AUTH_USER and AUTH_PASSWORD server variables from the original request to create the Authorization header, but on the original request the AUTH_PASSWORD variable is empty. I'm guessing that when the AuthenticationTypes is defined as RSWindowsBasic then the AUTH_PASSWORD gets set, but since I'm using Custom it's not. I've investigated trying to set the AUTH_PASSWORD value in my HttpHandler, but the HttpServerVarsCollection is locked down really good. Thanks, Harry
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
December 16th, 2011 4:59pm

The end result of my attempts at using custom basic authentication with SSRS 2008 R2 is that it can be made to work with the web services, but not with the report manager. There doesn't appear to be any way to get the report manager to pass the full credentials when it calls the web services, though it does pass the user name. I should point out however, that report manager authentication requests to the web services will always be a local request and you could write your authentication logic to take this into consideration. Thanks to all who replied to my question. Harry
December 23rd, 2011 1:49pm

The end result of my attempts at using custom basic authentication with SSRS 2008 R2 is that it can be made to work with the web services, but not with the report manager. There doesn't appear to be any way to get the report manager to pass the full credentials when it calls the web services, though it does pass the user name. I should point out however, that report manager authentication requests to the web services will always be a local request and you could write your authentication logic to take this into consideration. Thanks to all who replied to my question. Harry
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
December 23rd, 2011 1:49pm

This topic is archived. No further replies will be accepted.

Other recent topics Other recent topics