Re: Passing User ID and Password in Applet

Thanks to all.  You gave me much to think about....

Wim, I don't know much about SSL or how it is initiated but I thought 
that if you used SSL the stream was fully encrypted.  That is, if you 
are using SSL then the traffic that is passing over port 992 is 
encrypted, even the signon screen.  Is that the case?  Also, our HTML 
based menuing system can run in an HTTPS environment so executing the 
applet under HTTPS would encrypt the page I think, though if the user 
viewed the page source they would see the password in plain text, 
right?  The encryption is just used between the browser and the server.  
The HTML as rendered by the browser is still in plain text. It *could* 
allow a user to view the source on another user's browser and see the 
password (at least I think this is possible).

I think I understand the applet ending routine that you currently have 
but since I don't work that closely with the internals of 5250 some of 
what you and Kenneth are saying is going over my head.  And I am still a 
relative rookie with Java so I need a bit more info and, if you can, a 
small snippet of code that demonstrates what you are talking about.  For 
example, when you say "wrap the command" and then use a signoff with a 
disconnect, are you saying that I could just have a CL program that has 
a call to whatever program we want to run (in fact, we already have 
this) and then at the end of the command use SIGNOFF ENDCNN(*YES)?  I 
think you also are saying that we need to add a sessionlistener to the 
applet code and then use that to trigger the navigation when the session 
is disconnected.  I am not familiar with using a sessionlistener but 
with an example I think I can figure it out (code examples are always 
helpful).

It sounds like that is the way to go.  Adding a SIGNOFF ENDCNN(*YES) 
should be easy enough but I need a little help with the sessionlistener 
logic.

Thanks! Now I just need to deal with the password issue and I think I 
have it.

Pete

BTW Kenneth, Gaurav posted his code to the list on July 2nd, 2003.  If 
you can't find it in the archives, I can send it to you.

[email protected] wrote:

>
> Hello Pete,
>
> I'm not quite sure why everybody make a problem about the clear 
> passwords. When you would send them encrypted, the emulator telnets to 
> the AS/400 and what does he do in the first place: send your userid 
> and password to the as/400. I think that these are in clear text also. 
> The only solution would be to SSL or VPN your communication to your 
> webserver and AS/400.
>
> Next the autoclosing is fairly easy to implement using the autologin 
> and scanning we have introduced in the emulator: when logging on you 
> want to autostart a command. Lets call this the application command. 
> What you can do is wrap this app command in you own shell command. 
> e.g. start cmd('appcmd'). The start can do a few thing like setting 
> liblists etc. But it's main purpose is to properly shutdown the 
> emulator. You can do this in 2 ways: to a signof with disconnect. At 
> the emulator side, you can attach a sessionlistener and have you 
> applet navigate away from you page as the session gets disconnected. 
> Or the start command can also trigger a scan code to the emulator: #! 
> END so the applet can listen to this and perform an end of session. 
> This way you can do a lot more than just ending.
>
> Hope this helps,
> Wim.
>
>
>
> *Pete Helgren <[email protected]>*
> Sent by: [email protected]
>
> 15/06/2005 21:06
> Please respond to
> [email protected]
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> Subject
> 	[Tn5250j-general] Passing User ID and Password in Applet
>
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>
>
>
>
> I had posted some of this about two years ago when I first started
> working with the 5250 applet.  The problems that I had (and still have)
> have to do with the passing of UserID and password in the clear when I
> start an applet session.  Gaurav posted some code that has a servlet
> that talks to the applet and passes the password back to it.  I think I
> can follow the approach but wanted to know if anyone else had solved
> this problem in a different way.
>
> We have an HTML based menuing system that runs on the iSeries (under an
> Apache web server).  The user logs in via an HTML login prompt and then
> the menu(s) are generated from there.  Some of the menu items are HTML
> based but some are 5250 apps and we launch them using tn5250j in an
> applet.  We generate the HTML that launches the applet on the fly using
> a template but so far we have had to pass the password in the clear, not
> a good solution.  So, if you have any ideas that we could use to start
> the applet without passing the password in the clear, I'd like to hear
> about it.
>
> We also have a need to end the application gracefully when the users are
> done running the 5250 application.  Right now, we display a message that
> says "Click the Exit link to end the program" and the user has to click
> the link to end the session.  What I would like to do is have the applet
> close when the 5250 application has ended automatically.  I am not sure
> how to accomplish this since the 5250 session would have to "tell" the
> applet to close....
>
> I'd appreciate anyone's idea as to how to solve these two issues as
> simply as possible.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Pete Helgren
>
>
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