ASP.NET MVC How to create a custom role provider

Question

Being relatively new to ASP MVC, I\'m unsure which would better suit my needs. I have built an intranet site using Windows authentication and I\'m able to secure controllers

Answer 1

My solution was to create a custom role provider. Here are the steps I took, in case anyone else needs help later:

Create your custom user and role classes

using Microsoft.AspNet.Identity.EntityFramework;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
namespace Security.Models.Security
{
    public class AppRole : IdentityRole
    {
    }
}

and

using Microsoft.AspNet.Identity.EntityFramework;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
namespace Security.Models.Security
{
    public class AppUser : IdentityUser
    {
    }
}

Set up your database context

using Microsoft.AspNet.Identity.EntityFramework;
using Security.Models.Security;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Data.Entity;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;

namespace Security.Models.DAL
{
    public class UserContext : IdentityDbContext
    {
        public UserContext() : base("UserContext")
        {
            Database.SetInitializer(new CreateDatabaseIfNotExists());
        }
    }
}

Create your role provider and implement the following methods

using Security.Models.DAL;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;

namespace Security.Models.Security
{
    public class AppRoleProvider : RoleProvider
    {
        public override string[] GetAllRoles()
        {
            using (var userContext = new UserContext())
            {
                return userContext.Roles.Select(r => r.Name).ToArray();
            }
        }

        public override string[] GetRolesForUser(string username)
        {
            using (var userContext = new UserContext())
            {
                var user = userContext.Users.SingleOrDefault(u => u.UserName == username);
                var userRoles = userContext.Roles.Select(r => r.Name);

                if (user == null)
                    return new string[] { };
                return user.Roles == null ? new string[] { } :
                    userRoles.ToArray();
            }
        }

        public override bool IsUserInRole(string username, string roleName)
        {
            using (var userContext = new UserContext())
            {
                var user = userContext.Users.SingleOrDefault(u => u.UserName == username);
                var userRoles = userContext.Roles.Select(r => r.Name);

                if (user == null)
                    return false;
                return user.Roles != null &&
                    userRoles.Any(r => r == roleName);
            }
        }
    }
}

Edit your web.config to set up the database connection and role provider reference

and

    ...
            
    
      
        
        
      
      ...
    
  

In package manager console, enable migrations

enable-migrations

In the newly created Configurations.cs set up the user/role stores and managers and configure the user manager validator to accept '\' characters

namespace Security.Migrations
{
    using Microsoft.AspNet.Identity;
    using Microsoft.AspNet.Identity.EntityFramework;
    using Security.Models.Security;
    using System;
    using System.Data.Entity;
    using System.Data.Entity.Migrations;
    using System.Linq;

    internal sealed class Configuration : DbMigrationsConfiguration
    {
        public Configuration()
        {
            AutomaticMigrationsEnabled = true;
            ContextKey = "Security.Models.DAL.UserContext";
        }

        protected override void Seed(Security.Models.DAL.UserContext db)
        {
            // Set up the role store and the role manager
            var roleStore = new RoleStore(db);
            var roleManager = new RoleManager(roleStore);

            // Set up the user store and the user mananger
            var userStore = new UserStore(db);
            var userManager = new UserManager(userStore);

            // Ensure that the user manager is able to accept special characters for userNames (e.g. '\' in the 'DOMAIN\username')            
            userManager.UserValidator = new UserValidator(userManager) { AllowOnlyAlphanumericUserNames = false };

            // Seed the database with the administrator role if it does not already exist
            if (!db.Roles.Any(r => r.Name == "Administrator"))
            {
                var role = new AppRole { Name = "Administrator" };
                roleManager.Create(role);
            }

            // Seed the database with the administrator user if it does not already exist
            if (!db.Users.Any(u => u.UserName == @"DOMAIN\admin"))
            {
                var user = new AppUser { UserName = @"DOMAIN\admin" };
                userManager.Create(user);
                // Assign the administrator role to this user
                userManager.AddToRole(user.Id, "Administrator");
            }
        }
    }
}

In package manager console, ensure the database is created and seeded

update-database

Create a custom authorization attribute that will redirect to an access denied page on failure

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;

namespace Security.Models.Security
{
    public class AccessDeniedAuthorizationAttribute : AuthorizeAttribute
    {
        public override void OnAuthorization(AuthorizationContext filterContext)
        {
            base.OnAuthorization(filterContext);

            if(filterContext.Result is HttpUnauthorizedResult)
            {
                filterContext.Result = new RedirectResult("~/Home/AccessDenied");
            }
        }
    }
}

You're done! You can now create an access denied page (in this case ~/Home/AccessDenied) and apply the attribute to any action, e.g.

using Security.Models.Security;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;

namespace Security.Controllers
{
    public class HomeController : Controller
    {
         ...    

        [AccessDeniedAuthorizationAttribute(Roles = "Administrator")]
        public ActionResult SecureArea()
        {
            return View();
        }

        public ActionResult AccessDenied()
        {
            return View();
        }

        ...
    }
}

Hope this helps someone in the future. Good luck!