WCF Security, When/How to Use, Advantages and Disadvantages

Transport Security	Message Security
When using transport security, the user credentials and claims are passed by using the transport layer. In other words, user credentials are transport-dependent, which allows fewer authentication options compared to message security. Each transport protocol (TCP, IPC, MSMQ, or HTTP) has its own mechanism for passing credentials and handling message protection. The most common approach for this is to use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for encrypting and signing the contents of the packets sent over Secure HTTP (HTTPS).	When using message security, the user credentials and claims are encapsulated in every message using the WS-Security specification to secure messages. This option gives the most flexibility from an authentication perspective. You can use any type of security credentials you want, largely independent of transport, as long as both the client and service agree.
Use You are sending a message directly from your application to a WCF service and the message will not be routed through intermediate systems. Both the service and the client are located in an intranet.	Use You are sending a message to a WCF service, and the message is likely to be forwarded to other WCF services or may be routed through intermediate systems. Your WCF clients are accessing the WCF service over the Internet and messages may be routed through intermediate systems.
Advantage It provides interoperability, meaning that communicating parties do not need to understand WS-Security specifications. It may result in better performance. Hardware accelerators can be used to further improve the performance.	Advantage It provides end-to-end security. Because message security directly encrypts and signs the message, having intermediaries does not break the security. It allows partial or selective message encryption and signing, thus improving overall application performance. Message security is transport-independent and therefore can be used with any transport protocol. It supports a wide set of credentials and claims, including the issue token that enables federated security.
Dis Advantage Security is applied on a point-to-point basis, with no provision for multiple hops or routing through intermediate application nodes. It supports a limited set of credentials and claims compared to message security. It is transport-dependent upon the underlying platform, transport mechanism, and security service provider, such as NTLM or Kerberos.	Dis Advantage This option may reduce performance compared to transport security because each individual message is encrypted and signed. It does not support interoperability with older ASMX clients, as it requires both the client and service to support WS-Security specifications.
<netTcpBinding> <binding name="netTcpTransportBinding">    <security mode="Transport">               <Transport clientCredentialType="Windows" />    </security> </binding> </netTcpBinding>	<wsHttpBinding> <binding name="wsHttpMessageBinding">   <security mode="Message">               <Message clientCredentialType="UserName" />   </security>  </binding> </wsHttpBinding>

Quick coding excersice to learn Angular

I have created one simple user interface with MVC Controller to understand AngularJS directive, controller, module, GET and PUT method. This will help at beginner level, one single code will let you know many things.

User Interface Code

MVC C#.NET Controller Code

namespace AngularTutorial.Controllers
{
    public class Emp
    {
        public string Name {get; set;}
        public string City {get; set;}
    }

    public class AngularController : Controller
    {
         public ActionResult Angular()
        {
            return View();
        }

        [HttpGet]
        public JsonResult GetEmpData()
        {
            List empList = new List();

            for (int i = 0; i <= 5; i++)
            {
                Emp emp = new Emp();
                emp.Name = "Ritesh - " + i;
                emp.City = "Jbp - " + i*i;
                empList.Add(emp);
            }
            return Json(empList, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
         }

        [HttpPost]
        public ActionResult Employee(Emp emp)
        {
            if (ModelState.IsValid)
            {
                // Add data insert/update logic here
            }
            return View();
        }
}
}

User Interface Run time

 

Reference: http://www.w3schools.com/angular/

Understand Action, Func and Delegate, workflow, calls with Lambda & Anonymous method etc.

Action is a delegate (pointer) to a method, that takes zero, one or more input parameters, but does NOT return anything.

Func is a delegate (pointer) to a method, that takes zero, one or more input parameters, and DOES returns a value (or reference).

Predicate is a special kind of Func often used for comparisons.

The difference between Func and Action is simply whether you want the delegate to return a value (use Func) or not (use Action).

Action does not return value. Func and Action take up to 16 parameters, Func take one extra parameter for Return, so total parameter for Func is 17.

C#.NET Example to use Func & Action 

public static double CalculateSomething(int i, int j)

{

   return  new double();

}

public static void DoSomething(int i, int j)

{

    Console.WriteLine("we are here...");

}

//Call
Func<int, int, double> myFunc = (CalculateSomething);

Action<int, int> myAction = (DoSomething);

double is return.output parameter

How Delegate works, just to compare with Action & Func

Delegate is a type which holds the method(s) reference in an object. It is also referred to as a type safe function pointer.

//Delegate declare

public delegate int MyOwnDelegate(int i, int j);

private int ShowAddition(int i, int j) { return i + j; }

private int ShowMultipy(int i, int j) { return i * j; }

//Call

MyOwnDelegate dele = new MyOwnDelegate(ShowAddition);

dele(10, 20); //Output 30

//If it hold reference of more then one method then it called MultiCast Delegate

dele += new MyOwnDelegate(ShowMultipy);

dele(10, 20);  //Output  30 and 200

  

Then the Delegate is added using the += operator and removed using the -= operator.  

                 

How Func works

public sealed class emp

{

   public double Calculate(Func<double, double> op)

   {

        return op(20);

   }

}

public class Program

{ 

   public static double Display(double i)

   {

       return i*9;

   }

   private static void Main(string[] args)

   {

            //Call

     emp e = new emp();

     double d1 = e.Calculate(Display);

    //Another way to call this function, with inline function
     double d1 = e.Calculate(r => 2*Math.PT*r);

    }

}

1. ‘Calculate’ function takes input parameter as function name ‘Display’ to execute
2. First control goes inside ‘Calculate’ function and convert op(20) into Display(20).
3. Then control go to ‘Display’ function, which is taking ‘20’ as an input parameter and convert i*9 into 20*9 and
4. Final Output of d1 is 180;

Action uses for Lambda & Anonymous method

public class Base

{

  public void Foo(Action action)

  {

     Console.WriteLine("Action with No Param...");

  }

  public void Foo(Action<int> action)

  {

     Console.WriteLine("Action with ONE param...");

  }

  

  public void Foo(Action<int, int> action)

  {

     Console.WriteLine("Action with TWO param...");

  }

}

//Call

Base d = new Base();

int x = 0;

//lambda expression

d.Foo(() => { x = 0; });       // Call Foo with No param in Action

d.Foo((i) => { x = 0; });      // Call Foo with ONE  param in Action

d.Foo((i, j) => { x = 0; });  // Call Foo with TWO param in Action

//Anonymous Method

d.Foo(delegate() { x = 0; });               // Call Foo with No param in Action

d.Foo(delegate(int i) { x = 1; });          // Call Foo with ONE  param in Action

d.Foo(delegate(int i, int j) { x = 2; });   // Call Foo with TWO param in Action

Func uses for Lambda & Anonymous method

public class Base

{ 

 public int Foo(Func<int> action)

 {

    Console.WriteLine("Func with No Param...");

    return 1;

  }

  public int Foo(Func<int,int> action)

  {

    Console.WriteLine("Func with No Param...");

    return 2;

  }

  public int Foo(Func<int, int,int> action)

  {

    Console.WriteLine("Func with TWO param...");

    return 3;

  }

}

//Call
Base d = new Base();

int x = 0;

//lambda expression

d.Foo(() => 0);                  // Call Foo with No param in Func

d.Foo((int i) => 10);            // Call Foo wit ONE  param in Func

d.Foo((int i, int j) => 20);     // Call Foo with TWO param in Func

//Anonymous Method

d.Foo(delegate() { return 1; });          // Call Foo with No param in Func

d.Foo(delegate(int i) { return 1; });     // Call Foo with ONE param in Func

d.Foo(delegate(int i, int j) { return 1; }); // Call Foo with TWO param in Func

Support high volume data transfer by WCF service

Sometime the requirement is send big data to WCF service from client, basically looking for option to send high data through the wire.

WCF can support up to 2 GB data through the wire; even though it is not recommended.

To enable this we need to set some attributes to binding tags in Server and Client side config file

Server Config File

<bindings>

   <wsHttpBinding>

     <binding name="wsHttpBindingSettings" maxReceivedMessageSize="2147483647">

       <readerQuotas

              maxDepth="2147483647"

              maxStringContentLength="2147483647"

              maxArrayLength="2147483647"

              maxBytesPerRead="2147483647"

              maxNameTableCharCount="2147483647"/>

      </binding>

   </wsHttpBinding>

</bindings>

<endpoint

address=""

binding="wsHttpBinding"

contract="WcfService1.IService1"

bindingConfiguration="wsHttpBindingSettings">      

Client Config File 

<bindings>

  <wsHttpBinding>

     <binding

name="WSHttpBinding_IService1"

maxBufferPoolSize="2147483647"

              maxReceivedMessageSize="2147483647">

      <readerQuotas

maxStringContentLength="2147483647"

maxArrayLength="2147483647"

              maxBytesPerRead="2147483647"

maxNameTableCharCount="2147483647" />

     </binding>

  </wsHttpBinding>

</bindings>

   <endpoint

address="http://localhost:59284/Service1.svc"

binding="wsHttpBinding"

bindingConfiguration="WSHttpBinding_IService1" 

contract="ServiceReference1.IService1"

       name="WSHttpBinding_IService1">

The client certificate is not provided. specify a client certificate in clientcredentials.

I have done all the setup; require to setup WCF message security and tried calling service from client, is working fine without any issues.
later I made few changes on the service and again use 'Update Service Reference' to update my service. suddenly service stop working and gave below error
 "The client certificate is not provided. specify a client certificate in clientcredentials."

Cause
As soon as I did service update; client side config file updated with new endpoint section, that removed (custom) one attribute 'behaviorConfiguration'.

Solution
After updating the service reference add 'behaviorConfiguration' attribute to endpoint section like below

<endpoint 

address="http://localhost:65514/Service1.svc" 

binding="wsHttpBinding"

bindingConfiguration="WSHttpBinding_IService1" 

contract="ServiceReference1.IService1"

name="WSHttpBinding_IService1"

behaviorConfiguration="CustomBehavior">

If you have added any kinds of attributes; that will be removed after you update service using 'Update Service Reference'.