Configuring authentication for an application link is essentially defining the level of trust between the two linked servers.

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The level of authentication that you should configure for your application link depends on a number of factors.

  • Do the two applications you are linking trust each other? i.e. are you sure that the code in the application will behave itself at all times and that the application will maintain the security of its private key?
  • Do the two applications you are linking share the same user base or not?
  • Do you have administrative access to the application you are linking to?

Common scenarios include:

  • If the two applications you are linking trust each other and share the same user base, configure two-way authentication using Trusted Applications for both incoming authentication (authentication of requests coming from a linked application into this application) and outgoing authentication (authentication of requests sent from this application to a linked application). For example, you may link your internal Confluence instance to an internal JIRA instance.
  • If the two applications you are linking trust each other but do not share the same user base, configure two-way authentication using OAuth for both incoming authentication (authentication of requests coming from a linked application into this application) and outgoing authentication (authentication of requests sent from this application to a linked application). For example, you may link your internal Confluence instance to an external (customer-facing) JIRA instance.
  • If you do not have administrative rights to the application that you are linking to (e.g. linking to a public FishEye instance), configure a one-way outgoing link authenticated using basic HTTP authentication or do not configure any authentication for the link. For example, you may link your external JIRA instance to a partner organisation's JIRA instance. An unauthenticated link will still allow the local application to render hyperlinks to the remote application or query anonymously-accessible APIs.

The flowchart below provides a guide to what authentication you should configure for your application link.

Read the following topics for information on how to configure authentication for an application link:

Configuring Authentication for an Application Link

Flowchart above: Determining what authentication to configure for an Application Link

If you configure Trusted Applications authentication for your application (your servers have the same set of users and they fully trust each other), please be aware of the following security implications:

  • 信頼できるアプリケーションがセキュリティリスクを引き起こすかもしれません。信頼できるアプリケーションの認証を設定すると、1 つのアプリケーションに対し、他のアプリケーションへのアクセスをユーザーとして許可することになります。これは、組み込まれているセキュリティ対策すべてを回避します。信頼できるアプリケーションのすべてのコードがつねに適切に動作することを把握しており、アプリケーションがセキュリティのプライベートキーを維持する確証がない限り、信頼できるアプリケーションを設定しないでください。

If you configure OAuth authentication for your application (your servers have different sets of users and they fully trust each other), please be aware of the following security implications:

  • Adding an OAuth consumer requires the transmission of sensitive data. To prevent 'man-in-the-middle' attacks, it is recommended that you use SSL for your applications while configuring OAuth authentication.
  • Do not link to an application using OAuth authentication, unless you trust all code in the application to behave itself at all times. OAuth consumers are a potential security risk to the applications that they are linked to.

Screenshot above: Configuring authentication during application link setup

You can configure multiple authentication types for each application link. When a feature makes a request using an Application Link, it will use one of the configured authentication types. If more than one authentication type is configured, it will by default use the authentication type that is marked as the primary authentication type. The default authentication type is indicated by the green tick next to the authentication type on the list application link screen.

You cannot configure which authentication type is the primary authentication type. The primary authentication type is determined automatically by Application Links and depends on a weight defined by each authentication type method. However, every feature that uses Application Links can also choose to use a specific authentication type and might not use the default primary authentication type.

Applications Links allows you to configure 'impersonating' and 'non-impersonating' authentication types:
  • Impersonating authentication types make requests on behalf of the user who is currently logged in. People will see only the information that they have permission to see. This includes OAuth and Trusted Applications authentication.
  • Non-impersonating authentication types always use a pre-configured user when making a request. Everyone logged into the system will see the same information. This includes basic HTTP authentication.
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