Published Release Notes

Application Express and the Content Security Policy

Application Express copies (if defined) the Content Security Policy (CSP) name (pyContentSecurityPolicyName) from the built-on application in a new application. It also sets the CSP mode (pyContentSecurityPolicyMode) to report. The values appear in the Content Security area on the application rule's Integration & Security tab.

When checking an application in the DCO Compatibility tool, a warning appears if the CSP name is missing.

Password hashing using SHA-256/SHA-512

Password hashing using the SHA-256 and SHA-512 hash functions is available for use during the the Pega 7 authentication process with operator, ruleset, and update lock passwords. The SHA-256/SHA-512 hash functions join the previously available MD5 and SHA-1 hash functions.

Using SHA-256/SHA-512 hashing when creating or upgrading a password hash results in increased complexity of the hash, making it extremely difficult and time-consuming to determine hashed password values stored in a database.

Note that once you have updated your system to Pega 7.1.7 and have applied password hashing using the SHA-256/SHA-512 hash functions, reverting back to a previous version of Pega 7 is not advised as this causes hashed passwords using SHA-256/SHA-512 to fail.

See About password hashing for more information.

Add custom HTTP response headers in your application

The Pega 7 Platform supports the addition of custom security HTTP headers that are supported by your browser. For example, you can now create custom X-Frame-Options, X-XSS-Protection, and Strict-Transport-Security headers. These headers improve the security of your application against client-based attacks.

For more information, see Creating a custom application header. 

Attribute-based access control model

Attribute-based access control (ABAC) is a security authorization model in which access rights are determined through the use of policies and attributes. A policy decision engine in ABAC evaluates digital policies against available data (attributes) to permit or deny access to the requested resource. For example, you can now determine access rights to cases by examining security attribute values assigned to the user and the case.

For more information, see Attribute-based access control.

All search data is encrypted

All search data in Pega Cloud deployments is now encrypted, both at rest and in transit. The encryption of search data makes search compliant with regulatory requirements.

For more information about search, see Full-text search.

Authentication service for basic credentials

A new type of authentication service is available for authenticating operators by using basic credentials (user ID and password). The default Pega Platform™ login is now an instance of this type of authentication service. All basic credentials authentication services include mobile authentication with the OAuth 2.0 protocol and Proof Key for Code Exchange (PKCE). You no longer have to create a custom authentication service to support mobile applications.

For more information, see Configuring a basic authentication service.

Unauthenticated sessions transition seamlessly to authenticated

A new authentication service type allows a guest user to use an application without logging in, and to be prompted to authenticate later in the session. This enhancement supports scenarios such as online shopping portals where a user can browse for items and load a shopping cart as a guest but be prompted for credentials at checkout.

For more information, see Configuring an anonymous authentication service.

Create single sign-on authentication services from App Studio

You can create and enable single sign-on (SSO) authentication services from a new landing page in App Studio. From this new landing page you can also configure new SAML and OpenID Connect authentication services to provision users. For more information, see Creating a SAML SSO authentication service and Creating an OIDC SSO authentication service.

Protect against insecure deserialization

Deserialization is the process of rebuilding a data stream into a Java object. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) has identified insecure deserialization as one of the top 10 security vulnerabilities for web applications. Pega Platform™ protects against this vulnerability by using filters that prevent deserialization of suspect data streams. You can configure these filters from the Deserialization Blacklist landing page.

For more information, see Configuring the deserialization filter.

New JWT access token format: Authorized Access Token

Pega Platform™ is changing from using opaque tokens to using JSON Web (JWT) tokens and the JWT access token format: Authorized Access Token (AAT). An AAT enables a client application to validate the server for user permissions and authorizes a specific application to access specific parts of a user’s data.

The major benefits to using the JWT format are:

• The JWT is a self-contained token that has authentication information, expire time information, and other user-defined claims digitally signed.
• A single token can be used with multiple applications.
• The tokens are short-lived and can minimize damage if transport security is compromised, as the token signature is verified.
• As the token is verified with the signature, there is no need to verify against a database, thus reducing latency (usually important for Web APIs).

For more information, see Understanding authorized access tokens.