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How Web Agents Secure Resources

A SiteMinder Web Agent is a software component that controls access to any resource that can be identified by a URL. The Web Agent resides on a web server and intercepts requests for a resource to determine whether or not the resource is protected by SiteMinder. The Web Agent then interacts with the Policy Server to authenticate and authorize users who request access to the protected web server resources.

Web Agents perform the following tasks:

• Intercept access requests for protected resources and work with the Policy Server to determine whether or not a user should have access.
• Provide information to a Web application that dictates how content is presented to the user (policy-based personalization) and how to deliver access privileges.
• Ensure a user's ability to access information quickly and securely. Web Agents store contextual information about user access privileges in a session cache. You can optimize performance by modifying the cache settings.
• Enable single sign-on across Web servers in a single cookie domain or across multiple cookie domains without requiring users to re-authenticate.

For a list of SiteMinder Web Agents and supported Web server platforms, go to Technical Support and search for SiteMinder Support Matrix.

Web Agents reside on web servers as illustrated in the following diagram: