This guide includes steps for two common OIDC identity providers, Keycloak and Okta. For more information about this type of external auth, see OIDC and OAuth. You can adapt these steps for other providers.

Before you begin

  1. Create your APIs, including the Gloo ApiDocs that describe the stitched schema.

  2. Bundle your APIs into API products by using a route table.

  3. Make sure that the external auth service is installed and running. If not, install the external auth service in your single or multicluster environment.

      kubectl get pods -A -l app=ext-auth-service

  4. Get the labels of your routes to use to apply policies to, such as with the example query.

      kubectl get rt -n gloo-mesh-gateways -o=jsonpath='{range .items[*]}[{.metadata.name}, {.spec.http[*].name}, {.spec.http[*].labels}]{"\n"}{end}'

    Example output:

    • The api-example-com-rt route table does not have any route-level labels. To apply policies, you can add labels to those routes.
    • The petstore-rt route table has a usagePlans: dev-portal label on its pets-api, users-api, and store-api routes.
    • The tracks-rt route table has a usagePlans: dev-portal label on its tracks-api route.
      [api-example-com-rt, , ]
[petstore-rt, pets-api users-api store-api, {"usagePlans":"dev-portal"} {"usagePlans":"dev-portal"} {"usagePlans":"dev-portal"} ]
[tracks-rt, tracks-api, {"usagePlans":"dev-portal"}]

Basic OAuth with Keycloak

Use Keycloak as the OIDC provider to enforce external auth policies.

Step 1: Install Keycloak

You might want to test how to restrict access to your applications to authenticated users, such as with external auth or JWT policies. You can install Keycloak in your cluster as an OpenID Connect (OIDC) provider.

The following steps install Keycloak in your cluster, and configure two user credentials as follows.

  • Username: user1, password: password, email: user1@example.com
  • Username: user2, password: password, email: user2@solo.io

Install and configure Keycloak:

  1. Create a namespace for your Keycloak deployment.

      kubectl create namespace keycloak

  2. Create the Keycloak deployment.

      kubectl -n keycloak apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/solo-io/gloo-mesh-use-cases/main/policy-demo/oidc/keycloak.yaml

  3. Wait for the Keycloak rollout to finish.

      kubectl -n keycloak rollout status deploy/keycloak

  4. Set the Keycloak endpoint details from the load balancer service.

      export ENDPOINT_KEYCLOAK=$(kubectl -n keycloak get service keycloak -o jsonpath='{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].*}'):8080
export HOST_KEYCLOAK=$(echo ${ENDPOINT_KEYCLOAK} | cut -d: -f1)
export PORT_KEYCLOAK=$(echo ${ENDPOINT_KEYCLOAK} | cut -d: -f2)
export KEYCLOAK_URL=http://${ENDPOINT_KEYCLOAK}
echo $KEYCLOAK_URL

  5. Set the Keycloak admin token. If you see a parsing error, try running the curl command by itself. You might notice that your internet provider or network rules are blocking the requests. If so, you can update your security settings or change the network so that the request can be processed.

      export KEYCLOAK_TOKEN=$(curl -d "client_id=admin-cli" -d "username=admin" -d "password=admin" -d "grant_type=password" "$KEYCLOAK_URL/realms/master/protocol/openid-connect/token" | jq -r .access_token)
echo $KEYCLOAK_TOKEN

  6. Use the admin token to configure Keycloak with the two users for testing purposes. If you get a 401 Unauthorized error, run the previous command and try again.

      # Create initial token to register the client
read -r client token <<<$(curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ${KEYCLOAK_TOKEN}" -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"expiration": 0, "count": 1}' $KEYCLOAK_URL/admin/realms/master/clients-initial-access | jq -r '[.id, .token] | @tsv')
export KEYCLOAK_CLIENT=${client}
echo $KEYCLOAK_CLIENT

# Register the client
read -r id secret <<<$(curl -k -X POST -d "{ \"clientId\": \"${KEYCLOAK_CLIENT}\" }" -H "Content-Type:application/json" -H "Authorization: bearer ${token}" ${KEYCLOAK_URL}/realms/master/clients-registrations/default| jq -r '[.id, .secret] | @tsv')
export KEYCLOAK_SECRET=${secret}
echo $KEYCLOAK_SECRET

# Add allowed redirect URIs
curl -k -H "Authorization: Bearer ${KEYCLOAK_TOKEN}" -X PUT -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"serviceAccountsEnabled": true, "directAccessGrantsEnabled": true, "authorizationServicesEnabled": true, "redirectUris": ["*"]}' $KEYCLOAK_URL/admin/realms/master/clients/${id}

# Add the group attribute in the JWT token returned by Keycloak
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ${KEYCLOAK_TOKEN}" -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name": "group", "protocol": "openid-connect", "protocolMapper": "oidc-usermodel-attribute-mapper", "config": {"claim.name": "group", "jsonType.label": "String", "user.attribute": "group", "id.token.claim": "true", "access.token.claim": "true"}}' $KEYCLOAK_URL/admin/realms/master/clients/${id}/protocol-mappers/models

# Create first user
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ${KEYCLOAK_TOKEN}" -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"username": "user1", "email": "user1@example.com", "firstName": "Alice", "lastName": "Doe", "enabled": true, "attributes": {"group": "users"}, "credentials": [{"type": "password", "value": "password", "temporary": false}]}' $KEYCLOAK_URL/admin/realms/master/users

# Create second user
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer ${KEYCLOAK_TOKEN}" -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"username": "user2", "email": "user2@solo.io", "firstName": "Bob", "lastName": "Doe", "enabled": true, "attributes": {"group": "users"}, "credentials": [{"type": "password", "value": "password", "temporary": false}]}' $KEYCLOAK_URL/admin/realms/master/users

  7. Open the Keycloak frontend.

      open $KEYCLOAK_URL

  8. Log in to the admin console, and enter admin as the username and admin as your password.

  9. In the Keycloak admin console, go to Users, and verify that the users that created earlier are displayed. You might need to click on View all users to see them.

  10. In the Keycloak admin console, go to Clients, and verify that you can see a client ID that equals the output of $KEYCLOAK_CLIENT.

Step 2: Configure Keycloak

Now that you installed Keycloak and set up clients to use, configure Keycloak for certain OAuth use cases. The following instructions assume that you are still logged into the Administration Console from the previous step.

You might integrate OIDC with your apps. In such cases, you might need particular details from the OIDC provider to fully set up your apps. To use Keycloak for OAuth protection of these apps, you need certain settings and information from Keycloak.

  1. For authorization code OAuth: Confirm that you have the following environmental variables set. If not, refer to the Before you begin and Step 1: Install Keycloak sections.

      echo $CLUSTER_NAME
echo $INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS
echo $KEYCLOAK_CLIENT
echo $KEYCLOAK_URL

  2. If you plan to use access token validation: Get a JWKS URI to use for an inline OAuth policy.

    1. From the sidebar menu options, click Realm Settings.
    2. From the General tab, scroll down to the Endpoints section and open the OpenID Endpoint Configuration link. In a new tab, your browser opens to a URL similar to http://$KEYCLOAK_URL:8080/realms/master/.well-known/openid-configuration.
    3. In the OpenID configuration, search for the token_endpoint field. Save the value as an environment variable, such as the following example.
        export TOKEN_ENDPOINT=$KEYCLOAK_URL/realms/master/protocol/openid-connect/token
    4. In the OpenID configuration, search for the jwks_uri field, and copy this value, similar to http://$KEYCLOAK_URL:8080/realms/master/protocol/openid-connect/certs.
        export KEYCLOAK_JWKS_URI=<jwks_uri>
    5. In a new browser tab, open the jwks_uri that you previously copied.
    6. From the opened jwks_uri, copy and save the entire value of the keys as an environment variable.
        export KEYCLOAK_CERT_KEYS={"keys":[{"kid":"_YYA...","kty":"RSA","alg":"RSA-OAEP","use":"enc","n":"r4AXlC9sR..."}]}

  3. If you plan to use the developer portal: Configure your Keycloak client with the appropriate settings for the developer portal frontend authentication.

    1. From the Keycloak sidebar menu options, click Clients.
    2. Click the Client ID that matches the $KEYCLOAK_CLIENT that you previously set.
    3. From the client Settings tab, find the Access settings and update the following fields.
      • Valid redirect URIs field with * wildcard or the domain that you want to use for redirects.
      • Valid post logout redirect URIs field with * wildcard or the domain that you want to use for logout redirects.
      • Web origins field with * wildcard to allow all origins.
    4. Scroll down to the Capability config section and update the following sections:
      • Toggle the Client authentication setting to Off to enable public access.
      • In the Authentication flow section, enable the Standard flow and Direct access grants options.
    5. At the bottom of the form, click Save. The Client successfully updated message pops up to confirm your settings are saved.
    6. From the client Advanced tab, find the Advanced settings. Set the Proof Key for Code Exchange Code Challenge Method dropdown to S256. For more information on PKCE, refer to RFC 7636.
    7. Scroll down and click Save. The Client successfully updated message pops up to confirm your settings are saved.

  4. If you plan to use the developer portal: Get the OIDC endpoint details.

    1. From the Keycloak sidebar menu options, click Realm Settings.
    2. From the General tab, scroll down to the Endpoints section and open the OpenID Endpoint Configuration link. In a new tab, your browser opens to a URL similar to http://$KEYCLOAK_URL:8080/realms/master/.well-known/openid-configuration
    3. In the OpenID configuration, search for the token_endpoint field. Save the value as an environment variable, such as the following example.
        export TOKEN_ENDPOINT=$KEYCLOAK_URL/realms/master/protocol/openid-connect/token
    4. In the OpenID configuration, search for the authorization_endpoint field. Save the value as an environment variable, such as the following example.
        export AUTH_ENDPOINT=$KEYCLOAK_URL/realms/master/protocol/openid-connect/auth
    5. In the OpenID configuration, search for the end_session_endpoint field. Save the value as an environment variable, such as the following example.
        export LOGOUT_ENDPOINT=$KEYCLOAK_URL/realms/master/protocol/openid-connect/logout

Step 3: Create the external auth server

Create resources that you need for external auth, such as a Gloo external auth server and route table with a label that you can use to apply policies.

  1. Create a Kubernetes secret with the Keycloak OIDC secret.
      kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: oauth
  namespace: gloo-mesh
type: extauth.solo.io/oauth
stringData:
  client-secret: ${KEYCLOAK_SECRET
EOF
  2. Create an external auth server to use for your policy. The example uses the default external auth server that you created when you installed Gloo Platform.
      kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: admin.gloo.solo.io/v2
kind: ExtAuthServer
metadata:
  name: ext-auth-server
  namespace: gloo-mesh
spec:
  destinationServer:
    ref:
      cluster: $CLUSTER_NAME
      name: ext-auth-service
      namespace: gloo-mesh
    port:
      name: grpc
EOF

Step 4: Create an OAuth policy with access token validation

Create an external auth policy that uses access token validation. The following example YAML uses JWT validation and an inline JWKS server to provide the JWT.

  kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: security.policy.gloo.solo.io/v2
kind: ExtAuthPolicy
metadata:
  name: oauth-jwt-validation
  namespace: gloo-mesh
spec:
  applyToRoutes:
  - route:
      labels:
        oauth: "true"
  config:
    server:
      name: ext-auth-server
      namespace: gloo-mesh
      cluster: $CLUSTER_NAME
    glooAuth:
      configs:
      - oauth2:
          accessTokenValidation:
            jwt:
              localJwks:
                inlineString: >-
                  $KEYCLOAK_CERT_KEYS
EOF
SettingDescription
applyToRoutesUse labels to configure which routes to apply the policy to. This example label matches the app and route from the example route table that you apply separately. If omitted and you do not have another selector such as applyToDestinations, the policy applies to all routes in the workspace.
serverThe external auth server to use for the policy.
oauth2Configure the OAuth 2.0 protocol details to use to authenticate requests. The example uses Keycloak as the external identity provider and access token with JWT validation.
inlineStringReplace $KEYCLOAK_CERT_KEYS with the value from your Keycloak OIDC provider at $KEYCLOAK_URL/realms/master/protocol/openid-connect/certs. For steps to retrieve this value, refer to the previous section about installing Keycloak.

Basic OAuth with Okta

Use Okta as the OIDC provider to enforce external auth policies.

Step 1: Set up an Okta OIDC app

Configure an Okta OIDC app to get the information that you need to create external auth policies to secure your resources.

  1. Open the Okta dashboard. If you don’t have an Okta account that you can use, sign up for an Okta developer account.

  2. From the Applications menu, click Applications > Create New App. Note that you might see a Create App Integration button instead.

    Figure: Okta application dashboard
    Figure: Okta application dashboard
    Figure: Okta application dashboard
    Figure: Okta application dashboard

  3. Select OIDC - OpenID Connect as the sign-in method for your app and Single-Page Application as your application type. Then, click Next.

  4. Enter a name for your app and optionally upload a logo.

  5. For Grant type, check both Authorization Code and Refresh Token.

  6. For Sign-in redirect URIs, enter the location from which you want to allow users to log in. The URL is composed of hostname that you set up for your Portal resources and the /callback path. For example, for the developer portal frontend app, you might enter:

    • https://developer.example.com to let a user log in from the secured home page.
    • React starter app: https://developer.example.com/apis to let a user log in from the APIs page.
    • Backstage frontend plug-in: https://developer.example.com/gloo-platform-portal to let a user log in from the Gloo Portal Backstage plug-in page.
    • https://developer.example.com/callback for the callback path.

  7. For the Sign-out redirect URIs, enter the location to redirect the user after logging out, such as the following examples:

    • React starter app: https://developer.example.com/logout.
    • Backstage frontend plug-in: https://developer.example.com/gloo-platform-portal/logout

  8. From the Assignments section, select Allow everyone in your organization to access. This way, you do not need to assign a user or group to this app. Instead, you can use your Okta developer account credentials to test the Okta authentication flow.

  9. Click Save to save your changes. You are redirected to the Okta app details page.

  10. From the General tab on the Okta app details page, note the Client ID.

    Figure: Okta General tab
    Figure: Okta General tab
    Figure: Okta General tab
    Figure: Okta General tab

  11. Store the Client ID as an environment variable.

      export CLIENT_ID=<client-id>

Step 2: Configure other Okta account details

Configure other Okta account details, such as the claims that you want to include in the access token.

  1. From the navigation menu, click Security > API.

  2. Click the Authorization Server that you want to use, such as default.

  3. From the Settings tab, click the Metadata URI. In a new tab, your browser opens to a URL similar to https://dev-1234567.okta.com/oauth2/default/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server.

  4. From the metadata URI, search for and save the endpoints that you need as environment variables.

    1. The token_endpoint is where to get the OAuth token.

        export TOKEN_ENDPOINT=https://dev-1234567.okta.com/oauth2/default/v1/token

    2. The authorization_endpoint is where to get the PKCE authorization code.

        export AUTH_ENDPOINT=https://dev-1234567.okta.com/oauth2/default/v1/authorize

    3. The end_session_endpoint is where to end the session.

        export LOGOUT_ENDPOINT=https://dev-1234567.okta.com/oauth2/default/v1/logout

  5. Get the JSON Web Key Set (JWKS) that you use later for an inline access token external auth policy.

    1. From the metadata URI, find the jwks_uri endpoint. In a new tab, open this endpoint, such as https://dev-1234567.okta.com/oauth2/default/v1/keys.

        export OKTA_JWKS_URI=<jwks_uri>

    2. Copy and save the entire value of these keys as an environment variable.

        export CERT_KEYS={"keys":[{"kty":"RSA","alg":"RS256","kid":"sKv...","use":"sig","e":"AQAB","n":"kdhR..."}]}

  6. Return to the authorization server page in Okta.

  7. From the Claims tab, click Add Claim to add any claims that you want the access token to include. Later, you can use these claims in your portal groups. For example, the portal group might require a member of organization: solo.io to access certain API products. For more information about claims, see JWT structure. For example, you might configure the following claims:

    • email: Return the user’s email as configured in the user’s profile.
    • organization: Return the user’s organization as configured in the user’s profile.
    • group: Include any group (match regex *) for the openid scope.

    Figure: Okta default auth server Claims tab
    Figure: Okta default auth server Claims tab
    Figure: Okta default auth server Claims tab
    Figure: Okta default auth server Claims tab

  8. From the Token Preview tab, verify that the tokens return the information that you expect, such as the same kid as $CERT_KEYS value that you previously saved and the claims that you configured.

    1. In OAuth/OIDC client, enter the name of your app.
    2. In Grant type, select Authorization Code.
    3. In User, enter your username or the name of the user that you want to log in to the frontend developer portal.
    4. In Scopes, enter openid.
    5. Click Preview Token, then flip between the id_token and token previews.
    6. If you do not see the claim information that you expect, click your profile > My settings and review your personal information. For example, you might not have an organization or group set. You can edit your profile to include this information, then preview the token again.

    Figure: Okta Token Preview tab
    Figure: Okta Token Preview tab
    Figure: Okta Token Preview tab
    Figure: Okta Token Preview tab

Step 3: Create the OAuth policy

Set up external auth resources with Okta as the OIDC provider.

  1. Create an external auth server that enforces your extauth policy.

      kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: admin.gloo.solo.io/v2
kind: ExtAuthServer
metadata:
  name: ext-auth-server
  namespace: gloo-mesh
spec:
  destinationServer:
    ref:
      cluster: $CLUSTER_NAME
      name: ext-auth-service
      namespace: gloo-mesh
    port:
      name: grpc
EOF

  2. Create an external auth policy for the oauth: "true" routes to enforce authentication via an access token from the Okta OIDC provider that you set up. Make sure to replace $CERT_KEYS with the entire {"keys":[{"kid":"_YYA...","kty":"RSA","alg":"RSA-OAEP","use":"enc","n":"r4AXlC9sR..."}]} value that you previously retrieved.

      kubectl apply -f -<<EOF
apiVersion: security.policy.gloo.solo.io/v2
kind: ExtAuthPolicy
metadata:
  name: oauth-okta
  namespace: gloo-mesh
spec:
  applyToRoutes:
    - route:
        labels:
          oauth: "true"
  config:
    server:
      name: ext-auth-server
      namespace: gloo-mesh
      cluster: $CLUSTER_NAME
    glooAuth:
       configs:
         - oauth2:
             accessTokenValidation:
               jwt:
                 localJwks:
                  inlineString: >-
                    $CERT_KEYS
EOF

    Review the following table to understand this configuration. For more information, see the API docs.

    SettingDescription
    spec.applyToRoutesSelect the routes that you want to apply this policy to. In this example, you want to require external authentication for all routes with the oauth: "true" label.
    spec.config.serverThe external auth server to use for the policy.
    glooAuth.configs.oauth2.accessTokenValidation.jwtSet up the policy to enforce authentication via an access token that conforms to the JWT specification.
    glooAuth.configs.oauth2.accessTokenValidation.jwt.localJwksUse the local JWKS that you provide inline to validate the JWT access token.
    glooAuth.configs.oauth2.accessTokenValidation.jwt.localJwks.inlineStringProvide the JWKS keys that you retrieved from your OIDC provider inline.

  3. Verify that the external auth policy is applied successfully.

    1. Review the status of the external auth policy and make sure that it shows ACCEPTED.

        kubectl get extauthpolicy oauth-okta -n gloo-mesh -o yaml

    2. Get the authconfig resource that was created for your policy and make sure that it shows ACCEPTED.

        kubectl get authconfig -n gloo-mesh -o yaml

      If you see a REJECTED error similar to invalid character 'k' looking for beginning of object key string, try copying the $CERT_KEYS value manually again.

Verify OAuth

Verify that requests to your API products now require external authentication.

  1. Get the external address of your ingress gateway. The steps vary depending on the type of load balancer that backs the ingress gateway.

      export INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS=$(kubectl get svc -n gloo-mesh-gateways istio-ingressgateway -o jsonpath="{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0]['hostname','ip']}")
echo $INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS

    Note: Depending on your environment, you might see <pending> instead of an external IP address. For example, if you are testing locally in kind or minikube, or if you have insufficient permissions in your cloud platform, you can instead port-forward the service port of the ingress gateway:

      kubectl -n gloo-mesh-gateways port-forward deploy/istio-ingressgateway-1-20 8081

  2. Send a curl request to one of your APIs.

      curl -v --resolve api.example.com:80:${INGRESS_GW_ADDRESS} http://api.example.com/trackapi/tracks

  3. Review the output of the previous step. The request does not succeed because you need to authenticate via OIDC.

      < HTTP/1.1 302 Found
< location: http://$OAUTH_URL/realms/master/protocol/openid-connect/auth?client_id=$CLIENT_ID&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2F$OAUTH_URL%3A443%2Fcallback&response_type=code&scope=email+openid&state=<token>
< date: Thu, 20 Jul 2023 18:32:22 GMT
< server: istio-envoy
< content-length: 0
  
      < HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden

Next steps

When you are done trying out Portal, you can clean up all of the resources that you created.