I am developing an API using Codeigniter and Oauth2 (Alex Bilbies library).
The API is being used by my iPhone app. For every request I need to send along the access token as a parameter in the URL. Is there a way to send the token in a header instead? To avoid it getting "exposed"?
Thankful for all input!
OAuth 2.0 bearer tokens allow you to insert them in an HTTP Authorization header as follows:
POST /my/api HTTP/1.1
Host: rs.company.com
Authorization: Bearer abcdef123456
Where abcdef123456 is your Access Token (see: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-oauth-v2-bearer-16#section-2.1). In fact the spec says you SHOULD do that in lieu of request parameters if it is possible.
The spec also describes many security considerations when using OAuth 2.0 bearer tokens (see: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-oauth-v2-bearer-16#section-4)
Sending an access token over GET is just as insecure as sending it in a header.
OAuth 1 used to get around this with all sorts of encryption, secured passwords, hell you could even turn certifications on. This was all a massive ball-ache, so now in OAuth 2 you just have to use HTTPS which does all of this for you.
Related
Is it possible to use Google Header Auth with an API_KEY?
At the moment we are downloading files using:
https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3/files/{fileId}?alt=media&key={our API key}
We want to migrate to using HTTP Header auth like this:
GET https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3/files/[FILEID] HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Bearer [YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN]
Accept: application/json
The first method uses our own API_KEY from Google Cloud Console.
The second method uses an ACCESS_TOKEN created by the user authenticating with the app with oAuth.
Is it possible to use our API_KEY for HTTP Auth? Or do we have to use the users ACCESS_TOKEN?
API key grants you access to public data only.
An access token is an authorized token which gives an application access to user data.
They are two different things.
The authorization header is used for sending authorization bearer tokens, access tokens to the server to authorize a request.
No you can not send an api key as a authorization header as it is not a bearer token. You need to authenticate your users using Oauth2 in order to get access to their data, which will give you an access token and the ability to add that as a authorization header and request access to download the users file.
I understand that a resource server will make a call to the authentication server with a token to confirm that it is valid.
However is this token the same Cookie: JSESSIONID?
Oauth 2.0 Bearer tokens are of two types - General tokens(e.g like java uuid string) and JWT tokens.
General tokens will be stored in the authorization server token store along with their scopes, expiry, client ID, UserId and other related information. When client sends request to resource server, Resource server need to reach out authorization server(Spring oauth 2.0) for bearer token validation.
JWT tokens contains information about its expiry along other user information and self sufficient to work in stateless sessions, Here we don't need to validate oauth 2.0 JWT tokens from authorization server.
JSESSIONID Cookie is created by spring security by default, its not related to Bearer token authorization.
Well the standard solution is an introspection request, as in step 14 of this post: https://authguidance.com/2017/09/26/basicspa-oauthworkflow/
Not all solutions are standards based though - and I always recommend capturing the HTTP traffic
I am currently developing an API that I plan to secure using oauth2.
I have chosen: https://github.com/lucadegasperi/oauth2-server-laravel/
I have managed to secure the endpoint (using before=>oauth in my api routes) by following the installation guide but I am at a loss as to how am I gonna be able to authenticate and access the endpoint.
I do understand that you will first need to request an access_token by sending a client_id and client_secret but what I don't get is where do I set those on the oauth server?
I see the oauth controller has endpoints for these like:
http://somedomain.com/oauth/authorize
http://somedomain.com/oauth/access_token
But I am clueless with what to do with them. I only managed to arrive at the conclusion that it needs a client_id, client_secret, and stuff about scopes.
Where can I set these values for the api client to use?
Thank you for your help in advance.
I don't know Laravel, but in general, the authorization endpoint (in your case, http://somedomain.com/oauth/authorize) behaves as described in RFC 6749.
The specification defines four flows. If you use Authorization Code Flow among the flows, you should access the authorization endpoint with the following request parameters.
response_type=code (required)
client_id={your-client-id} (required)
scope={space-delimited-scope-names} (optional)
redirect_uri={your-redirect-uri} (conditionally optional)
state={any-arbitrary-string} (optional)
For example,
http://somedomain.com/oauth/authorize?response_type=code&client_id=your-client-id&scope=profile+email
The authorization endpoint generates an authorization code and returns it to your browser.
The next step is to access the token endpoint (in your case, http://somedomain.com/oauth/access_token) with the authorization code which has been issued from the authorization endpoint. Like this,
POST
http://somedomain.com/oauth/access_token?grant_type=authorization_code&code=issued-authorization-code&client_id=your-client-id&client_secret=your-client-secret
Anyway, I recommend you read RFC 6749.
I am passing oauth2 token in Request header as Authorization: Bearer . But if you use for example Chrome developer tools you can see the token and basically copy it and use it to call our services. How can I prevent/hide the token so it does not show in developer tools.
Developer tool are not designed to hide any data (e.g. you can use them to send cookies as well). So if you don't trust your users then don't issue tokens that can be used from an arbitrary client.
I'm wondering is it "legitimate" to provide the JWT token I received back from Identity Server to the page so that Javascript can make ajax calls with it as a bearer token to several API endpoints. Clearly these end points would be using SSL, but is this a typical/correct usage pattern?
Cheers,
P
It is certainly doable - if you are OK with the access token being on the client machine/device.