I have a REST API written in PHP(Slim framework) and my API contains some admin routes for managing private data. I've implemented oAuth2.0 for authorization(this php implementation).
I like to use AngularJS for creating an admin webapplication so users can manage their own data.
I'm now using username-password flow but i'm reading that this is not secure because my webapp exposes client_id & client_secret.
I also looked into implicit grant ( designed for public clients) but it says that it should be for read only purposes.
I also want to use this API for supplying data for mobile apps. Users don't have to sign in for this but data isn't public.
Which oauth grant is suitable for this scenario / setup?
Take a look at Resource Owner Password Credentials Grant. Which is the 4th bullet point in the second link that you provided. password (user credentials)
https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6749#section-4.3
Simply put:
User sends their login and password
Server grants user access_token (equivalent to the old cookie session id)
User sends access_token with the remainder of their requests
Also,
If you want to give mobile devices access while keeping data private i'd suggest generating "free" accounts linked to mobile mac addresses. Then have them go through the above said authentication with their mac address as login / password as empty. That way you can implement the same user logic to mobile with throttle/ban/upgrade/etc per device.
I know I'm posting Python to a PHP question but it's not about the code. The example (http://python-eve.org/authentication.html#auth) explains in detail what auth methods are available for a good REST API and it might be useful for your application.
If you're not happy with implicit or username-password that leaves client credentials or authorization code.
Client credentials is not applicable in this situation because it's not possible to secure the credential in a javascript application running on a browser (it might not even be possible to use the client credential if you're talking about a certificate).
So Authorization Code is your only option.
However, you can't secure the client secret in the authorization code flow.
Implicit is really your only OAuth2 option for a browser application. There is a section in the OAuth threat model discussing the potential issues and mitigations. https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6819#section-4.4.2
Here is another question about the security implications of implicit grant. How secure is Oauth 2.0 Implicit Grant?
Since Stack overflow is dumb I can't comment since i don't frequent this site. However before I can offer a solution I am wondering what situation you have that required a user to not be logged in to update data?
Related
I am trying to design a mobile application and I have some doubts about the path I need to take to implement the security.
Initially I thought OAuth2 is needed but after a bit of searching around the web I came to the conclusion (hopefully a correct one) that OAuth is used when I want users to authenticate into other applications using the credentials they used to create their account into my application.
So now my questions are:
is my understanding of the OAuth use case correct ?
if OAuth is not needed then passing the username and password to the api in order to create an account is enough?
how will I be able to access strictly the data that belongs to the user that is logged in when making an api request? (is this still sessions based, like logging in into a website ?)
I'm assuming you are not writing an oauth service
Yes , In the this case google,github etc they authenticate the user for you and
redirect to the redirect url provided by you.
That would mean you are using basic auth RFC 7616 and from what I've heard
It is not as secure as bearer authentication RFC 6750.
That should be handled by your application an external oauth application will
only do the initial authentication.githubs oauth flow
I am developing an Ionic App which consumes data from a Laravel 5 RESTful API. All the connections are protected (GET, POST, etc.) by username/pass and user roles, except the user creation.
My first doubt about security is to disallow connections from outside the App, avoiding thousand of user creations, overloading our server resources.
My idea is, when an user installs the app and opens it for the first time, to create a secret token which will be sent in every connection. Then check the device UUID and the secret token to ensure this is an authorized app.
What do you think of securing the connections this way? There is a better idea?
You need to look a JWT (Jot) JSON web tokens, they will solve the security issue. This can contain user id and other data like access level. Not things like security information or card information.
When a user authenticates Laravel sends them back a JWT which you store in local or session storage this replaces backend sessions.
It is generated by the backend using the parts that can be decrypted by the frontend and using a secret key to encryt the signature, if any of it is tampered with it will fail and deny access.
Every request angular will append the token to the header using a request interceptor and Laravel middleware will decrypt it and allow access to the route they need or return a error code '404' maybe.
If after install this authentication layer you can limit usage at user level on the backend.
But this should sort most of your issues, it a bit of a change in thinking but it does work and it solves a lot of sessions issues you get with ajax calls and it make load balancing easier because all server are looking for a token it can manage.
I was also encountering the same problems. But after search in google for a while I came to the conclusion that you can put up several walls against hacker, but for someone who is hell bend on hacking your app(ninja hacker) will find ways to use your app in malicious ways.
I also came across various ways you can protect your backend server(after google). These step generally make it difficult to use your app maliciously.
You can encrypt strings url using some algorithm and use encrypted string in program ie. https:\google.com\ is encrypted into something like \h09ae\hff00\hebab\h.... then in program String url ="\h09ae\hff00\hebab\h.." This way someone decompiling the app can't find your server backend url. In this case you need to decrypt the string url before you can use it.
Send sensitive data using HTTPS and inside the body of the request
You can verify if request is coming from the device by using google token. For this you will have to use Google API Console. Refer this link for proper android tutorial on this topic.
Lastly, sign key used when you create your apk is unique and ensure that your apk is not tampered with. So generate hash key of your sign key before it is upload to google play and save it in your server and programmatically get hash value of sign key and send it with very request to your backend.
Hope is helps you..
I am still getting confused in understanding the concepts of authorization and authentication in Google Analytics API.
I created the new project at Google Developers Console and enabled the Google Analytics API. But why they are asking these two things in API & Auth section?
Can Anyone give me any real life example which gives clear cut idea about these two things?
Authentication is the process of identifying yourself. When you log in to a service, you authenticate yourself by using some credentials. This credentials usually are a pair of username and password. If the provided credentials are correct then we can say that you have successfully authenticated yourself. But it doesn't means you can do anything on the system. For example maybe your account has been banned or you don't have permission to access the resource.
Authorization is the process of checking if you have the right to do something. To do this, first you have to authenticate yourself, because without knowing who you are it is not possible for someone to check if you have the right to do something or not.
Just imagine an invite-only party. When you arrive, at the door a big guy asks your name. You will say that you're Akilsree1, so you have authenticated yourself. Then the guy will check if your name is on the list of invited people or not, so he will authorize you to enter the party or maybe he will say that you cannot enter because you're not on the list (you do not have permission).
Edit:
In case of the Google Analytics API things are a little bit trickier.
Basically this is what happening:
When you use their API in your app, the user will be redirected to Google to log in (user authentication).
Then when your app tries to do something in behalf of the user, he/she will be asked by Google to give permission to your app to do so (authorization).
After that your app will receive a token which can be used by the app to authenticate itself when uses the API to do that specific thing (app authentication)
More details you can find here.
Authentication meaning recognizing the subject identity. Like, does it exist in the DB?
Authorization meaning granting access to a resource. Like, can this user/role access X page.
In simple language if you want to understand
Authorization is level of access rights that a user has i.e. the
amount of information which he is authorized to access. Example: The
data that a normal user can see in a system will be quite different
from the data that admin user will be able to view and manipulate.
This difference is achieved by means of authorization.
Authentication simply means the submission of valid tokens(i.e.
username,password in most cases) which are recognized by the system
and by which system will grant access of system to particular user
Google analytics API requires authorization token for every request sent to it. and OAuth2.0 is the protocol used
hope this helps!
Good luck!
I am here with some general discussion very famous and interesting topic "Token Based Authentication".
I need my registered users to login with API. Scenario is quite simple, We want to pass our login details to Server. Server will check the credentials with database. If credentials are proper then Server will create "Session Id" and return back to user (client end). In subsequent requests user just need to pass that "Session Id" to authenticate and access protected data.
Plenty of people suggest about OAuth 2.0 and also some people suggest about Custom Logic. In custom logic they asked to be very sure about security. I read documentation of OAuth and it's good and descriptive. I'm also liking it to use. But wherever I search for OAuth authentication, they are giving example of third party login.
I had installed Php OAuth extension at my side for supporting this feature. In examples they asked to create Request Token first using "getRequestToken" function. Using that Request token they asked to call "getAccessToken" function to get "Access Token". Using that Access Token just need to call "fetch" to get protected data.
Now my questions are,
In my scenario, Do i need Request Token? Is that possible to get Access Token directly
What is OAuth Consumer Key and OAuth Consumer Secret key? Do I need such keys in my application? I believe it's used to allow third party applications only. In my case I'm the resource owner and i'm the consumer.
Do you guys have any example for me to study?
Do you know any well known framework for OAuth for PHP?
Is that need any additional database support except "user" table? For storing OAuth details?
Any additional documents to study for this would be highly appreciated.
I read different Grant Types in OAuth but confused how to use to achieve my approach.
Thanks in advance.
From what I read, you do not need OAuth at all. OAuth is need if there is a third party involved that needs access to your user resources.
As you mentioned, you just need a Login API something like https://myserver.com/signin?user=john.doe#gmail.com&password=12345
After successful login, the server generates a GUID and stores it against the user. You can call it sessionId/cookieId anything you like. Response could be something like '{user:john.doe#gmail.com; sessionId=KJN93EJMQ3WEC9E8RCQJRE8F9E}'
For subsequent calls, the sessionId can be passed in the header.
Server validates the session and lets the user in.
Addtional considerations:
I am assuming your server is HTTPS and hence the user/pwd on the URL are encrypted.
For security you might want to invalidate the sessionId have the sessionId renewed periodically.
Have a logout on which you clear the sessionId against the User.
I think it standard stuff if not the logging in happening via REST.
The requirement that I posted before to login with OAuth2.0.
Usually people assume that OAuth2.0 is only for fetching data by Third Party application from resource center behalf of Resource Owner. That approach is called Authorization Code.
OAuth2.0 has various "Authorization Grant". There are four types,
Authrozation Code
Implicit
Resource Owner Credentials (User Credentials)
Client Credentials
After research, I realize that "Resource Owner Credentials" is best suitable for me. I found one perfect library that helps you to understand background process internally. Here's the GitHub link to download.
Found two major issues here,
When I use my Access Token created by my Mozila in Chrome. Surprisingly, It's allowing me to access my private data from other browser.
I'm unsure but will this approach work same with AJAX type of calls (jQuery tool)
If anyone has idea then please share.
Thanks,
Sanjay
I'm currently building a web application which is an AngularJS frontend that communicates with a RESTful API built using Laravel. I'm making good progress, but finding it hard to get my head around how to handle user authentication.
I've been advised that I should be using OAuth for authentication, and I've decided to use it seen as it could be a learning experience for me as well. The package I'm using to handle this is oauth2-server-laravel.
The basic user story is that users can register their username/password combination for the application, and they then log into the application with that same username and password. They're only authenticated by their username and password, and not by any client secret. After login, they should be given an access token which will be send along with every future request to authenticate them on different API endpoints.
The OAuth2 library has a "password flow" grant type which seems to be what I need, however it also takes client_id and client_secret parameters, which I don't want. The request URI is something like this:
POST https://www.example.com/oauth/access_token?
grant_type=password&
client_id=the_client_id&
client_secret=the_client_secret&
username=the_username&
password=the_password&
scope=scope1,scope2&
state=123456789
But what I want is just:
POST https://www.example.com/oauth/access_token?
grant_type=password&
username=the_username&
password=the_password
How am I meant to provide a client ID and secret of a user that has yet to authenticate?
Is there a different grant I can be using, or is what I want to achieve just not suited for OAuth at all?
Take into account, that client id and client secret aren't parameters that you have to force your end-user to pass. They are static and defined in/for your client app (angular app in this case).
All you need to do is to create a record for your main app in oauth_clients table, and create a scope with full access in oauth_scopes table, and send this values when requesting token.
And that's all in fact.
Also, you may want to consider using implicit grant flow in case of building js-only application, because storing client secret and refresh token in a js app is insecure. Using implicit grant in a final product may look like login window on soundcloud and is more secure as the token is obtained server-side without exposing client secret.
Another way to go, if you still want to use password flow is creating a proxy for refreshing tokens. Proxy can hide your refresh token in encrypted http-only cookie, and your js-app don't ask your api for new token, but the proxy instead. Proxy reads refresh token from encrypted cookie, asks the api for new token and returns it. So the refresh token is never exposed. If you set token ttl for an hour let's say, then stealing a token would be quite "pointless*" in case of a normal application, and stealing refresh token would be "impossible*".
*Of course if someone really want he probably could hack it any way.
And yeah, i know this all looks a bit hacky - modal windows for logging in, proxy etc. But also searching on this topic i couldn't find any better and more elegant way of doing it. I think that's still a lack that all js-apps have to deal with if you want a token based authentication.
You are missing something with the OAuth specification. The client_id and client_secret are really important when asking for an access token when using the password method of OAuth v2. In fact, they are important for every method that gives you an access token. They identify the application or the server that has perform the request.
For example, let's say you have your API, 2 mobile applications and another server that do some tasks with your API. You will create 3 clients with their own client_id and client_secret. If your application has various access levels (they are called scopes in OAuth v2), the client_id corresponding to the other server will be able to call functions of your API that require the scope admin whereas your mobile application will only be able to call functions of your API that require the basic scope if you have defined scopes like this.
If your API grows up in the future, this is really essential. Another example, let's imagine you have given an API key (a pair client_id and client_secret) to one of your friend and he has build a nice mobile app with your API. If one day he starts doing naughty things with your API, you can't stop him very easily. Whereas you could have just removed his key pair if you had followed OAuth v2 principles.
OAuth v2 is not an easy thing to understand, take the time to read specifications and good tutorials before developing your API.
Some useful links :
The official RFC : https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6749
A tutorial on Tutsplus : http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/oauth-20-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly--net-33216
Just to add a bit to plunntic's excellent answer: remember "client" is not related to "user", so when I use a password flow I just define the client_id and client_secret as constants on the AngularJS app to tell the api backend: hey, this is the browser app that is being used to request a token.