User guide: Injecting data in the request

Inject HTTP headers with serialized JSON content.

Authorino features in this guide:

• Dynamic response → JSON injection
• Identity verification & authentication → API key

Inject serialized custom JSON objects as HTTP request headers. Values can be static or fetched from the [Authorization JSON](./../architecture.md#the-authorization-json). Check out as well the user guide about [Authentication with API keys](./api-key-authentication.md). For further details about Authorino features in general, check the [docs](./../features.md).

Requirements

• Kubernetes server

Create a containerized Kubernetes server locally using Kind:

kind create cluster --name authorino-tutorial

1. Install the Authorino Operator

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Kuadrant/authorino-operator/main/utils/install.sh | bash -s

2. Deploy the Talker API

The Talker API is just an echo API, included in the Authorino examples. We will use it in this guide as the service to be protected with Authorino.

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kuadrant/authorino-examples/main/talker-api/talker-api-deploy.yaml

3. Deploy Authorino

kubectl apply -f -<<EOF
apiVersion: operator.authorino.kuadrant.io/v1beta1
kind: Authorino
metadata:
  name: authorino
spec:
  listener:
    tls:
      enabled: false
  oidcServer:
    tls:
      enabled: false
EOF

The command above will deploy Authorino as a separate service (as opposed to a sidecar of the protected API and other architectures), in namespaced reconciliation mode, and with TLS termination disabled. For other variants and deployment options, check out the Getting Started section of the docs, the Architecture page, and the spec for the Authorino CRD in the Authorino Operator repo.

4. Setup Envoy

The following bundle from the Authorino examples (manifest referred in the command below) is to apply Envoy configuration and deploy Envoy proxy, that wire up the Talker API behind the reverse-proxy and external authorization with the Authorino instance.

For details and instructions to setup Envoy manually, see Protect a service > Setup Envoy in the Getting Started page. For a simpler and straightforward way to manage an API, without having to manually install or configure Envoy and Authorino, check out Kuadrant.

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kuadrant/authorino-examples/main/envoy/envoy-notls-deploy.yaml

The bundle also creates an Ingress with host name talker-api-authorino.127.0.0.1.nip.io, but if you are using a local Kubernetes cluster created with Kind, you need to forward requests on port 8000 to inside the cluster in order to actually reach the Envoy service:

kubectl port-forward deployment/envoy 8000:8000 &

5. Create the AuthConfig

The following defines a JSON object to be injected as an added HTTP header into the request, named after the response config x-ext-auth-data. The object includes 3 properties: 1. a static value authorized: true; 2. a dynamic value request-time, from Envoy-supplied contextual data present in the Authorization JSON; and 3. a greeting message geeting-message that interpolates a dynamic value read from an annotation of the Kubernetes Secret resource that represents the API key used to authenticate into a static string.

kubectl apply -f -<<EOF
apiVersion: authorino.kuadrant.io/v1beta2
kind: AuthConfig
metadata:
  name: talker-api-protection
spec:
  hosts:
  - talker-api-authorino.127.0.0.1.nip.io
  authentication:
    "friends":
      apiKey:
        selector:
          matchLabels:
            group: friends
      credentials:
        authorizationHeader:
          prefix: APIKEY
  response:
    success:
      headers:
        "x-ext-auth-data":
          json:
            properties:
              "authorized":
                value: true
              "request-time":
                selector: context.request.time.seconds
              "greeting-message":
                selector: Hello, {auth.identity.metadata.annotations.auth-data\/name}!
EOF

Check out the docs for information about the common feature JSON paths for reading from the Authorization JSON.

6. Create an API key

kubectl apply -f -<<EOF
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: api-key-1
  labels:
    authorino.kuadrant.io/managed-by: authorino
    group: friends
  annotations:
    auth-data/name: Rita
stringData:
  api_key: ndyBzreUzF4zqDQsqSPMHkRhriEOtcRx
type: Opaque
EOF

7. Consume the API

curl -H 'Authorization: APIKEY ndyBzreUzF4zqDQsqSPMHkRhriEOtcRx' http://talker-api-authorino.127.0.0.1.nip.io:8000/hello
# {
#   "method": "GET",
#   "path": "/hello",
#   "query_string": null,
#   "body": "",
#   "headers": {
#     …
#     "X-Ext-Auth-Data": "{\"authorized\":true,\"greeting-message\":\"Hello, Rita!\",\"request-time\":1637954644}",
#   },
#   …
# }

Cleanup

If you have started a Kubernetes cluster locally with Kind to try this user guide, delete it by running:

kind delete cluster --name authorino-tutorial

Otherwise, delete the resources created in each step:

kubectl delete secret/api-key-1
kubectl delete authconfig/talker-api-protection
kubectl delete authorino/authorino
kubectl delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kuadrant/authorino-examples/main/envoy/envoy-notls-deploy.yaml
kubectl delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kuadrant/authorino-examples/main/talker-api/talker-api-deploy.yaml

To uninstall the Authorino Operator and manifests (CRDs, RBAC, etc), run:

kubectl delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Kuadrant/authorino-operator/main/config/deploy/manifests.yaml