User guide: OAuth 2.0 token introspection (RFC 7662)¶

Introspect OAuth 2.0 access tokens (e.g. opaque tokens) for online user data and token validation in request-time.

Authorino capabilities featured in this guide:

Identity verification & authentication → OAuth 2.0 introspection
Authorization → Pattern-matching authorization

Authorino can perform OAuth 2.0 token introspection (RFC 7662) on the access tokens supplied in the requests to protected APIs. This is particularly useful when using opaque tokens, for remote checking the token validity and resolving the identity object.

Important! Authorino does not implement OAuth2 grants nor OIDC authentication flows. As a common recommendation of good practice, obtaining and refreshing access tokens is for clients to negotiate directly with the auth servers and token issuers. Authorino will only validate those tokens using the parameters provided by the trusted issuer authorities.

Check out as well the user guides about OpenID Connect Discovery and authentication with JWTs and Simple pattern-matching authorization policies.

For further details about Authorino features in general, check the docs.

Requirements¶

Kubernetes server with permissions to install cluster-scoped resources (operator, CRDs and RBAC)
OAuth 2.0 server that implements the token introspection endpoint (RFC 7662) (e.g. Keycloak or a12n-server)
jq, to extract parts of JSON responses

If you do not own a Kubernetes server already and just want to try out the steps in this guide, you can create a local containerized cluster by executing the command below. In this case, the main requirement is having Kind installed, with either Docker or Podman.

kind create cluster --name authorino-tutorial

Deploy a Keycloak server preloaded with the realm settings required for this guide:

kubectl create namespace keycloak
kubectl -n keycloak apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kuadrant/authorino-examples/main/keycloak/keycloak-deploy.yaml

Deploy an a12n-server server preloaded with all settings required for this guide:

kubectl create namespace a12n-server
kubectl -n a12n-server apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kuadrant/authorino-examples/main/a12n-server/a12n-server-deploy.yaml

The next steps walk you through installing Authorino, deploying and configuring a sample service called Talker API to be protected by the authorization service.

Using Kuadrant

If you are a user of Kuadrant and already have your workload cluster configured and sample service application deployed, as well as your Gateway API network resources applied to route traffic to your service, skip straight to step ❺.

At step ❺, instead of creating an AuthConfig custom resource, create a Kuadrant AuthPolicy one. The schema of the AuthConfig's spec matches the one of the AuthPolicy's, except spec.host, which is not available in the Kuadrant AuthPolicy. Host names in a Kuadrant AuthPolicy are inferred automatically from the Kubernetes network object referred in spec.targetRef and route selectors declared in the policy.

For more about using Kuadrant to enforce authorization, check out Kuadrant auth.

❶ Install the Authorino Operator (cluster admin required)¶

The following command will install the Authorino Operator in the Kubernetes cluster. The operator manages instances of the Authorino authorization service.

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

❷ Deploy Authorino¶

The following command will request an instance of Authorino as a separate service¹ that watches for AuthConfig resources in the default namespace², with TLS disabled³.

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

❸ Deploy the Talker API¶

The Talker API is a simple HTTP service that echoes back in the response whatever it gets in the request. We will use it in this guide as the sample service to be protected by Authorino.

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

❹ Setup Envoy¶

The following bundle from the Authorino examples deploys the Envoy proxy and configuration to wire up the Talker API behind the reverse-proxy, with external authorization enabled with the Authorino instance.⁴

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

The command above creates an Ingress with host name talker-api.127.0.0.1.nip.io. If you are using a local Kubernetes cluster created with Kind, forward requests from your local port 8000 to the Envoy service running inside the cluster:

kubectl port-forward deployment/envoy 8000:8000 2>&1 >/dev/null &

❺ Create an `AuthConfig`¶

Create the required secrets that will be used by Authorino to authenticate with Keycloak and a12n-server during the introspection request:

kubectl apply -f -<<EOF
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: oauth2-token-introspection-credentials-keycloak
stringData:
  clientID: talker-api
  clientSecret: 523b92b6-625d-4e1e-a313-77e7a8ae4e88
type: Opaque
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: oauth2-token-introspection-credentials-a12n-server
stringData:
  clientID: talker-api
  clientSecret: V6g-2Eq2ALB1_WHAswzoeZofJ_e86RI4tdjClDDDb4g
type: Opaque
EOF

Create the Authorino AuthConfig custom resource declaring the auth rules to be enforced:

Kuadrant users – Remember to create an AuthPolicy instead of an AuthConfig. For more, see Kuadrant auth.

kubectl apply -f -<<EOF
apiVersion: authorino.kuadrant.io/v1beta3
kind: AuthConfig
metadata:
  name: talker-api-protection
spec:
  hosts:

  - talker-api.127.0.0.1.nip.io
  authentication:
    "keycloak":
      oauth2Introspection:
        endpoint: http://keycloak.keycloak.svc.cluster.local:8080/realms/kuadrant/protocol/openid-connect/token/introspect
        tokenTypeHint: requesting_party_token
        credentialsRef:
          name: oauth2-token-introspection-credentials-keycloak
    "a12n-server":
      oauth2Introspection:
        endpoint: http://a12n-server.a12n-server.svc.cluster.local:8531/introspect
        credentialsRef:
          name: oauth2-token-introspection-credentials-a12n-server
  authorization:
    "can-read":
      when:
      - selector: auth.identity.privileges
        operator: neq
        value: ""
      patternMatching:
        patterns:
        - selector: auth.identity.privileges.talker-api
          operator: incl
          value: read
EOF

On every request, Authorino will try to verify the token remotely with the Keycloak server and the a12n-server server.

For authorization, whenever the introspected token data includes a privileges property (returned by a12n-server), Authorino will enforce only consumers whose privileges.talker-api includes the "read" permission are granted access.

Check out the docs for information about the common feature Conditions about skipping parts of an AuthConfig in the auth pipeline based on context.

❻ Obtain an access token and consume the API¶

Obtain an access token with Keycloak and consume the API¶

Obtain an access token with the Keycloak server for user Jane:

The AuthConfig deployed in the previous step is suitable for validating access tokens requested inside the cluster. This is because Keycloak's iss claim added to the JWTs matches always the host used to request the token and Authorino will later try to match this host to the host that provides the OpenID Connect configuration.

Obtain an access token from within the cluster for the user Jane, whose e-mail has been verified:

export $(kubectl run token --attach --rm --restart=Never -q --image=curlimages/curl -- http://keycloak.keycloak.svc.cluster.local:8080/realms/kuadrant/protocol/openid-connect/token -s -d 'grant_type=password' -d 'client_id=demo' -d 'username=jane' -d 'password=p' -d 'scope=openid' | jq -r '"ACCESS_TOKEN="+.access_token,"REFRESH_TOKEN="+.refresh_token')

If your Keycloak server is reachable from outside the cluster, feel free to obtain the token directly. Make sure the host name set in the OIDC issuer endpoint in the AuthConfig matches the one used to obtain the token and is as well reachable from within the cluster.

As user Jane, consume the API:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN" http://talker-api.127.0.0.1.nip.io:8000/hello
# HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Revoke the access token and try to consume the API again:

kubectl run token --attach --rm --restart=Never -q --image=curlimages/curl -- http://keycloak.keycloak.svc.cluster.local:8080/realms/kuadrant/protocol/openid-connect/logout -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -d "refresh_token=$REFRESH_TOKEN" -d 'token_type_hint=requesting_party_token' -u demo:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN" http://talker-api.127.0.0.1.nip.io:8000/hello -i
# HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
# www-authenticate: Bearer realm="keycloak"
# www-authenticate: Bearer realm="a12n-server"
# x-ext-auth-reason: {"a12n-server":"token is not active","keycloak":"token is not active"}

Obtain an access token with a12n-server and consume the API¶

Forward local requests to a12n-server instance running in the cluster:

kubectl -n a12n-server port-forward deployment/a12n-server 8531:8531 2>&1 >/dev/null &

Obtain an access token with the a12n-server server for service account service-account-1:

ACCESS_TOKEN=$(curl -d 'grant_type=client_credentials' -u service-account-1:FO6LgoMKA8TBDDHgSXZ5-iq1wKNwqdDkyeEGIl6gp0s "http://localhost:8531/token" | jq -r .access_token)

You can as well obtain an access token from within the cluster, in case your a12n-server is not reachable from the outside:

ACCESS_TOKEN=$(kubectl run token --attach --rm --restart=Never -q --image=curlimages/curl -- http://a12n-server.a12n-server.svc.cluster.local:8531/token -s -d 'grant_type=client_credentials' -u service-account-1:FO6LgoMKA8TBDDHgSXZ5-iq1wKNwqdDkyeEGIl6gp0s | jq -r .access_token)

Verify the issued token is an opaque access token in this case:

echo $ACCESS_TOKEN

As service-account-1, consumer the API with a valid access token:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN" http://talker-api.127.0.0.1.nip.io:8000/hello
# HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Revoke the access token and try to consume the API again:

curl -d "token=$ACCESS_TOKEN" -u service-account-1:FO6LgoMKA8TBDDHgSXZ5-iq1wKNwqdDkyeEGIl6gp0s "http://localhost:8531/revoke" -i

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN" http://talker-api.127.0.0.1.nip.io:8000/hello -i
# HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
# www-authenticate: Bearer realm="keycloak"
# www-authenticate: Bearer realm="a12n-server"
# x-ext-auth-reason: {"a12n-server":"token is not active","keycloak":"token is not active"}

Consume the API with a missing or invalid access token¶

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer invalid" http://talker-api.127.0.0.1.nip.io:8000/hello -i
# HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
# www-authenticate: Bearer realm="keycloak"
# www-authenticate: Bearer realm="a12n-server"
# x-ext-auth-reason: {"a12n-server":"token is not active","keycloak":"token is not active"}

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 authconfig/talker-api-protection
kubectl delete secret/oauth2-token-introspection-credentials-keycloak
kubectl delete secret/oauth2-token-introspection-credentials-a12n-server
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
kubectl delete authorino/authorino
kubectl delete namespace keycloak
kubectl delete namespace a12n-server

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

In contrast to a dedicated sidecar of the protected service and other architectures. Check out Architecture > Topologies for all options. ↩
namespaced reconciliation mode. See Cluster-wide vs. Namespaced instances. ↩
For other variants and deployment options, check out Getting Started, as well as the Authorino CRD specification. ↩
For details and instructions to setup Envoy manually, see Protect a service > Setup Envoy in the Getting Started page. If you are running your ingress gateway in Kubernetes and wants to avoid setting up and configuring your proxy manually, check out Kuadrant. ↩