Authentication and session modules

IDM supports one session module, the JSON Web Token (JWT) Session Module. When a client authenticates successfully, the JWT Session Module creates a JWT and sets it as a cookie on the response. On subsequent requests, the module checks for the presence of the JWT as a cookie on the request, validates the signature and decrypts it, and checks the expiration time of the JWT.

JWT sessions are entirely stateless, that is, they are not persisted in the backend. All information pertaining to the session is encrypted in the JWT.

When a request to IDM produces a JWT, that value replaces the previous one used to send that request. In this way the JWT is always updated to the latest copy. The idle timeout in the JWT is therefore continuously updated and active sessions are not abruptly killed mid-session.

By default, the JWT cookie is deleted on logout. Deleting the cookie manually ends the session. You can modify what happens to the session after a browser restart by changing the value of the sessionOnly property.

The default JWT Session Module configuration, in conf/authentication.json , is as follows:

For more information about this module, see the Class JwtSessionModule JavaDoc.

Attempting to access IDM without the appropriate headers or session cookie results in an HTTP 401 Unauthorized, or HTTP 403 Forbidden, depending on the situation. If you authenticate using a session cookie, you must include an additional header that indicates the origin of the request.

The following example shows a successful authentication attempt and the return of a session cookie:

The following example uses the cookie returned in the previous response, and includes the X-Requested-With header to indicate the origin of the request. The value of the header can be any string, but should be informative for logging purposes. If you do not include the X-Requested-With header, IDM returns HTTP 403 Forbidden:

The expiration date of the JWT cookie, January 1, 1970, corresponds to the start of UNIX time. Since that time is in the past, browsers will not store that cookie after the browser session is closed.

Authentication requests are logged in the authentication.audit.json file. A successful authentication request is logged as follows:

For information about querying this log, see Query the Authentication Audit Log.

The STATIC_USER module provides an authentication mechanism that avoids database lookups by hard coding a static user. IDM includes a default anonymous static user, but you can create any static user for this module.

The following sample REST call uses STATIC_USER authentication with the anonymous user in the self-registration process:

Authenticating with the STATIC_USER module avoids the performance cost of reading the database for self-registration, certain UI requests, and other actions that can be performed anonymously. Authenticating the anonymous user with the STATIC_USER module is identical to authenticating the anonymous user with the INTERNAL_USER module, except that the database is not accessed. So, STATIC_USER authentication provides an authentication mechanism for the anonymous user that avoids the database lookups incurred when using INTERNAL_USER.

A sample STATIC_USER authentication configuration follows:

IDM also uses the STATIC_USER module to set the password and default roles of the openidm-admin internal user on startup. The following configuration in the authentication.json file sets up the openidm-admin user:

For information on changing the default openidm-admin password, see Change the Administrator User Password.

The TRUSTED_ATTRIBUTE authentication module lets you configure IDM to trust a specific HttpServletRequest attribute. To enable this module, add it to your authentication.json file as follows:

TRUSTED_ATTRIBUTE authentication queries the managed/user resource, and allows authentication when credentials match, based on the username and authzRoles assigned to that user, specifically the X-ForgeRock-AuthenticationId attribute.

For a sample implementation of a custom servlet filter and the Trusted Request Attribute Authentication Module, see Authenticate using a trusted servlet filter.

MANAGED_USER authentication queries the repository and allows authentication if the credentials match. Despite the module name, the query is not restricted to managed/user objects. The resource that is queried is configurable. The default configuration uses the username and password of a managed user to authenticate, as shown in the following sample configuration:

Use the augmentSecurityContext property to add custom properties to the security context of users who authenticate with this module. By default, this property adds a list of protected properties to the user’s security context. These protected properties are defined in the managed object schema. The isProtected property is described in Create and modify object types.

INTERNAL_USER authentication queries the internal/user objects in the repository and allows authentication if the credentials match. An example configuration that uses the username and password of the internal user to authenticate follows:

Client certificate authentication (also called mutual SSL authentication) occurs as part of the SSL or TLS handshake, which takes place before any data is transmitted in an SSL or TLS session. This authentication module is typically used when users have secure certificates that they install in their browsers for authentication and authorization.

The client certificate module, CLIENT_CERT, authenticates by validating a client certificate, transmitted through an HTTP request. IDM compares the subject DN of the request certificate with the subject DN of the truststore.

A sample CLIENT_CERT authentication configuration follows:

When a user authenticates with a client certificate, they receive the roles listed in the defaultUserRoles property of the CLIENT_CERT module. Privileges are calculated dynamically per request when enabled in the session module.

PASSTHROUGH authentication queries an external system, such as an LDAP server, and allows authentication if the credentials included in the REST request match those in the external system.

The following excerpt of an authentication.json shows a pass-through authentication configuration for an LDAP system:

For more information on authentication module properties, see Authentication and session module configuration.

Many of the documented samples are configured for pass-through authentication. For example, the sync-with-ldap* samples use an external LDAP system for authentication.

The SOCIAL_PROVIDERS module enables authentication through social identity providers that comply with OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect 1.0 standards.

For information about configuring this module with social identity providers such as Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook, see Social providers authentication module.

The /path/to/openidm/audit/authentication.audit.json log file shows the corresponding SOCIAL_AUTH module, used to handle authentication for each social identity provider.

The IWA module lets users authenticate using Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA) with Kerberos instead of a username and password.

Windows, UNIX, and Linux systems support Kerberos v5 authentication, which can operate safely on an open, unprotected network. With Kerberos authentication, the user or client application obtains temporary credentials for a service from an authorization server, in the form of tickets and session keys. The service server handles its part of the Kerberos mutual authentication process.

To enable Kerberos authentication, IDM requires a specific Kerberos user account in Active Directory, and a keytab file that maps the service principal to this user account. The client presents IDM with a Kerberos ticket. If IDM can validate the ticket, the client is granted an encrypted session key for the IDM service. That client can then access IDM without providing a username or password, for the duration of the session.

The complete Kerberos authentication process is shown in the following diagram:

This section assumes that you have an active Kerberos server acting as a Key Distribution Center (KDC). If you are running Active Directory, that service includes a Kerberos KDC by default.