IG 2023.2

Getting started

ForgeRock® Identity Platform serves as the basis for our simple and comprehensive Identity and Access Management solution. We help our customers deepen their relationships with their customers, and improve the productivity and connectivity of their employees and partners. For more information about ForgeRock and about the platform, see https://www.forgerock.com.

This guide introduces IG, and provides a quick way to set up and run the product. For more installation and set up options, refer to the Installation guide.

This guide assumes basic familiarity with the following topics:

  • HTTP, including how clients and servers exchange messages, and the role that a reverse proxy (gateway) plays

  • JSON, the format for IG configuration files

  • Managing services on operating systems and application servers

  • Configuring network connections on operating systems

Prepare to install

Requirements

Make sure your installation meets the requirements in the release notes.

Create an IG service account

To limit the impact of a security breach, install and run IG from a dedicated service account. This is optional when you are evaluating IG, but essential in production installations.

A hacker is constrained by the rights granted to the user account where IG runs; therefore, never run IG as root user.

  1. In a terminal window, use a command similar to the following to create a service account:

    • Linux

    • Windows

    $ sudo /usr/sbin/useradd \
--create-home \
--comment "Account for running IG" \
--shell /bin/bash IG
    > net user username password /add /comment:"Account for running IG"

  2. Apply the principle of least privilege to the account, for example:

    • Read/write permissions on the installation directory, /path/to/identity-gateway.

    • Execute permissions on the scripts in the installation bin directory, /path/to/identity-gateway/bin.

Prepare the network

Configure the network to include the hosts.

  1. Add the following additional entry to your host file:

    • Linux

    • Windows

    /etc/hosts
    %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
    127.0.0.1  localhost ig.example.com app.example.com am.example.com

    For more information about host files, refer to the Wikipedia entry, Hosts (file).

Set up Identity Cloud and AM for use with IG

This section contains procedures for setting up items in ForgeRock Identity Cloud and AM that you can use with IG. For more information about setting up Identity Cloud, refer to the ForgeRock Identity Cloud Docs. For more information about setting up AM, refer to the Access Management docs.

Set up an IG agent

Set up an IG agent in Identity Cloud

This procedure sets up an agent that acts on behalf of IG. After the agent is authenticated, the token can be used to get the user profile, evaluate policies, and connect to the AM notification endpoint.

  1. Log in to the Identity Cloud admin UI as an administrator.

  2. Click verified_user Gateways & Agents > New Gateway/Agent > Identity Gateway > Next, and add an agent profile:

    • ID: agent-name

    • Password: agent-password

      Use secure passwords in a production environment. Consider using a password manager to generate secure passwords.

  3. Click Save Profile > Done. The agent profile page is displayed.

  4. To add a redirect URL for CDSSO, go to the agent profile page and add the URL.

  5. To change the introspection scope, click open_in_new Native Consoles > Access Management, and update the agent in the AM admin UI. By default, the agent can introspect OAuth 2.0 tokens issued to any client, in the realm and subrealm where it is created.

Set up an IG agent in AM 7 and later

In AM 7 and later versions, follow these steps to set up an agent that acts on behalf of IG.

After the agent is authenticated, the token can be used to get the user profile, evaluate policies, and connect to the AM notification endpoint:

  1. In the AM admin UI, select the top-level realm, and then select Applications > Agents > Identity Gateway.

  2. Add an agent with the following values:

    • For SSO

    • For CDSSO

    • Agent ID : ig_agent

    • Password : password

Set up an IG agent in AM 6.5 and earlier

In AM 6.5 and earlier versions, follow these steps to set up an agent that acts on behalf of IG.

After the agent is authenticated, the token can be used to get the user profile, evaluate policies, and connect to the AM notification endpoint:

  1. In the AM admin UI, select the top-level realm, and then select Applications > Agents > Java (or J2EE ).

  2. Add an agent with the following values:

    • For SSO

    • For CDSSO

    • Agent ID : ig_agent

    • Agent URL : http://ig.example.com:8080/agentapp

    • Server URL : http://am.example.com:8088/openam

    • Password : password

    • Agent ID : ig_agent_cdsso

    • Agent URL : http://ig.ext.com:8080/agentapp

    • Server URL : http://am.example.com:8088/openam

    • Password : password

  3. On the Global tab, deselect Agent Configuration Change Notification.

    This option stops IG from being notified about agent configuration changes in AM. IG doesn’t need these notifications.

  4. (For CDSSO) On the SSO tab, select the following values:

    • Cross Domain SSO : Deselect this option

    • CDSSO Redirect URI : /home/cdsso/redirect

  5. (For CDSSO and policy enforcement) On the SSO tab, select the following values:

    • Cross Domain SSO : Deselect this option

    • CDSSO Redirect URI : /home/pep-cdsso/redirect

Set up a demo user

Set up a demo user in Identity Cloud

This procedure sets up a demo user in the alpha realm.

  1. Log in to the Identity Cloud admin UI as an administrator.

  2. Go to group Identities > Manage > settings_system_daydream Alpha realm - Users, and add a user with the following values:

    • Username: demo

    • First name: demo

    • Last name: user

    • Email Address: demo@example.com

    • Password: Ch4ng3!t

Set up a demo user in AM

AM is provided with a demo user in the top-level realm, with the following credentials:

  • ID/username: demo

  • Last name: user

  • Password: Ch4ng31t

  • Email address: demo@example.com

  • Employee number: 123

For information about how to manage identities in AM, refer to AM’s Identity stores.

Downloading, starting, and stopping IG

The following sections describe options for downloading and starting IG. For information about other installation options, such as setting the default location of the configuration folders, and configuring for HTTPS, see the Installation guide.

Download and start IG

Download the IG .zip file

The .zip file unpacks into a /path/to/identity-gateway directory with the following content:

  • bin: Start and stop executables

  • classes: Initially empty; used to install patches from ForgeRock support

  • docker/Dockerfile: Dockerfile and README to build an IG Docker image

  • legal-notices: Licenses and copyrights

  • lib: IG and third-party libraries

  1. Create a local installation directory for IG. The examples in this section use /path/to.

  2. Download IG-2023.2.0.zip from the ForgeRock BackStage download site, and copy the .zip file to the installation directory:

    $ cp IG-2023.2.0.zip /path/to/IG-2023.2.0.zip

  3. Unzip the file:

    $ unzip IG-2023.2.0.zip

    The directory /path/to/identity-gateway is created.

Start IG with default settings

Use the following step to start the instance of IG, specifying the configuration directory where IG looks for configuration files.

  1. Start IG:

    • Linux

    • Windows

    $ /path/to/identity-gateway/bin/start.sh

...
... started in 1234ms on ports : [8080 8443]
    C:\path\to\identity-gateway\bin\start.bat

    By default, IG configuration files are located under $HOME/.openig (on Windows appdata\OpenIG). For information about how to use a different location, refer to Change the base location of the IG configuration.

  2. Check that IG is running in one of the following ways:

    • Ping IG at http://ig.example.com:8080/openig/ping, and make sure an HTTP 200 is returned.

    • Access the IG welcome page at http://ig.example.com:8080.

    • When IG is running in development mode, display the product version and build information at http://ig.example.com:8080/openig/api/info.

Start IG with custom settings

By default, IG runs on HTTP, on port 8080, from the instance directory $HOME/.openig.

To start IG with custom settings, add the configuration file admin.json with the following properties, and restart IG:

  • vertx: Finely tune Vert.x instances.

  • connectors: Customize server port, TLS, and Vert.x-specific configurations. Each connectors object represents the configuration of an individual port.

  • prefix: Set the instance directory, and therefore, the base of the route for administration requests.

The following example starts IG on non-default ports, and configures Vert.x-specific options for the connection on port 9091:

{
  "connectors": [{
    "port": 9090
  },
  {
    "port": 9091,
    "vertx": {
      "maxWebSocketFrameSize": 128000,
      "maxWebSocketMessageSize": 256000,
      "compressionLevel": 4
    }
  }]
}

For more information, refer to AdminHttpApplication (admin.json).

Stop IG

Use the stop.sh script to stop an instance of IG, specifying the instance directory as an argument. If the instance directory is not specified, IG uses the default instance directory:

  • Linux

  • Windows

$ /path/to/identity-gateway/bin/stop.sh $HOME/.openig
C:\path\to\identity-gateway\bin\stop.bat appdata\OpenIG

Using the sample application

ForgeRock provides a mockup web application for testing IG configurations. The sample application is used in the examples in this guide and the Gateway guide.

Downloading the sample application

  1. Download IG-sample-application-2023.2.0.jar, from the ForgeRock BackStage download site.

Starting the sample application

  1. Start the sample application:

    $ java -jar IG-sample-application-2023.2.0.jar

[...] [INFO   ] All 8 verticles started on ports : [8081, 8444]
[...] [INFO   ] Using session timeout of: 60s
[...] [INFO   ] Using AM base for OpenID Discovery URL: http://am.example.com:8088/openam/oauth2
[...] [INFO   ] Press Ctrl+C to stop the server.

    By default this server listens for HTTP on port 8081, and for HTTPS on port 8444. If one or both of those ports are not free, specify other ports:

    $ java -jar IG-sample-application-2023.2.0.jar 8888 8889

  2. Check that the sample application is running in one of the following ways:

    1. Go to http://localhost:8081/home to access the home page of the sample application. Information about the browser request is displayed.

    2. Go to http://localhost:8081/login to access the login page of the sample application, and then log in with username demo and password Ch4ng31t. The username and some information about the browser request is displayed.

Stopping the sample application

  1. In the terminal where the sample application is running, select CTRL+C to stop the app.

Serving static resources for the sample application

When the sample application is used with IG in the examples in this guide and the Gateway guide, the sample application must serve static resources, such as the .css. Add the following route to the IG configuration, as:

  • Linux

  • Windows

$HOME/.openig/config/routes/static-resources.json
appdata\OpenIG\config\routes\static-resources.json
{
  "name" : "sampleapp-resources",
  "baseURI" : "http://app.example.com:8081",
  "condition": "${find(request.uri.path,'^/css')}",
  "handler": "ReverseProxyHandler"
}

Configuration options for the sample application

To view the command-line options for the sample application, start it with the -h option:

$ java -jar IG-sample-application-2023.2.0.jar -h

Usage: <main class> [options]
Options:
--http
The HTTP port number.
Default: 8081
--https
The HTTPS port number.
Default: 8444
--session
The session timeout in seconds.
Default: 60
--am-discovery-url
The AM URL base for OpenID Provider Configuration.
Default: http://am.example.com:8088/openam/oauth2
-h, --help
Default: false

Protecting an application with IG

This section gives a simple example of how to use IG to protect an application. For many more examples of how to protect applications with IG, refer to the Gateway guide.

In the following example, a browser requests access to the sample application, and IG intercepts the request to log the user into the application. The following image shows the flow of data in the example:

hard-coded-login

  1. The browser sends an HTTP GET request to the HTTP server on ig.example.com.

  2. IG replaces the HTTP GET request with an HTTP POST login request containing credentials to authenticate.

  3. The sample application validates the credentials, and returns the page for the user demo.

    If IG did not provide the credentials, or if the sample application couldn’t validate the credentials, the sample application returns the login page.

  4. IG returns this response to the browser.

Configure IG to log you in to an application

  1. Set up IG as described in Downloading, starting, and stopping IG, and the sample application as described in Using the sample application.

  2. Add the following route to serve static resources, such as .css, for the sample application:

    • Linux

    • Windows

    $HOME/.openig/config/routes/static-resources.json
    appdata\OpenIG\config\routes\static-resources.json
    {
  "name" : "sampleapp-resources",
  "baseURI" : "http://app.example.com:8081",
  "condition": "${find(request.uri.path,'^/css')}",
  "handler": "ReverseProxyHandler"
}

  3. Add the following route to IG:

    • Linux

    • Windows

    $HOME/.openig/config/routes/01-static.json
    appdata\OpenIG\config\routes\01-static.json
    {
  "handler": {
    "type": "Chain",
    "config": {
      "filters": [
        {
          "type": "StaticRequestFilter",
          "config": {
            "method": "POST",
            "uri": "http://app.example.com:8081/login",
            "form": {
              "username": [
                "demo"
              ],
              "password": [
                "Ch4ng31t"
              ]
            }
          }
        }
      ],
      "handler": "ReverseProxyHandler"
    }
  },
  "condition": "${find(request.uri.path, '^/static')}"
}

    Notice the following features of the route:

    • The route matches requests to /static.

    • The StaticRequestFilter replaces the request with an HTTP POST, specifying the resource to post the request to, and a form to include in the request. The form includes credentials for the username demo.

    • The ReverseProxyHandler replays the request to the sample application.

  4. Check that the route system log includes a message that the new files are loaded into the config:

    INFO  o.f.o.handler.router.RouterHandler - Loaded the route with id 'static-resources' registered with the name 'static-resources'
INFO  o.f.o.handler.router.RouterHandler - Loaded the route with id '01-static' registered with the name '01-static'

  5. Go to http://ig.example.com:8080/static.

    You are directed to the sample application, and logged in automatically with the username demo.

Next steps

This section describes some basic options to help you with IG. For information about other installation options, such as setting the default location of the configuration folders, and configuring for HTTPS, refer to the Installation guide.

Adding a base configuration file

The entry point for requests coming in to IG is a JSON-encoded configuration file, expected by default at:

  • Linux

  • Windows

$HOME/.openig/config/config.json
appdata\OpenIG\config\config.json

The base configuration file initializes a heap of objects and provides the main handler to receive incoming requests. Configuration in the file is inherited by all applicable objects in the configuration.

At startup, if IG doesn’t find a base configuration file, it provides a default version, given in Default configuration. The default looks for routes in:

  • Linux

  • Windows

$HOME/.openig/config/routes
appdata\OpenIG\config\routes

Consider adding a custom config.json for these reasons:

  • To prevent using the default config.json, whose configuration might not be appropriate in your deployment.

  • To define an object once in config.json, and then use it multiple times in your configuration.

After adding or editing config.json, stop and restart IG to take the changes into effect.

For more information, refer to GatewayHttpApplication (config.json), Heap objects, and Router.

Add a base configuration for IG

  1. Add the following file to IG:

    • Linux

    • Windows

    $HOME/.openig/config/config.json
    appdata\OpenIG\config\config.json
    {
  "handler": {
    "type": "Router",
    "name": "_router",
    "baseURI": "http://app.example.com:8081",
    "capture": "all"
  },
  "heap": [
    {
      "name": "JwtSession",
      "type": "JwtSession"
    },
    {
      "name": "capture",
      "type": "CaptureDecorator",
      "config": {
        "captureEntity": true,
        "_captureContext": true
      }
    }
  ]
}

    Notice the following features of the file:

    • The handler contains a main router named _router. When IG receives an incoming request, _router routes the request to the first route in the configuration whose condition is satisfied.

    • The baseURI changes the request URI to point the request to the sample application.

    • The capture captures the body of the HTTP request and response.

    • The JwtSession object in the heap can be used in routes to store the session information as JSON Web Tokens (JWT) in a cookie. For more information, refer to JwtSession.

  2. Stop and restart IG.

  3. Check that the route system log includes a message that the file is loaded into the config:

    INFO  o.f.openig.web.Initializer - Reading the configuration from ...config.json

Adding a default route

When there are multiple routes in the IG configuration, they are ordered lexicographically, by route name. For example, 01-static.json is ordered before zz-default.json.

When IG processes a request, the request traverses the routes in the configuration. If the request matches the condition for 01-static.json it is processed by that route. Otherwise, it passes to the next route in the configuration. If a route has no condition, it can process any request.

A default route is the last route in a configuration to which a request is routed. If a request matches no other route in the configuration, it is processed by the default route.

  1. Add the following route to IG:

    • Linux

    • Windows

    $HOME/.openig/config/routes/zz-default.json
    appdata\OpenIG\config\routes\zz-default.json
    {
  "handler": "ReverseProxyHandler"
}

    Notice the following features of the route:

    • The route name starts with zz, so it is the last route that is loaded into the configuration.

    • There is no condition property, so the route processes all requests.

    • The route calls a ReverseProxyHandler with the default configuration, which proxies the request to the application and returns the response, without changing either the request or the response.

  2. Check that the route system log includes a message that the file is loaded into the config:

    INFO  o.f.o.handler.router.RouterHandler - Loaded the route with id
'zz-default' registered with the name 'zz-default'

Switching from production mode to development mode

After installation, to prevent unwanted changes to the configuration, IG is by default in production mode. Access is restricted as follows:

  • The /routes endpoint is not exposed.

  • You cannot manage, list, or even read routes through Common REST.

  • Studio is effectively disabled.

  • The /share and api/info endpoints are exposed only to the loopback address.

Switch to development mode in one of the following ways, applied in order of precedence:

  1. Add the following configuration to admin.json, and restart IG:

    {
  "mode": "DEVELOPMENT",
  "connectors": [
    { "port" : 8080 }
  ]
}

  2. Define an environment variable for the configuration token ig.run.mode, and then start IG in the same terminal.

    If mode is not defined in admin.json, the following example starts an instance of IG in development mode:

    • Linux

    • Windows

    $ IG_RUN_MODE=development /path/to/identity-gateway/bin/start.sh
    C:\IG_RUN_MODE=development
C:\path\to\identity-gateway\bin\start.bat appdata\OpenIG

  3. Define a system property for the configuration token ig.run.mode when you start IG.

    If mode is not defined in admin.json, or an IG_RUN_MODE environment variable is not set, the following file starts an instance of IG with the system property ig.run.mode to force development mode:

    • Linux

    • Windows

    $HOME/.openig/env.sh
    appdata\OpenIG\env.sh
    export JAVA_OPTS='-Dig.run.mode=development'

For information about restricting access to Studio in development mode, refer to Restricting access to Studio. For information about switching back to production mode, refer to Switching from development mode to production mode.

Using IG Studio

IG Studio is a user interface to help you build and deploy your IG configuration. For information about using Studio, refer to the Studio guide.

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