How does an iOS App receive a SAML auth response? - ios

I'm working with a client who would like to authenticate with Active Directory Federated Services using SAML. As it was explained to me, the client ADFS server is the SAML identity provider and I simply need to provide a webview in the app for them to load a login page. Upon successful authentication the response should give authenticated metadata?
I've tried researching SAML and iOS and have only been able to find third party software which offers solutions, but no explanation of how this may be done without any third party integration into the app.
Resources I've looked into:
https://www.mutuallyhuman.com/blog/2013/05/09/choosing-an-sso-strategy-saml-vs-oauth2/
http://leandrob.com/2012/02/request-a-token-from-adfs-using-ws-trust-from-ios-objective-c-iphone-ipad-android-java-node-js-or-any-platform-or-language/
http://blog.centrify.com/ideal-solution-for-sso-across-native-mobile-applications/
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb897402.aspx
Since I don't know anything about the content of this login page, how do I determine if the response has authenticated correctly? Additionally how do I extract and pull relevant information from this response into the app to store for future authenticated web service requests?

If the customer has ADFS 2012R2, it supports OAuth for public clients. Use the ADAL (Active Directory Authentication library) that supports ADFS. In this case, it will pop up a browser dialog window to do the authentication and then get a an authorization code. This code is then converted to an access token (JWT) which can then be used against a WebAPI.

Related

Using JWT to authorize REST API requests after SAML Authentication

I'm struggling theese days on the possible way to configure an Authentication + authorization system to consume a REST API from a mobile application.
Scenario:
We've developed 3 independent portals for a big customer that serves several users.
To enable a SSO for the 3 portals we've implemented a SAML authentication system using SimpleSAMLphp.
Every portal has a service provider and they make assertion requests against a central IdP.
The IdP checks username and password against a database where passwords are hashed and stored during registration.
After the login, the authorization on the portals is handled by the session on the server, and so far everything was fine.
Now the customer asked us to develop a mobile application that will require the users to login and access several of their protected resources collected during the usage of the 3 portals.
We've decided to develop a frontend application using ionic that will consume a REST API made in node.js that will serve all the data (both protected and unprotected resources).
Now here comes the question: to authorize access to protected resources on the Api we'd like to use JWT to easily achieve a stateless system.
The doubt is how to perform the authentication? We've the opportunity to check the credentials directly against the database skipping the SAML process, otherwise we've to implement a solution where the SSO IdP acts as authentication provider and then when an attempt is successful the API app will get the response from the idp and then issue a signed jwt to the consumer client. Is this second way a common implementation? Is it possible?
What path do you suggest to follow? The first could be very easy to achieve, but since we're using html+js for the app's frontend, if we decide to use the second solution probably in the near future we could recycle some code from the app to modernize some functions on the web portals, maintaining the jwt pattern and consuming the new Api also on the web.
I believe that in this case will be easier to ask a token to the new api using someway the logged in user's data already in the session of the portal. Sounds possible?
I hope that everything was clear, any help will be appreciated!
Thanks
The key goal here is to code your apps in the best way, via
the latest security standards (OAuth 2.0 and Open Id Connect).
SAML is an outdated protocol that is not web / mobile / API friendly, and does not fit with modern coding models.
Sounds like you want to do OAuth but you do not have an OAuth Authorization Server, which is a key part of the solution. If you could migrate to one you would have the best future options for your apps.
OPTION 1
Use the most standard and simple option - but users have to login with a new login screen + credentials:
Mobile or Web UI uses Authorization Flow (PKCE) and redirects to an Authorization Server to sign the user in
Mobile or Web UI receives an access token after login that can be sent to the API
Access token format is most commonly a JWT that the API can validate and identify the user from
The API is not involved in the login or token issuing processes
OPTION 2
Extend option 1 to federate to your SAML Identity Provider - enables users to login in the existing way:
The Authorization Server is configured to trust your SAML based identity provider and to redirect to it during logins
The SAML idp presents a login screen and then posts a SAML token to the Authorization Server
The Authorization Server issues OAuth based tokens based on the SAML token details
OPTION 3
Use a bridging solution (not really recommended but sometimes worth considering if you have no proper authorization server - at least it gets your apps using OAuth tokens):
Mobile or Web UI uses Resource Owner Password Grant and sends credentials to a new OAuth endpoint that you develop
OAuth endpoint provides a /oauth/token endpoint to receive the request
OAuth endpoint checks the credentials against the database - or translates to a SAML request that is forwarded to the IDP
OAuth endpoint does its own issuing of JWT access tokens via a third party library (if credentials are valid)
Web or Mobile UI sends JWT access token to API
API validates received JWT access token

Access Microsoft graph resources with an auth0 login

I'm having difficulties finding documentation for auth0 and microsoft graph integration. My end goal is to have a SPA that can login with a microsoft profile to auth0 (connected to azure ad). Then I want my app to get a token for microsoft graph and do some api calls.
As I've understood it so far, auth0 does not allow you to get the access token to different identity providers in a front end application, but rather that they should use a proxy to get this token. My flow therefore is:
I login with a SPA auth0 app (using a microsoft identity)
This is then used to authenticate to a backend server using a api registration in auth0
The backend has its seperate machine-to-machine app in auth0
Backend api uses this seperate app to get access token to auth0 management api
Current user is fetched (based on the logged in user from front end app login) from management api,
Here i find an access token under the azure identity (if I do the same in the front end, the access tokens are omitted)
Token does not work to call graph, I am unsure of where to send it next.
I am aware that the above is probably completely wrong, that's why I am here :)
My questions are:
1) Is it even possible to get an access token for microsoft graph starting from a login to auth0 in the way I want it to. If not, can it be done from a backend?
2) Does anyone have a link that discusses this, ideally with some code samples.
To answer your first question:
1) Is it even possible to get an access token for microsoft graph starting from a login to auth0 in the way I want it to. If not, can it be done from a backend?
I have had the chance to authenticate apps using the microsoft identity library called MSAl whose documentation is found here. It gives a pretty detailed way to authenticate directly from your SPA.
I have also used the microsoft javascript sdk as it comes inbuilt with token caching and refreshing so that I do not need to build that for myself.
In relation to this,
Does anyone have a link that discusses this, ideally with some code samples.
You can find the samples well described in the samples section of the SDK
I hope this helps.

Need help Implementing OpenID connect/ OAuth2 flow using React-native, Spring Rest Api and ADFS 4.0

I have really hard time trying to understand mostly how should I implement my authorization flow. I think I have the authentication flow mostly correctly implemented using the technologies I've listed in the title. Here's what I want to achieve:
Basically I have a mobile app built using React-Native and I have made a restful API for this mobile app to use. I am currently at the point that I have implemented authentication using ADFS 4.0. My mobile app directly uses the ADFS endpoints to authenticate the user and I am able to receive the id_token and access token correctly from there. But here comes the part that I have no clue what to do next. Before I used openID, I had my own authentication and just an OAuth2 flow in my Spring REST Api and everytime I made a request from the mobile app to the API, I provided the access token in the headers, and used it to verify from the authorization server that the user is indeed authenticated and also received some crucial information about the user to use in my API. But now since I use OpenID-Connect and ADFS 4.0 for the authentication, I have the cruicial information I need in my API in the id_token. The question is, what exactly should i send to my API now from the mobile app, the id_token, access token or both? Given the access token to the userinfo endpoint at the ADFS returns the subject of the owner of the token. Like is there any way I could receive the users info using the subject or what exactly should I do. I've tried to research this subject a lot, but I am still very confused..
Send the access token to the API in the Bearer header. In the API, validate the token and, if required, do user info lookup. A Spring example of mine here if it helps.
Happy to answer any follow on questions ..

(How) does one secure a Web API with OpenID Connect (or not?)

Is it recommended or good practice to protect a Web API directly with Open ID Connect or not?
The setup:
Mobile App
Authorization Server (ADFS 4.0)
Web API (ASP.NET Core)
Currently I do the normal OAuth2 "Authorization Code Flow", and then pass the access_code to my Web API in the HTTP Header as "Authorization: Bearer ".
In ASP.NET core I just do the usual
services.AddAuthentication(...).AddJwtBearer(...)
Works fine.
But everyone talks about OAuth2 beeing only "pseudo-authentication" with certain flaws. I want my Users to be a properly authenticated before using my Web API. So it seems like Open ID Connect should be the way to go, aka "real authentication".
But does it actually work to "consume" Open ID Connect authentication in an ASP.NET Core Web API? And if yes, how? And is it good practice? All samples seem to be about Web Sites, not Web APIs.
There is an extension method
services.AddAuthentication(...).AddOpenIdConnect()
But here Implement OpenID connect Authetication in asp.net WEB API they state that "this component is designed for user interactive clients".
What i also don't understand, what would I do with the "id_token" I get from Open ID connect.
Currently i just pass the "access_token" as Bearer.
How do i consume the id_token?
Some clarifications:
The API does not act on behalf of a user (access to company data).
The API already has access to the "data". It does not require any auth workflows for itself nor does it need to pass the users credentials along.
The API needs to know "WHO" the user is, and it has to be done in an modern and good way
That's why I was thinking of OICD with its "real auth" (VS Oauth2-only which is "pseudo").
I basically cannot wrap my head around how the stuff returned from OICD (id_token) will be passed to my Web API.
OIDC is an OAuth workflow. It merely extends OAuth; it is not a replacement for it. APIs are typically authorized either by token or client secret. The difference is simply whether it's acting on behalf of a specific user or not. For example, something like the Facebook API has both workflows for its API, you generally operate with Facebook's API as a client app using the app id and client secret for your app, or you can do user-specific things like create a post on the user's wall given an authorization token.
That authorization token almost invariably comes from an OAuth workflow. Given your stated setup, your mobile app would handle this to get an auth token for the user from your ADFS server. Your API, meanwhile, would actually probably do both. It would communicate both using an assigned client secret and a user auth token, if the mobile app provides it with one.

Thinktecture single sign out

I am working on a AngularJS web app and I am trying to implement single sign on. I had a nice implementation using Identity server and authorization server with implicit flow and oAuth tokens, however I need a mechanism to sign the user out of all apps they are signed into.
I am currently redirecting the user to authorization server, this then redirects the user to identity server. The user logs on and it shown a consent screen, a Json web token is then sent to the app via the query string and is put into local storage. This token is attached to the Authorization header which the web api (that is on a different domain) receives and either allows or denies the request.
The problem is oAuth has no way of singing a user out of all apps. I have now looked at WS-Federation using Json web tokens but this approach still appears to use cookies which I would like to avoid as the api and client app are on different domains.
Does Thinktecture Identity Server have any way to do this and if so are there any examples I could take a look at.
Thanks
As you already said - OAuth2 is not an authentication protocol and hence does not have the concept of (single) signout.

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