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docs(auth-backend): some minor tweaks (#1989)

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Fredrik Adelöw
2020-08-18 15:50:43 +02:00
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docs/auth/auth-backend-classes.md
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# Authentication backend class layout and description.
# Authentication Backend Classes Layout and Description
## How does authentication work ?
## How Does Authentication Work?
The Backstage application can use various authentication `providers` for
authentication. A provider has to implement an `AuthProviderRouterHandlers`
interface for handling authentication. This interface consists of 4 methods.
Each of this method is hosted at an endpoint `/auth/[provider]/method`, where
The Backstage application can use various authentication providers for
authentication. A provider has to implement an `AuthProviderRouteHandlers`
interface for handling authentication. This interface consists of four methods.
Each of these methods is hosted at an endpoint `/auth/[provider]/method`, where
`method` performs a certain operation as follows:
```
@@ -16,44 +16,45 @@ Each of this method is hosted at an endpoint `/auth/[provider]/method`, where
```
For more information on how these methods are used and for which purpose, refer
to the documentation [here](oauth.md)
to the documentation [here](oauth.md).
For details on the parameters, input and output conditions for each method,
refer to the type documentation under
`backstage/plugins/auth-backend/src/providers/types.ts`
`plugins/auth-backend/src/providers/types.ts`.
There are currently 2 different classes for 2 authentication mechanisms that
implement this interface: `OAuthProvider` for `OAuth` based Mechanism and a
`SAMLAuthProvider` for a `SAML` based mechanism
There are currently two different classes for two authentication mechanisms that
implement this interface: an `OAuthProvider` for [OAuth](https://oauth.net/2/)
based mechanisms and a `SAMLAuthProvider` for
[SAML](http://docs.oasis-open.org/security/saml/Post2.0/sstc-saml-tech-overview-2.0.html)
based mechanisms.
### `OAuth` mechanisms
### OAuth mechanisms
Currently `OAuth` is assumed to be the defacto authentication mechanism for
backstage based applications.
Currently OAuth is assumed to be the de facto authentication mechanism for
Backstage based applications.
Backstage comes with `batteries-included` set of OAuth Providers for some
commonly used Providers : `Okta`, `Github`, `Google` , `Gitlab` and a generic
`oauth2` provider.
Backstage comes with a "batteries-included" set of supported commonly used OAuth
providers: Okta, Github, Google, Gitlab, and a generic OAuth2 provider.
All of these use the `authorization` flow of OAuth2 to implement authentication.
All of these use the authorization flow of OAuth2 to implement authentication.
If your `authentication` provider is any of the above mentioned (except
`oauth2`) providers, you can configure them by setting the right variables in
`app-config.yaml` under then `auth` section.
If your authentication provider is any of the above mentioned (except generic
OAuth2) providers, you can configure them by setting the right variables in
`app-config.yaml` under the `auth` section.
### Configuration
Each authentication (except SAML )provider needs 5 parameters: an `oauth`
client_id, client_secret, an authorization endpoint and a token endpoint, and an
app origin. The `appOrigin` value is the URL at which the frontend of the
application is hosted. This is required because, the application opens a popup
window to perform the authentication and once the flow is completed, the popup
Each authentication provider (except SAML) needs five parameters: an OAuth
client ID, a client secret, an authorization endpoint and a token endpoint, and
an app origin. The app origin is the URL at which the frontend of the
application is hosted. This is required because the application opens a popup
window to perform the authentication, and once the flow is completed, the popup
window sends a `postMessage` to the frontend application to indicate the result
of the operation. Also this URL is used to verify that authentication requests
are coming from only this endpoint.
These values are configured via the `app-config.yaml` present in the root of
your app folder
your app folder.
```
auth:
@@ -87,36 +88,37 @@ auth:
secure: false
clientId:
$secret:
...
```
## Technical notes
## Technical Notes
### EnvironmentHandler
The concept of an `env` is core to the way the `auth-backend` works. `Spotify`
uses an `env` query parameter to identify the environment in which the
application is running (`dev`, `staging`, `prod`, etc). Each runtime can support
The concept of an "env" is core to the way the auth backend works. It uses an
`env` query parameter to identify the environment in which the application is
running (`development`, `staging`, `production`, etc). Each runtime can support
multiple environments at the same time and the right handler for each request is
identified and dispatched to based on the `env` parameter. All
`AuthProviderRouterHandlers` are wrapped within a `EnvironmentHandler`.
`AuthProviderRouteHandlers` are wrapped within an `EnvironmentHandler`.
An `EnvironmentHandler` takes an `id` for each provider that it wraps, the
handlers for each of the `env` the provider is supported in, and a `function`
that given a `Request` as argument, can extract the information about the `env`
under which it should be processed.
An `EnvironmentHandler` takes an ID for each provider that it wraps, the
handlers for each env the provider is supported in, and a function that, given a
`Request` as argument, can extract the information about the env under which it
should be processed.
Each provider exposes a factory function `createXProvider` (where X = name of
the Provider) that takes the globalconfig, env and other parameters and returns
a `AuthProviderRouteHandler` for each env, AND, a `envIdentifier` fn to identify
the `env` in a request.
Each provider exposes a factory function `createXProvider` (where X is the name
of the provider) that takes the global config, env and other parameters and
returns an `AuthProviderRouteHandlers` for each env, and an `envIdentifier`
function to identify the env of a request.
For a list of currently available providers, look in the `factories` module
located in `backstage/plugins/auth-backend/src/providers/factories.ts`
located in `plugins/auth-backend/src/providers/factories.ts`
### `oauth2` provider
### OAuth2 provider
The `oauth2` provider abstracts a generic **OAuth2+OIDC** based authentication
The `oauth2` provider abstracts a generic **OAuth2 + OIDC** based authentication
provider. What this means is that after the application has been given
permission by the user, the`authorization code` will be exchanged for an
`access_token` , a `refresh_token` and an `id_token`. This `id_token` is used to
permission by the user, the `authorization code` will be exchanged for an
`access_token`, a `refresh_token` and an `id_token`. This `id_token` is used to
obtain an email id of the user, which is then used for creating the session.