The oauth state was missing or invalid - Unknown location - asp.net-core

I am using both Google and Facebook authentication mechanisms in my .NET 7.0 app and they both work fine locally. When deployed in my DEV environment I am getting exceptions when coming back from Google/Facebook. So the challenge works correctly, I am able to authenticate at their side but the callback fails, saying:
Exception: The oauth state was missing or invalid.
Unknown location
I am being redirected to https://my.website.com/signin-google with the state in a querystring parameter. This is the expected behavior as I did not configure an explicit callback path and by default it's set to signin-google and signin-facebook. But somehow it seems like the RemoteAuthenticationHandler does not think this matches the callback path so it's not handling the request? Or would the issue be in the OAuthHandler.HandleRemoteAuthenticateAsync? Maybe when unprotecting the state data? But then why would this work locally?
My setup:
services.AddAuthentication()
.AddGoogle("google", options =>
{
options.SignInScheme = IdentityServerConstants.ExternalCookieAuthenticationScheme;
options.ClientId = AppSettings.Instance.GoogleClientId;
options.ClientSecret = AppSettings.Instance.GoogleClientSecret;
})
.AddFacebook("facebook", options =>
{
options.SignInScheme = IdentityServerConstants.ExternalCookieAuthenticationScheme;
options.AppId = AppSettings.Instance.FacebookAppId;
options.AppSecret = AppSettings.Instance.FacebookAppSecret;
});
Edit: Could this possibly be linked to the fact I am using 2 servers in my DEV environment and that it uses something machine-related to unprotect the state so it does not work when I land on the other machine?

It turns out this was due to the fact I am now deploying the application on multiple distributed servers, accessed via a load balancer.
This article here helped me to understand how data protection works in ASP.NET Core.
By default key-rotation system is used and the keys are generated by the machine and persisted to %LOCALAPPDATA%\ASP.NET\DataProtection-Keys. So of course this does not work anymore when you scale up your applications.
So instead I decided to store the data protection keys in a shared database so all machines will use the same key:
Add reference to Nuget Microsoft.AspNetCore.DataProtection.EntityFrameworkCore.
Create a DbContext that inherits from IDataProtectionKeyContext
Register your DbContext
Setup your data protection to use the DbContext as:
builder.Services.AddDataProtection()
.PersistKeysToDbContext<DataProtectionKeyContext>();

Related

Azure SQL authenticate as user via API with MS Identity Platform

I have an ASP.NET Core 3.1 Web App calling an ASP.NET Core 3.1 Web API, which in turn accesses an Azure SQL database. Authentication is provided via MSAL (Microsoft Identity Platform) - i.e. using the relatively new Microsoft.Identity.Web and Microsoft.Identity.Web.UI libraries.
The goal is to ensure that the user pulls data from SQL via the API under the context of his/her own login, thus enabling row-level security, access auditing and other good things.
I have succeeded in getting the sign-in process to work for the Web App - and through that it obtains a valid access token to access the API using a scope I created when registering the latter with AD.
When I run both the API and the App locally from Visual Studio everything works as expected - the correct access tokens are provided to the App to access the API, and the API to access SQL - in both cases under the user's (i.e. my) identity.
When I publish the API to App Services on Azure, however, and access it there either from a local version of the Web App or an App-Services hosted version of it, the access token that the API gets to access SQL contains the API's Application Identity (system-assigned managed identity), and not the user's identity. Although I can access SQL as the application, it's not what we need.
The Web App obtains its access token using the GetAccessTokenForUserAsync method of ITokenAcquisition - taking as a parameter the single scope I defined for the API.
The API gets its token (to access SQL) like so:
var token = await new AzureServiceTokenProvider().GetAccessTokenAsync("https://database.windows.net", _tenantId)
...where _tenantId is the tenant ID of the subscription.
I have added the SQL Azure Database "user_impersonation" API permission to the AD registration for the API - but that has not helped. As an aside, for some reason Azure gives the full name of this permission as https://sql.azuresynapse.usgovcloudapi.net/user_impersonation - which is slightly alarming as this is just a UK-based regular Azure account.
I have found a few similar posts to this, but mostly for older versions of the solution set. I'm hoping to avoid having to write my own code to post the token requests - this is supposed to be handled by the MSAL libraries.
Should I somehow be separately requesting a SQL access scope from the Web App after sign-in, or should the API be doing something different to get hold of a SQL access token that identifies the user? Why does it work perfectly when running locally?
It seems like this should be a very common use case (the most common?) but it is barely documented - most documentation I've found refers only to the application identity being used or doesn't tell you what to do for this particular tech stack.
Finally - success! In the end this was the critical piece of documentation: Microsoft identity platform and OAuth 2.0 On-Behalf-Of flow - the key points being:
The App only asks for a token to access the API.
The API then requests a token, on behalf of the user identified via the 1st token, to access SQL.
The key is that - since the API cannot trigger a consent window for the second step - I had to use the Enterprise Applications tab in the Azure portal to pre-grant the permissions for SQL.
So the good news is it does work: maybe it's obvious to some but IMO it took me far too long to find the answer to this. I will write up a fuller explanation of how to do this in due course as it can't only be me struggling with this one.
The bad news is that - in the course of my investigations - I found that Azure B2C (which is the next thing I need to add in) doesn't support this "On Behalf Of" flow - click here for details. That's a great shame as I think it's the most obvious use case for it! Oh well, back to the drawing board.
I'm currently working on a similar problem, using a Net5.0 Web app. The reason it appears to be working locally is you are signed into Visual Studio with a user who can access Azure SQL and those are the rights you get in the Db. The IDE is using those credentials in place of the Managed Service Identity, the latter gets used when you upload the app to Azure.
As you noted, in the App registration you need to grant permission to the App for Azure SQL Database user_impersonation.
In your code, you need to request a token from https://database.windows.net//.default (note the // as it's needed for v1 endpoints). By referencing /.default you are asking for all permissions you've selected for the app in the app registration portal.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/v2-permissions-and-consent#the-default-scope
In Startup.cs you need to EnableTokenAcquisitionToCallDownstreamApi with the scope you require.
services.AddMicrosoftIdentityWebAppAuthentication(Configuration)
.EnableTokenAcquisitionToCallDownstreamApi(new[]
{"https://database.windows.net//.default"})
// Adds the User and App InMemory Token Cache
.AddInMemoryTokenCaches();
services.AddAuthorization(options =>
{
// By default, all incoming requests will be authorized according to the
// default policy
options.FallbackPolicy = options.DefaultPolicy;
});
services.AddDbContext<MyDatabaseContext>(options =>
options.UseSqlServer(
Configuration.GetConnectionString("MyAzureConnection")));
// The database interface
services.AddScoped<ITodos, TodoData>();
services.AddRazorPages()
.AddRazorRuntimeCompilation()
.AddMvcOptions(o =>
{
var policy = new AuthorizationPolicyBuilder()
.RequireAuthenticatedUser()
.Build();
o.Filters.Add(new AuthorizeFilter(policy));
})
.AddMicrosoftIdentityUI();
You also need to decorate your controllers with [AuthorizeForScopes(Scopes = new string[]{"https://database.windows.net//.default"}] and include the required scopes for that Controller. For Razor, it's at the top of the page model and requires a reference to `using Microsoft.Identity.Web;'
namespace ToDoApp.Pages.Todos
{
[AuthorizeForScopes(ScopeKeySection = "AzureSQL:BaseUrl")]
public class CreateModel : PageModel
I'm using a section in my appsettings.json for the scope and retrieving it using ScopeKeySection:
"AzureSQL": {
"BaseUrl": "https://database.windows.net//.default",
"Scopes": "user_impersonation"
}
This shows you where to include it for MVC, Razor and Blazor:
https://github.com/AzureAD/microsoft-identity-web/wiki/Managing-incremental-consent-and-conditional-access#in-mvc-controllers
Finally, your DbContext needs a token which you could pass to it from the client app (perhaps...).
This is how I am doing it at the moment
public class MyDatabaseContext : DbContext
{
private readonly ITokenAcquisition _tokenAcquisition;
public MyDatabaseContext (ITokenAcquisition tokenAcquisition,
DbContextOptions<MyDatabaseContext> options)
: base(options)
{
_tokenAcquisition = tokenAcquisition;
string[] scopes = new[]{"https://database.windows.net//.default"};
var result = _tokenAcquisition.GetAuthenticationResultForUserAsync(scopes)
.GetAwaiter()
.GetResult();
token = result.AccessToken;
var connection = (SqlConnection)Database.GetDbConnection();
connection.AccessToken = result.token;
}
This is a flawed solution. If I restart the app and try to access it again I get an error Microsoft.Identity.Web.MicrosoftIdentityWebChallengeUserException: IDW10502: An MsalUiRequiredException was thrown due to a challenge for the user
It seems to be related to the TokenCache. If I sign out and in again or clear my browser cache the error is resolved. I've a workaround that signs the app in on failure, but it's deficient since I'm using the app's credentials.
However, it successfully connects to the Azure SQL Db as the user instead of the App with the user's rights instead. When I do solve the error (or find one) I will update this answer.

Suspected bug in Microsoft Identity Platform with ASP.NET Core 3.1 Razor Pages

I am developing an application to be hosted in the Azure App Services environment which consists of a front-end Web App, a back-end Web API and a SQL Database (using Azure SQL). The front-end Web App is a Razor Pages app. We are trying to use the Microsoft Identity Platform (via Microsoft.Identity.Web and Microsoft.Identity.Web.UI libraries) to acquire an access token for the API when needed.
It works perfectly well the first time, but once a token has been acquired and cached - if the application is restarted it fails with this error:
IDW10502: An MsalUiRequiredException was thrown due to a challenge for the user. See https://aka.ms/ms-id-web/ca_incremental-consent.
No account or login hint was passed to the AcquireTokenSilent call.
Startup configuration is (I've tried various variants of this):
public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
services.AddDistributedMemoryCache();
services.Configure<CookiePolicyOptions>(options =>
{
options.CheckConsentNeeded = context => true;
options.MinimumSameSitePolicy = SameSiteMode.Unspecified;
options.HandleSameSiteCookieCompatibility();
});
services.AddOptions();
services.AddMicrosoftIdentityWebAppAuthentication(Configuration)
.EnableTokenAcquisitionToCallDownstreamApi(new string[] { Configuration["Api:Scopes"] })
.AddInMemoryTokenCaches();
services.AddControllersWithViews(options =>
{
var policy = new AuthorizationPolicyBuilder()
.RequireAuthenticatedUser()
.Build();
options.Filters.Add(new AuthorizeFilter(policy));
}).AddMicrosoftIdentityUI();
services.AddRazorPages().AddRazorRuntimeCompilation().AddMvcOptions(options =>
{
var policy = new AuthorizationPolicyBuilder()
.RequireAuthenticatedUser()
.Build();
options.Filters.Add(new AuthorizeFilter(policy));
});
services.AddMvc();
//Other stuff...
}
I have tried for many days trying to find either a resolution workaround for this. I can catch the
error, but there is no action we can take programmatically that seems to clear the problem (the ITokenAcquisition interface does not offer the option to force an interactive login).
I have found that it is ONLY a problem in a Razor Pages application - a controller-based MVC Web App with almost identical startup code does not exhibit the problem.
I have also found that, by creating a controller-based test MVC Web App and configuring it with the same client id, tenant id etc. as the app we're having problems with, then starting it up (within the Visual Studio development environment) as soon as the main app gets the problem, I can clear the error condition reliably every time. However this is obviously not a viable long-term solution.
I have searched for this problem on every major technical forum and seen a number of similar sorts of issues raised, but none provides a solution to this precise problem.
To replicate:
Create an ASP.NET Core 3.1 Web API.
Create an ASP.NET Core 3.1 Razor Pages Web App that calls the API.
Register both with Azure Active Directory and configure the App to request a token to access the API (as per various MS documents).
Run - if everything is set up correctly the login screen will appear and all will work correctly.
Stop the Web App, wait a couple of minutes and re-start. The error above will now appear.
I have raised a Microsoft support request for it - has anybody else come across this and found a solution for it?
I have finally got to the bottom of this, largely thanks to this: https://github.com/Azure-Samples/active-directory-aspnetcore-webapp-openidconnect-v2/issues/216#issuecomment-560150172
To summarise - for anyone else having this issue:
On the first invocation of the web app you are not signed in, and so get redirected to the Microsoft Identity Platform login, which logs you in and issues an access token.
The access token is stored in the In-Memory token cache through the callback.
All then works as expected because the token is in the cache.
When you stop, and then re-start the web app within a reasonably short time, it uses the authentication cookies to pick up the still-current login, and so it does not access the Identity Platform and you do NOT get an access token.
When you ask for a token the cache is empty - so it throws the MsalUiRequiredException.
What isn't really made clear in any of the documentation is that this is supposed to happen - and that exception is picked up by the "AuthorizeForScopes" attribute but only if you allow the exception to fall all the way through and don't try to handle it.
The other issue is that in a Razor Pages app the normal AuthorizeForScopes attribute has to go above the model class definition for every page - and if you miss one it may trigger the above problem.
The solution proposed by "jasonshave" in the linked article solves that problem by replacing the attribute with a filter - so it will apply to all pages.
Maybe I'm a bit old-school, but the idea of using an unhandled exception as part of a planned program control flow doesn't sit right with me - at the very least it should be made clear that that's the intention. Anyway - problem now solved.

What would be the impact of changing or setting the SignInScheme when already deployed in production

Our authentication system is currently seeing many "Correlation failed" errors for some users trying to connect via Google Sign In. We're using Identity Server 4 / ASP.NET identity with .NET Core 2.2. Obviously, we can't reproduce.
Though we tried to understand every aspect of what we were implementing and deploying, the whole authentication flow and the many configuration possibilities of ASP.NET Identity and IS4 still hold mystery to us. We've tried to pinpoint the true cause of those "correlation failed" errors, but cannot be sure. We do have data protection in place that prevents issues with load balancing and multiple instances. We're almost certain it's not related to HTTP vs HTTPS. But foremost, it looks like this error is more frequent lately, though we don't see what change could have triggered this.
One thing we realized, and we're not sure of the impact, is that the Google authentication is configured without an explicit SignInScheme:
services.AddAuthentication()
.AddGoogle(options =>
{
var section = Configuration.GetSection("ExternalLogin:Google");
options.ClientId = section.GetValue<string>("ClientId");
options.ClientSecret = section.GetValue<string>("ClientSecret");
});
Documentation about IS4 seems to indicate we should have set this in the first place:
options.SignInScheme = IdentityServerConstants.ExternalCookieAuthenticationScheme;
On the other hand, articles like this one say that this scheme gets replaced by ASP.NET Identity.
Because ASP.NET Identity also changes the default authentication scheme, any instances of IdentityServerConstants.DefaultCookieAuthenticationScheme and IdentityServerConstants.ExternalCookieAuthenticationScheme, should be changed to IdentityConstants.Application and IdentityConstants.ExternalScheme respectively.
This just adds to our overall confusion, and we're not sure if it means changes to the external login callback as well.
Can we add that simple SignInScheme line to the Google options without impacting other users which still can connect with Google Sign In without any issue? Does it have a chance to fix the correlation errors we see? Otherwise, where should we look?

Use Saml2 or Ws Federation to authenticate on IDM SAP and ADFS

Recently I've got a new demand in which I need to let the user authenticate in my application IDM SAP. Previously I had to integrate my application with ADFS.
In order to do that I used Ws Federation, and the application runs on Asp Net Core.
The authentication with ADFS works just fine, on StartUp I make my application retrieve the metadata XML file from the Idp server. Then I redirect the user to the Idp login page, it validates if the the authentication worked, returns the response, and then open my application.
Now, I've done some research to understand how I would do the same with IDM SAP. I've got a bit confused when I saw articles comparing SAML to WS Federation. What makes it even more confusing to me is that the client already provided his xml metadata file, and it looks very similar to the other one that uses ADFS.
Here's how I implemented Ws Federation:
services
.AddAuthentication(sharedOptions =>
{
sharedOptions.DefaultSignInScheme = CookieAuthenticationDefaults.AuthenticationScheme;
sharedOptions.DefaultChallengeScheme = WsFederationDefaults.AuthenticationScheme;
})
.AddWsFederation(options =>
{
options.Wtrealm = appSettings.Adfs.Wtrealm;
options.MetadataAddress = appSettings.Adfs.MetadataAddress;
options.RequireHttpsMetadata = false;
})
.AddCookie();
The Idp URL is located in my appSettings file.
It came to my mind I should try to read this new XML file provided from a local folder, but this property "MetadataAddress" seems to always expect only URLs. The IDM Sap user already said they won't expose their XML file, so I'll have to always read from a local xml file.
It didn't work, so now I'm trying to figure if my option will be to implement more than one protocol in my application.
So far I found this library that seems to be the solution
https://github.com/Sustainsys/Saml2/blob/master/Samples/SampleAspNetCore2ApplicationNETFramework/Startup.cs
I've got stuck when trying to set the XML file on StartUp method, This is what I'm trying:
.AddSaml2(options =>
{
options.SPOptions.EntityId = new EntityId("mine.metadata.xml");
options.IdentityProviders.Add(
new IdentityProvider(
new EntityId("mine.metadata.xml"), options.SPOptions)
{
LoadMetadata = true
});
options.SPOptions.ServiceCertificates.Add(new X509Certificate2(#"mine.metadata.xml"));
})
It returns me an error when trying to set the service certificate saying that it couldn't find the file specified.
Also, let's pretend I set the configuration. How should I redirect the user to IDM Sap login page?
Could anyone give some advice or guidance so I can create a better solution that works for both cases?

Azure AD Redirect URL Using Application Gateway

We have an ASP Core 2.0 App working nicely with Azure AD on the private network. However, we've been playing around with the Azure Application Gateway, investigating the possibility of allowing access to the app from outside for remote workers etc.
We have registered the app on the Gateway, and, once logged in with Azure AD, the anonymous front page is accessible via ourapp.msappproxy.net. However, when signing in (again?) in the app, the client is redirected back to intervalServer/signin-oidc which fails as it is not accessible externally.
While I doubt this is any part of the solution, I have tried overriding the redirect "CallbackPath": "/signin-oidc", to absolute path ourapp.msappproxy.net/signin-oidc but I can't seem to work out how. Changing the reply URL in Azure Portal doesn't help either (although I doubted it would, this is just for verification right?).
I can't seem to find any guidance on this on this particular scenario, so that would be welcome. Otherwise, I'm left pondering the following:
1, If I could change the redirect to ourapp.msappproxy.net/signin-oidc, would that solve the sign in issue?
2, Do I even need an additional sign in step, or should I be changing the app to accept AzureAppProxyUserSessionCookie or AzureAppProxyAccessCookie? (If that's even an option?)
Thanks to rfcdejong in the comments for putting me on track. In our case I was able use Azure AD with the Azure Application Gateway by overriding OnRedirectToIdentityProvider event and supplying the proxy url in ConfigureServices
services.AddAuthentication(...)
.AddOpenIdConnect(options =>
{
options.ClientId = Configuration["Authentication:AzureAD:ClientId"];
options.Authority = Configuration["Authentication:AzureAd:Authority"];
options.CallbackPath = Configuration["Authentication:AzureAd:CallbackPath"];
if (IsProduction) // So that I can use the original redirect to localhost in development
{
Task RedirectToIdentityProvider(RedirectContext ctx)
{
ctx.ProtocolMessage.RedirectUri = "https://ourapp.msappproxy.net/signin-oidc";
return Task.FromResult(0);
}
options.Events = new OpenIdConnectEvents
{
OnRedirectToIdentityProvider = RedirectToIdentityProvider
};
}
})
The return URI needs to be configured to match for the app in Azure Portal.
Users also need to be assigned, but the internal app is now available anywhere without requiring direct access to the server.