How to configure JWT in .NET 5 Web API - authentication

I have a confusion in while doing development. I am working on .NET 5 Web API in which I have implemented JWT authentication. Then I got to know that, client application(it entire different project owned by other team in my same organization) is configured using Windows AD or SSO, not fully sure though. But still client application won't be sending userid and password in a post request which I have in my AuthController. In this case, how my APIs requests will be authenticated to check if the client has access to it or not.
Any guidance on this would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Related

Azure AD or IdentityServer with Web API, understanding the concepts

Be warned possibly noob question ahead.
I'm a little unsure where exactly Azure AD or IdentityServer is supposed to fit in in the overall communication flow.
Here is a scenario that I often face.
Some "dumb" client (e.g. a Windows App that can't use external assemblies or some JavaScript in a web app) has to contact my Web API which will then contact other APIs or other resources.
If I want to try and implement either Azure AD or IdentityServer as a means of authentication and authorization in the Web API, I don't see that this can be done in any other way, than it has to be the Web API that communicates with Azure AD or IdentityServer as the client doesn't have the ability to do so due to the lack of required assemblies.
If this assumption is not correct, then how would I do this?
If it is correct however, then what means of security is there between the client and the Web API other than communicating over HTTPS when the client has to send it's credentials to the Web API, so the Web API can authenticate and authorize the user against either Azure AD or IdentityServer?
If I understand your requirements correctly, then you are able to change the client Windows app, but unable to add external assemblies to it? So you would not be able to add the ADAL NuGet package to it.
You can still use Azure AD authentication - it is possible, but not trivial, to implement the client code yourself.
Or you can, as you already mentioned, pass the user's credentials to the Web API somehow, and then use that to have the Web API do authentication towards Azure AD on behalf of the user. There is a sample app which shows how to use username/password credentials.
This however, goes against the whole OAuth/OpenIdConnect mindset, where your app should never know the user's credentials.
Here:
https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs/blob/master/articles/active-directory/develop/active-directory-v2-protocols-oidc.md
Be careful with trying to use the most recent version of the Azure AD endpoint (just don't use version 2.0, they shot themselves in the foot by excluding all Azure AD webapp registrations & by "securing" web APIs by making them only available to apps with the same appid - as far as I'm concerned, it's unusable until they fix those two issues) - see the "[!NOTE]" near the top of that linked page for the v2.0 limitations.

Active Directory Authentication in .NET Core Web API

I am working on an intranet application which consists of a .NET Core Web API back end and a completely separate AngularJS SPA that queries it. A requirement of the project is authentication via AD (LDAP possible.) However, after studying for a while, I cannot seem to find a way for my backend API to receive a username/password and ask AD if it's correct, and what groups they are in, then store that locally and hand off a token to the SPA to use in future requests. Any ideas would be appreciated, thank you.
Note: The web app hands the password to the API in an encrypted format, the API decrypts it, and thats where I'm at.

asp.net 5 and IdentityServer4

I am working on a prototype for a site re-architecture using ASP.NET 5 and I am debating using IdentityServer4 for my Authentication and Authorization. I have reviewed a lot of samples and articles about setting up IdentityServer3 and 4 and I am trying to wrap my head around if it can handle my client’s requirements in a proper way. Here are my requirements.
I have 3 sites that need authorization. Site 1 (abc.com) will require windows authentication and will be a combination of mvc and webapi calls using roles (or roles converted to claims) for authorization. Site 2 (def.com) is a trusted site that wants a login widget with a username/password/rememberme text box on their site that when submitted will authenticate the user and redirect them to site 3 (xyz.com). Site 3 will also have its own login page and will be a combination of mvc and webapi calls using claims. Site 2 and 3 will not be using windows authentication and the client does not want them redirecting to the identity server login screen, but rather having their own login screen and calling the identity server from code with the credentials to login.
Here are my questions regarding this scenario and IdentityServer4.
Can Idsvr4 handle one client using windows authentication and
another using username/password authentication?
If so, is there a
reason to have windows auth in idsvr4 or should it just use standard
windows auth within the webapp?
Can idsvr4 be setup to have the client collect the username/password/rememberme values and pass them through code to
get the proper jwt tokens for both mvc and webapi?
If so, can it
log them into both the mvc and webapi applications on another site?
If so, is this circumventing the real purpose of identityserver4
and therefor is a bad idea?
If it can handle this scenario and is a good idea, how would I setup the client, scopes and code to handle the login through code and redirect?
Examples are great and very welcome, but I am not even sure what verbiage to use to search for this scenario so even pointing me in the right direction would be of great help.
Not sure if this question is still active. But yes, i believe you can do all that.
1) You can setup which ldp is available for each client by setting IdentityProviderRestrictions on the client (docs)
1.1) - Not sure what you mean, i believe one of the points of having idsrv is to sentralize you authentication, and it makes it easier for future websites to integrate with the same service.
2) When logging in using a client (application), you also specify which apiResource the client has access to - and the application needs to add this to the requested scopes when signing in. So if your client is the mvc application, you just add the ApiResource in the AllowedScopes - and set the request_type to id_token code - this would then give the user a access_token that is passed with each request to the backend api. (docs)
2.1) - This would basically log the user in on both sites - using an access token that says that the user is authorized to use the backend api.
2.2) - In my opinion this flow is one of the things that makes idsrv great - and they even mention this as a great feature of idsrv themself. You just need 1 trip to the authserver to gain access to all systems.
as for pt. 3 - Take an extra look at the docs, try to setup a blank project following the quickstarts.
For logging in from your own login page, you need to use the grant type Resource Owner password - Altough they dont recommend doing this for security issues (transmitting passwords over the wire) - it is supported.

Browser and Webserver api authentication tokens

I am currently working on a solution that includes a multi tenant webApi which will be accessed by multiple clients, some of which i will be creating, some of which others will be creating.
Access to the api will be available via an ApiKey & Secret (enough for some resources) as well as username & password (for owner resources).
At the moment, the clients i have created (.Net MVC Web apps) have their own membership systems so what happens is the user of the client logs into the client system and the client system passes the login information to the Api to retrieve an authentication token.
The client membership system is really an unneeded abstraction. What i really want to do is have the user log directly into the api and the api pass back an authentication token that can be used from the browser as well as the .Net MVC client app.
My question is, what it the best way to achieve this. In my mind i seem to be struggling with 2 solutions.
1) Have a browser based login (ajax/AngularJS for instance) solution that calls the api to retrieve a token which then passes that token onto the MVC client where it will be stored (session variable maybe). Any future calls to the api that come from the .Net MVC client can pass the token on. This seems wrong to me though. I'm not even sure this is possible.
2) Utilise one of the OAuth flows so that the browser based login can call the API and retrieve a token, and the OAuth flow redirects to the MVC client which then stores the token for that user (again, in a session variable).
The Api was generated using the VS2013 WebApi template using Owin local accounts and is generating tokens via the ValidateClientCredentials and ValidateResourceOwnerCredentials flows, but i think i need to use one of the other OAuth flows for this scenario.
I understand that another solution would be to bypass the .Net MVC client code and create a completely browser based solution using knockout or AngluarJS but it's quite a complex system and i don't really have time to do this at the moment so i'm looking for a solution that would allow me to retrieve a token from the api that can be used from my .Net MVC client and ajax calls from the browser.
Any ideas, advice would be much appreciated.
thanks in advance. Justin
If you'd rely on Azure AD as your credentials store and authentication system, you'd be able to leverage a ready to use JS library that handles authentication, AJAX calls and session management concerns automatically: see http://www.cloudidentity.com/blog/2014/10/28/adal-javascript-and-angularjs-deep-dive/.
If you can't rely on Azure AD, the code of the library and samples mentioned above can still have value as a reference to build your own system - provided that the authenticaiton system you decide to use offers similar capabilities.
HTH
V.

Accessing a WCF Service secured by ACS from javascript

I am looking to create a WCF (possibly WebApi) web service that sits on top of some of our existing code. Eventually this service will be used by external clients but we are going to start using it with our own mobile app.
As some clients will want to use Gmail and ADFS authentication it seems to make sense to use Azure ACS (this is where our webservices are hosted). However we won't need multiple providers for a while and we will start by using a custom STS that authenticates users against our existing authentication logic.
We already have a rough prototype of the above working using a MVC web application acting as the client.
My problem is how do I integrate this with a mobile application? It looks as if the mobile app will be written using AppCelerator which means I need to authenticate using javascript. We only want users to authenticate to our custom STS so would I need to use Active Authentication? I.e.
Ask user to enter username and password
Directly authenticate with custom STS and retrieve token
Pass STS token to ACS and retrieve ACS token
Pass ACS token to wcf service for each request.
I guess my questions are: am I on the right track and if so how would I achieve this in javascript?
If you want to support mobile devices, it is recommended to provide a web based login interface in your STS. In most cases, a mobile device will navigate to your STS’s sign in page in a web browser. After your STS authenticates the user, it sends claims to ACS. ACS in turn uses JavaScript notification to notify the host application.
You can refer to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/WAZPlatformTrainingCourse_ACSAndWindowsPhone7 for a tutorial about working with ACS in Windows Phone. Similar process can be used for other mobile devices.
Hope this helps.
I think it is possible to issue SAML over Https request. As a starting point Id suggest to look at Thinktecture IdentityServer sources by Dominick Baier. This will help to understand different strategies and how you can use em(there are some goodies for WebApi on Github also):
http://identityserver.codeplex.com/