The Many Layers of OAuth

OAuth is one of the most important but most misunderstood frameworks out there. What you think it is, it probably isn’t. What it actually is, you probably hadn’t considered. Regardless, when you consider the standards, specifications, and common practices interact and fit together, it’s impressive what you can accomplish with minimal effort.

In this session, we’ll explore through the most common RFCs that are combined to make powerful, robust, and secure solutions that drive modern software development.

Transcript

1. The Many Layers Of OAuth Danger Casey API Problem Solver, GTM Guy, General Nuisance danger@ngrok.com May 2023
2. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok 01 Intro 02 OAuth Vocabulary 03 The Grant Types 04 Which one when? 05 The fun pain truth lies multitude of specs 06 Closing / Q&A Agenda
3. 01 Who am I?
4. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok Who am I?
5. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok Who am I? https://www.youtube.com/@geekamongthetrees
6. 02 OAuth Vocab
7. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok What is OAuth 2.0? It’s unrelated to OAuth 1.0
8. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok What is OpenID Connect (OIDC)? It’s unrelated to OpenID
9. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok Which is better: OAuth or OpenID Connect? Trick question: OIDC is part of OAuth
10. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok Authentication - vs - Authorization
12. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok - Resource Owner is you - Grant Type (aka Flow) describes the use case - Tokens represents the authorization, user or state - Authorization Server (aka Auth Server) creates the tokens - Scopes are the permissions you request from the Auth Server - Claims are the fields & data returned from the Auth Server - Resource Server is where you use the auth and id tokens Key OAuth Terms
13. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok - Resource Owner is you - Grant Type how you get the tokens - Tokens are the tokens - Authorization Server creates the tokens - Scopes how you request stuff in the token - Claims the stuff in the token - Resource Server where you use the token Key OAuth Terms (simplified)
14. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok Hotel Key Cards but for Apps
15. 03 Grant Types
16. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok - Authorization Code Flow - Implicit Flow - Resource Owner Password Flow - Client Credentials Flow Grant Types (aka OAuth flows)
17. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok Authorization Code Flow User Auth Client Auth
18. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok Implicit Flow User Auth No Client Auth!
19. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok Resource Owner Password Flow User Auth No Client Auth! Wait. What does that mean!? The app has your creds!
20. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok Client Credential Flow Client Auth No User Auth!?
21. 04 Which should I use?
22. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok Which do I use? Wait. Where did that come from?
23. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok - Authorization Code Flow - Implicit Flow - Resource Owner Password Flow - Client Credentials Flow Grant Types (aka OAuth flows)
24. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok - Authorization Code Flow - Implicit Flow - Resource Owner Password Flow - Client Credentials Flow Extensions - Authorization Code Flow with PKCE - SAML 2.0 Assertion Flow - Device Grant Type - Okta: Interaction Grant Type Grant Types (aka OAuth flows)
25. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok Authorization Code Flow with PKCE (RFC 7636) User Auth Client Auth
26. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok SAML 2.0 Assertion Flow Client Auth No User Auth!?
27. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok Which do I use?
28. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok - Authorization Code Flow - Implicit Flow - deprecated in favor of Auth Code+PKCE - Resource Owner Password Flow - not recommended - Client Credentials Flow Extensions - Authorization Code Flow with PKCE - SAML 2.0 Assertion Flow - Device Flow - Okta: Interaction Grant Type Grant Types (aka OAuth flows)
29. Specifications 05
30. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok OAuth (RFC 6749)
31. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok Notice: NOT authentication
32. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok What about those tokens?
33. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok JWTs to the Rescue! (JSON Web Tokens)
34. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok Ha. You wish.
35. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok JSON Web Token (RFC 7519)
36. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok JSON Web Token (RFC 7519)
37. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok JSON Web Token (RFC 7519)
38. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok JSON Web Token (RFC 7519)
39. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok So then what do we do?
40. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok OpenID Connect FTW
41. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok OpenID Connect
42. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok OIDC: Opinionated Structure • openid • profile • email • address • phone • name • given_name • email • street_address • phone_number And many more..
43. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok • RFC 6749 OAuth Core • RFC 7519 JSON Web Token • RFC 7662 Token Introspection • RFC 7009 Token Revocation • OpenID Connect Specification • RFC 8414 Authorization Server Metadata Discovery More Pieces!
44. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok • RFC 6749 OAuth Core • RFC 7519 JSON Web Token • RFC 7662 Token Introspection • RFC 7009 Token Revocation • OpenID Connect Specification • RFC 8414 Authorization Server Metadata Discovery More Pieces! The second most important RFC of all
45. 06 Closing Thoughts
46. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok “We support OAuth” is a meaningless statement
47. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok “We support OpenID Connect” is useful (for SSO)
48. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok Figure out which combo of specs you need & they have *RFC 8414 is your best friend
49. © ngrok. All rights reserved. Confidential Information of ngrok 01 Intro 02 OAuth Vocabulary 03 The Grant Types 04 Which one when? 05 The fun pain truth lies multitude of specs 06 Closing / Q&A Recap
50. Thank you
51. The Many Layers Of OAuth Danger Casey API Problem Solver, GTM Guy, General Nuisance danger@ngrok.com May 2023