I am writing a simple Google API application that will help the user with some tasks using the Google Prediction API.
I am intending to use the API from a Server-Server perspective, so I am really not requesting data from the end-user.
Everywhere I read about the Google oAuth API even for Server-Server it tries to authenticate the enduser, but why? I (the application) want to access the API and be charged for it, not the end user. I don't want to know anything about the user...
So how do I get to consume the Google Prediction API without doing a user side oauth request?
Did you read this one? I didn't find there are need for authentication of end user.
If you use the Google Prediction API to act on behalf of your application without accessing any user data, your application uses its service-account credentials to prove its own identity, and no end user is involved.
Related
I am building an API meant to be sold to various clients. These clients will be given an API Key or something similar and they'll use the API in a widget on their website.
The end users of the clients' website must be able to use the widget anonymously (no login).
Workflow:
My current idea is to have the Client's server retrieve a temporary key and use that in the webpage. The End user's browser will use that temporary key to call our API.
Is there any reason why this is not a good practice and/or insecure?
Or is there a better good practice solution? Can I for exmaple use OAuth 2 for this?
You need to secure your API from the clients app. So, for that you can use OAuth 2 with Client Credentials grant type and setup each client as an app so they each get their own set of key/secret credentials.
Since you don't know anything about the end user, but still need to track them, require an endUserId custom header on every request to your API and you'll just have to trust the client to provide you with a valid id for the end user making the request.
To setup OAuth, use an existing library or OAuth service. I don't recommend writing your own. If you can spend some money, Okta and Auth0 are good choices. If your API is written in .net, you can use IdentityServer as a free option.
I'm looking to use API Gateway + Lambda + Cognito User Pools to build a simple REST API.
The API will be used in two ways. The first is to support a basic web app (hosted on CloudFront + S3). Authentication for the web application uses the hosted Cognito sign in / sign up flow and is working fine (with API Gateway setup to use the user pool authenticator).
The second method will be for customers to use the REST API to communicate with the system.
As an example, the client might use the web app to configure a workflow and then use an API to invoke that workflow.
What is the recommended method of authenticating the API for use with backend services?
Traditionally, I'd expect to use an API key + secret token for this purpose. I have no issue creating API keys in the API Gateway interface however I can't see anyway to link that to a specific user, nor can I see any method of specifying a secret token alongside the API key.
And assuming the above is possible, how would I set it up in such a way that I could use the JWT-based approach for the web application and the API key + secret token for customers to use.
EDIT: Additionally, I notice that app clients have an ID and a secret. Are they intended to be used for 3rd API-based-authentication (similar to how other systems make you create an app for API access)? I'm a bit skeptical because there's a limit of 25 per user pool, although it is a soft limit...
I have been searching for an answer to this myself and my searching led me to your question. I will give you my best answer from my research, assuming you want to utilize the well-known key/secret approach. Maybe others can provide a better approach.
Basically, the approach is:
Your REST API accounts are just Cognito users in a (possibly separate) user pool
The management of API accounts is done from the back end
The username and password will be the API key and secret, are administratively created (see the Admin* operations), and can be whatever format you want (within Cognito limits)
The REST API is authorized via Cognito JWT tokens
API account key and secret are only used to retrieve or refresh tokens
This requires the REST API to have a set of endpoints to support token retrieval and refresh using account keys and secrets
Based upon how long you set up the Cognito refresh interval, you can require API accounts to submit their key/secret credentials from very often to almost never
Structuring the authorization of your REST API to use Cognito tokens will allow you to integrate the REST API directly with API Gateway's support for Cognito.
I think the biggest headache of this whole thing is that you will have to create the supporting pieces for, e.g., registered users to request API accounts and for the administration of those accounts, as well as some extra helper REST endpoints for token exchange. Additionally, clients will have to keep track of keys/secrets AND token(s) as well as add client-side logic to know when to supply tokens or credentials.
When i was starting out using API gateway and Congito, i referenced https://github.com/awslabs/aws-serverless-auth-reference-app a lot and found it very helpful in demonstrating the integration between the different AWS components.
If I understand you correctly, you want to create a "long-lived API key + secret" for programmatic access to your API?
I have exactly this need, and am sadly finding that it appears to not be possible. The longest a key can be valid for is 1 hour. You can have a refresh token that's valid for 10 years. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognito/latest/developerguide/limits.html
I'm currently looking for an elegant solution to this. I'd be interested to hear if you ever found a solution, or if you rolled your own.
Did anyone ever find a more elegant solution to this problem?
The first answer seems like pushing too much work into the hands of my customers. I don't know the skill level of the developers calling my API, and I wouldn't wish becoming a Cognito developer on anyone lol. More seriously, I don't want them to have to store multiple pieces of information and then have to deal with refreshing tokens.
I might be Ok with giving them a refresh token. Then I could do one of two things:
Give them a refresh method. I'd figure out all the weird Cognito kinks and keep their method to a simple payload of just the refresh token. I'd give them back the access token to use on subsequent calls.
Let them pass me the refresh token as if it was an access token. I would use it on each call to get an access token and then use that to call the interior APIs.
I have a website allowing authenticated users to submit and edit data. I also want to offer a REST API as part of a chargeable service.
Now the problem is that a non-paying user could theoretically use the same calls my website uses as API for authentication and sending data from his external application since it is very easy in the browser to see the endpoint what and how exactly the data is being sent to a website.
How can I protect my website from such usage and force the user to use API for external access?
Actually you cannot prevent people making requests to a public API. You can just validate the user when a request arrives. So there are more than one approach to solve this problem.
I would provide a token per session for each user and validate the rest API request at back-end.
Use OAuth2. So you will give paid user secret id and key then they will ask for the access token to access the API's using secret id and key.
Read about public/private key encryption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography
Read about oAuth
https://oauth.net/2/
I have used passport to implement oAuth2 in laravel. passport is oAuth2 implementation and available in other languages also.
I'm currently tyring to build an API driven symfony2 web applicaiton.Just a basic application to learn symfony2 and REST.
It would be based on a RESTful api. Calls to the API will be authenticated using OAuth.
For e.g.:
if a client application wants to get data (information about all the fruits) through API it will need to make a GET request to the url and pass the access token as a parameter.So the url will look something like this.
http://www.mysite.com/api/fruits.json?=<access token>
Now the problem is that i would be needing the same data in one of my actions as well.
I need some help here.In order to get get data from above url in one of my actions i will also need to send an access token in the url.
How do i get this access token??
Should there be a fixed token which will be used for all such calls within my application??
You basic application project will grow manifold if you try to do what you want here.
Basically, you need to implement an Authentication Server for this.
i) First, the app should be registered for a scope;
ii) Using the app the user logs in to the authentication/authorization server.
iii) The server verifies if the app has access to the scope and if the user is registered in your system.
iv) Server creates an access token (which is a HMAC signed string) and returns to your app.
v) The app then hits the endpoint (restful API) with the token.
vi) The RESTful service then internally sends the token to the server and fetches the customerID for which the call is made and performs the actions that it's supposed to.
I wrote an answer once on how to create a OAuth Service/Provider - How would an efficient OAuth2.0 server / provider work?
Also, OAuth was designed such that client apps/3rd party software can access a user's resources on his behalf. A very simple example is = An app posting something on your facebook wall on your behalf. It is actually accessing a resource that you own (the wall) and posting to it. You do not need OAuth just to get some data - there are other ways to secure the API.
I am creating a solution that will contains a website and mobile apps. I will use Zend-Framework 2 for the website.
So, to make it good, I am wondering if it would be a good idea to build :
A REST web service (using zf2)
Another website that will call the REST ws (using zf2)
The mobile apps that will call the REST ws
I will use OAuth for the autentication and security.
My question is, if my website gets the data by calling the REST ws, it will have to make a database request at each call to check the token whereas if I do a "normal" website, my app will be able to use session to store the information of the connected user.
Because, for what I have read, there is no such thing as session with OAuth/REST so for each call, I have one more sql request to check the token validity.
Is it still a good idea to make a full REST service, even for the website or to have a "normal" website and also a REST service API just for the mobile apps ?
Thanks
Oauth is a server to server authentication framework. Like it is between mobile app and your API server , website vs your API server etc. You can adopt an approach where , you generate only one access token for your website client instead of multiple access token for each user from the website. This access token is stored in your webserver vs user cookie in website.Ultimately the aim is to identify all the clients of your REST WS and your website is one of its client and a very trusted one.
This way you can cache the access token to avoid db calls (typically cache time can be equal to or less than token expiry time). Do explore the multiple grant types specified in the oauth spec for this
Regarding maintaining session for user in your website, it is not dependent on whether the back end is a REST WS or not, it can be handled in your website