Yes, what is it and where does it go? I see examples like:
For example, the following example shows the request and the collection returned in the response:
GET https://www.googleapis.com/analytics/v3/management/accounts
Authorization: /* YOUR_OAUTH_ACCESS_TOKEN */
From http://code.google.com/intl/es-ES/apis/analytics/docs/mgmt/v3/mgmtRest.html
I'm completely lost here! How am I supposed to input the access token there? And what is it? My google API password?
Take a look here for more information on using OAuth with Google services.
Update: this article provides step-by-step instructions for calling GA API.
You have to exchange the code for the access token OR, if you are trying to get it, the refresh token.
Then you call the google api of choice with either the access token or the refresh token.
See the following tutorials:
Authenticating with OAuth 2.0 for Google API Access with PHP
Google API Requests with OAuth 2.0 Access Token
Google API Offline Access Using OAuth 2.0 Refresh Token
Related
Background
I'm trying to implement social login using GitHub accounts and OpenID Connect, but I can't figure out what GitHub endpoints I'm supposed to:
redirect the user to and
POST the authorization code to
...to get back an ID token, or if I already have the right endpoints but the wrong parameters.
I've been following/adapting this guide to implementing social login with OpenID Connect (which uses Google as the Identity Provider rather than GitHub) and referring to the "OAuth 2.0 web application flow" GitHub docs page to try to understand how I need to adapt the guide to work with GitHub (i.e. what GitHub endpoints and parameters I need to use).
My problem
When I POST the authorization code to https://github.com/login/oauth/access_token (the URL specified in GitHub's docs) I get back an access token and a refresh token but no ID token. I suspect this is because the GitHub docs page is meant to be used to implement a plain (non-OpenID Connect) OAuth 2.0 flow.
What I've tried
I did a lot of Googling and found these 2019 slides from PragmaticWebSecurity.com that say I need to initially redirect the user to a different endpoint (https://github.com/openid-connect/auth rather than https://github.com/login/oauth/authorize, see slide 29), but when I try to do that, I get a 404 error from GitHub. I tried emailing the guy who created those slides to ask if the endpoint had changed, but he hasn't responded to me.
These are my guesses at what the answer to my question is:
GitHub doesn't support OpenID Connect / it isn't possible to get back an ID token; I need to just use the access token to query the API to get back whatever information I need about the user.
This would explain why I can't find any mention of social login with OpenID Connect in GitHub's docs.
I have the right endpoint (https://github.com/login/oauth/access_token), but I'm missing some required parameter to get back an ID token.
I have the wrong endpoint.
I contacted GitHub Support and got an official response: Their API doesn't support OpenID Connect for social login.
Here's their full response:
Hi Nathan,
Thanks for reaching out!
GitHub OAuth flow does not currently support the OpenID connect
functionality. You'll need to use the OAuth 2.0
https://docs.github.com/en/developers/apps/building-oauth-apps/authorizing-oauth-apps
Regards,
Oluwaseun GitHub Support
So, until they add support for OpenID Connect, you can refer to this write-up I did on how to implement social login using OAuth 2.0:
How do I implement social login with GitHub accounts?
From your guesses 1) and 2).
github oauth apps currently do oauth2 not oidc, it kind of stares in your face with the name, but I missed it as well.
I'll leave this for others researching this.
oauth2 != oidc, Depending on your use case you might have a client library that supports both, the config will look the same, but the response is different and needs to be handled correctly.
As per OpenID specification, I think you'll need to authenticate with OAuth2
The primary extension that OpenID Connect makes to OAuth 2.0 to enable
End-Users to be Authenticated is the ID Token data structure. The ID
Token is a security token that contains Claims about the
Authentication of an End-User by an Authorization Server when using a
Client, and potentially other requested Claims.
...
The OpenID Connect protocol, in abstract, follows the following steps.
The RP (Client) sends a request to the OpenID Provider (OP).
The OP authenticates the End-User and obtains authorization.
The OP responds with an ID Token and usually an Access Token.
The RP can send a request with the Access Token to the UserInfo Endpoint.
The UserInfo Endpoint returns Claims about the End-User.
Then you should be able to forward through OpenID the token, once you have set up the trust between the Authentication provider and the Autorization provider.
My previous implementation of using GET request to url https://graph.facebook.com/538726722826117 is broken now that Facebook has moved to Graph API v2 and requires an auth token for fetching this information. And as it is a website, I cannot embed a token which would have any more access rights than for reading a page's public information.
How to implement this rather simple task of getting a page's public like and check-ins count?
You don´t need to autorize, you can just use an App Access Token for the API call. Of course you should not use the Token on the client, but it´s perfectly fine to use it on the server. Make the API call with file_get_contents or curl - that is, if you are using PHP.
An App Access Token is very simple, it´s just the App ID and the App Secret, combined with a pipe sign: App-ID|App-Secret
More information about Tokens for the Facebook API:
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-login/access-tokens
http://www.devils-heaven.com/facebook-access-tokens/
there is a problem with my access token. I have made my own application, and I took the permission from the facebook user, who is me. And also I have given the same permissions to the facebook graph api. However when I can easily get the results using FQL with graph api access token, but I cannot get the result with my own application access token. What is the problem with my access token.
It is not user access token. Maybe this can be problem however also graph api is not also user access token.
Per the error message you need to use a user access token retrieved via the Authentication flow - you cannot use an app access token for this.
You mentioned in the comments you're successfully using an access token from the Graph API Explorer tool - this is also a user access token which the tool retrieves using the client-side oauth flow. This is not the same as using an app access token for your own app.
We have a website where the only way to login and authenticate yourself with the site is with Facebook (this was not my choice). The first time you login with Facebook, an account gets automatically created for you.
We now want to create an iPhone application for our site and also a public API for others to use our service.
This question is about how to authenticate with our website from the app/API and is broken into 2 parts:
What is the correct way to handle REST authentication from an API to a website which only uses Facebook OAuth as an authentication method?
I have read and researched a lot about standard methods of authentication for REST API. We can't use such methods as Basic Auth over HTTPS, as there are no credentials for a user as such. Something like this seems to be only for authenticating applications using the API.
Currently, the best way I can think is you hit an /authorize end-point on our API, it redirects to Facebook OAuth, then redirects back to the site and provides a 'token' which the user of the API can use to authenticate subsequent requests.
For an official application that we create, we wouldn't necessarily need to use the public API in the same way. What would be the best way then to talk to our website and authenticate users?
I understand (I think) how to authenticate 3rd-party applications that are using our API, using API (public) keys and secret (private) keys. However, when it comes to authenticating the user who is using the app, I am getting rather confused about how to go about it when the only way we have to authenticate a user is Facebook.
I feel like I'm missing something very obvious, or don't fully understand how public REST APIs should work, so any advice and help would be greatly appreciated.
UPDATE: see below
I've been thinking hard about this question too. It's not entirely clear to me yet but here's the route I am thinking of going. I am creating a REST API an my users only auth with Facebook connect.
On the CLIENT:
Use the Facebook API to login and get an OAUTH2 code.
Exchange this code for an access token.
In every call to my custom API I'll include the Facebook user id and the access token.
On the API (for every method that requires user authentication):
Make a request to the /me Facebook graph using the access token from above.
Verify that the Facebook user id returned matches the user id passed to my API from above.
If the access token has expired additional communication is required.
I have yet to test this. How does it sound?
--- Update: July 27th, 2014 to answer question ---
I only use the above exchange once upon login. Once I determine which user is logging in, I create my own access token, and that token is used from that point going forward. So the new flow looks like this...
On the CLIENT:
Use the Facebook API to login and get an OAUTH2 code.
Exchange this code for an access token.
Request an access token from my API, including the Facebook token as a parameter
On the API
Receive access token request.
Make a request to the /me Facebook graph using the facebook access token
Verify that the Facebook user exists and match to a user in my database
Create my own access token, save it and return it to the client to be used from this point forward
This is my implementation using JWTs (JSON Web Tokens), basically similar to Chris' updated answer. I have used Facebook JS SDK and JWT.
Here's my implementation.
Client: Use Facebook JS SDK to log in and get the access token.
Client: Request JWT from my API by calling /verify-access-token endpoint.
MyAPI: Receives access token, verify it by calling /me endpoint of Facebook API.
MyAPI: If access token is valid, finds the user from database, logs in the user if exist. Create a JWT with required fields as payload, set an expiry, sign with the secret key and send back to the client.
Client: Stores the JWT in local storage.
Client: Sends the token (the JWT from step 5) along with the request for the next API call.
MyAPI: validate the token with the secret key, if token is valid, exchange the token for a new one, send it back to the client along with the API response. (No external API calls for verification of the token here after) [if the token is invalid/expired request client to authenticate again and repeat from 1]
Client Replaces the stored token with the new one and use it for the next API call. Once the token expiry is met, the token expires revoking access to API.
Every token is used once.
Read more answers about security and JWT
How secure is JWT
If you can decode JWT how are they secure?
JSON Web Tokens (JWT) as user identification and authentication tokens
I am trying to answer the same question and have been going through a lot of reading recently...
I won't have "the" answer but things are getting a little clearer for me. Have you read the comments in the article you mentioned? I found them really interesting and helpful.
As a result, and in the light of how things have evolved since the first article has been written, here's what I think I'll do:
HTTPS everywhere — this allows you to forget about HMAC, signing, nonce, ...
Use OAuth2:
When authentication requests come from my own apps/website, use this 'trick' (or a variation of it) described in a reply to the article mentioned before.
In my case, I have two types of users: those with classic login/password credentials and those who have signed up with Facebook Connect.
So I'd provide a regular login form with a "Login with Facebook" button. If the user logs in with his "classic" credentials, I'd just send these to my OAuth2 endpoint with a grant_type=password.
If he chooses to log in via Facebook, I think that would be a two-steps process:
First, use Facebook iOS SDK to open an FBSession
When that's done and the app is given back control, there should be a way to get a Facebook ID for that user. I'd send this ID alone to my OAuth2 endpoint with an extension grant understood by my server as "using an FB User ID".
Please note that I am still heavily researching on all this stuff, so that might not be a perfect answer... maybe not even a correct one! But I think that would make for a good starting point.
The idea of using an "extension grant" for the Facebook authentication might involve having to register it to do things properly? I'm not quite sure.
Anyway, I hope I was able to help you even a bit, and that at least it can start a discussion to find the best solution to this problem :)
Update
The Facebook login is not a solution as pointed in the comments: anybody could send an arbitrary user ID and log in as this user on the API.
What about doing it like this:
Show a login form with a "Facebook login" button
If this login method is chosen, act kinda like the Facebook SDK: open a web page from your authentication server, which will initiate the Facebook login.
Once the user has logged in, Facebook will use your redirect URL to confirm; make that URL point to another endpoint of your authentication server (possibly with an extra parameter indicating the call came from an app?)
When the authentication endpoint is hit, the authentication can securely identify the user, retain its FB User ID/FB Session and return an access token to your app using a custom URL scheme, just like the Facebook SDK would do
Looks better?
I want to use http://api.twitter.com/1/blocks/create.json?screen_name=xxxxxxx (Twitter API) to block particular friends or followers from my account with the use of Twitter & Account Framework in iOS 5,
So what should i do to solve this issue, because i just want to use Twitter account , don't want to use OAuth.
It generate an error like : HTTP/1.1 401 API is secure. Needs security Credentials
The Twitter API requires OAuth authentication. However, if you're happy with targeting iOS 5 and up you can use the in-built Twitter framework to perform the OAuth calculations on your behalf, which will save you a lot of time. Take a look at the documentation for TWRequest:
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/Twitter/Reference/TwitterFrameworkReference/_index.html
Actually you need to put parameters of post requests in the body. This is described in the OAuth tool description under Request query:
This tool is available on the right of every rest API documentation page like this if you are logged in
You can use apigee console for twitter to test it but you will get the same error unless you include the screen_name parameter in the body