=========================================== Using external authentication with Keystone =========================================== .. _external-auth: When Keystone is executed in a web server like :doc:`Apache HTTPD ` it is possible to use external authentication methods different from the authentication provided by the identity store backend or the different authentication plugins. For example, this makes possible to use an SQL identity backend together with, X.509 authentication or Kerberos, for example, instead of using the username and password combination. When a web server is in charge of authentication, it is normally possible to set the ``REMOTE_USER`` environment variable so that it can be used in the underlying application. Keystone can be configured to use that environment variable if set, so that the authentication is handled by the web server. Configuration ============= In Identity API v2, there is no way to disable external authentication. In order to activate the external authentication mechanism for Identity API v3, the ``external`` method must be in the list of enabled authentication methods. By default it is enabled, so if you don't want to use external authentication, remove it from the ``methods`` option in the ``auth`` section. To configure the plugin that should be used set the ``external`` option again in the ``auth`` section. There are two external authentication method plugins provided by Keystone: * ``DefaultDomain``: This plugin won't take into account the domain information that the external authentication method may pass down to Keystone and will always use the configured default domain. The ``REMOTE_USER`` variable is the username. This is the default if no plugin is given. * ``Domain``: This plugin expects that the ``REMOTE_DOMAIN`` variable contains the domain for the user. If this variable is not present, the configured default domain will be used. The ``REMOTE_USER`` variable is the username. .. CAUTION:: You should disable the external auth method if you are currently using federation. External auth and federation both use the ``REMOTE_USER`` variable. Since both the mapped and external plugin are being invoked to validate attributes in the request environment, it can cause conflicts. For example, imagine there are two distinct users with the same username `foo`, one in the `Default` domain while the other is in the `BAR` domain. The external Federation modules (i.e. mod_shib) sets the ``REMOTE_USER`` attribute to `foo`. The external auth module also tries to set the ``REMOTE_USER`` attribute to `foo` for the `Default` domain. The federated mapping engine maps the incoming identity to `foo` in the `BAR` domain. This results in user_id conflict since both are using different user_ids to set `foo` in the `Default` domain and the `BAR` domain. To disable this, simply remove `external` from the `methods` option in `keystone.conf`:: methods = external,password,token,oauth1 Using HTTPD authentication ========================== Web servers like Apache HTTP support many methods of authentication. Keystone can profit from this feature and let the authentication be done in the web server, that will pass down the authenticated user to Keystone using the ``REMOTE_USER`` environment variable. This user must exist in advance in the identity backend to get a token from the controller. To use this method, Keystone should be running on :doc:`HTTPD `. X.509 example ------------- The following snippet for the Apache conf will authenticate the user based on a valid X.509 certificate from a known CA:: SSLEngine on SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/ssl.cert SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/ssl.key SSLCACertificatePath /etc/ssl/allowed_cas SSLCARevocationPath /etc/ssl/allowed_cas SSLUserName SSL_CLIENT_S_DN_CN SSLVerifyClient require SSLVerifyDepth 10 (...) Developing a WSGI middleware for authentication =============================================== In addition to the method described above, it is possible to implement other custom authentication mechanisms using the ``REMOTE_USER`` WSGI environment variable. .. ATTENTION:: Please note that even if it is possible to develop a custom authentication module, it is preferable to use the modules in the HTTPD server. Such authentication modules in webservers like Apache have normally undergone years of development and use in production systems and are actively maintained upstream. Developing a custom authentication module that implements the same authentication as an existing Apache module likely introduces a higher security risk. If you find you must implement a custom authentication mechanism, you will need to develop a custom WSGI middleware pipeline component. This middleware should set the environment variable ``REMOTE_USER`` to the authenticated username. Keystone then will assume that the user has been already authenticated upstream and will not try to authenticate it. However, as with HTTPD authentication, the user must exist in advance in the identity backend so that a proper token can be issued. Your code should set the ``REMOTE_USER`` if the user is properly authenticated, following the semantics below: .. code-block:: python from keystone.common import wsgi from keystone import exception class MyMiddlewareAuth(wsgi.Middleware): def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs): super(MyMiddlewareAuth, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs) def process_request(self, request): if request.environ.get('REMOTE_USER', None) is not None: # Assume that it is authenticated upstream return self.application if not self.is_auth_applicable(request): # Not applicable return self.application username = self.do_auth(request) if username is not None: # User is authenticated request.environ['REMOTE_USER'] = username else: # User is not authenticated, render exception raise exception.Unauthorized("Invalid user") Pipeline configuration ---------------------- Once you have your WSGI middleware component developed you have to add it to your pipeline. The first step is to add the middleware to your configuration file. Assuming that your middleware module is ``keystone.middleware.MyMiddlewareAuth``, you can configure it in your ``keystone-paste.ini`` as:: [filter:my_auth] paste.filter_factory = keystone.middleware.MyMiddlewareAuth.factory The second step is to add your middleware to the pipeline. The exact place where you should place it will depend on your code (i.e. if you need for example that the request body is converted from JSON before perform the authentication you should place it after the ``json_body`` filter) but it should be set before the ``public_service`` (for the ``public_api`` pipeline) or ``admin_service`` (for the ``admin_api`` pipeline), since they consume authentication. For example, if the original pipeline looks like this:: [pipeline:public_api] pipeline = url_normalize token_auth admin_token_auth json_body debug ec2_extension user_crud_extension public_service Your modified pipeline might then look like this:: [pipeline:public_api] pipeline = url_normalize token_auth admin_token_auth json_body my_auth debug ec2_extension user_crud_extension public_service