Authorization Code Flow code examples for ASP.NET Web App - asp.net

I am trying to implement Single-sign on for my ASP.NET web application using Azure Active Directory and the OAuth2 OpenIDConnect protocols. The documentation is recommending that implicit grant flow is used only for SPA, however, all code samples for ASP.NET are using the response_Type of idTokens. Inorder for this response type to work I need to allow the implicit grant flow. Can anyone point me to code samples using MSAL that can work with the authorization code grant?

The OAuth 2 authorization code grant can be used in apps that are installed on a device to gain access to protected resources like web APIs. This allows you to add sign-in and API access to your mobile and desktop apps.
To redeem an authorization code and get a token, and cache it, the IConfidentialClientApplication contains a method called.
AcquireTokenByAuthorizationCode(
IEnumerable<string> scopes,
string authorizationCode)
Here is code sample you could refer to and this one.

Related

Can't get domain user inside API - (AngularJs + ASP.NET Framework with Windows authentication)

I have this legacy intranet app using an AngularJS SPA consuming an an ASP.NET Web API (on .NET 4.6.1) and I can't manage to get the user authenticated on the domain inside the API, when calls are made by AngularJs.
Inside the API I have situations where I need to get the domain authenticated user. I have tried several combinations inside IIS to set both the AngularJS app and the API with Windows authentication, Impersonation, Authorization Rules. I've read several questions in Stackoverflow and other forums and also searched through several articles but I can't manage to find a solution, I'm feeling helpless in this one.
When I make a direct call to the API using a tool like Postman or through Swagger, System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request.LogonUserIdentity.Name shows the correct authenticated user.
When I make the very same call to the API but through the client, like loading a page that requests data from the API, the user shown in LogonUserIdentity, is the one set on the app pool.
The authentication between the client and the API uses bearer token.
Here's my current scenario:
IIS:
Windows authentication enabled for both the client and the API, Impersonation enabled for both the client and the API
Authorization rules for ASP.NET and IIS set with allow all users for both Client and API
Session state in-proc, using cookies and with UseHostingIdentity set to false on both Client and API
Both the client and the API are using the same AppPool, with integrated Pipeline, .NET CLR v4.0,
If there's more info to supply please let me know, I'll update the question with the required info.

OAuth2 with SPA and API

I want to implement Single Sign On in Angular 5 SPA which uses ASP.NET Core API. I have OAuth2 server provided by the company.
What I want to achieve is to allow access to the application only to authorized users, who have to pass through SSO process. I want to display content of the SPA only to authorized users and allow to access API resources only by them (users with correct access_tokens), too.
I do not know what should be the correct approach for this requirement. I was considering:
Implicit grant flow - from my SPA myspa.com:4200 I am invoking mycompanyauthserver.com/Authorize to obtain authorization code.
With that and client_id in Angular app I am invoking mycompanyauthserver.com/Token to obtain access token. I save it in localstorage. Now, I can send this access token with request to my API (myapi.com:5000), but how to check in API if this token is correct? I do not have endpoint on OAuth server to do it. Also, how to check on SPA if access code is correct and not manipulated by user?
Another approach I see is to invoke from SPA some endpoint in my API which will invoke mycompanyauthserver.com/Authorize and then mycompanyauthserver.com/Token and then API will have access_token and return it to SPA. Then, I can easily check while sending request from SPA to API if the access_code is the same. Is the right approach or am I missing something?
Does your SPA really run on localhost:4200? This would make it a native application, where you could possibly make use of other grant types like Auth code with PKCE. Or is localhost:4200 just a local/dev version of your SPA?
If your app is a SPA, and will be served html and javascript from an external web resource, then yes the implicit grant is optimised for this scenario.
But even so, if your external web resource (which serves up the SPA) can also provide and register a redirect endpoint which can interact with mycompanyauthserver.com/Token endpoint, then you can use the authorisation code grant and return the access_token from your server-side redirection endpoint back to your browser - similar to what you suggest in your option 2.
I'm not sure there's a correct approach.
I've seen SPAs use both approaches. Option 2 involves more server-side code to manage tokens. Option 1 simplifies getting a token but won't give you a long-lived/refresh token. Take your pick :)

Challenge while setting up seamless authentication across MVC and Web API Layer

I work on an application where I have a separate MVC layer and Web API Layer, both have the same authentication mechanism, I have chosen the individual accounts authentication option while adding the projects. The web api service layer will be directly accessed by some other mobile clients also.
But when the user logs in through MVC he should be able to access Web Api seamlessly, but I don’t want to really pass the username and password from MVC to the Web Api layer, I am told it is a bad practice. but i need to authenticate and authorize my user, so the only option i have thought of is to have a default account at Web API level to issue tokens, and this will be called from MVC post the authentication and a token will be returned which is written to a cookie in the client. Now the Ajax calls from the UI can use this bearer token and get the job done.
The only glitch I have here is that, because I am using a default account I need user details again for authorization at service level, though I am doing authorization at my UI level, the user can spoof the system. I was lost here and came up with a solution like, when the user logs in to MVC will send across user details also along with the call to get the WebAPI token and issue another token to the user so that the user uses both of the tokens to make a call to web api from MVC.
I am not sure if this works or if it is even the best way. I just wanted to check, how I should go from here. Any help on this will be really great.
This is a really good example of integration - I know they use Angular as the client but you can learn from this:
http://bitoftech.net/2014/06/01/token-based-authentication-asp-net-web-api-2-owin-asp-net-identity/
Check this section to see how they decouple the API from the front end (Part of the same article).
http://bitoftech.net/2014/09/24/decouple-owin-authorization-server-resource-server-oauth-2-0-web-api/

How should I share authentication from a desktop application to a web application using OAuth 2.0

I have a RESTful API written in ASP.Net that implements OAuth 2 for authentication, and it's currently accessed through a web application. I've also got a legacy desktop client that accesses the same resources directly (not through the RESTful API and without OAuth, but using the same login credentials and hitting the same database). The requirement I'm trying to meet right now is to allow a user to click a link in the desktop application in order to open the web app to a specific screen, and when they do, to have the web app authenticate automatically so that they don't have to manually log into it (since they've already logged into the desktop app).
I'm trying to work out how I can handle this within the constraints of the framework. I'm not too familiar with OAuth 2 in general, but from what I understand I shouldn't share tokens between clients and there are no flows specifically for this kind of hand-off (unless I'm missing something). Worst case scenario, I could generate a temporary token outside of OAuth that's used by the web client to authenticate rather than a username and password, but I'm hoping to avoid stepping outside of what's already in the framework to do what I need to do.
So the question is this: is there some decent way built into the OAuth 2.0 framework to handle this sort of "handshake" between two applications, or should I just build my own method of dealing with it?
Using temporary one-time tokens is actually part of OAuth spec (authorization_code grant type). In this case this short-lived code can be exchanged for access_token (and refresh_token). You will have to implemenent generating and validating of this authorization_code.
If you are using OWIN OAuth middleware:
You can generate the code at separate API endpoint accessed by your desktop client app.
After receiving token, pass it to your browser and direct it to auth endpoint with grant_type=authorization_code over secure connection. Example: call Process.Start("https://example.com/ExternalLogin/authorization_code_goes_here"). At the webpage redirect user to your OAuth Token endpoint with grant_type=authorization_code.
AuthenticationTokenProvider.Receive will be called, in which you will validate your token. (Example code here).
After successful validation OAuthAuthorizationServerProvider.GrantAuthorizationCode will be called, in which you will process the authenticated user in the same way you process it with grant_type=password.
Remember that your token validation logic should ensure that your tokens are short-lived, usable only once and transmitted over secure connection.
This is sometimes called "single sign-on" if you want to research this topic further.

Mobile app Web API authentication

I'm building a mobile application (that might also later become a web application). The server side is a ASP.NET MVC + Web API application and I'm thinking about ways how I could implement the service's user management and authentication.
How should I implement the registration/login screen in the app? Offer native app forms, that will send just API requests to the service or is it preferable to show a web browser component and display the website's login page and then extract a token after the user logs in? I see the first option is more user friendly, but the second one will let me change the login / registration page (like for example adding external authentication providers) without breaking older versions of the app.
My second question is regarding the external authentication providers. ASP.NET Identity has good support for them and it is quite possible to let users register using Facebook or some other OAuth2 provider. Does it make sense to add support for external authentication providers when I plan to expose the app's API publicly? Are there any reasons why that is not a good idea?
Your first option is best if you believe your users will trust you to manage their passwords. You make a secure call to your service, have the service produce a bearer token as the result. That would be an anonymous call. I used the answer from this question to get me going down that path:
Get IPrincipal from OAuth Bearer Token in OWIN
If your users are less likely to trust you with their credentials, then the web view and external provider is a good alternative. You would need to work with providers that support the "Implicit Grant Flow" since don't want to share the apps clientid and client secret on the mobile device. This approach involves using a web view to login in, and then capturing the token on the client uri fragment on the response. I think it is on a location header, but don't have a working example in front of me. Something like:
https://your.domain.com/#access_token = 8473987927394723943294
you would pass that token with each api call afterwards .
Good luck!

Resources