Who’s Knocking? Identity for APIs, Web and Mobile

Copyright ©2012 Ping Identity Corporation. All rights reserved.1
Who’s Knocking?
Identity for APIs, Web and Mobile
Hans Zandbelt - @hanszandbelt
CTO Office - Ping Identity

Overview
Cloud & APIs: The Trends
- History, state-of-the-art, trends
Identity and APIs
- What, why, how
Recommendations
- API strategy
1
2
4
OAuth 2.0
- Not for Authentication!
3

CLOUD & APIS: THE TRENDS
[section lead-in]

Cloud/Mobile Moves: 3 Dimensions of Change
• Users
– Workforce
– Customers/consu
mers
– Partners
– Social
• Devices
– Mobile/fixed
– Browser/app
– BYOD/E-owned
• Location
– Services
– Users
Users
Location(s)
Devices

Traditional firewall and enterprise domain-based
security cannot deal with Cloud Apps and Mobile
devices and applications.
IDENTITY IS THE NEW PERIMETER
Consequences
FIREWALL

How it could/should be: Cloud 2.0 (web or mobile)
firewall
APP
APP
database
directory
SaaS
SaaS
SaaS
database

The API Economy Drivers
• SaaS
– API access to
data/services vs.
browser access
– Cloud, Mobile/Big
Data, BYOD
– Salesforce.com >
60%
• APIs of PaaS
offerings
– Expose own cloud
services
• Clear trend for APIs
towards REST

IDENTITY & APIS

The Internet Scale Identity Concept
• Identity Provider
– Authoritative
– Scale
– Manageability
• UNIFORM across
Web SSO & API
Access
• Security AND
Convenience
• How to extend
enterprise security
policies to the cloud:
a MUST have
verify

Web SSO and API Access Playfield
User Provisioning
Web SSO API Access

API Access
• HTTP
• SOAP
– WS-Security/WS-
Trust
• REST
– ?
• TOKEN
– Obtain
– Use
– Validate
• Passwords??
CLIENT
SERVICE
SOAP / REST
Token

Password anti-pattern
• 3rd party client
store user
passwords
• Teaches users to
be indiscriminate
with passwords
• No multi-factor or
federated
authentication
• No granularity
• No differentiation
• No revocation

Drivers
Lack
Of
Standards
Password
Anti
Pattern
Native
Mobile
Apps
REST
Cloud
APIs

OAUTH 2.0

OAuth 2.0
• Secure API
authorization
– simple & standard
– desktop, mobile web
• Auth & Authz for
RESTful APIs
• Delegated
authorization
– mitigates password
anti-pattern
• Issue tokens for
granular access
– Without divulging
your credentials

OAuth 2.0 Terminology: Roles
• Authorization Server (AS)
A server capable of issuing
tokens, obtaining authorization,
and authenticating resource
owners.
• Resource Owner
An entity (usually an end-
user/person) capable of granting
access to a protected resource.
• Client
An application(!) obtaining
authorization and making
protected resource requests (on
behalf of the resource owner).
• Resource Server (RS)
The server hosting protected
resources.
verify

A. Client sends Authorization Request
"GET /as/authorization.oauth2?client_id=TunesPartner-
OT&state=TunesPartner-
OT&response_type=code&scope=onetime-a HTTP/1.1” 302 0
B. Service Provider grants Authorization
https://www.tunespartner.com:9031/Partner/callback.jsp?state=
TunesPartner-
OT&code=IEM_peySP5KvIfVs8fT650FxbgXwjdqN8tHXdyh7
C. Client Request Access Token
POST https://idp.idtel.com:9031/as/token.oauth2
---PARAMETERS---
client_id: TunesPartner-OT&
grant_type: authorization_code&
Code: IEM_peySP5KvIfVs8fT650FxbgXwjdqN8tHXdyh7
D. Service Provider grants Access Token
This resulted in the following JSON response containing our
OAuth access_token:
{"token_type":"Bearer",
"expires_in":300,
"access_token":"ivBOdwGpGb3pY3gvPaK6D8W5Ldey”
}
Protocol Workflow

OAuth 2.0 Benefits
• Security & Usability
– Bearer Tokens
• Revocation
• Granularity
• Use Cases*
• Passwords vs.
OAuth ===
creditcard vs.
checks
Scopes

OAuth 2.0 is Not for Authentication !!
• Bearer token is about
delegated rights, not
about the user authn
• Bearer token has no
audience restriction
– can’t check if it was
really meant for you
– Not bound to the client
• No guarantee that the
user is present
– no “authn statement”
semantics
• Redirect is not
authenticated or
integrity protected in
any way
– bearer = bearer and
nothing more
validate
client rs + as
user agent
get a token redirect
T
T
user info

OpenID Connect
• OAuth: general
mechanism to
authorize API access
• OpenID Connect:
profile for sharing
profile information
• Uses the authz code &
implicit grant types –
the pieces of OAuth
optimized for user-
consent scenarios
• Leverages the
authorization & token
endpoints & adds
identity-based params
to core OAuth
messages
Client
(RP)
User
Agent
AS/OP
Resource
Server
UserInfo
a
b
1
3
a
a
2

SSO for Mobile Apps: Authorization Agent (AZA)
• Aggregate OAuth
flows and logins
• Bootstrap through
WebSSO with
OpenID Connect or
SAML
• Oauth-as-a-Service
+ SAML-as-a-
Service
OAUTH SSO

RECOMMENDATIONS
[section lead-in]

Something to think about: Cloud IAM strategy
• Multi-use case,
multi-device, multi-
channel, multi
protocol…
– Identity is the
connector
• Interoperability and
standards
• IAM not just an
internal technical
issue: also a
strategic business
enabler
• Architect for agility

• Implement your API for:
– externalized authentication and authorization
– tokens instead of passwords
– consumer identity AND enterprise identity
• By leveraging identity we can:
– address API access (server2server, mobile) in the
same way as Web SSO
– reuse existing security and identity policies
– connect your existing identity store
• Possibly implement this in a single system(!)
– And be prepared for OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect,
SCIM, SAML, …
Identity for APIs strategy

COME AND SEE US!
Hans Zandbelt
Twitter: @hanszandbelt
www.pingidentity.com

Who’s Knocking? Identity for APIs, Web and Mobile

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