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Token based implementation in webapi to secure endpoints

I am having a web application with web service and client will register their application using my web application.
Now client will have application of type SPA or mobile apps and they will consume my webservices from their apps.
So I would be implementing token based mechanism for securing access to my endpoints.
1) But here I am confused that shall I use any framework to generate access token or I can use any library which will generate any random string which i will send in response.for instance something like this :
TokenId = Convert.ToBase64String(Guid.NewGuid().ToByteArray()).Replace("+", "_")
So while registering application if client have enabled authentication for their application then user will be validated and then I will return access token and also save accesstoken in my database with that user id.
So my database table would be like below for storing validated accesstoken :
Id(autogenerated) accesstoken userid clientid createdat expiresat
So after user is authenticated and now if user want to access any protected resources then user need to pass this access token in subsequent call in header.
So what I will do I will get access token from header and then validate that accesstoken against that database and then allow access to my protected resource other wise user would get authorized.
I have seen lots of things related to this so basically this is oauth2 and I want to implement this.
I have seen Openid connect(this project doesnt even compile) which is on top of oauth2 and which is used for authentication and oauth2 will be used for authorization.
But here as I am storing access token in my database so here is my doubt related to that :
2) Now do I need openconnectid (but this project doesn't even compile) for validating access token or as I am having storing access token in my database I don't need openconnectid?
3) I want to implement asp.net identity but then I will receive dynamic database connection string and as i have seen asp.net identity mostly works with entity framework I couldn't find any source where I could use ado.net to validate username and password using SQL query. I know I can do something like this :
Make a custom user class which implements IUser as described here
Define a custom user store which implements
public class UserStoreService
: IUserStore<CustomUser>, IUserPasswordStore<CustomUser>
But I won't be having this information as I don't have fixed connection string.connection string again is stored in database with client registration.
4) We have given user a fixed endpoint through which client can create an admin so for that I will use my RSA algorithm for password hashing and then store it in database. So with this now do i need to use asp.net identity?
5) I have seen lots of following link with token based implementation but I am not getting where they are validating accesstoken in which part but now as I am having accesstoken stored in my database do I need to use any of the following implementation?
http://bitoftech.net/2014/10/27/json-web-token-asp-net-web-api-2-jwt-owin-authorization-server/
http://bitoftech.net/2014/06/01/token-based-authentication-asp-net-web-api-2-owin-asp-net-identity/
6) Moreover if for any client if client don't want authentication for its respective application then what I will do is I will don't have that username password validation but I will simply generate accesstoken and then send in response so then in every subsequent request that access token will be pass to access protected resources.Do you think this make sense?
I have never seen any example where access token is store in database and problem with storing access token in database would be I have to make a call to database every time to validate access token for each endpoint.
Update :
Use case of my webservice engine would be:
1) Support multiple client application.
2) Manage user session in the form of token management for each client application. So here as most of the article is storing accesstoken in identity and that identity is validated inside [Authorize] attribute in which accesstoken is also validated and based on that user is allowed to access protected resources.This is what my understanding is up until now.
So if I also user identity and store user context inside identity supporting multiple client application is a good idea?

From “7.1. Access Token Representation” in “Full-Scratch Implementor of OAuth and OpenID Connect Talks About Findings” :
How should an access token be represented? There are two major ways.
As a meaningless random string. Information associated with an access
token is stored in a database table behind an authorization server.
As a self-contained string which is a result of encoding access token
information by base64url or something similar.
Pros and cons of these two ways are described in the blog.
If access tokens are random strings, pieces of information associated with the access tokens (user ID, client ID, scopes, lifetime, etc.) are stored in a database which is managed by the authorization server which have issued the access tokens.
Whenever a resource server which exposes APIs accepts an API call from a client application, the resource server has to get the information about the access token in some way or other.
If the resource server can access the database managed by the authorization server (in other words, if the resource server and the authorization server shares the database), the resource server can get the information about the access token from the database directly.
Otherwise, the resource server has to make an API call to the authorization server to get the information. In this case, it can be expected that the authorization server exposes an API which complies with RFC 7662 (OAuth 2.0 Token Introspection). Note that some implementations may provide a more developer-friendly API than RFC 7662 (e.g. “4. Introspection Access Token”).
Anyway, your resource server doesn't necessarily have to make a DB call (or an introspection API call to the authorization server) every time if the server caches information about access tokens in a memory cache or somewhere else appropriate.
BTW, what you need when you want to protect APIs is access tokens. Therefore, your system doesn't have to support OpenID Connect which is a specification as to how to request and issue ID tokens. You may be confused because a server which supports OpenID Connect can issue access tokens, too, in addition to ID tokens. See “Diagrams of All The OpenID Connect Flows” to understand what a server which supports OpenID Connect issues.
Finally, identity management, user authentication, and OAuth 2.0 & OpenID Connect don't necessarily have to be implemented in a monolithic way. See “New Architecture of OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect Implementation” for details.

No, you don't need to store the access_token on the database. You can decrypt the JWT and read the information as you are the one who encrypts it with a secret key. (By default it's the machine key.)
Identity has a off the self support for Oauth. You have to just configure it properly. You can set-up the configuration for OAuthAuthorizationServerOptions in the Startup.Auth.cs. Sample code as follows. I have tried to answer most of your question in comments in the code.
public static OAuthAuthorizationServerOptions OAuthOptions { get; private set; }
public static string PublicClientId { get; private set; }
public void ConfigureOAuth(IAppBuilder app)
{
// Configure the application for OAuth based flow
PublicClientId = "theDragonIsAlive";
OAuthOptions = new OAuthAuthorizationServerOptions
{
TokenEndpointPath = new PathString("/Token"),
Provider = new YourOwnApplicationOAuthProvider(PublicClientId),
//AuthorizeEndpointPath = new PathString("/Access/Account"),
AccessTokenExpireTimeSpan = TimeSpan.FromDays(7)
//AllowInsecureHttp = true
};
// Enable the application to use bearer tokens to authenticate users
app.UseOAuthBearerTokens(OAuthOptions);
}
public class ApplicationOAuthProvider : OAuthAuthorizationServerProvider
{
private readonly string _publicClientId;
public ApplicationOAuthProvider(string publicClientId)
{
if (publicClientId == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("publicClientId");
}
_publicClientId = publicClientId;
}
public override async Task GrantResourceOwnerCredentials(OAuthGrantResourceOwnerCredentialsContext context)
{
var userManager = context.OwinContext.GetUserManager<ApplicationUserManager>();
// This where you are validating the username and password credentials.
ApplicationUser user = await userManager.FindAsync(context.UserName, context.Password);
if (user == null)
{
context.SetError("Dragon Fire:", "The user name or password is incorrect. You shall be burnt.");
return;
}
ClaimsIdentity oAuthIdentity = await user.GenerateUserIdentityAsync(userManager,
OAuthDefaults.AuthenticationType);
AuthenticationProperties properties = CreateProperties(user.UserName);
AuthenticationTicket ticket = new AuthenticationTicket(oAuthIdentity, properties);
context.Validated(ticket);
context.Request.Context.Authentication.SignIn(oAuthIdentity);
}
public override Task TokenEndpoint(OAuthTokenEndpointContext context)
{
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> property in context.Properties.Dictionary)
{
context.AdditionalResponseParameters.Add(property.Key, property.Value);
}
return Task.FromResult<object>(null);
}
// This method is where you will create the client access token.
// First you get the client, you can place values from the client record into the tokens claim collection.
// You then create a new ClaimsIdentity.
// You add some claims, in the example client name is added.
// Create an AuthenticationTicket using your claims identity.
// Validate the ticket (you do need to do this or the client will be considered unauthenticated)
//public override Task GrantClientCredentials(OAuthGrantClientCredentialsContext context)
//{
// var client = clientService.GetClient(context.ClientId);
// var oAuthIdentity = new ClaimsIdentity(context.Options.AuthenticationType);
// oAuthIdentity.AddClaim(new Claim(ClaimTypes.Name, client.ClientName));
// var ticket = new AuthenticationTicket(oAuthIdentity, new AuthenticationProperties());
// context.Validated(ticket);
// return base.GrantClientCredentials(context);
//}
// This method has to be implmented when you are maintaining a list of clients which you will allow.
// This method is for validating the input, you can used this method to verify the client id and secret are valid.
public override Task ValidateClientAuthentication(OAuthValidateClientAuthenticationContext context)
{
//string clientId;
//string clientSecret;
//context.TryGetFormCredentials(out clientId, out clientSecret);
//if (clientId == "1234" && clientSecret == "12345")
//{
// context.Validated(clientId);
//}
//return base.ValidateClientAuthentication(context);
// Resource owner password credentials does not provide a client ID.
if (context.ClientId == null)
{
context.Validated();
}
return Task.FromResult<object>(null);
}
public override Task ValidateClientRedirectUri(OAuthValidateClientRedirectUriContext context)
{
if (context.ClientId == _publicClientId)
{
Uri expectedRootUri = new Uri(context.Request.Uri, "/");
if (expectedRootUri.AbsoluteUri == context.RedirectUri)
{
context.Validated();
}
}
return Task.FromResult<object>(null);
}
public static AuthenticationProperties CreateProperties(string userName)
{
IDictionary<string, string> data = new Dictionary<string, string>
{
{ "userName", userName }
};
return new AuthenticationProperties(data);
}
}
The sample code above does not have separate client classifications. It will treat all users as a single type of client. But I have given some example code in the comments which will guide you to get started in the right direction.
Disclaimer: I am not an expert on this(yet) and my setup is different. I had an existing MVC application with Owin and I had to build a webapi on top of it. This was my prototype code and it did the job. You will have to improve in it for your production code. Have fun and good luck.

Exchanging a google idToken for local openId token c#

I am using this github project https://github.com/openiddict/openiddict-core which is great. But I am stuck as to what the procedures should be, or how to implement them, when the user uses an external identity provider, for this example, I will use google.
I have an angular2 app running, with an aspnet core webAPI. All my local logins work perfectly, I call connect/token with a username and password, and an accessToken is returned.
Now I need to implement google as an external identity provider. I have followed all the steps here to implement a google login button. This opens a popup when the user logins in. This is the code I have created for my google button.
// Angular hook that allows for interaction with elements inserted by the
// rendering of a view.
ngAfterViewInit() {
// check if the google client id is in the pages meta tags
if (document.querySelector("meta[name='google-signin-client_id']")) {
// Converts the Google login button stub to an actual button.
gapi.signin2.render(
'google-login-button',
{
"onSuccess": this.onGoogleLoginSuccess,
"scope": "profile",
"theme": "dark"
});
}
}
onGoogleLoginSuccess(loggedInUser) {
let idToken = loggedInUser.getAuthResponse().id_token;
// here i can pass the idToken up to my server and validate it
}
Now I have an idToken from google. The next step on the google pages found here says that I need to validate the google accessToken, which I can do, but how do I exchange the accessToken that I have from google, and create local accessToken which can be used on my application?

Edit: this answer was updated to use OpenIddict 3.x.
The next step on the google pages found here says that i need to validate the google accessToken, which i can do, but how do i exchange the accessToken that i have from google, and create local accessToken which can be used on my application?
The flow you're trying to implement is known as assertion grant. You can read this other SO post for more information about it.
OpenIddict fully supports custom grants, so this is something you can easily implement in your token endpoint action:
[HttpPost("~/connect/token"), Produces("application/json")]
public IActionResult Exchange()
{
var request = HttpContext.GetOpenIddictServerRequest();
if (request.GrantType == "urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:google_identity_token")
{
// Reject the request if the "assertion" parameter is missing.
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(request.Assertion))
{
return Forbid(
authenticationSchemes: OpenIddictServerAspNetCoreDefaults.AuthenticationScheme,
properties: new AuthenticationProperties(new Dictionary<string, string>
{
[OpenIddictServerAspNetCoreConstants.Properties.Error] = Errors.InvalidRequest,
[OpenIddictServerAspNetCoreConstants.Properties.ErrorDescription] =
"The mandatory 'assertion' parameter was missing."
}));
}
// Create a new ClaimsIdentity containing the claims that
// will be used to create an id_token and/or an access token.
var identity = new ClaimsIdentity(TokenValidationParameters.DefaultAuthenticationType);
// Manually validate the identity token issued by Google, including the
// issuer, the signature and the audience. Then, copy the claims you need
// to the "identity" instance and call SetDestinations on each claim to
// allow them to be persisted to either access or identity tokens (or both).
//
// Note: the identity MUST contain a "sub" claim containing the user ID.
var principal = new ClaimsPrincipal(identity);
foreach (var claim in principal.Claims)
{
claim.SetDestinations(claim.Type switch
{
"name" => new[]
{
Destinations.AccessToken,
Destinations.IdentityToken
},
_ => new[] { Destinations.AccessToken },
});
}
return SignIn(principal, OpenIddictServerAspNetCoreDefaults.AuthenticationScheme);
}
throw new InvalidOperationException("The specified grant type is not supported.");
}
Note that you'll also have to enable it in the OpenIddict server options:
services.AddOpenIddict()
// ...
.AddServer(options =>
{
// ...
options.AllowCustomFlow("urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:google_identity_token");
});
When sending a token request, make sure to use the right grant_type and to send your id_token as the assertion parameter, and it should work. Here's an example with Postman (for Facebook access tokens, but it works exactly the same way):
That said, you have to be extremely careful when implementing the token validation routine, as this step is particularly error-prone. It's really important to validate everything, including the audience (otherwise, your server would be vulnerable to confused deputy attacks).

How to get additional fields using the Facebook provider in ASP.NET Core RC1?

I'm using ASP.NET core RC1 (and can't upgrade to the not yet release RC2 nightly builds because of the lack of VS support in RC2).
I'm trying to get additional fields from Facebook (first_name, last_name, email and significant_other).
I used the code suggested on Github:
app.UseFacebookAuthentication(options =>
{
options.AppId = Configuration["Authentication:Facebook:AppId"];
options.AppSecret = Configuration["Authentication:Facebook:AppSecret"];
options.Scope.Add("email");
options.Scope.Add("user_relationships");
options.BackchannelHttpHandler = new HttpClientHandler();
options.UserInformationEndpoint =
"https://graph.facebook.com/v2.5/me?fields=id,email,first_name,last_name,significant_other";
This solution indeed returns the email of the user, but fails with first_name, last_name and significant_other (and any other field I tried besides name, id and email).
Also, is it possible getting the FB access token? We might need it for future querying of other edges, or use it to manually query Facebook because ASP.NET Core has a bug (at least in RC1).
I need a way, even if not the cleanest.

I'm trying to get additional fields from Facebook (first_name, last_name, email and significant_other). This solution indeed returns the email of the user, but fails with first_name, last_name and significant_other (and any other field I tried besides name, id and email).
In RC1, the Facebook middleware automatically stores the email as a claim, but not the first name or last name so you need to manually extract them using the event model if you want to be able to retrieve from application code:
app.UseFacebookAuthentication(options => {
options.Events = new OAuthEvents {
OnCreatingTicket = context => {
var surname = context.User.Value<string>("last_name");
context.Identity.AddClaim(new Claim(ClaimTypes.Surname, surname));
return Task.FromResult(0);
}
};
});
In RC2, custom code won't be necessary, as the first name/last name are now included by default: https://github.com/aspnet/Security/issues/688.
Also, is it possible getting the FB access token? We might need it for future querying of other edges, or use it to manually query Facebook because ASP.NET Core has a bug (at least in RC1).
You can use the SaveTokensAsClaims option to store the access/refresh tokens as claims (enabled by default in RC1). If you need more information about this feature, you can take a look the PR that introduced it: https://github.com/aspnet/Security/pull/257.
app.UseFacebookAuthentication(options => {
options.SaveTokensAsClaims = true;
});
You can retrieve it like any other claim:
var token = User.FindFirst("access_token")?.Value
Note: in RC2, this feature was revamped and tokens won't be stored in claims but in authentication properties: https://github.com/aspnet/Security/pull/698.

Update to #Pinpoint answer: current version doesn't have SaveTokensAsClaims option anymore. Instead, now there is a SaveTokens option:
Defines whether access and refresh tokens should be stored in the
Http.Authentication.AuthenticationProperties after a successful authorization. This property is set to false by default to reduce the size of the final authentication cookie.
Note, that by default it is false and don't store in Claims. AuthenticationTokenExtensions class has been added
To get those tokens then, you may use one of the GetToken extension method defined in AuthenticationTokenExtensions class. For example in controller action method the following code should work:
var token = await HttpContext.Authentication.GetTokenAsync("access_token");
Related links from github:
What happened to SaveTokensAsClaims property?
Save tokens in auth properties instead of claims

Dealing with long bearer tokens from webapi by providing a surrogate token

I am building a web api using ASP.NET WebApi 2 using claims authentication, and my users can have very large number of claims. With a large number of claims the bearer token grows very large quickly, so I am attempting to find a way of returning a much shorter bearer token.
SO far I have discovered that I can provide a IAuthenticationTokenProvider to the OAuth options OAuthAuthorizationServerOptions.AccessTokenProvider property:
OAuthOptions = new OAuthAuthorizationServerOptions
{
TokenEndpointPath = new PathString("/Token"),
Provider = new ApplicationOAuthProvider(PublicClientId),
AccessTokenExpireTimeSpan = TimeSpan.FromHours(12),
AccessTokenProvider = new GuidProvider() // <-- here
};
And this gives me a chance to intercept the AuthenticationTicket and stash it away, replacing it with something simpler - in my example below a hashed guid. (Note: At the moment this class simply holds a ConcurrentDictionary<string,AuthenticationTicket> with my sessions - in a real-world example I intend to store the sessions in some persistent storage)
public class GuidProvider : IAuthenticationTokenProvider
{
private static ConcurrentDictionary<string, AuthenticationTicket> tokens
= new ConcurrentDictionary<string, AuthenticationTicket>();
public void Create(AuthenticationTokenCreateContext context)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
public async System.Threading.Tasks.Task CreateAsync(AuthenticationTokenCreateContext context)
{
var guid = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
var ticket = Crypto.Hash(guid);
tokens.TryAdd(ticket, context.Ticket);
context.SetToken(ticket);
}
public void Receive(AuthenticationTokenReceiveContext context)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
public async System.Threading.Tasks.Task ReceiveAsync(AuthenticationTokenReceiveContext context)
{
AuthenticationTicket ticket;
if (tokens.TryGetValue(context.Token, out ticket))
{
if (ticket.Properties.ExpiresUtc.Value < DateTime.UtcNow)
{
tokens.TryRemove(context.Token, out ticket);
}
context.SetTicket(ticket);
}
}
}
So my questions:
Is this an appropriate (and secure!) way of providing a surrogate key in place of my long claims-generated token?
Is there perhaps a better/easier place where I should be doing this within the webapi/OAuth stack?
Another thing to note is that I intend to support refresh tokens, and in fact the example above was pulled from examples which use this sort of mechanism for the Refresh token - except with a refresh token they appear to be single-use, so the ReceiveAsync method would usually always remove the refresh token supplied from the ConcurrentDictionary, I'm not entirely sure I understand why?

I do not recommend to do this because you are eventually going to store the authentication tickets into the database or Redis server, the draw back here that with each request containing a bearer token, you are going to check this permanent store in order to resolve the Guid and get the ticket again to construct it.
I suggest that you use JSON Web Token JWT instead of the default bearer access tokens format, to do this you need implement your custom access token format CustomOAuthProvider in property Provider in OAuthAuthorizationServerOptions as the code below:
OAuthAuthorizationServerOptions OAuthServerOptions = new OAuthAuthorizationServerOptions()
{
//For Dev enviroment only (on production should be AllowInsecureHttp = false)
AllowInsecureHttp = true,
TokenEndpointPath = new PathString("/oauth2/token"),
AccessTokenExpireTimeSpan = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(30),
Provider = new CustomOAuthProvider(),
AccessTokenFormat = new CustomJwtFormat("http://jwtauthzsrv.azurewebsites.net")
};
I've noticed that adding more claims to the JWT token won't increase its size dramatically as the case of default access token format.
Below a sample of 2 JWTs with different claims inside each one, the second one is larger than the first by only 50 chars. I recommend you to check the encoded content of each one using jwt.io
First JWT:
eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJ1bmlxdWVfbmFtZSI6InRhaXNlZXIiLCJzdWIiOiJ0YWlzZWVyIiwicm9sZSI6WyJNYW5hZ2VyIiwiU3VwZXJ2aXNvciJdLCJpc3MiOiJodHRwOi8vand0YXV0aHpzcnYuYXp1cmV3ZWJzaXRlcy5uZXQiLCJhdWQiOiIwOTkxNTNjMjYyNTE0OWJjOGVjYjNlODVlMDNmMDAyMiIsImV4cCI6MTQxODY0NzMyNywibmJmIjoxNDE4NjQ1NTI3fQ.vH9XPtjtAv2-6SwlyX4fKNJfm5ZTVHd_9a3bRgkA_LI
Second JWT (More claims):
eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJ1bmlxdWVfbmFtZSI6InRhaXNlZXIiLCJzdWIiOiJ0YWlzZWVyIiwicm9sZSI6WyJNYW5hZ2VyIiwiU3VwZXJ2aXNvciIsIlN1cGVydmlzb3IxIiwiU3VwZXJ2aXNvcjIiLCJTdXBlcnZpc29yMyJdLCJpc3MiOiJodHRwOi8vand0YXV0aHpzcnYuYXp1cmV3ZWJzaXRlcy5uZXQiLCJhdWQiOiIwOTkxNTNjMjYyNTE0OWJjOGVjYjNlODVlMDNmMDAyMiIsImV4cCI6MTQxODY0NzQ1NiwibmJmIjoxNDE4NjQ1NjU2fQ.TFEGDtz1RN8VmCQu7JH4Iug0B8UlWDLVrIlvc-7IK3E
The JWT format is becoming the standard way to issue OAuth 2.0 bearer tokens, as well it will work with refresh token grant. But keep in mind that JWT is only signed tokens and not encrypted as the case in default access token format, so do not store confidential data in.
I've written detailed blog post on bitoftech.net on how to use JWT tokens in ASP.NET Web API along with a live demo API and source code on GIthub, feel free to check it and let me know if you need more help.
Good luck!

Validating Google ID tokens in C#

I need to validate a Google ID token passed from a mobile device at my ASP.NET web api.
Google have some sample code here but it relies on a JWT NuGet package which is .Net 4.5 only (I am using C#/.Net 4.0). Is anyone aware of any samples which do this without these packages or has achieved this themselves? The use of the package makes it very difficult to work out what I need to do without it.

According to this github issue, you can now use GoogleJsonWebSignature.ValidateAsync method to validate a Google-signed JWT. Simply pass the idToken string to the method.
var validPayload = await GoogleJsonWebSignature.ValidateAsync(idToken);
Assert.NotNull(validPayload);
If it is not a valid one, it will return null.
Note that to use this method, you need to install Google.Apis.Auth nuget firsthand.

The challenge is validating the JWT certificate in the ID token. There is currently not a library I'm aware of that can do this that doesn't require .Net 4.5 and until there is a solution for JWT validation in .NET 4.0, there will not be an easy solution.
However, if you have an access token, you can look into performing validation using oauth2.tokeninfo. To perform basic validation using token info, you can do something like the following:
// Use Tokeninfo to validate the user and the client.
var tokeninfo_request = new Oauth2Service().Tokeninfo();
tokeninfo_request.Access_token = _authState.AccessToken;
var tokeninfo = tokeninfo_request.Fetch();
if (userid == tokeninfo.User_id
&& tokeninfo.Issued_to == CLIENT_ID)
{
// Basic validation succeeded
}
else
{
// The credentials did not match.
}
The information returned from the Google OAuth2 API tells you more information about a particular token such as the client id it was issued too as well as its expiration time.
Note You should not be passing around the access token but instead should be doing this check after exchanging a one-time code to retrieve an access token.

ClientId also needs to be passed, which should be set from Google API Console. If only pass TokenId, GoogleJsonWebSignature throws error. This answer is in addition to #edmundpie answer
var settings = new GoogleJsonWebSignature.ValidationSettings()
{
Audience = new List<string>() { "[Placeholder for Client Id].apps.googleusercontent.com" }
};
var validPayload = await GoogleJsonWebSignature.ValidateAsync(model.ExternalTokenId, settings);