Book Image

Keycloak - Identity and Access Management for Modern Applications

By : Stian Thorgersen, Pedro Igor Silva
Book Image

Keycloak - Identity and Access Management for Modern Applications

By: Stian Thorgersen, Pedro Igor Silva

Overview of this book

Implementing authentication and authorization for applications can be a daunting experience, often leaving them exposed to security vulnerabilities. Keycloak is an open-source solution for identity management and access management for modern applications, which can make a world of difference if you learn how to use it. Keycloak, helping you get started with using it and securing your applications. Complete with hands-on tutorials, best practices, and self-assessment questions, this easy-to-follow guide will show you how to secure a sample application and then move on to securing different application types. As you progress, you will understand how to configure and manage Keycloak as well as how to leverage some of its more advanced capabilities. Finally, you'll gain insights into securely using Keycloak in production. By the end of this book, you will have learned how to install and manage Keycloak as well as how to secure new and existing applications.

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Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Code in Action
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Reviews
1
Section 1: Getting Started with Keycloak
Section 1: Getting Started with Keycloak
Free Chapter
2
Chapter 1: Getting Started with Keycloak
Chapter 1: Getting Started with Keycloak
Technical requirements
Introducing Keycloak
Installing and running Keycloak
Discovering the Keycloak admin and account consoles
Summary
Questions
3
Chapter 2: Securing Your First Application
Chapter 2: Securing Your First Application
Technical requirements
Understanding the sample application
Running the application
Understanding how to log in to the application
Securely invoking the backend REST API
Summary
Questions
4
Section 2: Securing Applications with Keycloak
Section 2: Securing Applications with Keycloak
5
Chapter 3: Brief Introduction to Standards
Chapter 3: Brief Introduction to Standards
Authorizing application access with OAuth 2.0
Authenticating users with OpenID Connect
Leveraging JWT for tokens
Understanding why SAML 2.0 is still relevant
Summary
Questions
6
Chapter 4: Authenticating Users with OpenID Connect
Chapter 4: Authenticating Users with OpenID Connect
Technical requirements
Running the OpenID Connect playground
Understanding the Discovery endpoint
Authenticating a user
Understanding the ID token
Invoking the UserInfo endpoint
Dealing with users logging out
Summary
Questions
Further reading
7
Chapter 5: Authorizing Access with OAuth 2.0
Chapter 5: Authorizing Access with OAuth 2.0
Technical requirements
Running the OAuth 2.0 playground
Obtaining an access token
Requiring user consent
Limiting the access granted to access tokens
Validating access tokens
Summary
Questions
Further reading
8
Chapter 6: Securing Different Application Types
Chapter 6: Securing Different Application Types
Technical requirements
Understanding internal and external applications
Securing web applications
Securing native and mobile applications
Securing REST APIs and services
Summary
Questions
Further reading
9
Chapter 7: Integrating Applications with Keycloak
Chapter 7: Integrating Applications with Keycloak
Technical requirements
Choosing an integration architecture
Choosing an integration option
Integrating with Golang applications
Integrating with Java applications
Integrating with JavaScript applications
Integrating with Node.js applications
Integrating with Python applications
Using a reverse proxy
Try not to implement your own integration
Summary
Questions
Further reading
10
Chapter 8: Authorization Strategies
Chapter 8: Authorization Strategies
Understanding authorization
Using RBAC
Using GBAC
Using OAuth2 scopes
Using ABAC
Using Keycloak as a centralized authorization server
Summary
Questions
Further reading
11
Section 3: Configuring and Managing Keycloak
Section 3: Configuring and Managing Keycloak
12
Chapter 9: Configuring Keycloak for Production
Chapter 9: Configuring Keycloak for Production
Technical requirements
Setting the hostname for Keycloak
Enabling TLS
Configuring a database
Enabling clustering
Configuring a reverse proxy
Testing your environment
Summary
Questions
Further reading
13
Chapter 10: Managing Users
Chapter 10: Managing Users
Technical requirements
Managing local users
Integrating with LDAP and Active Directory
Integrating with third-party identity providers
Integrating with social identity providers
Allowing users to manage their data
Summary
Questions
Further reading
14
Chapter 11: Authenticating Users
Chapter 11: Authenticating Users
Technical requirements
Understanding authentication flows
Using passwords
Using OTPs
Using Web Authentication (WebAuthn)
Using strong authentication
Summary
Questions
Further reading
15
Chapter 12: Managing Tokens and Sessions
Chapter 12: Managing Tokens and Sessions
Technical requirements
Managing sessions
Managing tokens
Summary
Questions
Further reading
16
Chapter 13: Extending Keycloak
Chapter 13: Extending Keycloak
Technical requirements
Understanding Service Provider Interfaces
Changing the look and feel
Customizing authentication flows
Looking at other customization points
Summary
Questions
Further reading
17
Section 4: Security Considerations
Section 4: Security Considerations
18
Chapter 14: Securing Keycloak and Applications
Chapter 14: Securing Keycloak and Applications
Securing Keycloak
Securing the database
Securing cluster communication
Securing user accounts
Securing applications
Summary
Questions
Further reading
19
Assessments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
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Leveraging JWT for tokens

Keycloak has leveraged JWT as the format for access tokens from the very beginning of the project. This was a very conscious decision for interoperability as well as performance reasons.

Using a standard format, which is relatively easily consumable, makes it easier to integrate with Keycloak. As JWT is based on JSON, it can also easily be parsed and understood in any programming language.

In addition, as the resource servers are now able to directly read the value of the access token, they do not always have to make a request to the OAuth 2.0 token introspection endpoint, or the OpenID Connect UserInfo endpoint. This potentially eliminates two additional requests to Keycloak for a request to the resource server, reducing latency as well as significantly reducing the number of requests to Keycloak.

JWT comes from a family of specifications known as JOSE, which stands for JavaScript Object Signing and Encryption. The related specifications are as follows...

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