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User Account and Authentication (UAA) Server

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This topic provides an overview of the User Account and Authentication (UAA) Server, the identity management service for Cloud Foundry

The primary role of the UAA is as an OAuth2 provider, issuing tokens for client apps to use when they act on behalf of Cloud Foundry users. In collaboration with the login server, the UAA can authenticate users with their Cloud Foundry credentials, and can act as an SSO service using those, or other, credentials.

The UAA has endpoints for managing user accounts and for registering OAuth2 clients, as well as various other management functions.

Quick Start

You can deploy the UAA locally or to Cloud Foundry.

• Deploy UAA Locally
• Deploy UAA to Cloud Foundry

Deploy UAA Locally

Follow the instructions below to deploy and run the UAA locally.

1. In a terminal window, clone the UAA GitHub repository.

   $ git clone git://github.com/cloudfoundry/uaa.git
   

2. Navigate to the directory where you cloned the UAA GitHub repository, then run the ./gradlew run command to build and run all the components that comprise the UAA and the example programs, uaa, samples/api, and samples/app.

   $ cd uaa
   $ ./gradlew run
   

3. If successful, the three apps run together on a single instance of Tomcat listening on port 8080, with endpoints /uaa, /app, and /api.

Use Local UAA

Follow the steps below to access and use a locally-deployed UAA server.

1. Run the UAA server as described in the Deploy Locally section, above.

2. Open another terminal window. From the project base directory, run curl localhost:8080/uaa/info -H "Accept: application/json" to confirm the UAA is running. You should see basic information about the system. For example:

   $ curl localhost:8080/uaa/info -H "Accept: application/json"
   {
     "app": {
       "version": "4.19.0"
     },
     "links": {
       "uaa": "http://localhost:8080/uaa",
       "passwd": "/forgot_password",
       "login": "http://localhost:8080/uaa",
       "register": "/create_account"
     },
     "zone_name": "uaa",
     "entityID": "cloudfoundry-saml-login",
     "commit_id": "af93628",
     "idpDefinitions": {},
     "prompts": {
       "username": [
         "text",
         "Email"
       ],
       "password": [
         "password",
         "Password"
       ]
     },
     "timestamp": "2018-05-25T15:34:31-0700"
   }
   

3. Run gem install cf-uaac to install the Cloud Foundry UAA Command Line Client (UAAC) Ruby gem.

   $ gem install cf-uaac
   

4. Run uaac target http://localhost:8080/uaa to target the local UAA server endpoint.

   $ uaac target http://localhost:8080/uaa
   

5. Run uaac token client get CLIENT_NAME -s CLIENT_SECRET to obtain an access token. Replace CLIENT_NAME and CLIENT_SECRET with actual values. For example, when starting up the UAA locally for development there should be a predefined admin client you can use:

   $ uaac token client get admin -s adminsecret
   

   If you do not specify the client secret, UAAC will show an interactive prompt where you must enter the client secret value.

   The uaac token client get command requests an access token from the server using the OAuth2 client credentials grant type.

6. View your UAAC token context. When UAAC obtains a token, the token and other metadata is stored in the ~/.uaac.yml file on your local machine. To view the token you have obtained, use the command uaac context. For example:

   $ uaac context
   [0]*[http://localhost:8080/uaa]
   
   [0]*[admin]
     client_id: admin
     access_token: eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6ImxlZ2FjeS10b2tlbi1rZXkiLCJ0eXAiOiJKV1QifQ.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.L2cn6HqLQAEyqTrYYkL9Al_8JyfwB330er7DshUb9wg
     token_type: bearer
     expires_in: 43199
     scope: clients.read clients.secret clients.write uaa.admin clients.admin scim.write scim.read
     jti: 19f25e6ca9cc4eb2a7f5016e441ce8d4
   

   Copy the access token from this output for the following step.

7. Run uaac token decode ACCESS-TOKEN-VALUE to view information in the token, which is encoded using the JSON Web Token format. Replace ACCESS-TOKEN-VALUE with your access token, copied from the uaac context output. The UAAC should display all the claims inside the token body. For example:

   $ uaac token decode eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6ImxlZ2FjeS10b2tlbi1rZXkiLCJ0eXAiOiJKV1QifQ.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.L2cn6HqLQAEyqTrYYkL9Al_8JyfwB330er7DshUb9wg
   
   Note: no key given to validate token signature
   
     jti: 19f25e6ca9cc4eb2a7f5016e441ce8d4
     sub: admin
     authorities: clients.read clients.secret clients.write uaa.admin clients.admin scim.write scim.read
     scope: clients.read clients.secret clients.write uaa.admin clients.admin scim.write scim.read
     client_id: admin
     cid: admin
     azp: admin
     grant_type: client_credentials
     rev_sig: 267199d1
     iat: 1528232017
     exp: 1528275217
     iss: http://localhost:8080/uaa/oauth/token
     zid: uaa
     aud: scim clients uaa admin
   

Deploy UAA to Cloud Foundry

Follow the instructions below to build the UAA as an app and push it to Cloud Foundry using the Cloud Foundry Command Line Interface (cf CLI).

1. In a terminal window, clone the UAA GitHub repository.

   $ git clone git://github.com/cloudfoundry/uaa.git
   

2. Navigate to the directory where you cloned the UAA GitHub repository, then run the ./gradlew :cloudfoundry-identity-uaa:war command build the UAA as a WAR file.

   $ cd uaa
   $ ./gradlew :cloudfoundry-identity-uaa:war
   

3. Run the cf CLI cf push APP-NAME -m 512M -p PATH-TO-WAR-FILE --no-start command to push the app to Cloud Foundry. Replace APP-NAME with a name for your UAA app, and PATH-TO-WAR-FILE with the path to the WAR file you created in the previous step. For example:

   $ cf push MYUAA -m 512M -p uaa/build/libs/cloudfoundry-identity-uaa-1.8.0.war --no-start
   

4. Run cf set-env APP-NAME SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE default to set the SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE environment variable with the value default. Replace APP-NAME with the name of your app that you used in the previous step. For example:

   $ cf set-env MYUAA SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE default
   

5. Run cf start APP-NAME to start your app. Replace APP-NAME with the name of your app. For example:

   $ cf start MYUAA
   

Use Remote UAA

You use a UAA server that you pushed as an app to Cloud Foundry in a similar way to one you run locally. You do not need app token encoding because you do not have the client secret.

Follow the steps below to access and use a UAA server that you pushed as an app to Cloud Foundry.

1. Deploy UAA to Cloud Foundry as described above.

2. From the project base directory, run curl -H "Accept: application/json" APP-FQDN/login to query the external login endpoint about the system. Replace APP-FQDN with the FQDN of your app. For example:

   $ curl -H "Accept: application/json" uaa.example.org/login
   {
     "timestamp":"2014-09-15T18:25:04+0000",
     "app":{"version":"1.8.3"},
     "commit_id":"git-metadata-not-found",
     "prompts":{"username":["text","Email"],
         "password":["password","Password"]
     }
   }
   

3. Run gem install cf-uaac to install the Cloud Foundry UAA Command Line Client (UAAC) Ruby gem.

   $ gem install cf-uaac
   

4. Run uaac target APP-FQDN to target the remote UAA Server endpoint. Replace APP-FQDN with the FQDN of your app.

   $ uaac target uaa.example.org
   

5. Run uaac token get USERNAME PASSWORD to log in. Replace USERNAME with your user name, and PASSWORD with your password. For example:

   $ uaac token get marissa koala
   

   If you do not specify a username and password, the UAAC prompts you to supply them.
   
   The uaac token client get command authenticates and obtains an access token from the server using the OAuth2 implicit grant, similar to the approach intended for a standalone client like the Cloud Foundry Command Line Interface (cf CLI).

Integration Tests

Run the integration tests with the following command:

$ ./gradlew integrationTest

This command starts a UAA server running in a local Apache Tomcat instance. By default, the service URL is set to http://localhost:8080/uaa.

You can set the environment variable CLOUD_FOUNDRY_CONFIG_PATH to a directory containing a uaa.yml file where you change the URLs used in the tests, and where you can set the UAA server context root.

Custom YAML Configuration

Follow the steps below to modify the runtime parameters.

1. Create a uaa.yml file in the following format:

   uaa:
     host: UAA-HOSTNAME
     test:
       username: USERNAME
       password: PASSWORD
       email: EMAIL-ADDRESS
   

   Replace the values in the above format as follows:

   • UAA-HOSTNAME: The FQDN of UAA app. Example: uaa.example.org
   • USERNAME: A valid username. Example: dev@example.org
   • PASSWORD: Password for the above username.
   • EMAIL-ADDRESS: Email address for the above user. Example: dev@example.org

2. From the uaa/uaa directory, run CLOUD_FOUNDRY_CONFIG_PATH=/tmp ./gradlew test.

3. The web app looks for a YAML file in the following locations when it starts, with later entries overriding earlier ones:

   classpath:uaa.yml
   file:${CLOUD_FOUNDRY_CONFIG_PATH}/uaa.yml
   file:${UAA_CONFIG_FILE}
   ${UAA_CONFIG_URL}
   

Test with PostgreSQL or MySQL

The default UAA unit tests, ./gradlew test, use HyperSQL (hsqldb).

To use a different database management system, create a uaa.yml file containing spring_profiles: default,OTHER-DBMS in the src/main/resources/ directory. Replace OTHER-DBMS with the name of the other database management system to use.

For example, run the following command to run the unit tests using PostgreSQL instead of hsqldb:

$ echo "spring_profiles: default,postgresql" > src/main/resources/uaa.yml
$ ./gradlew test integrationTest

Run the following command to run the unit tests using MySQL instead of hsqldb:

$ echo "spring_profiles: default,mysql" > src/main/resources/uaa.yml
$ ./gradlew test integrationTest

You can find the database configuration for the common and scim modules at common/src/test/resources/(mysql|postgresql).properties and scim/src/test/resources/(mysql|postgresql).properties.

UAA Projects

The following UAA projects exist:

• common: A module containing a JAR with all the business logic. common is used in the web apps listed below.

• uaa: The UAA server. uaa provides an authentication service and authorized delegation for back-end services and apps by issuing OAuth2 access tokens.

• api: A sample OAuth2 resource service that returns a mock list of deployed apps. api provides resources that other apps might want to access on behalf of the resource owner.

• app: A sample user app that uses both api and uaa. app is a web app that requires single sign-on and access to the api service on behalf of users.

• scim: The SCIM user management module used by UAA.

UAA Server

The authentication service, uaa, is a Spring MVC web app. You can deploy it in Tomcat or your container of choice, or execute ./gradlew run to run it directly from the uaa directory in the source tree. When run with Gradle, uaa listens on port 8080 and has URL http://localhost:8080/uaa.

The UAA Server supports the APIs defined in the UAA-APIs document which include the following:

• The OAuth2 /authorize and /token endpoints

• A /login_info endpoint to allow querying for required login prompts

• A /check_token endpoint to allow resource servers to obtain information about an access token submitted by an OAuth2 client

• SCIM user provisioning endpoint

• OpenID connect endpoints to support authentication /userinfo and /check_id

Command line clients can perform authentication by submitting credentials directly to the /authorize endpoint.

An ImplicitAccessTokenProvider exists in Spring Security OAuth to use if your client is Java.

By default, uaa will launch with a context root /uaa.

Configuration

A uaa.yml file exists in the app. This file provides defaults to the placeholders in the Spring XML.

You can override any occurrences of ${placeholder.name} in the XML by adding it to the uaa.yml file, or by providing a System property, -D to JVM, with the same name.

All passwords and client secrets in the config files are in plain text, but are inserted into the UAA database encrypted with BCrypt.

User Account Data

The default uses an in-memory RDBMS user store, pre-populated with a single test user marissa with password koala.

To use PostgreSQL for user data, activate the Spring profile postgresql.

You can configure the active profiles in uaa.yml using the following:

spring_profiles: postgresql,default

To use PostgreSQL instead of HyperSQL (hsqldb):

$ echo "spring_profiles: postgresql,default" > src/main/resources/uaa.yml
$ ./gradlew run

To bootstrap a microcloud-type environment, you need an admin client. A database initializer component that inserts an admin client exists. If the default profile is active, for example not postgresql, a cf CLI client exists so that the Gem login works with no additional configuration required. You can override the default settings and add additional clients in the uaa.yml file:

oauth:
  clients:
    admin:
      authorized-grant-types: client_credentials
      scope: read,write,password
      authorities: ROLE_CLIENT,ROLE_ADIN
      id: admin
      secret: adminclientsecret
      resource-ids: clients

You can use the admin client to create additional clients. You must have a client with read/write access to the scim resource to create user accounts. The integration tests handle this automatically by inserting client and user accounts as necessary for the tests.

Sample Apps

Two sample apps are included with the UAA: /api and /app.

Run them with ./gradlew run from the uaa root directory. All three apps, /uaa, /api, and /app, are simultaneously deployed.

API Sample App

The api sample app is an example resource server. It hosts a service that returns a list of mock apps under /apps.

APP Sample App

The app sample app is a user interface app, primarily aimed at browsers, that uses OpenID Connect for authentication and OAuth2 for access grants. app authenticates with the Auth service, then accesses resources in the API service. Run it with ./gradlew run from the uaa root directory.

The app can operate in multiple different profiles according to the location and presence of the UAA server and the login app. By default, the app looks for a UAA on localhost:8080/uaa, but you can change this by setting the UAA_PROFILE environment variable or System Property.

The app source code, samples/app/src/main/resources, contains multiple properties files pre-configured with different likely locations for those servers. The names of these properties files follow the form app-UAA_PROFILE.properties.

The naming convention for the UAA_PROFILE is as follows:

• local: a localhost deployment

• vcap: a vcap.me deployment

• staging: a staging deployment

Profile names can be hyphenated to indicate multiple contexts. For example, local-vcap can be used when the login server is in a different location than the UAA server.

Use Cases

1. See all apps:

   GET /app/apps
   

   Browser is redirected through a series of authentication and access grant steps, and then the photos are shown.

2. See the currently logged in user details, a selection of attributes from the OpenID provider:

   GET /app
   

LOGIN App

The login app is a user interface for authentication. The UAA can also authenticate user accounts, but only if it manages them itself, and it only provides a basic UI. You can brand and customize the login app for non-native authentication and for more complicated UI flows, like user registration and password reset.

The login app is itself an OAuth2 endpoint provider, but delegates those features to the UAA server. Therefore, configuration for the login app consists of locating the UAA through its OAuth2 endpoint URLs and registering the login app itself as a client of the UAA. A login.yml for the UAA locations exists, such as for a local vcap instance:

uaa:
  url: http://uaa.vcap.example.net
  token:
    url: http://uaa.vcap.example.net/oauth/token
  login:
    url: http://uaa.vcap.example.net/login.do

An environment variable or Java System property also exists, LOGIN_SECRET, for the client secret that the app uses when it authenticates itself with the UAA. The login app is registered by default in the UAA only if there are no active Spring profiles. In the UAA, the registration is located in the oauth-clients.xml config file:

id: login
secret: loginsecret
authorized-grant-types: client_credentials
authorities: ROLE_LOGIN
resource-ids: oauth

Use Cases

1. Authenticate:

   GET /login
   

   The sample app presents a form login interface for the backend UAA, and an OpenID widget where a user can authenticate using Google or other credentials.

2. Approve OAuth2 token grant:

   GET /oauth/authorize?client_id=app&response_type=code...
   

   Standard OAuth2 Authorization Endpoint. The UAA handles client credentials and all other features in the back end, and the login app is used to render the UI.

3. Obtain access token:

   POST /oauth/token
   

   Standard OAuth2 Authorization Endpoint passed through to the UAA.

Scopes

UAA covers multiple scopes of privilege, including access to UAA, access to Cloud Controller, and access to the router.

See the tables below for a description of the scopes covered by UAA:

• UAA Scopes
• Cloud Controller Scopes
• Router Scopes
• Other Scopes

UAA Scopes

Cloud Controller Scopes

Routing Scopes

Other Scopes