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Version: 1.53.4

Configure JWT with Keycloak

Keycloak is a open source identity and access management solution that can be integrated with Platformatic DB through JSON Web Tokens (JWT) tokens. Keycloak is a powerful and complete solution, in this guide we will show how to integate it with Platformatic in a simple case. For more complex scenarios on the Keycloak side, please refer to the latest Keycloak documentation.

Keycloak Setup

Start a Keycloak server, this can be done using docker:

docker run -p 8080:8080 -e KEYCLOAK_ADMIN=admin -e KEYCLOAK_ADMIN_PASSWORD=admin quay.io/keycloak/keycloak:24.0.2 start-dev

Keep it running in its own terminal.

Setup Realm, Client and Roles

Access the Keycloak admin console at http://127.0.0.1:8080/auth/admin and login with the credentials admin/admin.

Now click on the selecton the left and click on "Create realm":

Create Realm

Name the realm plt and click "Create".

Create Realm

Now click on the "Clients" tab and click on "Create Client" (clients are applications that can authenticate with Keycloak.

Create Client

Name the client keycloak-jwt and click "Next".

Create Client

On the "Capability config" set to "ON":

  • Client authentication
  • Standard flow
  • Direct access grants
  • Service account roles

Then click on "Next"

Create Client

On the "Login settings" set:

  • Valid redirect URIS; /*
  • Web Origins: /*

Then click on "Save"

Create Client

Now in "Clients" select the keycloak-jwt client and click on the "Credentials" tab. Here you can see the client secret, copy it and save it in a safe place.

Create Credentials

Now click on the "Roles" tab and create a new role called movies:read and save

Create Realm Role

Go back to the "Clients" tab, select the keycloak-jwt client and click on the "Service Account Roles" tab. Here you can assign the movies:read role to the client.

Assign Role

Test the JWT creation

We can use the keycloak-jwt client to create a JWT token for the user user with the role movies:read. Change YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET with the client secret you saved before.

  curl -L --insecure -s -X POST 'http://127.0.0.1:8080/realms/plt/protocol/openid-connect/token' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
--data-urlencode 'client_id=keycloak-jwt' \
--data-urlencode 'grant_type=client_credentials' \
--data-urlencode 'client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET'

You should get a response like this:

{"access_token":"eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCIgOiAiSldUIiwia2lkIiA6ICJLaWhpNVFqRExmWTVOWWtSWmw1QUxvVTgyOFFSMHBXbmJjRk1ya2JpVWdvIn0.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.c4sjvdNxw5srjev2KXC4keNoG8SVUOggTCwNFLGOCOo55QNfBeaKb-bGZ4cH5dImkkpgS8940zxf14V7D41xqL6o7FYv4HQOM4E91bqAJrzLr-PUgnzI1GqafgD3ELsA00qMC7_ChaewrbFTR3ROsmn38h_kcMxT_H9YsJLte8GRj_T3EfN1XlEGCRBcZKfx4fZgTMPFcWMOWbd7Xjorp21_hOZzWbk_CNzI4b5UFlzXvU7rcyH2QAgWFqROJl4vt4WIchB8vCc2G5-E2aUzycQJmWZbk6i5Xn01X2cw-3E_qYHnM4eEu-P0TZ9inTl7BFk12zPSMmO62qEGTbB-MQ","expires_in":300,"refresh_expires_in":0,"token_type":"Bearer","not-before-policy":0,"scope":"email profile"}

You can copy the access_token and decode it at jwt.io. You shouldobtain a token with a payload like:

{
"exp": 1712829933,
"iat": 1712829633,
"jti": "c2f9f862-e7e8-4a71-8e74-73b423ebb4b6",
"iss": "http://127.0.0.1:8080/realms/plt",
"aud": "account",
"sub": "5b39b8fe-47e8-4ff3-829b-c8cbcc5f69b1",
"typ": "Bearer",
"azp": "keycloak-jwt",
"acr": "1",
"allowed-origins": [
"/*"
],
"realm_access": {
"roles": [
"movies:read",
"default-roles-plt",
"offline_access",
"uma_authorization"
]
},

(...)

Note that the token has the role movies:read in the realm_access section. We will use this token to authenticate with Platformatic DB and the movies:read realm role to authorize the user. Note that this is a simple example, for instance you might use roles on resources. Refer to Keycloak documentation for more complex scenarios.

Note also that the access token is valid for 5 minutes (keycloak default)

Platformatic Setup and Test

Create a platformatic application using npx create-platformatic@latest. Call it keycloak-test with a db-service. Specify to use sqlite and the default migrations:

Create Platformatic

Go to keycloak-test/services/db-service folder and open platformatic.json. Add the authorization section with the jwt configuration:

  "authorization": {
"jwt": {
"jwks": {
"allowedDomains": [
"http://127.0.0.1:8080/realms/plt"
],
"providerDiscovery": true
}
},
"rolePath": "realm_access.roles",
"rules": [
{
"role": "movies:read",
"entity": "movie",
"find": true
}
]
}

Note that the rolePath specify the realm_access.roles path in the JWT token that is used to extract the roles from the token. The rules section specify that the role movies:read can access the movie entity with the find operation.

Now go to the keycloak-test folder and start the application:

npm start

Start Platformatic

Test it to invoking the movies API. the request MUST be unauthorized:

curl --request GET \
--url http://127.0.0.1:3042/movies/

Not Authorized

Now you can test to invoke the movies API with the JWT token. Keep in mind that the token expires in 5 minutes, so you might need to get a new one.


curl --location 'http://0.0.0.0:3042/movies' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN'

Now you should get a response (an empty array in this case, since we have no movies in the database)

Authorized