Skip to content
2023 API Summit Hackathon: Experiment with AI for APIs (August 28 - September 27) Learn More →
Kong Logo | Kong Docs Logo
search
  • We're Hiring!
  • Docs
    • Kong Gateway
      Lightweight, fast, and flexible cloud-native API gateway
      Kong Konnect
      Single platform for SaaS end-to-end connectivity
      Kong Mesh
      Enterprise service mesh based on Kuma and Envoy
      decK
      Helps manage Kong’s configuration in a declarative fashion
      Kong Ingress Controller
      Works inside a Kubernetes cluster and configures Kong to proxy traffic
      Kong Gateway Operator
      Manage your Kong deployments on Kubernetes using YAML Manifests
      Insomnia
      Collaborative API development platform
      Kuma
      Open-source distributed control plane with a bundled Envoy Proxy integration
  • API Specs
  • Plugin Hub
    • Explore the Plugin Hub
      View all plugins View all plugins View all plugins arrow image
    • Functionality View all View all arrow image
      View all plugins
      Authentication's icon
      Authentication
      Protect your services with an authentication layer
      Security's icon
      Security
      Protect your services with additional security layer
      Traffic Control's icon
      Traffic Control
      Manage, throttle and restrict inbound and outbound API traffic
      Serverless's icon
      Serverless
      Invoke serverless functions in combination with other plugins
      Analytics & Monitoring's icon
      Analytics & Monitoring
      Visualize, inspect and monitor APIs and microservices traffic
      Transformations's icon
      Transformations
      Transform request and responses on the fly on Kong
      Logging's icon
      Logging
      Log request and response data using the best transport for your infrastructure
  • Support
  • Community
  • Kong Academy
Get a Demo Start Free Trial
Kong Gateway
3.1.x
  • Home icon
  • Kong Gateway
  • Kong Manager
  • Authentication and Authorization
  • OpenID Connect
  • OIDC Authenticated Group Mapping
github-edit-pageEdit this page
report-issueReport an issue
  • Kong Gateway
  • Kong Konnect
  • Kong Mesh
  • Plugin Hub
  • decK
  • Kong Ingress Controller
  • Kong Gateway Operator
  • Insomnia
  • Kuma

  • Docs contribution guidelines
  • 3.4.x (latest)
  • 3.3.x
  • 3.2.x
  • 3.1.x
  • 3.0.x
  • 2.8.x
  • 2.7.x
  • 2.6.x
  • Archive (pre-2.6)
enterprise-switcher-icon Switch to OSS
On this pageOn this page
  • Prerequisites
  • Apply OIDC auth mapping to Kong Gateway
    • Review important values
    • Set up mapping
You are browsing documentation for an outdated version. See the latest documentation here.

OIDC Authenticated Group Mapping

Using Kong’s OpenID Connect plugin (OIDC), you can map identity provider (IdP) groups to Kong roles. Adding a user to Kong in this way gives them access to Kong based on their group in the IdP.

Admin accounts are now created automatically when you map your identity provider (IdP) groups to Kong roles. You do not need to create the users, groups, and roles separately. These users then accept invitations to join Kong Manager and log in with their IdP credentials.

Important: In v2.7.x, the admin_claim parameter replaces the consumer_claim parameter required by previous versions.

If an admin’s group changes in the IdP, their Kong admin account’s associated role also changes in Kong Gateway the next time they log in to Kong Manager. The mapping removes the task of manually managing access in Kong Gateway, because it makes the IdP the system of record.

Prerequisites

  • An IdP with an authorization server and users with groups assigned
  • Kong Gateway installed and configured
  • Kong Manager enabled
  • RBAC enabled
  • (Kubernetes) Helm installed

Apply OIDC auth mapping to Kong Gateway

Review important values

In the following examples, you specify the admin_claim and authenticated_groups_claim parameters to identify which admin value and role name to map from the IdP to Kong Gateway, as well as the admin_auto_create_rbac_token_disabled to specify whether an RBAC token is created for admins in Kong.

  • The admin_claim value specifies which IdP username value should map to Kong Manager. The username and password are required for the user to log into the IdP.

  • The authenticated_groups_claim value specifies which IdP claim should be used to assign Kong Gateway roles to the specified Kong Gateway admin.

    This value depends on your IdP – for example, Okta configures claims for groups, and another IdP might configure them as roles.

    In the IdP, the group claim value must follow the format <workspace_name>:<role_name>.

    For example, if "authenticated_groups_claim": ["groups"] is specified, and in the IdP groups:["default:super-admin"] is specified, the administrators specified in admin_claim are assigned to the super-admin role in the default Kong Gateway workspace.

    If the mapping does not work as expected, decode the JWT that’s created by your IdP, and make sure that the admin ID token includes the key:value pair groups:["default:super-admin"] for the case of this example, or the appropriate claim name and claim value as set in your IdP.

  • The admin_auto_create_rbac_token_disabled boolean enables or disables RBAC token creation when automatically creating admins with OpenID Connect. The default is false.
    • Set to true to disable automatic token creation for admins
    • Set to false to enable automatic token creation for admins
  • The admin_auto_create boolean enables or disables admin auto-creation with OpenID Connect. The default is true.
    • Set to true to enable automatic admin creation
    • Set to false to disable automatic admin creation

Set up mapping

Kubernetes with Helm
Docker
kong.conf
  1. Create a configuration file for the OIDC plugin and save it as admin_gui_auth_conf.

    Provide your own values for all fields indicated by curly braces ({}):

     {                                      
         "issuer": "{YOUR_IDP_URL}",        
         "admin_claim": "email",
         "client_id": ["{CLIENT_ID}"],                 
         "client_secret": ["{CLIENT_SECRET}"],
         "authenticated_groups_claim": ["{CLAIM_NAME}"],
         "ssl_verify": false,
         "leeway": 60,
         "redirect_uri": ["{YOUR_REDIRECT_URI}"],
         "login_redirect_uri": ["{YOUR_LOGIN_REDIRECT_URI}"],
         "logout_methods": ["GET", "DELETE"],
         "logout_query_arg": "logout",
         "logout_redirect_uri": ["{YOUR_LOGOUT_REDIRECT_URI}"],
         "scopes": ["openid","profile","email","offline_access"],
         "auth_methods": ["authorization_code"],
         "admin_auto_create_rbac_token_disabled": false,
         "admin_auto_create": true
     }
    

    For detailed descriptions of all OIDC parameters, see the OpenID Connect parameter reference.

  2. Create a secret from the file you just created:

     kubectl create secret generic kong-idp-conf --from-file=admin_gui_auth_conf -n kong
    
  3. Update the RBAC section of the deployment values.yml file with the following parameters:

     rbac:
       enabled: true
       admin_gui_auth: openid-connect
       session_conf_secret: kong-session-conf   
       admin_gui_auth_conf_secret: kong-idp-conf
    
  4. Using Helm, upgrade the deployment with your YAML filename:

     helm upgrade --install kong-ee kong/kong -f ./myvalues.yaml -n kong
    

If you have a Docker installation, run the following command to set the needed environment variables and reload the Kong Gateway configuration.

Provide your own values for all fields indicated by curly braces ({}):

echo "
  KONG_ENFORCE_RBAC=on \
  KONG_ADMIN_GUI_AUTH=openid-connect \
  KONG_ADMIN_GUI_AUTH_CONF='{
      \"issuer\": \"{YOUR_IDP_URL}\",
      \"admin_claim\": \"email\",
      \"client_id\": [\"<someid>\"],
      \"client_secret\": [\"<somesecret>\"],
      \"authenticated_groups_claim\": [\"{CLAIM_NAME}\"],,
      \"ssl_verify\": false,
      \"leeway\": 60,
      \"redirect_uri\": [\"{YOUR_REDIRECT_URI}\"],
      \"login_redirect_uri\": [\"{YOUR_LOGIN_REDIRECT_URI}\"],
      \"logout_methods\": [\"GET\", \"DELETE\"],
      \"logout_query_arg\": \"logout\",
      \"logout_redirect_uri\": [\"{YOUR_LOGOUT_REDIRECT_URI}\"],
      \"scopes\": [\"openid\",\"profile\",\"email\",\"offline_access\"],
      \"auth_methods\": [\"authorization_code\"],
      \"admin_auto_create_rbac_token_disabled\": false,
      \"admin_auto_create\": true
    }' kong reload exit" | docker exec -i {KONG_CONTAINER_ID} /bin/sh

Replace {KONG_CONTAINER_ID} with the ID of your container.

For detailed descriptions of all the parameters used here, and many other customization options, see the OpenID Connect parameter reference.

  1. Navigate to your kong.conf file.

  2. With RBAC enabled, add the admin_gui_auth and admin_gui_auth_conf properties to the file.

    Provide your own values for all fields indicated by curly braces ({}):

     enforce_rbac = on
     admin_gui_auth = openid-connect
     admin_gui_auth_conf = {                                      
         "issuer": "{YOUR_IDP_URL}",        
         "admin_claim": "email",
         "client_id": ["{CLIENT_ID}"],                 
         "client_secret": ["{CLIENT_SECRET}"],
         "authenticated_groups_claim": ["{CLAIM_NAME}"],
         "ssl_verify": false,
         "leeway": 60,
         "redirect_uri": ["{YOUR_REDIRECT_URI}"],
         "login_redirect_uri": ["{YOUR_LOGIN_REDIRECT_URI}"],
         "logout_methods": ["GET", "DELETE"],
         "logout_query_arg": "logout",
         "logout_redirect_uri": ["{YOUR_LOGOUT_REDIRECT_URI}"],
         "scopes": ["openid","profile","email","offline_access"],
         "auth_methods": ["authorization_code"],
         "admin_auto_create_rbac_token_disabled": false,
         "admin_auto_create": true
     }
    

    For detailed descriptions of all the parameters used here, and many other customization options, see the OpenID Connect parameter reference.

  3. Restart Kong Gateway to apply the file.

     kong restart -c /path/to/kong.conf
    
Thank you for your feedback.
Was this page useful?
Too much on your plate? close cta icon
More features, less infrastructure with Kong Konnect. 1M requests per month for free.
Try it for Free
  • Kong
    THE CLOUD CONNECTIVITY COMPANY

    Kong powers reliable digital connections across APIs, hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

    • Company
    • Customers
    • Events
    • Investors
    • Careers Hiring!
    • Partners
    • Press
    • Contact
  • Products
    • Kong Konnect
    • Kong Gateway
    • Kong Mesh
    • Get Started
    • Pricing
  • Resources
    • eBooks
    • Webinars
    • Briefs
    • Blog
    • API Gateway
    • Microservices
  • Open Source
    • Install Kong Gateway
    • Kong Community
    • Kubernetes Ingress
    • Kuma
    • Insomnia
  • Solutions
    • Decentralize
    • Secure & Govern
    • Create a Dev Platform
    • API Gateway
    • Kubernetes
    • Service Mesh
Star
  • Terms•Privacy
© Kong Inc. 2023