Authentication and authorization
API docs
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Mongo Auth Provider implementation

We provide an implementation of AuthProvider which uses the Vert.x MongoClient to perform authentication and authorisation against a MongoDb.

To use this project, add the following dependency to the dependencies section of your build descriptor:

  • Maven (in your pom.xml):

<dependency>
 <groupId>io.vertx</groupId>
 <artifactId>vertx-auth-mongo</artifactId>
 <version>3.9.16</version>
</dependency>

  • Gradle (in your build.gradle file):

compile 'io.vertx:vertx-auth-mongo:3.9.16'

To create an instance you first need an instance of MongoClient. To learn how to create one of those please consult the documentation for the MongoClient.

Once you’ve got one of those you can create a MongoAuth instance as follows:

MongoClient client = MongoClient.createShared(vertx, mongoClientConfig);
JsonObject authProperties = new JsonObject();
MongoAuth authProvider = MongoAuth.create(client, authProperties);

Once you’ve got your instance you can authenticate and authorise with it just like any AuthProvider.

The out of the box config assumes the usage of the collection with name "user", the username stored and read by field "username" some others.

In order to avoid duplicates of user names your "user" collection should have a unique index on "username". In order to do this you should run the following snippet on your mongo server:

db.user.createIndex( { username: 1 }, { unique: true } )

The reason you should add the index is that due to the nature of mongo doing a query first to verify if a username is already taken and then insert a document cannot be run as an atomic action. Using the index the code will try to insert the row and fail if duplicate.

You can also change all the defaults for the mongo collection and column names using any of the methods:

setCollectionName setUsernameField setPasswordField setPermissionField setRoleField if you want to adapt that to your needs.

The default implementation assumes that the password is stored in the database as a SHA-512 hash after being concatenated with a salt. It also assumes the salt is stored in the table too. The field, where the salt is stored can be set by setSaltField, the default is "salt". You are able to change this behaviour by using setSaltStyle. The HashStrategy you can retrieve by getHashStrategy. By using this, you are able to set: NO_SALT by which passwords are not crypted and stored in cleartext. ( see the warning below! ) COLUMN, which will create a salt per user and store this inside the defined column of the user. ( see the warning below! ) EXTERNAL, which will store only the crypted password in the database and will use a salt from external, which you will have to set by setExternalSalt

If you want to override this behaviour you can do so by providing an alternative hash strategy and setting it with setHashStrategy

It is strongly advised to use the EXTERNAL option. The NO_SALT option is existing for development phase only and even the COLUMN option is not recommended, cause salt and password are stored inside the same place!
As of 2018 OWASP recommends the usage of stronger encryption algorithms to hash user passwords for this case you can change from the default (preserved for backwards-compatibility) to PBKDF2. For new projects this should be the standard. 
MongoClient client = MongoClient.createShared(vertx, mongoClientConfig);
JsonObject authProperties = new JsonObject();
MongoAuth authProvider = MongoAuth.create(client, authProperties);
authProvider.setHashAlgorithm(HashAlgorithm.PBKDF2);

Vertx Auth JDBC and GDPR

GDPR is a regulation from the common European Union law. It overrides/supercedes national data protection laws and extents the previously existing directives. This section of the manual is by no means a thorough walkthrough of the regulation, it is just a small summary how this component adheres to the requirements. Companies not adhering to the equirements can be fined on 4% of the turnover or 20 million euro. Therefore we want to make sure that as a user of Vert.x Auth JDBC you’re are on the good track to comply.

The law defines certain terminology:

  • Data Subject - Person whose personal data is processed (e.g.: User)

  • Personal Data - Any data about an identifiable or identified person

  • Data Processing - Any operation (manual or automated) on personal data

  • Controller - The entity (company) that requests and uses the data

  • Processors - Any entity that processes data on behalf of a controller (e.g.: cloud service provider)

GDPR defines the following functionality:

  • "Forget me" - Right to erasure

  • Mark profile as restricted - Right to restriction of processing

  • Export data - Right to portability

  • Allow profile editing - Right to rectification

  • See all my data - Right to access

  • Consent checkboxes

  • Age checks

  • Data destruction - Data minimization principle

This module complies to the GDPR law by not storing any identifiable information about a data subject. The only reference is the username which is not linked to any personal data.

In order to add personal data to your application you should create your own data schema and use the username column as a reference to your data. As a tip you should have a boolean flag to mark the personal data as restricted to comply to the right to restriction of processing which means that if you need to handle the data, e.g.: send a bulk email from a mailing list you are not allowed to do so if the flag is true.

The right to erasure does not mean that you must wipe all records from your application, e.g.: in a bank this right cannot be used to erase a running loan or debt. You are allowed to keep your application data but must erase the personal data. In case of Vert.x Auth JDBC you should delete your table but can still use a reference to the username as long as is not possible to link the username to the personal data.

Important note is that this must survive backups! As a tip backup the data, and data erasure on different archives so they can be replayed individually.

Authentication

When authenticating using this implementation, it assumes username and password fields are present in the authentication info:

JsonObject authInfo = new JsonObject()
    .put("username", "tim")
    .put("password", "sausages");
authProvider.authenticate(authInfo, res -> {
  if (res.succeeded()) {
    User user = res.result();
  } else {
    // Failed!
  }
});

Instead of the username and password field names used in the previous snippet, you should use: setUsernameCredentialField and setPasswordCredentialField

Authorisation - Permission-Role Model

Although Vert.x auth itself does not mandate any specific model of permissions (they are just opaque strings), this implementation assumes a familiar user/role/permission model, where a user can have zero or more roles and a role can have zero or more permissions.

If validating if a user has a particular permission simply pass the permission into. isAuthorised as follows:

user.isAuthorized("commit_code", res -> {
  if (res.succeeded()) {
    boolean hasPermission = res.result();
  } else {
    // Failed to
  }
});

If validating that a user has a particular role then you should prefix the argument with the role prefix.

user.isAuthorized(MongoAuth.ROLE_PREFIX + "manager", res -> {
  if (res.succeeded()) {
    boolean hasRole = res.result();
  } else {
    // Failed to
  }
});