Connect2id server 15.4 introduces an STS web API to aid federated login

This release of the Connect2id server ships the much anticipated Security Token Service (STS) web API to ease implementation of federated logins for identity providers. The concept of federated login enables an identity provider to call on 3rd party providers to authenticate end-users and obtain attributes about them, in a manner that is completely transparent to the client applications.

An identity provider that is built with the Connect2id server can now utilise the server's existing cryptographic facilities - JWT signing and key store - to mint JWTs to secure OAuth 2.0 flows with upstream OpenID providers. An upstream provider can verify the signature of a JWT using the public JWK set URL of the Connect2id server.

The first version of the STS API supports minting of tokens for the following purposes:

To prevent mistakes in client logic, the STS API uses carefully designed templates to mint the requested JWTs. The templates take care to populate the JWT headers and claims sets with the correct data for the type of JWT and perform validation on the POSTed parameters. This means the STS cannot be used (or abused) to mint arbitrary JWTs.

Example request to the STS API to mint a token for a JAR:

POST /sts/rest/v1/issuer HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Bearer ztucZS1ZyFKgh0tUEruUtiSTXhnexmd6
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "template"   : "JAR",
  "alg"        : "RS256",
  "aud"        : "https://op.example.com",
  "parameters" : {
      "response_type"         : "code",
      "client_id"             : "client-123",
      "redirect_uri"          : "https://rp.example.com/cb",
      "scope"                 : "openid",
      "state"                 : "Mu0niexo",
      "nonce"                 : "Baemie2F",
      "code_challenge"        : "E9Melhoa2OwvFrEMTJguCHaoeK1t8URWbuGJSstw-cM",
      "code_challenge_method" : "S256"
  }
}

The STS will return a JWT, which when inspected will show a header and a claims set similar to these:

JWT header, note the typ (type) header to explicitly type the JWT, a security measure against cross-jwt confusion:

{
  "alg" : "RS256",
  "typ" : "oauth-authz-req+jwt",
  "kid" : "q9SZ"
}

JWT claims set, containing the requisite iss and aud claims, the rest are parameters of the signed OpenID authentication request:

{
  "iss"                   : "client-123",
  "aud"                   : "https://op.example.com",
  "response_type"         : "code",
  "client_id"             : "client-123",
  "redirect_uri"          : "https://rp.example.com/cb",
  "scope"                 : "openid",
  "state"                 : "Mu0niexo",
  "nonce"                 : "Baemie2F",
  "code_challenge"        : "E9Melhoa2OwvFrEMTJguCHaoeK1t8URWbuGJSstw-cM",
  "code_challenge_method" : "S256"
}

What else has changed in this release can be found in the release notes below.

Download 15.4

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Apache Tomcat package with Connect2id server 15.4: Connect2id-server.zip

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Questions?

For technical questions about this new release contact Connect2id support. To purchase a production license for the Connect2id server, renew or upgrade your support and updates subscription, email our sales.


Release notes

15.4 (2024-03-11)

Summary

  • Adds a new Security Token Service (STS) web API to issue signed JWTs for JWT-secured Authorisation Requests (JAR, see RFC 9101) and private_key_jwt authentication. Intended when an Identity Provider based on the Connect2id server acts an OAuth 2.0 client / OpenID relying party in federated login scenarios. The signature of an issued JWT can be validated using the server JWK set published at the /jwks.json endpoint.

Configuration

  • /WEB-INF/oidcProvider.properties

    • op.sts.apiAccessTokenSHA256.* -- New optional configuration property. Specifies a master access token for the STS web API, represented by its SHA-256 hash (in hexadecimal format). The hashed storage is intended to prevent accidental leakage of the token through configuration files, logs, etc. The token is of type Bearer, non-expiring and must contain at least 32 random alphanumeric characters to make brute force guessing impractical. If not specified the web API is disabled.

      Additional access tokens, to facilitate token roll-over or for other needs, can be configured by appending a dot (.) with a unique label to the property name, e.g. as op.reg.apiAccessTokenSHA256.1=abc....

  • /WEB-INF/log4j.xml

    • Updates the PatternLayouts of the RollingFile and Console appenders to comply with a recent Log4j library change.

Web API

  • /sts/rest/v1/

    • New Security Token Service (STS) web API. Enabled if it has a master API access token (op.sts.apiAccessTokenSHA256) configured.
  • /sts/rest/v1/issuer

    • New resource to issue signed JWTs for JWT-secured Authorisation Requests (JAR) and private_key_jwt authentication. Supports the RSxxx, PSxxx and ESxxx JWS algorithm families. The JWTs are generated according to a built-in template that defines the acceptable JWT header parameters and claims set. The template ensures the JWT is compliant with the respective specification and potential errors, such as including a sub claim in signed request object (JAR), are prevented.

      Supported templates:

      • JAR -- For issue of signed JWT-secured Authorisation Requests (JAR), also called request objects in OpenID Connect.

      • private_key_jwt -- For issue of private key client authentication JWTs for use at the token and other endpoints of an OAuth 2.0 authorisation server / OpenID provider.

Resolved issues

  • Corrects the OP5109 log INFO message that records whether a master API token for the client registration endpoint is configured (issue server/978).

  • Fixes the shipped /WEB-INF/log4j.xml configuration to comply with a recent Log4j library change. In Connect2id server 15.3 this caused the log lines to contain only the log message (%m), with timestamp, etc. missing (issue server/980).

  • Logs token success response (OP6225) and error response (OP6226) at INFO level, with client ID, grant type and other details (issue server/982).

Dependency changes

  • Updates to org.slf4j:slf4j-api:2.0.9

  • Updates to com.github.dubasdey:log4j2-jsonevent-layout:0.0.8

Connect2id server 15.3

This Connect2id server release ships an update to the user sessions web API, to enable an individual session to be checked or retrieved without disturbing the session's max idle time expiration. To do this use the skip_last_used_update query parameter as shown in the example below:

GET /session-store/rest/v2/sessions?skip_last_used_update=true HTTP/1.1
Host: c2id.com
Authorization: Bearer ztucZS1ZyFKgh0tUEruUtiSTXhnexmd6
SID: WYqFXK7Q4HFnJv0hiT3Fgw.-oVkvSXgalUuMQDfEsh1lw

This feature comes with a caveat. It is supported only in Connect2id server deployments that persist the sessions to a database or Redis. The query parameter will be ignored and have no effect in deployments configured for in-memory session storage and replication clustering.

A session related fix and improvements under the hood also took place.

About 20 dependencies across the board were bumped. The PostgreSQL JDBC driver was bumped to clear a critical CVE-2024-1597 that has been reported for the driver. The Connect2id server is not using the vulnerable JDBC configuration parameter, so deployments have not been affected.

Detailed information about the new release can be found in the notes below.

Download 15.3

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Questions?

For technical questions about this new release contact Connect2id support. To purchase a production license for the Connect2id server, renew or upgrade your support and updates subscription, email our sales.


Release notes

15.3 (2024-03-05)

Web API

  • /session-store/rest/v2/

    • The sessions resource receives a new optional skip_last_used_update query parameter for GET requests for individual subject sessions. When true the internal timestamp that records the last session use will not be updated, leaving the session maximum idle time expiration unaffected. When false the last used timestamp of the session will be updated. The default value is false. Only Connect2id server deployments that persist the subject sessions to a database or Redis can skip the update of the session last used timestamp. In deployments using Infinispan in-memory replication clustering the query parameter will be disregarded and have no effect.

Resolved issues

  • Updates the SQL store connector to log the SQL transaction isolation level at INFO level at Connect2id server startup. The log message receives the IS0143 identifier (issue sql-store/38).

  • Removes a redundant ConcurrentMap.remove call in the subject session store when updating the last used timestamp of a retrieved persisted subject session with a positive max_idle value (issue session-store/97).

  • Improves the performance of the authorisation session web API, the authorisation code grant processing, the refresh token grant processing and the token introspection processing by skipping the last used timestamp update of retrieved subject sessions where appropriate (issue server/975).

  • Adds a org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-slf4j-impl dependency to enable jOOQ query logging at DEBUG level (issue server/976).

Dependency changes

  • Updates to com.nimbusds:oauth2-oidc-sdk:11.10.1

  • Updates to com.nimbusds:oauth2-authz-store:26.2.2

  • Updates to com.nimbusds:oidc-session-store:17.3

  • Updates to Infinispan 14.0.24.Final

  • Updates to Jersey JAX-RS 3.1.5

  • Updates to com.google.guava:guava:32.1.3-jre

  • Updates to commons-io:commons-io:2.15.1

  • Updates to commons-codec:commons-codec:1.16.0

  • Updates to Dropwizard Metric 4.2.25

  • Updates to Log4j 2.23.0

  • Updates to org.kohsuke.metainf-services:metainf-services:1.11

  • Updates to com.nimbusds:infinispan-cachestore-sql:8.2

  • Updates to com.h2database:h2:2.2.224

  • Updates to org.postgresql:postgresql:42.7.2

  • Updates to org.mariadb.jdbc:mariadb-java-client:2.7.12

  • Updates to com.microsoft.sqlserver:mssql-jdbc:12.6.1.jre11

  • Updates to com.oracle.database.jdbc:ojdbc11:21.13.0.0

  • Adds org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-slf4j-impl:2.23.0

  • Removes org.apache.commons:commons-compress:1.24.0

OpenID Federation policies for Pairwise Pseudonymous Identifiers (PPID)

How to mandate identity providers in a OpenID Federation to issue ID tokens and UserInfo responses with pairwise pseudonymous identifiers (PPID)? And how to make the PPIDs in a federation share the same sector identifier?

This question was raised in the OpenID Federation issue tracker. PPIDs are crucial in federations built around the privacy-by-default principle.

A standard for federating entities, such as OpenID providers and relying parties, must be neutral in regard to the protocols that the entities use among themselves. Neutrality separates the concerns of the federation infrastructure from those of the application protocols. It makes it easier to reason about systems, which is also good for security. The internet protocol is good example of neutrality. Its purpose is to relay datagrams and it's not concerned with their content.

If a particular federation has some requirement on an identity or application protocol in its jurisdiction, the OpenID Federation standard provides a simple and flexible tool to express that, called metadata policies. The use of metadata policies in a federation is optional.

A federation operator can mandate PPIDs by placing the following policy at the trust anchor level:

"metadata_policy": {
  "openid_provider": {
     "subject_types_supported": { "value": ["pairwise"] }
  },
  "openid_relying_party": {
     "subject_type": { "value": "pairwise" }
  }
}

This will automatically cause the metadata of OpenID providers and relying parties in the federation to assume the necessary parameters for PPID issue.

Once set by an authority, the value policy operator guarantees that the metadata parameter cannot be changed or overridden by subordinate authorities in the federation and in trust chains.

An intermediate federation entity, for example a participating organisation with multiple relying parties, may choose to define a common sector ID URL for them, to ensure its applications receive an identical IDs for the same end-user.

"metadata_policy": {
  "openid_relying_party": {
     "sector_identifier_uri": { "value": "https://org.example.com/sector-ids.json" }
  }
}

When the openid_relying_party metadata policies in the trust chain for these entities get merged, the resulting policy will become this:

"metadata_policy": {
  "openid_relying_party": {
     "subject_type": { "value": "pairwise" },
     "sector_identifier_uri": { "value": "https://org.example.com/sector-ids.json" }
  }
}

A federation may choose to define a sector_identifier_uri at the top-level, in the trust anchor metadata, so that it applies to all OpenID relying parties, across all participating organisation. However, this may require some additional coordination or customisation, because OpenID Connect requires the sector ID URL to point to a JSON document that contains the redirect_uris of the OpenID relying parties:

The value of the sector_identifier_uri MUST be a URL using the https scheme that points to a JSON file containing an array of redirect_uri values. The values of the registered redirect_uris MUST be included in the elements of the array.

One work around, without breaking OpenID Connect, is to use the OpenID Federation web APIs to crawl the federation to collect the redirect_uris of all applications. If you study the OpenID Federation 1.0 spec you will likely be pleased by its powerful tools and APIs, so we shouldn't be surprised when one day it comes to replace X.509 and CAs, in a future TLS 2.0 standard.

Connect2id server 15.2

This Connect2id server release ships an update to the plugin interface (SPI) for sourcing claims (also called attributes) that get provided to client applications at the UserInfo endpoint and may also be fed into ID tokens and access tokens. The change enables plugins to find out the browser session ID where the claims sourcing was authorised.

The included plugin that delegates the claims sourcing to an HTTP endpoint was updated accordingly, so that web hooks that source such claims for the Connect2id server can find out the session ID or receive the complete session object. Note that the HTTP claims source plugin must be explicitly configured to receive these details, they will not be included by default.

This release also adds a measure to prevent the dispatch of back-channel logout notifications when the issuer alias mode PERSISTED_GRANT_ISOLATION is configured.

More information is available in the release notes below.

The dockerfile for the c2id/c2id-server-min image received a significant update that can be considered breaking. The c2id.war is now being copied unzipped to the docker image, to make it easier to edit its configurations files, for example the WEB-INF/log4j.xml that controls logging.

Download 15.2

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Apache Tomcat package with Connect2id server 15.2: Connect2id-server-mt.zip

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Connect2id server 15.2 WAR package: c2id-mt.war

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Questions?

For technical questions about this new release contact Connect2id support. To purchase a production license for the Connect2id server, renew or upgrade your support and updates subscription, email our sales.


Release notes

15.2 (2024-02-16)

Configuration

  • /WEB-INF/httpClaimsSource.properties

    • op.httpClaimsSource.includeSubjectSessionID -- New optional configuration property of type boolean. Enables / disables inclusion in the request of the subject (end-user) session ID where the claims sourcing was authorised. Disabled by default.

    • op.httpClaimsSource.includeSubjectSession -- New optional configuration property of type boolean. Enables / disables inclusion in the request of the subject (end-user) session where the claims sourcing was authorised. Disabled by default.

SPI

  • Upgrades the Connect2id server SDK to com.nimbusds:c2id-server-sdk:5.2

    • New ClaimsSourceRequestContext.getSubjectSessionID method that returns the ID of the associated subject (end-user) session where the claims sourcing was authorised.

    • New SubjectSessionID interface to represent subject (end-user) session identifiers.

Resolved issues

  • When the op.issuerAliasMode configuration property is set to PERSISTED_GRANT_ISOLATION back-channel logout notifications on subject session close and expiration events must be disabled (issue server/969).

Dependency changes

  • Upgrades to com.nimbusds:c2id-server-sdk:5.2

  • Upgrades to com.nimbusds:oidc-claims-source-http:3.0

  • Updates to Log4j 2.22.1

Connect2id server 15.1.1, 14.11.1

If you have a Connect2id server deployment with client applications registered to receive front-channel or back-channel logout notifications we strongly recommend that you apply this update. It fixes a thread-safety bug that under certain timing conditions could cause clients to receive a bad or duplicate sid (session ID) claim in the ID token. This then breaks the logical link between the ID token and a logout notification that the client may receive in future.

Updates are provided for both Connect2id server 15.x and 14.x.

If you have a CVE tool it may have recently reported a CVE-2023-51074 and a CVE-2024-21634. Connect2id server deployments are not affected. The libraries that received the CVE reports are used by the server to parse its own configuration properties. They are not used to process user or API input. On the 15.x branch the affected dependencies were updated (along with a few others).

The next Connect2id server releases are going to include new features that have been in the pipeline for some time, such as support for automated cluster-wide key generation and rollover. The upcoming OpenID Federation 1.0 standard is also going to become a more prominent part of the Connect2id server. To find out more about it:

  • Check out the article on the X.509 certificate chain vs the OpenID trust chain talk at the OpenID 2024 Summit in Tokyo, Japan.

  • Meet the specification editors this week at the TIIME event in Copenhagen.

  • Find out how a future TLS 2.0 using OpenID Federation 1.0 trust chains could look like, at the Trends in Digital Identity 2024 in April in Rome, Italy.

  • Another opportunity to meet the editors and implementers is going to be the OAuth Security Workshop, also in April in Rome. Registration will open soon.

  • At Identiverse in May, in Las Vegas.

  • At the European Identity and Cloud Conference 2024 in Berlin, in June.

Download 15.1.1

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Download 14.11.1

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Questions?

For technical questions about this new release contact Connect2id support. To purchase a production license for the Connect2id server, renew or upgrade your support and updates subscription, email our sales.


Release notes

15.1.1 (2024-01-29)

Resolved issues

  • Fixes generation of the optional "sid" (session ID) claim in ID tokens which relied on a non-thread safe use of a SHA-256 message digest. In Connect2id server deployments when two or more "sid" claims need to be generated within a short length of time (<< 1 second) this could result in the "sid" claim receiving an incorrectly computed value or cause the value to leak into the "sid" claim of another ID token. Connect2id server deployments with clients / OpenID relying parties registered to receive logout notifications with a "sid" parameter are strongly advised to update (issue server/967).

Dependency changes

  • Updates to com.nimbusds:infinispan-cachestore-dynamodb:6.0.1

  • Updates to com.nimbusds:c2id-server-property-source:2.0.1

  • Updates to com.nimbusds:software-statement-verifier:2.2.7

14.11.1 (2024-01-29)

Resolved issues

  • Fixes generation of the optional "sid" (session ID) claim in ID tokens which relied on a non-thread safe use of a SHA-256 message digest. In Connect2id server deployments when two or more "sid" claims need to be generated within a short length of time (<< 1 second) this could result in the "sid" claim receiving an incorrectly computed value or cause the value to leak into the "sid" claim of another ID token. Connect2id server deployments with clients / OpenID relying parties registered to receive logout notifications with a "sid" parameter are strongly advised to update (issue server/967).