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Version: 3.3.0

Set Up API Authentication

For security, you should only allow authenticated and authorized consumers to access your APIs. API7 Gateway provides several plugins to enable authentication and authorization.

Authentication plugins enabled on services act as locks on your APIs, while consumer credentials serve as the keys to unlock them. In API7 Gateway, you need a unique username and at least one credential to set up a consumer.

Consumers can utilize multiple credentials of different types, all are treated equally for authentication purposes.

Prerequisite(s)​

  1. Install API7 Enterprise.
  2. Have a running API on the gateway group.
note

Avoid configuring multiple authentication plugins on the same service/route to prevent conflicts.

Enable Key Authentication for APIs​

For a Service​

To use key authentication for all routes in a service, enable the Key Auth Plugin on the service.

  1. Select Published Services of your gateway group from the side navigation bar, then select the service you want to modify, for example, httpbin with version 1.0.0.
  2. Select Plugins from the side navigation bar, then click Enable Plugin.
  3. Search for the key-auth plugin, then click Enable.
  4. In the dialog box do the following:

  • Add the following configuration to the JSON Editor:

    {
    }

  • Click Enable.

For a Single Route​

To use key authentication for a specific route, enable the Key Auth Plugin on the route instead of the service.

  1. Select Published Services of your gateway group from the side navigation bar, then select the service you want to modify, for example, httpbin with version 1.0.0.
  2. Under the published service, select Routes from the side navigation bar.
  3. Select your target route, for example, get-ip.
  4. In the Plugin field, click Enable Plugin.
  5. Search for the key-auth plugin, then click Enable.
  6. In the dialog box do the following:

  • Add the following configuration to the JSON Editor:

    {
    }

  • Click Enable.

Validate Key Authentication​

Create a consumer with key authentication credentials by following configure key authentication credentials.

Then follow the steps below to validate the key authentication.

  1. Send a request without the apikey header:
curl -i "http://127.0.0.1:9080/ip"

Since the key is not provided, you will receive an HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized response with the following request body:

{"message":"Missing API key found in request"}
  1. Send a request with a wrong key in the apikey header:
curl -i "http://127.0.0.1:9080/ip" -H "apikey: wrongkey"

Since the key is wrong, you will receive an HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized response with the following request body:

{"message":"Invalid API key in request"}
  1. Send a request with the correct key in the apikey header:
curl -i "http://127.0.0.1:9080/ip" -H "apikey: alice-primary-key"

With the correct key in the request, you will receive an HTTP/1.1 200 OK response.

Enable Basic Authentication for APIs​

For a Service​

To use basic authentication for all routes in a service, enable the Basic Auth Plugin on the service.

  1. Select Published Services of your gateway group from the side navigation bar, then select the service you want to modify, for example, httpbin with version 1.0.0.
  2. Select Plugins from the side navigation bar, then click Enable Plugin.
  3. Search for the basic-auth plugin, then click Enable.
  4. In the dialog box do the following:

  • Add the following configuration to the JSON Editor:

    {
    }

  • Click Enable.

For a Single Route​

To use basic authentication for a specific route, enable the Basic Auth Plugin on the route instead of the service.

  1. Select Published Services of your gateway group from the side navigation bar, then select the service you want to modify, for example, httpbin with version 1.0.0.
  2. Under the published service, select Routes from the side navigation bar.
  3. Select your target route, for example, get-ip.
  4. In the Plugin field, click Enable Plugin.
  5. Search for the basic-auth plugin, then click Enable.
  6. In the dialog box do the following:

  • Add the following configuration to the JSON Editor:

    {
    }

  • Click Enable.

Validate Basic Authentication​

Create a consumer with basic authentication credentials by following configure basic authentication credentials.

Follow the steps below to validate the basic authentication.

  1. Send a request without a basic authentication credential in the header:
curl -i "http://127.0.0.1:9080/ip"

Since the credential is not provided, you will receive an HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized response with the following request body:

{"message":"Missing authorization in request"}
  1. Send a request with an invalid basic authentication credential(username and password do not match, or username does not exist) in the header:
curl -i "http://127.0.0.1:9080/ip" -u alice:wrong-password

Since the password does not match any consumer credential, you will receive an HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized response with the following request body:

{"message":"Invalid user authorization"}
  1. Send a request with the correct basic authentication credential:
curl -i "http://127.0.0.1:9080/ip" -u alice:alice-password

With the correct credential in the request, you will receive an HTTP/1.1 200 OK response.

Enable JWT Authentication for APIs​

For a Service​

To use JWT authentication for all routes in a service, enable the JWT Auth Plugin on the service.

  1. Select Published Services of your gateway group from the side navigation bar, then select the service you want to modify, for example, httpbin with version 1.0.0.
  2. Select Plugins from the side navigation bar, then click Enable Plugin.
  3. Search for the jwt-auth plugin, then click Enable.
  4. In the dialog box do the following:

  • Add the following configuration to the JSON Editor:

    {
    }

  • Click Enable.

For a Single Route​

To use JWT authentication for a specific route, enable the JWT Auth Plugin on the route instead of the service.

  1. Select Published Services of your gateway group from the side navigation bar, then select the service you want to modify, for example, httpbin with version 1.0.0.
  2. Under the published service, select Routes from the side navigation bar.
  3. Select your target route, for example, get-ip.
  4. In the Plugin field, click Enable Plugin.
  5. Search for the jwt-auth plugin, then click Enable.
  6. In the dialog box do the following:

  • Add the following configuration to the JSON Editor:

    {
    }

  • Click Enable.

Expose JWT Signing Endpoint​

This is a preliminary step to expose the JWT signing endpoint in API7 Enterprise. If you are using symmetric algorithms such as HS256 (default) or HS512 where API7 Enterprise will be both the JWT issuer and validator, this step is mandatory. If you are using asymmetric algorithms such as RS256 or ES256, this step is optional as the issuer and validator can be different parties.

The jwt-auth plugin creates an internal endpoint at /apisix/plugin/jwt/sign to sign JWT. Expose the endpoint with the Public API Plugin:

  1. Add a published service named jwt-auth-api, and a route with name jwt-auth-api and path /api7/plugin/jwt/sign
  2. Select Plugins from the side navigation bar, then click Enable Plugin.
  3. Search for the public-api plugin, then click Enable.
  4. In the dialog box do the following:

  • Add an empty configuration to the JSON Editor:

    {
    }

  • Click Enable.

Validate JWT Authentication​

Create a consumer with JWT credentials by following configure JWT authentication credentials.

Follow the steps below to validate the JWT authentication.

  1. Send a request without the credential:
curl -i "http://127.0.0.1:9080/ip"

Since the credential is not provided, you will receive an HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized response with the following request body:

{"message":"Missing authorization in request"}
  1. Get JWT token with key from the consumer's JWT credential:
jwt_token=$(curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:9080/apisix/plugin/jwt/sign?key=john-jwt-key") && echo $jwt_token
  1. Send a request to your API with jwt_token in the header:
curl -i "http://127.0.0.1:9080/ip" -H "Authorization: ${jwt_token}"

With the correct credential in the request, you will receive an HTTP/1.1 200 OK response.

In 30 seconds, the token should expire. Send a request with the same token to verify, you will receive an HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized response with the following request body:

{"message":"failed to verify jwt"}

Enable HMAC Authentication for APIs​

For a Service​

To use HMAC authentication for all routes in a service, enable the HMAC Auth Plugin on the service.

  1. Select Published Services of your gateway group from the side navigation bar, then select the service you want to modify, for example, httpbin with version 1.0.0.
  2. Select Plugins from the side navigation bar, then click Enable Plugin.
  3. Search for the hmac-auth plugin, then click Enable.
  4. In the dialog box do the following:

  • Add the following configuration to the JSON Editor:

    {
    }

  • Click Enable.

For a Single Route​

To use HMAC authentication for a specific route, enable the HMAC Auth Plugin on the route instead of the service.

  1. Select Published Services of your gateway group from the side navigation bar, then select the service you want to modify, for example, httpbin with version 1.0.0.
  2. Under the published service, select Routes from the side navigation bar.
  3. Select your target route, for example, get-ip.
  4. In the Plugin field, click Enable Plugin.
  5. Search for the hmac-auth plugin, then click Enable.
  6. In the dialog box do the following:

  • Add the following configuration to the JSON Editor:

    {
    }

  • Click Enable.

Validate HMAC Authentication​

Create a consumer with HMAC credentials by following configure HMAC authentication credentials.

Follow the steps below to validate the HMAC authentication.

  1. Generate a signature

You can use the below Python snippet or other stack of your choice:

hmac-sig-header-gen.py
import hmac
import hashlib
import base64
from datetime import datetime, timezone
key_id = "john-key"                # key id
secret_key = b"john-hmac-key"      # secret key
request_method = "GET"             # HTTP method
request_path = "/headers"          # route URI
algorithm= "hmac-sha256"           # can use other algorithms in allowed_algorithms
# get current datetime in GMT
# note: the signature will become invalid after the clock skew (default 300s)
# you can regenerate the signature after it becomes invalid, or increase the clock
# skew to prolong the validity within the advised security boundary
gmt_time = datetime.now(timezone.utc).strftime('%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S GMT')
# construct the signing string (ordered)
# the date and any subsequent custom headers should be lowercased and separated by a
# single space character, i.e. `<key>:<space><value>`
# https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-cavage-http-signatures-12#section-2.1.6
signing_string = (
  f"{key_id}\n"
  f"{request_method} {request_path}\n"
  f"date: {gmt_time}\n"
)

# create signature
signature = hmac.new(secret_key, signing_string.encode('utf-8'), hashlib.sha256).digest()
signature_base64 = base64.b64encode(signature).decode('utf-8')

# construct the request headers
headers = {
  "Date": gmt_time,
  "Authorization": (
    f'Signature keyId="{key_id}",algorithm="{algorithm}",'
    f'headers="@request-target date",'
    f'signature="{signature_base64}"'
  )
}

# print headers
print(headers)

Run the Script:

python3 hmac-sig-header-gen.py
  1. Send a request without the headers:
curl -i "http://127.0.0.1:9080/ip"

Since the credential is not provided, you will receive an HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized response with the following request body:

{"message":"Missing authorization in request"}
  1. Send a request to your API with the headers:
curl -X GET "http://127.0.0.1:9080/ip" \
  -H "Date: Fri, 06 Sep 2024 06:41:29 GMT" \
  -H 'Authorization: Signature keyId="alice-keyid",algorithm="hmac-sha256",headers="@request-target date",signature="wWfKQvPDr0wHQ4IHdluB4IzeNZcj0bGJs2wvoCOT5rM="'

With the correct credential in the request, you will receive an HTTP/1.1 200 OK response similar to the following:

{
  "headers":{
    "Accept": "*/*",
    "Authorization": "Signature keyId=\"john-key\",aigorithm=\'hmac-sha256\",headers=\"@reques
    t-target date\", signature=\'HtQm1m8kGvnVlztZ59)XokweovFqQN04Ui6P6NfzjRr4=\'"
    "Date": "Tue, 24 Sep 2024 10:28:41 GMT",
    "Host": "127.0.0.1",
    "User-Agent":"curl/8.7.1",
    "X-Amzn-Trace-Id": "Root=1-66f29481-7355340a05778cbb21e9b25a",
    "X-Consumer-Username": "John",
    "X-Credential-Identifier": "4130bb4a-0fdc-461d-be8d-2bba8a1e36dc",
    "X-Forwarded-Host": "127.0.0.1"
}
}

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