2.0 KiB
Authorization flow
Current authorization state is passed around via an opaque session ID in a cookie. This cookie is stored in duplicate: once on the SSO domain and once on the protected domain (for use by RPX's)
Most pages do not have any form of authorization, and simply depend on the cookie. However, in order to log in, more complex flow is necessary.
Login pages are all grouped under /login, which normally serves an HTML form with some additional javascript.
This form includes a hidden field with the page to redirect to.
The JS on /login begins by fetching /login/status via XHR GET.
/login/status returns a JSON response indicating the login state, which is one of:
- VALID: User is fully logged in. User details are attached
- EXPLICIT_LOGOUT: Cookie is set to indicate logged-out state.
- UNKNOWN: No cookie set
- INVALID: Invalid signature on cookie, cookie content invalid, or cookie expired. This also clears the cookie.
If the state is UNKNOWN or INVALID, automatic login is performed.
If the state is EXPLICIT_LOGOUT, the process terminates here.
Otherwise, a login form is displayed.
If automatic login fails, the page simply displays a login form. The user may log in using a username/password, at which point a cookie is set with their details. The user may also submit the form with blank username/password, in which case automatic login is performed.
Automatic login
These steps are performed in sequence, each returning the same data as /login/status.
The process completes when the state is VALID or EXPLICIT_LOGOUT.
- Fetch
/login/krb5via XHR GET. - Fetch
/login/x509via XHR GET.
Upon successful login, a redirect is performed to the page in the hidden field.
API
In addition to the /login endpoint, there exist several other useful endpoints:
/logout: Set cookie to indicate logged-out state/login/status: Fetch a representation of user's info. IfAcceptrequestsapplication/json, this is JSON. Otherwise, this is an HTML page
An OAuth interface is also available on TODO