PingIDM 7.5.0

Authentication and roles

When a user authenticates, they are given a set of default internal roles. These roles determine how much access the user has to IDM. The default roles can be static roles assigned by definition in authentication.json or dynamic roles assigned by a relationship to the user.

You can configure internal roles using the admin UI or the REST API at the openidm/internal/roles endpoint.

The following internal roles are defined by default:

openidm-admin

IDM administrator role, excluded from the reauthorization required policy definition by default.

openidm-authorized

Default role for any user who authenticates with a username and password.

openidm-cert

Default role for any user who authenticates with mutual SSL authentication.

This role applies only to mutual authentication. The shared secret (certificate) must be adequately protected. The openidm-cert role is excluded from the reauthorization required policy definition by default.

openidm-reg

Assigned to users who access IDM with the default anonymous account.

The openidm-reg role is excluded from the reauthorization required policy definition by default.

openidm-tasks-manager

Role for users who can be assigned to workflow tasks.

platform-provisioning

Role for platform provisioning access. If you are not planning to run AM and IDM together as a platform, you can safely remove this role.

When a user authenticates, IDM calculates that user’s roles as follows:

  • Each authentication module includes a defaultUserRoles property. Depending on how the user authenticates, IDM assigns the roles listed in that module’s defaultUserRoles property to the user on authentication. The defaultUserRoles property is specified as an array. For most authentication modules, the user obtains the openidm-authorized role on authentication. For example:

    {
    "name" : "MANAGED_USER",
    "properties" : {
        ...
        "defaultUserRoles" : [
            "internal/role/openidm-authorized"
        ]
    },
    ...
}

  • The userRoles property in an authentication module maps to an attribute (or list of attributes) in a user entry that contains that user’s authorization roles. This attribute is usually authzRoles, unless you have changed how user roles are stored.

    Any internal roles that are conditionally applied are also calculated and included in the user’s authzRoles property at this point.

  • If the authentication module includes a groupRoleMapping, groupMembership, or groupComparison property, IDM can assign additional roles to the user, depending on the user’s group membership on an external system. For more information, refer to Use Groups to Control Access to IDM.

    The roles calculated in sequence are cumulative. Roles with temporal restrictions are not included in that list if the current time is outside of the time assigned to the role.

Dynamic role calculation

By default, IDM calculates a user’s roles only on authentication. You can configure IDM to recalculate a user’s roles dynamically, with each request, instead of only when the user reauthenticates. To enable this feature, set enableDynamicRoles to true in the JWT_SESSION session module in authentication.json:

To enable dynamic role calculation through the admin UI, click Configure > Authentication > Session > Enable Dynamic Roles.

Dynamic role calculation can be used independently of the privileges mechanism, but is required for privileges to work. For more information about privileges, refer to How Privileges Restrict Administrative Access.

Roles, authentication, and the security context

The Security Context (context.security), consists of a principal (defined by the authenticationId property) and an access control element (defined by the authorization property).

If authentication is successful, the authentication framework sets the principal. IDM stores that principal as the authenticationId.

The authorization property includes an id, an array of roles, and a component, that specifies the resource against which authorization is validated.