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Version: 4.0

Use Keycloak as OAuth 2.0 server

This guide explains how to set up OAuth 2.0 for RabbitMQ and Keycloak as Authorization Server using the following flows:

  • Access management UI via a browser
  • Access management HTTP API
  • Application authentication and authorization

Prerequisites to follow this guide​

  • Docker
  • make
  • A local clone of a GitHub repository that contains all the configuration files and scripts used on this example

Deploy Keycloak​

  1. First, deploy Keycloak. It comes preconfigured with all the required scopes, users and clients.

  2. Run the following command to start Keycloak server:

    make start-keycloak

There is a dedicated Keycloak realm called Test configured as follows:

  • A rsa signing key
  • A rsa provider
  • Three clients: rabbitmq-client-code for the rabbitmq management UI, mgt_api_client to access via the management api and producer to access via AMQP protocol.

Start RabbitMQ​

Run the command below to start RabbitMQ configured with the Keycloak server we started in the previous section: This is the rabbitmq.conf used for Keycloak.

export MODE=keycloak
make start-rabbitmq

Access Management api​

To access the management api run the following command. It uses the client mgt_api_client which has the scope rabbitmq.tag:administrator.

make curl-keycloak url=http://localhost:15672/api/overview client_id=mgt_api_client secret=LWOuYqJ8gjKg3D2U8CJZDuID3KiRZVDa

Application authentication and authorization with PerfTest​

To test OAuth 2.0 authentication with AMQP protocol you are going to use RabbitMQ PerfTest tool which uses RabbitMQ Java Client.

First you obtain the token and pass it as a parameter to the make target start-perftest-producer-with-token.

make start-perftest-producer-with-token PRODUCER=producer TOKEN=$(bin/keycloak/token producer kbOFBXI9tANgKUq8vXHLhT6YhbivgXxn)

NOTE: Initializing an application with a token has one drawback: the application cannot use the connection beyond the lifespan of the token. See the next section where you demonstrate how to refresh the token.

Application authentication and authorization with Pika​

In the following information, OAuth 2.0 authentication is tested with the AMQP protocol and the Pika library. These tests specifically demonstrate how to refresh a token on a live AMQP connection.

The sample Python application can be found on GitHub.

To run this sample code proceed as follows:

python3 --version
pip install pika
pip install requests
python3 pika-client/producer.py producer kbOFBXI9tANgKUq8vXHLhT6YhbivgXxn

Note: Ensure you install pika 1.3

Access management UI​

  1. Go to http://localhost:15672.
  2. Click on the single button on the page which redirects to Keycloak to authenticate.
  3. Enter rabbit_admin and rabbit_admin and you should be redirected back to RabbitMQ Management fully logged in.

Stop keycloak​

make stop-keycloak

Notes about setting up Keycloak​

Configure Client​

For backend applications which uses Client Credentials flow, you can create a Client with:

  • Access Type : public
  • Turn off Standard Flow, Implicit Flow, and Direct Access Grants
  • With Service Accounts Enabled on. If it is not enabled you do not have the tab Credentials
  • In the Credentials tab, you have the client id

Configure Client scopes​

Default Client Scope are scopes automatically granted to every token. Whereas Optional Client Scope are scopes which are only granted if they are explicitly requested during the authorization/token request flow.

Include appropriate aud claim​

You must configure a Token Mapper of type Hardcoded claim with the value of rabbitmq's resource_server_id*. You can configure Token Mapper either to a Client scope or to a Client.