Box Authenticator Plug-in

This project provides an opens source Box Authenticator plug-in for the Curity Identity Server. This allows an administrator to add functionality to Curity which will then enable end users to login using their Box credentials. The app that integrates with Curity may also be configured to receive the Box access token and refresh token, allowing it to manage resources in a Box enterprise.

System Requirements

• Curity Identity Server and its system requirements

Requirements for Building from Source

• Maven 3
• Java SDK 17

Compiling the Plug-in from Source

The source is very easy to compile. To do so from a shell, issue this command: mvn package.

Installation

To install this plug-in, either download a binary version available from the releases section of this project's GitHub repository or compile it from source (as described above). If you compiled the plug-in from source, the package will be placed in the target subdirectory. The resulting JAR file or the one downloaded from GitHub needs to placed in the directory ${IDSVR_HOME}/usr/share/plugins/box. (The name of the last directory, box, which is the plug-in group, is arbitrary and can be anything.) After doing so, the plug-in will become available as soon as the node is restarted.

Note

The JAR file needs to be deployed to each run-time node and the admin node. For simple test deployments where the admin node is a run-time node, the JAR file only needs to be copied to one location.

For a more detailed explanation of installing plug-ins, refer to the Curity developer guide.

Creating an App in Box

As described in the Box documentation, you can create different kinds of apps that use the Box APIs. When using this plug-in, create a new Enterprise Integration, as shown in the following figure:

Creating a new Box Enterprise Integration application

The authentication method, as shown in the following figure, should be Standard OAuth 2.0 (User Authentication):

Selecting to authenticate users in the new app

Then, give the app a name, e.g., Curity-Enterprise-Integration-App.

When you view the app's configuration after creating it, you'll find the Client ID and Client Secret. These will be needed later when configuring the plug-in in Curity.

Box will also display the redirect URI in the new app's configuration. This needs to match the yet-to-be-created Box authenticator instance in Curity. The default will not work, and, if used, will result in an error. This should be updated to some URL that follows the pattern $baseUrl/$authenticationEndpointPath/$boxAuthnticatorId/callback, where each of these URI components has the following meaning:

URI Component	Meaning
baseUrl	The base URL of the server (defined on the System --> General page of the admin GUI). If this value is not set, then the server scheme, name, and port should be used (e.g., https://localhost:8443).
authenticationEndpointPath	The path of the authentication endpoint. In the admin GUI, this is located in the authentication profile's Endpoints tab for the endpoint that has the type auth-authentication.
boxAuthenticatorId	This is the name given to the Box authenticator when defining it (e.g., box1).

Once the redirect URI is updated, the only thing left is to configure scopes. You need to configure at least one scope Manage User.

It could be helpful to also enable additional scopes. Scopes are the Box-related rights or permissions that the app is requesting. If the final application (not Curity, but the downstream app) is going to perform actions using the Box API, additional scopes probably should be enabled. Refer to the Box documentation on scopes for an explanation of those that can be enabled and what they allow.

Warning

If the app configuration in Box does not allow a certain scope (e.g., the Manage Webhooks scope) but that scope is enabled in the authenticator in Curity, a server error will result. For this reason, it is important to align these two configurations or not to define any when configuring the plug-in in Curity.

Creating a Box Authenticator in Curity

The easiest way to configure a new Box authenticator is using the Curity admin UI. The configuration for this can be downloaded as XML or CLI commands later, so only the steps to do this in the GUI will be described.

1. Go to the Authenticators page of the authentication profile wherein the authenticator instance should be created.

2. Click the New Authenticator button.

3. Enter a name (e.g., box1). This name needs to match the URI component in the callback URI set in the Box app.

4. For the type, pick the Box option:

   

5. On the next page, you can define all of the standard authenticator configuration options like any previous authenticator that should run, the resulting ACR, transformers that should executed, etc. At the bottom of the configuration page, the Box-specific options can be found.

   Note

   The Box-specific configuration is generated dynamically based on the configuration model defined in the Java interface.

6. Certain required and optional configuration settings may be provided. One of these is the HTTP Client setting. This is the HTTP client that will be used to communicate with the Box OAuth server's token and user info endpoints. To define this, do the following:

   1. click the Facilities button at the top-right of the screen.

   2. Next to HTTP, click New.

   3. Enter some name (e.g., boxClient).

   4. Toggle on the Use Truststore option and click Apply.

      

7. Back in the Box authenticator instance that you started to define, select the new HTTP client from the dropdown.

   

8. Also in the Facilities view, you probably need to add the intermediary Certificate Authority (CA) used to sign the SSL certificate on Box's token and user info endpoints. (You'll get a server error and find a PKIX-related message in the server log when attempting to login with the Box authenticator if this is necessary.) To do this, perform the following steps:

   1. Click Facilities.

   2. Next to Server Trust Stores, click New.

   3. Enter the text of the intermediary CA and give it a name (e.g., Box_Intermediate_CA). Currently, the certificate of this CA is this:

      -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
      MIIDVDCCAjygAwIBAgIDAjRWMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBBQUAMEIxCzAJBgNVBAYTAlVT
      MRYwFAYDVQQKEw1HZW9UcnVzdCBJbmMuMRswGQYDVQQDExJHZW9UcnVzdCBHbG9i
      YWwgQ0EwHhcNMDIwNTIxMDQwMDAwWhcNMjIwNTIxMDQwMDAwWjBCMQswCQYDVQQG
      EwJVUzEWMBQGA1UEChMNR2VvVHJ1c3QgSW5jLjEbMBkGA1UEAxMSR2VvVHJ1c3Qg
      R2xvYmFsIENBMIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEA2swYYzD9
      9BcjGlZ+W988bDjkcbd4kdS8odhM+KhDtgPpTSEHCIjaWC9mOSm9BXiLnTjoBbdq
      fnGk5sRgprDvgOSJKA+eJdbtg/OtppHHmMlCGDUUna2YRpIuT8rxh0PBFpVXLVDv
      iS2Aelet8u5fa9IAjbkU+BQVNdnARqN7csiRv8lVK83Qlz6cJmTM386DGXHKTubU
      1XupGc1V3sjs0l44U+VcT4wt/lAjNvxm5suOpDkZALeVAjmRCw7+OC7RHQWa9k0+
      bw8HHa8sHo9gOeL6NlMTOdReJivbPagUvTLrGAMoUgRx5aszPeE4uwc2hGKceeoW
      MPRfwCvocWvk+QIDAQABo1MwUTAPBgNVHRMBAf8EBTADAQH/MB0GA1UdDgQWBBTA
      ephojYn7qwVkDBF9qn1luMrMTjAfBgNVHSMEGDAWgBTAephojYn7qwVkDBF9qn1l
      uMrMTjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFAAOCAQEANeMpauUvXVSOKVCUn5kaFOSPeCpilKIn
      Z57QzxpeR+nBsqTP3UEaBU6bS+5Kb1VSsyShNwrrZHYqLizz/Tt1kL/6cdjHPTfS
      tQWVYrmm3ok9Nns4d0iXrKYgjy6myQzCsplFAMfOEVEiIuCl6rYVSAlk6l5PdPcF
      PseKUgzbFbS9bZvlxrFUaKnjaZC2mqUPuLk/IH2uSrW4nOQdtqvmlKXBx4Ot2/Un
      hw4EbNX/3aBd7YdStysVAq45pmp06drE57xNNB6pXE0zX5IJL4hmXXeXxx12E6nV
      5fEWCRE11azbJHFwLJhWC9kXtNHjUStedejV0NxPNO3CBWaAocvmMw==
      -----END CERTIFICATE-----
      

   4. If you have downloaded it, browse to the file. In any case, click the Add button.

9. In the Client ID textfield, enter the client ID from the Box app configuration. This is the auto-generated ID that was shown after picking the app type and authentication method.

10. Also enter the matching Client Secret.

11. If you have enabled any scopes or wish to limit the scopes that Curity will request of Box, toggle on the desired scopes (e.g., Enterprise Properties or Manage Groups).

Once all of these changes are made, they will be staged, but not committed (i.e., not running). To make them active, click the Commit menu option in the Changes menu. Optionally enter a comment in the Deploy Changes dialogue and click OK.

Once the configuration is committed and running, the authenticator can be used like any other.

Passing Box's Tokens Downstream

When using the Box authenticator together with an OpenID Connect Relying Party app (i.e., a client), it can be helpful to pass along Box's access token and refresh token. This will allow the app to make calls to Box's APIs. To do this, a custom procedure has to be created that relays the tokens; otherwise, they'll be dropped. To do this, follow these steps in the OAuth profile that is associated with the authentication profile where the Box authenticator was defined:

1. Click on Endpoints.

2. Find the one of type oauth-authorize and select a procedure from the Authorize Authorization Code dropdown.

3. Click the Edit button.

4. In the script editor that opens, enter the following script:

   function result(context) {
       var authorizationCodeData = context.getDefaultAuthorizationCodeData();
       var contextAttributes = context.contextAttributes();
   
       authorizationCodeData.box_access_token = contextAttributes.box_access_token;
       authorizationCodeData.box_refresh_token = contextAttributes.box_refresh_token;
   
       var issuedAuthorizationCode = context.authorizationCodeIssuer.issue(authorizationCodeData);
   
       return {
           code: issuedAuthorizationCode,
           state: context.providedState
       };
   }

   In this script, the context attributes are retrieved. These are the ones that the plug-in adds. From these, the Box access and refresh tokens are stored with the nonce that the Curity OAuth server issues.

5. When this code is redeemed, these will be available in the context of subsequent scripts that run. For instance, if a downstream app is integrating with Curity using the code flow, then the Token Authorization Code procedure on the oauth-token endpoint should be customized. This procedure may pass on Box's tokens to the client in the ID token (if the app is allowed to use the openid scope and OpenID Connect is enabled in the profile) and/or to the API in the access token. The following script passes on Box's tokens to both the app and the back-end API:

   function result(context) {
       var delegationData = context.getDefaultDelegationData();
       var nonceData = context.presentedNonce.data
   
       var issuedDelegation = context.delegationIssuer.issue(delegationData);
       var accessTokenData = context.getDefaultAccessTokenData();
   
       accessTokenData.box_access_token = nonceData.box_access_token;
       accessTokenData.box_refresh_token = nonceData.box_refresh_token
   
       var issuedAccessToken = context.accessTokenIssuer.issue(accessTokenData, issuedDelegation);
   
       var refreshTokenData = context.getDefaultRefreshTokenData();
       var issuedRefreshToken = context.refreshTokenIssuer.issue(refreshTokenData, issuedDelegation);
   
       var responseData = {
           access_token: issuedAccessToken,
           refresh_token: issuedRefreshToken,
           token_type: 'bearer',
           expires_in: secondsUntil(accessTokenData.exp)
       };
   
       if (context.scopeNames.contains('openid')) {
           var idTokenData = context.getDefaultIdTokenData();
           var idTokenIssuer = context.idTokenIssuer;
   
           idTokenData.box_access_token = nonceData.box_access_token;
           idTokenData.box_refresh_token = nonceData.box_refresh_token;
           idTokenData.at_hash = idTokenIssuer.atHash(issuedAccessToken);
   
           responseData.id_token = idTokenIssuer.issue(idTokenData);
       }
   
       return responseData;
   }

   Here, the context object has a property called presentedNonce. This is the authorization code presented to Curity's token endpoint. The Box tokens were associated with this by the previous procedure. These are added to the accessTokenData that is the input of the accessTokenIssuer. This will mean that Curity's access token (whether it is a JWT or an opaque GUID) will include Box's. This will allow the back-end APIs to call Box's APIs. Box's tokens are also included in the idTokenData that is used when issuing an ID token to the app.

License

This plugin and its associated documentation is listed under the Apache 2 license.

More Information

Please visit curity.io for more information about the Curity Identity Server.

Copyright (C) 2017 Curity AB.