Hutmann - a Scala/Play library for OAuth2 authentication

This library provides support for using OAuth2 for authentication, mainly for backends, that use the Play framework (2.4). Additionally, it brings some support for logging and flow ids that can be used to follow requests through several microservices. It should not require much setup before using it - see Configuration for more details.

The name stems from the german mining term Hutmann, who was responsible to make sure that no unauthorized person drove into the pit.

Features

• OAuth2 handling for backend services
• Extended logging functionality
• Flow ID handling

Key concepts

We tried to minimize the needed user setup if you want to have a working minimal solution. There is a special play Action that you can use to mark services that require authentication, so places that have beforehand been like

import org.zalando.hutmann.authentication.OAuth2Action
import play.api.mvc._
import play.api.mvc.Results._

  def heartbeat = Action {
    Ok("<3")
  }

become

import scala.concurrent.ExecutionContext
import play.api.libs.ws.WSClient
import play.api.Configuration

//these come from the application normally
implicit val ws: WSClient = null
implicit val config: Configuration = null
import scala.concurrent.ExecutionContext.Implicits.global

  def heartbeat = OAuth2Action()(implicitly[ExecutionContext], implicitly[WSClient], implicitly[Configuration]) { 
    Ok("<3")
  }

and it automatically makes sure that requests to that route have a valid authentication token - although most probably, you won't make your heartbeat endpoint secured.

Related projects / Why this one?

tell something about the other frameworks etc

Getting started

Perquisites and dependencies

The library currently only works with Play 2.4. It depends on its JSON and WS libraries, which your project must bring.

Getting it

Versioning follows the Play version number it works with. 2.4.x therefore is a version that works with Play 2.4, 2.5.x (if any) works with Play 2.5.

libraryDependencies += "org.zalando" %% "hutmann" % "2.5.1"

Configuring

If you are a user of the Zalando OAuth2 infrastructure, you don't need to configure anything. The following configuration keys may be interesting though:

org.zalando.hutmann.authentication.oauth2: {
  tokenInfoUrl: "https://info.services.auth.zalando.com/oauth2/tokeninfo"
  tokenQueryParam: "access_token"
}

Feature explanation and their usage

OAuth2Action

The OAuth2Action is used to secure your backend endpoints. It is made to return simple error messages, but you are free to extend the implementation if you need it by simply subclassing the Action. Besides the simple usage example that you already found above, this is a more elaborate example:

import org.zalando.hutmann.authentication.Filters._
def heartbeat = OAuth2Action(scope("myservice.read"))(implicitly[ExecutionContext], implicitly[WSClient], implicitly[Configuration]) {
  Ok("<3")
}

will only allow the users with scope myservice.read, and only if he has a valid access token, while

def heartbeat = OAuth2Action(isEmployee)(implicitly[ExecutionContext], implicitly[WSClient], implicitly[Configuration]) {
  Ok("<3")
}

will check if the token is from realm "/employees" and has a scope "uid" property set.

In both cases, the body of the action will only get called when the user may access it, and error responses are generated accordingly. If you do not want this behaviour, but care yourself for the handling, you have two possibilities:

• You can extend OAuth2Action in your project and override def autoRejectBehaviour, which allows you to specify in which case you want you want what behaviour. This is the recommended approach.
• You can set autoReject = false as a parameter, and have a look at the request property user which is either a user, or an AuthorizationProblem. This is basically "doing everything by hand".

The default timeout for contacting the server is 1 second, a request will be repeated once in case a timeout occurs, with circuit breakers applied.

Create own authorization / using your own servers

You can do so by subclassing OAuth2Action and override def validateToken.

How to mock values in tests?

Just create this in your project:

import scala.concurrent.duration._
import scala.concurrent.Future
import com.typesafe.config.Config

import org.zalando.hutmann.authentication._
trait Auth {
  def authAction(
      filter:     User => Future[Boolean] = { user: User => Future.successful(true) },
      autoReject: Boolean                 = true,
      requestTimeout: Duration            = 1.second
    )(implicit config: Config, ec: ExecutionContext, ws: WSClient): OAuth2Action =
      new OAuth2Action(filter, autoReject, requestTimeout)
}
trait FakeAuth extends Auth {
  val userResult: Either[AuthorizationProblem, User]
  override def authAction(
      filter:     User => Future[Boolean] = { user: User => Future.successful(true) },
      autoReject: Boolean                 = true,
      requestTimeout: Duration            = 1.second
    )(implicit config: Config, ec: ExecutionContext, ws: WSClient): OAuth2Action =
      new OAuth2Action(filter, autoReject, requestTimeout) {
        override def transform[A](request: Request[A]): Future[UserRequest[A]] =
          Future.successful(new UserRequest(userResult, request)(request))
      }
}

You now only need to mix in Auth in your controller, and FakeAuth in your controller in your tests, additionally provide the result you'd like to have in the FakeAuth.

How to respond with custom responses for 401, 403 and 504 cases?

Extend OAuth2Action and override autoRejectBehaviour. You can copy the initial implementation and adjust for your needs.

Filters

Play filters are used to run right after the routing and before invoking the action. This makes them particularly useful for cases like

• Logging request information (headers and response codes)
• Adding flow information (flow ids) to the requests

Refer to the Play documentation on how to add filters to your project.

LoggingFilter

This one is used to log headers (including flow ids) and response codes of your requests, as well as the duration between an incoming request and the outgoing response.

FlowIdFilter

What is a Flow ID? A flow id is a specific header that a service consumes and sends to all connected services that are called from the same flow. This flow id shall additionally be added to all log entries of your services. This way, you can track your requests through your microservice infrastructure.

The FlowIdFilter inspects the requests that come in if they have a flow id and - depending on the configuration - either adds one if it there is none, or rejects the request.

More logging

You can use the integrated logger in your projects as well, and benefit from the automatic context evaluation that will take care that you have your flow ids in every log entry.

import org.zalando.hutmann.logging._
import play.api.libs.json._

object MyController extends Controller {
  def doSomething(implicit context: Context): Unit = {
    Logger.warn("watch out!")
  }

  def createSession: Action[JsValue] = OAuth2Action()(implicitly[ExecutionContext], implicitly[WSClient], implicitly[Configuration])(parse.tolerantJson) { request =>
    implicit val context: Context = request //there is an implicit conversion for the request
    doSomething
    Logger.info("some message")
    Created
  }
}

MyController.createSession(FakeRequest().withJsonBody(Json.obj()))

09:52:00.578 [pool-1-thread-1-ScalaTest-running-LoggerDemo] WARN application - watch out! - 1ms/TheSourceFile.scala:15/THEFLOWID
09:52:00.578 [pool-1-thread-1-ScalaTest-running-LoggerDemo] INFO application - some message - 1ms/TheSourceFile.scala:20/THEFLOWID

will automatically log the passed time since the beginning of the flow (creation of the context), the flow id, and the source code line where the log event was created.