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Keycloak Auth Proxy

The Keycloak Auth Proxy provides authentication and authorization for web resources with OpenID Connect/OAuth, that have no build in authentication.

This Auth Proxy Service uses Keycloak Proxy, which is a Java/Undertow solution designed for Keycloak but that should also work with any other solution that supports OpenID/Connect.

How is it working

How reverse auth proxy works

  1. External traffic is directed to the auth proxy. The Auth proxy decides based on it configuration if the destination needs authentication.
  2. The Auth Proxy work together with the IAM (Keycloak) and redirects the user to the IAM so the user can login.
  3. After a successful login the proxy forwards the user to the protected content. According to proxy configuration setting the proxy checks if the user is allowed to access the path.

Use cases

There are two very common use cases why one would use the Keycloak Auth Proxy together with an Identity & Access Management Service (IAM)

  • Protect static websites from unauthorized access, allowing only authenticated users to see the content.
    This is useful in combination with static website generator or other generated documentation.
  • Outsource the authentication/authorization step to Keycloak Auth Proxy and just relay on the forward HTTP headers with username/grants in the upstream application.
    This approach can be handy if you have an application, where there are no OpenID Connect library or if you don't won't perform to many changes in the application.

Usage

The proxy configuration settings can be set with environment variables or with the file proxy.json mounted as a volume to /app/proxy.json.

The intended use is that for every service that needed authentication there is an dedicated auth proxy. Auth proxy can be configured to behave differently but not given the configuration via environment variable.

Environment Variables

Can be used if you want to auth one service.

See the file proxy.tmpl

Variables without default values are mandatory.

  • TARGET_URL The URL to forward the traffic through
  • HTTP_PORT (default 80) The port to bind the Auth Proxy too
  • BASE_PATH (default / )
  • REALM Adapter config realm
  • REALM_PUBLIC_KEYRealm public key
  • AUTH_SERVER_URL The auth server URL
  • RESOURCE (default account) The resource to request aka client id
  • SECRET Credential secret
  • CONSTRAINT_PATH (default /*) You can define multiple path but they must be separated with an ;

Alternatives

Despite the uniqueness of keycloak-auth-proxy there are other project that solve the similar problem differently.