Configuring Custom Authentication using JWT Token (Json Web Token)

[Charlotte]

Hello, I am trying to integrate Dspace 7 into my web portal but am stuck at the authentication customisation. My web portal uses a JWT Bearer Token for authentication verification and I am not sure if the same JWT bearer token can be used for Dspace. 

Is there any guides regarding Dspace custom authentication using JWT bearer Token? 

TLDR

• Current web portal uses bearer token for authentication but has different claims compared to Dspace

• Idea is to Implement custom dspace auth to call dspace from own web portal

• Existing token can be validated in the portal ui

Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful

[Michael Plate]

Hi Charlotte,

Am 01.09.21 um 10:47 schrieb Charlotte:

> Hello, I am trying to integrate Dspace 7 into my web portal but am stuck
> at the authentication customisation. My web portal uses a JWT Bearer
> Token for authentication verification and I am not sure if the same JWT
> bearer token can be used for Dspace.
> Is there any guides regarding Dspace custom authentication using JWT
> bearer Token?

[…]

I had the same idea with an external service, but unfortunately the JWT
is not signed (this is enough for my service, a valid / signed and
unexpired token), so you have to verify it back on "/api/authn/status"
of DSpace - this is theory, I will give it a try in the next weeks, but
I'm keen to know your progress :) .

https://github.com/DSpace/RestContract/blob/main/authentication.md

Since X-mas is nearly there…
Couldn't we have a signed token ?
Couldn't we have OAUTH integration anyway :) ?

CU

Michael

[Charlotte]

Hello Micheal,

I was looking into the existing Dspace Authentication plugins and realised that to have a customisation authentication, we would have to extend the `AuthenticationMethod` here

I saw that link before but I am not sure how I could use that since my portal uses a different type of token with different claims.

This is the current json web token structure used for Dspace.

Since my portal uses b2c OpenID connect to get a bearer token, not sure how to integrate such that Dspace would accept my portal's token. 

[Charlotte]

I am quite unfamiliar with this but currently I have two ideas (But unsure if it would match my usecase)
1. Extend the `AuthenticationMethod` in the backend and implement another way to login without a username and password

2. Change the current json web token structure accepted by Dspace to match the same token structure as the one done by portal. My web portal would handle the authorisation on its end