feat: opt-in M2M bearer-token authentication (supersedes #93) (#140)

* docs: bearer-token auth design spec

* docs: harden bearer-auth spec with security review findings

* feat(bearer): opt-in M2M bearer-token authentication

Adds an opt-in Authorization: Bearer <jwt> path for machine-to-machine
clients. Replaces and supersedes the broken approach in PR #93
(synthetic-session that omitted user_identifier and skipped ID-token
rejection / replay-protection-semantics / kid-pinning / etc.).

Design

  Two auth entrypoints feed one shared post-auth pipeline:

    cookie path  ─┐
                  ├── forwardAuthorized(rw, req, *principal)
    bearer path  ─┘    (roles/groups, header injection, security
                        headers, cookie strip, forward)

  buildPrincipalFromSession and buildPrincipalFromBearerToken produce
  the same `principal` value type. forwardAuthorized is session-agnostic
  and runs the existing post-auth work; processAuthorizedRequest now
  wraps it with the session-specific concerns (backchannel-logout,
  dirty/Save). The cookie path's behaviour is byte-identical to before
  this PR; the existing test suite passes unmodified.

Security hardening baked into the bearer path

  - Audience MANDATORY. Startup fails when EnableBearerAuth=true and
    Audience is empty.
  - BearerIdentifierClaim defaults to "sub"; "email" is rejected at
    startup to avoid the unverified-email spoofing footgun. Cookie
    path's UserIdentifierClaim is unaffected and still defaults to
    "email".
  - ID tokens explicitly rejected via the existing detectTokenType
    helper (nonce, typ=at+jwt, token_use, scope, aud-vs-clientID
    heuristics); belt-and-braces nonce/token_use=id rejection on top.
  - alg pinned to asymmetric allowlist (RS/PS/ES 256/384/512) BEFORE
    JWKS fetch, blocking alg=none and alg=HS* probes from amplifying
    into upstream calls.
  - kid length capped at 256 bytes and charset-restricted before JWKS
    fetch, blocking pathological-kid JWKS amplification.
  - Multi-audience tokens require azp == clientID.
  - iat upper-age bound (MaxTokenAgeSeconds, default 24h) bounds clock-
    manipulation and forever-token abuse.
  - Identifier sanitization: length cap, control-char + bidi-override
    + delimiter (, ; =) rejection.
  - Per-IP failure throttle: configurable threshold/window/penalty;
    returns 429 + Retry-After. Limits offline-guessing-style attacks
    and protects the shared rate-limiter / JWKS endpoint.
  - JTI replay marking suppressed via new internal verifyOpts
    {skipReplayMarking} so the same bearer can be reused until exp;
    the blacklist Get stays active so RevokeToken still terminates a
    bearer token immediately. The existing exported VerifyToken
    interface is unchanged so all mocks continue to work.
  - Cookie wins by default when both bearer and cookie are present
    (safer against browser/extension/proxy bearer injection).
    Operator can flip via BearerOverridesCookie.
  - Authorization header stripped on forward by default; also stripped
    on excluded URLs so the token can't leak into health/metrics
    downstream logs.
  - Optional RFC 7662 introspection via existing
    requireTokenIntrospection. Introspection-endpoint failure returns
    503 (distinguishes infra from token rejection).
  - 401s use RFC 6750 WWW-Authenticate hints (toggleable). Failure
    reason is logged at debug; raw tokens are never logged.

Implementation

  - principal.go: pure-data principal type and buildPrincipalFromSession.
  - bearer_auth.go: alg/kid pin, classifier, identifier sanitization,
    multi-aud azp gate, iat age check, per-IP failure tracker,
    handleBearerRequest, buildPrincipalFromBearerToken.
  - token_manager.go: VerifyToken now wraps a new verifyTokenWithOpts
    that accepts internal-only verifyOpts. Existing callers, the
    TokenVerifier interface, and all mocks unchanged.
  - middleware.go: extracted forwardAuthorized from
    processAuthorizedRequest; wired bearer detection after init wait
    + after bypass; excluded-URL Authorization strip when bearer
    enabled.
  - settings.go: ten new config fields with defaults applied in
    CreateConfig.
  - main.go: startup validation for audience + identifier-claim
    guard; bearer failure tracker init.

Tests

  - bearer_auth_test.go: table-driven helper tests for every new
    component (parseBearerJOSEHeader, sanitizeBearerIdentifier,
    resolveBearerIdentifier, enforceMultiAudienceAzp, enforceIatAge,
    bearerFailureTracker, detectBearerToken). Integration tests
    through ServeHTTP covering happy path, ID-token rejection,
    alg=none rejection, oversized kid, multi-aud with/without azp,
    iat-too-old, bidi identifier, replay (100x reuse), 429 throttle
    trip, excluded-URL strip, roles gate, cookie-wins precedence,
    BearerOverridesCookie, oversized token, malformed JWT,
    feature-off pass-through. Startup validation for audience-
    required and email-identifier-rejected.
  - All existing tests pass unmodified (cookie-path regression).
  - go vet clean. golangci-lint clean (0 issues). Race detector
    clean on bearer tests.

Documentation

  - README.md: bearer auth section with security highlights and
    config snippet; doc link in the index.
  - .traefik.yml: commented config block exposing every bearer knob.
  - docs/CONFIGURATION.md: new subsection with full parameter table.
  - docs/BEARER_AUTH.md: threat model, hardening matrix, failure
    response table, operational guidance, known follow-ups.
  - docs/superpowers/specs/2026-05-18-bearer-token-auth-design.md:
    design spec + security-review hardening history.

* fix(cache): redact raw cache keys in debug logs (CodeQL go/clear-text-logging)

CodeQL flagged 9 high-severity alerts (go/clear-text-logging) where the
in-memory cache and the hybrid L1+L2 backend printed `key=%s` at debug.
Cache callers (token cache, blacklist, introspection cache) pass raw
access / refresh / id tokens as cache keys, so any debug-enabled
deployment would write them to log streams.

Pre-existing issue. CodeQL started flagging it on this PR because the
new bearer-auth path adds a data-flow source (req.Header.Get("Authorization"))
that reaches the existing logging sinks via the same cache. The cookie
path had the same risk but wasn't tracked as taint by CodeQL.

Fix: hash the key (SHA-256[:8] hex) before printing. Same approach the
bearer-auth logger uses for principal identifiers (spec §13). Doesn't
change cache semantics — same key still produces the same hash, so
debug correlation across log lines is preserved without exposing the
raw value.

Touches both affected packages:
  - internal/cache/cache.go (2 sites: Set + LRU eviction)
  - internal/cache/backends/hybrid.go (12 sites: L1/L2 read/write/fallback)

New helper `redactKey` colocated with each package (unexported,
package-local) keeps the change blast radius narrow. Tests green; lint
clean.

* docs(bearer): how to obtain bearer tokens from the OIDC provider

Adds a section walking operators through the OAuth 2.0 client_credentials
flow (RFC 6749 §4.4) and the JWT bearer assertion alternative (RFC 7523),
with a worked Auth0-shape curl example, a per-provider quick reference
(Auth0, Okta, Keycloak, Entra v2, Cognito, GitLab, Google), operational
notes (token TTL, caching, JWKS rotation, revocation, scope vs audience,
secret hygiene), and a three-line validation loop.

Most common operator confusion: "I enabled the feature but tokens get
401'd" — almost always missing or wrong audience. The new section makes
the audience-matching requirement loud, with per-provider parameter
names so people don't have to dig through IdP docs.

Locations:
  - docs/BEARER_AUTH.md  — full section under "Quick start"
  - README.md            — short snippet + deep link
This commit is contained in:
2026-05-18 17:35:37 +01:00
committed by GitHub
parent 8c5df82dcf
commit a548665edb
17 changed files with 2702 additions and 107 deletions
+137 -56
View File
@@ -168,6 +168,14 @@ func (t *TraefikOidc) ServeHTTP(rw http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {
// unauthenticated traffic would silently expose the backend.
if bypass, reason := t.shouldBypassAuth(req); bypass {
t.logger.Debugf("Bypassing OIDC for %s (%s)", req.URL.Path, reason)
// When bearer auth is enabled, strip the Authorization header on
// bypassed paths so a bearer token can't leak into health/metrics/
// public endpoint logs via downstream services that don't expect it.
// Excluded URLs are explicitly public; bearer is an artifact of the
// API auth flow that doesn't belong on them.
if t.enableBearerAuth {
req.Header.Del("Authorization")
}
switch reason {
case bypassReasonExcluded:
// Operator-declared excluded URLs forward unconditionally.
@@ -236,6 +244,24 @@ func (t *TraefikOidc) ServeHTTP(rw http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {
// Bypass checks already ran before the init wait; no need to repeat them.
t.sessionManager.CleanupOldCookies(rw, req)
// Bearer-token auth (opt-in). Runs after init (we need issuer+JWKs+aud
// available) and after bypass (excluded URLs always win). Cookie-vs-
// bearer precedence is configurable; the safe default is cookie-wins.
// See bearer_auth.go for the full pipeline.
if t.enableBearerAuth {
if _, hasBearer := detectBearerToken(req); hasBearer {
cookiePresent := t.hasSessionCookie(req)
if !cookiePresent || t.bearerOverridesCookie {
if cookiePresent {
t.logger.Infof("Both Authorization: Bearer and session cookie present on %s; bearer-wins per BearerOverridesCookie=true", req.URL.Path)
}
t.handleBearerRequest(rw, req)
return
}
t.logger.Infof("Both Authorization: Bearer and session cookie present on %s; cookie-wins (default); bearer ignored", req.URL.Path)
}
}
session, err := t.sessionManager.GetSession(req)
if err != nil {
t.logger.Errorf("Error getting session: %v. Initiating authentication.", err)
@@ -401,10 +427,17 @@ func (t *TraefikOidc) ServeHTTP(rw http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {
t.defaultInitiateAuthentication(rw, req, session, redirectURL)
}
// processAuthorizedRequest processes requests for authenticated users.
// It extracts claims, validates roles/groups if configured, sets authentication headers,
// processes header templates, and forwards the request to the next handler.
// Domain checks should be performed before calling this method.
// processAuthorizedRequest processes requests for authenticated cookie/session
// users. It performs session-specific checks (identifier presence, backchannel-
// logout invalidation, claims extraction with potential re-auth), persists
// dirty session state, then delegates the post-auth pipeline (roles/groups,
// header injection, security headers, cookie strip, forward) to
// forwardAuthorized.
//
// The bearer-token path uses the same forwardAuthorized helper but takes a
// different route to it (see bearer_auth.go). Keeping forwardAuthorized
// session-agnostic is what lets the two auth methods share one pipeline.
//
// Parameters:
// - rw: The HTTP response writer.
// - req: The HTTP request to process.
@@ -442,8 +475,7 @@ func (t *TraefikOidc) processAuthorizedRequest(rw http.ResponseWriter, req *http
// the parsed claims keyed on the raw ID token, so concurrent dashboard
// panel requests on the same session don't repeatedly base64-decode and
// JSON-unmarshal the same JWT (a real cost under the yaegi interpreter
// that hosts Traefik plugins). idClaims is reused below by the
// header-templates branch.
// that hosts Traefik plugins).
idToken := session.GetIDToken()
var (
idClaims map[string]interface{}
@@ -472,18 +504,76 @@ func (t *TraefikOidc) processAuthorizedRequest(rw http.ResponseWriter, req *http
return
}
var groups, roles []string
if groupClaimsErr != nil && len(t.allowedRolesAndGroups) > 0 {
// Claims couldn't be extracted but roles checks are required:
// re-authenticate rather than 403 (session may be salvageable on
// re-issue). Bearer path uses 401 for the equivalent failure.
t.logger.Errorf("Failed to extract claims for roles/groups check: %v", groupClaimsErr)
session.ResetRedirectCount()
t.defaultInitiateAuthentication(rw, req, session, redirectURL)
return
}
if groupClaimsErr == nil && groupClaims != nil {
var err error
groups, roles, err = t.extractGroupsAndRolesFromClaims(groupClaims)
if err != nil && len(t.allowedRolesAndGroups) > 0 {
t.logger.Errorf("Failed to extract groups and roles: %v", err)
session.ResetRedirectCount()
t.defaultInitiateAuthentication(rw, req, session, redirectURL)
// Persist any dirty session state BEFORE forwardAuthorized writes the
// response. Once next.ServeHTTP fires, Set-Cookie can no longer reach
// the client. The forwardAuthorized pipeline does not mutate session
// state, so saving here is safe.
if session.IsDirty() {
if err := session.Save(req, rw); err != nil {
t.logger.Errorf("Failed to save session after processing headers: %v", err)
}
} else {
t.logger.Debug("Session not dirty, skipping save in processAuthorizedRequest")
}
// Build the source-agnostic principal. ID-token claims drive header
// templates and roles when present; otherwise fall back to access-token
// claims (matches prior behavior for opaque-ID-token providers).
p := &principal{
Source: sourceSession,
Identifier: userIdentifier,
AccessToken: session.GetAccessToken(),
IDToken: idToken,
RefreshToken: session.GetRefreshToken(),
Claims: groupClaims,
}
t.forwardAuthorized(rw, req, p)
}
// forwardAuthorized completes the post-authentication pipeline shared by the
// cookie/session path and the bearer-token path. It performs:
//
// 1. Roles/groups extraction from p.Claims (idempotent; existing
// extractGroupsAndRolesFromClaims helper).
// 2. allowedRolesAndGroups gate — writes a 403 and returns if denied.
// 3. Identity-header injection (X-Forwarded-User, X-User-Groups, X-User-Roles,
// plus X-Auth-Request-* when !minimalHeaders).
// 4. Operator-defined header templates.
// 5. Security headers (delegated to t.securityHeadersApplier or fallback).
// 6. OIDC session-cookie strip (stripAuthCookies).
// 7. Authorization header strip on bearer source when stripAuthorizationHeader.
// 8. next.ServeHTTP.
//
// Session persistence is the CALLER's responsibility — it must happen before
// this function so Set-Cookie reaches the response.
func (t *TraefikOidc) forwardAuthorized(rw http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request, p *principal) {
var (
groups, roles []string
extractErr error
)
if p.Claims != nil {
groups, roles, extractErr = t.extractGroupsAndRolesFromClaims(p.Claims)
if extractErr != nil && len(t.allowedRolesAndGroups) > 0 {
// Bearer path: 403 (caller already verified the token; principal
// claims are present but malformed for roles purposes).
// Cookie path can't reach here because processAuthorizedRequest
// catches groupClaimsErr earlier.
t.logger.Errorf("Failed to extract groups and roles: %v", extractErr)
t.sendErrorResponse(rw, req, "Access denied", http.StatusForbidden)
return
}
if err == nil {
if extractErr == nil {
if len(groups) > 0 {
req.Header.Set("X-User-Groups", strings.Join(groups, ","))
}
@@ -502,62 +592,46 @@ func (t *TraefikOidc) processAuthorizedRequest(rw http.ResponseWriter, req *http
}
}
if !allowed {
t.logger.Infof("User %s does not have any allowed roles or groups", userIdentifier)
t.logger.Infof("User %s does not have any allowed roles or groups", p.Identifier)
errorMsg := fmt.Sprintf("Access denied: You do not have any of the allowed roles or groups. To log out, visit: %s", t.logoutURLPath)
t.sendErrorResponse(rw, req, errorMsg, http.StatusForbidden)
return
}
}
req.Header.Set("X-Forwarded-User", userIdentifier)
req.Header.Set("X-Forwarded-User", p.Identifier)
// When minimalHeaders is enabled, skip extra headers to prevent 431 errors
if !t.minimalHeaders {
req.Header.Set("X-Auth-Request-Redirect", req.URL.RequestURI())
req.Header.Set("X-Auth-Request-User", userIdentifier)
if idToken != "" {
req.Header.Set("X-Auth-Request-Token", idToken)
req.Header.Set("X-Auth-Request-User", p.Identifier)
if p.IDToken != "" {
req.Header.Set("X-Auth-Request-Token", p.IDToken)
}
}
if len(t.headerTemplates) > 0 {
if idClaimsErr != nil {
t.logger.Errorf("Failed to extract claims from ID Token for template headers: %v", idClaimsErr)
} else {
// idClaims may be nil when no ID token is present; templates
// referencing .Claims.* will simply produce empty values, which
// matches the prior behavior.
templateData := map[string]interface{}{
"AccessToken": session.GetAccessToken(),
"IDToken": idToken,
"RefreshToken": session.GetRefreshToken(),
"Claims": idClaims,
}
for headerName, tmpl := range t.headerTemplates {
var buf bytes.Buffer
if err := tmpl.Execute(&buf, templateData); err != nil {
t.logger.Errorf("Failed to execute template for header %s: %v", headerName, err)
continue
}
headerValue := buf.String()
req.Header.Set(headerName, headerValue)
t.logger.Debugf("Set templated header %s = %s", headerName, headerValue)
}
// NOTE: templates only mutate request headers (not session state),
// so we deliberately do NOT MarkDirty / Save here. Previously every
// authenticated request with header templates re-encrypted and
// rewrote all session cookies, which was a measurable CPU and
// Set-Cookie tax on dashboards that poll many panels per second.
// p.Claims may be nil (e.g. session without an ID token). Templates
// referencing .Claims.* will simply produce empty values — matches
// the prior behavior. Bearer-source principals always carry access-
// token claims (post-verifyToken).
templateData := map[string]interface{}{
"AccessToken": p.AccessToken,
"IDToken": p.IDToken,
"RefreshToken": p.RefreshToken,
"Claims": p.Claims,
}
}
if session.IsDirty() {
if err := session.Save(req, rw); err != nil {
t.logger.Errorf("Failed to save session after processing headers: %v", err)
for headerName, tmpl := range t.headerTemplates {
var buf bytes.Buffer
if err := tmpl.Execute(&buf, templateData); err != nil {
t.logger.Errorf("Failed to execute template for header %s: %v", headerName, err)
continue
}
headerValue := buf.String()
req.Header.Set(headerName, headerValue)
t.logger.Debugf("Set templated header %s = %s", headerName, headerValue)
}
} else {
t.logger.Debug("Session not dirty, skipping save in processAuthorizedRequest")
}
// Apply security headers if configured
@@ -573,7 +647,7 @@ func (t *TraefikOidc) processAuthorizedRequest(rw http.ResponseWriter, req *http
// Strip OIDC session cookies before forwarding to the backend to prevent
// HTTP 431 "Request Header Fields Too Large" errors (GitHub issue #122).
if t.stripAuthCookies {
if t.stripAuthCookies && t.sessionManager != nil {
prefix := t.sessionManager.GetCookiePrefix()
filtered := make([]*http.Cookie, 0, len(req.Cookies()))
for _, c := range req.Cookies() {
@@ -587,7 +661,14 @@ func (t *TraefikOidc) processAuthorizedRequest(rw http.ResponseWriter, req *http
}
}
t.logger.Debugf("Request authorized for user %s, forwarding to next handler", userIdentifier)
// Bearer source: strip the Authorization header to keep the raw token
// out of downstream service logs. Off-by-config for operators who chain
// services that each re-verify the bearer.
if p.Source == sourceBearer && t.stripAuthorizationHeader {
req.Header.Del("Authorization")
}
t.logger.Debugf("Request authorized for user %s (source=%d), forwarding to next handler", p.Identifier, p.Source)
t.next.ServeHTTP(rw, req)
}