apikeyserv

This program manages API keys for use by dataservices.

API keys are signed using this service's private key, so accepting services only need this service's public key to confirm their validity, instead of having to communicate with this service or its database.

The API keys are in JWT format so that services that deal with API keys can use existing libraries for decoding them and verifying them against this service's public key.

Setup and running

The easy option:

docker-compose up

For local development, create a virtualenv, only start the database container then point to it in the environment and install dependencies:

docker-compose up -d database
export DATABASE_HOST=localhost
cd server
make install

For the first run, set up a user account and, then issue the following commands to install and start the service:

# docker-compose only
docker-compose exec web bash

cd server  # if not inside web image
pytest .
python manage.py makemigrations apikeys
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser  # Fill out the form
python manage.py runserver  # if not inside web image

Now generate a signing key:

openssl genpkey -algorithm ED25519 -outform PEM

Visit http://localhost:8000/admin/ to add this signing key and start adding API keys. Alternatively, a key can be added by piping the last command's output through a management command:

openssl genpkey -algorithm ED25519 -outform PEM |
    python manage.py addsigningkey /dev/stdin

apikeyserv can manage multiple signing keys to allow for key rotation. Keys can be retired by unchecking their "active" flag.

Managing requirements

This project uses pip-tools and pur to manage the requirements.txt file.

To add a Python dependency to the project:

• Add the dependency to requirements.in or requirements_dev.in
• Run make requirements

To upgrade the project, run::

make upgrade
make install
make test

Or in a single call: make upgrade install test

Django will only be upgraded with patch-level versions. To change from e.g. Django 3.0 to 3.1, update the version in requirements.in yourself.

Deployment

For deployment the database credentials con be configured in the Django settings. The database needs to be initialized with python manage.py migrate (from a running container). A superuser (to access the /admin) can be added with python manage.py createsuperuser.

Client services

This repository contains a client library for talking to apikeyserv. Install it with:

pip install datadiensten-apikeyclient

or:

pip install 'git+https://github.com/Amsterdam/apikeyserv.git#subdirectory=apikeyclient'

Security and privacy

API keys generated by this program do not contain personally identifying information. Instead, they contain a numeric ID that is mapped to a name and email address managed by apikeyserv.

The API keys should not be used to perform authorization checks beyond those that give access to public data. (This means that requests for protected data from DSO-API or other services require two JWTs, one for the API key and one in the Authorization header.) The use of public-key cryptography in this package serves mainly to cut down on communications between the service that stores the keys and applications that consume them, not to provide security.

For secure key distribution to consuming applications, such applications should use a TLS connection to the service.

Local testclient

A bare-bones Django client has been added tot test the Django middleware locally. Assuming that a virtualenv has been created and activated:

cd client
pip install -r requirements.txt
python __init__.py runserver localhost:nnnn  # port not conflicting with api key server

The Django settings variables APIKEY_ENDPOINT and APIKEY_MANDATORY (0 or 1) that are needed for the middleware component can be configured as environment variables.

Copyright 2024 Gemeente Amsterdam. All rights reserved.