ASP.NET MVC and Ubisecure SSO integration with OpenID Connect

Introduction

This is a sample ASP.NET MVC application to illustrate integration with OpenID Connect Auhthorization Code flow.

The AspNetCoreSample project has a version for ASP.NET Core.

Configuration

An OpenID Connect Client needs to be configured with information about the OpenID Connect Provider and client credentials. This sample app puts these configuration items into web.config file as AppSettings keys:

• issuer - name of OpenID Connect Provider
• client_id and client_secret - client credentials registered with OpenID Connect Provider
• redirect_uri - this value must match deployment and is registered with OpenID Connect Provider

Code review

This is a simplified ASP.NET MVC web app. Only the minimum required files are included. Most important being

• App_Start/Startup.Auth.cs
• Controllers/HomeController.cs
• Views/Home/Index.cshtml

Startup.Auth.cs

Purpose of this class is to setup authentication related middleware.

This enables generic ASP.NET MVC cookie based session tracking.

            app.SetDefaultSignInAsAuthenticationType(CookieAuthenticationDefaults.AuthenticationType);

            app.UseCookieAuthentication(new CookieAuthenticationOptions());

Next code sets up the OpenID Connect middleware. I'm reading settings from web.config and assiging values to OpenIdConnectAuthenticationOptions properties.

• ResponseType = "code" lets me use Authorization Code Flow
• ResponseMode = null defaults to query, which tells provider to use HTTP GET method when redirecting back
• Scope = "openid" enables OpenID Connect. Add more scope values if you need access to more services
• RedeemCode = true makes sure OpenID Connect middleware performs Authorization Code Flow

            var redirectUri = new Uri(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("redirect_uri"));
            var openIdConnectOptions = new OpenIdConnectAuthenticationOptions
            {
                Authority = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("issuer"),
                ClientId = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("client_id"),
                ClientSecret = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get("client_secret"),
                ResponseType = "code", // authorization code flow
                ResponseMode = null, // leave undefined, defaults to query
                Scope = "openid", // enables openid connect
                RedirectUri = redirectUri.OriginalString,
                RedeemCode = true, // authorization code flow
            };

The following is a workaround for aspnet/AspNetKatana#386. Please remove if your app is always deployed to encrypted https host, as this issue only occurs when running on plain http host.

The Visual Studio project of this sample app is setup to run on http://localhost:52834/ which is fine for a development experience but needs this workaround.

            // the following is a workaround for https://github.com/aspnet/AspNetKatana/issues/386
            // make sure to only enable when running on localhost without https
            if (!"https".Equals(redirectUri.Scheme) && redirectUri.IsLoopback)
            {
                openIdConnectOptions.ProtocolValidator = new OpenIdConnectProtocolValidator
                {
                    RequireStateValidation = false,
                    RequireNonce = false,
                };
            }

This final piece injects OpenID Connect middleware into the pipeline of the ASP.NET MVC app.

            app.UseOpenIdConnectAuthentication(openIdConnectOptions);

HomeController.cs

HomeController has a single operation that sets the model to current user. [Authorize] tag tells the ASP.NET middleware that access to this controller requires authentication.

    [Authorize]
    public class HomeController : Controller
    {
        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            return View(User as ClaimsPrincipal);
        }
    }

Index.cshtml

The following generates a simple html list showing all claims received from OpenID Connect provider

@model System.Security.Claims.ClaimsPrincipal

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>
<body>
    <h1>Welcome</h1>
    <dl>
        @foreach (var claim in Model.Claims)
        {
            <dt><b>@claim.Type</b></dt>
            <dd><i>@claim.Value</i></dd>
        }
    </dl>
</body>
</html>

Launching

Load the project into Visual Studio 2019 and run. The web.config file is ready configured to access Ubisecure SSO at https://login.example.ubidemo.com/uas.

This app is also deployed live on https://ubi-aspnet-mvc-sample.azurewebsites.net.

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