OpenID Connect authentication

OpenID Connect (OIDC) is an authentication protocol that adds an identity layer to the OAuth 2.0 protocol. OIDC allows clients to verify a user’s identity based on the authentication performed by an authorization server. Using the OIDC authentication framework, end users can access multiple applications and websites using their single sign-on credentials.

This article explains how to configure OIDC for a non-embedded ThoughtSpot instance. To learn how to configure OIDC for an embedded ThoughtSpot instance, refer to the Developer documentation.

OIDC concepts and terms

The OIDC authentication involves several entities and concepts.

Relying party

Refers to a client application that supports OAuth 2.0 and relies on an OpenID provider to verify the identity of a user. In this article, the relying party refers to a ThoughtSpot application instance.

OpenID provider

The IDP that supports the OAuth2.0 and OIDC protocols. The OpenID provider is an OAuth 2.0 authorization server that authenticates and verifies a user’s identity. When a relying party sends an authentication request, the OpenID provider returns the authorization code and provides user information through identity (ID) tokens.

End user

The application user who requests access to a resource.

Tokens

In OIDC authentication, ID and access tokens are used to verify a user’s identity before providing access to an application resource.

ID token

The ID token, also known as a JSON web token (JWT), is a security token that allows the client to verify the identity of the user. An ID token consists of claims that provide user information. The OpenID provider issues an ID token when ThoughtSpot sends the authorization code received from the OpenID authorization endpoint.

Access token

The access token is issued when a relying party sends the authorization code received from the authorization endpoint of the OpenID provider. It allows a client application to validate claims and grant access to the resources requested by a user.

Refresh token

A refresh token is a string that a client application can use to obtain a new access token. Refresh tokens renew user sessions with new access tokens without requiring the user to re-authenticate.

Claims

A claim provides user information, such as the first name, last name, username, and so on. Claims consist of user and authentication attributes that define the scope of a user profile, based on which ThoughtSpot can determine the access permissions for a given user.

Scope

A scope is a logical group of claims. The relying party sends the scope attribute in the authentication request to include claims in the ID token. For example, when ThoughtSpot sends an authentication request with the scope attribute set as profile, the ID token will include the claims that constitute a user’s profile.

Authorization endpoint

The OpenID provider endpoint that authenticates a user and grants an authorization code to the relying party.

Token endpoint

The OpenID provider endpoint that returns an ID and access token in exchange for an authorization code. ThoughtSpot sends the authorization code obtained from the authorization server to the token endpoint to obtain an ID and access token.

Userinfo endpoint

The OpenID provider endpoint that returns claims or user information to a client application with a valid access token.

Issuer URL

The Issuer URL allows a client application to discover details such as the OpenID endpoints, supported scopes and claims, and public-keys used in the tokens. ThoughtSpot can retrieve these details dynamically from the issuer URL using the /.well-known/openid-configuration suffix.

Redirect URI

The redirection URI is a callback endpoint to which the OpenID provider must send the authentication response.

OIDC configuration steps

ThoughtSpot supports the Authorization code flow in which an authorization server at the OpenID provider’s end verifies the identity of a ThoughtSpot user and grants authorization code and tokens. This method of authentication and authorization requires ThoughtSpot to obtain the authorization code as well as ID and access tokens, and validate these tokens before granting access to its resource.

The OIDC configuration procedure includes the following steps:

Register ThoughtSpot and set the redirect URI

To register ThoughtSpot as a client in the OpenID provider server:

  1. Sign in to your OpenID provider.

  2. Register your ThoughtSpot instance as a relying party.

  3. Specify the redirect URI to which the OpenID authorization server must send the response.

    For example:

    https://<ThoughtSpot-Host>/callosum/v1/oidc/callback

  4. Define the client authentication method.

    ThoughtSpot supports only the client_secret_post authentication method. It sends client credentials in the request body in its POST requests to the authorization and token endpoints.

After you register ThoughtSpot as a relying party and set the redirect URI, the OpenID provider provides the following information, which you need to send to ThoughtSpot Support later:

  • Client ID

    The client_id string.

  • Client secret

    The client_secret string.

  • Issuer

    The OpenID provider URL from which ThoughtSpot can discover the OpenID provider metadata, such as the authorization, token, user information, and public-keys endpoints, and supported scope and claims.

  • Redirect URI

    The registered redirect URI to which the authorization response will be sent.

Enable OIDC authentication support on ThoughtSpot

You must contact ThoughtSpot Support to enable OIDC authentication support on ThoughtSpot.

To configure ThoughtSpot for OpenID Connect authentication, the following attributes and metadata are required. You must send this information to ThoughtSpot Support.

  • Client ID and client secret

    The OpenID provider generates a client_id and client_secret after you successfully register ThoughtSpot as a relying party. The client_id and client_secret are required parameters in the GET and POST requests sent by ThoughtSpot to the authorization and token endpoints.

  • Authorization, token, and user information endpoints

    For the user authentication process, ThoughtSpot requires the URIs of the authorization, token, and user information endpoints. ThoughtSpot can retrieve this information dynamically from the issuer URL using the /.well-known/openid-configuration endpoint. You can obtain the issuer URL after registering ThoughtSpot as a client in the OpenID provider system.

    https://<issuer-url>/.well-known/openid-configuration

  • Supported scopes

    You can obtain the scope that your OpenID provider supports from the OpenID provider metadata.

    The following scopes are mandatory for OIDC configuration on ThoughtSpot. ThoughtSpot sends the scope attributes in the GET request to the OpenID authorization endpoint.

    • openid

      All OpenID Connect requests must contain the openid scope value.

    • profile

      If the profile scope value is present, the ID token will include the user’s default profile claims.

    • email

      If the email scope value is present, the ID token includes email and email_verified claims.

  • Supported claims

    Claims that your OpenID provider uses. During ID token validation, ThoughtSpot verifies the tokens for the following claims:

    • iss

      The issuer ID of the OpenID provider.

    • aud

      Audience or the intended recipient. This claim must contain the client ID issued for ThoughtSpot by the OpenID provider.

    • exp

      The expiration time for validating the token.

    To update the user profile on the ThoughtSpot cluster, the ID token claims must include the following properties:

  • preferred_username

    Preferred username of the user. It maps to the username attribute in the user profile on ThoughtSpot. To include this claim in the ID token, the scope attribute must be set to profile in the authentication request sent to the authorization endpoint.

  • displayName

    The display name of the user. It maps to the displayname attribute in the user profile on ThoughtSpot. The default value is derived from the name claim attribute.

  • email

    Email address of the user. It maps to the mail attribute in the user profile on ThoughtSpot. To include this claim in the ID token, the scope attribute must be set to email in the authentication request sent to the authorization endpoint.

  • sub

    The unique ID issued for the user at the OpenID provider. Maps to oktauserid attribute on ThoughtSpot.

OIDC authentication workflow

The following figure illustrates the OIDC authentication workflow:

OIDC authentication

The OIDC authentication workflow involves the following steps:

  1. A user requests access to ThoughtSpot.

  2. ThoughtSpot checks for an existing user session in the browser.

  3. If there is no session, it redirects the user to the OpenID authorization endpoint.

  4. The OpenID authorization server returns an authorization code.

  5. ThoughtSpot sends the authorization code with the ThoughtSpot client credentials in a POST request to the OpenID token endpoint.

  6. The token endpoint returns an ID and access token in exchange for the authorization code.

  7. ThoughtSPot validates the ID token and authenticates the user.

  8. If the authentication is successful, the web browser redirects the user to the requested page.

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