Authentication & Authorization in Gateway Controller¶

Overview¶

The Gateway Controller REST API (the control-plane API used to manage gateway configuration) can be protected using either locally configured users (Basic Auth) or an external Identity Provider (JWT validation via JWKS). Authorization is role-based and enforced per API route.

How It Works¶

Authentication (Who are you?)¶

You can enable one (or both) of the following:

Basic Auth (local users): Define usernames/passwords and assign local roles.
IDP/JWT (external users): Validate incoming JWTs using jwks_url, and optionally issuer and audience.

No Authentication (open access): If BOTH basic.enabled and idp.enabled are set to false, all requests to the gateway controller are allowed without authentication.

Authorization (Are you allowed?)¶

Gateway Controller routes are protected using local roles (for example admin, developer, consumer).

When IDP/JWT authentication is enabled, the controller checks the caller's roles on every protected route:

roles_claim names the JWT claim that carries the caller's roles. It defaults to roles. If you set it to an empty value while idp.enabled is true, the controller fails to start.
role_mapping translates IDP role values to local roles. It's optional when your IDP already issues the local role names. A claim value that matches no mapping passes through unchanged.
If a token doesn't contain the claim named in roles_claim, the caller has no local roles, and the controller denies access to every protected route.

The controller reads the roles claim as either a space-separated string or an array of strings.

Configuration¶

In the umbrella gateway config, these settings live under controller.auth. (If you run the controller standalone, the same structure applies under the controller's config root.)

Option A: Basic Auth (local users)¶

controller:
  auth:
    basic:
      enabled: true
      users:
        - username: "platform-admin"
          password: "$bcrypt$..."
          password_hashed: true
          roles: ["admin"]
        - username: "ops"
          password: "ops"
          password_hashed: false
          roles: ["developer"]

Option B: JWT (IDP) with role-based authorization¶

controller:
  auth:
    idp:
      enabled: true
      jwks_url: "https://idp.example.com/oauth2/jwks"
      issuer: "https://idp.example.com/oauth2/token"
      # Optional: accept only tokens issued for these audiences
      audience: ["gateway-controller"]

      roles_claim: "groups"   # Defaults to "roles". For example, "groups", "scope", or "roles"
      # Optional when the IDP already issues local role names
      role_mapping:
        admin: ["gateway-admins", "platform-admins"]
        developer: ["api-developers", "ops"]
        # Optional: give any authenticated user a baseline role
        consumer: ["*"]

Restrict tokens by audience¶

Set audience to the values the controller accepts in a token's aud claim. The controller accepts a token when its aud claim contains at least one configured value, and rejects every other token.

controller:
  auth:
    idp:
      audience: ["gateway-controller", "https://gateway.example.com"]

If you leave audience empty, which is the default, the controller doesn't validate the aud claim and logs a warning at startup. Set audience in production so that the controller rejects tokens your IDP issued for other applications.

Role Mapping Semantics¶

role_mapping is defined as:

local_role -> [idp_role_value_1, idp_role_value_2, ...]

Notes: - Specific mappings take precedence over wildcard matches. - Wildcard ("*") means: if a JWT role value does not match any specific mapping, it can still map to the local role that includes "*". - One JWT role can grant multiple local roles by listing it under multiple local roles. - Wildcard mapping must be unique: Do not configure more than one local role with "*" (for example admin: ["*"] and consumer: ["*"]). The Gateway Controller validates configuration and rejects multiple wildcard roles in role_mapping.

Example: One IDP group grants multiple local roles¶

role_mapping:
  admin: ["platform-admins"]
  developer: ["platform-admins", "api-developers"]

In this example, a user in platform-admins becomes both admin and developer in the Gateway Controller.

Troubleshooting (What you’ll observe)¶

Requests are denied after enabling JWT auth: verify that jwks_url, and if set, issuer and audience, match the token you're sending. When audience is set, the token's aud claim must contain at least one configured value.
The controller fails to start with auth.idp.roles_claim is empty: set roles_claim to the claim that carries the caller's roles, or remove the empty value so that the default roles applies.
Every authenticated request is forbidden: confirm that the token contains the claim named in roles_claim, which defaults to roles. If your IDP uses another claim, such as groups or scope, set roles_claim to it.
Users authenticate but don't have expected access: confirm that the values in the token's roles_claim are either local role names or match what you listed in role_mapping.
You want authentication without role checks: IDP/JWT authentication always runs role checks. To give every authenticated user a baseline role, add a wildcard mapping such as consumer: ["*"]. The token still needs at least one value in its roles_claim.
You want to disable auth entirely: set both basic.enabled and idp.enabled to false.

Testing¶

Unit tests cover wildcard precedence, one-to-many role grants, and supported claim formats for roles_claim.