README
¶
dex
dex is a federated identity management service. It provides OpenID Connect (OIDC) and OAuth 2.0 to users, and can proxy to multiple remote identity providers (IdP) to drive actual authentication, as well as managing local username/password credentials.
We named the project 'dex' because it is a central index of users that other pieces of software can authenticate against.
Architecture
dex consists of multiple components:
- dex-worker is the primary server component of dex
- host a user-facing API that drives the OIDC protocol
- proxy to remote identity providers via "connectors"
- provides an API for administrators to manage users.
- dex-overlord is an auxiliary process responsible for various administrative tasks:
- rotation of keys used by the workers to sign identity tokens
- garbage collection of stale data in the database
- provides an API for bootstrapping the system.
- dexctl is a CLI tool used to manage a dex deployment
- configure identity provider connectors
- administer OIDC client identities
- database; a database is used to for persistent storage for keys, users, OAuth sessions and other data. Currently Postgres is the only supported database.
A typical dex deployment consists of N dex-workers behind a load balanacer, and one dex-overlord. The dex-workers directly handle user requests, so the loss of all workers can result in service downtime. The single dex-overlord runs its tasks periodically, so it does not need to maintain 100% uptime.
Who Should Use Dex?
A non-exhaustive list of those who would benefit from using dex:
- Those who want a language/framework-agnostic way to manage authentication.
- Those who want to federate authentication from mutiple providers of differing types.
- Those who want to manage user credentials (eg. username and password) and perform authentication locally
- Those who want to create an OIDC Identity Provider for multiple clients to authenticate against.
- Those who want any or all of the above in a Free and Open Source project.
Connectors
Remote IdPs could implement any auth-N protocol. Connectors contain protocol-specific logic and are used to communicate with remote IdPs. Possible examples of connectors could be: OIDC, LDAP, Local credentials, Basic Auth, etc.
dex ships with an OIDC connector, useful for authenticating with services like Google and Salesforce (or even other dex instances!) and a "local" connector, in which dex itself presents a UI for users to authenticate via dex-stored credentials.
Future connectors can be developed and added as future interoperability requirements emerge.
Relevant Specifications
These specs are referenced and implemented to some degree in the jose package of this project.
OpenID Connect (OIDC) is broken up into several specifications. The following (amongst others) are relevant:
Example OIDC Discovery Endpoints
- https://accounts.google.com/.well-known/openid-configuration
- https://login.salesforce.com/.well-known/openid-configuration
Next steps:
If you want to try out dex quickly with a single process and no database (do not run this way in production!) take a look at the dev guide.
For running the full stack check out the getting started guide.
Coming Soon
- Multiple backing Identity Providers
- Identity Management
- Authorization
Similar Software
Auth0
Auth0 is a commercial product which implements the OpenID Connect protocol and JWT. It comes with built-in support for 30+ social providers (and provide extenibility points to add customs); enterprise providers like ADFS, SiteMinder, Ping, Tivoli, or any SAML provider; LDAP/AD connectors that can be run behind firewalls via an open source agent/connector; built-in user/password stores with email and phone verification; legacy user/password stores running Mongo, PG, MySQL, SQL Server among others; multi-factor auth; passwordless support; custom extensibility of the auth pipeline through node.js and many other things.
You could chain dex with Auth0, dex as RP and Auth0 as OpenId Connect Provider, and bring to dex all the providers that comes in Auth0 plus the user management capabilities.
CloudFoundry UAA
The UAA is a multi tenant identity management service, used in Cloud Foundry, but also available as a stand alone OAuth2 server.
OmniAuth
OmniAuth provides authentication federation at the language (Ruby) level, with a wide range of integrations available.
Okta
Okta is a commercial product which is similar to dex in that for it too, identity federation is a key feature. It connects to many more authentication providers than dex, and also does the federation in the oppposite direction - it can be used as a SSO to other identity providers.
Shibboleth
Shibboleth is an open source system implementing the SAML standard, and can federate from a variety of backends, most notably LDAP.
Directories
¶
| Path | Synopsis |
|---|---|
|
Godeps
|
|
|
_workspace/src/code.google.com/p/go-uuid/uuid
The uuid package generates and inspects UUIDs.
|
The uuid package generates and inspects UUIDs. |
|
_workspace/src/github.com/PuerkitoBio/goquery
Package goquery implements features similar to jQuery, including the chainable syntax, to manipulate and query an HTML document.
|
Package goquery implements features similar to jQuery, including the chainable syntax, to manipulate and query an HTML document. |
|
_workspace/src/github.com/andybalholm/cascadia
The cascadia package is an implementation of CSS selectors.
|
The cascadia package is an implementation of CSS selectors. |
|
_workspace/src/github.com/go-gorp/gorp
Package gorp provides a simple way to marshal Go structs to and from SQL databases.
|
Package gorp provides a simple way to marshal Go structs to and from SQL databases. |
|
_workspace/src/github.com/gorilla/handlers
Package handlers is a collection of handlers (aka "HTTP middleware") for use with Go's net/http package (or any framework supporting http.Handler).
|
Package handlers is a collection of handlers (aka "HTTP middleware") for use with Go's net/http package (or any framework supporting http.Handler). |
|
_workspace/src/github.com/julienschmidt/httprouter
Package httprouter is a trie based high performance HTTP request router.
|
Package httprouter is a trie based high performance HTTP request router. |
|
_workspace/src/github.com/kylelemons/godebug/diff
Package diff implements a linewise diff algorithm.
|
Package diff implements a linewise diff algorithm. |
|
_workspace/src/github.com/kylelemons/godebug/pretty
Package pretty pretty-prints Go structures.
|
Package pretty pretty-prints Go structures. |
|
_workspace/src/github.com/lib/pq
Package pq is a pure Go Postgres driver for the database/sql package.
|
Package pq is a pure Go Postgres driver for the database/sql package. |
|
_workspace/src/github.com/lib/pq/listen_example
Below you will find a self-contained Go program which uses the LISTEN / NOTIFY mechanism to avoid polling the database while waiting for more work to arrive.
|
Below you will find a self-contained Go program which uses the LISTEN / NOTIFY mechanism to avoid polling the database while waiting for more work to arrive. |
|
_workspace/src/github.com/lib/pq/oid
Package oid contains OID constants as defined by the Postgres server.
|
Package oid contains OID constants as defined by the Postgres server. |
|
_workspace/src/github.com/mailgun/mailgun-go
The mailgun package provides methods for interacting with the Mailgun API.
|
The mailgun package provides methods for interacting with the Mailgun API. |
|
_workspace/src/github.com/mbanzon/simplehttp
Package simplehttp provides some simple methods and types to do HTTP queries with form values and parameters easily - especially if the returned result is expected to be JSON or XML.
|
Package simplehttp provides some simple methods and types to do HTTP queries with form values and parameters easily - especially if the returned result is expected to be JSON or XML. |
|
_workspace/src/github.com/rubenv/sql-migrate
SQL Schema migration tool for Go.
|
SQL Schema migration tool for Go. |
|
_workspace/src/golang.org/x/crypto/bcrypt
Package bcrypt implements Provos and Mazières's bcrypt adaptive hashing algorithm.
|
Package bcrypt implements Provos and Mazières's bcrypt adaptive hashing algorithm. |
|
_workspace/src/golang.org/x/crypto/blowfish
Package blowfish implements Bruce Schneier's Blowfish encryption algorithm.
|
Package blowfish implements Bruce Schneier's Blowfish encryption algorithm. |
|
_workspace/src/golang.org/x/net/html
Package html implements an HTML5-compliant tokenizer and parser.
|
Package html implements an HTML5-compliant tokenizer and parser. |
|
_workspace/src/golang.org/x/net/html/atom
Package atom provides integer codes (also known as atoms) for a fixed set of frequently occurring HTML strings: tag names and attribute keys such as "p" and "id".
|
Package atom provides integer codes (also known as atoms) for a fixed set of frequently occurring HTML strings: tag names and attribute keys such as "p" and "id". |
|
_workspace/src/golang.org/x/net/html/charset
Package charset provides common text encodings for HTML documents.
|
Package charset provides common text encodings for HTML documents. |
|
_workspace/src/google.golang.org/api/googleapi
Package googleapi contains the common code shared by all Google API libraries.
|
Package googleapi contains the common code shared by all Google API libraries. |
|
_workspace/src/google.golang.org/api/googleapi/internal/uritemplates
Package uritemplates is a level 4 implementation of RFC 6570 (URI Template, http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6570).
|
Package uritemplates is a level 4 implementation of RFC 6570 (URI Template, http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6570). |
|
_workspace/src/google.golang.org/api/googleapi/transport
Package transport contains HTTP transports used to make authenticated API requests.
|
Package transport contains HTTP transports used to make authenticated API requests. |
|
_workspace/src/gopkg.in/alexcesaro/quotedprintable.v3
Package quotedprintable implements quoted-printable encoding as specified by RFC 2045.
|
Package quotedprintable implements quoted-printable encoding as specified by RFC 2045. |
|
_workspace/src/gopkg.in/gomail.v2
Package gomail provides a simple interface to compose emails and to mail them efficiently.
|
Package gomail provides a simple interface to compose emails and to mail them efficiently. |
|
_workspace/src/gopkg.in/gorp.v1
Package gorp provides a simple way to marshal Go structs to and from SQL databases.
|
Package gorp provides a simple way to marshal Go structs to and from SQL databases. |
|
package admin provides an implementation of the API described in auth/schema/adminschema.
|
package admin provides an implementation of the API described in auth/schema/adminschema. |
|
cmd
|
|
|
genconfig
genconfig generates boilerplate configuration/registration code.
|
genconfig generates boilerplate configuration/registration code. |
|
DO NOT EDIT: This file was auto-generated by "go generate" To regenerate run:
|
DO NOT EDIT: This file was auto-generated by "go generate" To regenerate run: |
|
DO NOT EDIT: This file was auto-generated by "go generate" To regenerate run:
|
DO NOT EDIT: This file was auto-generated by "go generate" To regenerate run: |
|
examples
|
|
|
functional
|
|
|
pkg
|
|
|
adminschema
Package adminschema provides access to the Dex Admin API.
|
Package adminschema provides access to the Dex Admin API. |
|
workerschema
Package workerschema provides access to the Dex API.
|
Package workerschema provides access to the Dex API. |