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Allowing Multiple Authentication Methods

Learn to configure multiple authentication options for consumers using the Kong Ingress Controller. The default behavior for Kong authentication plugins is to require credentials for all requests even if a request has been authenticated through another plugin. Configure an anonymous consumer on your authentication plugins to set clients authentication options.

Create a Kubernetes service

Create a Kubernetes service setup an httpbin service in the cluster and proxy it.

$ kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Kong/kubernetes-ingress-controller/v3.3.1/deploy/manifests/httpbin.yaml

The results should look like this:

service/httpbin created
deployment.apps/httpbin created

Expose the Kubernetes service using Ingress

1. Expose the service outside the Kubernetes cluster by defining Ingress rules.

    echo '
    apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
    kind: Ingress
    metadata:
      name: demo
      annotations:
        konghq.com/strip-path: "true"
    spec:
      ingressClassName: kong
      rules:
      - http:
          paths:
          - path: /test
            pathType: Prefix
            backend:
              service:
                name: httpbin
                port:
                  number: 80
    ' | kubectl apply -f -
   

   The results should look like this:

    ingress.networking.k8s.io/demo created
   

   We can now call $PROXY_IP/test/status/200 to reach our deployed service.

Create Consumers and secrets

Create two consumers that use different authentication methods:

• consumer-1 uses basic-auth
• consumer-2 uses key-auth

1. Create a secret to add basic-auth credential for consumer-1.

    kubectl create secret generic consumer-1-basic-auth  \
      --from-literal=kongCredType=basic-auth  \
      --from-literal=username=consumer-1 \
      --from-literal=password=consumer-1-password
   

   The results should look like this:

    secret/consumer-1-basic-auth created
   

2. Create a consumer named consumer-1.

    echo "apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
    kind: KongConsumer
    metadata:
      name: consumer-1
      annotations:
        kubernetes.io/ingress.class: kong
    username: consumer-1
    credentials:
    - consumer-1-basic-auth
   " | kubectl apply -f -
   

   The results should look like this:

    kongconsumer.configuration.konghq.com/consumer-1 created
   

3. Create a secret to add key-auth credential for consumer-2.

    kubectl create secret generic consumer-2-key-auth \
      --from-literal=kongCredType=key-auth  \
      --from-literal=key=consumer-2-password
   

   The results should look like this:

    secret/consumer-2-key-auth created
   

4. Create a consumer named consumer-2.

    echo "apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
    kind: KongConsumer
    metadata:
      name: consumer-2
      annotations:
        kubernetes.io/ingress.class: kong
    username: consumer-2
    credentials:
    - consumer-2-key-auth
   " | kubectl apply -f -
   

   The results should look like this:

    kongconsumer.configuration.konghq.com/consumer-2 created
   

Secure the Ingress

1. Create two plugins.

   • Create a plugin named httpbin-basic-auth.

    echo '
    apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
    kind: KongPlugin
    metadata:
      name: httpbin-basic-auth
    config:
      anonymous: anonymous
      hide_credentials: true
    plugin: basic-auth
    ' | kubectl apply -f -
   

   The results should look like this:

    kongplugin.configuration.konghq.com/httpbin-basic-auth created
   

   • Create a plugin named httpbin-key-auth.

    echo '
    apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
    kind: KongPlugin
    metadata:
      name: httpbin-key-auth
    config:
      key_names:
        - apikey
      anonymous: anonymous
      hide_credentials: true
    plugin: key-auth
    ' | kubectl apply -f -
   

   The results should look like this:

    kongplugin.configuration.konghq.com/httpbin-key-auth created
   

2. Associate the plugins with the Ingress rule that you created.

    kubectl patch ingress demo -p '{"metadata":{"annotations":{"konghq.com/plugins":"httpbin-basic-auth, httpbin-key-auth"}}}'
   

   The results should look like this:

    ingress.networking.k8s.io/demo patched
   

Anonymous Consumers

Your endpoints are now secure, but neither consumer can access the endpoint when providing valid credentials. This is because each plugin will verify the consumer using it’s own authentication method.

To allow multiple authentication methods, create an anonymous consumer which is the default user if no valid credentials are provided:

1. Create a consumer named anonymous.

    echo "apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
    kind: KongConsumer
    metadata:
      name: anonymous
      annotations:
        kubernetes.io/ingress.class: kong
    username: anonymous
    " | kubectl apply -f -
   

   The results should look like this:

    kongconsumer.configuration.konghq.com/anonymous created
   

   All requests to the API will now succeed as the anonymous consumer is being used as a default.

   To secure the API once again, add a request termination plugin to the anonymous consumer that returns HTTP 401:

2. Create a Request Termination plugin.

    echo '
    apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
    kind: KongPlugin
    metadata:
      name: anonymous-request-termination
    config:
      message: "Authentication required"
      status_code: 401
    plugin: request-termination
    ' | kubectl apply -f -
   

   The results should look like this:

    kongplugin.configuration.konghq.com/anonymous-request-termination created
   

3. Associate the Request Termination plugin to the anonymous consumer.

    echo '
    apiVersion: configuration.konghq.com/v1
    kind: KongConsumer
    metadata:
      annotations:
        konghq.com/plugins: anonymous-request-termination
        kubernetes.io/ingress.class: kong
      name: anonymous
    username: anonymous
    ' | kubectl apply -f -
   

   The results should look like this:

    kongconsumer.configuration.konghq.com/anonymous configured
   

Test the configuration

Any requests with missing or invalid credentials are rejected, whereas authorized requests using either of the authentication methods are allowed.

1. Send a request with invalid credentials.

    curl -i $PROXY_IP/test/status/200 -H apikey:invalid
   

   The results should look like this:

    HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
    Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
    Connection: keep-alive
    WWW-Authenticate: Key realm="kong"
    Content-Length: 37
    X-Kong-Response-Latency: 3
    Server: kong/3.3.1
       
    {"message":"Authentication required"}% 
   

2. Send a request without any credentials.

    curl -i $PROXY_IP/test/status/200
   

   The results should look like this:

    HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
    Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
    Connection: keep-alive
    WWW-Authenticate: Key realm="kong"
    Content-Length: 37
    X-Kong-Response-Latency: 1
    Server: kong/3.3.1
       
    {"message":"Authentication required"}%
   

3. Send a request using the basic-auth authentication method

    curl -i $PROXY_IP/test/status/200 -u consumer-1:consumer-1-password
   

   The results should look like this:

    HTTP/1.1 200 OK
    Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
    Content-Length: 0
    Connection: keep-alive
    WWW-Authenticate: Key realm="kong"
    Server: gunicorn/19.9.0
    Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
    Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true
    X-Kong-Upstream-Latency: 1309
    X-Kong-Proxy-Latency: 3
    Via: kong/3.3.1
   

4. Send a request using the key-auth authentication method

    curl -i $PROXY_IP/test/status/200 -H apikey:consumer-2-password
   

   The results should look like this:

    HTTP/1.1 200 OK
    Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
    Content-Length: 0
    Connection: keep-alive
    Server: gunicorn/19.9.0
    Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
    Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: true
    X-Kong-Upstream-Latency: 1227
    X-Kong-Proxy-Latency: 4
    Via: kong/3.3.1