# Deploying local-user-authenticator

## What is local-user-authenticator?

The local-user-authenticator app is an identity provider used for integration testing and demos.
If you would like to demo Pinniped, but you don't have a compatible identity provider handy,
you can use Pinniped's local-user-authenticator identity provider. Note that this is not recommended for
production use.

The local-user-authenticator is a Kubernetes Deployment which runs a webhook server that implements the Kubernetes
[Webhook Token Authentication interface](https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/access-authn-authz/authentication/#webhook-token-authentication).

User accounts can be created and edited dynamically using `kubectl` commands (see below).

## Installing the Latest Version with Default Options

```bash
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/vmware-tanzu/pinniped/releases/latest/download/install-local-user-authenticator.yaml
```

## Installing an Older Version with Default Options

Choose your preferred [release](https://github.com/vmware-tanzu/pinniped/releases) version number
and use it to replace the version number in the URL below.

```bash
# Replace v0.2.0 with your preferred version in the URL below
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/vmware-tanzu/pinniped/releases/download/v0.2.0/install-local-user-authenticator.yaml
```

## Installing with Custom Options

Creating your own deployment YAML file requires `ytt` from [Carvel](https://carvel.dev/) to template the YAML files
in the `deploy/local-user-authenticator` directory.
Either [install `ytt`](https://get-ytt.io/) or use the [container image from Dockerhub](https://hub.docker.com/r/k14s/image/tags).

1. `git clone` this repo and `git checkout` the release version tag of the release that you would like to deploy.
1. The configuration options are in [deploy/local-user-authenticator/values.yml](values.yaml).
   Fill in the values in that file, or override those values using additional `ytt` command-line options in
   the command below. Use the release version tag as the `image_tag` value.
2. In a terminal, cd to this `deploy/local-user-authenticator` directory
3. To generate the final YAML files, run `ytt --file .`
4. Deploy the generated YAML using your preferred deployment tool, such as `kubectl` or [`kapp`](https://get-kapp.io/).
   For example: `ytt --file . | kapp deploy --yes --app local-user-authenticator --diff-changes --file -`

## Configuring After Installing

### Create Users

Use `kubectl` to create, edit, and delete user accounts by creating a `Secret` for each user account in the same
namespace where local-user-authenticator is deployed.  The name of the `Secret` resource is the username.
Store the user's group membership and `bcrypt` encrypted password as the contents of the `Secret`.
For example, to create a user named `pinny-the-seal` with the password `password123`
who belongs to the groups `group1` and `group2`, use:

```bash
kubectl create secret generic pinny-the-seal \
  --namespace local-user-authenticator \
  --from-literal=groups=group1,group2 \
  --from-literal=passwordHash=$(htpasswd -nbBC 10 x password123 | sed -e "s/^x://")
```

Note that the above command requires a tool capable of generating a `bcrypt` hash. It uses `htpasswd`,
which is installed on most macOS systems, and can be
installed on some Linux systems via the `apache2-utils` package (e.g., `apt-get install apache2-utils`).

### Get the local-user-authenticator App's Auto-Generated Certificate Authority Bundle

Fetch the auto-generated CA bundle for the local-user-authenticator's HTTP TLS endpoint.

```bash
kubectl get secret local-user-authenticator-tls-serving-certificate --namespace local-user-authenticator \
  -o jsonpath={.data.caCertificate} \
  | base64 -d \
  | tee /tmp/local-user-authenticator-ca
```

### Configuring Pinniped to Use local-user-authenticator as an Identity Provider

When installing Pinniped on the same cluster, configure local-user-authenticator as an Identity Provider for Pinniped
using the webhook URL `https://local-user-authenticator.local-user-authenticator.svc/authenticate`
along with the CA bundle fetched by the above command. See [doc/demo.md](../../doc/demo.md) for an example.

## Optional: Manually Testing the Webhook Endpoint After Installing

The following steps demonstrate the API of the local-user-authenticator app. Typically, a user would not need to
interact with this API directly. Pinniped will automatically integrate with this API if the local-user-authenticator
is configured as an identity provider for Pinniped.

  1. Start a pod from which you can curl the endpoint from inside the cluster.

      ```bash
      kubectl run curlpod --image=curlimages/curl --command -- /bin/sh -c "while true; do echo hi; sleep 120; done"
      ```

  1. Copy the CA bundle that was fetched above onto the new pod.

      ```bash
      kubectl cp /tmp/local-user-authenticator-ca curlpod:/tmp/local-user-authenticator-ca
      ```

  1. Run a `curl` command to try to authenticate as the user created above.

      ```bash
      kubectl -it exec curlpod -- curl https://local-user-authenticator.local-user-authenticator.svc/authenticate \
        --cacert /tmp/local-user-authenticator-ca \
        -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'Accept: application/json' -d '
      {
        "apiVersion": "authentication.k8s.io/v1beta1",
        "kind": "TokenReview",
        "spec": {
          "token": "pinny-the-seal:password123"
        }
      }'
      ```

      When authentication is successful the above command should return some JSON similar to the following.
      Note that the value of `authenticated` is `true` to indicate a successful authentication.

      ```json
      {
        "kind": "TokenReview",
        "apiVersion": "authentication.k8s.io/v1beta1",
        "metadata": {
          "creationTimestamp": null
        },
        "spec": {},
        "status": {
          "authenticated": true,
          "user": {
            "username": "pinny-the-seal",
            "uid": "19c433ec-8f58-44ca-9ef0-2d1081ccb876",
            "groups": [
              "group1",
              "group2"
            ]
          }
        }
      }
      ```

      Trying the above `curl` command again with the wrong username or password in the body of the request
      should result in a JSON response which indicates that the authentication failed.

      ```json
      {
        "kind": "TokenReview",
        "apiVersion": "authentication.k8s.io/v1beta1",
        "metadata": {
          "creationTimestamp": null
        },
        "spec": {},
        "status": {
          "user": {}
        }
      }
      ```

  1. Remove the curl pod.

      ```bash
      kubectl delete pod curlpod
      ```
