Table of Contents

Secure a Micronaut application with Okta

Learn how to create a Micronaut application and secure it with an Authorization Server provided by Okta.

Authors: Sergio del Amo

Micronaut Version: 4.6.3

1. Getting Started

In this guide, we will create a Micronaut application written in Groovy.

2. What you will need

To complete this guide, you will need the following:

3. Solution

We recommend that you follow the instructions in the next sections and create the application step by step. However, you can go right to the completed example.

4. OAuth 2.0

Sign up at developer.okta.com and create a Web application with the following characteristics:

  • Check Authorization Code grant type.

  • Add http://localhost:8080/oauth/callback/okta as a login redirect URIs.

  • Add http://localhost:8080/logout as a Logout redirect URI.

  • Annotate the Client ID and Secret.

okta app

5. Writing the Application

Create an application using the Micronaut Command Line Interface or with Micronaut Launch.

mn create-app example.micronaut.micronautguide --build=maven --lang=groovy
If you don’t specify the --build argument, Gradle with the Kotlin DSL is used as the build tool.
If you don’t specify the --lang argument, Java is used as the language.
If you don’t specify the --test argument, JUnit is used for Java and Kotlin, and Spock is used for Groovy.

The previous command creates a Micronaut application with the default package example.micronaut in a directory named micronautguide.

Setup IntelliJ IDEA to develop Micronaut Applications.

5.1. Security Dependencies

To use OAuth 2.0 integration, add the following dependency:

pom.xml
<dependency>
    <groupId>io.micronaut.security</groupId>
    <artifactId>micronaut-security-oauth2</artifactId>
    <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>

Also add JWT Micronaut JWT support dependencies:

pom.xml
<dependency>
    <groupId>io.micronaut.security</groupId>
    <artifactId>micronaut-security-jwt</artifactId>
    <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>

6. Views

To use the Thymeleaf Java template engine to render views in a Micronaut application, add the following dependency on your classpath.

pom.xml
<dependency>
    <groupId>io.micronaut.views</groupId>
    <artifactId>micronaut-views-thymeleaf</artifactId>
    <scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>

6.1. Configuration

Add the following OAuth2 Configuration:

src/main/resources/application.properties
(1)
micronaut.security.authentication=idtoken
(2)
micronaut.security.oauth2.clients.okta.client-secret=${OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET:yyy}
(3)
micronaut.security.oauth2.clients.okta.client-id=${OAUTH_CLIENT_ID:xxx}
(4)
micronaut.security.oauth2.clients.okta.openid.issuer=${OIDC_ISSUER_DOMAIN:`https://dev-XXXXX.oktapreview.com`}/oauth2/${OIDC_ISSUER_AUTHSERVERID:default}
(5)
micronaut.security.endpoints.logout.get-allowed=true
1 Set micronaut.security.authentication as idtoken. The idtoken provided by Okta when the OAuth 2.0 Authorization code flow ends will be saved in a cookie. The id token is a signed JWT. For every request, the Micronaut framework extracts the JWT from the Cookie and validates the JWT signature with the remote Json Web Key Set exposed by Okta. JWKS is exposed by the jws-uri entry of Okta .well-known/openid-configuration.
2 The provider identifier should match the last part of the URL you entered as a redirect URL /oauth/callback/okta
3 Client ID & Client Secret. See previous screenshot.
4 issuer URL. It allows the Micronaut framework to discover the configuration of the OpenID Connect server.
5 Accept GET request to the /logout endpoint.

6.1.1. Environment Variables

The previous configuration uses several placeholders. You will need to set up OAUTH_CLIENT_ID, OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET, OIDC_ISSUER_DOMAIN and OIDC_ISSUER_AUTHSERVERID environment variables.

export OAUTH_CLIENT_ID=XXXXXXXXXX
export OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET=YYYYYYYYYY
export OIDC_ISSUER_DOMAIN=https://dev-XXXXX.oktapreview.com
export OIDC_ISSUER_AUTHSERVERID=default
export OAUTH_ISSUER=https://dev-XXXXX.oktapreview.com/oauth2/default

Check OKTA .well-known/openid-configuration documentation.

6.2. Authorization Code Grant

We want to use an Authorization Code grant type flow which it is described in the following diagram:

diagramm

6.3. Home

Create a controller to handle the requests to /. You will display the email of the authenticated person if any. Annotate the controller endpoint with @View since we will use a Thymeleaf template.

src/main/groovy/example/micronaut/HomeController.groovy
package example.micronaut

import groovy.transform.CompileStatic
import io.micronaut.http.annotation.Controller
import io.micronaut.http.annotation.Get
import io.micronaut.security.annotation.Secured
import io.micronaut.security.rules.SecurityRule
import io.micronaut.views.View

@CompileStatic
@Controller (1)
class HomeController {

    @Secured(SecurityRule.IS_ANONYMOUS) (2)
    @View('home') (3)
    @Get (4)
    Map<String, Object> index() {
        [:]
    }
}
1 The class is defined as a controller with the @Controller annotation mapped to the path /.
2 Annotate with io.micronaut.security.Secured to configure secured access. The SecurityRule.IS_ANONYMOUS expression will allow access without authentication.
3 Use View annotation to specify which template to use to render the response.
4 The @Get annotation maps the index method to GET / requests.

6.4. Thymleaf Template

Create a thymeleaf template:

src/main/resources/views/home.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns:th="http://www.thymeleaf.org">
<head>
    <title>Home</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Micronaut - Okta example</h1>

<h2 th:if="${security}">username: <span th:text="${security.attributes.get('email')}"></span></h2>
<h2 th:unless="${security}">username: Anonymous</h2>

<nav>
    <ul>
        <li th:unless="${security}"><a href="/oauth/login/okta">Enter</a></li>
        <li th:if="${security}"><a href="/oauth/logout">Logout</a></li>
    </ul>
</nav>
</body>
</html>

Also, note that we return an empty model in the controller. However, we are accessing security in the thymeleaf template.

7. Running the Application

To run the application, use the ./mvnw mn:run command, which starts the application on port 8080.

oktavideo

8. Next steps

Read Micronaut OAuth 2.0 documentation to learn more.

9. Help with the Micronaut Framework

The Micronaut Foundation sponsored the creation of this Guide. A variety of consulting and support services are available.

10. License

All guides are released with an Apache license 2.0 license for the code and a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license for the writing and media (images…​).