🔒 Cracking the Code: Can You Solve the Ultimate User Access Puzzle? - Part 0: The Strategy

Integrate Azure AD as IdP for an application running on Google Cloud Run, enabling role-based access control (RBAC) and personalized content delivery based on user custom attributes.

How can we grant diverse users secure access to our app via Azure AD, retrieve and utilize their attributes for personalized content from Google Firestore, manage sessions with persistent cookies, enforce robust security policies, and ensure seamless delivery on Google Cloud Run?

The Problems

1. Authorization Dilemma: How do we grant access to users with diverse email providers (Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) through Azure AD?

2. Authentication Puzzle: Once logged in, how do we fetch user attributes (country, language, etc.) from Azure AD to tailor content dynamically using Firestore data?

3. Session Management Hurdle: How can we implement persistent cookies to minimize frequent re-authentication without compromising security?

4. Security Labyrinth: What policies (CSP, HSTS, etc.) should we enforce to safeguard user sessions and content integrity?

5. Infrastructure Challenge: How do we deploy on Cloud Run to ensure secure and personalized content delivery while maintaining performance?

The Requirements:

1. Authorization:

   • Users must be granted access in Azure AD to access the application.

   • Access can be granted using any email address (Gmail, Hotmail, Wanadoo, etc.).

2. Authentication:

   • Retrieve user attributes (countries, language, position, gender, etc.) from Azure AD upon login.

   • Use these attributes to serve appropriate content by comparing them with data stored in Firestore.

   • Retrieve the User Principal Name (UPN) to personalize the user experience.

3. Session Management:

   • Implement persistent cookie management to avoid frequent re-authentication (persistent authentication)

The solutions

This application is designed to facilitate secure user authentication and retrieval of user information using Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). It leverages OAuth 2.0 for authentication and interacts with Microsoft Graph API to fetch user details. The application ensures secure communication and data handling through various security configurations.

Main Concepts

1. User Authentication: The application uses Azure AD for user authentication. Users are redirected to Azure AD for login, and upon successful authentication, an authorization code is exchanged for an access token.

2. User Information Retrieval: The application retrieves user information from Microsoft Graph API using the access token obtained during authentication. This includes basic user details and custom security attributes.

3. Security Configurations:

   • Session Security: The application configures session cookies to be secure (SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE), HTTP-only (SESSION_COOKIE_HTTPONLY), and with a SameSite policy (SESSION_COOKIE_SAMESITE).

   • Content Security Policy (CSP): Talisman is used to enforce a CSP, which helps prevent cross-site scripting (XSS) and other code injection attacks by specifying trusted sources for scripts, styles, and other resources.

End-User Perspective

• Login: Users are redirected to the Azure AD login page for authentication.

• Home Page: Upon successful login, users are redirected to the home page, where their user information is displayed.

• Logout: Users can log out, which clears their session and redirects them to the Azure AD logout page.

• Debug Information: The application provides endpoints for debugging purposes, allowing users to view all available user properties and check schema extensions.

Security Concepts

1. OAuth 2.0 & OpenID Connect: Used for secure user authentication and authorization.

2. Session Management: Ensures secure handling of user sessions.

3. Content Security Policy (CSP): Protects against XSS and other code injection attacks.

4. HTTPS: Ensures secure communication between the client and the server.

5. Logging: Detailed logging for monitoring and debugging purposes.

This application is designed to provide a secure and user-friendly experience for authentication and user information retrieval, leveraging Azure AD and Microsoft Graph API.

Deep dive into the solution

👉 Mastering User Access: A Strategic Approach to Secure and Personalized Experiences!

👉 Navigating Azure Entra ID: Your Gateway to Seamless User Authentication!

👉 Fortifying Security: Best Practices for Protecting User Data and Sessions!