Keycloak Role Service

This tutorial walks through how to set up Keycloak as a role service for GeoServer.

Note

In this example the Keycloak service runs on port 8080 while GeoServer runs on port 8181.

The Keycloak Role Service uses the Keycloak REST api in order to retrieve the roles for its various operations. By default it will retrieve roles with realm scope. However it can be configured to retrieve roles with a client scope in a specific realm.

Keycloak Client Configuration

Follow the Authentication with Keycloak guide to configure GeoServer to allow logging in via Keycloak. The Keycloak Role Service needs a client to be configured on Keycloak side having Access Type set to confidential.

If for your Keycloak Authentication Filter you have used a different Access Type i.e. barer-only, a separate client will have then to be configured for the Keycloak Role Service.

For the client, ensure that:

  • Standard flow, implicit flow, and direct access grants are enabled

  • The base URL is set to http://localhost:8181/geoserver/web

  • The following redirect URIs are enabled:

    • http://localhost:8181/geoserver*

    • http://localhost:8080/auth/realms/master/broker/keycloak-oidc/endpoint*

  • The Access Type is set to confidential and the Service Accounts Enabled option is enabled.

../../_images/access_type_confidential.png

  • Under the Service Account Roles tab, ensure that the realm-admin, from the realm-management client role is addedd to the Assigned roles.

../../_images/service_account_roles.png

To assign a user a role:

  1. Under the users section in Keycloak, click the user’s ID (if there are missing users, click “View all users”).

  2. In the role mappings tab, select the GeoStore client from the client roles dropdown.

  3. Select the role from the available roles, and click add selected.

../../_images/keycloak_client0021.png

An example set of role mappings for a user.

When creating custom roles, ensure they begin with ROLE_ e.g. ROLE_STAFF.

GeoServer Configuration for Role Syncing

Role syncing with Keycloak will be tied to the confidential client.

  1. In GeoServer as an admin, on the ‘Users, Groups, Roles’ page, add a new role service.

  2. Select Keycloak from the list of provided options. All fillable fields are required, excluding the Comma separated list of ID of client (not client-id).

    • Base URL for Keycloak is the keycloak host name eg. http://localhost:8080.

    • The Realm Name is the realm from which the roles should be retrieved eg. master.

    • The Client ID can be retrieved from the Settings tab of the client configuration on Keycloak.

    • The Client secret can be retrieved from the Credentials tab of the client configuration on Keycloak.

    • The Comma separated list of ID of client (not client-id) is meant to allow the Role Service to retrieve also roles with client scope. By default indeed the Keycloak Role Service will retrieve realm roles only. The id of a client can be retrieved from the URL when viewing the client configuration page in Keycloak. URL format: eg. /auth/admin/master/console/#/realms/master/clients/{ID of client}

Administrator Role and Group administator role dropdown should be empty at the beginning. They can be filled once saved the role service with the Keycloak role that we want to map to the GeoServer ADMIN and GROUP ADMIN.

  1. Ensure you click save to create the Keycloak role service.

  2. Once the Role Service has been created and configured to have it active: * it can be assigned as a RoleSource to the Keycloak Filter, * it can be set as the Active Role Service in the Security Settings page.

../../_images/keycloak_role_service001.png

An example of a fully configured Keycloak role service.

GeoServer Configuration for Keycloak Authentication Filters

Under the Authentication section of GeoServer:

  • Add the Keycloak authentication filter to the top of the web and default filter chains.

  • Add keycloak to the selected provider chains, and place it above the default.

Previous: Authentication with Keycloak
Next: Libdeflate