Identity and access management (IAM)
Contents
Identity and access management (IAM)
Enonic XP ships with a clearly defined and pluggable concept for handling authentication and authorization
Introduction
Enonic XP ships with a standard concept handling users, authentication, groups and roles based authorization. Additionally, the NoSQL storage supports fine-grained access control mechanisms down to a single item.
IAM Concepts
XP AIM consists of three central concepts:
Principals
Principals are object that can be given permissions. There are three different types of principals:
- Users
-
Principals that can be authenticated.
- Groups
-
Used to group other principals to simplify management.
- Roles
-
Provides access to application specific functionality.
Permissions
Principals may be given with fine grade access to items stored in the NoSQL storage. An example of this is the XP CMS, where users typically get access to create or publish content in specific areas of the solution.
Identity providers
ID providers offer pluggable abstraction layer for user authentication. As such, in order to authenticate or even create users in XP, you will need to define an ID provider.
IDproviders are linked to your webapp or site through virtual hosts.
Creating an ID provider
IDproviders can be created and managed through the API, or through the Users app in the XP admin console.
An idprovider essentially consist of the following:
-
A unique name (cannot be changed later)
-
ID provider application, with optional configuration settings.
-
Permissions - specifies who can manage and access the ID provider
| ID provider applications must be installed before you can select them. |
System ID provider
XP ships with a special ID provider that cannot be removed or renamed. It is called the system ID provider.
The purpose of the system ID provider is to hold system users such as su - the Super User, and anonymous - the user that is defacto if no other user is specified.
When accessing the XP admin console for the first time in a fresh installation, you will see the system IDprovider.
| Avoid placing your regular users in the system ID provider, rather create a new ID provider instead. |
IDprovider apps
In order for an ID provider to work, it must be associated with an ID provider application that handles the authentication process.
You may install ID providers from Enonic Market, or build your own for a fully customized experience.
Standard ID provider app
By default, XP ships with an app app called the "Standard ID provider". This is also the app that is being used by the System ID provider