Neo4j Single Sign-On (SSO) configuration

Detailed examples of how to configure Single Sign-On (SSO) for several identity providers. It also presents frequently asked questions and solutions to common problems encountered when configuring SSO.

Neo4j supports SSO authentication and authorization through identity providers implementing the OpenID Connect (OIDC) standard.

The following configurations are crafted for a Neo4j Browser served on http://localhost:7474/browser/ (the default URL when starting the database on localhost).

Therefore, when reproducing them in the identity providers, you must modify the redirect URI to include the URI serving your Neo4j Browser application. For example:

http://localhost:7474/browser/?idp_id={provider}&auth_flow_step=redirect_uri

SSO works in the following way:

  1. The server (Neo4j DBMS) contacts the identity provider (Okta, Azure, Google, etc.) and fetches the JSON Web Keys (JWKs) from the provider.

  2. The client (e.g., Bloom, Neo4j Browser, etc.) asks the user for credentials and contacts the identity provider.

  3. The identity provider responds with a JSON Web Token (JWT), a JSON file containing fields (claims) relative to the user (email, audience, groups, etc.).

  4. The client provides the server with the JWT, and the server verifies its signature with the JWKs.

Currently it is not possible to login to Cypher Shell using SSO authentication and authorization.

Okta

This example shows how to configure Okta for authentication and authorization using access tokens.

  1. Configure the client with the appropriate redirect URI. You can skip the group assignments in this step:

    oidc okta client creation
    Figure 1. Okta OIDC client creation
    oidc okta client config a
    Figure 2. Okta OIDC client configuration

  2. Take note of the Client ID and the Okta domain. You will need them later when configuring the Okta parameters and the Well-known OpenID Connect endpoint in the neo4j.conf file:

    oidc okta client config b
    Figure 3. Okta OIDC client configuration

  3. Create groups in Okta, assign users to them (the user can be added to a group either on user creation or editing the group), and map them in the neo4j.conf to native groups:

    oidc okta server groups
    Figure 4. Okta OIDC server groups

  4. Configure the default authorization server (the one that shows api://default as audience) to return the groups claim in access tokens:

    oidc okta authz server
    Figure 5. Okta OIDC authorization server
    oidc okta server claims
    Figure 6. Okta OIDC server claims

  5. Configure Neo4j to use Okta authentication by configuring the following settings in the neo4j.conf file:

    dbms.security.authentication_providers=oidc-okta
dbms.security.authorization_providers=oidc-okta
dbms.security.oidc.okta.display_name=Okta
dbms.security.oidc.okta.auth_flow=pkce
dbms.security.oidc.okta.well_known_discovery_uri=https://dev-21056049.okta.com/oauth2/default/.well-known/openid-configuration
dbms.security.oidc.okta.audience=api://default
dbms.security.oidc.okta.claims.username=sub
dbms.security.oidc.okta.claims.groups=groups
dbms.security.oidc.okta.params=client_id=0oa3oq6uw3uSOBf8y5d7;response_type=code;scope=openid profile email
dbms.security.oidc.okta.authorization.group_to_role_mapping= "engineers" = admin; \
                                                             "collaborators" = reader

    The token_type_principal and the token_type_authentication are omitted, meaning access tokens are used instead.

  6. Log in with your Okta SSO credentials using the email of an engineer role user that results in an admin role in the database:

    oidc okta successful login
    Figure 7. Okta OIDC successful login

Azure Active Directory (AAD)

This example shows how to configure AAD for authentication and authorization using ID tokens.

  1. Log in to the Azure portal.

  2. Navigate to Azure Active Directory > Overview.

  3. From the Add dropdown menu, select App registration and fill in the following information to create your SSO application:

    oidc azure client creation
    Figure 8. Azure OIDC client creation

    The redirect URI http://localhost:7474/browser/?idp_id=azure&auth_flow_step=redirect_uri is the URI that will accept returned token responses after successful authentication.

  4. Click Register.

  5. After the successful app creation, on the app’s Overview page, find the Application (client) ID value and record it for later.

  6. Navigate to Endpoints and take note of the domain. It will be used later when configuring the well-known OpenIDC connect endpoint in the neo4j.conf file.

    oidc azure client config
    Figure 9. Azure OIDC client config

  7. There are two options to follow at this stage. The first one is to create groups in the Azure AD console, assign users to them, and map them in the neo4j.conf to native roles. In this case, the groups claim in the JWT will contain the ID of the group, so you have to map that ID to the desired native role later on:

    1. On the Active Directory page, navigate to Groups and then select New group.

    2. Fill in the required information.

      oidc azure server groups
      Figure 10. Azure OIDC server groups

  8. Configure the server to return groupMembershipClaims in identity tokens, modifying the Manifest of the registered application:

    oidc azure server claims
    Figure 11. Azure OIDC server claims

  9. Another way to achieve the authorization of SSO is via the app’s home page. The previous step described how to create groups in the Azure AD console, but this has a caveat: you can only have a maximum of 200 groups in a JWT. Navigate to App roles and add the Neo4j roles to the Azure active directory. They will be later used when mapping the group ID to the desired native role in the neo4j.conf file.

    You can choose to follow only the group method or the app roles. No need to perform both steps.

    oidc azure app roles
    Figure 12. Azure OIDC app roles config

  10. Configure Neo4j to use Azure authentication by configuring the following settings in the neo4j.conf file:

    dbms.security.authentication_providers=oidc-azure
dbms.security.authorization_providers=oidc-azure
dbms.security.oidc.azure.display_name=Azure
dbms.security.oidc.azure.auth_flow=pkce
dbms.security.oidc.azure.well_known_discovery_uri=https://login.microsoftonline.com/ce976899-299d-4a01-91e5-a5fee8f98626/v2.0/.well-known/openid-configuration
dbms.security.oidc.azure.audience=c2830ff5-86d9-4e38-8a2b-9efad6f3d06d
dbms.security.oidc.azure.claims.username=email
dbms.security.oidc.azure.claims.groups=groups
dbms.security.oidc.azure.params=client_id=c2830ff5-86d9-4e38-8a2b-9efad6f3d06d;response_type=code;scope=openid profile email
dbms.security.oidc.azure.config=token_type_principal=id_token;token_type_authentication=id_token
dbms.security.oidc.azure.authorization.group_to_role_mapping= "e8b6ddfa-688d-4ace-987d-6cc5516af188" = admin; \
                                                              "9e2a31e1-bdd1-47fe-844d-767502bd138d" = reader

  11. Log in with your Azure SSO credentials using the email of an engineer role user that results in an admin role in the database:

oidc azure successful login
Figure 13. Azure OIDC successful login

Remember to always set an email in contact info, otherwise login may not work properly at this stage.

Google

This example shows how to use Google OpenID Connect for authentication using ID tokens in conjunction with native authorization.

  1. Configure the client and the redirect URI:

    oidc google client creation
    Figure 14. Google OIDC client creation
    oidc google client config
    Figure 15. Google OIDC client configuration

    SSO authorization does not work with Google, as the JWT returned by Google does not contain information about the groups that a user belongs to, and cannot be configured to. Therefore, it is recommended to use native (or another flavor) authorization by creating a native version of the user in Neo4j.

  2. The role assigned to the email used to log in with SSO, in this case, alice@neo4j-test.com, must have GRANT ROLE permissions in the database (native authentication temporarily enabled):

    CREATE USER `alice@neo4j-test.com` SET PASSWORD 'pass';
GRANT ROLE admin to `alice@neo4j-test.com`;

  3. Configure Neo4j to use Google authentication by configuring the following settings in the neo4j.conf file:

    dbms.security.authentication_providers=oidc-google
dbms.security.authorization_providers=native
dbms.security.oidc.google.display_name=Google
dbms.security.oidc.google.auth_flow=pkce
dbms.security.oidc.google.well_known_discovery_uri=https://accounts.google.com/.well-known/openid-configuration
dbms.security.oidc.google.audience=345461137297-v9brpjmgbvbm3d5s9fq65tktevosd3rn.apps.googleusercontent.com
dbms.security.oidc.google.claims.username=email
dbms.security.oidc.google.params=client_id=345461137297-v9brpjmgbvbm3d5s9fq65tktevosd3rn.apps.googleusercontent.com;response_type=code;scope=openid profile email
dbms.security.oidc.google.token_params=client_secret=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
dbms.security.oidc.google.config=token_type_principal=id_token;token_type_authentication=id_token

  4. Log in with your Google SSO credentials using the email address and get the admin role when doing so:

    oidc azure successful login
    Figure 16. Azure OIDC successful login

    The native authentication is disabled to prevent someone from logging in to alice@neo4j-test.com with the set password.

FAQ

When should pkce be used as auth flow?

Assuming the client (Neo4j Browser or Bloom) can be accessed through the public internet, always use pkce auth-flow rather than implicit because the latter requires the client’s secret to be available to the public client. In general, if both flows are available, it is recommended to opt for pkce because it is more secure than implicit.

Is Google authentication secure if it has a client secret listed in the config?

Yes. Google uses the pkce flow, but identity providers sometimes also use a client secret to ensure the client asking for a token is the one using it (pkce does not guarantee that). The client secret does not add any additional security as it is public but the pkce flow provides sufficient security.

Could not parse JWT of type "access_token"

When getting the message Failed to get credentials: Could not parse JWT of type "access_token" on Browser, it probably means the provider only accepts ID tokens.

oidc access token error
Figure 17. Failed to parse JWT of type access_token

Change to ID tokens in your neo4j.conf:

dbms.security.oidc.{{provider}}.config=token_type_principal=id_token;token_type_authentication=id_token

When should identity tokens vs. access tokens be used?

It is generally safer to use access tokens when possible due to being shorter-lived. If authorization permissions change on the identity provider, Neo4j will fail authorization. Neo4j Browser will try to reconnect and reflect the changed permissions faster than if ID tokens were used.

How to debug further problems with the configuration

Apart from the logs available in logs/debug.log and logs/security.log in the Neo4j path, you can also use the web-development console in your web browser when doing the SSO authentication flow with Bloom or Neo4j Browser. However, this could reveal potential problems as the one presented below with an example identity provider and the Cross-Origin Request policy:

oidc cors error
Figure 18. CORS error

The solution involves adding the redirect domain to the list of allowed domains in the provider (in this case, localhost:8080):

oidc cors error solution
Figure 19. CORS error solution allowing the redirect domain on the provider