with-openid-connect

Authorizer as a standards-compliant OIDC provider

This example treats Authorizer as just another OpenID Provider: a small Express app built on the certified openid-client library (v6, pinned) consumes it exactly the way it would consume Auth0, Okta, or Keycloak. No Authorizer SDK, no Authorizer-specific endpoints.

What "OIDC compliance" means here

The RP relies only on standard behavior, all of which Authorizer implements (server source: internal/http_handlers/{openid_config,authorize,token,userinfo,jwks,logout}.go):

1. Discovery (OIDC Discovery 1.0) — GET /.well-known/openid-configuration publishes issuer + all endpoints; the RP hardcodes nothing but the issuer URL.
2. Authorization Code + PKCE (OIDC Core §3.1, RFC 7636) — response_type=code with code_challenge_method=S256, state, and nonce.
3. Token endpoint (RFC 6749 §4.1.3) — form-encoded code exchange; openid-client then validates the ID token: RS256 signature against jwks_uri, iss, aud, exp, and the nonce round-trip (OIDC Core §3.1.3.7). at_hash is present and checked too.
4. UserInfo (OIDC Core §5.3) — bearer GET /userinfo; the returned sub is verified against the ID token's sub (§5.3.2, a MUST).
5. RP-initiated logout (OIDC RP-Initiated Logout 1.0) — discovery advertises end_session_endpoint; the RP redirects there with id_token_hint + post_logout_redirect_uri. With a valid id_token_hint Authorizer logs the session out and 302s straight back — no confirmation page.

Discovery values to expect

From a stock instance (make dev, http://localhost:8080):

Field	Value
issuer	the URL the request hit (see pitfall #3)
authorization_endpoint	{issuer}/authorize
token_endpoint	{issuer}/oauth/token
userinfo_endpoint	{issuer}/userinfo
jwks_uri	{issuer}/.well-known/jwks.json
end_session_endpoint	{issuer}/logout
code_challenge_methods_supported	["S256", "plain"]
id_token_signing_alg_values_supported	configured --jwt-type, always incl. RS256
token_endpoint_auth_methods_supported	client_secret_basic, client_secret_post, none (public + PKCE), private_key_jwt
response_modes_supported	query, fragment, form_post, web_message
scopes_supported	openid, email, profile, offline_access

Run it

Prereqs: Node ≥ 20, an Authorizer server from main:

# in the authorizer server repo
make dev        # :8080, client-id/secret + allowed-origins preconfigured for :8090

Then:

npm install
cp .env.example .env   # make-dev defaults already filled in
npm start
# open http://localhost:8090 and click "Log in with Authorizer"

You'll land on Authorizer's hosted login page; after signup/login you're redirected back and the page renders the validated ID-token claims and the /userinfo response. "Log out (RP-initiated)" ends the session on both sides.

The RP client here is the instance's boot-seeded interactive client (--client-id/--client-secret). The .env.example values are the public make dev development defaults — replace them for any real deployment.

Common pitfalls

1. PKCE downgrades to plain when the method is omitted. Per RFC 7636 §4.2 an authorization request carrying code_challenge but no code_challenge_method means the plain method, and Authorizer follows the RFC (it exists for clients that can't compute SHA-256 — Auth0 sometimes omits the method, for example). If you hand-roll requests, always send code_challenge_method=S256 explicitly; this example does (see buildAuthorizationUrl in server.js).

2. form_post breaks behind CSP-injecting proxies. With response_mode=form_post Authorizer serves an auto-submitting HTML form with a purpose-built Content-Security-Policy (nonce-based script-src, relaxed form-action) so the browser may POST to your redirect_uri. A reverse proxy that injects its own CSP header on top will silently break the form submission. This example uses the default query response mode, which has no such failure mode.

3. issuer follows the request host. Authorizer derives iss (and all discovery URLs) from the host the request hit. Do discovery through the same URL end users use, or ID-token iss validation will fail — relevant behind proxies and inside docker networks.

4. redirect_uri must be an allowed origin. Authorizer validates redirect_uri against --allowed-origins; an unknown origin gets invalid redirect_uri at /authorize. make dev already allows localhost:8090; add your RP's host otherwise. The same list gates post_logout_redirect_uri — an invalid one is ignored (per the RP-Initiated Logout spec), not an error.

5. Plain-HTTP issuers need an explicit opt-in. openid-client v6 refuses http:// by default; the demo passes allowInsecureRequests for localhost. Never do that against a production issuer.

Files

server.js       the whole RP: discovery, /login, /callback, /logout (~150 lines)
.env.example    make-dev defaults (fake/dev credentials only)