Skip to main content

Set up GitHub for Authentication

Users in your GitHub tenant can access applications registered in SecureAuth. In this setup, GitHub acts as an external Identity Provider for SecureAuth, following the Bring Your Own Identity (BYOID) model. Follow these steps to configure the integration.

About GitHub as OIDC Identity Provider

OAuth applications registered in GitHub are natively supported by SecureAuth as OIDC Identity Providers, which means that it has a dedicated connection template in SecureAuth, for your convenience. GitHub OAuth applications implement the OIDC protocol, providing the proof of user authentication to SecureAuth within an ID Token and Access Token.

The client authorization flow with SecureAuth connected to GitHub looks as follows:

About_GitHub_as_OIDC_Identity_Provider.svg

  1. Client app requests the authorization code from SecureAuth.

  2. SecureAuth requests the authorization code from GitHub IDP.

  3. GitHub authenticates the user and asks for consent to share data with SecureAuth.

  4. GitHub issues the code to SecureAuth after user's authentication.

  5. SecureAuth requests tokens from GitHub using the provided code.

  6. GitHub issues the tokens to SecureAuth.

  7. Optionally, SecureAuth uses the token to pull user's group membership information - only when the Fetch groups option is selected in the connector.

  8. SecureAuth asks for user consent to share data with the client app, unless the client app is marked as trusted or the requested scopes were already granted for this app.

  9. SecureAuth issues the authorization code to the client app.

  10. Client app requests the tokens from SecureAuth.

  11. SecureAuth issues the tokens to the client app. SecureAuth tokens are minted based on the incoming GitHub tokens with claims mapped to SecureAuth's authentication context.

The following steps in the flow are optional:

  • SecureAuth only pulls group information if this option is explicitly enabled in the GitHub connector configuration, as explained later in this document.

  • SecureAuth only asks for consent if the client application is not marked as trusted and requests scopes which were not granted previously (or scopes for which the user's consent has been withdrawn).

Prerequisites

  • You have an OAuth application registered with your GitHub account. Follow GitHub documentation for help.

    Authorization Callback URL for GitHub Application

    When prompted for the Authorization Callback URL in GitHub, use the Redirect URL from SecureAuth once you have registered a GitHub connection in SecureAuth.

Connect GitHub IDP

Basic Configuration

  1. In your workspace, go to Authentication > Providers > Create Connection.

  2. Select the GitHub template and click Next.

  3. Use the Redirect URL as Authorization Callback URL in GitHub to complete connecting the OAuth application on GitHub side.

  4. In the Register OpenID Connect form, enter the Issuer URL, Client ID, and Client Secret.

    Parameter

    Description

    Name

    Name for your SecureAuth's GitHub connection. This name allows users to identify the IDP they need to authenticate with.

    Client ID

    Client ID of the OAuth application registered with GitHub

    Client secret

    Secret of OAuth application registered with GitHub

  5. Optionally, enable Authentication context caching.

    Tip

    You can enable the authentication context caching if you wish to store the user's authentication context locally. If you do, specify the cache Time To Live as well. Learn more by reading Stateful authorization with SecureAuth.

  6. Select Save.

    Result: Your new IDP connection is created. Users can now authenticate via the OIDC-compliant IDP.

Configure Advanced Settings

Advanced settings contain optional features which may be necessary to use in specific cases.

  1. From the Authentication > Providers > YOUR_IDENTITY_PROVIDER > Configuration page, select Advanced settings at the bottom.

  2. In the Scopes field, add additional scopes to be returned in the IDP response after user authentication.

    Note

    Since multiple clients can use the same Add server-side web applicationIDP for user authentication, you may need to further restrict specific client's ability to request a given scope. For more information, read about Configuring applications in SecureAuth.

  3. In the Authentication Method Reference you can select an authentication method to be written into the amr object returned by the IDP.

    The amr object is created if it doesn't exist. If it exists, its values are replaced with the selected item.

  4. Optionally, enable the Fetch groups option.

    Shared Group Data

    With this option enabled, GitHub shares organization, team membership, and private project boards with the client registered with SecureAuth after user's approval.

  5. Select Save.

Add Custom IDP Attributes

If your IDP returns custom claims outside of the standard GitHub scope, make sure to add them to the IDP connector so that they can be recognized and mapped to the authentication context.

  1. Go to Authentication > Providers and select an IDP from the list.

  2. Open the Attributes page. A standard list of attributes returned by this IDP appears.

  3. Select Add attribute.

  4. In Source, select the data source for the custom attribute

    Source

    Description

    Access token

    Get data from the access token received from the IDP

    ID token

    Get data from the ID token received from the IDP

    GitHub authenticated user data

    Get user data returned by the GitHub user API (note that this must be explicitly enabled on the IDP connector)

  5. Fill in the rest of the form.

    Option

    Description

    Claim name

    Name of your custom attribute matching the incoming IDP claim

    Display name

    User-friendly name for the custom attribute

    Data type

    Data type matching that of the incoming IDP claim

    Claim Names with . Character

    If the incoming attribute has a . character in the name, the dot must be explicitly escaped using \. when defining the IDP attribute. For example, claim name https://example.com/groups must be entered as https://example\.com/groups.

  6. Save your changes and proceed to mapping the attributes to the authentication context.

Map IDP Attributes to Authentication Context

If you've added custom attributes for an IDP, you need to make sure they are mapped to the SecureAuth authentication context. You can do it either from the IDP configuration page (as explained here) or use Data Lineage instead.

Default OIDC/SAML attributes are mapped out of the box.

  1. Go to Authentication > Providers and select an IDP from the list.

  2. Open the Mappings page. A standard attribute mapping for this IDP appears.

  3. Select Add mapping and map any custom IDP attributes to an existing authentication context attribute.

    Note

    If you need to create new authentication context attributes, read the Managing Authentication Context.

  4. Optionally, you can enrich authentication context before issuing the token to the client. Attributes returned by the script do not need to be separately mapped to the authentication context.

  5. Save your changes. Your mapped custom attributes should now be shared in the ID token issued to your client application, given that the target application requests them (you can check this in Data Lineage).

Connect Extensions to your IDP

  1. Go to Authentication > Providers > YOUR_IDP > Extensions.

  2. Assign a Post Authentication script to the IDP. This script will be executed upon user authentication via this IDP.

  3. Connect your application to the IDP in the Post Authentication application field. Users will be redirected to this application upon authentication via this IDP.

    Note

    Post Authentication applications must be explicitly enabled in your tenant using the custom_apps feature flag.

Test IDP

Prerequisite

  • Your provider is configured as a user-authentication method by your administrator.

  • Demo workspace is available.

Test

  1. Open the user portal.

  2. Select LOGIN TO DEMO APP.

  3. Select your configured GitHub IDP and, next, authenticate with GitHub IDP.

    Result: SecureAuth displays the consent page that lists data scopes to be shared with the application. When you proceed to the application (ALLOW ACCESS), the PII data coming from IDP is delivered through the access token and the ID token generated by SecureAuth.

    token_issued.png

Note

For information on granting and managing SecureAuth consents, see Consents.

In this section: