Master Key APIs

Problem Statement

Currently content update is done by the user who created it which creates problem and is complex in scenarios where an admin want to update content by retired user. There should be an easy way to allow users to update content at the same time it should have authentication.

Solution Approach

approach 1 :

There should be a way to allow certain operations and for that we need to maintain master keys. These master keys would be created and stored through API by admin and would be used by anyone to bypass the current authentication mechanism which restricts some flow.

There should be APIs to create, fetch and verify the master key.

create API

POST /v1/masterkey/create

Request body : 

{
	request : {
		"channel" : "sunbird"
	}
}

Response body : (Success) 200

{
  "id": "api.masterkey.create",
  "ver": "v1",
  "ts": "2019-01-29 09:17:31:909+0000",
  "params": {
    "resmsgid": null,
    "msgid": "9db786d3-45c2-447d-b657-f9768da15652",
    "err": null,
    "status": "success",
    "errmsg": null
  },
  "responseCode": "OK",
  "result": {
		"key" : "1fb786d3-45c2-447d-b657-f9768da15348",
		"expiresOn":  604800
	}
}

Response body : (Error) 400

{
    "id": "api.masterkey.create",
    "ver": "v1",
    "ts": "2018-01-29 11:12:31:853+0000",
    "params": {
        "resmsgid": null,
        "msgid": "8e27cbf5-e299-43b0-bca7-8347f7e5abcf",
        "err": "KEY_EXISTS",
        "status": "KEY_EXISTS",
        "errmsg": "Key exists for given channel sunbird"
    },
    "responseCode": "CLIENT_ERROR",
    "result": {
        }
}

The key would be stored in DB with the argument passed

Table Structure

column	type	description
channel	text	primary key consist channel name
key	text	master key generated
createdby	text	user who created the master key
createddate	timestamp	created time

In addition a TTL will be put on the entry for a set time configured in properties file

get API

GET /v1/masterkey/{channel}

Response body : (Success) 200

{
  "id": "api.masterkey",
  "ver": "v1",
  "ts": "2019-01-29 09:17:31:909+0000",
  "params": {
    "resmsgid": null,
    "msgid": "9db786d3-45c2-447d-b657-f9768da15652",
    "err": null,
    "status": "success",
    "errmsg": null
  },
  "responseCode": "OK",
  "result": {
		"key" : "1fb786d3-45c2-447d-b657-f9768da15348",
		"expiresOn":  604800
	}
}

Response body : (Error) 404

{
    "id": "api.masterkey",
    "ver": "v1",
    "ts": "2018-01-29 11:12:31:853+0000",
    "params": {
        "resmsgid": null,
        "msgid": "8e27cbf5-e299-43b0-bca7-8347f7e5abcf",
        "err": "KEY_NOT_EXISTS",
        "status": "KEY_NOT_EXISTS",
        "errmsg": "Key does not exists for given channel sunbird"
    },
    "responseCode": "RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND",
    "result": {
        }
}

verify API

POST /v1/masterkey/verify

Request body : 

{
	request : {
		"channel" : "sunbird",
		"key" : "1fb786d3-45c2-447d-b657-f9768da15348"
	}
}

Response body : (Success) 200

{
  "id": "api.masterkey.verify",
  "ver": "v1",
  "ts": "2019-01-29 09:17:31:909+0000",
  "params": {
    "resmsgid": null,
    "msgid": "9db786d3-45c2-447d-b657-f9768da15652",
    "err": null,
    "status": "success",
    "errmsg": null
  },
  "responseCode": "OK",
  "result": {
	}
}

Response body : (Error) 400

{
    "id": "api.masterkey.create",
    "ver": "v1",
    "ts": "2018-01-29 11:12:31:853+0000",
    "params": {
        "resmsgid": null,
        "msgid": "8e27cbf5-e299-43b0-bca7-8347f7e5abcf",
        "err": "INVALID_KEY",
        "status": "KEY_NOT_EXISTS",
        "errmsg": "Provided key for channel sunbird is invalid"
    },
    "responseCode": "CLIENT_ERROR",
    "result": {
        }
}

approach 2:

Previous approach is configured to create a master key only based on channel. This can be modified to create a master key based on organisation too. The changes we will have is we can pass type in the request too. The generated key will be stored with type and value as (channel, abc) or (orgId, "org01")

Request body : 

{
	request : {
		"value" : "sunbird", 
		"type" : "channel"  //channel or orgId
	}
}

get API will be modified to include the type

GET /v1/masterkey/{type}/{value}

The verify API will include additional type parameter

{
	request : {
		"value" : "sunbird",
		"type" : "channel",
		"key" : "1fb786d3-45c2-447d-b657-f9768da15348"
	}
}

This also means that table will have another column "type" and it will be used to fetch key accordingly.

Other behavior remains same

approach 3:

In previous two approaches we are considering a master key which will be expired after certain duration. But it can be modified to include a refresh token which can be used to generate a new master key. Note that refresh token has it's own expiry, post that it requires to create a new master key and refresh token by create API call.

The benefit of this is that it helps in mitigate leaking of master key by making the expiry duration of short intervals.

POST /v1/masterkey/create

Request body : 

{
	request : {
		"channel" : "sunbird"
	}
}

Response body : (Success) 200

{
  "id": "api.masterkey.create",
  "ver": "v1",
  "ts": "2019-01-29 09:17:31:909+0000",
  "params": {
    "resmsgid": null,
    "msgid": "9db786d3-45c2-447d-b657-f9768da15652",
    "err": null,
    "status": "success",
    "errmsg": null
  },
  "responseCode": "OK",
  "result": {
		"key" : "1fb786d3-45c2-447d-b657-f9768da15348",
		"expiresOn":  120,
		"refreshToken": "3ab586d3-45c2-447d-b657-g9768da13730"
	}
}

request to regenerate the key need refresh token

{
	request : {
		"channel" : "sunbird",
		"refreshToken": "3ab586d3-45c2-447d-b657-g9768da13730"
	}
}

Response body (Success : 200)

{
  "id": "api.masterkey.create",
  "ver": "v1",
  "ts": "2019-01-29 11:17:31:909+0000",
  "params": {
    "resmsgid": null,
    "msgid": "9db786d3-45c2-447d-b657-f9769da15652",
    "err": null,
    "status": "success",
    "errmsg": null
  },
  "responseCode": "OK",
  "result": {
		"key" : "3gh686e3-45c2-447d-b657-b3364da84351",
		"expiresOn":  120,
		"refreshToken": "3ab586d3-45c2-447d-b657-g9768da13730"
	}
}

There would be a TTL on the refresh token, so as the entry gets removed after refresh token expiry and then it would require to create a fresh entry.

get API response

{
  "id": "api.masterkey.create",
  "ver": "v1",
  "ts": "2019-01-29 11:18:31:909+0000",
  "params": {
    "resmsgid": null,
    "msgid": "9db786d3-45c2-447d-b657-f9769da15652",
    "err": null,
    "status": "success",
    "errmsg": null
  },
  "responseCode": "OK",
  "result": {
		"key" : "3gh686e3-45c2-447d-b657-b3364da84351",
		"expiresOn":  30,
		"refreshToken": "3ab586d3-45c2-447d-b657-g9768da13730"
	}
}

Response for expired key : (Error) 400

{
    "id": "api.masterkey.create",
    "ver": "v1",
    "ts": "2018-01-29 11:21:31:853+0000",
    "params": {
        "resmsgid": null,
        "msgid": "8e27cbf5-e299-43b0-bca7-8347f7e5abcf",
        "err": "INVALID_KEY",
        "status": "INVALID_KEY",
        "errmsg": "Either the key doesn't exists or it has been expired"
    },
    "responseCode": "CLIENT_ERROR",
    "result": {
        }
}

Table structure

column	type	description
channel	text	primary key as channel name
key	text	master key generated
refresh_token	text	refresh token generated
key_expiry	timestamp	time when current master key will be expired
createdby	text	user id of the user who created the entry
createdon	timestamp	time when entry was created