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    Karthik Varma
    Which API tells, if the user is authorized or not?Answered
    Topic posted June 18, 2019 by Karthik VarmaGold Medal: 3,500+ Points, last edited June 18, 2019, tagged Cloud at Customer, Compute, Developer Tools 
    106 Views, 9 Comments
    Title:
    Which API tells, if the user is authorized or not?
    Content:

    Currently, I am making an API call to fetch Region Subscription List and if the call status is 200, I am assuming, he is a valid user. Is this the correct way of doing authentication?

    Best Comment

    Jon-Eric Eliker

    Once thing that every user can do is view their own user profile.  Therefore you should find that this API call works for all authenticated users even without any explicit policies in effect:

    https://identity.us-ashburn-1.oraclecloud.com/20160918/users/YOUR_USER_OCID_HERE

    Find documentation for this method here: https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/iaas/api/#/en/identity/20160918/User/GetUser

    Certainly, change out the API endpoint to the region of your preference.

    Jon-Eric
    Mythics, Inc.

    Comment

     

    • Damon G. Brown

      Status 200 simply means "accepted" or "success"; you would receive a 401 or an explicit user error if your user cannot call the API.  More info here:

      https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/iaas/Content/API/References/apierrors.htm

      https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/iaas/Content/API/Concepts/workrequests.htm

      • Karthik Varma

        Thanks for the inputs. So, to conclude we can make any API call and if call status is 200 (Successs), user is authorized. Any API Call is fine?

    • Kumar Dhanagopal

      Karthik,

      Authorization in OCI is implemented via IAM policies. Each policy statement grants a specific user group the permission to perform a specific action (e.g., manage, inspect, delete) on a specific resource type, in a specific compartment.

      For example, if an API request to delete a VCN in compartment A returns 403 (unauthorized), then it means that there's no policy statement that allows this user to delete VCNs in compartment X. That's it. The result of this API request doesn't give any indication of whether or not the user is authorized to perform any action on any other resource-compartment combination.

      I wish we had a way to query and get all the permissions that a given user has. Unfortunately, that capability doesn't exist today.

      I hope this helps.

      • Karthik Varma

        Thanks for the valuable inputs @Kumar. So instead of making an API on specific resource type in a compartment, can i make API call on global resources (like Compartment, ListRegionSubscriptions) to check if he is a valid user? 

        I also agree that for resource type specific calls, he may or may not be authorized as per the policies.

        • Kumar Dhanagopal

          Karthik,

          You're welcome!

          Note that the policy syntax supports defining permissions at a very granular level:

          Allow <subject> to <verb> <resource-type> in <location> where <conditions>

          For what you call "global" resources (e.g., compartments), the location would be the tenancy, not any specific compartment.

          Say you define the following policy:

          Allow group mygroup to manage compartments in tenancy

          The users in mygroup can create, inspect, read, and use any compartments in the tenancy. That's it. By itself, this policy doesn't grant the users in mygroup any other permission.

    • Jon-Eric Eliker

      Once thing that every user can do is view their own user profile.  Therefore you should find that this API call works for all authenticated users even without any explicit policies in effect:

      https://identity.us-ashburn-1.oraclecloud.com/20160918/users/YOUR_USER_OCID_HERE

      Find documentation for this method here: https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/iaas/api/#/en/identity/20160918/User/GetUser

      Certainly, change out the API endpoint to the region of your preference.

      Jon-Eric
      Mythics, Inc.

     

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