- Status: Draft #1
- JIRA: KEYCLOAK-7159
W3C Web Authentication or WebAuthn for short is getting a lot of attention lately and it is becoming more and more important that Keycloak provides support for WebAuthn.
WebAuthn can provide stronger authentication than traditional authentication mechanisms like password and OTP. It is also resistant to phishing attacks.
This is due to there not being any shared secret between the user and the server, but rather a public/private keypair that is unique to the user and one web server.
WebAuthn has received attention from all major browser vendors and they already have or will soon have built-in support.
Another interesting aspect of WebAuthn is that it enables using different devices through a standard protocol.
WebAuthn can be used for Two-Factor authentication in combination with a password or it can be used for a passwordless experience.
The Two-Factor experience is the most commonly requested today and it is also the easiest flow to achieve within Keycloak. As such Keycloak should focus on first adding support for Two-Factor with WebAuthn.
Keycloak has some limitations when it comes to two factor authentication. The login flows and the account management console assumes a single two factor authenticator associated with an account, which out of the box is a software generated OTP through an application like Google Authenticator.
User should be able to register multiple two factor authenticators with their account, and select one as the default. When prompted for two factor the user should be prompted with the default authenticator, but should have an option to switch to any of the authenticators configured for their account.
Keycloak also does not currently deal well with enabling custom two factor authenticators to be added. First issue here is the Account Console does not support customizing. Second issue is that the authentication flows does not allow flexiblity allowing users to choose between different authenticators. Finally, it's not trivial for admins to configure what two factor authentication mechanisms should be supported in the realm. This is currently done by creating custom authentication flows, but ideally should be an option on the realm to enable/disable available two factor authenticators.
- KEYCLOAK-9358 SPIKE Investigate W3C Web Authentication libraries
- KEYCLOAK-9359 SPIKE Investigate how to test Web Authentication
- KEYCLOAK-9360 Two factor authentication with W3C Web Authentication
The first step will be to implement an authenticator for Keycloak that can be used as a replacement for the current OTP authenticator.
As we do not have support for managing two factor devices through the Account Console, initially the admin is required to register a required action against a user account for the user to be prompted to setup WebAutn.
This will include researching what Java WebAuthn libraries can be used. There are currently two of interest:
We also need to be able to do automated functional tests for the integration. This should ideally involve a real browser and an emulated device so that we can verify registration flows and authentication flows, including JS parts of WebAuthn libraries.
- KEYCLOAK-9692 Initiate registration of Security Key from application
First step to improve here will be to allow applications, including the Keycloak Account Console, to initiate the registration of the Security Key instead of requiring the admin to do it.
This will be done by adding support for Application Initiated Actions, which allows application to request a user to perform an action like registering the Security Key through a standard OAuth redirect flow.
- KEYCLOAK-6197 New Account console
Through the Account Console users should be able to add and remove two factor authenticators supported by the realm. This functionality will be added to the new Account Console, but will most likely not be added to the old console.
- KEYCLOAK-565 Allow users to have multiple two factor authenticators
Users should be able to register multiple two factor authenticators to their account and choose which authenticator to use during login.
An admin should be able to easily configure what two factor authenticators should be supported in a realm. This should not require creating complex authentication flows, but should be a simple list where the admin can add/remove authenticators.
An admin should be able to view two factor authenticators configured for a user. An admin should also be able to remove a specific authenticator for the user.