Description

This plugin allows sign in to WordPress using a JSON Web Token (JWT) contained
in a HTTP Header that is added by a reverse proxy that sits in front of your
WordPress deployment.

Authentication and optionally role assignment is handled by claims contained in
the JWT.

If configured, the plugin also validates the JWT aud and iss claims against
the expected application audience and JWT issuer values.

Verification of the JWT is handled by either:

a shared secret for HS256 (as per RFC 7518 this must be at least 256-bits in
size)
a PEM encoded public key for RS256
retrieving a JSON Web Key Set (JWKS) from a configured URL (also for RS256)

During the login process if the user does not exist an account will be created
with a matching role from the JWT, unless automatic user creation has been
disabled in the plugin settings.

If the JWT did not contain a role claim then user is created with the role set
in the plugin settings (by default this is the subscriber role).

Automatic user creation is enabled by default for backwards compatibility. It
can be disabled when user provisioning should remain manual.

Screenshots

This example shows a configuration with a WordPress install behind
Cloudflare Access for SSO via JWT — This example shows a configuration with a WordPress install behind Cloudflare Access for SSO via JWT

FAQ

What header is the JWT retrieved from?

By default the plugin looks for the JWT in the Authorization header as follows:

Authorization: Bearer <JWT Here>

However the token may be retrieved from a configurable HTTP header, for example integration with Cloudflare Access, which was the original target for this plugin, you would configure the use of the Cf-Access-Jwt-Assertion header.

What claims should the JWT contain?

The JWT must contain at least an email claim and may also contain a role claim:

{
    "iss": "example.com",
    "aud": "example-audience-id",
    "email": "admin@example.com",
    "iat": 1356999524,
    "nbf": 1357000000,
    "role": "admin"
}

The aud and iss claims are only required when a JWT Audience and/or Issuer value has been configured in the plugin settings, however as they are standard JWT claims it is recommended to set these options to verify those claims exist and are valid.

What signature algorithms are supported to verify the JWT?

Currently only the HS256 and RS256 algorithms are supported.

Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

Contributors & Developers

“AH JWT Auth” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

andrewheberle

Translate “AH JWT Auth” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

2.2.0

Spelling fixes and hardening
Add option to enforce JWT auth (ie “fail-closed”) rather than falling
through to WordPress authentication.

2.1.0

Add option to verify JWT issuer

2.0.0

Breaking Change: Any secrets that are less than 256-bits (32-characters)
in length will fail JWT HS256 verification

1.6.0

Added option to verify JWT Audience (AUD)
Added option to disable automatic user creation

1.5.4

Fix bug that meant role was not being set based on selection

1.5.3

Make JWKS refresh function public

1.5.1

Fixes for JWKS refresh process

1.5.0

Add WP cron job to refresh JWKS daily

1.4.1

Update dependencies to resolve security issue

1.3.1

Clean-ups and bug fixes

1.3.0

Allow setting default role for auto-created users

1.2.2

Version bump for plugin update on WordPress.org

1.2.1

Version bump for plugin update on WordPress.org

1.2.0

Fix a bug where an invalid JSON response from JWKS URL was cached leading to broken SSO

1.1.0

Make login process more efficient by skipping JWT verify/login if user is already authenticated

1.0.3

Initial release on WordPress.org

1.0.2

Added internationalisation for strings
Changes based on WordPress.org plugin submission feedback

1.0.1

Added more error checking

1.0.0

First version