Python API: Authorization

By Luciano Balmaceda

This tutorial demonstrates how to add authorization to a Python API built with Flask.We recommend that you log in to follow this quickstart with examples configured for your account.

New to Auth0? Learn how Auth0 works and read about implementing API authentication and authorization using the OAuth 2.0 framework.

Configure Auth0 APIs

Create an API

In the APIs section of the Auth0 dashboard, click Create API. Provide a name and an identifier for your API, for example, https://quickstarts/api. You will use the identifier as an audience later, when you are configuring the Access Token verification. Leave the Signing Algorithm as RS256.

By default, your API uses RS256 as the algorithm for signing tokens. Since RS256 uses a private/public keypair, it verifies the tokens against the public key for your Auth0 account. The public key is in the JSON Web Key Set (JWKS) format, and can be accessed here.

Define permissions

Permissions let you define how resources can be accessed on behalf of the user with a given access token. For example, you might choose to grant read access to the messages resource if users have the manager access level, and a write access to that resource if they have the administrator access level.

You can define allowed permissions in the Permissions view of the Auth0 Dashboard’s APIs section.

This example uses the read:messages scope.

This example demonstrates:

• How to check for a JSON Web Token (JWT) in the Authorization header of an incoming HTTP request.
• How to check if the token is valid, using the JSON Web Key Set (JWKS) for your Auth0 account. To learn more about validating Access Tokens, see Validate Access Tokens.

Validate Access Tokens

Install dependencies

Add the following dependencies to your requirements.txt:

# /requirements.txt

flask==2.3.3
python-dotenv
pyjwt
flask-cors
six

Create a Flask application

Create a server.py file and initialize the Flask application. Set the domain, audience and the error handling.

Python

# /server.py

import json
from six.moves.urllib.request import urlopen
from functools import wraps

from flask import Flask, request, jsonify, _request_ctx_stack
from flask_cors import cross_origin
import jwt

AUTH0_DOMAIN = '{yourDomain}'
API_AUDIENCE = YOUR_API_AUDIENCE
ALGORITHMS = ["RS256"]

APP = Flask(__name__)

# Error handler
class AuthError(Exception):
    def __init__(self, error, status_code):
        self.error = error
        self.status_code = status_code

@APP.errorhandler(AuthError)
def handle_auth_error(ex):
    response = jsonify(ex.error)
    response.status_code = ex.status_code
    return response

Create the JWT validation decorator

Add a decorator which verifies the Access Token against your JWKS.

Python

# /server.py

# Format error response and append status code
def get_token_auth_header():
    """Obtains the Access Token from the Authorization Header
    """
    auth = request.headers.get("Authorization", None)
    if not auth:
        raise AuthError({"code": "authorization_header_missing",
                        "description":
                            "Authorization header is expected"}, 401)

    parts = auth.split()

    if parts[0].lower() != "bearer":
        raise AuthError({"code": "invalid_header",
                        "description":
                            "Authorization header must start with"
                            " Bearer"}, 401)
    elif len(parts) == 1:
        raise AuthError({"code": "invalid_header",
                        "description": "Token not found"}, 401)
    elif len(parts) > 2:
        raise AuthError({"code": "invalid_header",
                        "description":
                            "Authorization header must be"
                            " Bearer token"}, 401)

    token = parts[1]
    return token

def requires_auth(f):
    """Determines if the Access Token is valid
    """
    @wraps(f)
    def decorated(*args, **kwargs):
        token = get_token_auth_header()
        jsonurl = urlopen("https://"+AUTH0_DOMAIN+"/.well-known/jwks.json")
        jwks = json.loads(jsonurl.read())
        unverified_header = jwt.get_unverified_header(token)
        public_key = None
        for key in jwks["keys"]:
            if key["kid"] == unverified_header["kid"]:
                public_key = jwt.algorithms.RSAAlgorithm.from_jwk(json.dumps(jwk))
        if public_key:
            try:
                payload = jwt.decode(
                    token,
                    public_key,
                    algorithms=ALGORITHMS,
                    audience=API_AUDIENCE,
                    issuer="https://"+AUTH0_DOMAIN+"/"
                )
            except jwt.ExpiredSignatureError:
                raise AuthError({"code": "token_expired",
                                "description": "token is expired"}, 401)
            except jwt.InvalidAudienceError:
                raise AuthError({"code": "invalid_audience",
                                "description":
                                    "incorrect audience,"
                                    " please check the audience"}, 401)
            except jwt.InvalidIssuerError
                raise AuthError({"code": "invalid_issuer",
                                "description":
                                    "incorrect issuer,"
                                    " please check the issuer"}, 401)
            except Exception:
                raise AuthError({"code": "invalid_header",
                                "description":
                                    "Unable to parse authentication"
                                    " token."}, 401)

            _request_ctx_stack.top.current_user = payload
            return f(*args, **kwargs)
        raise AuthError({"code": "invalid_header",
                        "description": "Unable to find appropriate key"}, 401)
    return decorated

Validate scopes

Individual routes can be configured to look for a particular scope in the Access Token by using the following:

Python

# /server.py

def requires_scope(required_scope):
    """Determines if the required scope is present in the Access Token
    Args:
        required_scope (str): The scope required to access the resource
    """
    token = get_token_auth_header()
    unverified_claims = jwt.decode(token, options={"verify_signature": False})
    if unverified_claims.get("scope"):
            token_scopes = unverified_claims["scope"].split()
            for token_scope in token_scopes:
                if token_scope == required_scope:
                    return True
    return False

Protect API Endpoints

The routes shown below are available for the following requests:

• GET /api/public: available for non-authenticated requests
• GET /api/private: available for authenticated requests containing an access token with no additional scopes
• GET /api/private-scoped: available for authenticated requests containing an access token with the read:messages scope granted

You can use the decorators and functions define above in the corresponding endpoints.

Python

# Controllers API

# This doesn't need authentication
@APP.route("/api/public")
@cross_origin(headers=["Content-Type", "Authorization"])
def public():
    response = "Hello from a public endpoint! You don't need to be authenticated to see this."
    return jsonify(message=response)

# This needs authentication
@APP.route("/api/private")
@cross_origin(headers=["Content-Type", "Authorization"])
@requires_auth
def private():
    response = "Hello from a private endpoint! You need to be authenticated to see this."
    return jsonify(message=response)

# This needs authorization
@APP.route("/api/private-scoped")
@cross_origin(headers=["Content-Type", "Authorization"])
@requires_auth
def private_scoped():
    if requires_scope("read:messages"):
        response = "Hello from a private endpoint! You need to be authenticated and have a scope of read:messages to see this."
        return jsonify(message=response)
    raise AuthError({
        "code": "Unauthorized",
        "description": "You don't have access to this resource"
    }, 403)

What can you do next?

Configure other identity providers	Enable multifactor authentication
Learn about attack protection	Learn about rules

Edit on GitHub

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