Customizing the authentication flow using blocking functions
This document shows you how to extend Identity Platform authentication using blocking Cloud Run functions.
Blocking functions let you execute custom code that modifies the result of a user registering or signing in to your app. For example, you can prevent a user from authenticating if they don't meet certain criteria, or update a user's information before returning it to your client app.
Before you begin
Create an app with Identity Platform. See the Quickstart to learn how.
Understanding blocking functions
You can register blocking functions for two events:
beforeCreate
: Triggers before a new user is saved to the Identity Platform database, and before a token is returned to your client app.beforeSignIn
: Triggers after a users credentials are verified, but before Identity Platform returns an ID token to your client app. If your app uses multi-factor authentication, the function triggers after the user verifies their second factor. Note that creating a new user also triggersbeforeSignIn
, in addition tobeforeCreate
.
Keep the following in mind when using blocking functions:
Your function must respond within 7 seconds. After 7 seconds, Identity Platform returns an error, and the client operation fails.
HTTP response codes other than
200
are passed to your client apps. Ensure your client code handles any errors your function can return.Functions apply to all users in your project, including any contained in a tenant. Identity Platform provides information about users to your function, including any tenants they belong to, so you can respond accordingly.
Linking another identity provider to an account re-triggers any registered
beforeSignIn
functions. This does not include email and password providers.Anonymous and custom authentication do not support blocking functions.
If you are also using asynchronous functions, the user object that an asynchronous function receives does not contain updates from the blocking function.
Creating a blocking function
The following steps demonstrates how to create a blocking function:
Go to the Identity Platform Settings page in the Google Cloud console.
Select the Triggers tab.
To create a blocking function for user registration, select the Function dropdown under Before create (beforeCreate), and then click Create function. To create a blocking function for user sign-in, create a function under Before sign in (beforeSignIn).
Create a new function:
Enter a Name for your function.
In the Trigger field, select HTTP.
In the Authentication field, select Allow unauthenticated invocations.
Click Next.
Using the inline editor, open
index.js
. Delete the examplehelloWorld
code, and replace it with one of the following:To respond to registration:
import gcipCloudFunctions from 'gcip-cloud-functions'; const authClient = new gcipCloudFunctions.Auth(); exports.beforeCreate = authClient.functions().beforeCreateHandler((user, context) => { // TODO });
To respond to sign-in:
import gcipCloudFunctions from 'gcip-cloud-functions'; const authClient = new gcipCloudFunctions.Auth(); exports.beforeSignIn = authClient.functions().beforeSignInHandler((user, context) => { // TODO });
Open
package.json
and add the following dependencies block: For the latest SDK version, seegcip-cloud-functions
.{ "type": "module", "name": ..., "version": ..., "dependencies": { "gcip-cloud-functions": "^0.2.0" } }
Set the entry point of the function to
beforeSignIn
Click Deploy to publish your function.
Click Save on the Identity Platform blocking functions page.
See the following sections to learn how to implement your function. You must re-deploy your function each time you update it.
You can also create and manage functions using the Google Cloud CLI or the REST API. See the Cloud Run functions documentation to learn how to use the Google Cloud CLI to deploy a function.
Getting user and context information
The beforeSignIn
and beforeCreate
events provide User
and EventContext
objects that contain information about the user signing in. Use these values
in your code to determine whether to allow an operation to proceed.
For a list of properties available on the User
object, see the
UserRecord
API reference.
The EventContext
object contains the following properties:
Name | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
locale |
The application locale. You can set the locale using the Client SDK, or by passing the locale header in the REST API. | fr or sv-SE |
ipAddress
| The IP address of the device the end user is registering or signing in from. | 114.14.200.1 |
userAgent
| The user agent triggering the blocking function. | Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) |
eventId
| The event's unique identifier. | rWsyPtolplG2TBFoOkkgyg |
eventType
|
The event type. This provides information on the event name, such as
beforeSignIn or beforeCreate , and the
associated sign-in method used, like Google or email/password.
|
providers/cloud.auth/eventTypes/user.beforeSignIn:password
|
authType
| Always USER . |
USER
|
resource
| The Identity Platform project or tenant. |
projects/project-id/tenants/tenant-id
|
timestamp
| The time the event was triggered, formatted as an RFC 3339 string. | Tue, 23 Jul 2019 21:10:57 GMT
|
additionalUserInfo
| An object containing information about the user. |
AdditionalUserInfo
|
credential
| An object containing information about the user's credential. |
AuthCredential
|
Blocking registration or sign-in
To block a registration or sign-in attempt, throw an HttpsError
in your
function. For example:
Node.js
throw new gcipCloudFunctions.https.HttpsError('permission-denied');
The following table lists the errors you can raise, along with their default error message:
Name | Code | Message |
---|---|---|
invalid-argument |
400 |
Client specified an invalid argument. |
failed-precondition |
400 |
Request can not be executed in the current system state. |
out-of-range |
400 |
Client specified an invalid range. |
unauthenticated |
401 |
Missing, invalid, or expired OAuth token. |
permission-denied |
403 |
Client does not have sufficient permission. |
not-found |
404 |
Specified resource is not found. |
aborted |
409 |
Concurrency conflict, such as a read-modify-write conflict. |
already-exists |
409 |
The resource that a client tried to create already exists. |
resource-exhausted |
429 |
Either out of resource quota or reaching rate limiting. |
cancelled |
499 |
Request cancelled by the client. |
data-loss |
500 |
Unrecoverable data loss or data corruption. |
unknown |
500 |
Unknown server error. |
internal |
500 |
Internal server error. |
not-implemented |
501 |
API method not implemented by the server. |
unavailable |
503 |
Service unavailable. |
deadline-exceeded |
504 |
Request deadline exceeded. |
You can also specify a custom error message:
Node.js
throw new gcipCloudFunctions.https.HttpsError('permission-denied', 'Unauthorized request origin!');
The following example shows how to block users who are not within a specific domain from registering for your app:
Node.js
// Import the Cloud Auth Admin module.
import gcipCloudFunctions from 'gcip-cloud-functions';
// Initialize the Auth client.
const authClient = new gcipCloudFunctions.Auth();
// Http trigger with Cloud Functions.
exports.beforeCreate = authClient.functions().beforeCreateHandler((user, context) => {
// If the user is authenticating within a tenant context, the tenant ID can be determined from
// user.tenantId or from context.resource, eg. 'projects/project-id/tenant/tenant-id-1'
// Only users of a specific domain can sign up.
if (!user.email.endsWith('@acme.com')) {
throw new gcipCloudFunctions.https.HttpsError('invalid-argument', `Unauthorized email "${user.email}"`);
}
});
Regardless of whether you use a default or custom message, Cloud Run functions wraps the error and returns it to the client as an internal error. For example, if you raise the following error in your function:
throw new gcipCloudFunctions.https.HttpsError('invalid-argument', `Unauthorized email user@evil.com}`);
An error similar to the following is returned to your client app (if you are using the Client SDK, the error is wrapped as an internal error):
{
"error": {
"code": 400,
"message": "BLOCKING_FUNCTION_ERROR_RESPONSE : HTTP Cloud Function returned an error. Code: 400, Status: \"INVALID_ARGUMENT\", Message: \"Unauthorized email user@evil.com\"",
"errors": [
{
"message": "BLOCKING_FUNCTION_ERROR_RESPONSE : HTTP Cloud Function returned an error. Code: 400, Status: \"INVALID_ARGUMENT\", Message: \"Unauthorized email user@evil.com\"",
"domain": "global",
"reason": "invalid"
}
]
}
}
Your app should catch the error, and handle it accordingly. For example:
JavaScript
// Blocking functions can also be triggered in a multi-tenant context before user creation.
// firebase.auth().tenantId = 'tenant-id-1';
firebase.auth().createUserWithEmailAndPassword('johndoe@example.com', 'password')
.then((result) => {
result.user.getIdTokenResult()
})
.then((idTokenResult) => {
console.log(idTokenResult.claim.admin);
})
.catch((error) => {
if (error.code !== 'auth/internal-error' && error.message.indexOf('Cloud Function') !== -1) {
// Display error.
} else {
// Registration succeeds.
}
});
Modifying a user
Instead of blocking a registration or sign-in attempt, you can allow the
operation to continue, but modify the User
object that is saved to
Identity Platform's database and returned to the client.
To modify a user, return an object from your event handler containing the fields to modify. You can modify the following fields:
displayName
disabled
emailVerified
photoURL
customClaims
sessionClaims
(beforeSignIn
only)
With the exception of sessionClaims
, all modified fields are saved to
Identity Platform's database, which means they are included on the response
token and persist between user sessions.
The following example shows how to set a default display name:
Node.js
exports.beforeCreate = authClient.functions().beforeCreateHandler((user, context) => {
return {
// If no display name is provided, set it to "guest".
displayName: user.displayName || 'guest'
};
});
If you register an event handler for both beforeCreate
and beforeSignIn
,
note that beforeSignIn
executes after beforeCreate
. User fields updated in
beforeCreate
are visible in beforeSignIn
. If you set a field other than
sessionClaims
in both event handlers, the value set in beforeSignIn
overwrites the value set in beforeCreate
. For sessionClaims
only, they are
propagated to the current session's token claims, but are not persisted or
stored in the database.
For example, if any sessionClaims
are set, beforeSignIn
will return them
with any beforeCreate
claims, and they will be merged. When they're merged, if
a sessionClaims
key matches a key in customClaims
, the matching
customClaims
will be overwritten in the token claims by the sessionClaims
key. However, the overwritten customClaims
key is still persisted in the
database for future requests.
Supported OAuth credentials and data
You can pass OAuth credentials and data to blocking functions from various identity providers. The following table shows what credentials and data are supported for each identity provider:
Identity Provider | ID Token | Access Token | Expiration Time | Token Secret | Refresh Token | Sign-in Claims |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | |
No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | |
No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | |
GitHub | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Microsoft | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | |
Yahoo | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
Apple | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
SAML | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
OIDC | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Refresh tokens
To use a refresh token in a blocking function, you must first select the checkbox in the Triggers section of the Include token credentials dropdown menu in the Google Cloud console.
Refresh tokens will not be returned by any identity providers when signing in directly with an OAuth credential, such as an ID token or access token. In this situation, the same client-side OAuth credential will be passed to the blocking function. However, for 3-legged flows, a refresh token might be available if the identity provider supports it.
The following sections describe each identity provider types and their supported credentials and data.
Generic OIDC providers
When a user signs in with a generic OIDC provider, the following credentials will be passed:
- ID token: Provided if the
id_token
flow is selected. - Access token: Provided if the code flow is selected. Note that the code flow is only currently supported via the REST API.
- Refresh token: Provided if the
offline_access
scope is selected.
Example:
const provider = new firebase.auth.OAuthProvider('oidc.my-provider');
provider.addScope('offline_access');
firebase.auth().signInWithPopup(provider);
When a user signs in with Google, the following credentials will be passed:
- ID token
- Access token
- Refresh token: Only provided if the following custom parameters are
requested:
access_type=offline
prompt=consent
, if the user previously consented and no new scope was requested
Example:
const provider = new firebase.auth.GoogleAuthProvider();
provider.setCustomParameters({
'access_type': 'offline',
'prompt': 'consent'
});
firebase.auth().signInWithPopup(provider);
Learn more about Google refresh tokens.
When a user signs in with Facebook, the following credential will be passed:
- Access token: An access token is returned that can be exchanged for another access token. Learn more about the different types of access tokens supported by Facebook and how you can exchange them for long-lived tokens.
GitHub
When a user signs in with GitHub, the following credential will be passed:
- Access token: Does not expire unless revoked.
Microsoft
When a user signs in with Microsoft, the following credentials will be passed:
- ID token
- Access token
- Refresh token: Passed to the blocking function if the
offline_access
scope is selected.
Example:
const provider = new firebase.auth.OAuthProvider('microsoft.com');
provider.addScope('offline_access');
firebase.auth().signInWithPopup(provider);
Yahoo
When a user signs in with Yahoo, the following credentials will be passed without any custom parameters or scopes:
- ID token
- Access token
- Refresh token
When a user signs in with LinkedIn, the following credential will be passed:
- Access token
Apple
When a user signs in with Apple, the following credentials will be passed without any custom parameters or scopes:
- ID token
- Access token
- Refresh token
Common scenarios
The following examples demonstrate some common use cases for blocking functions:
Only allowing registration from a specific domain
The following example shows how to prevent users who aren't part of the
example.com
domain from registering with your app:
Node.js
exports.beforeCreate = authClient.functions().beforeCreateHandler((user, context) => {
if (!user.email || user.email.indexOf('@example.com') === -1) {
throw new gcipCloudFunctions.https.HttpsError(
'invalid-argument', `Unauthorized email "${user.email}"`);
}
});
Blocking users with unverified emails from registering
The following example shows how to prevent users with unverified emails from registering with your app:
Node.js
exports.beforeCreate = authClient.functions().beforeCreateHandler((user, context) => {
if (user.email && !user.emailVerified) {
throw new gcipCloudFunctions.https.HttpsError(
'invalid-argument', `Unverified email "${user.email}"`);
}
});
Requiring email verification on registration
The following example shows how to require a user to verify their email after registering:
Node.js
exports.beforeCreate = authClient.functions().beforeCreateHandler((user, context) => {
const locale = context.locale;
if (user.email && !user.emailVerified) {
// Send custom email verification on sign-up.
return admin.auth().generateEmailVerificationLink(user.email).then((link) => {
return sendCustomVerificationEmail(user.email, link, locale);
});
}
});
exports.beforeSignIn = authClient.functions().beforeSignInHandler((user, context) => {
if (user.email && !user.emailVerified) {
throw new gcipCloudFunctions.https.HttpsError(
'invalid-argument', `"${user.email}" needs to be verified before access is granted.`);
}
});
Treating certain identity provider emails as verified
The following example shows how to treat user emails from certain identity providers as verified:
Node.js
exports.beforeCreate = authClient.functions().beforeCreateHandler((user, context) => {
if (user.email && !user.emailVerified && context.eventType.indexOf(':facebook.com') !== -1) {
return {
emailVerified: true,
};
}
});
Blocking sign-in from certain IP addresses
The following example how block sign-in from certain IP address ranges:
Node.js
exports.beforeSignIn = authClient.functions().beforeSignInHandler((user, context) => {
if (isSuspiciousIpAddress(context.ipAddress)) {
throw new gcipCloudFunctions.https.HttpsError(
'permission-denied', 'Unauthorized access!');
}
});
Setting custom and session claims
The following example shows how to set custom and session claims:
Node.js
exports.beforeCreate = authClient.functions().beforeCreateHandler((user, context) => {
if (context.credential &&
context.credential.providerId === 'saml.my-provider-id') {
return {
// Employee ID does not change so save in persistent claims (stored in
// Auth DB).
customClaims: {
eid: context.credential.claims.employeeid,
},
// Copy role and groups to token claims. These will not be persisted.
sessionClaims: {
role: context.credential.claims.role,
groups: context.credential.claims.groups,
}
}
}
});
Tracking IP addresses to monitor suspicious activity
You can prevent token theft by tracking the IP address a user signs in from, and comparing it to the IP address on subsequent requests. If the request appears suspicious — for example, the IPs are from from different geographical regions — you can ask the user to sign in again.
Use session claims to track the IP address the user signs in with:
Node.js
exports.beforeSignIn = authClient.functions().beforeSignInHandler((user, context) => { return { sessionClaims: { signInIpAddress: context.ipAddress, }, }; });
When a user attempts to access resources that require authentication with Identity Platform, compare the IP address in the request with the IP used to sign in:
Node.js
app.post('/getRestrictedData', (req, res) => { // Get the ID token passed. const idToken = req.body.idToken; // Verify the ID token, check if revoked and decode its payload. admin.auth().verifyIdToken(idToken, true).then((claims) => { // Get request IP address const requestIpAddress = req.connection.remoteAddress; // Get sign-in IP address. const signInIpAddress = claims.signInIpAddress; // Check if the request IP address origin is suspicious relative to // the session IP addresses. The current request timestamp and the // auth_time of the ID token can provide additional signals of abuse, // especially if the IP address suddenly changed. If there was a sudden // geographical change in a short period of time, then it will give // stronger signals of possible abuse. if (!isSuspiciousIpAddressChange(signInIpAddress, requestIpAddress)) { // Suspicious IP address change. Require re-authentication. // You can also revoke all user sessions by calling: // admin.auth().revokeRefreshTokens(claims.sub). res.status(401).send({error: 'Unauthorized access. Please login again!'}); } else { // Access is valid. Try to return data. getData(claims).then(data => { res.end(JSON.stringify(data); }, error => { res.status(500).send({ error: 'Server error!' }) }); } }); });
Screening user photos
The following example shows how to sanitize users' profile photos:
Node.js
exports.beforeCreate = authClient.functions().beforeCreateHandler((user, context) => {
if (user.photoURL) {
return isPhotoAppropriate(user.photoURL)
.then((status) => {
if (!status) {
// Sanitize inappropriate photos by replacing them with guest photos.
// Users could also be blocked from sign-up, disabled, etc.
return {
photoURL: PLACEHOLDER_GUEST_PHOTO_URL,
};
}
});
});
To learn more about how to detect and sanitize images, see the Cloud Vision documentation.
Accessing a user's identity provider OAuth credentials
The following example demonstrates how to obtain a refresh token for a user that signed in with Google, and use it to call the Google Calendar APIs. The refresh token is stored for offline access.
Node.js
const {OAuth2Client} = require('google-auth-library');
const {google} = require('googleapis');
const gcipCloudFunctions = require('gcip-cloud-functions');
// ...
// Initialize Google OAuth client.
const keys = require('./oauth2.keys.json');
const oAuth2Client = new OAuth2Client(
keys.web.client_id,
keys.web.client_secret
);
exports.beforeCreate = authClient.functions().beforeCreateHandler((user, context) => {
if (context.credential &&
context.credential.providerId === 'google.com') {
// Store the refresh token for later offline use.
// These will only be returned if refresh tokens credentials are included
// (enabled by Cloud console).
return saveUserRefreshToken(
user.uid,
context.credential.refreshToken,
'google.com'
)
.then(() => {
// Blocking the function is not required. The function can resolve while
// this operation continues to run in the background.
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
// For this operation to succeed, the appropriate OAuth scope should be requested
// on sign in with Google, client-side. In this case:
// https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar
// You can check granted_scopes from within:
// context.additionalUserInfo.profile.granted_scopes (space joined list of scopes).
// Set access token/refresh token.
oAuth2Client.setCredentials({
access_token: context.credential.accessToken,
refresh_token: context.credential.refreshToken,
});
const calendar = google.calendar('v3');
// Setup Onboarding event on user's calendar.
const event = {/** ... */};
calendar.events.insert({
auth: oauth2client,
calendarId: 'primary',
resource: event,
}, (err, event) => {
// Do not fail. This is a best effort approach.
resolve();
});
});
})
}
});
What's next
- Extend authentication with asynchronous functions.
- Learn more about Cloud Run functions.