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One Identity Safeguard for Privileged Sessions 7.2.1 - REST API Reference Guide

Introduction Using the SPS REST API Basic settings User management and access control Managing SPS General connection settings HTTP connections Citrix ICA connections MSSQL connections RDP connections SSH connections Telnet connections VNC connections Search, retrieve, download, and index sessions Reporting Health and maintenance Advanced authentication and authorization Completing the Welcome Wizard using REST Enable and configure analytics using REST REST API examples

Using the SPS REST API

The following sections give you a general overview of how the SPS REST API works.

Authenticate to the SPS REST API

Prerequisites:
  • The REST server must permit password authentication to the SPS web interface. If only certificate-based authentication is permitted, see Authenticate to the SPS REST API using X.509 certificate.

    To check the permitted authentication method, query the /api/authentication/login_methods endpoint.

    For more information, see Listing SPS login methods.

  • You can access the REST server on the same IP address and port that you use to access the SPS web interface. Note that management (administrator) access must be enabled on the interface. For details on configuring management access, see "Configuring user and administrator login addresses" in the Administration Guide.

  • For the user to have full access over the SPS REST API, they must have the REST server privilege. The user privileges on the web UI and REST API are synchronized. For example, if the user has the ICA Control / Connections privilege then they can access this page on the web UI and also the /api/configuration/ica/connections endpoint on the REST API.For details, see "Modifying group privileges" in the Administration Guide.

  • Note that the system time of SPS and the client must be synchronized. The authentication cookie is valid for twenty minutes, and both SPS and most REST clients validate this. As a result, if the system time of SPS and the client is significantly different from each other, the authentication seems to be successful, but you will not be able to actually access SPS. (If the session_id is missing from the cookies file, check the system clocks.)

  • Make sure that user credentials are encoded in UTF-8.

The authentication procedure:
  1. To authenticate on the SPS REST server, send a GET request over HTTPS using the basic HTTP authentication method, including your username and password to the /api/authentication resource.

  2. If the authentication is successful, the server returns the 200 status code, and a meta object in the response body. Also, the HTTP headers of the response include an HTTP cookie named session_id. This cookie is used to identify the client in every subsequent HTTP request.

  3. For every subsequent request, include the session_id header with the value of the received session ID. For example:

    session_id 087658d7e30cdc2552b015dd761b6f7ccb25bbd5
  4. The authenticated session times out after 20 minutes of inactivity.

    Note that the system time of SPS and the client must be synchronized. The authentication cookie is valid for twenty minutes, and both SPS and most REST clients validate this. As a result, if the system time of SPS and the client is significantly different from each other, the authentication seems to be successful, but you will not be able to actually access SPS. (If the session_id is missing from the cookies file, check the system clocks.)

URL
GET https://<IP-address-of-SPS>/api/authentication
Headers

Header name

Description

Required

Values

Authorization

Contains the username and password of the user

Required

The string Basic followed by the username:password encoded using the RFC2045-MIME. For example, Basic YWRtaW46YQ==

Sample request
Example: Authenticate to the SPS REST server using curl

The following command authenticates on SPS using the curl HTTP client. The --insecure option used in the example is used to bypass verifying the certificate of SPS. (Alternatively, you can use the --cacert option or the CURL_CA_BUNDLE environment variable to specify the Certificate Authority to verify the certificate of SPS. For details, see the curl man page).

When using the REST API in production environments, make sure to download the CA certificate of SPS from Basic Settings > Management > SSL certificate > CA X.509 certificate, and validate the certificate of SPS using this CA certificate, or with the CA certificate you used to sign the Server X.509 certificate of SPS.

curl --basic --user <username>:<password> --cookie-jar cookies --insecure https://<SPS-IP-address>/api/authentication

The cookie containing the session ID is also received (you can display it for example with the tail -l cookies command).

localhost  FALSE  /  FALSE  1395325830  session_id  600dc0ffeec0ffeec0ffeec0ffeec0ffeec0ffee

The following command retrieves the configuration of SPS, using the session ID received during the authentication.

curl --cookie cookies --insecure https://<IP-address-of-SPS>/api/configuration
Response

The following is a sample response received if the authentication is successful.

For more information on the meta object, see Message format.

{
  "meta": {
     "href": "/api",
     "next": "/api",
     "transaction": "/api/transaction"
  }
}
Authenticate with SPS login methods

You can use different login methods (local, LDAP, RADIUS, or X.509) to authenticate to SPS. To determine which login methods are available to you on SPS, use the Listing SPS login methods endpoint to list them.

URL
https://<IP-address-of-SPS>/api/authentication?login_method=<name-of-the-login-method>&type=<password|x509>

Query parameters related to the /authentication endpoint:

  • ?type=<password|x509>

    Where each value indicates the means of authentication to SPS:

    • password - You have to send the username and password in a Basic Authorization header.

    • x509 - You have to identify yourself with a client certificate

  • ?login_method=<name-of-the-login-method>

    A unique identifier for the login method. For example, x509_with_ldap_groups_name.

Example: Authenticating with password

The following command authenticates the user to SPS with local login.

curl --user <username>:<password> https://<IP-address-of-SPS>/api/authentication?login_method=example_login_method&type=password
Example: Authenticating with a x509 certificate

The following command authenticates the user to SPS with a x509 certificate.

curl --key <private-key.pem> --cert <x509-certificate.pem> https://<IP-address-of-SPS>/api/authentication?login_method=example_login_method&type=x509
Response

In all four examples, the following sample response is received if the authentication is successful.

{
"meta": {
    "href": "/api/authentication",
    "next": "/api",
    "remaining_seconds": 600,
    "transaction": "/api/transaction"
}
 

The HTTP response code is 302 Moved Temporarily. An HTTP response with this status code provides a redirect URL in the header field Location.

For more information on the meta object, see Message format.

Status and error codes

The following table lists the typical status and error codes for this request. For a complete list of error codes, see Application level error codes.

Code

Description

Notes

200

OK

Successful authentication

400

InvalidAuthenticationRequest

Unable to authenticate: no valid credentials found.

401

AuthenticationFailure

Authenticating the user with the given credentials has failed.

405

MethodNotAllowed

You tried using an unsupported HTTP method. Use the GET method for authentication.

Authenticate to the SPS REST API using X.509 certificate

Prerequisites:
  • The REST server must permit certificate authentication to the SPS web interface. If only password-based authentication is permitted, see Authenticate to the SPS REST API.

    To check the permitted authentication method, query the /api/authentication/login_methods endpoint.

    For more information, see Listing SPS login methods.

  • You can access the REST server on the same IP address and port that you use to access the SPS web interface. Note that management (administrator) access must be enabled on the interface. For details on configuring management access, see "Configuring user and administrator login addresses" in the Administration Guide.

  • For the user to have full access over the SPS REST API, they must have the REST server privilege. The user privileges on the web UI and REST API are synchronized. For example, if the user has the ICA Control / Connections privilege then they can access this page on the web UI and also the /api/configuration/ica/connections endpoint on the REST API.For details, see "Modifying group privileges" in the Administration Guide.

  • Note that the system time of SPS and the client must be synchronized. The authentication cookie is valid for twenty minutes, and both SPS and most REST clients validate this. As a result, if the system time of SPS and the client is significantly different from each other, the authentication seems to be successful, but you will not be able to actually access SPS. (If the session_id is missing from the cookies file, check the system clocks.)

  • Make sure that user credentials are encoded in UTF-8.

The authentication procedure:
  1. To authenticate on the SPS REST server, send an HTTPS GET request, including your certificate to the /api/authentication?type=x509 resource. The certificate must be signed by the Trusted CA certificate that is configured on the Users & Access Control > Settings > X.509 > AUTHENTICATION CA field of the SPS web interface, or the /api/configuration/aaa/settings resource.

  2. If the authentication is successful, the server responds with an HTTP 302 redirect to the /api/ resource, and also , sets an HTTP cookie named session_id. This cookie is used to identify the client in every subsequent HTTP request. The response body also includes a meta object.

  3. For every subsequent request, include the session_id header with the value of the received session ID. For example:

    session_id 087658d7e30cdc2552b015dd761b6f7ccb25bbd5
  4. The authenticated session times out after 20 minutes of inactivity.

    Note that the system time of SPS and the client must be synchronized. The authentication cookie is valid for twenty minutes, and both SPS and most REST clients validate this. As a result, if the system time of SPS and the client is significantly different from each other, the authentication seems to be successful, but you will not be able to actually access SPS. (If the session_id is missing from the cookies file, check the system clocks.)

URL
GET https:<IP-address-of-SPS>/api/authentication
Headers
Header name Description Required Values
Authorization Contains the username and password of the user Required The string Basic followed by the username:password encoded using the RFC2045-MIME. For example, Basic YWRtaW46YQ==
Sample request
Example: Authenticate to the SPS REST server using curl

The following command authenticates on SPS using the curl HTTP client. The --insecure option used in the example is used to bypass verifying the certificate of SPS. (Alternatively, you can use the --cacert option or the CURL_CA_BUNDLE environment variable to specify the Certificate Authority to verify the certificate of SPS. For details, see the curl man page).

When using the REST API in production environments, make sure to download the CA certificate of SPS from Basic Settings > Management > SSL certificate > CA X.509 certificate, and validate the certificate of SPS using this CA certificate, or with the CA certificate you used to sign the Server X.509 certificate of SPS.

curl --basic --user <username>:<password> --cookie-jar cookies --insecure https://<SPS-IP-address>/api/authentication

The cookie containing the session ID is also received (you can display it for example with the tail -l cookies command).

localhost  FALSE  /  FALSE  1395325830  session_id  600dc0ffeec0ffeec0ffeec0ffeec0ffeec0ffee

The following command retrieves the configuration of SPS, using the session ID received during the authentication.

curl --cookie cookies --insecure https://<IP-address-of-SPS>/api/configuration
Response

The following is a sample response received if the authentication is successful.

For more information on the meta object, see Message format.

{
  "meta": {
     "href": "/api",
     "next": "/api",
     "transaction": "/api/transaction"
  }
}
Status and error codes

The following table lists the typical status and error codes for this request. For a complete list of error codes, see Application level error codes.

Code Description Notes
302 OK Successful authentication. If the authentication is successful, the server returns the 302 status code, and a meta object in the response body. Also, the HTTP headers of the response include an HTTP cookie named session_id. This cookie is used to identify the client in every subsequent HTTP request. The Location header in the response is /api/.
400 InvalidAuthenticationRequest Unable to authenticate: no valid credentials found. SPS returns this message if password fallback is enabled for the admin user, but the admin tries to authenticate with a certificate on the /api/authentication endpoint. To authenticate with a certificate, use the /api/authentication?type=x509 endpoint.
401 AuthenticationFailure Authenticating the user with the given credentials has failed.
405 MethodNotAllowed You tried using an unsupported HTTP method. Use the GET method for authentication.

Listing SPS login methods

List login methods (local, LDAP, RADIUS, or X.509) to determine which login methods are available to you to authenticate to SPS. For more information on authentication, see Authenticate to the SPS REST API.

URL
GET https://<IP-address-of-SPS>/api/authentication/login_methods
Cookies
Cookie name Description Required Values
session_id Contains the authentication token of the user Required

The value of the session ID cookie received from the REST server in the authentication response, for example, a1f71d030e657634730b9e887cb59a5e56162860. For more information on authentication, see Authenticate to the SPS REST API.

NOTE: This session ID refers to the connection between the REST client and the SPS REST API. It is not related to the sessions that SPS records (and which also have a session ID, but in a different format).

Sample request

The following command lists available login methods in SPS.

curl -X GET https://<IP-address-of-SPS>/api/authentication/login_methods
Response

The following is a sample response received if the request is successful.

For more information on the meta object, see Message format.

 {
                "login_methods": [
                    {
                        "name": "local",
                        "title": "Local login",
                        "authentication": "local",
                        "credential": "password"
                    },
                    {
                        "name": "x509_name",
                        "title": "X509 login",
                        "authentication": "x509",
                        "credential": "x509"
                    },
                    {
                        "name": "x509_with_ldap_groups_name",
                        "title": "X509 login ldap groups",
                        "authentication": "x509",
                        "credential": "x509"
                    },
                    {
                        "name": "radius_with_local_groups_name",
                        "title": "Radius login with local groups",
                        "authentication": "radius",
                        "credential": "password"
                    },
                    {
                        "name": "radius_with_ldap_groups_name",
                        "title": "Radius login with ldap groups",
                        "authentication": "radius",
                        "credential": "password"
                    },
 
                ],
                "meta": {
                    "href": "/api/authentication/login_methods",
                    "next": "/api/authentication"
                }
            }
 

Elements of the response message body include:

Element

Type

Description

Notes

login_methods

object array

A list of available SPS login methods.

 

login_methods.name

string

A unique identifier for the login method.

 

login_methods.title

string

The title that appears above the login method button on the SPS web interface. This can be customized.

In the case of X.509 login method, there is only one button.

login_methods.authentication

enum

The login method used for authentication.

 

credential

enum

The type of credential used for authentication.

Possible values are:

  • password

    Send the username and password in a Basic Authorization header.

  • x509

    Use a X.509 certificate for authentication.

HTTP response codes

For more information and a list of standard HTTP response codes, see Application level error codes.

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