Obtaining User Profile Information with OpenID Connect

OpenID Connect is an authentication protocol that is a simple identity layer on top of the OAuth 2.0 protocol. It allows clients to verify the identity of the end-user based on the authentication performed by an authorization server, as well as to obtain basic profile information about the end-user in an interoperable and REST-like manner.

You can use WSO2 API Manager to obtain basic profile information about the user who generates the access token. To obtain this information, the openid scope needs to be passed, when generating the access token. API manager will send a JWT which contains information about the user who is generating the token, as part of the response for this request. You can configure the information returned with the JWT token.

Follow the instructions below to obtain user profile information with OpenID connect with WSO2 API Manager.

1. Obtain a token using password grant type and openid scope. For more information on token generation with password grant type, see Password Grant Type. The format of the cURL command and a sample is given below :

   
   You will receive a response in the fowmat shown below. Note that the id_token parameter contains the JWT related to user information.
   
   

   {
     "access_token": "83705add-d77e-3cc8-9b6a-53d210ed3fed",
     "refresh_token": "4b283fb8-942f-316d-ba90-44b4c76ae419",
     "scope": "openid",
     "id_token": "eyJ4NXQiOiJObUptT0dVeE16WmxZak0yWkRSaE5UWmxZVEExWXpkaFpUUmlPV0UwTldJMk0ySm1PVGMxWkEiLCJraWQiOiJkMGVjNTE0YTMyYjZmODhjMGFiZDEyYTI4NDA2OTliZGQzZGViYTlkIiwiYWxnIjoiUlMyNTYifQ.eyJhdF9oYXNoIjoiY1hoV0l2SXdSYlBnVDBBTG1hekpIUSIsImFjciI6InVybjptYWNlOmluY29tbW9uOmlhcDpzaWx2ZXIiLCJzdWIiOiJzdWJzY3JpYmVyQGNhcmJvbi5zdXBlciIsImF1ZCI6WyJLb05EbGVTckYzbmFYV3doYXZhbzRiQm9NWWNhIl0sImF6cCI6IktvTkRsZVNyRjNuYVhXd2hhdmFvNGJCb01ZY2EiLCJvcmdhbml6YXRpb24iOiJXU08yIiwiaXNzIjoiaHR0cHM6XC9cLzE3Mi4xNi4yLjExMTo5NDQzXC9vYXV0aDJcL3Rva2VuIiwiZXhwIjoxNTExOTUwNDEzLCJpYXQiOjE1MTE5NDY4MTMsImVtYWlsIjoic3ViMUBnbWFpbC5jb20ifQ.gdj0jn4PX5R4j5Y0ZNyEwi2G-NPq3_iW89NqkRxeszdcMLvDP-ncRWMaYyUYc-bQqADekTdQUC6ACSVUlJBKau3Oy8uu-AO8pajIm-hWEX_PBqoMRtFztxggmKFaL6G0rdRBIu8LzL5lbX2cTKss_zYwNmcPDsKDWdQDmL089Wg",
     "token_type": "Bearer",
     "expires_in": 3600
   }

2. The following two options are available to view the actual user information.
   

Decoding the id_token

By decoding the id_token, a payload similar to the following can be obtained, with user information such as email, organization, etc. 

{
  "at_hash": "cXhWIvIwRbPgT0ALmazJHQ",
  "acr": "urn:mace:incommon:iap:silver",
  "sub": "user1@carbon.super",
  "aud": [
    "KoNDleSrF3naXWwhavao4bBoMYca"
  ],
  "azp": "KoNDleSrF3naXWwhavao4bBoMYca",
  "organization": "WSO2",
  "iss": "https://172.16.2.111:9443/oauth2/token",
  "exp": 1511950413,
  "iat": 1511946813,
  "email": "user1@gmail.com"
}

For an online tool to decode the JWT, go to https://jwt.io/ 

Invoking the userinfo endpoint

You can obtain user information as a payload by invoking the userinfo endpoint with the access token obtained in step 1. The format of the cURL command and a sample is given below

The response will be a JSON payload as shown below:

{
  "sub": "user1@carbon.super",
  "organization": "WSO2",
  "email": "user1@gmail.com"
}