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OpenID Connect Hybrid Flow

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Last updated: Aug 01, 2024 by Shanggeeth KanagalingamVersion comment
4 min read

WSO2 Identity Server supports the OpenID Connect hybrid flow for authentication.

Specifying any of the  following  response_type  values in an authorization request selects the hybrid flow for authentication:

Warning

It is not recommended to use code token and code id_token token response types as they do not adhere to best practices and may introduce security risks.

To configure WSO2 Identity Server to support the OpenID Connect hybrid flow for authentication, you need to edit the <IS_HOME>/repository/conf/identity/identity.xml file and add the following entries under <!-- Supported Response Types -->:

<!-- Supported Response Types for Hybrid flow -->
            <SupportedResponseType>
                <ResponseTypeName>code token</ResponseTypeName>
                <ResponseTypeHandlerImplClass>org.wso2.carbon.identity.oauth2.authz.handlers.HybridResponseTypeHandler</ResponseTypeHandlerImplClass>
            </SupportedResponseType>
            <SupportedResponseType>
                <ResponseTypeName>code id_token</ResponseTypeName>
                <ResponseTypeHandlerImplClass>org.wso2.carbon.identity.oauth2.authz.handlers.HybridResponseTypeHandler</ResponseTypeHandlerImplClass>
            </SupportedResponseType>
            <SupportedResponseType>
                <ResponseTypeName>code id_token token</ResponseTypeName>
                <ResponseTypeHandlerImplClass>org.wso2.carbon.identity.oauth2.authz.handlers.HybridResponseTypeHandler</ResponseTypeHandlerImplClass>
            </SupportedResponseType>

To understand how the response_type  value specified in an authorization request selects the hybrid flow to be the authentication flow, let's take a look at the following response_type values in detail.

code token

This response_type requests a code and an access token from the authorization endpoint.

Following is a sample authorization request that uses code token as the response_type:

https://localhost:9443/oauth2/authorize?response_type=code token&client_id=<Client ID>&nonce=asd&redirect_uri=http://localhost:8080/playground2/oauth2client&scope=openid

Following is the sample response that you will receive on successful authorization:

http://localhost:8080/playground2/oauth2client#access_token=1940a308-d492-3660-a9f8-46723cc582e9&code=99b34587-5483-374d-8b25-50485498e761&token_type=Bearer&expires_in=299999&session_state=baae9a71cdabe38b4643b9d59bd9f65ffaf5a9b8c453f4256c085e5a1c57e624.-EA3ZqPzLvsk25CKmt56YA

You can send the code to the token endpoint to request for an access token, refresh token and id_token.

Following is the curl command to request tokens from the token endpoint:

curl -k -v — user <Client ID>:<Client secret> -d “grant_type=authorization_code&code=99b34587–5483–374d-8b25–50485498e761&redirect_uri=http://localhost:8080/playground2/oauth2client" https://localhost:9443/oauth2/token

The response from the token endpoint will be as follows:

{“access_token”:”1940a308-d492–3660-a9f8–46723cc582e9",”refresh_token”:”6b96cc3a-00da-3d7d-acd1–5aaf76dcd9d4",”scope”:”openid”,”id_token”:”eyJ4NXQiOiJOVEF4Wm1NeE5ETXlaRGczTVRVMVpHTTBNekV6T0RKaFpXSTRORE5sWkRVMU9HRmtOakZpTVEiLCJraWQiOiJOVEF4Wm1NeE5ETXlaRGczTVRVMVpHTTBNekV6T0RKaFpXSTRORE5sWkRVMU9HRmtOakZpTVEiLCJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiJ9.eyJhdF9oYXNoIjoiSnJaWTlNdFlWRUlJSlV4LUREQm13dyIsInN1YiI6ImFkbWluIiwiYXVkIjpbIm5jemJnNW01eHh0NnRQNFVNWndCNlB0UW9Rb2EiXSwiYXpwIjoibmN6Ymc1bTV4eHQ2dFA0VU1ad0I2UHRRb1FvYSIsImlzcyI6Imh0dHBzOlwvXC9sb2NhbGhvc3Q6OTQ0M1wvb2F1dGgyXC90b2tlbiIsImV4cCI6MTUxMDgzMTAxMCwibm9uY2UiOiJhc2QiLCJpYXQiOjE1MTA4MzEwMDd9.XKV0ioEvflR4MHGthO3cwXwC88msNgqR4l1O83mfhxOMtO1PG3ABWB5E4aFXFpR9t-8zJs09slhLsDTDhmC33KE8Die61UK9_Vb5aNA4XCkawyJt8dCX6clc6UUbTEO5N1ubXA18QFgwAEWpvoTz1hKx8XLnvOSehbdEKsoPunoHDmXpYJe_9hBg5V3kN-VHxdKdGOtl9u-Aml42s5p45cZY0mlFVcKjatBAf7hqWNPlUebyujDWG1Iyk_-AXNQ2wYi0F77uG7_HstP_tp0sOctu0TYCK8bwBTXEJYMPt1CqOqcae05m8N8hb0zs6Yxvyx_udCJPG-8n2zRB-T-kcg”,”token_type”:”Bearer”,”expires_in”:299494}

When you decrypt the id_token it will be as follows:

{
 “at_hash”: “JrZY9MtYVEIIJUx-DDBmww”,
 “sub”: “admin”,
 “aud”: [
 “nczbg5m5xxt6tP4UMZwB6PtQoQoa”
 ],
 “azp”: “nczbg5m5xxt6tP4UMZwB6PtQoQoa”,
 “iss”: “https://localhost:9443/oauth2/token",
 “exp”: 1510831010,
 “nonce”: “asd”,
 “iat”: 1510831007
}

There can be instances where you get two access tokens. One from the authorization endpoint and the other from the token endpoint. These two access tokens may or may not be same.

code id_token

This response_type requests a code and an id_token from the authorization endpoint.

Following is a sample authorization request that uses code id_token as the response_type:

https://localhost:9443/oauth2/authorize?response_type=code id_token&client_id=<Client ID>&nonce=asd&redirect_uri=http://localhost:8080/playground2/oauth2client&scope=openid

Following is the sample response that you will receive on successful authorization:

http://localhost:8080/playground2/oauth2client?code=16fd899f-5f0c-3114-875e-2547b629cd05&id_token=eyJ4NXQiOiJOVEF4Wm1NeE5ETXlaRGczTVRVMVpHTTBNekV6T0RKaFpXSTRORE5sWkRVMU9HRmtOakZpTVEiLCJraWQiOiJOVEF4Wm1NeE5ETXlaRGczTVRVMVpHTTBNekV6T0RKaFpXSTRORE5sWkRVMU9HRmtOakZpTVEiLCJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiJ9.eyJhdF9oYXNoIjoiSnJaWTlNdFlWRUlJSlV4LUREQm13dyIsImNfaGFzaCI6IlM1VU9YUk5OeVlzSTZaMEczeHhkcHciLCJzdWIiOiJhZG1pbiIsImF1ZCI6WyJuY3piZzVtNXh4dDZ0UDRVTVp3QjZQdFFvUW9hIl0sImF6cCI6Im5jemJnNW01eHh0NnRQNFVNWndCNlB0UW9Rb2EiLCJpc3MiOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbG9jYWxob3N0Ojk0NDNcL29hdXRoMlwvdG9rZW4iLCJleHAiOjE1MTA4MzE1MTIsIm5vbmNlIjoiYXNkIiwiaWF0IjoxNTEwODMxNTA4fQ.BsiXZwP_EFnNH-5r01z4P18OZbVY1WHOD1GSTrDa4-TxcSEuMOlvIQA54Poy0hUS8RCP46XB-WhUaOHQpvsHBj6CUCkNWAqJj5F-TetXUhONhnI0Hp7K3zofa_E5-ucFmUoKVwk-wFAMakKziIsX9P8v9-mi2kPlQPDyS3i7tkRlABS5emgbOSHxNsoKjdaglLT78zdARMFfF0i0oaDyRv9nfZIgSZJE1Qec99DA7engA43NJQCB1vMjF9Qruefyyjtq2abaLLRG6Yh6NeWDyIXkjjbHEcKxzBsKU6VqL84DqHHYFUwZ1nL2aLon1kHXUHgGfuhuBJ5qIwEtbZrQLw#session_state=d96bad64e37e82196898a824082aafbdd945c922e7d40cb4e0013d9fad6d68c8.o0_m4GJ1YJvNUUqg8k3LrQ

When you decrypt the id_token it will be as follows:

{
 “at_hash”: “JrZY9MtYVEIIJUx-DDBmww”,
 “c_hash”: “S5UOXRNNyYsI6Z0G3xxdpw”,
 “sub”: “admin”,
 “aud”: [
 “nczbg5m5xxt6tP4UMZwB6PtQoQoa”
 ],
 “azp”: “nczbg5m5xxt6tP4UMZwB6PtQoQoa”,
 “iss”: “https://localhost:9443/oauth2/token",
 “exp”: 1510831512,
 “nonce”: “asd”,
 “iat”: 1510831508
}

Tip

Here, the id_token is required to have a c_hash value.

c_hash is the base64url encoding of the left-most half of a hash of the octets in the ASCII representation of a code value, where the hash algorithm used is the hash algorithm of the alg header parameter of the ID token’s JOSE header.

The c_hash value is mandatory when an id_token is issued with code, and the response_type is equal to code id_token or code id_token token.

You can send the code to the token endpoint to request for an access token, refresh token and id_token. For this you can use the same curl command provided for the code token specified above.

Following is the response that you will receive from token endpoint:

{“access_token”:”1940a308-d492–3660-a9f8–46723cc582e9",”refresh_token”:”6b96cc3a-00da-3d7d-acd1–5aaf76dcd9d4",”scope”:”openid”,”id_token”:”eyJ4NXQiOiJOVEF4Wm1NeE5ETXlaRGczTVRVMVpHTTBNekV6T0RKaFpXSTRORE5sWkRVMU9HRmtOakZpTVEiLCJraWQiOiJOVEF4Wm1NeE5ETXlaRGczTVRVMVpHTTBNekV6T0RKaFpXSTRORE5sWkRVMU9HRmtOakZpTVEiLCJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiJ9.eyJhdF9oYXNoIjoiSnJaWTlNdFlWRUlJSlV4LUREQm13dyIsInN1YiI6ImFkbWluIiwiYXVkIjpbIm5jemJnNW01eHh0NnRQNFVNWndCNlB0UW9Rb2EiXSwiYXpwIjoibmN6Ymc1bTV4eHQ2dFA0VU1ad0I2UHRRb1FvYSIsImlzcyI6Imh0dHBzOlwvXC9sb2NhbGhvc3Q6OTQ0M1wvb2F1dGgyXC90b2tlbiIsImV4cCI6MTUxMDgzMjI3MSwibm9uY2UiOiJhc2QiLCJpYXQiOjE1MTA4MzIyNjd9.jAGLp8FFdIyFi4ZmvRPX9hVu8NbLVL2iM1895UNrS7wqgl2PCi7zHnvBoOYkbsxxMYGoVepFNzz7hHbk-kuzq_kBoBsZK2Ucbv0hUkwiEkigLy6hpGm-mqXjai3cjlJevWOVcZbMhkEyRlsZtdUG0RCzteT7emAuZLFm5zfMpq1h5JsVRGjK_6fQbHhB2Svkl_kV_ctAD8_kymASGEjRGnwGW5np4uBI0NPYMDTvrl8N9i6yfUVD9-y7rL9Gtrq9hK28Swj5Szvv_c1IX8wYBP-p8gu2cBpGIulIq-OkbfCUh-rrbh96relOaKwKwk0g7nST6o6wZTAwaicNQBYHYw”,”token_type”:”Bearer”,”expires_in”:298234}

When you decrypt the id_token it will be as follows:

{
 “at_hash”: “JrZY9MtYVEIIJUx-DDBmww”,
 “sub”: “admin”,
 “aud”: [
 “nczbg5m5xxt6tP4UMZwB6PtQoQoa”
 ],
 “azp”: “nczbg5m5xxt6tP4UMZwB6PtQoQoa”,
 “iss”: “https://localhost:9443/oauth2/token",
 “exp”: 1510832271,
 “nonce”: “asd”,
 “iat”: 1510832267
}

In case there are two id_tokens issued, where one id_token is from authorization endpoint and other is from token endpoint, be sure to perform the following validations based on the OpenID Connect specification:

  1. Ensure that the iss and sub claim values are identical in the two id_tokens.
  2. If any one of the id tokens contain claims about the end user, and are present in both, the values of the claims should be the same in both.
  3. All claims about the authentication event that is present in either should be present in both.
  4. The at_hash and c_hash claims may be omitted from the id token returned from the token endpoint even when the claims are present in the id token returned from the authorization endpoint.

code id_token token

This response_type requests a code, an access token and an id_token from the authorization endpoint.

Following is a sample authorization request that uses code id_token token as the response_type:

https://localhost:9443/oauth2/authorize?response_type=code id_token token&client_id=<Client ID>&nonce=asd&redirect_uri=http://localhost:8080/playground2/oauth2client&scope=openid

Following is the sample response that you will receive on successful authorization:

http://localhost:8080/playground2/oauth2client#access_token=1940a308-d492-3660-a9f8-46723cc582e9&code=55aa698d-ac3b-30ec-b4ca-f5e803590a4b&id_token=eyJ4NXQiOiJOVEF4Wm1NeE5ETXlaRGczTVRVMVpHTTBNekV6T0RKaFpXSTRORE5sWkRVMU9HRmtOakZpTVEiLCJraWQiOiJOVEF4Wm1NeE5ETXlaRGczTVRVMVpHTTBNekV6T0RKaFpXSTRORE5sWkRVMU9HRmtOakZpTVEiLCJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiJ9.eyJhdF9oYXNoIjoiSnJaWTlNdFlWRUlJSlV4LUREQm13dyIsImNfaGFzaCI6IlhDUnVTMmhFT0JfM0hkeG9FM0pxT2ciLCJzdWIiOiJhZG1pbiIsImF1ZCI6WyJuY3piZzVtNXh4dDZ0UDRVTVp3QjZQdFFvUW9hIl0sImF6cCI6Im5jemJnNW01eHh0NnRQNFVNWndCNlB0UW9Rb2EiLCJpc3MiOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbG9jYWxob3N0Ojk0NDNcL29hdXRoMlwvdG9rZW4iLCJleHAiOjE1MTA4MzMxNjQsIm5vbmNlIjoiYXNkIiwiaWF0IjoxNTEwODMzMTYwfQ.WgpDf07dDVqrJRBbe_EqLYAfuRQQ1GkBJzgxaIczLTU_e-HasS6e24l75P0Csv0i2gUXk_H9d8zyJ6zalp2geBUmJ1wXLJtELrp-wvVaHVj-_aLHXM_8bsjL-BTj_f-OUEpGiDsPh19GxcMWw6hOubM0JKMh6ZWbF_A7-7RWwlh3vvRSjHhzhWypfjfP1NGTByjICJWF31AbGgfBy7OUUDhOIURYZM0m5u0fmvvD4O8qah1zjTxUL6mLaalOZ7QNppPU7SmPgeSQnfNsxy5KCA_N1vYyNLxzs3NitcCZAOQ88XU2AF-W4Sykay0tp1qiI35mqHg2cYinNPEdrnCYyQ&token_type=Bearer&expires_in=297341&session_state=872ac70304690624d4b3e2c705b5f452043be5f758ddd2487aa193730d9ef809.IwoAA6ua4m5CRth0erWuxA

When you decrypt the id_token it will be as follows:

{
 “at_hash”: “JrZY9MtYVEIIJUx-DDBmww”,
 “c_hash”: “XCRuS2hEOB_3HdxoE3JqOg”,
 “sub”: “admin”,
 “aud”: [
 “nczbg5m5xxt6tP4UMZwB6PtQoQoa”
 ],
 “azp”: “nczbg5m5xxt6tP4UMZwB6PtQoQoa”,
 “iss”: “https://localhost:9443/oauth2/token",
 “exp”: 1510833164,
 “nonce”: “asd”,
 “iat”: 1510833160
}

You can send the code to the token endpoint to request for an access token, refresh token and id_token. You can use the same curl command provided for the code token specified above .

Following is the response that you will receive from token endpoint:

{“access_token”:”1940a308-d492–3660-a9f8–46723cc582e9",”refresh_token”:”6b96cc3a-00da-3d7d-acd1–5aaf76dcd9d4",”scope”:”openid”,”id_token”:”eyJ4NXQiOiJOVEF4Wm1NeE5ETXlaRGczTVRVMVpHTTBNekV6T0RKaFpXSTRORE5sWkRVMU9HRmtOakZpTVEiLCJraWQiOiJOVEF4Wm1NeE5ETXlaRGczTVRVMVpHTTBNekV6T0RKaFpXSTRORE5sWkRVMU9HRmtOakZpTVEiLCJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiJ9.eyJhdF9oYXNoIjoiSnJaWTlNdFlWRUlJSlV4LUREQm13dyIsInN1YiI6ImFkbWluIiwiYXVkIjpbIm5jemJnNW01eHh0NnRQNFVNWndCNlB0UW9Rb2EiXSwiYXpwIjoibmN6Ymc1bTV4eHQ2dFA0VU1ad0I2UHRRb1FvYSIsImlzcyI6Imh0dHBzOlwvXC9sb2NhbGhvc3Q6OTQ0M1wvb2F1dGgyXC90b2tlbiIsImV4cCI6MTUxMDgzMzMwNywibm9uY2UiOiJhc2QiLCJpYXQiOjE1MTA4MzMzMDN9.k69ufNIJHJHb6foeRSMVoJsgAWz0q65_8R6Lhz-tIW-tdLDI7eNg3kSL5-S2T3uFn7XFvn113wEWvCS8X3JBCIPMAFCmGBCR_L5pCh_OO6_xQeZyfa0fx_R27kZ9EIW5u0WSSjlpzzvr_50YldCfXMhZASjZlA5sCZ9BReyhkEUW_kSCWUDJEPaFQqgKVNfnRmr1q4N2lJwXPHjjE-4BcTMxKY87mqFzq_HVdXc1SRVIG0iuWkiYaD34pK8ZI12GFGSmOpDzhYb06uxrR8GC4jpq_WHMvMKrPrLaoVkEFaqomgxLIOJaNZJzqpe3wlaWM952eTndpSW0HSR5kgZgmw”,”token_type”:”Bearer”,”expires_in”:297198}

In case there are two id_tokens issued, where one id_token is from authorization endpoint and other is from token endpoint, be sure to perform the validations mentioned above, which are based on the OpenID Connect specification: