IO mobile backend

This repository contains the code of the backend used by the mobile applications of the IO project.

Table of content

IO mobile backend

What is this?

This is the backend that supports the io-app mobile application.

This project is part of the Italian Digital Citizenship initiative, see the main repository for further information.

Authentication process

The io-app application will authenticate to the backend in two steps:

an initial user initiated SPID authentication process (SAML2 based) that identifies the user and, on success, triggers the creation of a new authentication session (associated to a session token)
subsequent requests to the backend will be authenticated via a bearer session token

User authentication

When a client (the mobile app or a browser) wants to login with the backend it will call the /login endpoint with the IDP entityID as parameter in the query string. The backend will then builds an authorization URL and performs a redirect to the chosen IDP. The authentication process will continue to the IDP website. If the authentication process ends with success the IDP will redirect the client to an HTML page with a form that will auto-post itself to the /assertionConsumerService endpoint with a SAMLResponse as an hidden field. The backend will parse and validate the SAMLResponse to extract all the user attributes (fiscal code, first name, last name, email), then it will generates an unique alphanumeric string as token and saves an User object to the SessionStorage service using the token as key. Finally the backend will redirect the client to the value of the environment variable CLIENT_REDIRECTION_URL with the token in the query string. The client must saves the token and use it in all API request.

The code that manage this flow are in the io-spid-commons package (more info here), and in the src/strategies/spidStrategy.ts and src/controllers/authenticationController.ts files.

Token authentication

All API requests sent by the client to the backend must have an Authorization: Bearer header with the value of the token obtained from the SPID authentication process. The token is used to retrieve the User object from the SessionStorage service.

The code that manage this flow are in the src/strategies/bearerSessionTokenStrategy.ts file.

How to run the application

Dependencies

Docker and Docker Compose

To fully simulate the SPID authentication process we use the images provided by the spid-testenv2 project.

A Linux/macOS environment is required at the moment.

Installation steps

clone the project in a folder called io-backend
go to the project's folder
copy .nprmc.example to .npmrc and replace the TOKEN planceholder with your GitHub token (must have repo and packages scopes)
run scripts/build-tools.sh to build the tools Docker image
run scripts/yarn.sh to install backend dependencies
run scripts/generate-proxy-api-models.sh to generate the models defined in api_proxy.yaml and api_notifications.yaml
run scripts/build.sh to compile the Typescript files
run scripts/generate-test-certs-task.sh to create SAML (SPID) certificates

edit your /etc/hosts file by adding:

127.0.0.1    spid-testenv2
127.0.0.1    io-backend

copy .env.example to .env and fill the variables with your values
run docker-compose up -d to start the containers
point your browser to https://io-backend/metadata and copy the source of the page to a new testenv2/conf/sp_metadata.xml file
run docker-compose up -d again to restart the containers
point your browser to https://io-backend

If you are using Docker with a Docker Machine replace localhost with the IP of the Docker Machine (More details here).

Container description

backend: the backend Node application that serves the web and mobile applications
spid-testenv2: the test IDP server

Nginx is reachable at https://io-backend
IDP is reachable at https://spid-testenv2:8088 \

Environment variables

Those are all Environment variables needed by the application:

Variable name	Description	type
API_KEY	The key used to authenticate to the io-functions-app API	string
API_URL	The io-functions-app URL	string
API_BASE_PATH	The root path for the backend api endpoints	string
BONUS_API_KEY	The key used to authenticate to the io-functions-bonus API	string
BONUS_API_URL	The io-functions-bonus URL	string
BONUS_API_BASE_PATH	The root path for the backend bonus api endpoints	string
CGN_API_KEY	The key used to authenticate to the io-functions-cgn API	string
CGN_API_URL	The io-functions-cgn URL	string
CGN_API_BASE_PATH	The root path for the backend cgn api endpoints	string
CLIENT_REDIRECTION_URL	The path where the user will be redirected after a successful SPID login	string
CLIENT_ERROR_REDIRECTION_URL	The path where the user will be redirected when en error occurs during SPID login	string
PORT	The HTTP port the Express server is listening to	int
REDIS_URL	The URL of a Redis instance	string
TOKEN_DURATION_IN_SECONDS	The number of seconds a session token is considered valid	int
SAML_CALLBACK_URL	The absolute URL of the assertion consumer service endpoint	string
SAML_ISSUER	The issuer id for this Service Provider	string
SAML_ACCEPTED_CLOCK_SKEW_MS	Maximum skew between SAML Client and Server (empty or -1 disable datetime checks)	int
SAML_ATTRIBUTE_CONSUMING_SERVICE_INDEX	The index in the attribute consumer list	int
SAML_KEY	Private Key used by SAML protocol	string
SAML_CERT	Certificate used by SAML protocol	string
SAML_REQUEST_EXPIRATION_PERIOD_MS	(Optional) The TTL in milliseconds that the SAML Request was stored in cache (defaults to `600.000`)	number
PRE_SHARED_KEY	The key shared with the API backend to authenticate the webhook notifications	string
ALLOW_NOTIFY_IP_SOURCE_RANGE	The range in CIDR form of allowed IPs for the webhook notifications	string
NOTIFICATIONS_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING	Connection string to Azure queue storage for notification hub messages	string
NOTIFICATIONS_QUEUE_NAME	Queue name of Azure queue storage for notification hub messages	string
USERS_LOGIN_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING	Connection string to Azure queue storage for usersLogin messages	string
USERS_LOGIN_QUEUE_NAME	Queue name of Azure queue storage for usersLogin messages	string
ALLOW_PAGOPA_IP_SOURCE_RANGE	The range in CIDR form of allowed IPs for the PagoPA API	string
ALLOW_MYPORTAL_IP_SOURCE_RANGE	The range in CIDR form of allowed IPs for the MyPortal API	string
ALLOW_BPD_IP_SOURCE_RANGE	The range in CIDR form of allowed IPs for the BPD API	string
ALLOW_SESSION_HANDLER_IP_SOURCE_RANGE	The range in CIDR form of IPs of service allowed to handle user sessions	string
AUTHENTICATION_BASE_PATH	The root path for the authentication endpoints	string
PAGOPA_API_URL_PROD	The url for the PagoPA api endpoints in prod mode	string
PAGOPA_API_KEY_PROD	The api-key needed to call the pagopa proxy API	string
PAGOPA_API_URL_TEST	The url for the PagoPA api endpoints in test mode	string
PAGOPA_API_KEY_UAT	The api-key needed to call the pagopa proxy API for UAT instance	string
PAGOPA_BASE_PATH	The root path for the PagoPA endpoints	string
MYPORTAL_BASE_PATH	The root path for the MyPortal endpoints	string
BPD_BASE_PATH	The root path for the BPD endpoints	string
STARTUP_IDPS_METADATA	Stringified JSON containing idps metadata `Record<string, string>`	string
CIE_METADATA_URL	Url to download CIE metadata from	string
IDP_METADATA_URL	Url to download SPID IDPs metadata from	string
SPID_TESTENV_URL	Url to SPID Testenv 2	string
SPID_VALIDATOR_URL	Url to SPID Validator	string
IDP_METADATA_REFRESH_INTERVAL_SECONDS	The number of seconds when the IDPs Metadata are refreshed	int
CACHE_MAX_AGE_SECONDS	The value in seconds for duration of in-memory api cache	int
APICACHE_DEBUG	When is `true` enable the apicache debug mode	boolean
GITHUB_TOKEN	The value of your Github Api Key, used in build phase	string
FETCH_KEEPALIVE_ENABLED	When is `true` enables `keepalive` agent in the API client (defaults to `false`)	boolean
ENABLE_NOTICE_EMAIL_CACHE	(Optional) Enable `notice_email` cache in PagoPA getUser (defaults to `false`)	boolean
SPID_LEVEL_WHITELIST	(Optional) Spid Level whitelist csv (defaults L2 and L3 for prod, all for dev)	string
TEST_LOGIN_FISCAL_CODES	(Optional) Enabled username for password based login (coma separated Fiscal Code)	string
TEST_LOGIN_PASSWORD	(Optional) Password for password based login	string
FETCH_KEEPALIVE_MAX_SOCKETS	(Optional) See agentkeepalive
FETCH_KEEPALIVE_FREE_SOCKET_TIMEOUT_MS	(Optional) See agentkeepalive
FETCH_KEEPALIVE_KEEPALIVE_MSECS	(Optional) See agentkeepalive
FETCH_KEEPALIVE_MAX_FREE_SOCKETS	(Optional) See agentkeepalive
FETCH_KEEPALIVE_TIMEOUT	(Optional) See agentkeepalive
FETCH_KEEPALIVE_SOCKET_ACTIVE_TTL	(Optional) See agentkeepalive
FF_CGN_ENABLED	When is `true` (namely `1`) enables CGN API to be registered into backend app	boolean
FF_CGN_ENABLED	When is `true` (namely `1`) enables CGN API to be registered into backend app	boolean
APP_MESSAGES_API_KEY	The key used to authenticate to the io-functions-app-messages API	string
APP_MESSAGES_API_URL	The io-functions-app-messages URL	string
FF_MESSAGES_TYPE	(Optional, default `none`) FF type for new messages implementations	string
FF_MESSAGES_BETA_TESTER_LIST	(Optional, default empty) A list of hashed fiscal codes of beta testers	string
FF_MESSAGES_CANARY_USERS_REGEX	(Optional, default `XYZ`) A regex for choosing canary users	string

Notes:

FETCH_KEEPALIVE_ENABLED should be enabled when deploying on Azure App Service to avoid SNAT Exhaustion
FETCH_KEEPALIVE_MAX_SOCKETS depends on the number of node processes running on the VM, see this article and this issue
FETCH_KEEPALIVE_SOCKET_ACTIVE_TTL should be set at around 100 seconds when deploying on Azure, see this comment

Logs

Application logs are saved into the logs folder.

SPID user management

The setup procedure adds some test users to the test IDP server, the full list could be retrieved in testenv2/conf/users.json. To add more users simply add more items to this file and restart the spid-testenv2 container.

API Monitoring

Is possible link the API to AppInsignts service by setting the ENV variable APPINSIGHTS_INSTRUMENTATIONKEY. Stats of API CPU and RAM usage, API call execution time, success or failure of API calls are collected. Realtime data collection is enabled.

Redis Database

Data Structure

Redis Database stores data required only by application side functionalities. Below a table with an example of data for an hypothetical user with fiscal code MRARSS80A01H501T and with session token HexToken.

Key	Value	type	expire in
SESSION-HexToken	a JSON representing the user object	`User`	TOKEN_DURATION_IN_SECONDS
WALLET-WalletHexToken	`"SESSION-HexToken"`	`String`	TOKEN_DURATION_IN_SECONDS
SESSIONINFO-HexToken	a JSON representing the `SessionInfo` object	`SessionInfo`	TOKEN_DURATION_IN_SECONDS
USERSESSIONS-MRARSS80A01H501T	a Set of SessionInfo Keys	`Set<SessionInfoKey>`	never

Mobile App compatibility

Backend

To handle Backend compatibility with several Mobile App versions, the oldest mobile app version supported by the backend is stored into the property min_app_version inside the package.json. This value is provided to the app through the /info API. If the mobile app version is lower an upgrade is required.

PagoPa

To handle the mobile app compatibility with the latest implementation of PagoPA APIs, the backend exposes through the /info API a property called min_app_version_pagopa defined into package.json file. If the mobile app version is lower of this value, all the functions that require PagoPa are disabled to avoid compatibility issues.

How to contribute

Dependencies

nodenv
YARN
Docker (optional)

A Linux/macOS environment is required at the moment.

Starting steps

use nodenv to run the correct version of Nodejs as specified in app/.node-version
run Jest tests directly or with scripts/test.sh

In general follow the Node Best Practices.

Generate SAML (SPID) certs (development)

The backend implements a SAML Service Provider - for authenticating the clients it needs a certificate that you can generate with the following command (you need to have openssl available in your path):

$ yarn generate:test-certs

Generate SAML (SPID) certs (production)

For production, the SPID certificate must be generated with the following command:

$ openssl req -x509 -nodes -sha256 -days 365 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out cert.pem

Then, the key and the certificate must be stored in the Kubernetes secrets:

$ kubectl create secret generic spid-cert --from-file=./cert.pem --from-file=./key.pem

SAML (SPID) certs with ENV vars

The certificate and the secret key could be provided to the backend with two ENV variables:

SAML_KEY
SAML_CERT

if these variables are set cert.pem and key.pem are ignored.

SPID Identity Providers Metadata

When backend starts, SPID login is configured with Identity Providers metadata fetched from remote URL. URLs are provided by the following Environment variables: CIE_METADATA_URL (CIE login) IDP_METADATA_URL (SPID login) and SPID_TESTENV_URL (SPID test environment). Before that the backend become ready a time consuming operation must be completed (fetching remote metadata).

The default values are explained into the following table

ENV	development	production
`IDP_METADATA_URL`	https://registry.spid.gov.it/metadata/idp/spid-entities-idps.xml	https://registry.spid.gov.it/metadata/idp/spid-entities-idps.xml
`CIE_METADATA_URL`	https://idserver.servizicie.interno.gov.it:8443/idp/shibboleth	https://idserver.servizicie.interno.gov.it/idp/shibboleth
`SPID_TESTENV_URL`	https://spid-testenv2:8088	-

For local development only, spid-testenv2 (executed with docker-compose) could be used to login with a (fake) SPID account.

On production, in order to reduce the startup time, another Environment variable could be provided STARTUP_IDPS_METADATA. To set its value run:

export STARTUP_IDPS_METADATA=`npx startup-idps-metadata --idp-metadata-url-env IDP_METADATA_URL --cie-metadata-url-env CIE_METADATA_URL`

SPID Validator

If is needed SPID validation another available environment variable is SPID_VALIDATOR_URL. Valid values for SPID_VALIDATOR_URL are:

ENV	development	production
`IDP_METADATA_URL`	http://spid-saml-check:8080	https://validator.spid.gov.it

Spid Validator is a tool that verify that the SPID implementation is compliant with the AGID specification.

Architecture decision records

In a world of evolutionary architecture, it's important to record certain design decisions for the benefit of future team members as well as for external oversight. Architecture Decision Records is a technique for capturing important architectural decisions along with their context and consequences. We store these details in source control, along with code, as then they can provide a record that remains in sync with the code itself.

We use ADRs to track architectural decisions of this initiative.

This repository is configured for Nat Pryce's adr-tools.

Here's the decisions we taken so far:

ADR	Title	PR (discussion)
1	Record architecture decisions
2	Backend runs on Docker on local environments
3	Use OpenAPI to defined the API specs
4	Use a dependency injection container
5	Use a GUID as Installation ID
6	Backend is deployed on more than one instance

Troubleshooting

I installed on my mac but seems that https://io-backend is not working (ping io-backend return a host error)

Check out /etc/hosts Remember that in some cases you need to use your docker-machine ip (get it from >docker-machine ip) instead of localhost.

I followed all the steps but when i go to https://io-backend it shows me the same as https://io-backend:8080

This problem seems to be dependent on how Docker for Mac (doesn't) manage well the /etc/hosts file. If you install Docker Toolbox it works fine (and can coexist) (Read more at https://medium.com/@itseranga/set-hosts-in-docker-for-mac-2029276fd448)

cloudify/io-backend

IO mobile backend

Table of content

What is this?

Authentication process

User authentication

Token authentication

How to run the application

Dependencies

Installation steps

Container description

Environment variables

Logs

SPID user management

API Monitoring

Redis Database

Data Structure

Mobile App compatibility

Backend

PagoPa

How to contribute

Dependencies

Starting steps

Generate SAML (SPID) certs (development)

Generate SAML (SPID) certs (production)

SAML (SPID) certs with ENV vars

SPID Identity Providers Metadata

SPID Validator

Architecture decision records

Troubleshooting