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Userpass auth method

The userpass auth method allows users to authenticate with OpenBao using a username and password combination.

The username/password combinations are configured directly to the auth method using the users/ path. This method cannot read usernames and passwords from an external source.

The method lowercases all submitted usernames, e.g. Mary and mary are the same entry.

Authentication​

Via the CLI​

$ bao login -method=userpass \
    username=mitchellh \
    password=foo

Via the API​

$ curl \
    --request POST \
    --data '{"password": "foo"}' \
    http://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/auth/userpass/login/mitchellh

The response will contain the token at auth.client_token:

{
  "lease_id": "",
  "renewable": false,
  "lease_duration": 0,
  "data": null,
  "auth": {
    "client_token": "c4f280f6-fdb2-18eb-89d3-589e2e834cdb",
    "policies": ["admins"],
    "metadata": {
      "username": "mitchellh"
    },
    "lease_duration": 0,
    "renewable": false
  }
}

Configuration​

Auth methods must be configured in advance before users or machines can authenticate. These steps are usually completed by an operator or configuration management tool.

  1. Enable the userpass auth method:

    $ bao auth enable userpass

    This enables the userpass auth method at auth/userpass. To enable it at a different path, use the -path flag:

    $ bao auth enable -path=<path> userpass

  2. Configure it with users that are allowed to authenticate:

    $ bao write auth/<userpass:path>/users/mitchellh \
        password=foo \
        policies=admins

    This creates a new user "mitchellh" with the password "foo" that will be associated with the "admins" policy. This is the only configuration necessary.

User lockout​

If a user provides bad credentials several times in quick succession, OpenBao will stop trying to validate their credentials for a while, instead returning immediately with a permission denied error. We call this behavior "user lockout". The time for which a user will be locked out is called “lockout duration”. The user will be able to login after the lockout duration has passed. The number of failed login attempts after which the user is locked out is called “lockout threshold”. The lockout threshold counter is reset to zero after a few minutes without login attempts, or upon a successful login attempt. The duration after which the counter will be reset to zero after no login attempts is called "lockout counter reset". This can defeat both automated and targeted requests i.e, user-based password guessing attacks as well as automated attacks.

The user lockout feature is enabled by default. The default values for "lockout threshold" is 5 attempts, "lockout duration" is 15 minutes, "lockout counter reset" is 15 minutes.

The user lockout feature can be disabled as follows:

  • It can be disabled globally using environment variable VAULT_DISABLE_USER_LOCKOUT.
  • It can be disabled for all supported auth methods (ldap, userpass and approle) or a specific supported auth method using the disable_lockout parameter within user_lockout stanza in configuration file. Please see user lockout configuration for more details.
  • It can be disabled for a specific auth mount using "auth tune". Please see auth tune command or auth tune api for more details.
warning

NOTE: This feature is only supported by the userpass, ldap, and approle auth methods.

API​

The Userpass auth method has a full HTTP API. Please see the Userpass auth method API for more details.