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A Node.js & Express web app using App Roles to implement Role-Based Access Control

Overview

This sample demonstrates a Node.js & Express web app featuring a todo list and secured with the Microsoft Authentication Library for Node.js (MSAL Node). The app implements Role-based Access Control (RBAC) by using Azure AD App Roles. In the sample, users in TaskUser role can perform CRUD operations on their todolist, while users in TaskAdmin role can see all other users' tasks.

Access control in Azure AD can be done with Security Groups as well, as we will cover in the next tutorial. Security Groups and App Roles in Azure AD are by no means mutually exclusive - they can be used in tandem to provide even finer grained access control.

ℹ️ Check out the recorded session on this topic: Implement Authorization in your Applications with Microsoft identity platform

Scenario

  1. The client application uses MSAL Node (via msal-express-wrapper) to sign-in a user and obtain an ID Token from Azure AD.
  2. The ID Token contains the roles claim that is used to control access to protected routes.

Overview

Contents

File/folder Description
AppCreationScripts/ Contains Powershell scripts to automate app registration.
ReadmeFiles/ Contains illustrations and screenshots.
App/appSettings.json Authentication parameters and settings.
App/data/cache.json Stores MSAL Node token cache data.
App/data/db.json Stores todo list data.
App/app.js Application entry point.

Prerequisites

  • Node.js must be installed to run this sample.
  • Visual Studio Code is recommended for running and editing this sample.
  • VS Code Azure Tools extension is recommended for interacting with Azure through VS Code Interface.
  • A modern web browser. This sample uses ES6 conventions and will not run on Internet Explorer.
  • An Azure AD tenant. For more information, see: How to get an Azure AD tenant
  • A user account in your Azure AD tenant. This sample will not work with a personal Microsoft account. If you're signed in to the Azure portal with a personal Microsoft account and have not created a user account in your directory before, you will need to create one before proceeding.

Setup

Step 1: Clone or download this repository

From your shell or command line:

    git clone https://github.com/Azure-Samples/ms-identity-javascript-nodejs-tutorial.git

or download and extract the repository .zip file.

⚠️ To avoid path length limitations on Windows, we recommend cloning into a directory near the root of your drive.

Step 2: Install project dependencies

    cd 4-AccessControl/1-app-roles/App
    npm install

Registration

There is one project in this sample. To register it, you can:

  • follow the steps below for manually register your apps
  • or use PowerShell scripts that:
    • automatically creates the Azure AD applications and related objects (passwords, permissions, dependencies) for you.
    • modify the projects' configuration files.
Expand this section if you want to use this automation:

⚠️ If you have never used Azure AD Powershell before, we recommend you go through the App Creation Scripts once to ensure that your environment is prepared correctly for this step.

  1. On Windows, run PowerShell as Administrator and navigate to the root of the cloned directory

  2. If you have never used Azure AD Powershell before, we recommend you go through the App Creation Scripts once to ensure that your environment is prepared correctly for this step.

  3. In PowerShell run:

    Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope Process -Force

  4. Run the script to create your Azure AD application and configure the code of the sample application accordingly.

  5. In PowerShell run:

    cd .\AppCreationScripts\
.\Configure.ps1

    Other ways of running the scripts are described in App Creation Scripts The scripts also provide a guide to automated application registration, configuration and removal which can help in your CI/CD scenarios.

Choose the Azure AD tenant where you want to create your applications

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal.
  2. If your account is present in more than one Azure AD tenant, select your profile at the top right corner in the menu on top of the page, and then switch directory to change your portal session to the desired Azure AD tenant.

Register the client app (msal-node-webapp)

  1. Navigate to the Azure portal and select the Azure AD service.
  2. Select the App Registrations blade on the left, then select New registration.
  3. In the Register an application page that appears, enter your application's registration information:
    • In the Name section, enter a meaningful application name that will be displayed to users of the app, for example msal-node-webapp.
    • Under Supported account types, select Accounts in this organizational directory only.
    • In the Redirect URI (optional) section, select Web in the combo-box and enter the following redirect URI: http://localhost:4000/redirect.
  4. Select Register to create the application.
  5. In the app's registration screen, find and note the Application (client) ID. You use this value in your app's configuration file(s) later in your code.
  6. Select Save to save your changes.
  7. In the Client secrets section, select New client secret:
    • Type a key description (for instance app secret),
    • Select one of the available key durations (6 months, 12 months or Custom) as per your security posture.
    • The generated key value will be displayed when you select the Add button. Copy and save the generated value for use in later steps.
    • You'll need this key later in your code's configuration files. This key value will not be displayed again, and is not retrievable by any other means, so make sure to note it from the Azure portal before navigating to any other screen or blade.

Define Application Roles

  1. Still on the same app registration, select the App roles blade to the left.
  2. Select Create app role:
    • For Display name, enter a suitable name, for instance TaskAdmin.
    • For Allowed member types, choose User.
    • For Value, enter TaskAdmin.
    • For Description, enter Admins can read any user's todo list.
  3. Select Create app role:
    • For Display name, enter a suitable name, for instance TaskUser.
    • For Allowed member types, choose User.
    • For Value, enter TaskUser.
    • For Description, enter Users can read and modify their todo lists.
  4. Select Apply to save your changes.

To add users to this app role, follow the guidelines here: Assign users and groups to roles.

💡 Important security tip

When you set User assignment required? to Yes, Azure AD will check that only users assigned to your application in the Users and groups blade are able to sign-in to your app. You can assign users directly or by assigning security groups they belong to.

Configure the client app (msal-node-webapp) to use your app registration

Open the project in your IDE (like Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code) to configure the code.

In the steps below, "ClientID" is the same as "Application ID" or "AppId".

  1. Open the App\appSettings.json file.
  2. Find the key clientId and replace the existing value with the application ID (clientId) of msal-node-webapp app copied from the Azure portal.
  3. Find the key tenantId and replace the existing value with your Azure AD tenant ID.
  4. Find the key clientSecret and replace the existing value with the key you saved during the creation of msal-node-webapp copied from the Azure portal.
  5. Find the key redirectUri and replace the existing value with the redirect URI for msal-node-webapp. (by default http://localhost:4000/redirect).

Running the sample

    cd 4-AccessControl/1-app-roles/App
    npm start

Explore the sample

  1. Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:4000.
  2. Sign-in using the button on top-right.
  3. Click on the TodoList button to access your (the signed-in user's) todo list.
  4. If the signed-in user has the right privileges (i.e. in the right "role"), click on the Dashboard button to access every users' todo list.
  5. If the signed-in user does not have the right privileges, clicking on the Dashboard will give an error.

ℹ️ Did the sample not work for you as expected? Then please reach out to us using the GitHub Issues page.

We'd love your feedback!

Were we successful in addressing your learning objective? Consider taking a moment to share your experience with us.

About the code

Implementing role-based access control

In appSettings.js, we create an access matrix that defines the required roles and allowed HTTP methods for each route that we like to grant role-based access:

{    
    "accessMatrix": {
        "todolist": {
            "methods": ["GET", "POST", "DELETE"],
            "roles": ["TaskUser", "TaskAdmin"]
        },
        "dashboard": {
            "methods": ["GET"],
            "roles": ["TaskAdmin"]
        }
    }
}

Then, in router.js, we create an instance of the AuthProvider class with the appSettings.json passed in constructor. The authProvider object exposes the middleware we can use to protect our app routes:



Under the hood, msal-express-wrapper hasAccess middleware checks the signed-in user's ID token's roles claim to determine whether she has access to this route given the access matrix provided in appSettings.json:




More information


Configure your application:



Learn more about the Microsoft identity platform:



For more information about how OAuth 2.0 protocols work in this scenario and other scenarios, see Authentication Scenarios for Azure AD.


Community Help and Support


Use Stack Overflow to get support from the community.
Ask your questions on Stack Overflow first and browse existing issues to see if someone has asked your question before.
Make sure that your questions or comments are tagged with [azure-active-directory nodejs ms-identity adal msal].


If you find a bug in the sample, raise the issue on GitHub Issues.


To provide feedback on or suggest features for Azure Active Directory, visit User Voice page.


Contributing


If you'd like to contribute to this sample, see CONTRIBUTING.MD.


This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information, see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.