That’s interesting, Alex! I didn’t know that OpenAthens could work as a SAML IdP.
Paul, looking at https://docs.openathens.net/display/public/MD/Connections, it looks like you could use SAML, LDAP, CAS, ADFS, or API. Mabye you could use one of the LDAP or CAS connectors with Koha?
We’ve done a few local customizations for OpenAthens in the past using the API connector I believe, but don’t have anyone using it anymore, so we haven’t maintained those customizations for newer versions. Even the older code isn’t really of shareable quality (they also depended on other local customizations). I think EduServ has also made some changes to how the OpenAthens API has worked over the years. (There are some Athens CPAN modules but I think they may be defunct? We used them many years ago but not anymore.)
At a glance, with the last iteration of the code we did (note that I didn’t write it), it looks like you do an API call with connectionID, uniqueUserIdentifier, returnUrl, and a few other bits (including an OAApiKey Authorization header) and it should return some JSON including a “sessionInitiatorUrl” and you redirect the user to that URL. After that… it gets a bit weird in our old code but I think that’s just a local issue. I didn’t write the code so I can’t speak to it fully.
Locally, I’ve actually also built a generic interface in C4::Auth for creating sysadmin managed auth “plugins” but haven’t uploaded the code to Bugzilla yet (https://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=24539). I then leveraged that to make a generic OpenIDConnect auth plugin (which works with any OpenIDConnect provider and not just Google). I just haven’t uploaded that either though. I’ll make a note to myself to try to get to that in my personal time (since work time is way too busy atm).
Anyway, not sure I helped at all, but yes we have set up OpenAthens with Koha in the past.
David Cook
Systems Librarian
Prosentient Systems
72/330 Wattle St
Ultimo, NSW 2007
Australia
Office: 02 9212 0899
Online: 02 8005 0595
From: Koha-devel <koha-devel-bounces@lists.koha-community.org> On Behalf Of Alex Buckley
Sent: Wednesday, 25 March 2020 8:10 AM
To: koha-devel@lists.koha-community.org; paul.poulain@biblibre.com
Subject: Re: [Koha-devel] Fwd: Koha and Ebsco OpenAthens
Hi Paul,
I've done an integration of Openathens with Koha using the mod_auth_mellon Apache module https://github.com/latchset/mod_auth_mellon (rather than using the EBSCO plugin).
The workflow I did is:
1. Checked out the master branch of mod_auth_mellon
2. Navigated into mod_auth_mellon
3. Generated the Koha SP (Service Provider) XML metadata endpoint, cert and key file.
./mellon_create_metadata.sh <full_opac_test_site_url> <full_opac_test_site_url>/saml
4. Moved those files into a new directory /etc/koha/sites/<instance>/saml
5. Sent the metadata XML file I'd made to EBSCO and received their one back and put it in /etc/koha/sites/<instance>/saml
6. Edit Apache conf file ( /etc/apache2/sites-available/<instance>.conf ):
<Location />
MellonEnable "auth"
MellonUser "NameID"
MellonSPPrivateKeyFile /etc/koha/sites/<instance>/saml/<opac_test_site_url>.key
MellonSPCertFile /etc/koha/sites/<instance>/saml/<opac_test_site_url>.cert
MellonSPMetadataFile /etc/koha/sites/<instance>/saml/<opac_test_site_url>.xml
MellonIdPMetadataFile /etc/koha/sites/<instance>/saml/<client_supplied_metadata>.xml
MellonEndpointPath /saml
# Set environment variables with the values of IdP attributes
MellonSetEnv "principalname" "<IdP_UPN_attribute_name>"
MellonSetEnv "givenname" "<IdP_firstaname_attribute_name>"
MellonSetEnv "surname" "<IdP_surname_attribute_name>"
MellonSetEnv "email" "<IdP_email_attribute_name>"
# Unset and reset X_REMOTE_UPN
Header unset X_REMOTE_UPN
RequestHeader unset X_REMOTE_UPN
RequestHeader set X_REMOTE_UPN %{MELLON_principalname}e
# Unset and reset the X_REMOTE_GIVENNAME
Header unset X_REMOTE_GIVENNAME
RequestHeader unset X_REMOTE_GIVENNAME
RequestHeader set X_REMOTE_GIVENNAME %{MELLON_givenname}e
# Unset and reset the X_REMOTE_SURNAME
Header unset X_REMOTE_SURNAME
RequestHeader unset X_REMOTE_SURNAME
RequestHeader set X_REMOTE_SURNAME %{MELLON_surname}e
# Unset and reset the X_REMOTE_EMAIL
Header unset X_REMOTE_EMAIL
RequestHeader unset X_REMOTE_EMAIL
RequestHeader set X_REMOTE_EMAIL %{MELLON_email}e </location>
Here the IdP_UPN_attribute_name is the attribute (claim) that Openathens is sending to Koha in the SAML POST request, we're assigning it to the Mellon environment variable "principalname" and then putting it in the header as X_REMOTE_UPN
7. Install the following packages:
sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-auth-mellon
sudo s2enmod expires
sudo systemctl restart apache2
sudo apachectl configtest
sudo apachectl restart
apt-cache policy libapache2-mod-auth-mellon
sudo apt-get install liblasso3
sudo apachectl restart
8. Amend the koha-conf.xml file adding the following tags:
<trusted_header_upn>X_REMOTE_UPN</trusted_header_upn>
<trusted_header_givenname>X_REMOTE_GIVENNAME</trusted_header_givenname>
<trusted_header_surname>X_REMOTE_SURNAME</trusted_header_surname>
<trusted_header_email>X_REMOTE_EMAIL</trusted_header_email>
9. Somethings to note is that using mod_auth_mellon is that plack user runs as www-data so you will need to change the AssignUserID in the Apache conf to be:
AssignUserID www-data <instance>-koha
You'll also need to amend your debian/scripts/koha-plack script to replace:
instance_user="${instancename}-koha"Also please note when using mod_auth_mellon you'll need to make sure the Koha instance your setting this up for is on a standalone server (i.e. no other Koha instance on the server) because the changing of the user that Plack runs as introduces a security risk on a multi-instance server.
10. Change the ownership of /var/cache/koha/<instance> file, because Plack now running as www-data can not read the file:
sudo chown www-data -R /var/cache/koha/<instance>
11. You'll need to introduce a customization in C4/Auth.pm now (though I am shortly going to be upstreaming this customization so you'll see a bug report from me for it soon):
11a. Add a new subroutine get_header() - This retrieves the Openathens values stored in the header in the Apache conf:
my ($header) = @_;
my $q = CGI->new();
# Prepend HTTP_ as that's how they come through
my $h_val = $q->http('HTTP_' . $header);
return $h_val;
}
11b. Amend C4::Auth->checkauth():
my $trusted_header = C4::Context->config('trusted_header');
my $trust_head_val = get_header($trusted_header) if $trusted_header; #Store the header values returned from get_header subroutine which are: UPN, givenname, surname and email in $trust_head_val hash.
Now above this line (elsif ( $emailaddress) { ) add in a new elsif:
} elsif ($trust_head_val && $trust_head_val ne '(null)') {
$userid=$trust_head_val;
# This uses something like
# <trusted_header>X_REMOTE_USER</trusted_header>
# in koha-conf.xml, and checks that header on the incoming request.
# If it is there and contains a user ID, we believe it and log the
# user in with that. This is intended for things like plack behind a
# reverse proxy that does auth, and puts the user ID into a header.
#
# Basically, we treat it just like basic auth.
$cookie = $query->cookie(
-name => 'CGISESSID',
-value => '',
-expires => '',
-HttpOnly => 1,
);
C4::Context->_new_userenv(undef);
$loggedin = check_user_exists($userid); #Call check_user_exists subroutine and check if there is a borrower.userid matching the UPN
}
Note: This is assuming the UPN Openathens is sending Koha matches/is stored in the borrower.userid. If Openathens wants to only use email i.e. the email address Openathens sends Koha in POST request matches borrowers.email then you'll need to amend the SQL query in check_user_exists.
A couple more things to note:
1. If your Koha server is behind a load balancer then you need to include the https:// directive in the servername e.g. Servername https://demo.koha.com
This is because SAML requires the web server to identify as the same server in the SP metadata (e.g. https://<URL>). But when a Koha server is behind a LB it does not identify itself including the https protocol so you need to include it.
I know that is for Fedora (I can't find the documentation link I had discussing it in a Ubuntu context) but it is the same principal.
I hope all this helps and if you need any more information please let me know!
On 25/03/20 5:00 am, Chris Cormack wrote:
Hello,
does anyone have experience in setting OpenAthens for Koha. There's an
Ebsco plugin (https://github.com/ebsco/openathens-koha-plugin), but it
seems to be for old versions of Koha.
any feedback highly appreciated !
--
Paul Poulain, Associé-gérant / co-owner
BibLibre, Services en logiciels libres pour les bibliothèques
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Alex Buckley
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