REST API Authentication On Atlassian using Github Enterprise as OAuth Provider

Enhance API Security for Jira REST APIs with OAuth/API Token plugin will let you authenticate any application (Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket) APIs using any third-party OAuth/OIDC provider or API Tokens. The app supports Azure AD, Keycloak, Okta, AWS Cognito, Google, Github, Slack, Gitlab, Facebook, and any custom provider.

Atlassian provides REST APIs to perform several operations such as Create Page, Delete Page, Add Comment, Create Space, etc. However, it supports only two authentication methods for REST APIs:

1. Basic Authentication

2. Using OAuth 1.0

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Step 1: Configure GitHub Enterprise Server:

• Login to GitHub Enterprise : Go to Github Enterprise and login with your account. Click on settings.
 
• Create Organization: Select Organizations from Personal Settings.
• Click on New organization and create organization by entering organization name, Billing email, choose your plan, terms and conditions - enter a business name.
• click on create organization.
• Create OAuth app: Click on Settings. Select your Organization.
 
• Click on Settings. Select OAuth Apps from Developer settings.
• Click on New OAuth App. Enter app name, plugin homepage URL. Copy callback URL from the plugin and paste it under Authorized callback URLfield.
 
Note: Copy the ClientID and Client Secret.

Step 2: Fetch Access token through POSTMAN:

• Open the Postman Application (Here is the link to download Postman Application).
• Go to Authorization tab.
• From the dropdown select type as OAuth 2.0 and  click on Get access token.
• Add the following information from the table below.
• Postman starts the authentication flow and prompts you to use the access token.
• Select Add token to the header.



Grant type	Authorization Code or Client Credentials
Callback URL	Enter your application's base URL if you dont have a callback URL
Auth URL	https://github.com/login/oauth/authorize
Access token URL	https://github.com/login/oauth/access_token
Client ID	Enter the Github Enterprise Client ID
Client secret	Enter the  Github Enterprise  Client secret
Scope	Blank
Client Authentication	Send as Basic Auth Header



• Copy the Access Token or click on Use Token.
• A sample access token from Github Enterprise Provider looks like this.

A834c0606ba71336423013699db8e971
                

Step 3: Fetch Username through Github Enterprise:

• Choose the method type as "GET".
• Enter the interoception Endpoint from the plugin to fetch the username in the Request URL. For Github Enterprise it is "https://api.github.com/user".
• Go to the Authorization tab select the Bearer Token and enter the access token here.
• Add the header "content-type: application/json" and click on Send.

Request:

     curl 
                    -X GET 
                    -H "Authorization: Bearer <Access Token>" 
                    -H "Content-type: application/json" 
                    https://api.github.com/user

Copy the attribute value against the username, you will need to configure it in plugin. In this example, the value is "login".  

Step 4: Configure the Rest API plugin:

1: Enable Rest API Authentication:

• After installing the app, click on Configure to configure plugin.
• Select the Authentication type and navigate to Oauth/OIDC tab, then click on Configure.
• From the drop down select GitHub Enterprise as OAuth Provider.
• Enter the attribute value against which we received the username in the Postman response.
• Save the settings.
• Now navigate to the Global Settings tab.
• Here you will have to Enable the Authentication through Enable REST API Authentication and click on Save.
• To configure the username attribute, click on Get username/email Attribute button.

• Paste the OAuth 2.0 Access token obtained from the OAuth provider and click on Get response.
• In the received response, copy the JSON attribute against which you are receiving the username/email of the user in the local directory and paste it into the Username/Email Attribute input field, and click on Save.

Step 5: Test REST API using access token:

Additional Resources

• Rest API Authentication Methods?
• Azure AD as OAuth Provider/OpenID Connect
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)