Kong Authorization

kong-authz is a Kong plugin that does request authorization with lua-casbin. You define models and policies as usual; the plugin enforces them on Kong routes.

Prerequisites

Kong
4daysorm-adapter (optional, for database-backed policy storage)
luasql-adapter (optional, for database-backed policy storage)

інформація

By default, policies are loaded from files. To use database-backed policies, install either 4daysorm-adapter or luasql-adapter.

Інсталяція

Install Casbin's system dependencies:

For systems with apt:

sudo apt install gcc libpcre3 libpcre3-dev

For Alpine-based systems:

sudo apk add gcc pcre pcre-dev libc-dev

Install Casbin's latest release from LuaRocks:

sudo luarocks install casbin

Install the kong-authz plugin:

sudo luarocks install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/casbin-lua/kong-authz/master/kong-authz-0.0.1-1.rockspec

Add the plugin to your kong.conf by appending kong-authz (comma-separated) to the plugins variable:

# kong.conf
plugins = bundled, kong-authz

Start or restart Kong:

kong start [-c /path/to/kong.conf]

Configuration

Configure this plugin at the service, API, or global level through the Kong Admin API.

File-Based Policy Storage

Configure globally with file-based policies:

curl -i -X POST \
  --url http://localhost:8001/plugins/ \
  --data 'name=kong-authz' \
  --data 'config.model_path=/path/to/model_path.conf' \
  --data 'config.policy_path=/path/to/policy_path.csv' \
  --data 'config.username=user'

Database Policy Storage with LuaSQL

Configure for a specific service using the LuaSQL adapter:

curl -i -X POST \
  --url http://localhost:8001/services/example-service/plugins/ \
  --data 'name=kong-authz' \
  --data 'config.model_path=/mnt/kong/examples/authz_model.conf' \
  --data 'config.username=user' \
  --data 'config.adapter=luasql' \
  --data 'config.db_info.db_type=mysql' \
  --data 'config.db_info.database=casbin' \
  --data 'config.db_info.username=root' \
  --data 'config.db_info.password=********' \
  --data 'config.db_info.host=127.0.0.1' \
  --data 'config.db_info.port=3306'

Database Policy Storage with 4DaysORM

Configure for a specific service using the 4DaysORM adapter:

curl -i -X POST \
  --url http://localhost:8001/services/example-service/plugins/ \
  --data 'name=kong-authz' \
  --data 'config.model_path=/mnt/kong/examples/authz_model.conf' \
  --data 'config.username=user' \
  --data 'config.adapter=4daysorm' \
  --data 'config.db_info.db_type=mysql' \
  --data 'config.db_info.database=casbin' \
  --data 'config.db_info.username=root' \
  --data 'config.db_info.password=********' \
  --data 'config.db_info.host=127.0.0.1' \
  --data 'config.db_info.port=3306'

Authorization Process

Authorization evaluates requests using {subject, object, action}, determining what subject can perform what action on what object. In this plugin:

subject: The logged-in username passed in the request header
object: The URL path for the resource (e.g., "dataset1/item1")
action: HTTP method (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) or custom actions like "read-file" or "write-blog"

For policy authoring details, consult the Casbin documentation.

Example Configuration

Complete example of configuring kong-authz for a service:

Create an example service:

curl -i -X POST \
  --url http://localhost:8001/services/ \
  --data 'name=example-service' \
  --data 'url=http://mockbin.org'

Create a route for the service:

curl -i -X POST \
  --url http://localhost:8001/services/example-service/routes \
  --data 'hosts[]=example.com'

Apply the kong-authz plugin:

curl -i -X POST \
  --url http://localhost:8001/services/example-service/plugins/ \
  --data 'name=kong-authz' \
  --data 'config.model_path=/path/to/authz_model.conf' \
  --data 'config.policy_path=/path/to/authz_policy.csv' \
  --data 'config.username=user'

Test authorization with a request:

curl -i -X GET \
  --url http://localhost:8000/ \
  --header 'Host: example.com' \
  --header 'user: anonymous'

On first execution, this creates a Casbin Enforcer using the specified model and policy paths. Any non-500 error indicates successful configuration. For 500 errors, check the error.log file in your Kong installation.

Prerequisites​

Інсталяція​

Configuration​

File-Based Policy Storage​

Database Policy Storage with LuaSQL​

Database Policy Storage with 4DaysORM​

Authorization Process​

Example Configuration​

Resources​