Ignore Authentication

Use Cases

Health and liveness endpoints

This plugin can be very useful if you have an endpoint (such as a ping or health check) that you don’t need to secure.

Working

When the Ignore Authentication middleware is configured for a specific endpoint, it instructs the gateway to bypass the client authentication process for requests made to that endpoint. If other (non-authentication) middleware are configured for the endpoint, they will still execute on the request.

It is important to exercise caution when using the Ignore Authentication middleware, as it effectively disables Tyk’s security features for the ignored paths. Only endpoints that are designed to be public or have independent security mechanisms should be configured to bypass authentication in this way. When combining Ignore Authentication with response transformations be careful not to inadvertently expose sensitive data or rely on authentication or session data that is not present.

Case sensitivity

By default the ignore authentication middleware is case-sensitive. If, for example, you have defined the endpoint GET /ping in your API definition then only calls to GET /ping will ignore the authentication step: calls to GET /Ping or GET /PING will require authentication. You can configure the middleware to be case insensitive at the endpoint level.

You can also set case sensitivity for the entire Tyk Gateway in its configuration file tyk.conf. If case insensitivity is configured at the gateway level, this will override the endpoint-level setting.

Endpoint parsing

When using the ignore authentication middleware, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with Tyk’s URL matching options.

Tyk recommends that you use exact matching for maximum security, though prefix and wildcard strategies might also apply for your particular deployment or use case.

If you’re using Tyk OAS APIs, then you can find details and examples of how to configure the ignore authentication middleware here.

If you’re using Tyk Classic APIs, then you can find details and examples of how to configure the ignore authentication middleware here.

When working with Tyk OAS APIs the middleware is configured in the Tyk OAS API Definition. You can do this via the Tyk Dashboard API or in the API Designer.

If you’re using the legacy Tyk Classic APIs, then check out the Tyk Classic page.

API Definition

The design of the Tyk OAS API Definition takes advantage of the operationId defined in the OpenAPI Document that declares both the path and method for which the middleware should be added. Endpoint paths entries (and the associated operationId) can contain wildcards in the form of any string bracketed by curly braces, for example /status/{code}. These wildcards are so they are human readable and do not translate to variable names. Under the hood, a wildcard translates to the “match everything” regex of: (.*).

The ignore authentication middleware (ignoreAuthentication) can be added to the operations section of the Tyk OAS Extension (x-tyk-api-gateway) in your Tyk OAS API Definition for the appropriate operationId (as configured in the paths section of your OpenAPI Document).

The ignoreAuthentication object has the following configuration:

• enabled: enable the middleware for the endpoint
• ignoreCase: if set to true then the path matching will be case insensitive

For example:

{
    "info": {
        "title": "example-ignore-authentication",
        "version": "1.0.0"
    },
    "openapi": "3.0.3",
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "http://localhost:8181/example-ignore-authentication/"
        }
    ], 
    "security": [
        {
            "authToken": []
        }
    ],     
    "paths": {
        "/anything": {
            "get": {
                "operationId": "anythingget",
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": ""
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "components": {
        "securitySchemes": {
            "authToken": {
                "type": "apiKey",
                "in": "header",
                "name": "Authorization"
            }
        }        
    },    
    "x-tyk-api-gateway": {
        "info": {
            "name": "example-ignore-authentication",
            "state": {
                "active": true,
                "internal": false
            }
        },
        "upstream": {
            "url": "http://httpbin.org/"
        },
        "server": {
            "authentication": {
                "enabled": true,
                "securitySchemes": {
                    "authToken": {
                        "enabled": true
                    }
                }
            },
            "listenPath": {
                "strip": true,
                "value": "/example-ignore-authentication/"
            }        
        },
        "middleware": {
            "operations": {
                "anythingget": {
                    "ignoreAuthentication": {
                        "enabled": true
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

In this example the ignore authentication middleware has been configured for requests to the GET /anything endpoint. Any such calls will skip the authentication step in the Tyk Gateway’s processing chain.

• the middleware has been configured to be case sensitive, so calls to GET /Anything will not skip authentication

The configuration above is a complete and valid Tyk OAS API Definition that you can import into Tyk to try out the Ignore Authentication middleware.

API Designer

Adding and configuring the Ignore Authentication middleware to your API endpoints is easy when using the API Designer in the Tyk Dashboard, simply follow these steps:

1. Add an endpoint

   From the API Designer add an endpoint that matches the path and method to which you want to apply the middleware.

   

2. Select the Ignore Authentication middleware

   Select ADD MIDDLEWARE and choose the Ignore Authentication middleware from the Add Middleware screen.

   

3. Optionally configure case-insensitivity

   If you want to disable case-sensitivity for the path that you wish to skip authentication, then you must select EDIT on the Ignore Authentication icon.

   

   This takes you to the middleware configuration screen where you can alter the case sensitivity setting.

   

   Select UPDATE MIDDLEWARE to apply the change to the middleware configuration.

4. Save the API

   Select SAVE API to apply the changes to your API.

When working with Tyk Classic APIs the middleware is configured in the Tyk Classic API Definition. You can do this via the Tyk Dashboard API or in the API Designer.

If you’re using the newer Tyk OAS APIs, then check out the Tyk OAS page.

If you’re using Tyk Operator then check out the configuring the middleware in Tyk Operator section below.

API Definition

To enable the middleware you must add a new ignored object to the extended_paths section of your API definition.

The ignored object has the following configuration:

• path: the endpoint path
• method: this should be blank
• ignore_case: if set to true then the path matching will be case insensitive
• method_actions: a shared object used to configure the mock response middleware

The method_actions object should be configured as follows, with an entry created for each allowed method on the path:

• action: this should be set to no_action
• code: this should be set to 200
• headers : this should be blank

For example:

{
    "extended_paths": {
        "ignored": [
            {
                "disabled": false,
                "path": "/status/200",
                "method": "",
                "ignore_case": false,
                "method_actions": {
                    "GET": {
                        "action": "no_action",
                        "code": 200,
                        "headers": {}
                    }          
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

In this example the ignore authentication middleware has been configured for requests to the GET /status/200 endpoint. Any such calls will skip the authentication step in the Tyk Gateway’s processing chain.

• the middleware has been configured to be case sensitive, so calls to GET /Status/200 will not skip authentication

API Designer

You can use the API Designer in the Tyk Dashboard to configure the Ignore Authentication middleware for your Tyk Classic API by following these steps.

1. Add an endpoint for the path and select the plugin

   From the Endpoint Designer add an endpoint that matches the path for which you want to ignore authentication. Select the Ignore plugin.

   

2. Configure the middleware

   Once you have selected the Ignore middleware for the endpoint, the only additional feature that you need to configure is whether to make it case-insensitive by selecting Ignore Case.

   

3. Save the API

   Use the save or create buttons to save the changes and activate the middleware.

Tyk Operator

The process for configuring the middleware in Tyk Operator is similar to that explained in configuring the middleware in the Tyk Classic API Definition. It is possible to configure an enforced timeout using the ignored object within the extended_paths section of the API Definition.

In the example below the ignore authentication middleware has been configured for requests to the GET /get endpoint. Any such calls will skip the authentication step in the Tyk Gateway’s processing chain.

• the middleware has been configured to be case insensitive, so calls to GET /Get will also skip authentication

apiVersion: tyk.tyk.io/v1alpha1
kind: ApiDefinition
metadata:
  name: httpbin-ignored
spec:
  name: httpbin-ignored
  use_keyless: false
  use_standard_auth: true
  protocol: http
  active: true
  proxy:
    target_url: http://httpbin.org/
    listen_path: /httpbin
    strip_listen_path: true
  version_data:
    default_version: Default
    not_versioned: true
    versions:
      Default:
        name: Default
        use_extended_paths: true
        paths:
          black_list: []
          ignored: []
          white_list: []
        extended_paths:
          ignored:
            - ignore_case: true
              method_actions:
                GET:
                  action: "no_action"
                  code: 200
                  data: ""
                  headers: {}
              path: "/get"