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Client Credentials Grant

The OpenId Connect Client Credentials grant can be used for machine to machine authentication. In this grant a specific user is not authorized but rather the credentials are verified and a generic access_token is returned.

The access_token is a signed JSON Web Token (JWT) which contains expiry information. It’s authenticity can be verified without the need for further API calls which makes it useful for authorizing other services where latency is a concern.

Note that the access token returned is different to the access token generated via the OAuth 2.0 Tokens API. Therefore it can not be used to authorize API calls against other endpoints such as Users or Events.

Resource URL

https://<subdomain>.onelogin.com/oidc/2/token

Header Parameter

Authorization

string

Required if Token Endpoint Authentication Method is set to Basic

Set to Basic <base64 encoded "clientId:clientSecret">.

The client_id and client_secret are generated when you configure your OpenId Connect app in OneLogin.

e.g. Using Node.js this would be 

new Buffer(`${this.client_id}:${this.client_secret}`).toString('base64');

Content-Type

required

string

application/x-www-form-urlencoded

Resource Parameter

subdomain

required

string

Set to the subdomain of your OneLogin instance.

e.g. oidc-sample where the instance is https://oidc-sample.onelogin.com

Request Parameter

grant_type

required

string

Set to “client_credentials”

client_id

string

The OneLogin generated Client ID for your OpenID Connect app.

Required if Token Endpoint Authentication method is set to POST.

client_secret

string

The OneLogin generated Client Secret for your OpenID Connect app.

Required if Token Endpoint Authentication method is set to POST.

resource

string

Optional. When API Authorization is configured, specify the API Resource Identifier here to generate a customized Access Token that can be used for authorizing access to apis and api gateways.

e.g. resource=https://api.example.com/contacts

scope

string

Optional. When API Authorization is configured, you can specific a space separated list of scopes that have been approved for the API Authorization client. These scopes will be included in the Access Token that is returned.

Sample Request Body

grant_type=client_credentials

Sample Response

  • 200 OK
  • 400 Bad Request
  • 401 Unauthorized
{
    "access_token": "eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCIsImtpZCI6IkpSY080bnhzNWpnYzhZZE43STJoTE80Vl9xbDFiZG9pTVhtY1lnSG00SHMifQ.eyJqdGkiOiJ1N2FTRDgyNFdrSnd0d3ZuZzZObWYiLCJpc3MiOiJodHRwczovL29wZW5pZC1jb25uZWN0Lm9uZWxvZ2luLmNvbS9vaWRjIiwiaWF0IjoxNTM0ODExODI2LCJleHAiOjE1MzQ4MTI0MjYsImF1ZCI6IjlhNmQ2MzUwLTJhZjgtMDEzNi0xOTdiLTA2YWNjNzZkMzRiNDkyOTIwIn0.VtybpMirTTrRGiYsJfX-yIjVkqkuyc1gj7pbim0ecOde3ku75Zvyh42nxkKdxxzBuMvWZpulpiaFru6ZAnd6MxZj9VyKmqZ3xFhBr0GRKzScRJjnX2_cAHCJtr7AqwxolaGsu4iZUolOrTdhX1BU3skLvNYE05TdeEITUsilEPL0ew5VV8MzYFQkY7Grr47MxpwEUv7yT6C3pz87Bgg5_7zFPHpLLeCRC8bhMK0rRe9uyK9ExQKIkLlf5Hyh1gfWqrTYwgXfIQt1Ba7IiAMAQvN60VTDbSxLBl0_x-vE-ezVfyHkN4d6owF37wOruoLsZ8c1braUNOWY00xkPwxxTQ",
    "expires_in": 600,
    "token_type": "Bearer"
}

The grant_type MUST be set to client_credentials

{
    "error": "unsupported_grant_type",
    "error_description": "unsupported grant_type requested (xxxx)"
}

The authorization header is invalid

{
    "error": "invalid_request",
    "error_description": "invalid authorization header value format"
}

Invalid client_id or client_secret

{
    "error": "invalid_client",
    "error_description": "client authentication failed"
}

Response Elements

access_token

A JWT that represents the session that has just been created.

For example the body of the JWT contains:

{
  "jti": "s0r5Z9z6LTJPs2xP2sipi",
  "iss": "https://openid-connect.onelogin.com/oidc/2",
  "iat": 1534812736,
  "exp": 1534813336,
  "aud": "9a6d6350-2af8-0136-197b-06acc76d34b492920"
}
expires_in The number of seconds until the session expires.
token_type The type of access token. Always set to “Bearer”

Sample Code

cURL

Replace sample values indicated by < > with your actual values.

curl -XPOST "https://<subdomain>.onelogin.com/oidc/2/token" \
-H "Authorization: Basic <base64 encoded client_id:client_secret>" \
-H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
-d "grant_type=client_credentials"

Postman Collection

Run In Postman

    Clicking Run in Postman button navigates to the page where you can fork the collection to your workspace. Forking the collection into your workspace will enable you to contribute to the source collection using pull requests. You can also view the collection in a public workspace if you like and even import a copy of the collection using the links present on the screen.

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