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Enterprise Authentication Mechanisms

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  • Kerberos (GSSAPI/SSPI)
  • LDAP (PLAIN)
  • MONGODB-OIDC
  • API Documentation

In this guide, you can find sample code for connection to MongoDB with each authentication mechanism available in the MongoDB Enterprise Edition: Kerberos (GSSAPI/SSPI), LDAP (PLAIN), and MONGODB-OIDC.

Note

The Node.js driver supports Kerberos on UNIX using the MIT Kerberos library and on Windows using the SSPI API.

The GSSAPI authentication mechanism uses your user principal to authenticate to a Kerberos service.

You can specify this authentication mechanism by performing the following actions while specifying options on your connection string:

  • Set the authMechanism parameter to GSSAPI.

  • Set the SERVICE_NAME value in the authMechanismProperties parameter if using a value other than mongodb.

  • Specify a SERVICE_REALM value in the authMechanismProperties parameter if a custom service realm is required.

  • Specify a CANONICALIZE_HOST_NAME value in the authMechanismProperties parameter if canonicalization of the hostname is required. This property can take the following values:

    • none: (Default) Does not perform hostname canonicalization

    • forward: Performs a forward DNS lookup to canonicalize the hostname

    • forwardAndReverse: Performs a forward DNS lookup and then a reverse lookup on that value to canonicalize the hostname

Important

The gssapiServiceName parameter is deprecated and may be removed in future versions of the driver. Use authMechanismProperties=SERVICE_NAME:<your service name> in the connection URI instead. See the authMechanismProperties parameter documentation for more information.

The following code sample authenticates to Kerberos for UNIX using GSSAPI.

Important

Always URI encode the principal using the encodeURIComponent method to ensure it is correctly parsed.

const { MongoClient } = require("mongodb");
// specify the placeholder values for your environment in the following lines
const clusterUrl = "<MongoDB cluster URL>";
const principal = encodeURIComponent("<Kerberos principal and realm>");
const serviceRealm = "<Kerberos service realm>";
const canonicalizationSetting = "<canonicalization setting>";
const authMechanismProperties = `SERVICE_REALM:${serviceRealm},CANONICALIZE_HOST_NAME:${canonicalizationSetting}`;
const authMechanism = "GSSAPI";
// Connection URI
const uri = `mongodb+srv://${principal}@${clusterUrl}/?authMechanism=${authMechanism}&authMechanismProperties=${authMechanismProperties}`;
const client = new MongoClient(uri);
// Function to connect to the server
async function run() {
try {
// Establish and verify connection
await client.db("admin").command({ ping: 1 });
console.log("Connected successfully to server");
} finally {
// Ensures that the client will close when you finish/error
await client.close();
}
}
run().catch(console.dir);

Note

The method refers to the GSSAPI authentication mechanism instead of Kerberos because the driver authenticates through GSSAPI RFC-4652, the SASL mechanism.

The PLAIN authentication mechanism uses your username and password to authenticate to a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server.

You can specify this authentication mechanism by setting the authMechanism parameter to PLAIN and including your LDAP username and password in the connection string as shown in the following sample code.

const { MongoClient } = require("mongodb");
// specify the placeholder values for your environment in the following lines
const clusterUrl = "<MongoDB cluster URL>";
const ldapUsername = "<LDAP username>";
const ldapPassword = "<LDAP password>";
const authMechanism = "PLAIN";
// Connection URI
const uri = `mongodb+srv://${ldapUsername}:${ldapPassword}@${clusterUrl}/?authMechanism=${authMechanism}`;
const client = new MongoClient(uri);
// Function to connect to the server
async function run() {
try {
// Establish and verify connection
await client.db("admin").command({ ping: 1 });
console.log("Connected successfully to server");
} finally {
// Ensures that the client will close when you finish/error
await client.close();
}
}
run().catch(console.dir);

Note

The authentication mechanism is named PLAIN instead of LDAP since it authenticates using the PLAIN Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) defined in RFC-4616.

Important

The MONGODB-OIDC authentication mechanism requires MongoDB Server v7.0 or later running on a Linux platform.

The following sections describe how to use the MONGODB-OIDC authentication mechanism to authenticate from various platforms.

For more information about the MONGODB-OIDC authentication mechanism, see OpenID Connect Authentication and MongoDB Server Parameters in the MongoDB Server manual.

If your application runs on an Azure VM, or otherwise uses the Azure Instance Metadata Service (IMDS), you can authenticate to MongoDB by using the Node.js driver's built-in Azure support.

To specify Azure IMDS OIDC as the authentication mechanism, set the following options in your connection string:

  • username: If you're using an Azure managed identity, set this to the client ID of the managed identity. If you're using a service principal to represent an enterprise application, set this to the application ID of the service principal. Otherwise, omit this option.

  • authMechanism: Set to MONGODB-OIDC.

  • authMechanismProperties: Set to ENVIRONMENT:azure,TOKEN_RESOURCE:<audience>. Replace the <audience> placeholder with the value of the audience parameter configured on your MongoDB deployment.

The following code example shows how to set the preceding connection options:

const { MongoClient } = require("mongodb");
const uri = "mongodb+srv://<username>@<hostname>:<port>/?authMechanism=MONGODB-OIDC"
+ "&authMechanismProperties=ENVIRONMENT:azure,TOKEN_RESOURCE:<audience>";
const client = new MongoClient(uri);

If your application runs on a Google Compute Engine VM, or otherwise uses the GCP Instance Metadata Service, you can authenticate to MongoDB by using the Node.js driver's built-in GCP support.

To specify GCP IMDS OIDC as the authentication mechanism, set the following options in your connection string:

  • authMechanism: Set to MONGODB-OIDC.

  • authMechanismProperties: Set to ENVIRONMENT:gcp,TOKEN_RESOURCE:<audience>. Replace the <audience> placeholder with the value of the audience parameter configured on your MongoDB deployment.

The following code example shows how to set the preceding connection options:

const { MongoClient } = require("mongodb");
const uri = "mongodb+srv://<host>:<port>/?authMechanism=MONGODB-OIDC"
+ "&authMechanismProperties=ENVIRONMENT:gcp,TOKEN_RESOURCE:<audience>";
const client = new MongoClient(uri);

The Node.js driver doesn't offer built-in support for all platforms, including Azure Functions and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). Instead, you must define a custom callback to use OIDC to authenticate from these platforms.

First, define a function that retrieves the access token to use for OIDC authentication. This function must have the following signature:

const myCallback = (params: OIDCCallbackParams): Promise<OIDCResponse> => { }

The OIDCCallbackParams parameter contains the following properties, which you can access inside the function:

Property
Value
timeoutContext
An AbortSignal that aborts the authentication workflow after 30 seconds
version
The current OIDC API version
idpInfo
The identity-provider information returned from the server
username
The username included in the connection string, if any
refreshToken
The refresh token to request a new access token from the issuer, if any

The callback function must return an OIDCResponse object. This object contains the following properties:

Property
Value
accessToken
The access token to use for authentication.
expiresInSeconds
Optional. The number of seconds until the access token expires.
refreshToken
Optional. The refresh token to request a new access token from the issuer.

The following example shows a callback function that retrieves an OIDC access token from a file named access-token.dat in the local file system:

const fs = require("node:fs");
const myCallback = (params: OIDCCallbackParams): Promise<OIDCResponse> => {
const token = fs.readFileSync("access-token.dat", "utf8");
return {
accessToken: token,
expiresInSeconds: 300,
refreshToken: token
};
}

After you define your callback function, pass it to the MongoClient constructor as part of the authMechanismProperties parameter. The Node.js driver supports the following authentication patterns:

  • Machine authentication: Used by web services and other applications that require no human interaction. Select the Machine Callback tab to see an example of this syntax.

  • Human authentication: Used by database tools, command-line utilities, and other applications that involve direct human interaction. Select the Human Callback tab to see an example of this syntax.

For machine authentication, assign the callback function to the authMechanismProperties.OIDC_CALLBACK property, as shown in the following example:

const { MongoClient } = require("mongodb");
const uri = "mongodb+srv://<host>:<port>/?authMechanism=MONGODB-OIDC";
const client = new MongoClient(uri, {
authMechanismProperties: {
OIDC_CALLBACK: myCallback
}
});

For human authentication, assign the callback function to the authMechanismProperties.OIDC_HUMAN_CALLBACK property, as shown in the following example:

const { MongoClient } = require("mongodb");
const uri = "mongodb+srv://<host>:<port>/?authMechanism=MONGODB-OIDC";
const client = new MongoClient(uri, {
authMechanismProperties: {
OIDC_HUMAN_CALLBACK: myCallback
}
});

To learn more about the methods and types discussed in this guide, see the following API documentation:

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Authentication Mechanisms