# Authentication in the development environment This page documents special notes that are useful for configuring Zulip's various [authentication methods](../production/authentication-methods.md) for testing in a development environment. Many of these authentication methods involve a complex interaction between Zulip, an external service, and the user's browser. Because browsers can (rightly!) be picky about the identity of sites you interact with, the preferred way to set up authentication methods in a development environment is provide secret keys so that you can go through the real flow. The steps to do this are a variation of the steps discussed in the production documentation, including the comments in `zproject/prod_settings_template.py`. The differences here are driven by the fact that `dev_settings.py` is in Git, so it is inconvenient for local [settings configuration](../subsystems/settings.md). As a result, in the development environment, we allow setting certain settings in the untracked file `zproject/dev-secrets.conf` (which is also serves as `/etc/zulip/zulip-secrets.conf`). Below, we document the procedure for each of the major authentication methods supported by Zulip. ### Email and password Zulip's default EmailAuthBackend authenticates users by verifying control over their email address, and then allowing them to set a password for their account. There are two development environment details worth understanding: - All of our authentication flows in the development environment have special links to the `/emails` page (advertised in `/devtools`), which shows all emails that the Zulip server has "sent" (emails are not actually sent by the development environment), to make it convenient to click through the UI of signup, password reset, etc. - There's a management command, `manage.py print_initial_password username@example.com`, that prints out **default** passwords for the development environment users. Note that if you change a user's password in the development environment, those passwords will no longer work. It also prints out the user's **current** API key. ### Google - Visit [the Google developer console](https://console.developers.google.com) and navigate to "APIs & services" > "Credentials". Create a "Project", which will correspond to your dev environment. - Navigate to "APIs & services" > "Library", and find the "Identity Toolkit API". Choose "Enable". - Return to "Credentials", and select "Create credentials". Choose "OAuth client ID", and follow prompts to create a consent screen, etc. For "Authorized redirect URIs", fill in `http://zulipdev.com:9991/complete/google/` . - You should get a client ID and a client secret. Copy them. In `dev-secrets.conf`, set `social_auth_google_key` to the client ID and `social_auth_google_secret` to the client secret. ### GitHub - Register an OAuth2 application with GitHub at one of or . Specify `http://zulipdev.com:9991/complete/github/` as the callback URL. - You should get a page with settings for your new application, showing a client ID and a client secret. In `dev-secrets.conf`, set `social_auth_github_key` to the client ID and `social_auth_github_secret` to the client secret. ### GitLab - Register an OAuth application with GitLab at . Specify `http://zulipdev.com:9991/complete/gitlab` as the callback URL. - You should get a page containing the Application ID and Secret for your new application. In `dev-secrets.conf`, enter the Application ID as `social_auth_gitlab_key` and the Secret as `social_auth_gitlab_secret`. ### Apple - Visit , Enable App ID and Create a Services ID with the instructions in . When prompted for a "Return URL", enter `http://zulipdev.com:9991/complete/apple/` . - [Create a Sign in with Apple private key](https://help.apple.com/developer-account/?lang=en#/dev77c875b7e) - In `dev-secrets.conf`, set - `social_auth_apple_services_id` to your "Services ID" (eg. com.application.your). - `social_auth_apple_app_id` to "App ID" or "Bundle ID". This is only required if you are testing Apple auth on iOS. - `social_auth_apple_key` to your "Key ID". - `social_auth_apple_team` to your "Team ID". - Put the private key file you got from apple at the path `zproject/dev_apple.key`. ### SAML - Sign up for a [developer Okta account](https://developer.okta.com/). - Set up SAML authentication by following [Okta's documentation](https://developer.okta.com/docs/guides/saml-application-setup/overview/). Specify: - `http://localhost:9991/complete/saml/` for the "Single sign on URL"`. - `http://localhost:9991` for the "Audience URI (SP Entity ID)". - Skip "Default RelayState". - Skip "Name ID format". - Set 'Email` for "Application username format". - Provide "Attribute statements" of `email` to `user.email`, `first_name` to `user.firstName`, and `last_name` to `user.lastName`. - Assign at least one account in the "Assignments" tab. You'll use it for signing up / logging in to Zulip. - Visit the big "Setup instructions" button on the "Sign on" tab. - Edit `zproject/dev-secrets.conf` to add the two values provided: - Set `saml_url = http...` from "Identity Provider Single Sign-On URL". - Set `saml_entity_id = http://...` from "Identity Provider Issuer". - Download the certificate and put it at the path `zproject/dev_saml.cert`. - Now you should have working SAML authentication! - You can sign up to the target realm with the account that you've "assigned" in the previous steps (if the account's email address is allowed in the realm, so you may have to change the realm settings to allow the appropriate email domain) and then you'll be able to log in freely. Alternatively, you can create an account with the email in any other way, and then just use SAML to log in. ### When SSL is required Some OAuth providers (such as Facebook) require HTTPS on the callback URL they post back to, which isn't supported directly by the Zulip development environment. If you run a [remote Zulip development server](../development/remote.md), we have instructions for [an nginx reverse proxy with SSL](../development/remote.html#using-an-nginx-reverse-proxy) that you can use for your development efforts. ## Testing LDAP in development Before Zulip 2.0, one of the more common classes of bug reports with Zulip's authentication was users having trouble getting [LDAP authentication](../production/authentication-methods.html#ldap-including-active-directory) working. The root cause was because setting up a local LDAP server for development was difficult, which meant most developers were unable to work on fixing even simple issues with it. We solved this problem for our unit tests long ago by using the popular [fakeldap](https://github.com/zulip/fakeldap) library. And in 2018, we added convenient support for using fakeldap in the Zulip development environment as well, so that you can go through all the actual flows for LDAP configuration. - To enable fakeldap, set `FAKE_LDAP_MODE` in `zproject/dev_settings.py` to one of the following options. For more information on these modes, refer to [our production docs](../production/authentication-methods.html#ldap-including-active-directory): - `a`: If users' email addresses are in LDAP and used as username. - `b`: If LDAP only has usernames but email addresses are of the form username@example.com - `c`: If LDAP usernames are completely unrelated to email addresses. - To disable fakeldap, set `FAKE_LDAP_MODE` back to `None`. - In all fakeldap configurations, users' fake LDAP passwords are equal to their usernames (e.g. for `ldapuser1@zulip.com`, the password is `ldapuser1`). - `FAKE_LDAP_NUM_USERS` in `zproject/dev_settings.py` can be used to specify the number of LDAP users to be added. The default value for the number of LDAP users is 8. ### Testing avatar and custom profile field synchronization The fakeldap LDAP directories we use in the development environment are generated by the code in `zerver/lib/dev_ldap_directory.py`, and contain data one might want to sync, including avatars and custom profile fields. We also have configured `AUTH_LDAP_USER_ATTR_MAP` in `zproject/dev_settings.py` to sync several of those fields. For example: - Modes `a` and `b` will set the user's avatar on account creation and update it when `manage.py sync_ldap_user_data` is run. - Mode `b` is configured to automatically have the `birthday` and `Phone number` custom profile fields populated/synced. - Mode `a` is configured to deactivate/reactivate users whose accounts are disabled in LDAP when `manage.py sync_ldap_user_data` is run. (Note that you'll likely need to edit `zerver/lib/dev_ldap_directory.py` to ensure there are some accounts configured to be disabled). ### Automated testing For our automated tests, we generally configure custom LDAP data for each individual test, because that generally means one can understand exactly what data is being used in the test without looking at other resources. It also gives us more freedom to edit the development environment directory without worrying about tests. ## Two factor authentication Zulip uses [django-two-factor-auth][0] as a beta 2FA integration. To enable 2FA, set `TWO_FACTOR_AUTHENTICATION_ENABLED` in settings to `True`, then log in to Zulip and add an OTP device from the settings page. Once the device is added, password based authentication will ask for a one-time-password. In the development environment, this one-time-password will be printed to the console when you try to log in. Just copy-paste it into the form field to continue. Direct development logins don't prompt for 2FA one-time-passwords, so to test 2FA in development, make sure that you log in using a password. You can get the passwords for the default test users using `./manage.py print_initial_password`. ## Password form implementation By default, Zulip uses `autocomplete=off` for password fields where we enter the current password, and `autocomplete="new-password"` for password fields where we create a new account or change the existing password. This prevents the browser from auto-filling the existing password. Visit for more details. [0]: https://github.com/Bouke/django-two-factor-auth