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Integrate with Node-RED

Support level: Community

What is Node-RED

Node-RED is a programming tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services in new and interesting ways.

It provides a browser-based editor that makes it easy to wire together flows using the wide range of nodes in the palette that can be deployed to its runtime in a single-click.

-- https://nodered.org/

caution

This requires modification of the Node-RED settings.js and installing additional Passport-js packages, see Securing Node-RED documentation for further details.

Preparation

The following placeholders are used in this guide:

  • authentik.company is the FQDN of authentik.
  • nodred.company is the FQDN of Node-RED.
note

This documentation lists only the settings that you need to change from their default values. Be aware that any changes other than those explicitly mentioned in this guide could cause issues accessing your application.

Step 1

In authentik, create an OAuth2/OpenID Provider (under Applications/Providers) with these settings:

note

Only settings that have been modified from default have been listed.

  • Name: Node-RED

Protocol Settings

note

Take note of the Client ID and Client Secret, you'll need to give them to Node-RED in Step 3.

Step 2

In authentik, create an application (under Resources/Applications) which uses this provider. Optionally apply access restrictions to the application using policy bindings.

note

Only settings that have been modified from default have been listed.

  • Name: Node-RED
  • Slug: nodered-slug
  • Provider: Node-RED

Optionally you can link directly to the authentication strategy

Step 3

note

Group based permissions are not implemented in the below example

Use npm to install passport-openidconnect

Navigate to the node-red node_modules directory, this is dependent on your chosen install method. In the official Node-RED docker container the node_modules directory is located in the data volume data/node_modules/. Alternatively enter the docker container docker exec -it nodered bash and cd /data/node_modules to utilise npm within the docker container.

Run the command npm install passport-openidconnect

Step 4

Edit the node-red settings.js file /data/settings.js to use the external authentication source via passport-openidconnect.

adminAuth: {
type:"strategy",
strategy: {
name: "openidconnect",
label: 'Sign in with authentik',
icon:"fa-cloud",
strategy: require("passport-openidconnect").Strategy,
options: {
issuer: 'https://authentik.company/application/o/<application-slug>/',
authorizationURL: 'https://authentik.company/application/o/authorize/',
tokenURL: 'https://authentik.company/application/o/token/',
userInfoURL: 'https://authentik.company/application/o/userinfo/',
clientID: '<Client ID (Key): Step 2>',
clientSecret: '<Client Secret: Step 2>',
callbackURL: 'https://nodered.company/auth/strategy/callback/',
scope: ['email', 'profile', 'openid'],
proxy: true,
verify: function(issuer, profile, done) {
done(null, profile)
}
}
},
users: function(user) {
return Promise.resolve({ username: user, permissions: "*" });
}
},