Jenkins : GitHub OAuth Plugin

About GitHub Authentication Plugin

The GitHub Authentication Plugin provides a means of using GitHub for authentication and authorization to secure Jenkins. GitHub Enterprise is also supported.

Setup

Before configuring the plugin you must create a GitHub application registration.

1. Visit https://github.com/settings/applications/new to create a GitHub application registration.
2. The values for application name, homepage URL, or application description don't matter. They can be customized however desired.

3. However, the authorization callback URL takes a specific value. It must be https://jenkins.example.com/securityRealm/finishLogin where jenkins.example.com is the location of the Jenkins server.

   The important part of the callback URL is /securityRealm/finishLogin

4. Finish by clicking Register application.

Security Realm in Global Security

The security realm in Jenkins controls authentication (i.e. you are who you say you are). The GitHub Authentication Plugin provides a security realm to authenticate Jenkins users via GitHub OAuth.

1. In the Global Security configuration choose the Security Realm to be GitHub Authentication Plugin.
2. The settings to configure are: GitHub Web URI, GitHub API URI, Client ID, Client Secret, and OAuth Scope(s).

3. If you're using GitHub Enterprise then the API URI is https://ghe.example.com/api/v3.

   The GitHub Enterprise API URI ends with /api/v3.

4. The recommended minimum GitHub OAuth scopes are read:org,user:email.

   The recommended scopes are designed for using both authentication and authorization functions in the plugin. If only authentication is being used then the scope can be further limited to (no scope) or user:email.

Authorization in Global Security.

The authorization configuration in Jenkins controls what your users can do (i.e. read jobs, execute builds, administer permissions, etc.). The GitHub OAuth Plugin supports multiple ways of configuring authorization.

Github Committer Authorization Strategy

Control user authorization using the Github Committer Authorization Strategy. This is the simplest authorization strategy to get up and running. It handles authorization based on the git URL of a job and the type of access a user has to that project (i.e. Admin, Read/Write, Read-Only).

Logged-in users can do anything

There are a few ways to configure the plugin so that everyone on your team has Overall/Administer access.

1. Choose Logged-in users can do anything authorization strategy.
2. Choose one of the matrix-based authorization strategies. Set authenticated users to Overall/Administer permissions. Set anonymous users to have Overall/Read permissions and perhaps the ViewStatus permission.

Matrix-based Authorization strategy

Control user authorization using Matrix-based security or Project-based Matrix Authorization Strategy. Project-based Matrix Authorization Strategy allows one to configure authorization globally per project and, when using Project-based Matrix Authorization Strategy with the CloudBees folder plugin, per folder.

There are a few built-in authorizations to consider.

• anonymous - is anyone who has not logged in. Recommended permissions are just Job/Discover and Job/ViewStatus.

• authenticated - is anyone who has logged in. You can configure permissions for anybody who has logged into Jenkins. Recommended permissions are Overall/Read and View/Read.

  anonymous and authenticated usernames are case sensitive and must be lower case. This is a consideration when configuring authorizations via Groovy. Keep in mind that anonymous shows up as Anonymous in the Jenkins UI.

You can configure authorization based on GitHub users, organizations, or teams.

• username - give permissions to a specific GitHub username.
• organization - give permissions to every user that belongs to a specific GitHub organization.
• organization*team - give permissions to a specific GitHub team of a GitHub organization. Notice that organization and team are separated by an asterisk (*).

Other usage

Calling Jenkins API using GitHub Personal Access Tokens

You can make Jenkins API calls by using a GitHub personal access token. One can still call the Jenkins API by using Jenkins tokens or use the Jenkins CLI with an SSH key for authentication. However, the GitHub OAuth plugin provides another way to call the Jenkins API by allowing the use of a GitHub Personal Access Token.

1. Generate a GitHub Personal Access Token and give it only read:org scope.
2. Use a username and GitHub personal access token to authenticate with the Jenkins API.

Here's an example using curl to start a build using parameters (username samrocketman and password using the personal access token).

curl -X POST https://jenkins.example.com/job/_jervis_generator/build --user "samrocketman:myGitHubPersonalAccessToken" --data-urlencode json='{"parameter": [{"name":"project", "value":"samrocketman/jervis"}]}'

Automatically configure security realm via script console

Configuration management could be used to configure the security realm via the Jenkins Script Console. Here's a sample configuring plugin version 0.22.

import hudson.security.SecurityRealm
import org.jenkinsci.plugins.GithubSecurityRealm
String githubWebUri = 'https://github.com'
String githubApiUri = 'https://api.github.com'
String clientID = 'someid'
String clientSecret = 'somesecret'
String oauthScopes = 'read:org'
SecurityRealm github_realm = new GithubSecurityRealm(githubWebUri, githubApiUri, clientID, clientSecret, oauthScopes)
//check for equality, no need to modify the runtime if no settings changed
if(!github_realm.equals(Jenkins.instance.getSecurityRealm())) {
    Jenkins.instance.setSecurityRealm(github_realm)
    Jenkins.instance.save()
}

Automatically configure authorization strategy via script console

Configuration management could be used to configure the authorization strategy via the Jenkins Script Console. Here's a sample configuring plugin version 0.22.

import org.jenkinsci.plugins.GithubAuthorizationStrategy
import hudson.security.AuthorizationStrategy

//permissions are ordered similar to web UI
//Admin User Names
String adminUserNames = 'samrocketman'
//Participant in Organization
String organizationNames = ''
//Use Github repository permissions
boolean useRepositoryPermissions = true
//Grant READ permissions to all Authenticated Users
boolean authenticatedUserReadPermission = false
//Grant CREATE Job permissions to all Authenticated Users
boolean authenticatedUserCreateJobPermission = false
//Grant READ permissions for /github-webhook
boolean allowGithubWebHookPermission = false
//Grant READ permissions for /cc.xml
boolean allowCcTrayPermission = false
//Grant READ permissions for Anonymous Users
boolean allowAnonymousReadPermission = false
//Grant ViewStatus permissions for Anonymous Users
boolean allowAnonymousJobStatusPermission = false

AuthorizationStrategy github_authorization = new GithubAuthorizationStrategy(adminUserNames,
    authenticatedUserReadPermission,
    useRepositoryPermissions,
    authenticatedUserCreateJobPermission,
    organizationNames,
    allowGithubWebHookPermission,
    allowCcTrayPermission,
    allowAnonymousReadPermission,
    allowAnonymousJobStatusPermission)

//check for equality, no need to modify the runtime if no settings changed
if(!github_authorization.equals(Jenkins.instance.getAuthorizationStrategy())) {
    Jenkins.instance.setAuthorizationStrategy(github_authorization)
    Jenkins.instance.save()
}

Open Tickets (bugs and feature requests)

Key	Summary	T	Created	Updated	Due	Assignee	Reporter	P	Status	Resolution
JENKINS-66302	Prepare GitHub Authentication for core Guava upgrade		Aug 07, 2021	Aug 29, 2021		Sam Gleske	Basil Crow		In Review	Unresolved
JENKINS-66292	Jenkins sessions with GitHub OAuth time out quickly, breaking usability		Aug 06, 2021	Aug 06, 2021		Sam Gleske	Jim Klimov		Open	Unresolved
JENKINS-66128	Github OAuth plugin should allow disabling rate limit checks		Jul 13, 2021	Jul 13, 2021		Sam Gleske	Brian Saville		Open	Unresolved
JENKINS-65937	Github Committer Authorization Strategy: user repository permissions		Jun 20, 2021	Jun 20, 2021		Sam Gleske	Samuel		Open	Unresolved
JENKINS-64162	Github Deprecating OAuth Authorization API		Nov 07, 2020	Nov 10, 2020		Sam Gleske	Shayne Clausson		Open	Unresolved
JENKINS-64090	Plugin authorization is not correctly handling case		Oct 30, 2020	Oct 30, 2020		Sam Gleske	Pierre Beitz		Open	Unresolved
JENKINS-63565	Receive HTTP 403 error authenticating with Github personal token		Aug 31, 2020	Oct 22, 2020		Sam Gleske	Lyndon Washington		Open	Unresolved
JENKINS-63421	Agent/Connect and other Agent permissions		Aug 18, 2020	Jul 01, 2021		Andreas Nygard	Andreas Nygard		In Progress	Unresolved
JENKINS-63051	Child teams should inherit rights granted to parent group		Jul 13, 2020	Oct 28, 2020		Sam Gleske	Clover BT		Open	Unresolved
JENKINS-61963	Authenticate github pull requester and trigger the build as him/her		Apr 18, 2020	Jun 04, 2020		Kanstantsin Shautsou	Michael Who		Open	Unresolved
JENKINS-60767	Make configurable call to authorize service		Jan 14, 2020	Jan 14, 2020		Sam Gleske	Seweryn Habdank-Wojewodzki		Open	Unresolved
JENKINS-60472	Jenkins authentication with GitHub not working		Dec 13, 2019	Dec 13, 2019		Unassigned	giby Alex		Open	Unresolved
JENKINS-60200	More control over cache		Nov 18, 2019	Nov 18, 2019		Sam Gleske	poh koh		Open	Unresolved
JENKINS-59372	Support cctray-xml plugin		Sep 13, 2019	Sep 13, 2019		Sam Gleske	Chris Griego		Open	Unresolved
JENKINS-58479	Failing to retrieve teams		Jul 12, 2019	Aug 26, 2019		Sam Gleske	Kote Mushegiani		Open	Unresolved
JENKINS-52528	Update github-api plugin from 1.77 to 1.93		Jul 12, 2018	Aug 10, 2019		Sam Gleske	Duncan Mak		Open	Unresolved
JENKINS-52382	Can't stop / cancel private repository builds		Jul 05, 2018	Aug 06, 2019		Sam Gleske	Clement Gautier		Open	Unresolved
JENKINS-52218	Creating a Multibranch pipeline job as an authenticated user via GitHub Committer Authorization Strategy results in error		Jun 27, 2018	Jun 27, 2018		Sam Gleske	steve bussetti		Open	Unresolved
JENKINS-50122	Incorrect permissions with non Multibranch based Pipeline jobs		Mar 12, 2018	May 01, 2019		Sam Gleske	Brice Figureau		Open	Unresolved
JENKINS-48601	Warn admin if he tries to configure GitHub authorization without authentication		Dec 18, 2017	Dec 19, 2017		Sam Gleske	Wadeck Follonier		Open	Unresolved
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Release notes

See CHANGELOG.