JWT Authentication with Conjur
Enable the Conjur authn-jwt authenticator, configure it against a local JWT issuer, then authenticate a workload with a signed JWT and fetch a secret.
Lab Overview
In this lab you give a workload a JWT-based machine identity in Conjur OSS v1.24.0. You enable the authn-jwt authenticator, configure it to validate tokens against a local RSA issuer (no external identity provider required), define a workload host whose annotations map JWT claims to a Conjur identity, mint a JWT signed by the local key, exchange it for a short-lived Conjur access token, and use that token to fetch a permitted secret over the REST API. You also see how a token carrying the wrong claim is rejected. This builds directly on the canonical Conjur OSS Docker Compose deployment.
What You'll Learn
Enable the authn-jwt authenticator in Conjur OSS via the CONJUR_AUTHENTICATORS env and a webservice policy
Configure a JWT authenticator against a local RSA issuer using the public-keys variable (no external IdP)
Define a workload host whose annotations map JWT claims to a Conjur machine identity
Mint a JWT signed by the local key and exchange it for a short-lived Conjur access token
Use the access token to fetch a permitted secret, and observe a denied case with the wrong claim
Prerequisites
Completion of "Deploy Conjur OSS with Docker Compose" (or equivalent Conjur OSS deployment)
Familiarity with the Conjur CLI v8 and policy-as-code basics
Basic understanding of JWTs (claims, signing) and REST APIs
Technologies Covered
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