Key Authentication

Function Description

The key-auth plugin implements authentication based on API Key, supporting the parsing of the API Key from HTTP request URL parameters or request headers, while also verifying whether the API Key has permission to access the resource.

Runtime Properties

Plugin Execution Phase: Authentication Phase Plugin Execution Priority: 310

Configuration Fields

Note:

Authentication and authorization configurations cannot coexist within a single rule.
For requests that are authenticated, a header field X-Mse-Consumer will be added to identify the caller’s name.

Authentication Configuration

Name	Data Type	Requirements	Default Value	Description
`global_auth`	bool	Optional (Instance-Level Configuration Only)	-	Can only be configured at the instance level; if set to true, the authentication mechanism takes effect globally; if set to false, it only applies to the configured hostnames and routes. If not configured, it will only take effect globally when no hostname and route configurations are present (to maintain compatibility with older user habits).
`consumers`	array of object	Required	-	Configures the service callers for request authentication.
`keys`	array of string	Required	-	Source field names for the API Key, which can be URL parameters or HTTP request header names.
`in_query`	bool	At least one of `in_query` and `in_header` must be true	true	When configured as true, the gateway will attempt to parse the API Key from URL parameters.
`in_header`	bool	At least one of `in_query` and `in_header` must be true	true	When configured as true, the gateway will attempt to parse the API Key from HTTP request headers.

The configuration field descriptions for each item in consumers are as follows:

Name	Data Type	Requirements	Default Value	Description
`credential`	string	Required	-	Configures the access credential for this consumer.
`name`	string	Required	-	Configures the name for this consumer.

Authorization Configuration (Optional)

Name	Data Type	Requirements	Default Value	Description
`allow`	array of string	Optional (Non-Instance Level Configuration)	-	Can only be configured on fine-grained rules such as routes or hostnames; specifies the allowed consumers for matching requests, allowing for fine-grained permission control.

Configuration Example

Global Configuration for Authentication and Granular Route Authorization

The following configuration will enable Key Auth authentication and authorization for specific routes or hostnames in the gateway. The credential field must not repeat.

At the instance level, do the following plugin configuration:

global_auth: false
consumers:
- credential: 2bda943c-ba2b-11ec-ba07-00163e1250b5
  name: consumer1
- credential: c8c8e9ca-558e-4a2d-bb62-e700dcc40e35
  name: consumer2
keys:
- apikey
- x-api-key

For routes route-a and route-b, do the following configuration:

allow:
- consumer1

For the hostnames *.example.com and test.com, do the following configuration:

allow:
- consumer2

Note: The routes route-a and route-b specified in this example refer to the route names filled in when creating the gateway routes. When matched with these two routes, requests from the caller named consumer1 will be allowed while others will be denied.

The specified hostnames *.example.com and test.com are used to match the request’s domain name. When a domain name is matched, callers named consumer2 will be allowed while others will be denied.

Based on this configuration, the following requests will be allowed:

Assuming the following request matches route-a: Setting API Key in URL Parameters

curl  http://xxx.hello.com/test?apikey=2bda943c-ba2b-11ec-ba07-00163e1250b5

Setting API Key in HTTP Request Headers

curl  http://xxx.hello.com/test -H 'x-api-key: 2bda943c-ba2b-11ec-ba07-00163e1250b5'

After successful authentication and authorization, the request’s header will have an added X-Mse-Consumer field with the value consumer1, to identify the name of the caller.

The following requests will be denied access: Request without an API Key returns 401

curl  http://xxx.hello.com/test

Request with an invalid API Key returns 401

curl  http://xxx.hello.com/test?apikey=926d90ac-ba2e-11ec-ab68-00163e1250b5

Caller matched with provided API Key has no access rights, returns 403

# consumer2 is not in the allow list of route-a
curl  http://xxx.hello.com/test?apikey=c8c8e9ca-558e-4a2d-bb62-e700dcc40e35

Enabling at the Instance Level

The following configuration will enable Basic Auth authentication at the instance level for the gateway, requiring all requests to pass authentication before accessing.

global_auth: true
consumers:
- credential: 2bda943c-ba2b-11ec-ba07-00163e1250b5
  name: consumer1
- credential: c8c8e9ca-558e-4a2d-bb62-e700dcc40e35
  name: consumer2
keys:
- apikey
- x-api-key

HTTP Status Code	Error Message	Reason Explanation
401	Request denied by Key Auth check. Multiple API keys found in request	Multiple API Keys provided in the request.
401	Request denied by Key Auth check. No API key found in request	API Key not provided in the request.
401	Request denied by Key Auth check. Invalid API key	The current API Key is not authorized for access.
403	Request denied by Key Auth check. Unauthorized consumer	The caller does not have access permissions.