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Request user consent

This guide explains how to configure an Okta-hosted user consent dialog for OAuth 2.0 or OpenID Connect authentication flows.

Learning outcomes

Implement an Okta-hosted user consent dialog.

What you need

When configured, the Okta-hosted user consent dialog for OAuth 2.0 or OpenID Connect authentication flows enables users to acknowledge and accept that they’re giving an app access to some of their data. With the correct configuration, Okta displays a consent dialog that shows which app is asking for access to what data. The dialog displays the app logo that you specify and also provides details about what data is shared if the user consents.

User consent represents a user's explicit permission to allow an app to access resources protected by scopes. Consent grants are different from tokens. This is because a consent can outlast a token. There can also be multiple tokens with varying sets of scopes derived from a single consent.

You can configure which scopes aren't required, which are optional, and which are required.

When an app needs to get a new access token from an authorization server, the user isn't prompted for consent if they already consented to the specified scopes. Consent grants remain valid until the user or admin manually revokes them, or until the user, app, authorization server, or scope is deactivated or deleted.

Note: The user only has to grant consent once for a scope per authorization server.

When a consent dialog appears depends on the values of three elements:

  • prompt: a query parameter (opens new window) that's used in requests to /oauth2/{authorizationServerId}/v1/authorize (custom authorization server)
  • consent_method: an app property listed in the Settings table (opens new window) in the Apps API doc. This property allows you to determine whether a client is fully trusted (for example, a first-party app) or requires consent (for example, a third-party app).
  • consent: a scope property listed in the parameter details (opens new window) for authorization server scopes. This property allows you to enable or disable user consent for an individual scope.

Use the following steps to display the user consent dialog as part of an OpenID Connect or OAuth 2.0 request.

Note: Currently OAuth Consent works only with custom authorization servers. See Authorization servers for more information on the types of authorization servers available to you and what you can use them for.

Note: Okta's Developer Edition makes most key developer features available by default for testing purposes. Okta's API Access Management product — a requirement to use Custom Authorization Servers — is an optional add-on in production environments.

  1. In the Admin Console, go to Applications > Applications.

  2. Select the OpenID Connect app that you want to require user consent for.

  3. On the General tab, scroll down to the User Consent section and verify that the Require consent checkbox is selected. If it isn't, click Edit and select Require consent.

  4. For this use case, use the Implicit flow for testing purposes. In the Grant type section, click Advanced, select Implicit, and then select both Allow ID Token with implicit grant type and Allow Access Token with implicit grant type.

    Note: If you're using Classic Engine, select Implicit (hybrid) in the Grant type section.

    For the Authorization Code flow, the response type is code. You can exchange an authorization code for an ID token and/or an access token using the /token endpoint.

  5. Click Save.

  6. To enable consent for scopes (opens new window), select Security > API.

  7. On the Authorization Servers tab, select default (custom authorization server) in the table. In this example, we are enabling consent for a default custom authorization server scope.

  8. Select the Scopes tab.

  9. Click the edit icon for the phone scope. The Edit Scope dialog appears.

  10. For this use case example, select Required in the User consent section. Required indicates that the user must grant the app access to the information (scope) or they can't sign in to the app. The other options available include:

    Note: If these options don't appear, you don't have the optional consent feature enabled. To enable it in your org, select Settings > Features, locate OAuth 2.0 optional consent, and slide to enable.

    • Implicit: The default setting. Indicates that the user doesn't have to grant the app access to the information. User consent is implied.
    • Optional: Indicates that the user can skip granting the app access to the information (scope). Scopes that the user skips aren't included in the authorization response. After a user skips a scope, the next time that they sign in, Okta doesn't prompt them for it. If you later make the scope required for the app, the user is then prompted to grant the app access to that scope.

    Note: When you include prompt=consent in the authorization request, the user is prompted for all consent-enabled scopes. This includes scopes that are required or optional, even when the user has already given consent for a scope or skipped a scope. The user also has the option to skip scopes that were changed from required to optional.

  11. When you select User consent as Required or Optional, the Block services from requesting this scope checkbox is automatically selected.

    The Block services from requesting this scope checkbox strictly enforces user consent for the scope. When you select this checkbox, if a service using the Client Credentials grant flow makes a request that contains this scope, the authorization server returns an error. This occurs because there is no user involved in a Client Credentials grant flow. If you want to allow service-to-service interactions to request this scope, clear the checkbox. See the Authorization Servers API (opens new window) for more information on consent options.

  12. Click Save.

The following section provides example requests for enabling the consent dialog using the APIs. You must first verify that the consent_method property is set to REQUIRED and then enable consent for the scope.

  1. Verify that the consent_method parameter for the app is set to REQUIRED:

  2. If the consent_method is set to TRUSTED, you need to update that parameter. The following example shows the JSON body of a PUT request to an existing OpenID Connect app (https://{yourOktaDomain}/api/v1/apps/{applicationId}). The request updates the consent_method parameter from TRUSTED to REQUIRED. The value that you specify for consent_method depends on the values for prompt and consent.

    Note: Check the Settings table (opens new window) of the Apps API reference for information on these properties. In most cases, REQUIRED is the correct value.

    {
    "id": "0oaosna3ilNxgPTmk0h7",
    "name": "oidc_client",
    "label": "ConsentWebApp",
    "status": "ACTIVE",
    "signOnMode": "OPENID_CONNECT",
    "credentials": {
     "userNameTemplate": {
         "template": "{source.login}",
         "type": "BUILT_IN"
     },
        "signing": {
          "kid": "5gbe0HpzAYj2rsWSLxx1fYHdh-SzWqyKqwmfJ6qDk5g"
     },
        "oauthClient": {
         "autoKeyRotation": true,
          "client_id": "0oaosna3ilNxgPTmk0h7",
         "token_endpoint_auth_method": "client_secret_basic"
        }
 },
 "settings": {
     "app": {},
     "notifications": {
         "vpn": {
             "network": {
                 "connection": "DISABLED"
              },
             "message": null,
             "helpUrl": null
         }
        },
     "oauthClient": {
         "client_uri": null,
         "logo_uri": null,
         "redirect_uris": [
            "https://{yourOktaDomain}/authorization-code/callback"
         ],
         "response_types": [
             "code",
             "token",
             "id_token"
         ],
         "grant_types": [
             "authorization_code",
             "implicit"
         ],
            "initiate_login_uri": "https://{yourOktaDomain}/authorization-code/callback",
            "application_type": "web",
             "consent_method": "REQUIRED",
             "issuer_mode": "CUSTOM_URL"
        }
    }
}

      
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To enable consent for a scope, you need to update the appropriate scope (opens new window) by updating the consent property for the scope from IMPLICIT (the default) to either REQUIRED or FLEXIBLE. In this example, set consent to REQUIRED.

To make consent of a scope optional, set the consent property to either REQUIRED or FLEXIBLE and include "optional": true in the request.

Note: See the Authorization Servers API (opens new window) for more information on scope properties and how to use them.

This example shows the JSON body for a PUT request to the default custom authorization server (https://{yourOktaDomain}/api/v1/authorizationServers/{authorizationServerId}/scopes/{scopeId}) to update the phone scope. You need the following information for the request:

{
    "id": "scpixa2zmc8Eumvjb0h7",
    "name": "phone",
    "displayName": "phone",
    "description": "Allows this application to access your phone number.",
    "system": true,
    "metadataPublish": "ALL_CLIENTS",
    "consent": "REQUIRED",
    "default": false
}

  
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To update scope consent to OPTIONAL, set consent to REQUIRED and include the optional parameter set to true:

{
    "id": "scpixa2zmc8Eumvjb0h7",
    "name": "phone",
    "displayName": "phone",
    "description": "Allows this application to access your phone number.",
    "system": true,
    "metadataPublish": "ALL_CLIENTS",
    "consent": "REQUIRED",
    "optional": true,
    "default": false
}

  
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Build the request

After you define the scopes that you want to require consent for, prepare an authentication or authorization request with the correct values.

  1. Obtain the following values from your OpenID Connect app, both of which you can find on the app's General tab:

    • Client ID
    • Redirect URI

  2. Use the default custom authorization server's authorization endpoint, for example, https://{yourOktaDomain}/oauth2/default/v1/authorize.

    Note: See Authorization servers for more information on the types of authorization servers available to you and what you can use them for.

  3. Add the following query parameters to the URL:

    • Your OpenID Connect app's client_id and redirect_uri
    • The openid scope and the scopes that you want to require consent for. In this example, we configured the phone scope in the previous section.
    • The response type, which for an ID token is id_token and an access token is token

    Note: The examples in this guide use the Implicit flow, which streamlines authentication by returning tokens without introducing additional steps. This makes it easier to test your configuration. For the Authorization Code flow, the response type is code. You can then exchange an authorization code for an ID token and/or an access token using the /token endpoint.

    • Values for state and nonce, which can be anything

    • Optional. The prompt parameter. The standard behavior (if you don't include prompt in the request) is to prompt the user for consent if they haven't already given consent for the scopes. When you include prompt=consent in the request, the user is prompted for consent every time, even if they have already given consent. You must set the consent_method and the consent for the scopes (opens new window) to REQUIRED. See the parameter details (opens new window) for the /authorize endpoint.

    Note: All of the property values are fully documented in the /authorize endpoint (opens new window) section of the OpenID Connect & OAuth 2.0 API reference.

    The resulting URL to request an access token looks something like this:

    curl -X GET
"https://{yourOktaDomain}/oauth2/{authorizationServerId}/v1/authorize?client_id=examplefa39J4jXdcCwWA
&response_type=token
&scope=openid%20phone
&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2FyourRedirectUriHere.com
&state=myState
&nonce={myNonceValue}"

      
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    Example with the prompt parameter included:

    curl -X GET
"https://{yourOktaDomain}/oauth2/{authorizationServerId}/v1/authorize?client_id=examplefa39J4jXdcCwWA
&response_type=token
&scope=openid%20phone
&prompt=consent
&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2FyourRedirectUriHere.com
&state=myState
&nonce={myNonceValue}"

      
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    Note: The response_type for an ID token looks like this: &response_type=id_token.

  4. Paste the request URL into a browser. The User Consent dialog appears. Click Allow to create the grant.

    Note: The user only has to grant consent once for a scope per authorization server.

Verification

There are several ways to verify that you've successfully created a user grant:

  • Check the ID token payload if you requested an ID token. To check the ID token payload, you can copy the token value and paste it into any JWT decoder (opens new window). The payload should look similar to this. Note that no scopes are returned in an ID token:

    {
    "sub": "00uixa271s6x7qt8I0h7",
    "ver": 1,
    "iss": "https://{yourOktaDomain}/oauth2/default",
    "aud": "0oaosna3ilNxgPTmk0h7",
    "iat": 1575931097,
    "exp": 1575934697,
    "jti": "ID.67UFdLqtzyqtWEcO4GJPVBE6MMe-guCdXwzuv11p-eE",
    "amr": [
        "mfa",
        "pwd",
        "kba"
        ],
    "idp": "00oixa26ycdNcX0VT0h7",
    "nonce": "UBGW",
    "phone_number": "7206685241",
    "auth_time": 1575929999
}


      
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  • Check the access token if you requested one. To check the access token payload, you can copy the token value and paste it into any JWT decoder. The payload should look something like this:

    {
    "ver": 1,
    "jti": "AT.xtjhr8FeMkyMfgLiFzVYOYPbgqWdd6ONULT3ffeK7d4",
    "iss": "https://{yourOktaDomain}/oauth2/default",
    "aud": "api://default",
    "iat": 1575929637,
    "exp": 1575933237,
    "cid": "0oaosna3ilNxgPTmk0h7",
    "uid": "00uixa271s6x7qt8I0h7",
    "scp": [
            "openid",
            "phone"
        ],
    "sub": "joe.smith@okta.com"
}

      
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  • You can verify that a grant was created by listing the grants given to a specific user:

    curl -v -X GET \
-H "Accept: application/json" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: SSWS {api_token} \
"https://{yourOktaDomain}/api/v1/users/{userId}/grants"

      
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    The response should contain the scopeId for the grant that you created when you clicked Allow in the previous step.

    [
    {
    "id": "oaggjy8vxJwKeiMx20h6",
    "status": "ACTIVE",
    "created": "2019-12-09T17:36:12.000Z",
    "createdBy": {
        "id": "00uixa271s6x7qt8I0h7",
        "type": "User"
    },
    "lastUpdated": "2019-12-09T17:36:12.000Z",
    "issuer": "https://{yourOktaDomain}/oauth2/default",
    "clientId": "0oaosna3ilNxgPTmk0h7",
    "userId": "00uixa271s6x7qt8I0h7",
    "scopeId": "scpixa2zmc8Eumvjb0h7",
    "source": "END_USER",
    "_links": {
        "app": {
            "href": "https://{yourOktaDomain}/api/v1/apps/0oaosna3ilNxgPTmk0h7",
            "title": "ConsentWebApp"
        },
        "authorizationServer": {
            "href": "https://{yourOktaDomain}/api/v1/authorizationServers/default",
            "title": "default"
        },
        "scope": {
            "href": "https://{yourOktaDomain}/api/v1/authorizationServers/default/scopes/scpixa2zmc8Eumvjb0h7",
            "title": "phone"
        },
        "self": {
            "href": "https://{yourOktaDomain}/api/v1/users/00uixa271s6x7qt8I0h7/grants/oaggjy8vxJwKeiMx20h6",
            "hints": {
                "allow": [
                    "GET",
                    "DELETE"
                ]
            }
        },
        "client": {
            "href": "https://{yourOktaDomain}/oauth2/v1/clients/0oaosna3ilNxgPTmk0h7",
            "title": "ConsentWebApp"
        },
        "user": {
            "href": "https://{yourOktaDomain}/api/v1/users/00uixa271s6x7qt8I0h7",
            "title": "Joe Smith"
            }
         }
    }
]

      
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To revoke consent for a user, you can revoke one consent that is granted or all consents that are granted. Before you begin, you need the following:

Revoke one Grant

To revoke one grant for a user (opens new window), use the grantId that you want to revoke for a user in a DELETE request:

Example request

curl -v -X DELETE \
-H "Accept: application/json" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: SSWS {api_token}" \
"https://{yourOktaDomain}/api/v1/users/{userId}/grants/{grantId}"

  
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Revoke all Grants

To revoke all grants for a user (opens new window), just use the userId for the user in a DELETE request:

Example request

curl -v -X DELETE \
-H "Accept: application/json" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: SSWS {api_token}" \
"https://{yourOktaDomain}/api/v1/users/{userId}/grants"

  
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Troubleshooting

If you don't see the consent prompt when expected:

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