Unable to access users endpoint using Client credential grant flow

Questions API
1

Hi Okta Expert,

I am trying to access an /users endpoint with bearer token.
To create an access token i am using client credential flow which is mentioned in the below document. Implement authorization by grant type | Okta Developer

Access token gets created successfully using below request

curl --location --request POST 'https://demo.okta.com/oauth2/default/v1/token' \
--header 'Accept: application/json' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
--header 'Authorization: Basic d0TlEzNTc6NTVoRV9SMUE1aHVVTEhzblduWkhSUVhCdlNKM3JrRjRqQ1N3Skg0OQ==' \
--header 'Cookie: DT=DI0leFfJI65RjiE6MwbPmTFqg; JSESSIONID=487ED3C0D352A99CD31EBA99930ADA07' \
--data-urlencode 'grant_type=client_credentials' \
--data-urlencode 'scope=custom'

But when i execute GET on /users endpoint it is throwing an 401 unauthorize error.

As per the document i had created an custom scope in custom authorization server and granted okta.users.read scope to application.

Can any one please help me here.

2

You must use the built-in Org Authorization Server to get tokens to use against Okta APIs with the Okta API scopes. You do not need to create any custom scopes for this purpose as these scopes are created for you on the un-customizable Org Authorization Server.

I recommend checking out the guide we have for how to create a Service app (which uses Client Credentials flow) to get these tokens.

4

As far as I see the “Services API” application is the only way to use API scopes like okta.users.read.

5

An admin user can get a token that will work against that endpoint (using a Web/SPA/Native app), because end-users do not have sufficient permissions to list users, per admin permissions table.

6

An admin user can get a token that will work against that endpoint

Are you talking about manually creating an API token in the web console?
I’m authenticating by the oauth2 API with the super admin account and receive an error.

7

No, I mean if an Admin logs into an OAuth2 application and gets an admin token with the appropriate okta.* scopes they should be able to make the same API calls they can make if there were to have generated an API token instead.

What endpoint are you using, what error are you seeing, and how are you sending the access token to Okta (are you passing it along as a Bearer token?)

8

I have a Web application with both Implicit/Code/Client_Credentials flow enabled as well as with granted okta.users.read Okta API permissions.

I tried implicit and code authentication flow and used this endpoint
https://mydomain.okta.com/oauth2/default/v1/authorize
https://mydomain.okta.com/oauth2/default/v1/token
and logged in with super admin account. As well as client_credentials with the same endpoint.
With this endpoint I can get only openid/email/profile permissions.
For the rest of the API permissions I get an error:
One or more scopes are not configured for the authorization server resource

When I login to the endpoint: https://mydomain.okta.com/oauth2/v1/token with client_credentials authentication flow I get this error:
Only clients with 'application_type' of 'service' may use the client_credentials 'grant_type' with the Org Authorization Server

9

Admin logs into an OAuth2 application and gets an admin token

I’m talking about client_credentials flow. There we log in with client_id/client_secret or client_assertion. We don’t use any “admin” credentials.

10

As I said, you cannot use a Web app with client_credentials flow to get the okta.* API scopes. You can only use an API Services type application. You will need to make a second app as an API Services app per our documentation to get Access tokens to use against Okta APIs with this grant type

11

Yes, I also came to this conclusion.
Please add it to the documentation. It doesn’t appear anywhere.

12

This is a real problem. We want to use 1 integration for both user login (implicit/code) and API access (client_credentials). Otherwise in the OAN web store we will also have to publish 2 applications?

13

client_credentials flow is not supported in the OAN at this time either. You may want to file Feature Requests on our Okta Ideas site for these implementation gaps

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14

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