Centralized Identity Management for AI Platforms with Okta

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

Centralized identity management is essential for managing user access to various applications and services securely and efficiently. Okta is a popular identity management solution that provides such capabilities, including single sign-on, multifactor authentication, lifecycle management, and more.

In a Pulumi program, you can use the Okta provider to create and manage Okta resources programmatically. Here, I will create a simple Pulumi program that sets up an Okta application, user, group, and assigns a multi-factor authentication (MFA) factor to the user. This will illustrate how to use some of the Okta resources for centralized identity management.

```python
import pulumi
import pulumi_okta as okta

# Step 1: Create an Okta OAuth Application.
# This will represent an AI platform that you want to manage access for.
oauth_app = okta.app.OAuth("aiPlatformApp",
    label="AI Platform App",
    type="web",
    grant_types=["authorization_code", "refresh_token"],
    redirect_uris=["http://localhost:8080/authorization-code/callback"],
    response_types=["code"],
    token_endpoint_auth_method="client_secret_basic",
)

# Step 2: Create an Okta Group.
# Groups help manage a collection of users within Okta.
ai_platform_users_group = okta.Group("aiPlatformUsersGroup",
    name="AI Platform Users",
    description="Group for users of the AI Platform"
)

# Step 3: Create an Okta User.
# This user will be given access to the AI platform.
ai_user = okta.User("aiUser",
    first_name="Jane",
    last_name="Doe",
    email="jane.doe@example.com",
    login="jane.doe@example.com",
    password="supersecretpassword" # In real case scenarios, use a more secure way to handle passwords.
)

# Step 4: Assign the User to the Group.
# We ensure that Jane Doe is a member of the AI Platform Users group.
user_group_membership = okta.GroupMember("aiUserMembership",
    group_id=ai_platform_users_group.id,
    user_id=ai_user.id,
)

# Step 5: Assign an MFA Factor to the User.
# For additional security, we enforce MFA for our user. In this example, we will use Okta Verify.
okta_verify_factor = okta.Factor("aiUserMfaOktaVerify",
    provider_id="okta",
    user_id=ai_user.id,
    factor_type="token:software:totp"
)

# Step 6: Assign the Okta Application to the Group.
# All users in the group will gain access to the AI platform application.
app_group_assignment = okta.AppGroupAssignment("appGroupAssignment",
    app_id=oauth_app.id,
    group_id=ai_platform_users_group.id,
)

# Export the necessary details.
pulumi.export("ai_platform_app_client_id", oauth_app.client_id)
pulumi.export("ai_user_login", ai_user.login)
pulumi.export("ai_platform_users_group_id", ai_platform_users_group.id)
```

Explanation:

1. We started by creating an OAuth application in Okta, which represents the AI platform that users will access. We specified the app type and necessary URIs for callbacks after authentication.

2. We created an Okta group to aggregate users who should have access to the AI platform. Groups make it easier to manage permissions and access policies.

3. A user is created in Okta with a first name, last name, email, and login. This user will represent an individual who needs access to the AI platform.

4. The user is then assigned to the previously created group, ensuring that she has the correct permissions associated with that group.

5. An Okta Verify factor is assigned to the user to enforce MFA, providing an additional security layer. Okta Verify is a mobile app that Okta provides to support time-based one-time password (TOTP) for MFA.

6. Finally, we ensure that all users belonging to the "AI Platform Users" group are granted access to the AI platform application by creating an application group assignment in Okta.

The exported values at the end provide key identifiers that you can use to reference the created Okta resources. The `client_id` of the application will be important when setting up the OAuth flow in your actual application, the `ai_user_login` is the username the user will use to login, and the `ai_platform_users_group_id` can be used when setting up access policies in Okta.

This Pulumi program gives you a basic understanding of how to manipulate Okta resources to manage identity and access control for an AI platform or any other application you have. The program's template can be expanded with more sophisticated policies and security controls as necessary.