Authentication

RBAC requires that users pass appropriate credentials to Couchbase Server in order to access cluster-resources. The SDK provides enhanced support for the passing of credentials.

RBAC and the SDK

Couchbase Server 5.0 Enterprise Edition introduces Role-Based Access Control. This ensures that cluster-resources can only be accessed by users with appropriate privileges. Privileges are grouped in Couchbase-defined sets; and each set is associated with a specific role. Users can each be assigned one or more roles, and are thereby granted the privileges associated with each role.

In order to access cluster-resources, programs, including those supported by the Couchbase SDK, must authenticate with Couchbase Server, and so be identified as existing users, each associated with one or more roles. Authentication requires the passing of credentials; which consist of a username and (in most cases) a password. Users may be defined either locally to Couchbase Server, or externally (for example, by means of an LDAP server).

Once authentication has succeeded, an authorization process checks the roles associated with the identified user. If role-associated privileges correspond to the level of resource-access requested by the user, access is duly granted; otherwise, it is denied.

Authenticating with Legacy SDK Versions

For versions of Couchbase Server 5.0 and beyond, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is applied to all cluster-resources. Under RBAC, bucket-passwords are no longer used: instead, a username and user-password must be specified.

All pre-RBAC versions of the SDK can continue to be used with Couchbase Server 5.0 and beyond: the pre-RBAC authentication procedure need not change. However, when passed:

The value formerly interpreted as a bucket-name is now interpreted as a username. The username must correspond to a user defined on the cluster that is being accessed.
The value formerly interpreted as a bucket-password is now interpreted as the password of the defined user.

Note that on Couchbase Server 5.0 and beyond, the only buckets that can be accessed without a user-password are those that were created on legacy versions of the server; were not originally created with a bucket-password; and continue to be available on 5.0 and beyond, following the required upgrade process. See Upgrading to RBAC for information on server-upgrade to 5.0, and how this affects access to legacy buckets.

On Couchbase Server 5.0 and beyond, for any bucket to be accessed successfully, the defined user attempting access must have been assigned appropriate roles. See Manage Users and Roles for information on user-management.

Passing Credentials

The most recent versions of the SDK are RBAC-enabled, and provide enhanced support for authentication. Code examples for PHP can be found in Getting Started with the SDK, and also as part of the Sample Code provided to demonstrate user management.

Upgrading to RBAC-Enabled SDK-Versions

The last pre-RBAC version of the PHP SDK was 2.3.1. The first RBAC-enabled version was 2.3.2. See the SDK Release Notes for more information.

With the most recent versions of the SDK, the legacy authentication interface and the new, optimized authentication interface can both be used: each supports access to buckets on Couchbase Servers whose version is either 5.0 and beyond, or pre-5.0.

Further Information on RBAC

All aspects of the Couchbase RBAC system are covered in the section Authorization. Specifically, for information on:

Adding Users and assigning roles, by means of the Couchbase Web Console, see Manage Users and Roles.
Roles required for resource-access, and the privileges they entail, see Roles.
Resources controlled by Couchbase RBAC, see Resources Under Access Control.

Certificate-Based Authentication

Couchbase Server supports the use of X.509 certificates to authenticate clients (only available in the Enterprise Edition, not the Community Edition). This allows authenticated users to access specific resources by means of the data service, in Couchbase Server 5.1 and up, and all other services in more recent releases of Couchbase Data Platform.

The process relies on a certificate authority, for the issuing of certificates that validate identities. A certificate includes information such as the name of the entity it identifies, an expiration date, the name of the authority that issued the certificate, and the digital signature of the authority. A client attempting to access Couchbase Server can present a certificate to the server, allowing the server to check the validity of the certificate. If the certificate is valid, the user under whose identity the client is running, and the roles assigned that user, are verified. If the assigned roles are appropriate for the level of access requested to the specified resource, access is granted.

The PHP SDK has supported certificate authentication since version 2.4.3. The client certificate can be generated with the shell script on the C SDK Authentication page. Note that you will need to load the php_openssl module before php_couchbase in your code.

You can now connect with the following in your <php block:

$cluster = new \Couchbase\Cluster('couchbases://localhost' . '?keypath=/tmp/foo.key&certpath=/tmp/foo.cert');
    $cluster->authenticate(new \Couchbase\CertAuthenticator());
    $bucket = $cluster->openBucket('default');