I’m currently encountering some challenges while trying to implement Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) with Auth0 in my application. I hope someone can provide some guidance or insights on how to overcome these hurdles.
Here’s a brief overview of my setup:
I’ve integrated Auth0 into my application for authentication and authorization.
I have defined roles and permissions within Auth0’s Dashboard.
My application is built using a modern tech stack, and I’m using Auth0’s SDKs for authentication and authorization.
The problem arises when I try to enforce access control based on roles assigned to users. While authentication works seamlessly, I’m struggling to properly implement RBAC.
Specifically, I’m facing the following issues:
Mapping Auth0 Roles to Application Roles: I’m unsure about the best approach to map roles defined in Auth0 to roles within my application. Should I use custom claims, rules, or some other method?
Securely Accessing User Role Information: Once a user is authenticated, how can I securely retrieve their role information in my application? Should I decode and verify JWT tokens on the client-side or implement a server-side solution?
Fine-Grained Authorization: How can I implement fine-grained access control based on both roles and permissions assigned to users? For example, restricting access to certain API endpoints or UI components based on user roles and permissions.
I’ve reviewed Auth0’s documentation, but I’m still struggling to implement RBAC effectively in my application. If anyone has experience or insights into best practices for implementing RBAC with Auth0, I would greatly appreciate any guidance or examples.
2nd step: In your frontend, when specifying the authorize request, please add the audience parameter (which takes the value of this API identifier from your Auth0 dashboard). This way you receive the jwt-format (instead of an opaque token) access token with the relevant for the user roles’ permissions.
Access token verification happens on the server side. Feel free to use our quickstarts to try it out.
FGA is on a separate platform (not the auth0 dashboard). There are docs on this feature, like this one: https://docs.fga.dev/
We also created a separate category for the FGA in this community. Please feel free to search more there or ask specific questions! (FGA’s has been only recently generally available.)
Hope this gives you a good starting point. Have a good weekend!
Thank you for your prompt response and guidance on implementing Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) with Auth0. Your instructions have provided a good starting point for me to tackle the challenges I’m facing.
I’ve toggled the RBAC button in the API settings as you suggested and added the audience parameter to the authorize request in my frontend. This ensures that I receive JWT-format access tokens with the relevant roles and permissions for users. I’ll follow up with the quickstarts to verify access token verification on the server side.
Regarding Fine-Grained Authorization (FGA), I appreciate the link to the documentation and the clarification that it’s managed separately from the Auth0 dashboard. I’ll explore the provided resources and consider joining the dedicated category in the community for further assistance.
Once again, thank you for your assistance. I’ll proceed with these steps and reach out if I encounter any further challenges.
