The OpenID Connect Provider from BankID is a platform supporting multiple Identity Provider (IDP) options, among them BankID and xID.

The platform provides ID Tokens for authenticated users and Access Tokens to authorize access to various Supplementary Services on behalf on the user.

The OIDC Provider is currently in pilot for evaluation purposes and shall not be used for commercial applications.

The platform may be augmented with more IDP options and Supplementary Service options in the future.

The OpenID Connect Provider from BankID (hereafter referred to as the OIDC Provider) is illustrated below. It consists of a industry-standard REST API in front of various Identity Providers (IDP) and Supplementary Services. The REST API is based on the OpenID Connect authentication standard on top of the OAuth 2.0 authorization framework. 

A major benefit of the OIDC Provider is to allow merchants start using the BankID Services with minimum integration effort compared to the legacy integration option (ie. install BankID Server, add a BankID merchant certificate and integrate towards the proprietary API of BankID server). For the xID Service  the OIDC Provider is the only integration option available to merchants. 

The  Additional Information service is available over the Userinfo endpoint according to the OpenID Connect specification and uses standardized scopes, claims and token formats . The PSD2 service does in contrasts consist of a range of specific OAuth2 scopes, claims and token formats tailored for various use-cases under PSD2.

The term OIDC Client is used for any application that integrates with the OIDC Provider, corresponding to the following terms in related vocabularies:

See below for how to register an OIDC Client to gain access to the OIDC Provider from BankID. See also source code on GitHub for various examples on how to implement OIDC Clients for the OIDC Provider from BankID

OIDC Clients may integrate directly with the OIDC Provider as shown in the below figure or indirectly via an intermediate party as described in a separate section. 

The OIDC Provider comes with a default component responsible for all GUI handling.  An OIDC Client may override the default GUI and provide its own customized GUI handling hosted at any URL.

Generic aspects of the OIDC Provider are described in subsequent sections on this page. Specific aspects for each of the supported IDP options and Supplementary Service options are described on separate pages.

 


Availability and access

The OIDC Provider is currently available in three different pilot configurations supporting various feature combinations. All features will be consolidated into one single configuration after the pilot phase. Each of the configurations are in turn available in different environments (preview, pre-prod, prototype).

 IDP optionsSupplementary ServicesEnvironment
Pilot configurationBankIDxIDAdditional InformationPSD2PreviewPre-prodPrototype
BankID pilotX X XXX
xID pilotXXX XXX
PSD2 pilotXXXXXXX


For further details on access URLs for each of the configurations, see separate pages for BankID, xID and PSD2
 

Please contact developer@bankidnorge.no to request access to any of the pilot configurations in any of the environments.

The following information must be supplied by the owner of the OIDC Client that requests access. Sucessfull enrollment will result in the return of a client_id and a client_secret to the application owner.

  • Description on what the OIDC Client is going to be used for
  • Contact information for both technical and commercial requests.
  • Optionally a BankID Merchant certificate to be used for the Client, thus replacing the default certificate of the OIDC Service itself.
  • Requested user properties or resources (scopes). 
  • One of more URLs where control will redirected back to the OIDC client (redirect URLs must be pre-registered for safety reasons).
  • A display name for the OIDC Client that will be shown in the header of the (default) OIDC dialogues.
  • Optionally an URL for custom GUI handling overriding the default GUI component of the OIDC Provider.

Protocol flow

The below figure shows an example protocol flow that is currently supported by the OIDC Provider, corresponding to an hybrid flow in OAuth2 vocabulary. Support for other OAuth2 flows (code grant flow and implicit grant flow) will be added in future versions of the OIDC Provider.  

The following applies for this particular example:

The following color coding is used:

The following actors are involved:



The protocol flow consists of the following steps, some of which are optional. (TODO: add hyperlinks to the below list)

  1. The End User navigates the OIDC Client via the User-Agent and selects a login action.
  2. The OIDC Client redirects the User-Agent to the OIDC Provider with an authorization request. Parameters to the request includes the ID of the OIDC Client, list of requested resources (scopes), a redirectURL to where control is to be returned - to name a few. The OIDC Client will regain control in step 16 at the designated redirectURL.
  3. The OIDC Provider opens a session and redirects the User-Agent with an authentication request to the designated URL for GUI handling, which in this case corresponse to the default GUI component. Parameters to the request identifies the session in progress.
  4. The GUI component requests parameters from the OIDC Provider for the session in progress to determine if the OIDC Client has pre-selected a specific IDP or if a selector dialog should be shown to the end user
  5. A IDP selector dialog is (optionally) shown to the end user.
  6. The GUI component sends an init request to the OIDC Provider for the designated IDP Service
  7. The OIDC Provider sends a corresponding init request to the designated IDP Service which opens a session and responds with the necessary parameters to lauch the GUI for the designated IDP
  8. The OIDC Provider returns the necessary parameters to the GUI component
  9. The GUI component delivers the GUI for the selected IDP to the User-Agent
  10. The End User interacts with the IDP GUI, which in turn communicates with the IDP Service. Note that the OIDC Client is kept out of this dialogue to prevent any replay attack from any malicious OIDC Client.
  11. After completing the session with the IDP Service, the User-Agent is redirected back to the OIDC Provider with an authentication response. The End User is now authenticated.
  12. The OIDC Provider redirects the User-Agent to the GUI component for consent handling
  13. The GUI component requests from the OIDC Provider which scopes have been requested by the OIDC Client for the session in progress,
  14. After analyzing how the requested scopes may demand explicit consent from the user, the required GUI dialog is returned to the User-Agent for the End User to give his consent.
  15. The User-Agent is redirected back to the OIDC Provider at termination of the consent dialogue. The ID Token for the authenticated user is now being composed according to the reqested scopes.
  16. The ID Token is retuned to the OIDC Client via a redirect of the User-Agent, corresponding to a hybrid OAuth2 flow. An intermediate authorization code is also returned in this step that is used in the next step to request any access token.
  17. The OIDC Client exchanges the authorization code from the previous step for an access token with the OIDC Provider, which in this case is a token to gain access to the Additional Info Service over the Userinfo endpoint. Note that the request for an access token does not go through the User-Agent for security reasons. 
  18. The OIDC Client sends the Access Token in a request to the OIDC Provider to get access to Additional Info via the Userinfo endpoint.  The Access Token is a bearer token that provides proof of authorization by the End User.
  19. The OIDC Provider validates the provided access token via the Introspect endpoint.
  20. After sucessfull validation of the Access Token, the OIDC Provider retrievs Additional Anformation from the back-end part of the service.
  21. The Additional Information in question is returned to the OIDC Client in a Userinfo response.
  22. The OIDC Clients returns to the User-Agent a page showing the reponse of the login request along with any Additional Information that was retrieved.

The REST API

The REST API for the OIDC Provider consists of various end-points according to the OpenID Connect and OAuth2 Standards.  

Refresh token

 (Note: the OIDC Service does currently not support refresh_tokens)

Discovery/meta data.

https://preprod.bankidapis.no/oidc/oauth/.well-known/openid-configuration

Anonymous requests are allowed.

This end-point returns a JSON-formatted response containing key properties of the OIDC Provider.

Among other things this end-point is used to prepare for token validation.

Below is an example response from /openid-configuration for the OIDC Provider in its BankID configuration in pre-production:

{
"issuer":"https://preprod.bankidapis.no",
"authorization_endpoint":"https://preprod.bankidapis.no/oidc/oauth/authorize",
"token_endpoint":"https://preprod.bankidapis.no/oidc/oauth/token",
"userinfo_endpoint":"https://preprod.bankidapis.no/oidc/oauth/userinfo",
"jwks_uri":"https://preprod.bankidapis.no/oidc/oauth/userinfo/jwk",
"scopes_supported":[
"standard_bankid", "address", "phone",
"nnin", "openid", "profile",
"email"
],
"response_types_supported":[
"code", "token", "id_token",
"id_token token", "code token", "code id_token",
"code id_token token"
],
"response_modes_supported":[
"query", "fragment", "form_post"
],
"grant_types_supported":[
"authorization_code"
],
"subject_types_supported":[
"public"
],
"id_token_signing_alg_values_supported":[
"RS256"
],
"userinfo_signing_alg_values_supported":[
"RS256", "none"
],
"token_endpoint_auth_methods_supported":[
"client_secret_post", "client_secret_basic"
],
"claim_types_supported":[
"normal"],
"claims_supported":[
"preferred_username", "name", "sub",
"iat", "iss", "auth_time",
"exp", "birthdate", "nonce",
"amr", "azp", "bid_code",
"aud", "at_hash", "c_hash",
"nnin", "address", "phone"
],
"claims_parameter_supported":false,
"ui_locales_supported":[
"no",
"en"
],
"login_hint_supported":"[BIM|BID][:\\d{11}][:\\d{8}][:\\d{6}] for respectively client_type, nnin, phoneNo, birthday",
"serverVersion":"bankid-oauth-api 1.2.0"
}

Getting keys to sign tokens

https://preprod.bankidapis.no/oidc/oauth/userinfo/jwk

Anonymous requests are allowed.

This end-point returns the public part of keys used for signing tokens. The keys are later used for token validations. 

Example response from /jwk:

{
   "keys":[
   {
      "kty":"RSA",
      "n":"khw6L8E9GwwTu5AUclp (abbreviated ...) OM0MdzrKLLrmgiYVi",
      "e":"AQAB",
      "kid":"bankid-oauth",
      "use":"sig"
   }
 ]
}

Authentication and authorization

https://preprod.bankidapis.no/oidc/oauth/authorize

This is a browser redirect end-point that is thoroughly described in the OIDC/OAUTH2 standards. The following query parameters pertaining to the OIDC Provider can be used:

  1. Send an authorization request to OIDC Provider and wait for response on the redirectURL address. A scope parameter supplied with the request should contain "openid" and response type should contain "id_token", The id_token is as JSON structure containing user info from the authentication. The request may optionally include a login_hint to request as specific type of IDP, (e.g. netcentric or mobile for BankID) and/or to pre-feed any user-id that the end used would otherwise need to type in (eg. National Identity Numer and/or Mobile Number in the case of BankID).
  2. The OIDC Provider returns with a response back to the Client after the autentication of the end user. The response body should contain the id_token. 
  3. The OIDC Client now has the identity and other selected properties of the current user. The property/claim named "sub" contains a unique GUID of the current user (also referred to as BankID PID or SERIAL)

Note: Id_tokens should be validated for security reasons. There are several frameworks for working with OIDC. Some fameworks have automatic support for validating the id_token before getting access to it, and some publish example code for doing so. The published examples may be used as a template.

ParameterComment
client_idThis is a unique ID provided by BankID Norge for the calling OIDC Client.
scope

The discovery endpoint (see example above) returns

"scopes_supported":[
"standard_bankid", "address", "phone",
"nnin", "openid", "profile",
"email"
],

profile and email are part of the standard scopes, but are currently not supported by OIDC Provider

address and phone is supported if the Client is configured to allow for such information.

nnin - the Norwegian National Identiy Number (fødselsnummer) is supported as additional info if the Client is configured to allow for this information.

standard_bankid scope is used for clients with default scope of nnin, but currently don’t want nnin to be added in the UserInfo response.

response_type

Three combinations (associated with OAuth2 hybrid grant flows) are currently supported. Other combinations associated with other OAuth2 flows will be added as future options.

    • code - for clients that do not need to know the identity of its users, but need access_token for calling resource servers.
    • id_token - for clients that doesn't need an access_token to call UserInfo. Only an id_token is returned to the authorise request. (OIDC hybrid flow).
    • code id_token - here the client will receive both an authorization_code and an id_token. The authorization_code sent to the Token endpoint to retrieve an access_token to be used for UserInfo.
response_mode

This is how the response redirect is done. These alternatives are supported: query, fragment, form_post.

Note: The .NET/C# example GitHub uses the OWIN framework. OWIN only accepts form_post response mode.

login_hint

This parameter may be used to set choice of authentication

(netcentric or mobile) and, if known to the Client, nnin, mobile phone no, or birthday of the user.

An emtpy login hint implies that the default (or customized) GUI takes care of all interaction with the end-user to determine necessary login details.

The discovery/metadata endpoint returns: "login_hint_supported":"[BIM|BID][:\\d{11}][:\\d{8}][:\\d{6}] for respectively client_type, nnin, phoneNo, birthday"

Here are some examples with explanation:

  1. Netcentric BankID with user-profile - login_hint=BID:07025312345 (Norwegian national ID number/fødselsnummer)
  2. Netcentric BankID no user-profile - login_hint=BID
  3. BankID on mobile no user-profile - login_hint=BIM
  4. BankID on mobile with user-profile - login_hint=BIM:48058567:070253 (phone no and birthday DDMMYY)
  5. Some user-profile no BankID choice - login_hint=:07025312345  (numbers start with colon!)

In example no 5 the user is prompted for choice of BankID version, but Norwegian national number is used for BID and birthday is used for BIM (first 6 digits).

ui_localesMay be used to set a language preference for GUI handling. The default GUI experience supports nb (Norsk Bokmål) and en (English)


Note: When response_type contains both id_token and code, the authorization_code is duplicated into bid_code claim in the id_token to avoid conflict with authorization_code issued by AzureAD B2C. AAD must copy the claims from BankID OIDC id_token to the one issued by AAD. The client must get an access_token from the token end-point of the BankID OIDC Service in order to use resources managed by this service. This includes the UserInfo end-point.

Below is an example id_token as returned from the OIDC Provider in its current BankID Configuration in pre-production:

{
"kid":"bankid-oauth",
"typ":"JWT",
"alg":"RS256"
}.{
"preferred_username":"Testesen, Test",
"name":"Testesen, Test",
"given_name":"Test",
"family_name":"Testesen",
"sub":"9578-6000-4-127698",
"iat":1485863742,
"iss":"https://preprod.bankidapis.no",
"auth_time":1485863742,
"exp":1485867342,
"birthdate":"1980-03-09",
"nonce":"63621460527719310(abriviated for display)c0NDk1NDIz",
"amr":["BankID"],
"azp":"DotNetClient",
"aud":"DotNetClient",
"c_hash":"SVJo7O-d4cY8N4VgiVwETQ"
}

Token

https://preprod.bankidapis.no/oidc/oauth/token

Requires basic authentication with client_id and client_secret in the Autorization header,

This end-point is used for exchanging an authorization_code with an access_token. The access_token is used for accessing resources like userinfo and potential other resource servers. The access_code exchanged was created by the authorization endpoint with a response_type containing "code"

The request should be a POST with parameters sent as "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" data.

Input:

Return is a JSON structure with name/value pairs.

 

  1. An access_token is required to enable the OIDC Client to get Additional Information by requesting the UserInfo endpoint. This currently only concerns the Norwegian National Identity Number (nnin) in case of BankID. To get access to nnin  the authorization request scope must contain "nnin" and return type should be "code id_token". The response body, from point 2, will additionally contain an autorization_code. This authorization_code is used to call the Token endpoint (client_id and client_secret is used for basic authentication of the request) to obtain an access_token.
  2. Use the access_token in the authorization header as a "Bearer" token to request the UserInfo endpoint. The response will contain a JSON structure which is much like the id_token, but with addition of "nnin" (client must be approved to use scope "nnin").

Retrieve UserInfo

https://preprod.bankidapis.no/oidc/oauth/userinfo

BankID OIDC has implemented an UserInfo enpoint. It is implemented as a resource server and expects an access_token as a Bearer token. There are no parameters. This service is the only way to get the nnin (fødselsnummer) of the authenticated user.

Example response from /userInfo:

{
"sub": "9578-6000-4-127698",
"iss": "https://preprod.bankidapis.no",
"iat": 1485866449,
"exp": 1485870048,
"preferred_username": "Testesen, Test",
"name": "Testesen, Test",
"given_name": "Test",
"family_name": "Testesen",
"birthdate": "1980-03-09",
"nnin": "09038000010"
}

Validate access_token - introspect

https://preprod.bankidapis.no/oidc/oauth/introspect

The introspect endpoint is thoroughly described in the OIDC/OAUTH2 standards. It is used by resource servers to validate access_tokens received in the authorize header from a client.

In return the resource server get claims from the access_token including its expiration time. The return is in JSON form with a list of name/value pairs.

Characteristics of BankID OIDC access_tokens

Resources managed/authorized by the BankID OIDC Service get a “public” access_token (“one access_token to rule them all”). When an OIDC Client uses scope (or default scope) to define what resources it needs authorization for, the issued access_token can be used for all those resources. The resources must call the introspect endpoint in order to verify that it is the correct audience/resource for this access_token as well as getting returned the access_token contents/claims. Resources are expected to cache/cookie this information so there’s no need to call introspect for every incoming request with the same access_token.

The introspect endpoint demands basic authentication with the resource’s client_id and client_secret so that it knows what resource it is dealing with. 

Another policy is to have “private” access_tokens. That means each resource has their own access_token issued and encrypted with their client_secret/resource_secret. This would remove the need to call introspect in order to validate and get claims, but it will be difficult for the client to keep track of all the access_tokens issued to individual resource services. AAD is doing this and using the refresh_token to ask for more scope (new resources). This would work as long as the refresh_token is issued for the same resource owner (end-user).

"Private access_tokens" are currently not supported. Refresh_tokens are also not implemented. The rationale is that the supported “public” implementation is considered to more efficient (provided the caching we mentioned).

Database/persistence

The current implementation of BankID OIDC has no database to persist tokens. All tokens and session data resides in memory. Persistence is centralized and we aim to utilize database later. HttpSession or cookies are not in use.

Customizing the GUI experience

The default GUI experience of the BankID OIDC Service can be overridded and replaced by a customized implementation as described in the following. 

Please see source code on GitHub for an example on how to implement such a GUI customization. (TODO: Publish such an example)

GUI customization demands that OIDC Client is configured with a specific "presentationURL" paramter with the OIDC Service overriding the URL of the landing page for the default GUI.

Any GUI implementation (called "BidViewer" in the below diagramme) will interoperate with the BankID OIDC Service (the "BINAS Realm") as following: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The authentication alternatives are

The initial request to BidView will contain two parameters:

Here is a list of REST endpoints to be used by BidView (GUI) whith explanations:

AddressFunctionality
bimfinished

This is a polling function to be notified when a BankID på Mobil authentication has ended (hopefully with success).

Http status code 200 is used to indicate that BankID OIDC has got the terminating "verifyAuth" or "handleError" notifications.

Http status code 204 is returned while the authentication is still in process.

queryGUI

When the BidView (GUI) is called, with sid (session ID) as parameter, it can send a queryGUI request to get session based info in return:

  • applicationName - application name of the client to be used in dialogues.
  • merchantName - merchant name for this BankID session to be used in dialogues.
  • ui_locales - list of language options to use for dialogues
  • bankidLocale - the language option to use for BankID dialogues ('nb' or 'en')
  • cancelUrl - a redirect address if user hits the cancel button
  • clientType - BIM or BID (BankID mobile or netcentric)
  • phoneNo - If specified to be used for BIM authentication
  • birthday - If specified to be used for BIM authentication
  • nnin - If specified to be used for BID authentication.
startBID

Start the merchant back end session for Banklagret BankID.

Input parameters:

  • sid - session ID
  • nnin - (optional) 11 digit Norwegian national ID/fødselsnummer
  • bankidLocale (optional) BankID language setting ('nb' or 'en').

Returned parameters:

  • returnUrl - where to redirect when authentication is finished.
  • bidHelperUri - address of the BankID startscript (with Init() method).
  • cid - the backend session ID
  • errorCode and errorMsg if call failed.
startBIM

Initiate a BankID på Mobile authentication

Input:

  • sid - session ID
  • phoneNo - Mobile phone number (8 digits)
  • birthday - DDMMYY
  • bankidLocale - (optional) Language setting (currently only Norwegian is offered).

Returned:

  • returnUrl - address where to return after authentication is finished
  • mobilePollerUrl - where to require if BIM authentication is finished (see "bimfinished" above).
  • merchantReference - the words to display for the user to verify on phone message.
  • errorCode and errorMsg - (optional) if call failed.
consents

When the GUI shall build the consent screen this REST-call is needed to retrieve information.

Input: sid -session ID

Returned:

  • replyHref - an incomplete address to use the consent. It is made complete by appending "allow" or "deny" depending upon user's choice.
  • application - application name to be displayed in dialog.
  • merchantName - name of the BankID merchant
  • personName - name of the user
  • scopes - a space separated list of scope names we need concent on.
  • bankidLocale - language of the dialog.
  • errCode and errMsg - (optional) if error occurs.
cancel

This is used for handling the user canceling out of BankID authentication or concent screen notifying BankID OIDC backend.

Input is sid - session ID.

To be able to display a concent screen like the one below, some extra information needs to be stored connected to each scope used by the OIDC Client. BankID OIDC will only give a list of scope names/IDs that requires user's consent. A description for each of those needs to be provided in the appropriate locale.

NorwegianEnglish


Indirect use of the OIDC Provider via an intermediate party

BankID OIDC has been tested with success as an identity provider for Azure AD B2C in a configuration setup as shown below. 

 identity provider for Microsoft Azure AD B2C.

May also use bid_client_id in the request parameter (mandatory when passing through an intermediate OIDC Provider that have its own client_id).

Test of thus setup has been made available via a private preview of Azure AD B2C from Microsoft. When Azure AD B2C becomes generally available (tentative Q217) this documentation will be updated on how to use BankID OIDC in such a context. 

Applications connecting via Azure AD B2C can be offered the same set of services from BankID OIDC as for those applications that integrate directly with BankIDOIDC.

Some notes on usage: