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Access Manager v2 API for PubNub Go SDK

PubNub Access Manager (PAM) allows you to enforce secure controls for client access to resources within the PubNub network. With PAM, your servers can grant their clients access to individual PubNub resources for a limited duration, with the ability to extend access or add permissions for additional resources.

As soon as PAM is enabled, no publish/subscribe operations can be done without first explicitly providing an authorization token to the PubNub object. If an invalid token is provided, the requesting client will receive a Forbidden error.

For more information about PAM, refer to Managing Permissions with Access Manager.

Grant

Requires Access Manager add-onRequires that the Access Manager add-on is enabled for your key. See this page on enabling add-on features on your keys:
https://support.pubnub.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051974791-How-do-I-enable-add-on-features-for-my-keys-

The grant method allows you to grant permissions for one or more resources to one or more authKeys. You may need to make multiple grant calls with an authKey so that you can specify explicit permissions for each channel, channelGroup and uuid resources. For common permissions, you can normally use a single request.

Privileges specifically granted to an application's SubscribeKey always take precedence over privileges granted to channel or AuthKey. Therefore an application that requires authentication at the user level should not grant access at either the Application or Channel levels. View the Grant Levels section for more details.

Permissions

The grant request allows your server to securely grant access for your clients on the following resources within the platform. Each resource allows a limited set of permissions that control the operations that can be performed by the clients. For permissions and API operations mapping information, refer to Managing Permissions with Access Manager.

ResourcePermissions
channelread, write, get, manage, update, join, delete
uuidget, update, delete
channelGroupread, manage

Wildcard Permissions

Wildcard notation allows you to grant permissions to multiple channels at a time and later revoke these permissions in the same manner. You can only go one level deep using wildcards. In other words:

  • a.* grants access on all channels that begin with a..
  • * or a.b.* won't work this way. If you grant on * or a.b.*, the grant treats * or a.b.* as a channel name, not a wildcard.
Wildcard revokes

You can revoke permissions with wildcards from one level deep, like a.*, only when you initially used wildcards to grant permissions to a.*.

Grant Levels

When a user attempts to access a PubNub resource, PAM will evaluate any existing rules using the following order of precedence before access to a channel is granted to the user:

  1. Application Level - PAM privileges are always evaluated first at the Application level. If either read or write attribute is set to true for a SubscribeKey, PAM will immediately grant access for that attribute without proceeding to check permissions at either Channel or User levels. If an attribute is set to false at the Application level, PAM proceeds to evaluate the attribute at the next most granular level.
  2. Channel Level - After first verifying an attribute at the Application level, PAM evaluates the attribute at the Channel level. If an attribute is set to true for a combination of SubscribeKey, and channel, PAM grants access for that attribute at the Channel level without proceeding to check whether there may be user level permissions.
  3. User Level (Recommended) - As a final step PAM evaluates the attributes at the User level. If an attribute is set to true for SubscribeKey, channel and AuthKey, access is granted for that attribute. Similarly, user level grants also allow you granting an AuthKey access to channelGroups and uuids. User level grants require AuthKey and are the recommended approach if you need to manage permissions for individual users within your application. Each user should be assigned a unique AuthKey and securely passed back to the user to perform operations on the platform.

Method(s)

To Grant Permissions on a Channel you can use the following method(s) in the Go V4 SDK:

  1. pn.Grant()
    .Uuids([]string)
    .Channels([]string)
    .ChannelGroups([]string)
    .AuthKeys([]string)
    .Read(bool)
    .Write(bool)
    .Manage(bool)
    .Get(bool)
    .Update(bool)
    .Join(bool)
    .TTL(int)
    .QueryParam(queryParam)
    .Execute()
    
    ParameterTypeRequiredDefaultDescription
    Uuids[]stringOptionalSpecifies a list of uuids on which to grant permissions. You can't grant permissions to channels and channel groups in the same request if you decide to use uuids.
    This parameter does not support wildcards.
    Channels[]stringOptionalSpecifies the channels on which to grant permissions. If no channels/channelGroups are specified, then the grant applies to any and all channels/channelGroups that have been or will be created for that publish/subscribe key set. Furthermore, any existing or future grants on specific channels are ignored, until the all channels grant is revoked. It is possible to grant permissions to multiple channels simultaneously. Wildcard notation like a.* can be used to grant access on channels. You can grant one level deep.
    • a.* - you can grant on this.
    • * and a.b.* - grant will not work on these levels. If you grant on * or a.b.*, the grant will treat * or a.b.* as a single channel named either * or a.b.*.
    ChannelGroups[]stringOptionalSpecifies the channelGroups to grant permissions. If no channels/channelGroups are specified, then the grant applies to any and all channels/channelGroups that have been or will be created for that publish/subscribe key set. Furthermore, any existing or future grants on specific channelGroups are ignored, until the all channelGroups grant is revoked. It is possible to grant permissions to multiple channelGroups simultaneously.
    This parameter does not support wildcards.
    AuthKeys[]stringOptionalSpecifies auth Key to grant permissions. It is possible to specify multiple auth keys. You can also grant access to a single auth key for multiple channels at the same time. Zero or more channels with zero or more auth tokens are allowed.
    ReadboolOptionalfalseRead permissions are granted by setting to true. Read permissions are removed by setting to false.
    WriteboolOptionalfalseWrite permissions are granted by setting to true. Write permissions are removed by setting to false.
    DeleteboolOptionalfalseDelete permissions are granted by setting to true. Delete permissions are removed by setting to false.
    ManageboolOptionalfalseManage permissions are granted by setting to true. Manage permissions are removed by setting to false.
    GetboolOptionalfalseGet permissions are granted by setting to true. Get permissions are removed by setting to false.
    UpdateboolOptionalfalseUpdate permissions are granted by setting to true. Update permissions are removed by setting to false.
    JoinboolOptionalfalseJoin permissions are granted by setting to true. Join permissions are removed by setting to false.
    TTLintOptional1440 (24hrs)Time in minutes for which granted permissions are valid. Default is 1440 (24hrs), Max is 525600 , Min is 1. Setting TTL to 0 will apply the grant indefinitely.
    QueryParammap[string]stringOptionalnilQueryParam accepts a map, the keys and values of the map are passed as the query string parameters of the URL called by the API.

Basic Usage

Grant PAM Permissions for channel and AuthKey

res, status, err := pn.Grant().
    Channels([]string{"ch1", "ch2", "ch3"}). // channels to allow grant on
    ChannelGroups([]string{"cg1", "cg2", "cg3"}). // groups to allow grant on
    AuthKeys([]string{"my-key"}). // the keys we are provisioning
    Read(true). // allow those keys to write (false by default)
    Write(true). // allow those keys to manage channel groups (false by default)
    Manage(true). // allow keys to read the subscribe feed (false by default)
    TTL(123). // how long those keys will remain valid (0 for eternity)
    Execute()

fmt.Println(res, status, err)

Response

The grant() operation returns a PNAccessManagerGrantResult which contains the following fields:

MethodTypeDescription
LevelstringPermissions level, one of subkey, subkey+auth, channel, channel-group, channel-group+auth level.
TTLintTTL of grant.
SubscribeKeystringThe subscribe key.
Channelsmap[string]*PNPAMEntityDataAccess rights per channel. See PNAccessManagerChannelData for more details.
ChannelGroupsmap[string]*PNPAMEntityDataAccess rights per channel groups. See PNAccessManagerChannelData for more details.
ReadEnabledboolsubkey level read permissions.
WriteEnabledboolsubkey level write permissions.
DeleteEnabledboolsubkey level delete permissions.
ManageEnabledboolsubkey level manage permissions.

PNPAMEntityData:

MethodTypeDescription
AuthKeysmap[string]*PNAccessManagerKeyDataAccess rights per auth-key. See PNAccessManagerKeyData for more details.
NamestringChannel or group name.
ReadEnabledboolChannel or group level read permissions.
WriteEnabledboolChannel or group level write permissions.
DeleteEnabledboolChannel or group level delete permissions.
ManageEnabledboolChannel or group level manage permissions.
TTLintTime to live value.

PNAccessManagerKeyData:

MethodTypeDescription
ReadEnabledboolauth-key read permissions
WriteEnabledboolauth-key write permissions.
ManageEnabledboolauth-key managepermissions.
DeleteEnabledboolauth-key delete permissions.
TTLintTime to live value.
Caution

PAM grant or revoke requests must be less than ~32KiB at a time, or the client will return an error. For requests greater than 32KiB, break them into smaller batched requests. When the message size exceeds 32KiB the server returns the HTTP Error code 500, instead of the correct error code 414.

Warning

For NTP synchronization, please ensure that you have configured NTP on your server to keep the clock in sync. This is to prevent system clock drift leading to 400 Invalid Timestamp error response.

https://support.pubnub.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051973331-Why-do-I-get-Invalid-Timestamp-when-I-try-to-grant-permission-using-Access-Manager-

Other Examples

  1. Grant subscribe privileges to all users on all channel(s) with default TTL (1440 minutes):

    res, status, err := pn.Grant().
        Read(true).
        Execute()
    
    fmt.Println(res, status, err)
    
  2. Allow subscribe and publish to a specific Grant subscribe and publish to a specific channel for all users (no AuthKey required) with default TTL (1440 minutes):

    res, status, err := pn.Grant().
        Channels([]string{"my_channel"}).
        Read(true).
        Write(true).
        Execute()
    
    fmt.Println(res, status, err)
    
  3. Grant subscribe access to a channel only for clients with a specific AuthKey with a 5 minute TTL:

    res, status, err := pn.Grant().
        Channels([]string{"my_channel"}).
        Read(true).
        Write(false).
        AuthKeys([]string{"my_authkeys"}).
        TTL(5).
        Execute()
    
    fmt.Println(res, status, err)
    

    The above code would return the following response to the client:

    {
        Level:user
        SubscribeKey:sub-c-90c51098-c040-11e5-a316-0619f8945a4f
        Ttl:1440
        Channels:map[
            my_channel:{
                Name:ch1
                AuthKeys:map[
                    my_authkeys:{
                        ReadEnabled:true
                        WriteEnabled:false
                        ManageEnabled:<nil>
                        Ttl:5
                    }
                ]
                ReadEnabled:false
                WriteEnabled:false
                ManageEnabled:false
                Ttl:1440
            }
        ]
        ChannelGroups:map[]
        ReadEnabled:false
        WriteEnabled:false
        ManageEnabled:false
    }
    
  4. Allow access to a specific channel for Presence:

    res, status, err := pn.Grant().
        Channels([]string{"my_channel-pnpres"}).
        Read(false).
        Write(true).
        Execute()
    
    fmt.Println(res, status, err)
    
  5. Grant PAM Permissions for channel group:

    res, status, err := pn.Grant().
        ChannelGroups([]string{"cg1", "cg2", "cg3"}).
        AuthKeys([]string{"my-key"}).
        Read(true).
        Write(true).
        Manage(true).
        TTL(123).
        Execute()
    
    fmt.Println(res, status, err)
    

    The above code would return the following response to the client:

    {
        Level:channel-group+auth
        SubscribeKey:sub-c-90c51098-c040-11e5-a316-0619f8945a4f
        Ttl:123
        Channels:map[
            my_channel-pnpres:{
                Name:my_channel-pnpres
                AuthKeys:map[
                    my-key:{
                        ReadEnabled:true
                        WriteEnabled:true
                        ManageEnabled:false
                        Ttl:0
                    }
                ]
                ReadEnabled:false
                WriteEnabled:false
                ManageEnabled:false
                Ttl:123
            }
        ]
        ChannelGroups:map[]
        ReadEnabled:false
        WriteEnabled:false
        ManageEnabled:false
    }
    
  6. Grant get and update access to a uuid only for clients with a specific AuthKeys with a 24 hrs ttl:

    res, status, err := pn.Grant().
        Uuids([]string{"my_uuid"}).
        Get(true).
        Update(false).
        AuthKeys([]string{"my_authkeys"}).
        TTL(1440).
        Execute()
    
    fmt.Println(res, status, err)
    
  7. Application Level Grant

    Use application level grants with caution

    When access is granted on an application level, all channels and users will have access.

    Application level grants can also happen due to a bug in your code. For example, Null parameters for channels and auth-keys can cause accidental application level grants.

    res, status, err := pn.Grant().
        Read(true).
        Write(true).
        Execute()
    
    fmt.Println(res, status, err)
    
  8. Channel Level Grant

    res, status, err := pn.Grant().
        Channels([]string{"my_channel"}).
        Read(true).
        Write(true).
        Execute()
    
    fmt.Println(res, status, err)
    
  9. User Level Grant

    res, status, err := pn.Grant().
        Channels([]string{"my_channel"}).
        AuthKeys([]string{"my_key"}).
        Read(true).
        Write(true).
        TTL(5).
        Execute()
    
    fmt.Println(res, status, err)
    
  • Grant
    • Method(s)
    • Basic Usage
    • Response
    • Other Examples
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