Authorize endpoint | Medplum

On this page

The /oauth2/authorize endpoint signs in the user.

GET /oauth2/authorize

The /oauth2/authorize endpoint only supports HTTPS GET. The client typically makes this request through a browser.

The authorization server requires HTTPS. For more information about the OpenID Connect specification, see Authorization Endpoint.

Request parameters

response_type (Required)

The response type. Must be code.

client_id (Required)

The Client ID. Must be a client that you already registered. .

redirect_uri (Required)

The URL where the authentication server redirects the browser after Medplum authorizes the user. A redirect uniform resource identifier (URI) must have the following attributes:

• It must be an absolute URI.
• You must have pre-registered the URI with a client.
• The redirect_uri parameter must match exactly to the pre-registered uri on the Medplum Server (including trailing slashes, punctuation, etc.), as detailed in the OAuth2 Spec
• It can't include a fragment component. See OAuth 2.0 - Redirection Endpoint. Medplum requires that your redirect URI use HTTPS, except for http://localhost, which you can set as a callback URL for testing purposes.

state (Optional but recommended)

When your app adds a state parameter to a request, Medplum returns its value to your app when the /oauth2/authorize endpoint redirects your user. Add this value to your requests to guard against CSRF attacks. You can't set the value of a state parameter to a URL-encoded JSON string. To pass a string that matches this format in a state parameter, encode the string to Base64, then decode it in your app.

scope (Required)

Can be a combination of any system-reserved scopes or custom scopes that are associated with a client. Scopes must be separated by spaces. System reserved scopes are openid, email, phone, and profile. If the client doesn't request any scopes, the authentication server uses openid by default.

code_challenge_method (Optional)

The method that you used to generate the challenge. The PKCE RFC defines two methods, S256 and plain.

code_challenge (Conditional)

The challenge that you generated from the code_verifier. Required only when you specify a code_challenge_method parameter.

nonce

A random value that you can add to the request. The nonce value that you provide is included in the ID token that Medplum issues. You can use a nonce value to guard against replay attacks.

prompt (Optional)

Controls how the authorization server prompts the user for consent. Supported values:

• none: The authorization server must not display any authentication or consent user interface pages. If the user is not already authenticated, or consent is required but has not been previously granted, the authorization server will return an error. This is particularly useful in SMART App Launch scenarios where you want to ensure a seamless experience when the user is already authenticated.
• login: The authorization server should prompt the user for reauthentication, even if they're already authenticated.

If this parameter is not specified, the authorization server will prompt the user for authentication if they're not already logged in, and for consent if required.

Examples requests with positive responses

Authorization code grant

Sample Request

GET https://api.medplum.com/oauth2/authorize?
    response_type=code&
    client_id=492e4ec3-fb66-4b45-b529-599c708ec530&
    redirect_uri=https://YOUR_APP/redirect_uri&
    state=STATE&
    scope=openid

Sample response

The Medplum authentication server redirects back to your app with the authorization code and state. The code and state must be returned in the query string parameters and not in the fragment. A query string is the part of a web request that appears after a '?' character; the string can contain one or more parameters separated by '&' characters. A fragment is the part of a web request that appears after a '#' character to specify a subsection of a document.

Note The response returns a one time use code that is valid for five minutes.

HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Location: https://YOUR_APP/redirect_uri?code=AUTHORIZATION_CODE&state=STATE

Authorization code grant with PKCE

Sample Request

GET https://api.medplum.com/oauth2/authorize?
    response_type=code&
    client_id=492e4ec3-fb66-4b45-b529-599c708ec530&
    redirect_uri=https://YOUR_APP/redirect_uri&
    state=STATE&
    scope=openid&
    code_challenge_method=S256&
    code_challenge=CODE_CHALLENGE

Sample Response

The authentication server redirects back to your app with the authorization code and state. The code and state must be returned in the query string parameters and not in the fragment.

HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Location: https://YOUR_APP/redirect_uri?code=AUTHORIZATION_CODE&state=STATE

Token grant without openid scope

Sample Request

GET https://api.medplum.com/oauth2/authorize?
    response_type=token&
    client_id=492e4ec3-fb66-4b45-b529-599c708ec530&
    redirect_uri=https://YOUR_APP/redirect_uri&
    state=STATE&
    scope=profile

Sample Response

The Medplum authorization server redirects back to your app with access token. Because openid scope was not requested, Medplum doesn't return an ID token. Also, Medplum doesn't return a refresh token in this flow. Medplum returns the access token and state in the fragment and not in the query string.

HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Location: https://YOUR_APP/redirect_uri#access_token=ACCESS_TOKEN&token_type=bearer&expires_in=3600&state=STATE

Token grant with openid scope

Sample Request

GET https://api.medplum.com/oauth2/authorize?
    response_type=token&
    client_id=492e4ec3-fb66-4b45-b529-599c708ec530&
    redirect_uri=https://YOUR_APP/redirect_uri&
    state=STATE&
    scope=openid

Sample Response

The authorization server redirects back to your app with access token and ID token (because openid scope was included).

HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Location: https://YOUR_APP/redirect_uri#id_token=ID_TOKEN&access_token=ACCESS_TOKEN&token_type=bearer&expires_in=3600&state=STATE

Examples of negative responses

The following are examples of negative responses:

invalid_request

If client_id and redirect_uri are valid, but the request parameters aren't formatted correctly, the authentication server redirects the error to client's redirect_uri and appends an error message in a URL parameter. Examples of incorrect formatting are a request doesn't include a response_type parameter, if the response provides code_challenge but not code_challenge_method, or that code_challenge_method is not 'S256'.

HTTP 1.1 302
Found Location: https://client_redirect_uri?error=invalid_request

unauthorized_client

If the client requests code or token in response_type but doesn't have permission for these requests, the Medplum authorization server returns unauthorized_client to client's redirect_uri, as follows:

HTTP 1.1 302
Found Location: https://client_redirect_uri?error=unauthorized_client

invalid_scope

If the client requests scope that is unknown, malformed, or not valid, the Medplum authorization server returns invalid_scope to the client's redirect_uri, as follows:

HTTP 1.1 302
Found Location: https://client_redirect_uri?error=invalid_scope

If there is any unexpected error in the server, the authentication server returns server_error to client's redirect_uri. Because the HTTP 500 error doesn't get sent to the client, don't display the error to the user in the browser. The following error should result:

HTTP 1.1 302
Found Location: https://client_redirect_uri?error=server_error

timeout

When Medplum authenticates through federation to third-party IdPs, Medplum might experience connection issues such as the following:

• If a connection timeout occurs while requesting token from the IdP, the authentication server redirects the error to the client's redirect_uri as follows:

HTTP 1.1 302
Found Location: https://client_redirect_uri?error=invalid_request&
                  error_description=Timeout+occurred+in+calling+IdP+token+endpoint

• If a connection timeout occurs while calling the jwks endpoint for id_token validation, the authentication server redirects the error to the client's redirect_uri as follows:

HTTP 1.1 302
Found Location: https://client_redirect_uri?error=invalid_request&
                  error_description=error_description=Timeout+in+calling+jwks+uri

configuration error

• When authenticating by federating to third-party IdPs, the providers may return error responses due to configuration errors or otherwise such as the following:

• If an error response is received from other providers, the authentication server redirects the error to the client's redirect_uri as follows:

    HTTP 1.1 302
    Found Location: https://client_redirect_uri?error=invalid_request&
                    error_description=[IdP name]+Error+-+[status code]+error getting token
    ```
  - If an error response is received from Google, the authentication server redirects the error to the client's `redirect_uri` as follows:

```text
HTTP 1.1 302
Found Location: https://client_redirect_uri?error=invalid_request&
                error_description=Google+Error+-+[status code]+[Google provided error code]

connection error

• When Medplum encounters an exception in the communication protocol while it makes a connection to an external IdP, the authentication server redirects the error to the client's redirect_uri with either of the following messages:

HTTP 1.1 302
Found Location: https://client_redirect_uri?error=invalid_request&
                  error_description=Connection+reset

HTTP 1.1 302
Found Location: https://client_redirect_uri?error=invalid_request&
                  error_description=Read+timed+out