GitLab Authentication

STEP 1

Choose DEX_HOSTNAME And Configure DNS

Loft uses the CNCF project dex for single sign-on.

The easiest case is this one:

$LOFT_HOSTNAME = loft.mycompany.tld (where Loft is running)
$DEX_HOSTNAME = dex.mycompany.tld (where dex should be running)
Loft and dex should run in the same Kubernetes cluster

Then, you can set a CNAME record with value loft.mycompany.tld in the DNS configuration for dex.mycompany.tld.

STEP 2

Create A GitLab App

In GitLab, navigate to User Settings > Applications and create a new application with the following settings:

Application name: Loft Login via GitLab
Redirect URI: https://dex.yourcompany.tld/callback = https:// + $DEX_HOSTNAME + /callback
Scopes: read_user + openid

Remember the $GITLAB_CLIENT_ID and $GITLAB_CLIENT_SECRET that GitLab generates for your OAuth application because you will need it in the next step.

STEP 3

Create Dex Config For GitLab

Create the file dex-config.yaml with the following dex configuration:

ingress:
  enabled: true
  hosts:
  - dex.yourcompany.tld                                   # Use $DEX_HOSTNAME
config:
  issuer: https://dex.yourcompany.tld                     # "https://" + $DEX_HOSTNAME
  connectors:
  - type: gitlab
    id: gitlab
    name: GitLab
    config:
      baseURL: https://gitlab.com                         # Your GitLab URL
      clientID: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX                            # Use $GITLAB_CLIENT_ID (see above)
      clientSecret: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX                        # Use $GITLAB_CLIENT_SECRET (see above)
      redirectURI: https://dex.yourcompany.tld/callback   # Use https:// + $DEX_HOSTNAME + /callback
      useLoginAsID: false
  staticClients:
  - name: Loft
    id: loft                                              # Define a $DEX_CLIENT_ID
    secret: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX                                # Define a $DEX_CLIENT_SECRET (can be any secret key)
    redirectURIs:
    - 'https://loft.mycompany.tld/auth/oidc/callback'     # Loft URL + /auth/oidc/callback
  oauth2:
    skipApprovalScreen: true
  web:
    http: 0.0.0.0:5556
  storage:
    type: kubernetes
    config:
      inCluster: true

For details about configuring dex for GitLab, take a look at the dex documentation for GitLab.

STEP 4

Deploy Dex via Helm

After creating the file dex-config.yaml, you can now install dex via helm:

helm install dex dex --repo https://kubernetes-charts.storage.googleapis.com \
  --create-namespace --namespace dex \
  -f dex-config.yaml \
  --wait

STEP 5

Configure Loft To Use Dex For Authentication

To tell Loft to use dex for SSO, navigate to Admin > Config in Loft and adjust your config as shown below:

auth:
  oidc:
    issuerUrl: https://dex.mycompany.tld  # Use $DEX_HOSTNAME (see above)
    clientId: ""                          # Use $DEX_CLIENT_ID (see above)
    clientSecret: ""                      # Use $DEX_CLIENT_SECRET (see above)
    type: "github"                        # Optional: SSO Login Button Icon ("", github, gitlab, microsoft, google)
    usernameClaim: "email"                # Optional: Which part of the dex token to use as Loft username (default: email)
    usernamePrefix: ""                    # Optional: Add prefix to usernameClaim for Loft username
    groupsClaim: "groups"                 # Optional: Add Kubernetes groups for this user
    groupsPrefix: "loft-"                 # Optional: Prefix for Kubernetes groups
    caFile: ""                            # Optional: Path to a CA cert of dex within the Loft container (default: '')

STEP 6

Authenticate via Dex + GitLab

After saving the new Loft configuration, Loft will restart itself and you should be able to log in via GitLab and dex.

STEP 7

Disable Username + Password Authentication (optional)

To disable password-based authentication, navigate to Admin > Config add these two lines to your config:

auth:
  oidc: ...             # This is your SSO configuration (make sure this is working!)
  password:
    disabled: true      # Disable password-based authentication