Client node JWT authentication does not work in VMware Blockchain

Products

• VMware Blockchain

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• JSON Web Token authentication does not work as expected in daml_ledger_api
• The issue is noticed in freshly installed VMware blockchain version 1.8
• Authentication is successful even without --withToken flag
• AUTH_SETTINGS is updated in the environment variable of daml-ledger-api container
• JWT authentication work as expected in version 1.6

Cause

In VMware Blockchain version 1.8, daml_ledger_api uses vmbc_participant.conf file for all configuration settings instead of /config/daml-ledger-api/environment-vars (as in previous versions).

 

 

Resolution

This is a known issue affecting VMware Blockchain 1.8. There is currently no resolution.

Workaround:

To workaround the issue, enable JWT-based authorization checks, in the deployment descriptor file, per the following example:

Also, during deployment, the Daml Ledger API configuration file (daml_ledger_api:/doc/daml/vmbc_participant.conf) should be updated. The authentication section should be modified to enable JWT based authorization (specifying type as jwt-rs-256-jwks and providing JWT token/URL)