Overview

Once installed Argo CD has one built-in admin user that has full access to the system. It is recommended to use admin user only for initial configuration and then switch to local users or configure SSO integration.

Local users/accounts

The local users/accounts feature serves two main use-cases:

  • Auth tokens for Argo CD management automation. It is possible to configure an API account with limited permissions and generate an authentication token. Such token can be used to automatically create applications, projects etc.
  • Additional users for a very small team where use of SSO integration might be considered an overkill. The local users don’t provide advanced features such as groups, login history etc. So if you need such features it is strongly recommended to use SSO.

Note

When you create local users, each of those users will need additional RBAC rules set up, otherwise they will fall back to the default policy specified by policy.default field of the argocd-rbac-cm ConfigMap.

The maximum length of a local account’s username is 32.

Create new user

New users should be defined in argocd-cm ConfigMap:

  1. apiVersion: v1
  2. kind: ConfigMap
  3. metadata:
  4.   name: argocd-cm
  5.   namespace: argocd
  6.   labels:
  7.     app.kubernetes.io/name: argocd-cm
  8.     app.kubernetes.io/part-of: argocd
  9. data:
  10.   # add an additional local user with apiKey and login capabilities
  11.   #   apiKey - allows generating API keys
  12.   #   login - allows to login using UI
  13.   accounts.alice: apiKey, login
  14.   # disables user. User is enabled by default
  15.   accounts.alice.enabled: "false"

Each user might have two capabilities:

  • apiKey - allows generating authentication tokens for API access
  • login - allows to login using UI

Delete user

In order to delete a user, you must remove the corresponding entry defined in the argocd-cm ConfigMap:

Example:

  1. kubectl patch -n argocd cm argocd-cm --type='json' -p='[{"op": "remove", "path": "/data/accounts.alice"}]'

It is recommended to also remove the password entry in the argocd-secret Secret:

Example:

  1. kubectl patch -n argocd secrets argocd-secret --type='json' -p='[{"op": "remove", "path": "/data/accounts.alice.password"}]'

Disable admin user

As soon as additional users are created it is recommended to disable admin user:

  1. apiVersion: v1
  2. kind: ConfigMap
  3. metadata:
  4.   name: argocd-cm
  5.   namespace: argocd
  6.   labels:
  7.     app.kubernetes.io/name: argocd-cm
  8.     app.kubernetes.io/part-of: argocd
  9. data:
  10.   admin.enabled: "false"

Manage users

The Argo CD CLI provides set of commands to set user password and generate tokens.

  • Get full users list
  1. argocd account list
  • Get specific user details
  1. argocd account get --account <username>
  • Set user password
  1. # if you are managing users as the admin user, <current-user-password> should be the current admin password.
  2. argocd account update-password \
  3.   --account <name> \
  4.   --current-password <current-user-password> \
  5.   --new-password <new-user-password>
  • Generate auth token
  1. # if flag --account is omitted then Argo CD generates token for current user
  2. argocd account generate-token --account <username>

Failed logins rate limiting

Argo CD rejects login attempts after too many failed in order to prevent password brute-forcing. The following environments variables are available to control throttling settings:

  • ARGOCD_SESSION_FAILURE_MAX_FAIL_COUNT: Maximum number of failed logins before Argo CD starts rejecting login attempts. Default: 5.

  • ARGOCD_SESSION_FAILURE_WINDOW_SECONDS: Number of seconds for the failure window. Default: 300 (5 minutes). If this is set to 0, the failure window is disabled and the login attempts gets rejected after 10 consecutive logon failures, regardless of the time frame they happened.

  • ARGOCD_SESSION_MAX_CACHE_SIZE: Maximum number of entries allowed in the cache. Default: 1000

  • ARGOCD_MAX_CONCURRENT_LOGIN_REQUESTS_COUNT: Limits max number of concurrent login requests. If set to 0 then limit is disabled. Default: 50.

SSO

There are two ways that SSO can be configured:

  • Bundled Dex OIDC provider - use this option if your current provider does not support OIDC (e.g. SAML, LDAP) or if you wish to leverage any of Dex’s connector features (e.g. the ability to map GitHub organizations and teams to OIDC groups claims). Dex also supports OIDC directly and can fetch user information from the identity provider when the groups cannot be included in the IDToken.

  • Existing OIDC provider - use this if you already have an OIDC provider which you are using (e.g. Okta, OneLogin, Auth0, Microsoft, Keycloak, Google (G Suite)), where you manage your users, groups, and memberships.

Dex

Argo CD embeds and bundles Dex as part of its installation, for the purpose of delegating authentication to an external identity provider. Multiple types of identity providers are supported (OIDC, SAML, LDAP, GitHub, etc…). SSO configuration of Argo CD requires editing the argocd-cm ConfigMap with Dex connector settings.

This document describes how to configure Argo CD SSO using GitHub (OAuth2) as an example, but the steps should be similar for other identity providers.

1. Register the application in the identity provider

In GitHub, register a new application. The callback address should be the /api/dex/callback endpoint of your Argo CD URL (e.g. https://argocd.example.com/api/dex/callback).

Register OAuth App

After registering the app, you will receive an OAuth2 client ID and secret. These values will be inputted into the Argo CD configmap.

OAuth2 Client Config

2. Configure Argo CD for SSO

Edit the argocd-cm configmap:

  1. kubectl edit configmap argocd-cm -n argocd
  • In the url key, input the base URL of Argo CD. In this example, it is https://argocd.example.com
  • In the dex.config key, add the github connector to the connectors sub field. See Dex’s GitHub connector documentation for explanation of the fields. A minimal config should populate the clientID, clientSecret generated in Step 1.
  • You will very likely want to restrict logins to one or more GitHub organization. In the connectors.config.orgs list, add one or more GitHub organizations. Any member of the org will then be able to login to Argo CD to perform management tasks.
  1. data:
  2.   url: https://argocd.example.com
  4.   dex.config: |
  5.     connectors:
  6.       # GitHub example
  7.       - type: github
  8.         id: github
  9.         name: GitHub
  10.         config:
  11.           clientID: aabbccddeeff00112233
  12.           clientSecret: $dex.github.clientSecret # Alternatively $<some_K8S_secret>:dex.github.clientSecret
  13.           orgs:
  14.           - name: your-github-org
  16.       # GitHub enterprise example
  17.       - type: github
  18.         id: acme-github
  19.         name: Acme GitHub
  20.         config:
  21.           hostName: github.acme.com
  22.           clientID: abcdefghijklmnopqrst
  23.           clientSecret: $dex.acme.clientSecret  # Alternatively $<some_K8S_secret>:dex.acme.clientSecret
  24.           orgs:
  25.           - name: your-github-org

After saving, the changes should take affect automatically.

NOTES:

  • There is no need to set redirectURI in the connectors.config as shown in the dex documentation. Argo CD will automatically use the correct redirectURI for any OAuth2 connectors, to match the correct external callback URL (e.g. https://argocd.example.com/api/dex/callback)
  • When using a custom secret (e.g., some_K8S_secret above,) it must have the label app.kubernetes.io/part-of: argocd.

OIDC Configuration with DEX

Dex can be used for OIDC authentication instead of ArgoCD directly. This provides a separate set of features such as fetching information from the UserInfo endpoint and federated tokens

Configuration:

  • In the argocd-cm ConfigMap add the OIDC connector to the connectors sub field inside dex.config. See Dex’s OIDC connect documentation to see what other configuration options might be useful. We’re going to be using a minimal configuration here.
  • The issuer URL should be where Dex talks to the OIDC provider. There would normally be a .well-known/openid-configuration under this URL which has information about what the provider supports. e.g. https://accounts.google.com/.well-known/openid-configuration
  1. data:
  2.   url: "https://argocd.example.com"
  3.   dex.config: |
  4.     connectors:
  5.       # OIDC
  6.       - type: oidc
  7.         id: oidc
  8.         name: OIDC
  9.         config:
  10.           issuer: https://example-OIDC-provider.com
  11.           clientID: aaaabbbbccccddddeee
  12.           clientSecret: $dex.oidc.clientSecret

Requesting additional ID token claims

By default Dex only retrieves the profile and email scopes. In order to retrieve more claims you can add them under the scopes entry in the Dex configuration. To enable group claims through Dex, insecureEnableGroups also needs to enabled. Group information is currently only refreshed at authentication time and support to refresh group information more dynamically can be tracked here: dexidp/dex#1065.

  1. data:
  2.   url: "https://argocd.example.com"
  3.   dex.config: |
  4.     connectors:
  5.       # OIDC
  6.       - type: OIDC
  7.         id: oidc
  8.         name: OIDC
  9.         config:
  10.           issuer: https://example-OIDC-provider.com
  11.           clientID: aaaabbbbccccddddeee
  12.           clientSecret: $dex.oidc.clientSecret
  13.           insecureEnableGroups: true
  14.           scopes:
  15.           - profile
  16.           - email
  17.           - groups

Warning

Because group information is only refreshed at authentication time just adding or removing an account from a group will not change a user’s membership until they reauthenticate. Depending on your organization’s needs this could be a security risk and could be mitigated by changing the authentication token’s lifetime.

Retrieving claims that are not in the token

When an Idp does not or cannot support certain claims in an IDToken they can be retrieved separately using the UserInfo endpoint. Dex supports this functionality using the getUserInfo endpoint. One of the most common claims that is not supported in the IDToken is the groups claim and both getUserInfo and insecureEnableGroups must be set to true.

  1. data:
  2.   url: "https://argocd.example.com"
  3.   dex.config: |
  4.     connectors:
  5.       # OIDC
  6.       - type: OIDC
  7.         id: oidc
  8.         name: OIDC
  9.         config:
  10.           issuer: https://example-OIDC-provider.com
  11.           clientID: aaaabbbbccccddddeee
  12.           clientSecret: $dex.oidc.clientSecret
  13.           insecureEnableGroups: true
  14.           scopes:
  15.           - profile
  16.           - email
  17.           - groups
  18.           getUserInfo: true

Existing OIDC Provider

To configure Argo CD to delegate authentication to your existing OIDC provider, add the OAuth2 configuration to the argocd-cm ConfigMap under the oidc.config key:

  1. data:
  2.   url: https://argocd.example.com
  4.   oidc.config: |
  5.     name: Okta
  6.     issuer: https://dev-123456.oktapreview.com
  7.     clientID: aaaabbbbccccddddeee
  8.     clientSecret: $oidc.okta.clientSecret
  10.     # Optional list of allowed aud claims. If omitted or empty, defaults to the clientID value above (and the 
  11.     # cliClientID, if that is also specified). If you specify a list and want the clientID to be allowed, you must 
  12.     # explicitly include it in the list.
  13.     # Token verification will pass if any of the token's audiences matches any of the audiences in this list.
  14.     allowedAudiences:
  15.     - aaaabbbbccccddddeee
  16.     - qqqqwwwweeeerrrrttt
  18.     # Optional. If false, tokens without an audience will always fail validation. If true, tokens without an audience 
  19.     # will always pass validation.
  20.     # Defaults to true for Argo CD < 2.6.0. Defaults to false for Argo CD >= 2.6.0.
  21.     skipAudienceCheckWhenTokenHasNoAudience: true
  23.     # Optional set of OIDC scopes to request. If omitted, defaults to: ["openid", "profile", "email", "groups"]
  24.     requestedScopes: ["openid", "profile", "email", "groups"]
  26.     # Optional set of OIDC claims to request on the ID token.
  27.     requestedIDTokenClaims: {"groups": {"essential": true}}
  29.     # Some OIDC providers require a separate clientID for different callback URLs.
  30.     # For example, if configuring Argo CD with self-hosted Dex, you will need a separate client ID
  31.     # for the 'localhost' (CLI) client to Dex. This field is optional. If omitted, the CLI will
  32.     # use the same clientID as the Argo CD server
  33.     cliClientID: vvvvwwwwxxxxyyyyzzzz

Note

The callback address should be the /auth/callback endpoint of your Argo CD URL (e.g. https://argocd.example.com/auth/callback).

Requesting additional ID token claims

Not all OIDC providers support a special groups scope. E.g. Okta, OneLogin and Microsoft do support a special groups scope and will return group membership with the default requestedScopes.

Other OIDC providers might be able to return a claim with group membership if explicitly requested to do so. Individual claims can be requested with requestedIDTokenClaims, see OpenID Connect Claims Parameter for details. The Argo CD configuration for claims is as follows:

  1.   oidc.config: |
  2.     requestedIDTokenClaims:
  3.       email:
  4.         essential: true
  5.       groups:
  6.         essential: true
  7.         value: org:myorg
  8.       acr:
  9.         essential: true
  10.         values:
  11.         - urn:mace:incommon:iap:silver
  12.         - urn:mace:incommon:iap:bronze

For a simple case this can be:

  1.   oidc.config: |
  2.     requestedIDTokenClaims: {"groups": {"essential": true}}

Configuring a custom logout URL for your OIDC provider

Optionally, if your OIDC provider exposes a logout API and you wish to configure a custom logout URL for the purposes of invalidating any active session post logout, you can do so by specifying it as follows:

  1.   oidc.config: |
  2.     name: example-OIDC-provider
  3.     issuer: https://example-OIDC-provider.com
  4.     clientID: xxxxxxxxx
  5.     clientSecret: xxxxxxxxx
  6.     requestedScopes: ["openid", "profile", "email", "groups"]
  7.     requestedIDTokenClaims: {"groups": {"essential": true}}
  8.     logoutURL: https://example-OIDC-provider.com/logout?id_token_hint={{token}}

By default, this would take the user to their OIDC provider’s login page after logout. If you also wish to redirect the user back to Argo CD after logout, you can specify the logout URL as follows:

  1. ...
  2.     logoutURL: https://example-OIDC-provider.com/logout?id_token_hint={{token}}&post_logout_redirect_uri={{logoutRedirectURL}}

You are not required to specify a logoutRedirectURL as this is automatically generated by ArgoCD as your base ArgoCD url + Rootpath

Note

The post logout redirect URI may need to be whitelisted against your OIDC provider’s client settings for ArgoCD.

Configuring a custom root CA certificate for communicating with the OIDC provider

If your OIDC provider is setup with a certificate which is not signed by one of the well known certificate authorities you can provide a custom certificate which will be used in verifying the OIDC provider’s TLS certificate when communicating with it.
Add a rootCA to your oidc.config which contains the PEM encoded root certificate:

  1.   oidc.config: |
  2.     ...
  3.     rootCA: |
  4.       -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
  5.       ... encoded certificate data here ...
  6.       -----END CERTIFICATE-----

SSO Further Reading

Sensitive Data and SSO Client Secrets

argocd-secret can be used to store sensitive data which can be referenced by ArgoCD. Values starting with $ in configmaps are interpreted as follows:

  • If value has the form: $<secret>:a.key.in.k8s.secret, look for a k8s secret with the name <secret> (minus the $), and read its value.
  • Otherwise, look for a key in the k8s secret named argocd-secret.

Example

SSO clientSecret can thus be stored as a kubernetes secret with the following manifests

argocd-secret:

  1. apiVersion: v1
  2. kind: Secret
  3. metadata:
  4.   name: argocd-secret
  5.   namespace: argocd
  6.   labels:
  7.     app.kubernetes.io/name: argocd-secret
  8.     app.kubernetes.io/part-of: argocd
  9. type: Opaque
  10. data:
  11.   ...
  12.   # The secret value must be base64 encoded **once** 
  13.   # this value corresponds to: `printf "hello-world" | base64`
  14.   oidc.auth0.clientSecret: "aGVsbG8td29ybGQ="
  15.   ...

argocd-cm:

  1. apiVersion: v1
  2. kind: ConfigMap
  3. metadata:
  4.   name: argocd-cm
  5.   namespace: argocd
  6.   labels:
  7.     app.kubernetes.io/name: argocd-cm
  8.     app.kubernetes.io/part-of: argocd
  9. data:
  10.   ...
  11.   oidc.config: |
  12.     name: Auth0
  13.     clientID: aabbccddeeff00112233
  15.     # Reference key in argocd-secret
  16.     clientSecret: $oidc.auth0.clientSecret
  17.   ...

Alternative

If you want to store sensitive data in another Kubernetes Secret, instead of argocd-secret. ArgoCD knows to check the keys under data in your Kubernetes Secret for a corresponding key whenever a value in a configmap starts with $, then your Kubernetes Secret name and : (colon).

Syntax: $<k8s_secret_name>:<a_key_in_that_k8s_secret>

NOTE: Secret must have label app.kubernetes.io/part-of: argocd

Example

another-secret:

  1. apiVersion: v1
  2. kind: Secret
  3. metadata:
  4.   name: another-secret
  5.   namespace: argocd
  6.   labels:
  7.     app.kubernetes.io/part-of: argocd
  8. type: Opaque
  9. data:
  10.   ...
  11.   # Store client secret like below.
  12.   # Ensure the secret is base64 encoded
  13.   oidc.auth0.clientSecret: <client-secret-base64-encoded>
  14.   ...

argocd-cm:

  1. apiVersion: v1
  2. kind: ConfigMap
  3. metadata:
  4.   name: argocd-cm
  5.   namespace: argocd
  6.   labels:
  7.     app.kubernetes.io/name: argocd-cm
  8.     app.kubernetes.io/part-of: argocd
  9. data:
  10.   ...
  11.   oidc.config: |
  12.     name: Auth0
  13.     clientID: aabbccddeeff00112233
  14.     # Reference key in another-secret (and not argocd-secret)
  15.     clientSecret: $another-secret:oidc.auth0.clientSecret  # Mind the ':'
  16.   ...

Skipping certificate verification on OIDC provider connections

By default, all connections made by the API server to OIDC providers (either external providers or the bundled Dex instance) must pass certificate validation. These connections occur when getting the OIDC provider’s well-known configuration, when getting the OIDC provider’s keys, and when exchanging an authorization code or verifying an ID token as part of an OIDC login flow.

Disabling certificate verification might make sense if: * You are using the bundled Dex instance and your Argo CD instance has TLS configured with a self-signed certificate and you understand and accept the risks of skipping OIDC provider cert verification. * You are using an external OIDC provider and that provider uses an invalid certificate and you cannot solve the problem by setting oidcConfig.rootCA and you understand and accept the risks of skipping OIDC provider cert verification.

If either of those two applies, then you can disable OIDC provider certificate verification by setting oidc.tls.insecure.skip.verify to "true" in the argocd-cm ConfigMap.