This quickstart is for developers familiar with PHP who are looking for a quick intro into how they can add Approov into an existing project. Therefore this will guide you through the necessary steps for adding Approov with token binding to an existing PHP API server.
- Why?
- How it Works?
- Requirements
- Approov Setup
- Approov Token Check
- Try the Approov Integration Example
To lock down your API server to your mobile app. Please read the brief summary in the Approov Overview at the root of this repo or visit our website for more details.
For more background, see the Approov Overview at the root of this repository.
The main functionality for the Approov token binding check is in the file src/approov-protected-server/token-binding-check/hello-server-protected.php. Take a look at the verifyApproovToken() and verifyApproovTokenBinding() functions to see the simple code for the checks.
To complete this quickstart you will need both the PHP and the Approov CLI tool installed.
- PHP - Follow the official installation instructions from here
- Approov CLI - Follow our installation instructions and read more about each command and its options in the documentation reference
To use Approov with the PHP API server we need a small amount of configuration. First, Approov needs to know the API domain that will be protected. Second, the PHP API server needs the Approov Base64 encoded secret that will be used to verify the tokens generated by the Approov cloud service.
Approov needs to know the domain name of the API for which it will issue tokens.
Add it with:
approov api -add your.api.domain.comNOTE: By default a symmetric key (HS256) is used to sign the Approov token on a valid attestation of the mobile app for each API domain it's added with the Approov CLI, so that all APIs will share the same secret and the backend needs to take care to keep this secret secure.
A more secure alternative is to use asymmetric keys (RS256 or others) that allows for a different keyset to be used on each API domain and for the Approov token to be verified with a public key that can only verify, but not sign, Approov tokens.
To implement the asymmetric key you need to change from using the symmetric HS256 algorithm to an asymmetric algorithm, for example RS256, that requires you to first add a new key, and then specify it when adding each API domain. Please visit Managing Key Sets on the Approov documentation for more details.
Adding the API domain also configures the dynamic certificate pinning setup, out of the box.
NOTE: By default the pin is extracted from the public key of the leaf certificate served by the domain, as visible to the box executing the Approov CLI command and the Approov servers.
Approov tokens are signed with a symmetric secret. To verify tokens, we need to grab the secret using the Approov secret command and plug it into the PHP API server environment to check the signatures of the Approov Tokens that it processes.
First, enable your Approov admin role with:
eval `approov role admin`For the Windows powershell:
set APPROOV_ROLE=admin:___YOUR_APPROOV_ACCOUNT_NAME_HERE___Next, retrieve the Approov secret with:
approov secret -get base64@IMPORTANT: Don't set an Approov key id for the secret, because the JWT library doesn't support to pass the symmetric key for the Approov secret in a JWKs.
Open the .env file and add the Approov secret to the var:
APPROOV_BASE64_SECRET=approov_base64_secret_here
To check the Approov token we will use the firebase/php-jwt package, but you are free to use another one of your preference.
Add this functions to your code:
$env = Dotenv\Dotenv::createArrayBacked(__DIR__)->load();
if (empty($env['APPROOV_BASE64_SECRET'])) {
throw new Exception("Missing in the .env file the variable: APPROOV_BASE64_SECRET");
}
define('APPROOV_BASE64_SECRET', base64_decode($env['APPROOV_BASE64_SECRET'], true));
function verifyApproovToken(Array $headers): ?stdClass {
try {
if (empty($headers['Approov-Token'])) {
// You may want to add some logging here
return null;
}
$approov_token = $headers['Approov-Token'];
// The Approov secret cannot be given as part of a JWKS key set,
// therefore you cannot use the Approov CLI to set a key id for it.
//
// If you set the key id then the token check will fail due to the
// presence of a `kid` key in the header of the Approov token, that
// will not be found in the `$approov_secret` variable, because this
// variable contains the secret as a binary string, not as a JWKs
// key set.
return \Firebase\JWT\JWT::decode($approov_token, constant('APPROOV_BASE64_SECRET'), ['HS256']);
} catch(\UnexpectedValueException $exception) {
// You may want to add some logging here
return null;
} catch(\InvalidArgumentException $exception) {
// You may want to add some logging here
return null;
} catch(\DomainException $exception) {
// You may want to add some logging here
return null;
}
// You may want to add some logging here
return null;
}
function verifyApproovTokenBinding(Array $headers, stdClass $approov_token_claims): bool {
if (empty($approov_token_claims->pay)) {
// You may want to add some logging here
return false;
}
if (empty($headers['Authorization'])) {
// You may want to add some logging here
return false;
}
// We use the Authorization token, but feel free to use another header in
// the request. Bear in mind that it needs to be the same header used in the
// mobile app to bind the request with the Approov token.
$token_binding_header = $headers['Authorization'];
# We need to hash and base64 encode the token binding header, because that's
# how it was included in the Approov token on the mobile app.
$token_binding_header_encoded = base64_encode(hash("sha256", $token_binding_header, true));
if($approov_token_claims->pay !== $token_binding_header_encoded) {
# You may want to add some logging here
return false;
}
return true;
}Now you just need to invoke them for the endpoints you want to protected:
$headers = getallheaders();
$approov_token_claims = verifyApproovToken($headers);
if (!$approov_token_claims) {
sendResponse(401, []);
exit;
}
if (!verifyApproovTokenBinding($headers, $approov_token_claims)) {
sendResponse(401, []);
exit;
}NOTE: When the Approov token validation fails we return a
401with an empty body, because we don't want to give clues to an attacker about the reason the request failed, and you can go even further by returning a400.
A full working example for a simple Hello World server can be found at src/approov-protected-server/token-binding-check.
The following examples below use cURL, but you can also use the Postman Collection to make the API requests. Just remember that you need to adjust the urls and tokens defined in the collection to match your deployment. Alternatively, the above README also contains instructions for using the preset dummy secret to test your Approov integration.
Generate a valid token example from the Approov Cloud service:
approov token -setDataHashInToken 'Bearer authorizationtoken' -genExample your.api.domain.com
Then make the request with the generated token:
curl -i --request GET 'https://your.api.domain.com/v1/shapes' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer authorizationtoken' \
--header 'Approov-Token: APPROOV_TOKEN_EXAMPLE_HERE'
The request should be accepted. For example:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
...
{"message": "Hello, World!"}
Let's just remove the Authorization header from the request:
curl -i --request GET 'https://your.api.domain.com/v1/shapes' \
--header 'Approov-Token: APPROOV_TOKEN_EXAMPLE_HERE'
The above request should fail with an Unauthorized error. For example:
HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
...
{}
Make the request with the same generated token, but with another random authorization token:
curl -i --request GET 'https://your.api.domain.com/v1/shapes' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer anotherauthorizationtoken' \
--header 'Approov-Token: APPROOV_TOKEN_EXAMPLE_HERE'
The above request should also fail with an Unauthorized error. For example:
HTTP/1.1 401
...
{}
If you find any issue while following our instructions then just report it here, with the steps to reproduce it, and we will sort it out and/or guide you to the correct path.
If you wish to explore the Approov solution in more depth, then why not try one of the following links as a jumping off point: