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Integrate with NetBird

Support level: Community

What is NetBird?​

NetBird is an open source, zero trust, networking platform that allows you to create secure private networks for your organization or home.

-- https://netbird.io

Preparation​

The following placeholders are used in this guide:

  • netbird.company is the FQDN of the NetBird installation.
  • authentik.company is the FQDN of the authentik installation.
note

This documentation lists only the settings that you need to change from their default values. Be aware that any changes other than those explicitly mentioned in this guide could cause issues accessing your application.

authentik configuration​

To support the integration of NetBird with authentik, you need to create an application/provider pair in authentik.

Create an application and provider in authentik​

  1. Log in to authentik as an admin, and open the authentik Admin interface.
  2. Navigate to Applications > Applications and click Create with Provider to create an application and provider pair. (Alternatively you can first create a provider separately, then create the application and connect it with the provider.)
  • Application: provide a descriptive name, an optional group for the type of application, the policy engine mode, and optional UI settings.
  • Choose a Provider type: select OAuth2/OpenID Connect as the provider type.
  • Configure the Provider: provide a name (or accept the auto-provided name), the authorization flow to use for this provider, and the following required configurations.
    • Note the Client ID,Client Secret, and slug values because they will be required later.
    • Add two Strict redirect URIs and set them to http://localhost:53000 and https://netbird.company. Then, add a Regex redirect URI and set it to https://netbird.company/.*.
    • Select any available signing key.
    • Under Advanced Protocol Settings, set Access Code Validity to minutes=10, then set Subject Mode to be Based on the User's ID.
  • Configure Bindings (optional): you can create a binding (policy, group, or user) to manage the listing and access to applications on a user's My applications page.
  1. Click Submit to save the new application and provider.

Set up a service account​

  1. Log into authentik as an admin, and open the authentik Admin interface.
  2. Navigate to Directory > Users, and click Create a service account.
  3. Set the Username to NetBird and disable the Create group option. Click Create and take note of the password.

Make the service account an administrator​

NetBird requires the service account to have full administrative access to the authentik instance. Follow these steps to make it an administrator.

  1. Log into authentik as an admin, and open the authentik Admin interface.
  2. Navigate to Directory > Groups, and click authentik Admins.
  3. On the top of the group configuration page, switch to the Users tab near the top of the page, then click Add existing user, and select the service account you just created.

NetBird configuration​

To configure NetBird to use authentik, add the following values to your setup.env file:

NETBIRD_AUTH_OIDC_CONFIGURATION_ENDPOINT="https://authentik.company/application/o/netbird/.well-known/openid-configuration"
NETBIRD_USE_AUTH0=false
NETBIRD_AUTH_CLIENT_ID="<Your Client ID>"
NETBIRD_AUTH_SUPPORTED_SCOPES="openid profile email offline_access api"
NETBIRD_AUTH_AUDIENCE="<Your Client Secret>"
NETBIRD_AUTH_DEVICE_AUTH_CLIENT_ID="<Your Client ID>"
NETBIRD_AUTH_DEVICE_AUTH_AUDIENCE="<Your Client ID>"
NETBIRD_MGMT_IDP="authentik"
NETBIRD_IDP_MGMT_CLIENT_ID="<Your Client ID>"
NETBIRD_IDP_MGMT_EXTRA_USERNAME="Netbird"
NETBIRD_IDP_MGMT_EXTRA_PASSWORD="<Your Service Account password>"

After making these changes, restart your Docker containers to apply the new configuration.

Once completed, NetBird should be successfully configured to use authentik as its Single Sign-On provider.