From 2341032cf2d031e58710d82c9ee1d2360f9b82f9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: jejo86 <28619134+jejo86@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2022 20:33:33 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] Document advising against publicly exposing the Admin API and provide a usage example (#13231) * Admin API request explanation improved Pointed out, that the Admin API is not accessible by default from any remote computer, but only from the PC `matrix-synapse` is running on. Added a full, working example, making sure to include the cURL flag `-X`, which needs to be prepended to `GET`, `POST`, `PUT` etc. and listing the full query string including protocol, IP address and port. * Admin API request explanation improved * Apply suggestions from code review Update changelog. Reword prose. Co-authored-by: David Robertson --- changelog.d/13231.doc | 1 + docs/usage/administration/admin_api/README.md | 17 +++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 18 insertions(+) create mode 100644 changelog.d/13231.doc diff --git a/changelog.d/13231.doc b/changelog.d/13231.doc new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..e750f9da49 --- /dev/null +++ b/changelog.d/13231.doc @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Provide an example of using the Admin API. Contributed by @jejo86. diff --git a/docs/usage/administration/admin_api/README.md b/docs/usage/administration/admin_api/README.md index 3cbedc5dfa..c60b6da0de 100644 --- a/docs/usage/administration/admin_api/README.md +++ b/docs/usage/administration/admin_api/README.md @@ -18,6 +18,11 @@ already on your `$PATH` depending on how Synapse was installed. Finding your user's `access_token` is client-dependent, but will usually be shown in the client's settings. ## Making an Admin API request +For security reasons, we [recommend](reverse_proxy.md#synapse-administration-endpoints) +that the Admin API (`/_synapse/admin/...`) should be hidden from public view using a +reverse proxy. This means you should typically query the Admin API from a terminal on +the machine which runs Synapse. + Once you have your `access_token`, you will need to authenticate each request to an Admin API endpoint by providing the token as either a query parameter or a request header. To add it as a request header in cURL: @@ -25,5 +30,17 @@ providing the token as either a query parameter or a request header. To add it a curl --header "Authorization: Bearer " ``` +For example, suppose we want to +[query the account](user_admin_api.md#query-user-account) of the user +`@foo:bar.com`. We need an admin access token (e.g. +`syt_AjfVef2_L33JNpafeif_0feKJfeaf0CQpoZk`), and we need to know which port +Synapse's [`client` listener](config_documentation.md#listeners) is listening +on (e.g. `8008`). Then we can use the following command to request the account +information from the Admin API. + +```sh +curl --header "Authorization: Bearer syt_AjfVef2_L33JNpafeif_0feKJfeaf0CQpoZk" -X GET http://127.0.0.1:8008/_synapse/admin/v2/users/@foo:bar.com +``` + For more details on access tokens in Matrix, please refer to the complete [matrix spec documentation](https://matrix.org/docs/spec/client_server/r0.6.1#using-access-tokens).