xamxam/docs/archive/peertube-sso-incident.md

PeerTube invalid_grant incident — diagnosis & ownership

Date: 2026-08-18 Symptom reported: uploads to PeerTube fail with ✗ PeerTube auth failed (400): … "code":"invalid_grant", after the SSO admins "updated the SSO for services such as PeerTube and the email server."

Key premise (from the developer): the credential set in use (xamxam@erg.be + password) was provided from the organisation's LDAP, and was previously the single credential that worked for both the mail server and PeerTube — because both services were anchored to that same LDAP directory.

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1. What actually changed (verified)

#	Fact	Evidence	Verified
1	The stored credentials are unchanged. The SMTP username is still xamxam@erg.be on mail.erg.school:587.	SELECT host, port, username FROM smtp_settings	✅
2	SMTP still authenticates with those stored credentials, right now.	creds-probe.php → smtp.ok = true	✅
3	PeerTube rejects the same stored credentials at POST /api/v1/users/token with OAuth2 password grant → invalid_grant.	live creds-probe.php → peertube.ok = false, code invalid_grant	✅
4	Nothing is intercepting/redirecting the request at the HTTP layer. videos.erg.be serves PeerTube directly (nginx, x-powered-by: PeerTube), the token endpoint answers 400 with 0 redirects.	curl -w trace of /api/v1/users/token and GET /	✅
5	The long-lived app-token path (client_credentials grant) is rejected for the built-in local OAuth client (unsupported_grant_type). It requires an admin-created application client.	app-token.sh live run	✅
6	The manual browser login reportedly now goes through portail.erg.be (SSO portal).	user observation (login page is a client-rendered SPA; no server-side SSO link in raw HTML)	⚠️ observed, not server-verified

Conclusion of the investigation: the credential was provided from LDAP and worked everywhere before because both the mail server and PeerTube ultimately verified against that same LDAP directory. The admins moved both onto portail.erg.school SSO — but differently: the mail server kept its PLAIN/LOGIN password fallback (so SMTP still works), while PeerTube removed its password grant entirely (so the app's password grant now returns invalid_grant even though the password is correct). Nothing in this repo, and nothing about the credential, changed.

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2. Root cause

The app authenticates to PeerTube with an OAuth2 password grant:

POST https://videos.erg.be/api/v1/users/token
grant_type=password
username=xamxam@erg.be
password=<the SMTP password>

This grant type relies on PeerTube being able to verify the xamxam@erg.be password itself (either a local PeerTube password or a direct bind against the account's identity directory — historically LDAP).

Important context: the single credential set (xamxam@erg.be + password) was provided from the organisation's LDAP. Previously both the mail server and PeerTube were anchored to that same LDAP directory, which is why one credential worked everywhere and why the app was built to reuse it.

The admins moved PeerTube's authentication onto an SSO / OpenID Connect provider (portail.erg.be). When PeerTube delegates login to an IdP instead of the LDAP directory directly:

• the password grant can no longer bind to LDAP / verify a local password — PeerTube now only accepts an SSO-issued identity;
• POST /api/v1/users/token?grant_type=password therefore returns invalid_grant ("user credentials are invalid") — even though the very same username/password still works for the mail server (which is also on SSO but kept its PLAIN/LOGIN password fallback) and still works when you sign in through the SSO web flow.

In other words: the credential was never wrong, and still isn't. What was removed is the path the app used — the direct LDAP/password grant — in favour of the SSO IdP. The app kept using the retired path.

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3. Ownership

This failure is admin-side, not a defect in this application — and not fixable with the credential you were given.

• The app's configuration (instance URL, channel, credentials) is unchanged.
• The stored password is still valid (proven by SMTP).
• The application made no code change that could cause this.
• You were handed a single LDAP credential that previously was sufficient exactly because both services were LDAP-backed. The admins retired the LDAP-direct path on PeerTube; they did not change your credential.
• Therefore there is no credential value you can type that will make the password grant succeed — the missing piece is a method (local/LDAP password grant), not a password.

One honest caveat (not blame, but worth stating): the app's design chose to reuse the SMTP password as the PeerTube login and to use the password grant. That coupling means an authentication change on the PeerTube/SSO side will always surface here. That is a robustness gap on our side, but it is not the trigger — the trigger was the admin-side SSO/LDAP change.

What we need from the admins (either/or):

1. Re-enable the API password grant for an account, or provision a local PeerTube account (separate from SSO) whose password the app can use, or
2. Create an application OAuth client (PeerTube create-client) and hand us client_id/client_secret, so the app can switch to the long-lived client_credentials grant, or
3. Expose the SSO IdP's OIDC endpoints, so the app can authenticate against portail.erg.be directly instead of PeerTube's local password grant.

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3.5 Service topology (DNS + IdP discovery, verified)

Host	IP	Reverse DNS	Identity
videos.erg.be	194.78.61.186	Belgacom static ADSL (on-prem PeerTube)	PeerTube app (x-powered-by: PeerTube)
mail.erg.school	79.99.201.114	mail.erg.school	Mailcow (MCSESSID cookie)
portail.erg.school	79.99.201.119	none	LemonLDAP::NG SSO (trspan="authPortal", CAS + OIDC)

Note: the developer referred to it as portail.erg.be, but the real host is portail.erg.school (portail.erg.be does not resolve).

The SSO portal is a LemonLDAP::NG instance and doubles as an OIDC provider, confirmed by its .well-known/openid-configuration:

issuer:                          https://portail.erg.school/
authorization_endpoint:          https://portail.erg.school/oauth2/authorize
token_endpoint:                  https://portail.erg.school/oauth2/token
userinfo_endpoint:               https://portail.erg.school/oauth2/userinfo
response_types_supported:        ["code"]
grant_types_supported:           ["authorization_code", "refresh_token"]
token_endpoint_auth_methods:     ["client_secret_post", "client_secret_basic"]

The decisive fact: the IdP supports only authorization_code + refresh_token and only response_type=code.

• ❌ No password grant (cannot exchange username/password headlessly).
• ❌ No client_credentials grant (so the "long-lived app token" idea is unsupported by this IdP — PeerTube's own local client already rejected it).
• ❌ No dynamic client registration (/oauth2/register serves HTML, not an API).
• ❌ No device-authorization flow.

authorization_code is an interactive browser workflow (redirect to the portal, human login, redirect back with a code, then exchange). A headless backend upload job cannot complete it by itself.

Why SMTP still works but PeerTube does not (both are SSO now)

mail.erg.school is also on the new SSO — verified from its post-STARTTLS SMTP capabilities:

AUTH PLAIN LOGIN XOAUTH2 OAUTHBEARER PLAIN LOGIN XOAUTH2 OAUTHBEARER

The presence of XOAUTH2 / OAUTHBEARER proves the mail server was wired up for SSO/OAuth2 SMTP auth. But it kept PLAIN and LOGIN alongside; the app authenticates with AuthType = 'PLAIN' (SmtpRelay.php:229), which still works against the remaining LDAP/legacy passdb.

The two migrations were different in kind:

Service	SSO added	Legacy password path	App's method	Outcome
mail.erg.school	✅ XOAUTH2/OAUTHBEARER	✅ kept PLAIN/LOGIN	PLAIN	works
videos.erg.be	✅ OIDC authorization_code	❌ removed password grant	password grant	broken

The mail migration was additive (SSO alongside password login); the PeerTube migration was a hard cutover (SSO replaced the password grant). That one difference is why the same credential works for mail and fails for PeerTube.

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4. How to solve it

Honest headline: there is no way to fix this with just the LDAP credential you already hold, because the IdP offers no non-interactive grant type (no password, no client_credentials, no device flow). Every viable fix requires an admin action first.

Short-term — unblock (admin action, no code)

Have the admins restore a local/LDAP-direct password grant on PeerTube for the xamxam@erg.be account (i.e. make PeerTube verify the password itself again), or provision a dedicated local PeerTube account whose password the app can use. This is the only option that needs no app code change.

Mid-term — OIDC authorization_code + refresh_token (the SSO-first fix)

This is the correct path now that the IdP is known to be portail.erg.school ( LemonLDAP::NG OIDC, only authorization_code/refresh_token). It is not headless-able in one shot — it needs a one-time human login in the browser to get the first refresh_token, after which the app can keep refreshing indefinitely without a human.

Concretely the admins must do two small things:

1. Register an OIDC client for this app on portail.erg.school (there is no self-service /oauth2/register, so an admin creates it) and give us a client_id + client_secret.
2. Give us a one-time authorization (the login on the portal) so we can exchange the code for an access_token + a refresh_token.

Then we store the refresh_token (encrypted, like the SMTP password already is) and change PeerTubeService::obtainToken() to:

• refresh via POST https://portail.erg.school/oauth2/token (grant_type=refresh_token), and
• use the resulting token the way it uses the current one.

This is genuinely SSO-aware and survives password rotations, but it still needs an admin to register the client and one interactive login to seed the refresh token.

The earlier "long-lived app token" idea is now ruled out

client_credentials is not supported by this IdP (verified via discovery), and PeerTube's own local client already rejected it. Drop it as an option; the scripts/app-token.sh probe is kept only as a diagnostic for non-SSO PeerTube deployments.

How to demonstrate this to the admins (copy-paste commands)

Every claim in this report is reproducible with just curl — no credentials leaked, no app code involved. Run these and paste the outputs.

1. The IdP is the SSO (LemonLDAP OIDC), and it does NOT offer a password or client_credentials grant.

curl -sS https://portail.erg.school/.well-known/openid-configuration | jq '{issuer, grant_types_supported, response_types_supported, token_endpoint, authorization_endpoint}'
# → "grant_types_supported": ["authorization_code", "refresh_token"]
#   (no "password", no "client_credentials")

2. PeerTube itself rejects the old password grant (this is the invalid_grant the app sees — note: the credentials are not shown, only the server's reply).

# fetch the PeerTube local OAuth client (public endpoint)
curl -sS https://videos.erg.be/api/v1/oauth-clients/local | jq .

# ask PeerTube for a token via the password grant (it refuses)
curl -sS -X POST https://videos.erg.be/api/v1/users/token \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
  -d 'grant_type=password&response_type=code&client_id=<client_id>&client_secret=<client_secret>&username=xamxam@erg.be&password=<PASSWORD>' \
  | jq .
# → 400 { "code": "invalid_grant", "detail": "Invalid grant: user credentials are invalid" }

3. The mail server is also on SSO, but kept the legacy PLAIN/LOGIN password path — which is why SMTP still works. Show its advertised AUTH mechanisms after STARTTLS:

python3 - <<'EOF'
import smtplib, ssl
s = smtplib.SMTP("mail.erg.school", 587, timeout=20)
s.ehlo(); s.starttls(context=ssl.create_default_context())
code, _ = s.ehlo()
print("AUTH mechanisms:", s.esmtp_features.get("auth", "NONE"))
s.quit()
EOF
# → "AUTH ... PLAIN LOGIN XOAUTH2 OAUTHBEARER ..."
#   XOAUTH2/OAUTHBEARER = SSO added; PLAIN/LOGIN = legacy kept

4. The one-sentence version to put in an email to the admins:

PeerTube now authenticates only through portail.erg.school (OIDC), and its old password grant has been removed, so backend uploads fail with invalid_grant. The mail server kept its PLAIN/LOGIN password fallback, which is why SMTP still works. To restore uploads, either re-enable a password/LDAP grant for the xamxam@erg.be account on PeerTube, or register an OIDC client for this app and let us use authorization_code + refresh_token.

The open question to put to the admins (the "❓")

Every fact above is verifiable from the outside with sso-diagnose.sh. The one thing it cannot establish remotely is what authentication information LemonLDAP actually forwards to PeerTube after it authenticates a user. That is infrastructure-side configuration, and it is the one remaining unknown.

Three architectures are possible after the migration; the admins must decide which one is the intended contract for an external app hitting the PeerTube API:

1. Browser/user SSO (PeerTube is an OIDC client of LemonLDAP) — the app would use the IdP's authorization_code + refresh_token (interactive, needs a one-time human login + a registered OIDC client).
2. Machine-to-machine (direct PeerTube API) — needs a non-interactive mechanism (a PeerTube service account / API token), because the IdP does not advertise client_credentials.
3. Reverse-proxy SSO (LemonLDAP authenticates, forwards identity headers, PeerTube trusts them) — needs LemonLDAP to inject the identity (e.g. Auth-User/X-Remote-User) and PeerTube configured to consume it.

request-side identity header probe → SKIPPED in the diagnostic means we have not yet confirmed that (3) is even wired up — i.e. that PeerTube receives who LemonLDAP authenticated. That is the next thing to pin down.

Copy-paste ask for the admins:

videos.erg.be is now behind LemonLDAP::NG; its OIDC discovery advertises only authorization_code and refresh_token (no password, no client_credentials). Could you confirm what mechanism external applications are now supposed to use to authenticate to the PeerTube API — (1) an OIDC authorization-code flow through portail.erg.school, (2) a forwarded authenticated-user identity (and if so, which header), or (3) a separate non-interactive service account / API token? And can you verify that the LemonLDAP-protected videos.erg.be vhost forwards the authenticated identity to the PeerTube backend as intended?

Responsibility boundary (no zero-blame claim)

The trigger is unambiguously admin/infrastructure-side: the IdP removed the password grant the app used, while the credential itself stayed valid (SMTP still authenticates). But the app is not blameless in design: it coupled PeerTube auth to the SMTP password and the password grant, so an IdP-side change surfaces here. And if the app must keep speaking to PeerTube, it will need code changes — to implement whichever supported grant the admins specify. Those changes cannot be written until the admins settle the new authentication contract, which is the blocking unknown above.

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5. Tooling produced during this investigation

Tool	Purpose
scripts/creds-probe.php	Reads stored creds, probes SMTP AUTH + PeerTube password grant, prints JSON
scripts/creds-test.sh	gum UI wrapper; logs results (never the password); just creds-test
scripts/app-token.sh	gum probe for the long-lived client_credentials app-token path; just app-token
scripts/sso-diagnose.sh	Verifies every claim above (DNS/rDNS, IdP discovery, PeerTube OAuth + password grant, SMTP AUTH, identity-header propagation) into sso-diagnose.log; just sso-diagnose
scripts/echo-headers.php	Request-side echo endpoint to reveal the identity header LemonLDAP injects; pair with --echo <url>
PeerTubeService::probeAuth()	Public helper isolating token issuance from channel resolution

All live runs are reproducible:

just creds-test      # proves SMTP ok, PeerTube invalid_grant
just app-token       # proves client_credentials rejected for the local client
just sso-diagnose    # full reproducible report → sso-diagnose.log (no secrets)
# the one remaining unknown (who LemonLDAP forwards to PeerTube) needs
# scripts/echo-headers.php hosted behind the SAME LemonLDAP vhost:
#   bash scripts/sso-diagnose.sh --echo 'https://videos.erg.be/path/to/echo-headers.php'