Retrieve SAML logs using Google API, with powershell

Question

I would like to retrieve all SAML logs using Google API (I'm using a powershell script to run this task). I getting the following error while trying to execute the GET request : "Access denied. You are not authorized to read activity records."

These are the steps I followed :

1. Created a Google Cloud Platform project and enable the "Admin SDK API"
2. Created a service account and download the key in JSON
3. Registered the service account with it's client ID with "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.reports.audit.readonly" scope on Google admin console (Domain-wide Delegation configuration)
4. With the provided credentials (JSON file) created a certificate and a JWT token (see the code below)
5. Obtained an access token an performed a GET request

`

$cert = $cert = Get-PfxCertificate -FilePath "./cer.pfx" -Password (ConvertTo-SecureString "..." -AsPlainText -Force) # The service account credentials

$now = (Get-Date).ToUniversalTime()
$createDate = [Math]::Floor([decimal](Get-Date($now) -UFormat "%s"))
$expiryDate = [Math]::Floor([decimal](Get-Date($now.AddHours(1)) -UFormat "%s"))

$rawclaims = [Ordered]@{
    iss = "[email protected]" # Your service account
    scope = "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.reports.audit.readonly"
    aud = "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token"
    sub = "[email protected]"
    iat = $createDate
    exp = $expiryDate
} | ConvertTo-Json

# Encoding the JWT claim set
$jwt = New-Jwt -PayloadJson $rawclaims -Cert $cert #-Verbose
# Making the access token request
$apiendpoint = "https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token"
$splat = @{
    Method      = "POST"
    Uri         = $apiendpoint
    ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
    Body        = "grant_type=urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:jwt-bearer&assertion=$jwt"
}

# Get access token to authenticate with SPN
try {
    $res = Invoke-RestMethod @splat -Verbose
}
catch {
    [Console]::Error.WriteLine("Error during GCP authentication : $_")
}

# Get SAML logs
$headers = @{
    "Authorization" = "Bearer $($res.access_token)"
}
$uri = "https://www.googleapis.com/admin/reports/v1/activity/users/all/applications/saml"
$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $uri -Method Get -Headers $headers
$response

`

Thank you

Answer 1

The error "Access denied. You are not authorized to read activity records." appears because the user that is performing the API call doesn't have access to the reports, in this case the service account.

• I found this post where it is mentioned that you need to impersonate an Admin in order to access the reports.

• Examples from Google in different programming languages show that an admin email is being impersonated:

  • Java

• Based on this sample code you can use the sub parameter to set the email address of the Admin to impersonate:

$rawclaims = [Ordered]@{
    iss = "[email protected]" # Your service account
    scope = "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.reports.audit.readonly"
    aud = "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token"
    sub = "[email protected]" # The user to impersonate
    iat = $createDate
    exp = $expiryDate
} | ConvertTo-Json