Unable to use refresh token without supplying credentials

nbarnwell

I'm using PowerShell. I can successfully obtain an access token and refresh token by hitting https://bitbucket.org/site/oauth2/access_token with my OAuth client ID/key and secret from "https://bitbucket.org/[team]/workspace/settings/api".

However, I can't exchange the refresh token for a new access token. I am getting the following error:

"Client credentials missing; this request needs to be authenticated with the OAuth client id and secret"

This can only be a bug, because the whole point of refresh tokens is that you don't need to store the actual credentials (in this case OAuth consumer id/key and secret) in the meantime.

I have seen this:

$ curl -X POST -u "client_id:secret"
  https://bitbucket.org/site/oauth2/access_token \
  -d grant_type=refresh_token -d refresh_token={refresh_token}

But I think that needs expanding, because it's unclear whether I need to put the text "client_id:secret" as the user part, or substitute either "client_id" and/or "secret" for some other value, and if so, what.

I've tried using PowerShell's `Invoke-RestMethod` passing the client ID and refresh token both in the body and as the credentials and neither works. I must be doing something wrong.

At this point my only recourse is going to be to store the OAuth client ID/key and secret in Windows Credential manager and ask for a new access token every time I need one, and throw away the refresh tokens.

Daniil Penkin

Hello @nbarnwell ,

You didn't mention that, but it seems that your'e using Client Credentials Grant scheme and essentially authenticating with OAuth to access data of the very same workspace which owns the OAuth consumer and not involving any end-user. In such case – yes, refresh token doesn't make much sense.

However, as I mentioned in our conversation in another Community question, there are other use cases where refresh token is a per end-user secret which allows the OAuth consumer, provided that end-user gave their consent, to access data of that user or even act on behalf of that user (impersonate them) in Bitbucket. The end-user can revoke such refresh token associated with their account at any time, so they are always in control of what OAuth consumer can do.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers,
Daniil