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Privileged Worker Token Exchange with Token Vault is currently in Beta. To learn more about Auth0’s product release cycle, read Product Release Stages. To participate in this program, contact Auth0 Support or your Technical Account Manager.
Token Vault supports the Privileged Worker Token Exchange, which enables a client application to exchange a signed JWT (subject token) for an external provider’s access or refresh token (requested token). After successful user authentication and authorization, a client application typically passes the user context, which contains the user’s identity, permissions, and session state, as an access or refresh token to perform the token exchange with Token Vault. In service-to-service flows, a client application, such as a backend application or service worker, may need to access resources on the user’s behalf, but because the “user is not present” in an interactive session, the client application doesn’t have access to the user context. In these service-to-service scenarios, the client application can generate a signed JWT bearer token and use it as the subject token to perform the token exchange and receive the necessary tokens to call external APIs. This means the client application can perform actions on the user’s behalf without an active user interaction or session. To use the Privileged Worker Token Exchange with Token Vault, the client application must be a highly privileged client that can also request refresh tokens from external providers via Token Vault. It should authenticate with Token Vault using asymmetric cryptographic methods such as Private Key JWT assertion or mutual TLS authentication.

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Prerequisites

Only certain types of clients can use the Privileged Worker Token Exchange with Token Vault:
  • The client must be a first-party client, i.e. the is_first_party property is true.
  • The client must be a confidential client with a valid authentication mechanism, i.e. the token_endpoint_auth_method property must not be set to none.
  • The client must be OIDC conformant, i.e. the oidc_conformant must be true.
Before configuring Privileged Worker Token Exchange for your client application:
  1. Enable the Token Vault grant type for your client application.
  2. Configure Private Key JWT or mutual TLS authentication for your client application.

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Configure client application

To configure the client application’s privileged access to Token Vault, you need to provide a public key that will be used to verify a signed JWT as the subject token. Similar to configuring JAR, you can set the Token Vault privileged access public key when creating a new client: 
POST https://{yourDomain}.auth0.com/api/v2/clients
Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_MANAGEMENT_API_ACCESS_TOKEN>
Content-Type: application/json
{
  "name": "My App using JAR",
   “grant_types”: [“urn:auth0:params:oauth:grant-type:token-exchange:federated-connection-access-token”],
     “oidc_conformant”: true,
           “is_first_party”: true,
           “jwt_configuration”: {
             “alg”: 'RS256',
           },

  "token_vault_privileged_access": {
"credentials": [{
        "name": "My credential for Token Vault Privileged Access",
        "credential_type": "public_key",
        "pem": "<YOUR PEM FILE CONTENT>",
        "alg": "RS256"
}]
  },
}
You can also update an existing client with the Token Vault privileged access public key: 
PATCH https://{yourDomain}.auth0.com/api/v2/clients/{yourClientId}
Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_MANAGEMENT_API_ACCESS_TOKEN>
Content-Type: application/json
{
  "token_vault_privileged_access": {
    "credentials": [{"id": "<YOUR CREDENTIAL ID>"}]
  }
}

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Create signed JWT subject token

After configuring your client application with the public key, you need to create the subject token that will be exchanged for an access token for an external API. The subject token is a JSON Web Token (JWT) with the necessary claims. It is signed with the private key. The JWT has a standard format and claims, where:
  • Header’s typ is token-vault-req+jwt
  • Header’s kid is optional if you have only one public key configured
  • Payload’s sub is the user ID for whom you want to get the token for
  • Payload’s aud is your tenant host
  • Payload’s iss is your client ID making the request
The following is an example JWT: 
{
    alg: "RS256"  
    typ: "token-vault-req+jwt"
}
.
{
    sub: "auth0|000012030101231",
    aud: "https://{yourDomain}.auth0.com/",
    iss: "<YOUR_CLIENT_ID>",
    iat: 1758799540,
    exp: 1758800540,
    nbf: 1758799540
}
The following code sample is a script that generates a signed JWT subject token: 
import * as jwt from 'jsonwebtoken';
   const privateKey = ‘-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----........’;
   const subjectToken = jwt.sign(
     {
       iss: CLIENT_ID,
       aud: 'https://' + TENANT_DOMAIN + '/',
       sub: USER_ID,
     },
     privateKey,
     {
       algorithm: 'RS256',
       header: {
         typ: 'token-vault-req+jwt',
       },
     }
   );

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Request token for external API

Once you have the signed JWT, you can make a request for the access token for the external API: 
curl --request POST 'https://{yourDomain}/oauth/token' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
  "client_id": "<YOUR_CLIENT_ID>",
  "client_secret": "<YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET>",
  "subject_token": "<YOUR_SIGNED_JWT_BEARER>",
  "grant_type": "urn:auth0:params:oauth:grant-type:token-exchange:federated-connection-access-token",
  "subject_token_type": "urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:jwt",
  "requested_token_type": "http://auth0.com/oauth/token-type/token-vault-access-token",
  "connection": "google-oauth2"
}'
ParameterDescription
grant_typeThe grant type. For Token Vault, set to urn:auth0:params:oauth:grant-type:token-exchange:federated-connection-access-token
client_idClient application ID
client_secretClient secret. Note: For Privileged Worker Token Exchange, we recommend using Private Key JWT or mTLS authentication.
subject_token_typeType of subject token. For Privileged Worker Token Exchange, set to JWT: urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:jwt
subject_tokenThe signed JWT bearer token that the Auth0 Authorization Server validates to identify the user.
requested_token_typeThe requested token type. For Privileged Worker Token Exchange, you can request an access or refresh token.
connectionThe connection name, in this case, google-oauth2.
You should receive the access token stored in the Token Vault. You can similarly request the refresh token for the external API: 
curl --request POST 'https://{yourDomain}/oauth/token' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
  "client_id": "<YOUR_CLIENT_ID>",
  "client_secret": "<YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET>",
  "subject_token": "<YOUR_SIGNED_JWT_BEARER>",
  "grant_type": "urn:auth0:params:oauth:grant-type:token-exchange:federated-connection-access-token",
  "subject_token_type": "urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:jwt",
  "requested_token_type": "http://auth0.com/oauth/token-type/token-vault-refresh-token",
  "connection": "google-oauth2"
}'