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  1. OpenShift Bugs
  2. OCPBUGS-58393

"oc login -u" in external oidc env can succeed but misleadingly causes following oc commands fail

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      * Before this update, the `oc login -u` command in external OIDC environments succeeded but removed user credentials, causing subsequent `oc` commands to fail. With this release, the `oc login -u` command no longer modifies kubeconfig, preventing subsequent `oc` commands from failing. As a result, the fix prevents `oc login -u` from removing user credentials, ensuring subsequent "oc" commands work correctly. (link:https://issues.redhat.com/browse/OCPBUGS-58393[OCPBUGS-58393])
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      Fixed oc login -u <username> pruning relevant user section in kubeconfig when an external OIDC provider is being used.
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      * Before this update, the `oc login -u` command in external OIDC environments succeeded but removed user credentials, causing subsequent `oc` commands to fail. With this release, the `oc login -u` command no longer modifies kubeconfig, preventing subsequent `oc` commands from failing. As a result, the fix prevents `oc login -u` from removing user credentials, ensuring subsequent "oc" commands work correctly. (link: https://issues.redhat.com/browse/OCPBUGS-58393 [ OCPBUGS-58393 ]) ____ Fixed oc login -u <username> pruning relevant user section in kubeconfig when an external OIDC provider is being used.
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      Description of problem:

      "oc login -u" in external oidc env can succeed but misleadingly causes following oc commands fail

      Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

      oc 4.20.0-0.nightly-2025-07-01-051543
Server version 4.20.0-0.nightly-2025-07-01-051543

      How reproducible:

      Always

      Steps to Reproduce:

      1. Configure external oidc env.

2. Log in successfully:
$ oc login --exec-plugin=oc-oidc --issuer-url=$ISSUER_URL --client-id=$CLI_CLIENT_ID --extra-scopes=email,profile --callback-port=8080
Please visit the following URL in your browser: http://localhost:8080
Logged into "https://api.xxxx.devcluster.openshift.com:6443" as "oidc-user-test:xxia@redhat.com" from an external oidc issuer.

You don't have any projects. Contact your system administrator to request a project.

3. Any other oc operations that may switch contexts like oc config use-context admin.

4. One happens to run below "oc login -u" command, it succeeds:
$ oc login -u oidc-user-test:xxia@redhat.com
Logged into "https://api.xxxx.devcluster.openshift.com:6443" as "oidc-user-test:xxia@redhat.com" using existing credentials.

Using "default" namespace.  You can switch namespaces with:

 oc project <projectname>

5. Run any oc commands like below. All fail:
$ oc whoami
Error from server (Forbidden): users.user.openshift.io "~" is forbidden: User "system:anonymous" cannot get resource "users" in API group "user.openshift.io" at the cluster scope

$ oc get project
Error from server (Forbidden): projects.project.openshift.io is forbidden: User "system:anonymous" cannot list resource "projects" in API group "project.openshift.io" at the cluster scope

Checking the kubeconfig, found:
$ cat $KUBECONFIG
apiVersion: v1
clusters:
- cluster:
    certificate-authority-data: DATA+OMITTED
    server: https://api.xxxx.devcluster.openshift.com:6443
  name: api-xxxx-devcluster-openshift-com:6443
contexts:
- context:
    cluster: api-xxxx-devcluster-openshift-com:6443
    namespace: default
    user: oidc-user-test:xxia@redhat.com/api-xxxx-devcluster-openshift-com:6443
  name: default/api-xxxx-devcluster-openshift-com:6443/oidc-user-test:xxia@redhat.com
current-context: default/api-xxxx-devcluster-openshift-com:6443/oidc-user-test:xxia@redhat.com
kind: Config
preferences: {}
users:
- name: oidc-user-test:xxia@redhat.com/api-xxxx-devcluster-openshift-com:6443
  user: {}

      Actual results:

      Step 4 "oc login -u" can succeed. But following oc commands all fail. The kubeconfig shows credential is modified to be empty "user: {}" by the successful "oc login -u" command, which makes step 5 oc commands fail.

      Expected results:

      If "oc login -u" shouldn't be supported, a proper warning message should show instead to tell us.

Otherwise, if "oc login -u" should be supported, it should not remove the credential to be empty "user: {}" which makes the following oc commands fail, which is very misleading.

      Additional info:

       

              rh-ee-okupka Ondřej Kupka
              xxia-1 Xingxing Xia
              None
              None
              Ying Zhou Ying Zhou
              None
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                Created:
                Updated: