[solved]: auth_openidc.conf: OIDCPassClaimsAs documentation is wrong or at least misleading: "both" "latin1" is not the default.

[bernhard-1]

We recently had the problem that users' first or last names with Umlaut (äöü) were not displayed correctly. I was able to fix this by adding the following line to our auth_openidc.conf:
OIDCPassClaimsAs both latin1

However, the comment for OIDCPassClaimsAs in auth_openidc.conf states:
# When not defined the default is "both" and "latin1" encoding is applied to the header/environment values.

In my understanding, this means, that my configuration change shouldn't have changed anything, as this was already the default. So the comment is either poorly worded or wrong.

Without OIDCPassClaimsAs explicitly set, we received UTF-8 encoded header at the back-end application.

Edit: I found my mistake with the help of zandbelt asking the right question. Debian Bookworm uses Version 2.4.12.3 which does not apply any encoding by default.

[zandbelt]

which version of mod_auth_openidc are you using?

[bernhard-1]

apt policy libapache2-mod-auth-openidc

tells me

libapache2-mod-auth-openidc:
Installed: 2.4.12.3-2+deb12u2

[bernhard-1]

... and that also explains what went wrong

2.4.12.3 is documented as
# When not defined the default is "both" and no encoding is applied to the header/environment values.

Thanks for your help!