OAUTH - Request Verified Email Address from LinkedIn

Question

So I'm getting the user's email address during login over OAUTH with LinkedIn as per https://developer.linkedin.com/blog/making-it-easier-you-develop-linkedin

However, it doesn't seem that there's any way to ensure this is a "verified" email address as opposed to one that anyone could pretend to claim.

Other providers I've used won't serve up the primary email address for a user if they've not verified, and in fact often won't Auth at all. LinkedIn however seems to.

Does anyone know if this is by design or if there's a workaround?

Pfister

Answer 1

check out the OAuth v2 they use now, it requires a validated email address.

Jerrodjerrol

Actually, I'd forgotten to post back. Yes, you're right. In fact the OAUTH1x flow is deprecated. It does have issues IMHO but LinkedIn just said they'd stopped supporting it. OAUTH2 is much easier anyway and works well. – Pfister

Where can I find reference to this email being required as validated? (It would be nice to have something at linkedin that points me to knowing this email is checked) – Gaga

@DavidLjungMadison I wasn't able to find any documentation on this but I was able to confirm through testing that it works as expected -- see my answer below. – Cuthburt

Answer 2

I can confirm that as of 6/20/2016, LinkedIn DOES NOT allow OAUTH authentication with accounts that do not have a verified email address. If you try authenticate with LinkedIn you'll get the following error screen while allowing access:

However, I was unable to find any official documentation on this matter.

Cuthburt

Did you got any idea for this issue ? – Sooty

I never found any official documentation, but I was satisfied from my testing that email confirmation was a requirement for using LinkedIn for OAuth. – Cuthburt