Hapi Auth with JSON Web Tokens (JWT)

An authentication scheme/plugin for Hapi.js apps using JSON Web Tokens

This node.js module (Hapi plugin) lets you use JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) for authentication in your Hapi.js web application.

Motivation

Some oauth2 providers don't only use one signing key, among other variations not easily encapsulated in a module that makes too many assumptions. Only use this if complexity requires you to. Otherwise, it's recommended to use hapi-auth-jwt2

Usage

This is a simplified version of hapi-auth-jwt2

You must handle verifying the JWT in the validate function

This module won't do it for you by itself

Install from NPM

npm install hapi-auth-jwt-simple --save

Example

This basic usage example should help you get started:

var Hapi = require('hapi');
var jwt = require('jsonwebtoken');

// IMPORTANT: you must bring your own validation function
var validate = function (token, request, callback) {

    var publicKey = 'someKey';
    jwt.verify(token, publicKey, function (err, decoded) {

      if (err) {
        return callback(err)
      }
      var credentials = request.auth.credentials;
      // .. do some additional credentials checking
      return callback(null, true, decoded);
    });
};

var server = new Hapi.Server();
server.connection({ port: 8000 });
        // include our module here ↓↓
server.register(require('hapi-auth-jwt-simple'), function (err) {

    if(err){
      console.log(err);
    }

    server.auth.strategy('jwt', 'jwt', {
      validateFunc: validate
    });

    server.auth.default('jwt');

    server.route([
      {
        method: "GET", path: "/", config: { auth: false },
        handler: function(request, reply) {
          reply({text: 'Token not required'});
        }
      },
      {
        method: 'GET', path: '/restricted', config: { auth: 'jwt' },
        handler: function(request, reply) {
          reply({text: 'You used a Token!'})
          .header("Authorization", request.headers.authorization);
        }
      }
    ]);
});

server.start(function () {
  console.log('Server running at:', server.info.uri);
});

Documentation

• validateFunc - (required) the function which is run once the Token has been decoded with signature function(decoded, request, callback) where:
  • decoded - (required) is the decoded and verified JWT received from the client in request.headers.authorization
  • request - (required) is the original request received from the client
  • callback - (required) a callback function with the signature function(err, isValid, credentials) where:
    • err - an internal error.
    • valid - true if the JWT was valid, otherwise false.
    • credentials - (optional) alternative credentials to be set instead of decoded.
• urlKey - (optional) if you prefer to pass your token via url, simply add a token url parameter to your request or use a custom parameter by setting urlKey
• cookieKey - (optional) if you prefer to pass your token via a cookie, simply set the cookie token=your.jsonwebtoken.here or use a custom key by setting cookieKey
• tokenType - (optinal) allow custom token type, e.g. Authorization: <tokenType> 12345678, default is none.

Authentication Modes

This plugin supports authentication modes on routes.

• required - requires Authorization header to be sent with every request

• optional - if no Authorization header is provided, request will pass with request.auth.isAuthenticated set to true and request.auth.credentials set to empty object

• try - similar to optional but invalid Authorization header will pass with request.auth.isAuthenticated set to false and failed credentials provided in request.auth.credentials

Usage

Setup your hapi.js server as described above (no special setup for using jwt tokens in urls)

https://yoursite.co/path?token=your.jsonwebtoken.here

You will need to generage valid tokens for this to work.

var JWT   = require('jsonwebtoken');
var obj   = { id:123,"name":"Charlie" }; // object/info you want to sign
var token = JWT.sign(obj, secret);
var url   = "/path?token="+token;

Want to send/store your JWT in a Cookie?

@benjaminlees requested the ability to send tokens as cookies: https://github.com/stongo/hapi-auth-jwt-simple/issues/55 So we added the ability to optionally send/store your tokens in cookies to simplify building your web app.

To enable cookie support in your application all you need to do is add a few lines to your code:

Cookie Options

Firstly set the options you want to apply to your cookie:

var cookie_options = {
  ttl: 365 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000, // expires a year from today
  encoding: 'none',    // we already used JWT to encode
  isSecure: true,      // warm & fuzzy feelings
  isHttpOnly: true,    // prevent client alteration
  clearInvalid: false, // remove invalid cookies
  strictHeader: true   // don't allow violations of RFC 6265
}

Set the Cookie on your reply

Then, in your authorisation handler

reply({text: 'You have been authenticated!'})
.header("Authorization", token)        // where token is the JWT
.state("token", token, cookie_options) // set the cookie with options

Compatibility

hapi-auth-jwt-simple is compatible with Hapi.js versions 11.x.x 10.x.x 9.x.x and 8.x.x as there was no change to how the Hapi plugin system works for the past two versions. See the release notes for more details:

• Hapi Version 10: https://github.com/hapijs/hapi/issues/2764
• Hapi Version 9: https://github.com/hapijs/hapi/issues/2682

However in the interest of security/performance we recommend using the latest version of Hapi.

Useful Links

• For more background on jsonwebtokens (JWTs) see our detailed overview: https://github.com/stongo/learn-json-web-tokens
• Securing Hapi Client Side Sessions: https://blog.liftsecurity.io/2014/11/26/securing-hapi-client-side-sessions

Hapi.js Auth

Borrowed code from the following:

• http://hapijs.com/tutorials/auth
• https://github.com/hapijs/hapi-auth-basic
• https://github.com/hapijs/hapi-auth-cookie
• https://github.com/hapijs/hapi-auth-hawk
• https://github.com/ryanfitz/hapi-auth-jwt
• https://github.com/ryanfitz/hapi-auth-jwt2