Related
On a server side I have 2 middlewares - protect (is logged in?) and restrictTo (checks user's role). These middlewares stop users or guests from performing certain actions if they are not allowed to
exports.protect = catchAsync(async (req, res, next) => {
let token;
if (
req.headers.authorization && req.headers.authorization.startsWith("Bearer")
) {
token = req.headers.authorization.split(" ")[1];
}
if (!token) {
return next(new AppError("You are not signed in!", 401));
}
const decodedToken = await promisify(jwt.verify)(
token,
process.env.JWT_SECRET
);
const currentUser = await User.findById(decodedToken.id);
if (!currentUser) {
return next(new AppError("User with such token no longer exists"));
}
req.user = currentUser;
next();
});
exports.restrictTo = (...roles) => {
return (req, res, next) => {
if (!roles.includes(req.user.role)) {
return next(new AppError("No access", 403));
}
next();
};
};
But how do I protect routes on a client side? If I'm not allowed to post a new note then I should be stopped from going to a /newnote page so I can't see and fill the form.
JWT token is stored in cookies with httpOnly flag. So I can't access the token from a Vue router. Store a user's role in Vuex? Then how do I synchronize the token state in cookies and in Vuex? If my token has been destroyed on a server side I still can have it in Vuex until I send a request to a protected endpoint.
Should I request a special auth endpoint for protected routes to check my current role using beforeEach?
Basically, you should add two things:
store the current authenticated user. By default, authUser is null. When someone logs in, authUser is an object with the user’s data. you can store this in Vuex, localStorage, etc.
create an interceptor/middleware in whatever library you are using for your api requests. If at some point you get a 401/403, it means that the current user’s session expired, or he is trying to access a protected area he shouldnt be looking at. Either way, reset the local authUser to null and redirect to login.
In Spa/mobile you dont have to worry too much about this as long as your backend is properly secured. If your authUser logic is correct, then only users with bad intentions will try to reach protected areas, whereas normal users will play by the rules and never hit a page they arent supposed to with their current privileges (assuming the UI is wired up correctly…).
There are a number of solutions to this:
use the build-in dialog provided by esri/IdentityManager (https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/3/jsapi/identitymanagerbase-amd.html)
use a server-side proxy (https://github.com/Esri/resource-proxy)
use the identity manager initialize() method (https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/3/jsapi/identitymanagerbase-amd.html#initialize)
But there what is missing is the ability to hook into the request for a token. I am working with ArcGISDynamicMapServiceLayer and there is no way to know if the server return a 498/499, and no way to update the url to update the token.
I started hacking around in the API to try to hook into various events with no real promise of success. What seems to be missing:
a way to detect when a token is needed
a way to update the token
Closes I came up with is listening for "dialog-create" but there is no way to disable the dialog apart from throwing an exception, which disables the layer.
I tried replacing the "_createLoginDialog" method and returning {open: true} as a trick to pause the layers until I had a token ready but since there is no way to update the layer endpoint I did not pursue this hack. It seems the only way this might work is to use the initialize() method on the identity manager.
Does anyone have knowledge of options beyond what I have outlined?
EDIT: The goal is to provide a single-sign-on experience to users of our product.
"User" is already signed in to our application
"User" wishes to access a secure ESRI ArcGIS Server MapServer or FeatureServer services from the ESRI JSAPI
"User" is prompted for user name and password
The desired flow is to acquire a token on the users behalf using a RESTful services in our product and return the appropriate token that will allow the "User" to access the secure services without being prompted.
I do not wish to use a proxy because I do not want all that traffic routed through the proxy.
I do not wish to use initialize() because it is complicated and not clear how that works apart for re-hydrating the credentials.
I do wish for an API that simply allows me to set the token on any layer services that report a 499 (missing token) or 498 (invalid token), but I cannot find any such API. The solution I am focusing on hinges on being able to update the url of an ArcGISImageServiceLayer instance with a new token.
This answer lacks in satisfaction but delivers on my requirements. I will start with the code (client-side typescript):
class TokenProxy {
private tokenAssuranceHash = {} as Dictionary<Promise<{ token: string, expiration: string }>>;
private service = new TokenService();
private timeoutHandle = 0;
watchLayer(esriLayer: ArcGISDynamicMapServiceLayer) {
setInterval(async () => {
const key = esriLayer._url.path;
const token = await this.tokenAssurance(key);
esriLayer._url.query.token = token;
}, 5000);
}
updateRefreshInterval(ticks: number) {
clearTimeout(this.timeoutHandle);
this.timeoutHandle = setTimeout(() => {
Object.keys(this.tokenAssuranceHash).forEach(url => {
this.tokenAssuranceHash[url] = this.service.getMapToken({serviceUrl: url});
});
this.updateRefreshInterval(ticks);
}, ticks);
}
async tokenAssurance(url: string) {
if (!this.tokenAssuranceHash[url]) {
this.tokenAssuranceHash[url] = this.service.getMapToken({serviceUrl: url});
}
try {
const response = await this.tokenAssuranceHash[url];
await this.recomputeRefreshInterval();
return response.token;
} catch (ex) {
console.error(ex, "could not acquire token");
return null;
}
}
async recomputeRefreshInterval() {
const keys = Object.keys(this.tokenAssuranceHash);
if (!keys.length) return;
const values = keys.map(k => this.tokenAssuranceHash[k]);
const tokens = await Promise.all(values);
const min = Math.min(...tokens.map(t => new Date(t.expiration).getTime()));
if (Number.isNaN(min)) return; // error occured, do not update the refresh interval
const nextRefreshInTicks = min - new Date().getTime();
this.updateRefreshInterval(0.90 * nextRefreshInTicks);
}
}
And highlight the hack that makes it work:
const key = esriLayer._url.path;
const token = await this.tokenAssurance(key);
esriLayer._url.query.token = token;
The "_url" is a hidden/private model that I should not be using to update the token but it works.
I am implementing a query which should serve some fields in the response depending on user login status.
To be specific, I want to get "pointRate" field only if $authenticationToken is passed & would want to avoid passing $authenticated in below query. The reason I want to avoid sending $authenticated is client can do mistake by sending $authenticated = true but $authenticationToken = null.
query ToDoQuery($authenticationToken: String, $authenticated: Boolean!) {
pointRate(accessToken: $authenticationToken) #include(if: $authenticated) {
status
}
}
So, Actually you want to do that
i) if $authenticationToken is passed, you want to get "pointRate".
ii) and you also want to avoid passing $authenticated in subsequent
queries. Because you are concern about your clients who can make some
mistake like sending authenticated is true where authentication token
was null.
So in generally I want to answer that if you want to handle authentication by yourself using GraphQL, at first you have to create a token, then you have to pass the token in every request or with subsequent requests. Otherwise it is not possible. Because sensitive data's will not be provided without authentication.
On the other hand, you can use session auth. You can access every data until session is closed.
If it is not satisfactory, You can read the following brief description with a scenerio like yours. I also tried to accumulate some related sample solutions for better understanding, it may clarify you more.
As GraphQL API is completely public, you can make authentication by two ways.
Let the web server (e.g. express or nginx) take care of authentication.
Handle authentication in GraphQL itself.
If you do authentication in the web server, you can use a standard auth package (e.g. passport.js for express) and many existing authentication methods will work out of the box. You can also add and remove methods at your liking without modifying the GraphQL schema.
If you’re implementing authentication yourself, do the followings
Make sure to never store passwords in clear text or a MD5 or SHA-256
hash
Use something like bcrypt
Make sure to not store your session tokens as-is on the server, you
should hash them first
You can write a login method, which sets the context. Since mutations
are executed one after the other and not in parallel, you can be sure
the context is set after the login mutation:
mutation {
loginWithToken(token: "6e37a03e-9ee4-42fd-912d-3f67d2d0d852"),
do_stuff(greeting: "Hello", name: "Tom"),
do_more_stuff(submarine_color: "Yellow")
}
Instead of passing in the token via header or query parameter (like JWT, OAuth, etc), we make it part of the GraphQL query. Your schema code can parse the token directly using the JWT library itself or another tool.
Remember to always use HTTPS when passing sensitive information :)
As parallel execution is an important for performance. and mutation and queries are executed serially, in the order given.
So in most cases It is preferred to handle authentication in the web server. It’s not only more generic, but also more flexible.
Scenerio:
First go through the followings
import jwt from'express-jwt';
import graphqlHTTP from'express-graphql';
import express from'express';
import schema from'./mySchema';
const app = express();
app.use('/graphql', jwt({
secret: 'shhhhhhared-secret',
requestProperty: 'auth',
credentialsRequired: false,
}));
app.use('/graphql', function(req, res, done) {
const user = db.User.get(req.auth.sub);
req.context = {
user: user,
}
done();
});
app.use('/graphql', graphqlHTTP(req => ({
schema: schema,
context: req.context,
})
));
If you check in the above section, you will get that API is not secure at all. It might try to verify the JWT but if the JWT doesn’t exist or is invalid, the request will still pass through (see credentialsRequired: false). Why? We have to allow the request to pass through because if we blocked it we would block the entire API. That means, our users wouldn’t even be able to call a loginUser mutation to get a token to authenticate themselves.
Solution#1:
Barebone example using Authenticate resolvers, not endpoints.
import { GraphQLSchema } from 'graphql';
import { Registry } from 'graphql-helpers';
// The registry wraps graphql-js and is more concise
const registry = new Registry();
registry.createType(`
type User {
id: ID!
username: String!
}
`;
registry.createType(`
type Query {
me: User
}
`, {
me: (parent, args, context, info) => {
if (context.user) {
return context.user;
}
throw new Error('User is not logged in (or authenticated).');
},
};
const schema = new GraphQLSchema({
query: registry.getType('Query'),
});
By the time the request gets to our Query.me resolver, the server middleware has already tried to authenticate the user and fetch the user object from the database. In our resolver, we can then check the graphql context for the user (we set the context in our server.js file) and if one exists then return it else throw an error.
Note: you could just as easily return null instead of throwing an error and I would actually recommend it.
Solution#2:
Use functional Composition(middleware based) of express-graphql
import { GraphQLSchema } from 'graphql';
import { Registry } from 'graphql-helpers';
// See an implementation of compose https://gist.github.com/mlp5ab/f5cdee0fe7d5ed4e6a2be348b81eac12
import { compose } from './compose';
const registry = new Registry();
/**
* The authenticated function checks for a user and calls the next function in the composition if
* one exists. If no user exists in the context then an error is thrown.
*/
const authenticated =
(fn: GraphQLFieldResolver) =>
(parent, args, context, info) => {
if (context.user) {
return fn(parent, args, context, info);
}
throw new Error('User is not authenticated');
};
/*
* getLoggedInUser returns the logged in user from the context.
*/
const getLoggedInUser = (parent, args, context, info) => context.user;
registry.createType(`
type User {
id: ID!
username: String!
}
`;
registry.createType(`
type Query {
me: User
}
`, {
me: compose(authenticated)(getLoggedInUser)
};
const schema = new GraphQLSchema({
query: registry.getType('Query'),
});
The above code will work exactly the same as the first snippet. Instead of checking for the user in our main resolver function, we have created a highly reusable and testable middleware function that achieves the same thing. The immediate impact of this design may not be apparent yet but think about what would happen if we wanted to add another protected route as well as log our resolver running times. With our new design its as simple as:
const traceResolve =
(fn: GraphQLFieldResolver) =>
async (obj: any, args: any, context: any, info: any) => {
const start = new Date().getTime();
const result = await fn(obj, args, context, info);
const end = new Date().getTime();
console.log(`Resolver took ${end - start} ms`);
return result;
};
registry.createType(`
type Query {
me: User
otherSecretData: SecretData
}
`, {
me: compose(traceResolve, authenticated)(getLoggedInUser)
otherSecretData: compose(traceResolve, authenticated)(getSecretData)
};
Using this technique will help you build more robust GraphQL APIs. Function composition is a great solution for authentication tasks but you can also use it for logging resolvers, cleaning input, massaging output, and much more.
Solution#3:
A decent solution is to factor out data fetching into a separate layer and do the authorization check there.
Below is an example that follows the principles outlined above. It’s for a query that fetches all todo lists that a user can see.
For the following query,
{
allLists {
name
}
}
Don’t do this:
//in schema.js (just the essential bits)
allLists: {
resolve: (root, _, ctx) => {
return sql.raw("SELECT * FROM lists WHERE owner_id is NULL or owner_id = %s", ctx.user_id);
}
}
Instead, I suggest you do this:
// in schema.js (just the essential bits)
allLists: {
resolve: (root, _, ctx) => {
//factor out data fetching
return DB.Lists.all(ctx.user_id)
.then( lists => {
//enforce auth on each node
return lists.map(auth.List.enforce_read_perm(ctx.user_id) );
});
}
}
//in DB.js
export const DB = {
Lists: {
all: (user_id) => {
return sql.raw("SELECT id FROM lists WHERE owner_id is NULL or owner_id = %s, user_id);
}
}
}
//in auth.js
export const auth = {
List: {
enforce_read_perm: (user_id) => {
return (list) => {
if(list.owner_id !== null && list.owner_id !== user_id){
throw new Error("User not authorized to read list");
} else {
return list;
}
}
}
}
You may think that the DB.Lists.all function is already enforcing permissions, but the way I see it it’s just trying not to fetch too much data, the permissions themselves are enforced not on each node separately. That way you have the auth checks in one place and can be sure that they will be applied consistently, even if you fetch data in many different places.
Solution#4:
Auth flow can be done in many different ways.
i) basic auth,
ii) session auth, or
iii) token auth.
As your issue is according to token auth, I would like to meet you with Scaphold which one uses token authentication. Everything we do, whether it be logging a user into Scaphold or logging your user into your app, we use tokens to manage a user's auth status. The auth flow works like this:
a) User logs in with username and password.
b) The GraphQL server verifies the user in the database against his / her hashed password.
c) If successful, the server returns a JSON Web Token (JWT) that is a Base64 encoded token with an expiration date. This is the authentication token.
d) To use the authentication token, your future requests should include the authentication token in the header as
{ Authorization: 'Bearer' + [Auth_Token] }
Now, each time the server (perhaps Node Express) sees the token in the header, it will parse out the token, verify it, and in the GraphQL world, save the identified user in the context for use in the rest of the application. The user is now logged in.
For more, you can learn more about #include in this tutorial: https://github.com/mugli/learning-graphql/blob/master/4.%20Querying%20with%20Directives.md#include
For learning step by step graphql authentication, you can go through this tutorial: GraphQL Authentication
Resource Link:
Authentication with
GraphQL
A guide to authentication in
GraphQL
Best practices for GraphQL
security
I don't think this is possible since you cannot convert an (empty) String to a Boolean in GraphQL.
Also, some advice from the official GraphQL docs:
Delegate authorization logic to the business logic layer
#include
GraphQL queries are a powerful way to declare data in your application.
The include directive, allows us to include fields based on some condition.
query myAwesomeQuery($isAwesome: Boolean) {
awesomeField #include(if: $isAwesome)
}
Note. #skip always has higher precedence than #include.
I'm working on a MEAN application with authentication using JSON web tokens. basically on every request, I am checking to see if user has a valid token. if so they can go through to the route, otherwise they are returned to login page.
I want to make certain routes /admin/etc... only accessible to logged in users who are also admin. I have set up an isAdmin flag in mongo. I am new to nodejs and wondering what is the best way to check this. Do I do it on the angular side in routes? Or can I somehow create permission-based tokens on authentication? For reference, I am following the code from the MEAN Machine book, in particular here -
https://github.com/scotch-io/mean-machine-code/tree/master/17-user-crm
First, authorization decisions must be done on the server side. Doing it on the client side in Angular.js as you suggested is also a good idea, but this is only for the purpose of improving the user's experience, for example not showing the user a link to something they don't have access to.
With JWTs, you can embed claims about the user inside the token, like this:
var jwt = require('jsonwebtoken');
var token = jwt.sign({ role: 'admin' }, 'your_secret');
To map permissions to express routes, you can use connect-roles to build clean and readable authorization middleware functions. Suppose for example your JWT is sent in the HTTP header and you have the following (naive) authorization middleware:
// Naive authentication middleware, just for demonstration
// Assumes you're issuing JWTs somehow and the client is including them in headers
// Like this: Authorization: JWT {token}
app.use(function(req, res, next) {
var token = req.headers.authorization.replace(/^JWT /, '');
jwt.verify(token, 'your_secret', function(err, decoded) {
if(err) {
next(err);
} else {
req.user = decoded;
next();
}
});
})
With that, you can enforce your authorization policy on routes, like this:
var ConnectRoles = require('connect-roles');
var user = new ConnectRoles();
user.use('admin', function(req) {
return req.user && req.user.role === 'admin';
})
app.get('/admin', user.is('admin'), function(req, res, next) {
res.end();
})
Note that there are much better options for issuing & validating JWTs, like express-jwt, or using passport in conjunction with passort-jwt
Are there any existing user authentication libraries for node.js? In particular I'm looking for something that can do password authentication for a user (using a custom backend auth DB), and associate that user with a session.
Before I wrote an auth library, I figured I would see if folks knew of existing libraries. Couldn't find anything obvious via a google search.
-Shreyas
If you are looking for an authentication framework for Connect or Express, Passport is worth investigating: https://github.com/jaredhanson/passport
(Disclosure: I'm the developer of Passport)
I developed Passport after investigating both connect-auth and everyauth. While they are both great modules, they didn't suit my needs. I wanted something that was more light-weight and unobtrusive.
Passport is broken down into separate modules, so you can choose to use only what you need (OAuth, only if necessary). Passport also does not mount any routes in your application, giving you the flexibility to decide when and where you want authentication, and hooks to control what happens when authentication succeeds or fails.
For example, here is the two-step process to setup form-based (username and password) authentication:
passport.use(new LocalStrategy(
function(username, password, done) {
// Find the user from your DB (MongoDB, CouchDB, other...)
User.findOne({ username: username, password: password }, function (err, user) {
done(err, user);
});
}
));
app.post('/login',
passport.authenticate('local', { failureRedirect: '/login' }),
function(req, res) {
// Authentication successful. Redirect home.
res.redirect('/');
});
Additional strategies are available for authentication via Facebook, Twitter, etc. Custom strategies can be plugged-in, if necessary.
Session + If
I guess the reason that you haven't found many good libraries is that using a library for authentication is mostly over engineered.
What you are looking for is just a session-binder :) A session with:
if login and user == xxx and pwd == xxx
then store an authenticated=true into the session
if logout destroy session
thats it.
I disagree with your conclusion that the connect-auth plugin is the way to go.
I'm using also connect but I do not use connect-auth for two reasons:
IMHO breaks connect-auth the very powerful and easy to read onion-ring architecture of connect. A no-go - my opinion :).
You can find a very good and short article about how connect works and the onion ring idea here.
If you - as written - just want to use a basic or http login with database or file. Connect-auth is way too big. It's more for stuff like OAuth 1.0, OAuth 2.0 & Co
A very simple authentication with connect
(It's complete. Just execute it for testing but if you want to use it in production, make sure to use https)
(And to be REST-Principle-Compliant you should use a POST-Request instead of a GET-Request b/c you change a state :)
var connect = require('connect');
var urlparser = require('url');
var authCheck = function (req, res, next) {
url = req.urlp = urlparser.parse(req.url, true);
// ####
// Logout
if ( url.pathname == "/logout" ) {
req.session.destroy();
}
// ####
// Is User already validated?
if (req.session && req.session.auth == true) {
next(); // stop here and pass to the next onion ring of connect
return;
}
// ########
// Auth - Replace this example with your Database, Auth-File or other things
// If Database, you need a Async callback...
if ( url.pathname == "/login" &&
url.query.name == "max" &&
url.query.pwd == "herewego" ) {
req.session.auth = true;
next();
return;
}
// ####
// This user is not authorized. Stop talking to him.
res.writeHead(403);
res.end('Sorry you are not authorized.\n\nFor a login use: /login?name=max&pwd=herewego');
return;
}
var helloWorldContent = function (req, res, next) {
res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
res.end('authorized. Walk around :) or use /logout to leave\n\nYou are currently at '+req.urlp.pathname);
}
var server = connect.createServer(
connect.logger({ format: ':method :url' }),
connect.cookieParser(),
connect.session({ secret: 'foobar' }),
connect.bodyParser(),
authCheck,
helloWorldContent
);
server.listen(3000);
NOTE
I wrote this statement over a year ago and have currently no active node projects. So there are may be API-Changes in Express. Please add a comment if I should change anything.
Looks like the connect-auth plugin to the connect middleware is exactly what I need
I'm using express [ http://expressjs.com ] so the connect plugin fits in very nicely since express is subclassed (ok - prototyped) from connect
I was basically looking for the same thing. Specifically, I wanted the following:
To use express.js, which wraps Connect's middleware capability
"Form based" authentication
Granular control over which routes are authenticated
A database back-end for users/passwords
Use sessions
What I ended up doing was creating my own middleware function check_auth that I pass as an argument to each route I want authenticated. check_auth merely checks the session and if the user is not logged in, then redirects them to the login page, like so:
function check_auth(req, res, next) {
// if the user isn't logged in, redirect them to a login page
if(!req.session.login) {
res.redirect("/login");
return; // the buck stops here... we do not call next(), because
// we don't want to proceed; instead we want to show a login page
}
// the user is logged in, so call next()
next();
}
Then for each route, I ensure this function is passed as middleware. For example:
app.get('/tasks', check_auth, function(req, res) {
// snip
});
Finally, we need to actually handle the login process. This is straightforward:
app.get('/login', function(req, res) {
res.render("login", {layout:false});
});
app.post('/login', function(req, res) {
// here, I'm using mongoose.js to search for the user in mongodb
var user_query = UserModel.findOne({email:req.body.email}, function(err, user){
if(err) {
res.render("login", {layout:false, locals:{ error:err } });
return;
}
if(!user || user.password != req.body.password) {
res.render("login",
{layout:false,
locals:{ error:"Invalid login!", email:req.body.email }
}
);
} else {
// successful login; store the session info
req.session.login = req.body.email;
res.redirect("/");
}
});
});
At any rate, this approach was mostly designed to be flexible and simple. I'm sure there are numerous ways to improve it. If you have any, I'd very much like your feedback.
EDIT: This is a simplified example. In a production system, you'd never want to store & compare passwords in plain text. As a commenter points out, there are libs that can help manage password security.
Also have a look at everyauth if you want third party/social network login integration.
Here is some code for basic authentication from one of my projects. I use it against CouchDB with and additional auth data cache, but I stripped that code.
Wrap an authentication method around you request handling, and provide a second callback for unsuccessfull authentication. The success callback will get the username as an additional parameter. Don't forget to correctly handle requests with wrong or missing credentials in the failure callback:
/**
* Authenticate a request against this authentication instance.
*
* #param request
* #param failureCallback
* #param successCallback
* #return
*/
Auth.prototype.authenticate = function(request, failureCallback, successCallback)
{
var requestUsername = "";
var requestPassword = "";
if (!request.headers['authorization'])
{
failureCallback();
}
else
{
var auth = this._decodeBase64(request.headers['authorization']);
if (auth)
{
requestUsername = auth.username;
requestPassword = auth.password;
}
else
{
failureCallback();
}
}
//TODO: Query your database (don't forget to do so async)
db.query( function(result)
{
if (result.username == requestUsername && result.password == requestPassword)
{
successCallback(requestUsername);
}
else
{
failureCallback();
}
});
};
/**
* Internal method for extracting username and password out of a Basic
* Authentication header field.
*
* #param headerValue
* #return
*/
Auth.prototype._decodeBase64 = function(headerValue)
{
var value;
if (value = headerValue.match("^Basic\\s([A-Za-z0-9+/=]+)$"))
{
var auth = (new Buffer(value[1] || "", "base64")).toString("ascii");
return {
username : auth.slice(0, auth.indexOf(':')),
password : auth.slice(auth.indexOf(':') + 1, auth.length)
};
}
else
{
return null;
}
};
A few years have passed and I'd like to introduce my authentication solution for Express. It's called Lockit. You can find the project on GitHub and a short intro at my blog.
So what are the differences to the existing solutions?
easy to use: set up your DB, npm install, require('lockit'), lockit(app), done
routes already built-in (/signup, /login, /forgot-password, etc.)
views already built-in (based on Bootstrap but you can easily use your own views)
it supports JSON communication for your AngularJS / Ember.js single page apps
it does NOT support OAuth and OpenID. Only username and password.
it works with several databases (CouchDB, MongoDB, SQL) out of the box
it has tests (I couldn't find any tests for Drywall)
it is actively maintained (compared to everyauth)
email verification and forgot password process (send email with token, not supported by Passport)
modularity: use only what you need
flexibility: customize all the things
Take a look at the examples.
A different take on authentication is Passwordless, a token-based authentication module for express that circumvents the inherent problem of passwords [1]. It's fast to implement, doesn't require too many forms, and offers better security for the average user (full disclosure: I'm the author).
[1]: Passwords are Obsolete
A word of caution regarding handrolled approaches:
I'm disappointed to see that some of the suggested code examples in this post do not protect against such fundamental authentication vulnerabilities such as session fixation or timing attacks.
Contrary to several suggestions here, authentication is not simple and handrolling a solution is not always trivial. I would recommend passportjs and bcrypt.
If you do decide to handroll a solution however, have a look at the express js provided example for inspiration.
Good luck.
There is a project called Drywall that implements a user login system with Passport and also has a user management admin panel. If you're looking for a fully-featured user authentication and management system similar to something like what Django has but for Node.js, this is it. I found it to be a really good starting point for building a node app that required a user authentication and management system. See Jared Hanson's answer for information on how Passport works.
Here are two popular Github libraries for node js authentication:
https://github.com/jaredhanson/passport ( suggestible )
https://nodejsmodules.org/pkg/everyauth
Quick simple example using mongo, for an API that provides user auth for ie Angular client
in app.js
var express = require('express');
var MongoStore = require('connect-mongo')(express);
// ...
app.use(express.cookieParser());
// obviously change db settings to suit
app.use(express.session({
secret: 'blah1234',
store: new MongoStore({
db: 'dbname',
host: 'localhost',
port: 27017
})
}));
app.use(app.router);
for your route something like this:
// (mongo connection stuff)
exports.login = function(req, res) {
var email = req.body.email;
// use bcrypt in production for password hashing
var password = req.body.password;
db.collection('users', function(err, collection) {
collection.findOne({'email': email, 'password': password}, function(err, user) {
if (err) {
res.send(500);
} else {
if(user !== null) {
req.session.user = user;
res.send(200);
} else {
res.send(401);
}
}
});
});
};
Then in your routes that require auth you can just check for the user session:
if (!req.session.user) {
res.send(403);
}
Here is a new authentication library that uses timestamped tokens. The tokens can be emailed or texted to users without the need to store them in a database. It can be used for passwordless authentication or for two-factor authentication.
https://github.com/vote539/easy-no-password
Disclosure: I am the developer of this library.
If you need authentication with SSO (Single Sign On) with Microsoft Windows user account. You may give a try to https://github.com/jlguenego/node-expose-sspi.
It will give you a req.sso object which contains all client user information (login, display name, sid, groups).
const express = require("express");
const { sso, sspi } = require("node-expose-sspi");
sso.config.debug = false;
const app = express();
app.use(sso.auth());
app.use((req, res, next) => {
res.json({
sso: req.sso
});
});
app.listen(3000, () => console.log("Server started on port 3000"));
Disclaimer: I am the author of node-expose-sspi.
slim-auth
A lightweight, zero-configuration user authentication module. It doesn't need a sperate database.
https://www.npmjs.com/package/slimauth
It's simple as:
app.get('/private-page', (req, res) => {
if (req.user.isAuthorized) {
// user is logged in! send the requested page
// you can access req.user.email
}
else {
// user not logged in. redirect to login page
}
})