JWT authentication with gundb - gun

Question

Can i use JWT authentication with gundb? And if so, would it dramatically slow down my sync speed? I was going to try and implement a test using the tutorial here but wanted to see if there were any 'gotchas' I should be aware of.

Answer 1

The API has changed to use a middleware system. The SEA (Security, Encryption, Authorization) framework will be published to handle stuff like this. However, you can roll your own by doing something like this on the server:
Gun.on('opt', function(ctx){
if(ctx.once){ return }
ctx.on('in', function(msg){
var to = this.to;
// process message.
to.next(msg); // pass to next middleware
});
});
Registering the in listener via the opt hook lets this middleware become 1st in line (before even gun core), that way you can filter all inputs and reject them if necessary (by not calling to.next(msg)).
Likewise to add headers on the client you would want to register an out listener (similarly to how we did for the in) and modify the outgoing message to have msg.headers = {token: data} and then pass it forward to the next middleware layers (which will probably be websocket/transport hooks) by doing to.next(msg) as well. More docs to come on this as it stabilizes.
Old Answer:
A very late answer, sorry this was not addressed sooner:
The default websocket/ajax adapter allows you to update a headers property that gets passed on every networked message:
gun.opt({
headers: { token: JWT },
});
On the server you can then intercept and reject/authorize requests based on the token:
gun.wsp(server, function(req, res, next){
if('get' === req.method){
return next(req, res);
}
if('put' === req.method){
return res({body: {err: "Permission denied!"}});
}
});
The above example rejects all writes and authorizes all reads, but you would replace this logic with your own rules.