Logging Out

Part of the Auth and Security section of Coddy's Node.js journey. Lesson 7 of 17.

Clearing the cookie only asks the browser to forget the id. Anyone who copied it, from another device or a stolen cookie, still holds a key that works. Logging out has to delete the session on the server.

res.clearCookie(name) tells the browser to drop a cookie. Status 204 No Content means it worked and there is nothing to send back: res.status(204).end().

Here is a related route, logging a user out on every device at once:

app.post('/logout-everywhere', requireUser, async (req, res) => {
    await sessions.deleteMany({ userId: new ObjectId(req.user.id) });
    res.clearCookie('sid');
    res.status(204).end();
});

Challenge

Easy

POST /logout deletes the session of the sid cookie, clears the cookie and answers 204.
Without a session it still answers 204.

Try it yourself

import express from 'express';
import { randomBytes } from 'node:crypto';
import { parseCookies } from './cookies.js';
import { notes, sessions, users } from './db.js';
import { hashPassword, verifyPassword } from './passwords.js';

const app = express();
app.use(express.json());

app.post('/signup', async (req, res) => {
    const username = String(req.body.username ?? '').trim().toLowerCase();
    const password = String(req.body.password ?? '');
    if (!username || password.length < 8) {
        return res.status(400).json({ error: 'Pick a username and a password of at least 8 characters' });
    }
    if (await users.findOne({ username })) {
        return res.status(409).json({ error: 'That username is taken' });
    }
    await users.insertOne({ username, passwordHash: await hashPassword(password) });
    res.status(201).json({ username });
});

app.post('/login', async (req, res) => {
    const username = String(req.body.username ?? '').trim().toLowerCase();
    const user = await users.findOne({ username });
    if (!user || !(await verifyPassword(String(req.body.password ?? ''), user.passwordHash))) {
        return res.status(401).json({ error: 'Wrong username or password' });
    }
    const sid = randomBytes(24).toString('base64url');
    await sessions.insertOne({ _id: sid, userId: user._id, createdAt: new Date() });
    res.cookie('sid', sid, { httpOnly: true });
    res.json({ username: user.username });
});

// Finds the user of the session cookie, or answers 401.
async function requireUser(req, res, next) {
    const { sid } = parseCookies(req.get('cookie'));
    const session = sid && (await sessions.findOne({ _id: sid }));
    const user = session && (await users.findOne({ _id: session.userId }));
    if (!user) {
        return res.status(401).json({ error: 'Log in first' });
    }
    req.user = { id: user._id.toHexString(), username: user.username };
    next();
}

app.get('/me', requireUser, (req, res) => {
    res.json({ username: req.user.username });
});

// Counts how many times this browser has called GET /visit.
app.get('/visit', (req, res) => {
    const cookies = parseCookies(req.get('cookie'));
    const visits = Number(cookies.visits ?? 0) + 1;
    res.cookie('visits', String(visits));
    res.json({ visits });
});

// Notes: each user reads and writes only their own.
app.get('/notes', requireUser, async (req, res) => {
    res.json(await notes.find({ owner: req.user.id }).toArray());
});

app.post('/notes', requireUser, async (req, res) => {
    const note = { owner: req.user.id, text: String(req.body.text ?? '') };
    await notes.insertOne(note);
    res.status(201).json(note);
});

app.listen(3000, () => {
    console.log('Vault is running on port 3000');
});