Token Expiry

Part of the Auth and Security section of Coddy's Node.js journey. Lesson 12 of 17.

A server cannot take a token back: nothing is stored, so a stolen one works until it expires. Keep tokens short-lived, minutes rather than days, and let the client ask for a new one.

jwtVerify already refuses a token whose exp has passed. It throws errors.JWTExpired, so you can tell an expired token from a forged one and say so: a client that reads Token expired knows to log in again.

import { errors, jwtVerify } from 'jose';

try {
    await jwtVerify(inviteToken, inviteKey);
} catch (err) {
    if (err instanceof errors.JWTExpired) {
        return res.status(410).json({ error: 'This invite has run out' });
    }
    return res.status(400).json({ error: 'Not a real invite' });
}

Challenge

Easy

Tokens from POST /token expire after 15 minutes.
An expired token answers 401 { "error": "Token expired" }.
Every other bad or missing token still answers 401 { "error": "Log in first" }.

Get a token and read its exp with GET /inspect.

Try it yourself

import express from 'express';
import { SignJWT, decodeJwt, jwtVerify } from 'jose';
import { users } from './db.js';
import { hashPassword, verifyPassword } from './passwords.js';

const secret = new TextEncoder().encode(process.env.JWT_SECRET);

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' });
    }
    res.json({ username: user.username });
});

app.post('/token', 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 token = await new SignJWT({ username: user.username })
        .setProtectedHeader({ alg: 'HS256' })
        .setSubject(user._id.toHexString())
        .setIssuedAt()
        .setExpirationTime('1h')
        .sign(secret);
    res.json({ token });
});

// Checks the token in the Authorization header, or answers 401.
async function requireUser(req, res, next) {
    const token = (req.get('authorization') ?? '').replace(/^Bearer /, '');
    let payload;
    try {
        ({ payload } = await jwtVerify(token, secret));
    } catch {
        return res.status(401).json({ error: 'Log in first' });
    }
    req.user = { id: payload.sub, username: payload.username };
    next();
}

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

// Shows what a token says: GET /inspect?token=...
app.get('/inspect', (req, res) => {
    try {
        res.json(decodeJwt(String(req.query.token ?? '')));
    } catch {
        res.status(400).json({ error: 'Not a JWT' });
    }
});

// The admin page. No claim can be trusted before its signature is checked.
app.get('/admin', (req, res) => {
    res.status(403).json({ error: 'Admins only' });
});

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