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JWT auth process - frontend part

Im making a user authorization process with JWT tokens.
How does the flow look like?
User logs in - gets an access token and a refresh token from a server, as a response
Access token comes in json body and is saved in local storage. Refresh token comes in a httpOnly cookie.
User can use getAllUsers method untill access token is valid.
Whenever getAllUsers method returns 401 unauthorized (when access token expires), there is a request being sent to refresh token endpoint - getRefreshToken, which returns new access token that is being saved to local storage
Refresh token expires and user is being logged out.
Whole flow in Postman works but i have got problem at frontend side.
Function getAllUsers works until access token expires.
Thats why I made a global function in a util file that checks if a response is 401 and if so, it sends a request to get a new access token and calls a function which returned that error.
However it does not work.
I think that the problem is in getAllUsers function which immediately goes to catch block (when cant fetch list of users because of 401) and does not invoke that global function from util file. Console logs from both functions (getDataFromResponse, getRefreshToken) does not work so it does not even get there.
Any ideas??
API utils file
import { AxiosResponse } from "axios";
import { apiService } from "./api.service";
type ApiServiceMethods = keyof typeof apiService;
export const getDataFromResponse = async (
response: AxiosResponse,
funName: ApiServiceMethods,
...args: any
): Promise<any> => {
if (response.status === 401) {
console.log("error");
await apiService.getRefreshToken();
return await apiService[funName](args);
}
return response.data;
};
API Service:
import { getDataFromResponse } from "./api.utils";
import axios from "./axios";
type LoginArgs = {
password: string;
username: string;
};
const apiServiceDef = () => {
const login = async (args: LoginArgs) => {
try {
const response = await axios.post("/login", {
username: args.username,
password: args.password,
});
const { data } = response;
const { token } = data;
localStorage.setItem("accessToken", token);
return response;
} catch (e) {
throw new Error("Custom");
}
};
/* problem here */
const getAllUsers = async () => {
const Token = localStorage.getItem("accessToken");
try {
const response = await axios.get("/users", {
headers: {
Token,
},
});
return await getDataFromResponse(response, "getAllUsers");
} catch (e) {
console.log(e);
}
};
/* problem here */
const getRefreshToken = async () => {
try {
console.log("fetch new access token");
const response = await axios.get("/refreshToken");
if (response.status === 401) {
localStorage.removeItem("accessToken");
throw new Error("TokenExpiredError");
}
const { data } = response;
const { token } = data
localStorage.setItem("accessToken", token);
return response;
} catch (e) {
console.log(e);
}
};
return { login, getRefreshToken, getAllUsers };
};
export const apiService = apiServiceDef();

I usually use a wrapper around the async functions or just use axios interceptors (https://stackoverflow.com/a/47216863/11787903). Be sure that err.response.status is right property, not sure about that, but this solution should work for you.
const asyncWrapper = async (handler) => {
try {
return handler()
} catch (err) {
if (err.response.status === 401) {
// refresh token then again call handler
await refreshToken()
return handler()
}
}
}
const getAllUsers = asyncWrapper(() => {
const Token = localStorage.getItem("accessToken");
return axios.get("/users", {
headers: {
Token,
},
});
});

Is it possible to access token in service-worker fetch request headers?

I want to send a GET request including a token "Authorization" header to my nodejs server. For this, I use this function client-side:
// Do a secured GET API request and return response object
async function getJSON(url) {
try {
// Send request
const res = await fetch(url, {
headers: { Authorization: localStorage.getItem('token') }
});
// If something went wrong
if (!res.ok) {
// If token is invalid
if (res.status === 401) {
// Logout
localStorage.removeItem('token');
location.replace(`/?msg=${dict.get('expired-session')}`);
}
// Return an object with error message and status code
return { error: res.statusText, status: res.status };
}
// Else return response object
else return await res.json();
} catch (err) {
// Return an object with error message
return { error: err.message };
}
}
It works fine, but I use a service worker to cache requests as they are made and I don't want API requests to be cached, so I though I could just check for the "Authorization"'s presence:
// Fetch event
self.addEventListener('fetch', e => e.respondWith(respond(e)));
async function fetchAndCache(req, cache_name) {
const { url, headers } = req;
console.log({ url, headers });
// Fetch request
const fetch_res = await fetch(req);
const is_get = req.method === 'GET';
const is_api = req.headers.Authorization;
const is_cahing_domain = cache_domains.some(domain => req.url.includes(domain));
if (is_cahing_domain && is_get && !is_api) {
// Open cache and save a cloned result
const cache = await caches.open(cache_name);
cache.put(req, fetch_res.clone());
}
return fetch_res;
}
async function respond(e) {
if (!use_cache) return fetch(e.request);
// Try to get response from cache
const cached_res = await caches.match(e.request);
// If response is found, return it
if (cached_res) return cached_res;
// If request is not found, try to fetch it
return await fetchAndCache(e.request, 'main');
}
Unfortunately, the logs show empty headers:
Even though the server does get the token and the cached (since the condition does not work) request also includes it:
I searched for a few hours, tried every solutions in similar questions (here and here) but none worked. Please help.

I don't know about Authorization header. But the right way to print headers is via method 2. It seems like you are using method 1.
console.log("Try 1 to print headers.");
console.log(request.headers);
console.log("Try 2 to print headers.")
for (const pair of event.request.headers.entries()) {
console.log(pair[0]+ ': '+ pair[1]);
}
Console logs

Headers {} does not mean that the header is empty. It means that it contains an object which is not printed in detail in your console.
You can access the Authorization header as follow:
console.log('AuthorizationHeader is:',headers.get('Authorization'))

Problem with JWT Refresh Token Flow with axios/axios-auth-refresh

(I've read a number of similar questions here, and most/all have said to use a different axios instance for the refresh token requests (versus the API requests). However, I'm not clear on how that would work, since I am using axios-auth-refresh for auto-refreshing the access tokens.)
I'm working on an app with a JWT-based authentication flow for back-end API requests. The general flow is working fine; upon login the user gets a long-term refresh token and short-term access token. Using the axios-auth-refresh plug-in for axios, I am able to auto-refresh the access token when it has expired.
My problem is, when the refresh token expires, I am not able to catch the error and redirect the user to re-authenticate. Nothing I've tried catches the error. The (current) code for the auto-refresh hook is:
const refreshAuth = (failed) =>
axios({ method: "post", url: "token", skipAuthRefresh: true })
.then(({ status, data: { success, accessToken } }) => {
console.warn(`status=${status}`);
if (!success) Promise.reject(failed);
processToken(accessToken);
// eslint-disable-next-line no-param-reassign
failed.response.config.headers.Authorization = `Bearer ${accessToken}`;
return Promise.resolve();
})
.catch((error) => console.error("%o", error));
createAuthRefreshInterceptor(axios, refreshAuth);
In cases of the refresh token being stale or missing, I see neither the status=xxx console line nor the dump of an error object in the catch() block.
The actual file this is in is on GitHub here, though it is slightly different than the working version above. Mainly, in the GH version the hook calls axios.post("token").then(...) where above I'm making a more explicit call to add the skipAuthRefresh parameter. Adding that got me more detailed error traces in the console, but I am still not catching the 401 response via the catch().
I've tried everything I can think of... anything jump out as something I'm missing?
Randy
(Edited to ensure the GitHub link points to the version of the file that has the issue.)

Since posting this, I have managed to work through the problem and come up with a working solution.
The key to the solution does in fact lie in using a different axios instance for the calls to renew the refresh token. I created a second module to encapsulate a second axios instance that would not get the interceptor created by the axios-auth-refresh module. After working around some inadvertent circular-dependency issues that this initially caused, I reached a point where I could see the exception being thrown by axios when the refresh token itself is stale or missing.
(Interestingly, this led to another problem: once I recognized that the refresh token was no longer valid, I needed to log the user out and have them return to the login screen. Because the application this is in is a React application, the authentication was being handled with custom hooks, which can only be called within a component. However, I had abstracted all the API calls into a non-React module so that I could encapsulate things like the addition of the Authorization header, the base URL, etc. At that level I could not run the auth hook to get access to the logout logic. I solved this by putting a default onError handler on the query object (a react-query object) that I use for all the API calls.)

I built upon the Request class from this SO answer to refresh the token and handle the refresh failures.
Now my Request looks like this:
import axios from "axios";
import {getLocalStorageToken, logOut, refreshToken} from "./authentication";
class Request {
ADD_AUTH_CONFIG_HEADER = 'addAuth'
constructor() {
this.baseURL = process.env.REACT_APP_USER_ROUTE;
this.isRefreshing = false;
this.failedRequests = [];
this.axios = axios.create({
baseURL: process.env.REACT_APP_USER_ROUTE,
headers: {
clientSecret: this.clientSecret,
},
});
this.beforeRequest = this.beforeRequest.bind(this);
this.onRequestFailure = this.onRequestFailure.bind(this);
this.processQueue = this.processQueue.bind(this);
this.axios.interceptors.request.use(this.beforeRequest);//<- Intercepting request to add token
this.axios.interceptors.response.use(this.onRequestSuccess,
this.onRequestFailure);// <- Intercepting 401 failures
}
beforeRequest(request) {
if (request.headers[this.ADD_AUTH_CONFIG_HEADER] === true) {
delete request.headers[this.ADD_AUTH_CONFIG_HEADER];
const token = getLocalStorageToken();//<- replace getLocalStorageToken with your own way to retrieve your current token
request.headers.Authorization = `Bearer ${token}`;
}
return request;
}
onRequestSuccess(response) {
return response.data;
}
async onRequestFailure(err) {
console.error('Request failed', err)
const {response} = err;
const originalRequest = err.config;
if (response.status === 401 && err && originalRequest && !originalRequest.__isRetryRequest) {
if (this.isRefreshing) {
try {
const token = await new Promise((resolve, reject) => {//<- Queuing new request while token is refreshing and waiting until they get resolved
this.failedRequests.push({resolve, reject});
});
originalRequest.headers.Authorization = `Bearer ${token}`;
return this.axios(originalRequest);
} catch (e) {
return e;
}
}
this.isRefreshing = true;
originalRequest.__isRetryRequest = true;
console.log('Retrying request')
console.log('Previous token', getLocalStorageToken())
try {
const newToken = await refreshToken()//<- replace refreshToken with your own method to get a new token (async)
console.log('New token', newToken)
originalRequest.headers.Authorization = `Bearer ${newToken}`;
this.isRefreshing = false;
this.processQueue(null, newToken);
return this.axios(originalRequest)
} catch (err) {
console.error('Error refreshing the token, logging out', err);
await logOut();//<- your logout function (clean token)
this.processQueue(err, null);
throw response;//<- return the response to check on component layer whether response.status === 401 and push history to log in screen
}
}
throw response;
}
processQueue(error, token = null) {
this.failedRequests.forEach((prom) => {
if (error) {
prom.reject(error);
} else {
prom.resolve(token);
}
});
this.failedRequests = [];
}
}
const request = new Request();
export default request;

My problem is, when the refresh token expires, I am not able to catch
the error and redirect the user to re-authenticate. Nothing I've tried
catches the error. The (current) code for the auto-refresh hook is:
What is the return code from your api if the access token expired ?
if it is different than 401 (default) you need to configure, see exanoke 403:
createAuthRefreshInterceptor(axios, refreshAuthLogic, {
statusCodes: [ 401, 403 ] // default: [ 401 ]
});

JWT Authorization with Axios and Vue.js (Header)

I'm still pretty new to web development, so I apologize in advance if the solution is obvious or my question is asked poorly.
So: I would like to use JWT to authenticate my users. I use axios, vue.js and of course JWT. I would like to access a secure route:
router.post('/secureroute', checkAuth, (req, res) => {
res.status(200).json({
message: 'all ok'
})
});
In order to do so, I use this check-auth.js:
const jwt = require('jsonwebtoken');
module.exports = (req, res, next) => {
try {
const token = req.headers.authorization.split(" ")[1];
console.log(token);
const decoded = jwt.verify(token, process.env.SECRET_KEY);
next();
} catch (error) {
return res.status(401).json({
message: 'Auth failed'
})
}
next();
}
part of my Login.vue:
methods: {
login() {
if (!this.username) this.alertUsername = true;
if (!this.password) this.alertPassword = true;
axios
.post("/user/login", {
username: this.username,
password: this.password
})
.then(res => {
localStorage.setItem("usertoken", res.data.token);
if (res.data.token) {
console.log("Success");
router.push({ name: "start" });
} else {
this.alertWrong = true;
}
this.username = "";
this.password = "";
})
.catch(err => {
console.log(err);
});
this.emitMethod();
}
Using postman with an authorization header, everything seems to work fine. But after hours of searching the Internet and trying things out, I simply do not know how to make it work with the real website. I would like to pass the JWT as an authorization-header. I know that it is possible with axios, but I really don't know how I can do so in my example here.

You've got your login flow, and you are storing the usertoken in localStorage as the usertoken key. You also verified that your requests are processed correctly if the authorization header is set.
The easiest way to work with api requests is by abstracting axios a bit more, to automatically add the authorization token, and maybe pre-process the response you get back. For example, you may want to handle some errors globally instead of on a case-by-case basis, or want to transform the request into something that is always the same.
You first want to make some abstraction that calls axios.request. You can pass it a configuration object as described here. What's most important for you right now is the headers key-value pair, but you may want to expand this in the future.
export default request (config) {
const userToken = window.localStorage.getItem('usertoken');
const requestConfig = { ...config };
if (!requestConfig.headers) {
requestConfig.headers = {};
}
if (userToken) {
requestConfig.headers.authorization = `Bearer ${userToken}`;
}
return axios.request(requestConfig);
}
Now we can expand on that:
export default post (url, data = {}, config = {}) {
return request({
...config,
method: 'POST'
url,
data
});
}
When inspecting the request in your developer console you should now see that, if the user token is correctly set in localStorage, you have an extra header in your request that is sent to the server.

Wrap javascript fetch to add custom functionality

I would like to know if it is possible to do this, because I'm not sure if I'm wrong or if it isn't possible. Basically, what I want to do is to create a wrap function for native fetch javascript function. This wrap function would implement token validation process, requesting a new accessToken if the one given is expired and requesting again the desired resource. This is what I've reached until now:
customFetch.js
// 'url' and 'options' parameters are used strictely as you would use them in fetch. 'authOptions' are used to configure the call to refresh the access token
window.customFetch = (url, options, authOptions) => {
const OPTIONS = {
url: '',
unauthorizedRedirect: '',
storage: window.sessionStorage,
tokenName: 'accessToken'
}
// Merge options passed by user with the default auth options
let opts = Object.assign({}, OPTIONS, authOptions);
// Try to update 'authorizarion's header in order to send always the proper one to the server
options.headers = options.headers || {};
options.headers['Authorization'] = `Bearer ${opts.storage.getItem(opts.tokenName)}`;
// Actual server request that user wants to do.
const request = window.fetch(url, options)
.then((d) => {
if (d.status === 401) {
// Unauthorized
console.log('not authorized');
return refreshAccesToken();
}
else {
return d.json();
}
});
// Auxiliar server call to get refresh the access token if it is expired. Here also check if the
// cookie has expired and if it has expired, then we should redirect to other page to login again in
// the application.
const refreshAccesToken = () => {
window.fetch(opts.url, {
method: 'get',
credentials: 'include'
}).then((d) => {
// For this example, we can omit this, we can suppose we always receive the access token
if (d.status === 401) {
// Unauthorized and the cookie used to validate and refresh the access token has expired. So we want to login in to the app again
window.location.href = opts.unauthorizedRedirect;
}
return d.json();
}).then((json) => {
const jwt = json.token;
if (jwt) {
// Store in the browser's storage (sessionStorage by default) the refreshed token, in order to use it on every request
opts.storage.setItem(opts.tokenName, jwt);
console.log('new acces token: ' + jwt);
// Re-send the original request when we have received the refreshed access token.
return window.customFetch(url, options, authOptions);
}
else {
console.log('no token has been sent');
return null;
}
});
}
return request;
}
consumer.js
const getResourcePrivate = () => {
const url = MAIN_URL + '/resource';
customFetch(url, {
method: 'get'
},{
url: AUTH_SERVER_TOKEN,
unauthorizedRedirect: AUTH_URI,
tokenName: TOKEN_NAME
}).then((json) => {
const resource = json ? json.resource : null;
if (resource) {
console.log(resource);
}
else {
console.log('No resource has been provided.');
}
});
}
I'll try to explain a little better the above code: I want to make transparent for users the token validation, in order to let them just worry about to request the resource they want. This approach is working fine when the accessToken is still valid, because the return request instruction is giving to the consumer the promise of the fetch request.
Of course, when the accessToken has expired and we request a new one to auth server, this is not working. The token is refreshed and the private resource is requested, but the consumer.js doesn't see it.
For this last scenario, is it possible to modify the flow of the program, in order to refresh the accessToken and perform the server call to get the private resource again? The consumer shouldn't realize about this process; in both cases (accessToken is valid and accessToken has expired and has been refreshed) the consumer.js should get the private requested resource in its then function.

Well, finally I've reached a solution. I've tried to resolve it using a Promise and it has work. Here is the approach for customFetch.js file:
window.customFetch = (url, options, authOptions) => {
const OPTIONS = {
url: '',
unauthorizedRedirect: '',
storage: window.sessionStorage,
tokenName: 'accessToken'
}
// Merge options passed by user with the default auth options
let opts = Object.assign({}, OPTIONS, authOptions);
const requestResource = (resolve) => {
// Try to update 'authorizarion's header in order to send always the proper one to the server
options.headers = options.headers || {};
options.headers['Authorization'] = `Bearer ${opts.storage.getItem(opts.tokenName)}`;
window.fetch(url, options)
.then((d) => {
if (d.status === 401) {
// Unauthorized
console.log('not authorized');
return refreshAccesToken(resolve);
}
else {
resolve(d.json());
}
});
}
// Auxiliar server call to get refresh the access token if it is expired. Here also check if the
// cookie has expired and if it has expired, then we should redirect to other page to login again in
// the application.
const refreshAccesToken = (resolve) => {
window.fetch(opts.url, {
method: 'get',
credentials: 'include'
}).then((d) => {
if (d.status === 401) {
// Unauthorized
window.location.href = opts.unauthorizedRedirect;
}
return d.json();
}).then((json) => {
const jwt = json.token;
if (jwt) {
// Store in the browser's storage (sessionStorage by default) the refreshed token, in order to use it on every request
opts.storage.setItem(opts.tokenName, jwt);
console.log('new acces token: ' + jwt);
// Re-send the original request when we have received the refreshed access token.
requestResource(resolve);
}
else {
console.log('no token has been sent');
return null;
}
});
}
let promise = new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
requestResource(resolve);
});
return promise;
}
Basically, I've created a Promise and I've called inside it to the function which calls to server to get the resource. I've modified a little the request(now called requestResource) and refreshAccessToken in order to make them parametrizable functions. And I've passed to them the resolve function in order to "resolve" any function once I've received the new token.
Probably the solution can be improved and optimized, but as first approach, it is working as I expected, so I think it's a valid solution.
EDIT: As #Dennis has suggested me, I made a mistake in my initial approach. I just had to return the promise inside the refreshAccessToken function, and it would worked fine. This is how the customFetch.js file should look (which is more similar to the code I first posted. In fact, I've just added a return instruction inside the function, although removing the start and end brackets would work too):
// 'url' and 'options' parameters are used strictely as you would use them in fetch. 'authOptions' are used to configure the call to refresh the access token
window.customFetch = (url, options, authOptions) => {
const OPTIONS = {
url: '',
unauthorizedRedirect: '',
storage: window.sessionStorage,
tokenName: 'accessToken'
}
// Merge options passed by user with the default auth options
let opts = Object.assign({}, OPTIONS, authOptions);
// Try to update 'authorizarion's header in order to send always the proper one to the server
options.headers = options.headers || {};
options.headers['Authorization'] = `Bearer ${opts.storage.getItem(opts.tokenName)}`;
// Actual server request that user wants to do.
const request = window.fetch(url, options)
.then((d) => {
if (d.status === 401) {
// Unauthorized
console.log('not authorized');
return refreshAccesToken();
}
else {
return d.json();
}
});
// Auxiliar server call to get refresh the access token if it is expired. Here also check if the
// cookie has expired and if it has expired, then we should redirect to other page to login again in
// the application.
const refreshAccesToken = () => {
return window.fetch(opts.url, {
method: 'get',
credentials: 'include'
}).then((d) => {
// For this example, we can omit this, we can suppose we always receive the access token
if (d.status === 401) {
// Unauthorized and the cookie used to validate and refresh the access token has expired. So we want to login in to the app again
window.location.href = opts.unauthorizedRedirect;
}
return d.json();
}).then((json) => {
const jwt = json.token;
if (jwt) {
// Store in the browser's storage (sessionStorage by default) the refreshed token, in order to use it on every request
opts.storage.setItem(opts.tokenName, jwt);
console.log('new acces token: ' + jwt);
// Re-send the original request when we have received the refreshed access token.
return window.customFetch(url, options, authOptions);
}
else {
console.log('no token has been sent');
return null;
}
});
}
return request;
}