I am hearing continously token name of different type. Can anybody explain me different type of token with some example.
Access token
Refresh token
Oauth Token
Bearer token
JWT token.
Please forgive me if my question is incorrect. I am highly consfused so looking for the answer.
Right, terminology can be very confusing. OAuth2 is the protocol to allow a client to get an access token to access the user's data on a resource server. The protocol is token agnostic (meaning it does not specify how the token looks). So OAuth token and access token are used interchangeably.
Often, the access token used in the protocol is a structured token in the JSON Web Token (JWT) format. It contains claims (name-value pairs) with info about the user and authentication that the resource server can use.
A bearer token is any token that can be used as the sole way of authenticating. If you have the token, you get access as the user for which it was issued. Nothing else required. OAuth2 typically uses bearer tokens, although some holder-of-key tokens (where you need to prove you acquired the token by signing something) are being added to the protocol. JWT tokens are usually bearer tokens.
Refresh tokens are used in some OAuth2 protocol flows to allow the client to get a new access token when the issued one expires without asking the user to log in again. They are typically just an identifier to some row in the data store of the authorization server.
Related
I'm learning about access tokens and refresh tokens. I understand...
An access token is an artifact that proves the user has been authorized to access a resource and allows a client application to perform specific actions on behalf of the user.
A refresh token is an artifact that lets a client application get new access tokens without having to ask the user to log in again.
I don't understand the following paragraph from this JWT book:
The key aspect of the separation between access and refresh tokens lies in the possibility of making access tokens easy to validate. An access token that carries a signature (such as a signed JWT) may be validated by the resource server on its own. There is no need to contact the authorization server for this purpose. Refresh tokens, on the other hand, require access to the authorization server.
The text is referring to the following image:
What exactly does "validate" mean here? How can the resource server validate the access token on its own? If the authorization server generates the access token, which it does in this case, isn't the authorization server required to validate the access token?
The only thing I can think of is that the resource server has a copy of the key used to sign the access token (see here). If so, doesn't that render the authorization server redundant?
JSON Web Tokens can be validated because, as you guess correctly, the resource server will have beforehand the public key of the private key that was used to sign that token. It means, that if someone in the middle tried to tamper the JWT, the validation will fail and the JWT should not be processed.
Also, the JWT contains fields as the expiration time that can be checked by the resource to understand if the token is still valid or not.
I read something like this:
1-Once a user logs in, you can generate a token and store it in MySQL database and share the same token with the response of login API.
2-Store the token using shared-preferences.
3-When a user opens the app, check if the token exists if it does, then send the token with all the APIs inside the request header which requires the user to be logged in.
But what is the point of using token if i was keeping it in database.Eventually this token related with userid and with this userid everthing can be reachable.So I want to ask why should I use some token to keep user loged in instead of user email or something.
Using token is much more secure and useable. Storing just token more secure becase in case of leak, the token can be revoked or something. On the other side storing user's username and password is security risk. Also, most of the services use tokens on their API's and there is no username+pass authorization. For example whole OAuth2 concept is built on top of this. In short, tokens are much more secure and flexible.
Optimal usage of bearer token using as a set with an access token and refresh token. While you are passing access token on header while you are making HTTP request typically access token dies frequently especially when security is a prominent feature of the app, like banking apps. When a user makes an HTTP request and if the access token is dead then you should refresh it via another API call with the refresh token and return the same API call with the new access token.
I've been developing my first REST API to serve as the back-end for a mobile application. I'm pulling info from different resources, and am a little confused when it comes to the token implementation (I'm using JWT).
The access token is used to ensure that the requester has access to the resource that is being called. My understanding is that I will then encode the user details in the ID Token, such that the relevant information can be returned. The refresh token is used as a security mechanism, to keep the user authenticated after the short-lived ID and access tokens expire.
The access token seems a little redundant, and maybe it is an interchangeable term for ID token? Can I just remove that part from my authentication scheme?
In the proposed scheme access and ID tokens are used interchangeably and do not provide any value over the other. All information provided in the access token can be stored in the ID token, or vice versa. The entire authentication scheme will then simply consist of an access token (containing both info on access permissions, and user info), and a refresh token (ensuring that users don't need to login again every t minutes).
I receive two JWTs: an OpenID Connect ID token (id_token) and an Access Token (access_token). The situation with OpenID is more or less clear - I can validate it using a JWKS Endpoint: https://smth.com/JWKS.
as in example (https://bitbucket.org/b_c/jose4j/wiki/JWT%20Examples):
HttpsJwks httpsJkws = new HttpsJwks("https://smth.com/JWKS");
HttpsJwksVerificationKeyResolver httpsJwksKeyResolver = new HttpsJwksVerificationKeyResolver(httpsJkws);
jwtConsumer = new JwtConsumerBuilder()
.setVerificationKeyResolver(httpsJwksKeyResolver)
.setExpectedAudience(...)
.setExpectedIssuer(...)
.build();
The question is how to proceed with the Access Token. I can extract from it the userId and userDetails, but I guess I need also to validate it?
If I try to validate the Access Token the same as for the ID Token, I am getting this error:
UnresolvableKeyException: Unable to find a suitable verification key for JWS w/ header {"alg" : "RS256", "kid":"1"}
And indeed there is no key for "kid" : "1", Also this value "1" seems kind of strange?
Am I doing something totally wrong?
It sounds like you are implementing the role of OpenID Connect client or Relying Party. The two tokens, ID token and access token, serve different purposes and should be handled differently by the client. The ID token is intended for the client and enables authentication of the end-user at the client. The client must validate the ID token (verify the signature and validate claims like exp and aud, etc.) before allowing the end-user in. The access token, however, is for the client to use to access resources or APIs but is not directly intended for the client to consume or validate. The access token is opaque to the client and the client shouldn't care or know about its details. In fact, access tokens aren't always JWTs. In OpenID Connect, the access token is used to call the user info endpoint (with the HTTP header, Authorization: Bearer [access token]) to get more claims/info about the end-user.
The value of "1" for the kid is totally legal but it is referring to a key that the AS/OP and the user info endpoint know about somehow. It is not a key at the OpenID Connect JWKS endpoint. "1" isn't a key that the client needs to know about because the client isn't supposed to directly verify the access token.
I am reading this blog on how OAuth2 works. It is an excellent source and I guess I have understood the basics of how OAuth2 works.
when reading about Authorization grant, that involves granting access to the Application server (my server) which exchanges the authorization code it received from authorization sever (eg facebook) through the redirect URI registered.
myserver then exchanges this authorization code for access_token and refresh token. when the access token is expired, refresh token is used to get a new access token.
Q1) From this flow, I see that the authorization code given by facebook is used only once from my server to get the access_token. For subsequent requests, this authorization code is not used. Is this correct ?
If the user log-in to my server after 3 days during which the access token has expired, my server will use refresh token to get a new access token and use this access token.
Q2) Does the refresh token expire or each time a refresh token is used to get a new access token, a new refresh token is provided?
Q1) RFC6749, Section 4.1.2 Authorization Response: The client MUST NOT use the authorization code more than once.
Q2) RFC6749, Section 6 Refreshing an Access Token: The authorization server MAY issue a new refresh token, in which case the client MUST discard the old refresh token and replace it with the new refresh token.