byu-jwt

This package provides helpful functions for using validating and using BYU's JWTs.

Requires Node 8 or above

Table of Contents

• Migrate from v1 to v2
• Migrate from v2 to v3
• API
  • Constructor
  • Authenticate
  • Authenticate University API Middleware
  • Decode JWT
  • Get OpenID Configuration
  • Get Pem
  • Verify JWT
  • Cache Time to Live
  • Static Constants
• Testing

Migrate from v1 to v2

• Update to Node 8 or above

Migrate from v2 to v3

• getPublicKey has been removed - If you were using it, look into the new getPem function
• Ensure that the openssl shipped with your version of Node supports the algorithms you need - We're now using that instead of expecting an openssl executable to be found on the system.
  • This is probably a non-issue because our JWTs have been using RSA-256, which openssl has supported for years.

API

Constructor

ByuJWT ([ options ])

Parameters

• options - An object that defines the options for this instance of the byu-jwt library:

Option	Description	Default
basePath	A string that the JWT's API context must begin with. This validates that the JWT came from a server that starts with this path.	""
cacheTTL	The number of minutes to cache the OpenID configuration for.	10
development	A boolean then when set to true will bypass JWT validation. This cannot be set to true when the NODE_ENV environment variable is set to "production". Also, when set to true expect to see a lot of warning message on your console.	false
host	The host of the issuing oauth provider. If this option is specified, the OpenID Configuration URL will be constructed for you, according to the OpenID Configuration Specification.	api.byu.edu
openIdConfigUrl	The OpenID Configuration URL (AKA Well-known URL). If this is specified, it will override the host option.

Returns an instance of the ByuJWT

Authenticate

Check the headers to see if the requester is authenticated.

ByuJWT.prototype.authenticate ( headers )

Parameters

• headers - An object representing the header names and values. This method is looking specifically for two headers:

  1. x-jwt-assertion is a header that contains the JWT for the current client.

  2. x-jwt-assertion-original is a header that contains the JWT for the original requester. This value should be set if a client is making an authenticated request on behalf of a different client.

Returns a promise that, if authenticated, resolves to an object with some of these properties:

• current - The current client's decoded JWT.

• original - The original client's decoded JWT. This property may not be defined.

• originalJWT - The JWT string provided by the original requester, or if that doesn't exist then of the current client.

• claims - A decoded JWT's primary claim, prioritized in this order:

  1. Original resource owner
  2. Current resource owner
  3. Original client
  4. Current client

Authenticate University API Middleware

A middleware that will check if the request has authentication and will either add the property verifiedJWTs to the request or will respond to the request with a 401 or 500 response code.

ByuJWT.prototype.authenticateUAPIMiddleware

Parameters

• req - The request object.

• res - The response object.

• next - The next function.

Returns undefined

const express = require('express')
const byuJwt = require('byu-jwt')()

const app = express()

app.use(byuJwt.authenticateUAPIMiddleware)

const listener = app.listen(3000, err => {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err.stack)
  } else {
    console.log('Server listening on port ' + listener.address().port)
  }
})

Decode JWT

Verify and decode a JWT.

ByuJWT.prototype.decodeJWT ( jwt )

Parameters

• jwt - A JWT string to validate and decode.

Returns a promise that, if valid, resolves to an object with these properties:

• client - An object that contains the client claims. It has the following properties: byuId, claimSource, netId , personId, preferredFirstName, prefix, restofName, sortName, subscriberNetId, suffix, surname , surnamePosition

• claims - The primary claims object, prefering resource owner first and client second.

• raw - The raw claims aquired by validating the JWT.

• resourceOwner - The resource owner claims (if a resource owner is defined). It has the following properties: byuId , netId, personId, preferredFirstName, prefix, restofName, sortName, suffix, surname , surnamePosition

• wso2- Claims specific to WSO2.It has the following properties: apiContext, application.id, application.name , application.tier, clientId, endUser, endUserTenantId, keyType, subscriber, tier, userType, version

Get OpenId Configuration

Get the OpenID configuration from the well known url.

ByuJWT.prototype.getOpenIdConfiguration ()

Parameters None

Returns a promise that resolves to the OpenID configuration.

OpenId Configuration URL

Exposes the OpenID Configuration URL, according to the OpenID specification. It is created based on the host parameter given in the constructor or will be overridden by the openIdConfigUrl parameter.

ByuJWT.prototype.openIdConfigUrl

Get Pem

DEPRECATED

Avoid use of this function because it may not always return the certificate you're hoping for.

Get the certificate for the OpenID configuration, in .pem format.

ByuJWT.prototype.getPem ()

Parameters None

Returns a promise that resolves to the first certificate pem string.

Verify JWT

Check to see if a JWT is valid.

ByuJWT.prototype.verifyJWT ( jwt )

Parameters

• jwt - A JWT string to verify.

Returns a promise that resolves to a boolean.

Cache Time to Live

Get or set the cache time to live. The cache only affects how often the OpenID configuration is redownloaded.

const byuJwt = require('byu-jwt')()
byuJWT.cacheTTL = 15                    // set cache to 15 minutes

Static Constants

The following properties are accessible on the ByuJWT object without needing an instantiated object.

• BYU_JWT_HEADER_CURRENT - The header name for the current JWT.

• BYU_JWT_HEADER_ORIGINAL - The header name for the original JWT.

• AuthenticationError - A reference to the AuthenticationError constructor.

• JsonWebTokenError - A reference to the JsonWebTokenError constructor.

• NotBeforeError - A reference to the NotBeforeError constructor.

• TokenExpiredError - A reference to the TokenExpiredError constructor.

DEPRECATED

• WELL_KNOWN_URL - A reference to the BYU OpenID Configuration URL. It will be removed in the next major version. Use ByuJWT.prototype.openIdConfigUrl instead.

const ByuJWT = require('byu-jwt')
console.log(ByuJWT.BYU_JWT_HEADER_CURRENT)  // "x-jwt-assertion"

Testing

To test this library:

1. Run npm install

2. Set the TOKEN environment variable

3. Run npm test