Cannot validate token in UseJwtBearerAuthentication. Authorization has been denied

Question

Using a single asp.net(4.6.1) web project, apparently I'm unable to validate the jwt token that was generated on the same server.
Startup.cs:

        var secret = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("12341234123412341234");
        var jwtFormatter = new CustomJwtFormat("Any", "local", secret);

        // This part checks the tokens
        app.UseJwtBearerAuthentication(new JwtBearerAuthenticationOptions
        {
            AuthenticationType = DefaultAuthenticationTypes.ExternalBearer,
            AuthenticationMode = AuthenticationMode.Active, // Block requests
            AllowedAudiences = new []{"Any"},
            TokenValidationParameters = new TokenValidationParameters
            {
                IssuerSigningKey = new InMemorySymmetricSecurityKey(secret),
                ValidAudience = "Any",
                ValidIssuer = "local"
            }
        });
        
        // This part issues tokens
        app.UseOAuthAuthorizationServer(new OAuthAuthorizationServerOptions
        {
            AllowInsecureHttp = false,
            TokenEndpointPath = new PathString("/auth"),
            AccessTokenExpireTimeSpan = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(30),
            Provider = new CustomOAuthProvider(),
            AccessTokenFormat = jwtFormatter,
            RefreshTokenFormat = jwtFormatter
            
        });

        app.UseWebApi(config);

The class that generates the tokens looks like

public class CustomJwtFormat : ISecureDataFormat<AuthenticationTicket>
{
    private readonly string _allowedAudience;
    private readonly string _issuer;
    private readonly byte[] _jwtTokenSignKey;

    public CustomJwtFormat(string allowedAudience, string issuer, byte[] jwtTokenSignKey)
    {
        _allowedAudience = allowedAudience;
        _issuer = issuer;
        _jwtTokenSignKey = jwtTokenSignKey;
    }

    public string Protect(AuthenticationTicket data)
    {
        if (data == null) throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(data));
        
        var signingCredentials = new SigningCredentials
        (
            new InMemorySymmetricSecurityKey(_jwtTokenSignKey),
            "http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmldsig-more#hmac-sha256",
            "http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#sha256"
        );

        return new JwtSecurityTokenHandler().WriteToken(new JwtSecurityToken(
            _issuer, 
            _allowedAudience, 
            data.Identity.Claims, 
            DateTime.UtcNow, DateTime.UtcNow.AddMinutes(10), 
            signingCredentials
        ));
        
    }

    public AuthenticationTicket Unprotect(string protectedText)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
}

The tokens I receive from /auth look valid and pass the debugger on jwt.io (without marking base64 for signature)

However UseJwtBearerAuthentication refuses to validate the token.

What could be the possible reason for this ?

Moreover, I've tried manually validating the same token in a controller without [Authorize] and it would perfectly validate:

        var t = "eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6IjEiLCJpc3MiOiJsb2NhbCIsImF1ZCI6IkFueSIsImV4cCI6MTQ3MjkxMDcwMSwibmJmIjoxNDcyOTEwMTAxfQ.ipSrRSGmje7wfzERsd-M1IDFJnN99AIC4Hs7YX4FIeI";
        var TokenHandler = new JwtSecurityTokenHandler();;
        var key = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("12341234123412341234");
        SecurityToken validatedToken;
        TokenValidationParameters paras = new TokenValidationParameters()
        {
            IssuerSigningKey = new InMemorySymmetricSecurityKey(key),
            ValidAudience = "Any",
            ValidIssuer = "local"
        };
        TokenHandler.ValidateToken(t, paras, out validatedToken);

Owin 3.0.1.0 System.IdentityModel.Tokens.Jwt 4.0.3.308261200

Alex · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-07T18:05:23.700

The problem wasn't in the token validation, but rather the that the claims were not passed on to Thread.CurrentPrincipal that the [Authorize] attribute was reading from.

In webapi config:

config.SuppressDefaultHostAuthentication();
config.Filters.Add(new HostAuthenticationFilter(DefaultAuthenticationTypes.ExternalBearer));

In startup config:

app.UseOAuthAuthorizationServer(new OAuthAuthorizationServerOptions
{
    AuthenticationType = DefaultAuthenticationTypes.ExternalBearer,
    ...
});

app.UseJwtBearerAuthentication1(new JwtBearerAuthenticationOptions()
{
    AuthenticationType = DefaultAuthenticationTypes.ExternalBearer,
    ..
});

In GrantResourceOwnerCredentials of the OAuthAuthorizationServerProvider:
use the same authentication type, which you can read from context.Options

var identity = new ClaimsIdentity(youClaimsList, context.Options.AuthenticationType);
context.Validated(identity);

And ensure all four places have the same string as AuthenticationType. If the HostAuthenticationFilter will have a different authenticationType as input, it will not pass on the claims from owin to webapi.

Im having the same issue with .Net Core controllers. How did you debug it? — Richard Watts, Mar 14 '17 at 12:05
You can grab the source code of owin and asp.net from github and bebug using it. — Alex, Mar 19 '17 at 16:28

Cannot validate token in UseJwtBearerAuthentication. Authorization has been denied

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