Passport JWT JSON Web Token authenticate error

Question

I am implementing, for the first time, an authentication involving passport and JWT. My question is this: when I send an already expired token in the header, I get the message "Unauthorized". My code is as follows:

In routes.js:

app.route('/people/:id')
        // .all(function(req, res, next) {
        //     app.auth.authenticate(req, res, next);
        // })
        // .all(app.auth.authenticate)
        .all(app.auth.authenticate())
        .get(controller.getPeopleById)
        .delete(controller.deletePeople);

The commented parts are all that I have tried

In auth.js:

var passport = require("passport");
var passportJWT = require("passport-jwt");
var ExtractJwt = passportJWT.ExtractJwt;
var Strategy = passportJWT.Strategy;

module.exports = function(app) {
    const options = {
        secretOrKey: app.config.config.jwtSecret,
        jwtFromRequest: ExtractJwt.fromAuthHeader()
    };

    var strategy = new Strategy(options, function(payload, done) {
        console.log("payload: " + JSON.stringify(payload));
    });

    passport.use(strategy);

    return {
        initialize : function() {
            return passport.initialize();
        },

        authenticate : function() {
            return passport.authenticate('jwt', app.config.config.jwtSession);
            // return passport.authenticate('jwt', app.config.config.jwtSession, function(error, done, info) {                    
            //     if (error) {
            //         console.log("error: " + error);
            //     }

            //     if (done) {
            //         console.log("done: " + JSON.stringify(done));
            //     }

            //     if (info) {
            //         console.log("info: " + info);
            //     }
            // });
            // }
        }
    }
};

In middlewares.js:

var bodyParser = require("body-parser");
var config = require("./config/config")();

module.exports = function(app) {
    app.set("port", config.port || 3000);

    app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }));
    app.use(bodyParser.json());
    app.use(app.auth.initialize());
};

All I want to do is capture the error that happens in the authentication to customize the messages, for example: "Token expired, log in again" but as it is, it does not enter the validation method of the strategy. Has anyone ever experienced this? Grateful.

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered May 02 '17 at 13:32

Passport always throws an AuthenticationError.

To get the actually error, you have to provide a callback to the passport.authenticate method.

Example:

app.get('/protected', function(req, res, next) {
        passport.authenticate('local', function(err, user, failuresOrInfo, status) {

        // failuresOrInfo has the cause.

          if (err) { return next(err) }
         if (!user) { return res.redirect('/signin') }
         res.redirect('/account');
        })(req, res, next);
      });

See the code snipted for passport code:

function allFailed() {
      if (callback) {
        if (!multi) {
          return callback(null, false, failures[0].challenge, failures[0].status);
        } else {
          var challenges = failures.map(function(f) { return f.challenge; });
          var statuses = failures.map(function(f) { return f.status; });
          return callback(null, false, challenges, statuses);
        }
      }

...

See that, if callback is present, passport passes the result to the callback and you have to manage the rest.

Hope my answer is clear and it can help you.

Passport JWT JSON Web Token authenticate error

1 Answers1