Node/Express - Good approach to secure communication between client/server - node.js

I'm building a backend API with Node/Express, which get the data from a MongoDB. The front will be written in React.
I would like to secure the communication client/server, but I don't know how I have to think about the process.
I see many tutorial about passport or JWT, but this is good for an user authentication.
I don't know if creating a token for every request based on the time (for example) is a good approach or it's too consuming for a web app.
But my goal is to secure the data because even if the API is private you can easily find out the route and try to figure it out how to fake request with Postman or something else to scrap the data.

The accepted standard is to use a fixed API KEY. This peace of info should be a randomly generated string that you send in each request in the header. Your server has to check the HTTP request each time to see if the API KEY is present in the header, and if it is, then it has to check against the stored value in the environment variable (never store the API KEY in code).
If the API KEY gets compromised, then you can easily update the env variable, and you are good again.
Now, this solution will be pointless without a HTTPS connection, because anyone will be able to sniff the traffic and see the API KEY. An encrypted connection is a must in this case.
This approach is used by virtually every company that has a public API: Twitter, Facebook, Twilio, Google etc.
Google for example has an extra step where they give you a token that will expire, but this will be an over kill in your case: at least in the beginning.
The following code is an example of my implementation of a API KEY check
app.use(function(req, res, next) {
//
// 1. Check if the APIKey is present
//
if(!req.headers.authorization)
{
return res.status(400).json(
{
message: "Missing APIKey.",
description: "Unable to find the APIKey"
}
);
}
//
// 2. Remove Basic from the beginning of the string
//
let noBasic = req.headers.authorization.replace('Basic ', '');
//
// 3. Convert from base64 to string
//
let b64toString = new Buffer(noBasic, 'base64').toString("utf8");
//
// 4. Remove the colon from the end of the string
//
let userAPIKey = b64toString.replace(':', '');
//
// 5. Check if the APIKey matches the one on the server side.
//
if(userAPIKey != process.env.API_KEY)
{
return res.status(400).json(
{
message: "APIKey don't match",
description: "Make sure what you are sending is what is in your server."
}
);
}
//
// -> Go to the next stage
//
next()
});
You can check the whole file with the whole implementation hear.

As I just finished the auth part of my AngularJS application. The answer will be JWT and Passport, you should use the great technologies to protect your data / API.
If you use the JWT library, it will help you hold the http heads for authorization.
Some of the code I used:
app.js
var jwt = require('express-jwt');
var auth = jwt({
secret: config.jwt.secret,
userProperty: 'payload'
});
app.use('/api/secret', auth, apiSecretRoutes);
login.js
module.exports.login = function (req, res) {
if (!req.body.username || !req.body.password) {
return tools.sendJSONresponse(res, 400, {
message: 'All fields required!'
});
}
passport.authenticate('local', function (err, user, info) {
var token;
if (err) {
return tools.sendJSONresponse(res, 404, err);
}
if (user) {
token = user.generateJwt();
return tools.sendJSONresponse(res, 200, {
ok: true,
message: 'welcome ' + user.name,
token: token
});
} else {
return tools.sendJSONresponse(res, 400, info);
}
})(req, res);
};
user.js
userSchema.methods.generateJwt = function() {
var expiryDays = 1;
var expiry = new Date();
expiry.setDate(expiry.getDate() + expiryDays);
return jwt.sign({
_id: this._id,
username: this.username,
name: this.name,
exp: parseInt(expiry.getTime() / 1000)
}, config.jwt.secret);
};
More Refs:
https://thinkster.io/angularjs-jwt-auth
http://devdactic.com/restful-api-user-authentication-1/
http://devdactic.com/restful-api-user-authentication-2/
http://jwt.io
https://github.com/auth0/express-jwt

Related

Node-Restful with Json web tokens

I am trying to build a simple web token protected api in nodejs. I have been following this tutorial authenticate a node js api with json web tokens and have been implementing the steps in my app. I now have an api running that allows me to get/post/put/delete and a route that generates a webtoken for the user and shows it in plain text (for dev purposes). I am using node-restful for the api's but I am having some trouble understanding how I would actually verify if the client is sending the webtoken in their request, before allowing these get/post/put/delete requests.
Here is my router. Where I define the allowed requests:
const express = require('express')
const router = express.Router()
// Models - Load models here
var userModel = require('./models/User')
// Controllers - Load controllers here
const userController = require('./controllers/userController')
// Routes - Define routes here
router.post('api/authenticate', userController.authenticate) //Route that generates the webkey and shows it in the response
// Configure the endpoint that node-restful will expose. Here I want to first check if the user is sending his or her api key. Before allowing these methods.
userModel.methods(['get', 'put', 'post', 'delete'])
userModel.register(router, '/api/users')
// Export the router object
module.exports = router
Here is my userController where the token is generated.
// Dependencies
const User = require('../models/User')
const jwt = require('jsonwebtoken')
const config = require('../config.js')
module.exports = {
authenticate: function(req, res, next) {
// find the user
User.findOne({username: req.body.name}, function(err, user) {
if (err) throw err;
if (!user) {
res.json({
success: false,
message: 'Authentication failed. User not found.' });
} else if (user) {
// check if password matches
if (user.password != req.body.password) {
res.json({
success: false,
message: 'Authentication failed. Wrong password.' });
} else {
// if user is found and password is right
// create a token
var token = jwt.sign(user, config.secret, {
expiresIn: 60*60*24 // expires in 24 hours
});
// return the information including token as JSON
res.json({
success: true,
message: 'Enjoy your token!',
token: token
});
}
}
})
}
}
And here is my user model.
// Dependencies
const restful = require('node-restful')
const mongoose = restful.mongoose
// Schema
const userSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
username: String,
password: String,
email: String
})
// Return the model as a restful model to allow it being used as a route.
module.exports = restful.model('User', userSchema)
Is there some way I can protect these endpoints, using the same manner of syntax as I am currently using to expose them? I believe I would have to check for the web token before defining the methods:
userModel.methods(['get', 'put', 'post', 'delete'])
userModel.register(router, '/api/users')
If I simply remove the methods themselves, the user will not be able to get the page and is shown a: "Cannot GET /api/users" error. What if I wanted to show a custom error? For example: "No web token provided. Register to authenticate" etc etc? Any help is much appreciated. Thank you in advance.
I now have a function that checks for the token before serving a page. It seems to work for now. Currently I am passing the token manually in postman as a header: x-access-token. How would I catch the token upon generation and automaticly make the client send it on future requests? Here is the function that checks for the token and the protected route.
Great. I kept working while waiting for any answers and completed this step. I can now generate the token and using postman pass that to a secured route I created. It works perfectly, but I am struggeling to understand how I am going to save the token on the client side and pass that on every request. I still generate the token, the same way as above. I can verify the token by manually passing it in my header as x-access-token, but how would I do this automaticly?
Update
Here is the function that checks the token and a protected route that utilizes that function:
// Routes - Define routes here
function getToken(req, res, next) {
var token = req.body.token || req.query.token || req.headers['x-access-token'];
// decode token
if (token) {
// verifies secret and checks exp
jwt.verify(token, config.secret, function(err, decoded) {
if (err) {
return res.json({ success: false, message: 'Failed to authenticate token.' });
} else {
// if everything is good, save to request for use in other routes
req.decoded = decoded;
console.log(decoded);
next();
}
});
} else {
// if there is no token
// return an error
return res.status(403).send({
success: false,
message: 'No token provided.'
});
}
}
router.get('/entries', getToken, entryController.get)
I found this question save-token-in-local-storage-using-node Which solved the last piece of the puzzle.
You can simply write a middleware for this kind of purpose. Clients will generally send tokens in header, so that you can get the header information and verify it. Your middleware will be something like this.
module.exports = (req, res, next) => {
if (!req.headers.authorization) {
return res.status(401).json({
success: false,
message: "You are not authorized for this operation."
})
}
// get the authorization header string
const token = req.headers.authorization
// decode the token using a secret key-phrase
return jwt.verify(token, config.secret, (err, decoded) => {
// the 401 code is for unauthorized status
if (err) {
return res.status(401).json({
success: false,
message: "You are not authorized for this operation."
})
}
const username = decoded.username
// check if a user exists
return User.findOne({username: username}, (userErr, user) => {
if (userErr) {
return res.status(500).json({
success: false,
message: "Error occured while processing. Please try again.",
err: userErr
})
}
if ( !user ) {
return res.status(401).json({
success: false,
message: "You are not authorized for this operation."
})
}
return next()
})
})
}
For the security reasons it is better to store JWTs in your application associated with the user. Complete explanation can be found here.
Update:
You can save the token in cookie and parse the cookie to find out the token and then verify that.

Save Token in local Storage using node

I'm using JWT ("jsonwebtoken": "^5.4.0") with express 4 and jade.
I'm able to create the right Token, but How can i Pass this token in each call?
Where I have to store this token ? in headers or in localStorage?
For now I'm using CURL with Postman, and Set token in header in
x-access-token
Have I Do create a middleware that retrieve a token from Database and use this in each call?
thanks
You do not need to save and check the token from the database. This token such a mechanism can be decoded with only your-server, and if it was done that the token is valid. The code that you want to do should look like.
var cookieParser = require('cookie-parser')
app.use(cookieParser())
app.get('/login', function(req, res, next) {
var user = {name:'test'}; //!! find the user and check user from db then
var token = jwt.sign(user, 'secret', {
expiresInMinutes: 1440
});
res.cookie('auth',token);
res.send('ok');
});
app.use(function(req, res, next) {
var token = req.cookies.auth;
// decode token
if (token) {
jwt.verify(token, 'secret', function(err, token_data) {
if (err) {
return res.status(403).send('Error');
} else {
req.user_data = token_data;
next();
}
});
} else {
return res.status(403).send('No token');
}
});
Here you can find very nice article : https://scotch.io/tutorials/authenticate-a-node-js-api-with-json-web-tokens
I would recommend checking this out if you want local storage: https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-localstorage
But, with that said, you guys and girls wouldn't believe how long it took me to find res.cookie('auth' token) from the above answer. I scoured Google for hours, Passport docs, Express docs, GraphQL and authentication/authorization docs in an effort to find out how to get the token to the API in a stateless manner.
I already built JWT token security and secured my GraphQL resolvers with it, but then, I opted to use EJS along with graphql-request (approx same as Apollo Client), so I needed to find a way to pass the token to my middleware without using a server side session.
Storing a JWT token in cookies is fine especially if you take extra precautions such as signing the cookie, and I recall there are also options you can include that keep the cookie secure, so that other sites cannot see it if the "browser" allows access to cookies. If a cookie is signed with your server secret, the data inside the cookie simply cannot be altered and still be valid. The risk is always still someone leaking their token/cookie, and if that bothers you, do research into refresh tokens. However, API tokens are generally and should be kept tightly secret and safe. Your biggest annoyance will more likely be the requirement to maintain a blacklist of JWTs that expire a year from now if you set expiry to 1y.
I am just including my findings here because this question is actually a rare resource it seems...
Here is my Express middleware for authentication:
// AUTHENTICATION
app.use(async (req) => {
try {
const token = req.headers.authorization || req.cookies.auth
const { person } = await jwt.verify(token, SECRET)
req.person = person
return req.next()
} catch (e) {
return req.next()
}
})
You can see I am setting the token from the header with cookie as fallback. This supports my needs fine and allows me to use really any client with stateless security.
My logged in user is available as req.person in my views and GraphQL resolvers. If req.person is not set, the user is treated as not-logged-in.
I am using return req.next() which is important to note because calling next() without parameters is treated as "clean go-to next middleware and/or proceed to process request". If you include any string or object parameter, it will throw an error that can bubble down to your error handling middleware. You can try it yourself. Put return next('You are not authenticated.') in the catch block and you will see it halt the request before your route.
I use return next() because I handle authorization in the routes and in my resolvers. It allows more flexibility such as facilitating register and login mutations to be accessed by non-authenticated users.
Here is my GraphQL endpoint (I am using Apollo Server):
app.use('/graphql', bodyParser.json(), graphqlExpress((req) => {
const context = {
person: req.person
}
return {
schema,
context,
rootValue: null
}
}))
In my GraphQL resolvers, the third parameter of every query has context.person populated with req.person which comes from the above Authentication middleware.
That is really all a person needs to know.
Here is how I am using the NPM package called graphql-request:
https://www.npmjs.com/package/graphql-request
app.get('/allpeople', async (req, res) => {
try {
const client = new GraphQLClient(GRAPHQL_ENDPOINT, {
headers: { Authorization: req.headers.authorization || req.cookies.auth }
})
const query = `query allPeople($serialNumber: String!) {
allPeople(serialNumber: $serialNumber) {
id
created
status
email
}
}`
const variables = {
serialNumber: req.person
}
const response = await client.request(query, variables)
res.render('allpeople/list', { people: response.allPeople })
} catch (e) {
throw [`allPeople`, `${JSON.stringify(error, null, 2)}`]
}
})
I include this code because there are no "more advanced" example usages of graphql-request, and I like it so far. It is very concise and could easily be swapped out for Apollo Client if you venture into React.js. My examples here are also very relevant for anyone researching createNetworkInterface and new ApolloClient().

Node.js API - Allow users to only update and delete their own object

I am trying to build a RESTful API using Node.js w/ Express. I am fairly new to the MEAN stack, and want to use best practices. The concept I'm having trouble grasping and implementing is the following:
Restricting routes like PUT and DELETE on a user object, to only allow requests from users who 'own' this object.
One possibility I've thought of:
Creating secret token for users that matches token in DB
So when creating a user I assign them a token, store this in the DB and attach it to their session data.
Then my middleware would look something like:
router.put('/api/users/:user_id', function(req, res, next) {
// already unclear how this token should be transfered
var token = req.headers['x-access-token'] || req.session.token;
// update user (PUT /api/users/:user_id)
User.findById(req.params.user_id, function(err, user) {
if (err) {
res.send(err);
} else if (user.token != token) {
res.json({ sucess: false, message: 'User not same as authenticated user.' });
} else {
// set new information only if present in request
if (req.body.name) user.name = req.body.name;
if (req.body.username) user.username = req.body.username;
...
// save user
user.save(function(err) {
if (err) res.send(err);
// return message
res.json({ message: 'User updated.' });
});
}
});
Questions I have regarding best practice
Is the scenario I thought of at all plausible?
What data should I use to create a unique token for a user?
Is storing the token in the session the best solution?
Sidenote
This is a learning project for me, and I am aware of libraries like Passport.js. I want to learn the fundamentals first.
I have a repo for this project if you need to see some of the surrounding code I'm using: https://github.com/messerli90/node-api-ownership
Edit
I would accept a good RESTful API book recommendation, where these points are covered, as an answer.
Edit 2
I actually found a lot of the answers I was looking for in this tutorial: http://scottksmith.com/blog/2014/05/29/beer-locker-building-a-restful-api-with-node-passport/
I was trying to do this without the use of passport.js but a lot of the concepts covered in the article made some of the mechanics of an authorized API clear to me.
If I understand your question, this is an API, and the client (not a browser) is passing the secret token (api key) in the request, in a header. Seems reasonable. Of course, you must require https to protect the api key. And, you should have a way for users to revoke/regenerate their API key.
So far, I don't think you need to store anything in the session. It seems like storing the token in the session just complicates things. Presumably, if you are going to establish a session, the client has to include the token in the first request. So, why not just require it on each request and forget the session? I think this makes life simpler for the api client.
A 'bit' too late, but if someone is still looking for an answer, here is how i did it:
router.put('/', function(req, res) {
var token = req.headers['x-access-token'];
if (!token) return res.status(401).send({auth:false, message:'No token provided'});
jwt.verify (token, process.env.SECRET, function (err, decoded) {
if(err) return res.status(500).send({auth:false, message:'failed to auth token'});
User.findByIdAndUpdate({_id: decoded.user_id}, req.body, function(err, user) {
if (err)
res.send(err);
res.json({username: user.username, email: user.email});
});
});
});
Just pass the user id that is stored in the token to the mongoose function. This way the user who sent the request can only update or delete the model with his ID.
Reading material:
Implementing Access Control in Node.JS
Found this super clear article on how to allow users to only delete replies they own. Hope it helps.
What worked for me:
.delete(requireAuth, async (req, res, next) => {
const knexInstance = req.app.get("db");
const comment = await CommentsService.getById(knexInstance, req.params.id);
if (comment === undefined) {
return res.status(404).json({
error: {
message: `Comment doesn't exist.`
},
});
}
if (comment.users_id !== req.users.id) {
return res.status(401).json({
error: {
message: `You can only delete your own comments.`
},
});
}
CommentsService.deleteComment(knexInstance, req.params.id)
.then((numRowsAffected) => {
res.status(204).end();
})
.catch(next);
})

Authentication on Server side routes in Meteor

What is the best way (most secure and easiest) to authenticate a user for a server side route?
Software/Versions
I'm using the latest Iron Router 1.* and Meteor 1.* and to begin, I'm just using accounts-password.
Reference code
I have a simple server side route that renders a pdf to the screen:
both/routes.js
Router.route('/pdf-server', function() {
var filePath = process.env.PWD + "/server/.files/users/test.pdf";
console.log(filePath);
var fs = Npm.require('fs');
var data = fs.readFileSync(filePath);
this.response.write(data);
this.response.end();
}, {where: 'server'});
As an example, I'd like to do something close to what this SO answer suggested:
On the server:
var Secrets = new Meteor.Collection("secrets");
Meteor.methods({
getSecretKey: function () {
if (!this.userId)
// check if the user has privileges
throw Meteor.Error(403);
return Secrets.insert({_id: Random.id(), user: this.userId});
},
});
And then in client code:
testController.events({
'click button[name=get-pdf]': function () {
Meteor.call("getSecretKey", function (error, response) {
if (error) throw error;
if (response)
Router.go('/pdf-server');
});
}
});
But even if I somehow got this method working, I'd still be vulnerable to users just putting in a URL like '/pdf-server' unless the route itself somehow checked the Secrets collection right?
In the Route, I could get the request, and somehow get the header information?
Router.route('/pdf-server', function() {
var req = this.request;
var res = this.response;
}, {where: 'server'});
And from the client pass a token over the HTTP header, and then in the route check if the token is good from the Collection?
In addition to using url tokens as the other answer you could also use cookies:
Add in some packages that allow you to set cookies and read them server side:
meteor add mrt:cookies thepumpinglemma:cookies
Then you could have something that syncs the cookies up with your login status
Client Side
Tracker.autorun(function() {
//Update the cookie whenever they log in or out
Cookie.set("meteor_user_id", Meteor.userId());
Cookie.set("meteor_token", localStorage.getItem("Meteor.loginToken"));
});
Server Side
On the server side you just need to check this cookie is valid (with iron router)
Router.route('/somepath/:fileid', function() {
//Check the values in the cookies
var cookies = new Cookies( this.request ),
userId = cookies.get("meteor_user_id") || "",
token = cookies.get("meteor_token") || "";
//Check a valid user with this token exists
var user = Meteor.users.findOne({
_id: userId,
'services.resume.loginTokens.hashedToken' : Accounts._hashLoginToken(token)
});
//If they're not logged in tell them
if(!user) return this.response.end("Not allowed");
//Theyre logged in!
this.response.end("You're logged in!");
}, {where:'server'});
I think I have a secure and easy solution for doing this from within IronRouter.route(). The request must be made with a valid user ID and auth token in the header. I call this function from within Router.route(), which then gives me access to this.user, or responds with a 401 if the authentication fails:
// Verify the request is being made by an actively logged in user
// #context: IronRouter.Router.route()
authenticate = ->
// Get the auth info from header
userId = this.request.headers['x-user-id']
loginToken = this.request.headers['x-auth-token']
// Get the user from the database
if userId and loginToken
user = Meteor.users.findOne {'_id': userId, 'services.resume.loginTokens.token': loginToken}
// Return an error if the login token does not match any belonging to the user
if not user
respond.call this, {success: false, message: "You must be logged in to do this."}, 401
// Attach the user to the context so they can be accessed at this.user within route
this.user = user
// Respond to an HTTP request
// #context: IronRouter.Router.route()
respond = (body, statusCode=200, headers) ->
this.response.statusCode statusCode
this.response.setHeader 'Content-Type', 'text/json'
this.response.writeHead statusCode, headers
this.response.write JSON.stringify(body)
this.response.end()
And something like this from the client:
Meteor.startup ->
HTTP.get "http://yoursite.com/pdf-server",
headers:
'X-Auth-Token': Accounts._storedLoginToken()
'X-User-Id': Meteor.userId()
(error, result) -> // This callback triggered once http response received
console.log result
This code was heavily inspired by RestStop and RestStop2. It's part of a meteor package for writing REST APIs in Meteor 0.9.0+ (built on top of Iron Router). You can check out the complete source code here:
https://github.com/krose72205/meteor-restivus
Because server-side routes act as simple REST endpoints, they don't have access to user authentication data (e.g. they can't call Meteor.user()). Therefore you need to devise an alternative authentication scheme. The most straightforward way to accomplish this is with some form of key exchange as discussed here and here.
Example implementation:
server/app.js
// whenever the user logs in, update her apiKey
Accounts.onLogin(function(info) {
// generate a new apiKey
var apiKey = Random.id();
// add the apiKey to the user's document
Meteor.users.update(info.user._id, {$set: {apiKey: apiKey}});
});
// auto-publish the current user's apiKey
Meteor.publish(null, function() {
return Meteor.users.find(this.userId, {fields: {apiKey: 1}});
});
lib/routes.js
// example route using the apiKey
Router.route('/secret/:apiKey', {name: 'secret', where: 'server'})
.get(function() {
// fetch the user with this key
// note you may want to add an index on apiKey so this is fast
var user = Meteor.users.findOne({apiKey: this.params.apiKey});
if (user) {
// we have authenticated the user - do something useful here
this.response.statusCode = 200;
return this.response.end('ok');
} else {
// the key is invalid or not provided so return an error
this.response.statusCode = 403;
return this.response.end('not allowed');
}
});
client/app.html
<template name="myTemplate">
{{#with currentUser}}
secret
{{/with}}
</template>
Notes
Make /secret only accessible via HTTPS.
While it's very likely that the user requesting /secret is currently connected, there is no guarantee that she is. The user could have logged in, copied her key, closed the tab, and initiated the request sometime later.
This is a simple means of user authentication. I would explore more sophisticated mechanisms (see the links above) if the server-route reveals high-value data (SSNs, credit cards, etc.).
See this question for more details on sending static content from the server.
I truly believe using HTTP headers are the best solution to this problem because they're simple and don't require messing about with cookies or developing a new authentication scheme.
I loved #kahmali's answer, so I wrote it to work with WebApp and a simple XMLHttpRequest. This has been tested on Meteor 1.6.
Client
import { Meteor } from 'meteor/meteor';
import { Accounts } from 'meteor/accounts-base';
// Skipping ahead to the upload logic
const xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
const form = new FormData();
// Add files
files.forEach((file) => {
form.append(file.name,
// So BusBoy sees as file instead of field, use Blob
new Blob([file.data], { type: 'text/plain' })); // w/e your mime type is
});
// XHR progress, load, error, and readystatechange event listeners here
// Open Connection
xhr.open('POST', '/path/to/upload', true);
// Meteor authentication details (must happen *after* xhr.open)
xhr.setRequestHeader('X-Auth-Token', Accounts._storedLoginToken());
xhr.setRequestHeader('X-User-Id', Meteor.userId());
// Send
xhr.send(form);
Server
import { Meteor } from 'meteor/meteor';
import { WebApp } from 'meteor/webapp';
import { Roles } from 'meteor/alanning:roles'; // optional
const BusBoy = require('connect-busboy');
const crypto = require('crypto'); // built-in Node library
WebApp.connectHandlers
.use(BusBoy())
.use('/path/to/upload', (req, res) => {
const user = req.headers['x-user-id'];
// We have to get a base64 digest of the sha256 hashed login token
// I'm not sure when Meteor changed to hashed tokens, but this is
// one of the major differences from #kahmali's answer
const hash = crypto.createHash('sha256');
hash.update(req.headers['x-auth-token']);
// Authentication (is user logged-in)
if (!Meteor.users.findOne({
_id: user,
'services.resume.loginTokens.hashedToken': hash.digest('base64'),
})) {
// User not logged in; 401 Unauthorized
res.writeHead(401);
res.end();
return;
}
// Authorization
if (!Roles.userIsInRole(user, 'whatever')) {
// User is not authorized; 403 Forbidden
res.writeHead(403);
res.end();
return;
}
if (req.busboy) {
// Handle file upload
res.writeHead(201); // eventually
res.end();
} else {
// Something went wrong
res.writeHead(500); // server error
res.end();
}
});
I hope this helps someone!
Since Meteor doesn't use session cookies, client must explicitly include some sort of user identification when making a HTTP request to a server route.
The easiest way to do it is to pass userId in the query string of the URL. Obviously, you also need to add a security token that will prove that the user is really who the claim they are. Obtaining this token can be done via a Meteor method.
Meteor by itself doesn't provide such mechanism, so you need some custom implementation. I wrote a Meteor package called mhagmajer:server-route which was thoroughly tested. You can learn more about it here: https://blog.hagmajer.com/server-side-routing-with-authentication-in-meteor-6625ed832a94

dropbox api usage in nodejs "Bad oauth_signature for oauth_signature_method"

I have been trying to connect to dropbox server and use the api, but I'm failing at the first step itself. When i'm requesting for the request token, I'm getting Bad oauth_signature error in nodejs.
The code that i'm using to connect to api is as follows.(I'm using https://github.com/sintaxi/node-dbox/blob/master/README.md library/sdk for nodejs)
/*
* dropbox handlers controller.
*/
var dbox = require('dbox')
,querystring = require("querystring")
var client = dbox.createClient({
app_key : 'my-key', // required
app_secret : 'my-secret', // required
root : 'sandbox' // optional (defaults to sandbox)
})
exports.index = function(req, res){
client.request_token(function(status, reply){
console.log(status)
console.log(reply)
// {
// oauth_token : "h89r0sdfdsfwiko", // required
// oauth_token_secret : "8hielfflk7100mv", // required
// }
})
the result i'm getting in my console is as follows
c:\tmp\dropbox>node app.js
Express server listening on port 3000 in development mode
oauth_consumer_key=[my key]&oauth_signature=faawn09ehmfe25i%2526&oauth_ti
mestamp=1324643574&oauth_nonce=132464357437334176&oauth_signature_method=PLAINTE
XT&oauth_version=1.0
403
{ '{"error": "Bad oauth_signature for oauth_signature_method \'PLAINTEXT\'"}': u
ndefined }
Any help on this is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
This is the author of node-dbox. This issue has been resolved as of version 0.2.2.
Sorry for the trouble.
I took the approach of using the passport module along with its companion passport-dropbox module to handle the routes required for the authentication handshake with Dropbox. Once you receive the token and token secret passed in the Dropbox callback, store them in session state or wherever. Then you can then pass them to node-dbox in subsequent Dropbox API calls. The author of passport has a nice example on GitHub here: https://github.com/jaredhanson/passport-dropbox/tree/master/examples/login
passport.use(new DropboxStrategy({
consumerKey: DROPBOX_APP_KEY,
consumerSecret: DROPBOX_APP_SECRET,
callbackURL: APP_URL + '/auth/dropbox/callback'
},
function(token, tokenSecret, profile, done) {
var user = {
provider: 'dropbox',
displayName: profile.displayName,
email: profile.emails[0].value,
// I'm choosing to store the token and tokenSecret on the user.
// The keys must be as shown below to be compatible with node-dbox
dboxToken: {'oauth_token': token, 'oauth_token_secret': tokenSecret}
};
return done(null, user);
}));
app.get('/files', function(req, res) {
var dboxClient = dboxApp.client(req.user.dboxToken);
dboxClient.metadata('/', {}, function(status, reply) {
res.render('files', {
pathMetaData: reply,
user: req.user
});
});
});
To fix that issue you just need to apply what is mentioned here :
https://github.com/sintaxi/node-dbox/issues/3
On line 28 of Oauth.js signature is being encoded twice.
var getSignature = function(tokenSecret){
return encode(consumerSecret) + "&" + encode(tokenSecret)
}
var signature = encode(getSignature(secret))
Changing it to the following solves the problem of not being able to receive an oauth token.
var signature = getSignature(secret)
Thx

Resources