Passport.js Session Confusion - node.js

I am learning node and express. I am trying to build a very basic app that will simply let a user log in using json. Then will maintain session until they log out. With asp.net this is a doddle you just set it up in the config and call...
Auth.Login(username,pasword)
When they log out you just do:
Auth.logout()
And if you need to check if they are logged in you simply do:
Auth.IsLoggedIn()
Or code to that effect. Well seems like Passport for node is just not that simple. I spent all night getting this working...
app.post('/authentication/login', function handleLocalAuthentication(req, res, next) {
passport.authenticate('local', function(err, user, info) {
// Manually establish the session...
req.login({username:'me#me.com',password:'password'}, function(err) {
if (err) return next(err);
return res.json({
message: 'user authenticated'
});
});
})(req, res, next);
});
app.get('/authentication/isauthenticated',function(req,res){
console.log(req.isAuthenticated());
})
passport.use(new LocalStrategy(
function(username, password, done) {
return done(null, {username:'ss',password:'sffds'});
}
));
So now I have no cookies, no session persisted when I login and then hit the /authentication/isAuthenticated url. I can't even get a breakpoint to stop in the strategy...
passport.use(new LocalStrategy(
function(username, password, done) {
console.log('ggg');
return done(null, {username:'ss',password:'sffds'});
}
));
Am I looking at the wrong solution for this? Should I be rolling my own auth or something with a basic middleware function?

Check out this tutorial. It's really great and it helped me a lot.
And here's my repo which has implemented passport authentication with users stored in mongodb through mongoose, and hashed passwords. Clone it or just check it out, it should help.
https://github.com/thyforhtian/auth_base.

Related

Can't make custom named local strategies work in PassportJS

So recently I needed to split my local strategy so it fits our new needs for different types of users logging to our website. Our code up to date looks like:
const localLogin = new LocalStrategy(localOptions, function(email, password, done) {
// Verify this email and password, call done with the user
// if it is correct email and password
// otherwise, call done with false
});
passport.use(localLogin);
And then in our users file we call authenticate like so:
const requireSignin = passport.authenticate('local', {session: false});
router.post('/signin', requireSignin, (request, response, next) => {
// User already had their email and password Auth'd
// Give him a token
});
We've just changed a few things to leave it like so:
passport.use('local.one', localLogin);
And then call it as follows:
const requireSignin = passport.authenticate('local.one', {session: false});
Tried everything we read in different answers but we can't get it to work. Seems so close yet so far... please help.
P.D.: We've also tried to get a response like:
passport.authenticate('local.one', function(err, user, info) {
console.log('HERE')
if (err) return next(err);
if (!user) return next(null, false);
next(null, user);
})
But we don't get any data from that.
Ok, after a lot of testing and digging a few conclusions just in case someone finds this same stone on their way:
LOGS! wow that was helpful...
After initialize passport on the express() object call this line to load custom config file:
require('./yourpathtoconfigfileHERE/yourconfigfile')(passport);
Also here is a link that pointed me in the right way:
Passport: Unknown authentication strategy "local"

SailsJS Linkedin OAuth 2.0 Login Flow Issues

I'm trying to use this library to authenticate using Linkedin:
https://github.com/auth0/passport-linkedin-oauth2
No Linkedin Login Prompt
I have configured my Passport Linkedin Strategy like so:
var passport = require('passport');
var LinkedInStrategy = require('passport-linkedin-oauth2').Strategy;
passport.serializeUser(function(user, done) {
done(null, user.id);
});
passport.deserializeUser(function(id, done) {
User.findById(id, function (err, user) {
done(err, user);
});
});
passport.use(new LinkedInStrategy({
clientID: 'LINKEDIN_API_KEY',
clientSecret: 'LINKEDIN_API_SECRET',
callbackURL: 'http://localhost:1337/auth/linkedin/callback',
scope: ['r_emailaddress', 'r_basicprofile'],
state: true
}, function(accessToken, refreshToken, profile, done) {
// asynchronous verification, for effect...
process.nextTick(function () {
// To keep the example simple, the user's LinkedIn profile is returned to
// represent the logged-in user. In a typical application, you would want
// to associate the LinkedIn account with a user record in your database,
// and return that user instead.
return done(null, profile);
});
}));
My AuthController.js looks like this:
var passport = require('passport');
module.exports = {
login: function(req, res) {
passport.authenticate('linkedin', function(err, user, info) {
// The request will be redirected to LinkedIn for authentication, so this
// function will not be called.
});
},
callback: function(req, res) {
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------
// after user authenticated, we get the user's email from
// Linkedin's JSON response and save it against the matching  
// email address in the User model
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------
console.log(res);
},
logout: function(req, res) {
req.logout();
res.send('logout successful');
}
};
From the linkedin oauth library, I expect the call to:
passport.authenticate('linkedin', function...);
In my AuthController's login action, to redirect the user to Linkedin's login prompt page but what I am actually seeing is my browser just keeps on loading, loading, loading and never stops.
Am I doing something wrong ?
Some questions I am not sure of:
Does Linkedin expect my server to be running on HTTPS before it lets this whole thing starts working ?
Is there some special configurations that I need to do in my Linkedin developers app setting ? (I've enabled all the correct Javascript SDK URLs)
Callback Error
OK, so continuing on, my next problem appears to be here:
return done(null, profile);
^
TypeError: object is not a function
My code is following the npm module instruction here: https://www.npmjs.com/package/passport-linkedin-oauth2
Maybe SailsJS has another way of writing it yet again....
Authentication Always Fails
After fixing the callback error as mentioned in my solution below, I decided to keep moving on and see how it goes despite the Linkedin documentation isn't quite matching 100% to what I expect from the NPM library.
My next problem is my authenticated.js policy appears to always fail.
My code is below:
// We use passport to determine if we're authenticated
module.exports = function (req, res, next) {
if(req.authenticated) { // <---- this is the error line
return next();
}
else
{
res.send(401, {
error: 'Nice try buddy. Try logging in with Linkedin first :]'
});
}
};
No Login Prompt Solution
sigh
I think I'm beginning to grasp some of the difference between SailsJS and pure ExpressJS codes.
The problem appears that I was missing this piece of code at the end of my passport.authenticate() method:
(req, res)
I picked it up after looking this tutorial again: http://iliketomatoes.com/implement-passport-js-authentication-with-sails-js-0-10-2/
So now, the final authenticate method should look like:
passport.authenticate('linkedin', function(err, user, info) {
// The request will be redirected to LinkedIn for authentication, so this
// function will not be called.
})(req, res); // <--- notice this extra (req, res) code here
Which matches the Passportjs documentation:
passport.authenticate('local'),
function(req, res) {
// If this function gets called, authentication was successful.
// `req.user` contains the authenticated user.
res.redirect('/users/' + req.user.username);
});
In a way....if you know what I mean... :D
Now I got my Linkedin login prompt as expected.
Finally!
Callback Error Solution
OK.....I'm not sure if this is completes the login process...but....
I noticed I had an extra line:
passReqToCallback: true
Taken from this page here:
https://github.com/auth0/passport-linkedin-oauth2/issues/29
I removed that and I got a different error message.
I've also changed my callback code to look like:
passport.authenticate('linkedin', function(err, user, info) {
res.json(200, {
user: user
});
})(req, res);
and I got my user JSON which appears to be my Linkedin user profile info:
{
user: {
provider: "linkedin",
...
}
}
But that's...contradicting the Linkedin documentation...I don't see any access_token or expire_in properties which I was expecting to see in step 3 of the Linkedin OAuth 2.0 documentation (https://developer.linkedin.com/docs/oauth2)...
So...supposedly...I should take this user object and create/update against an existing user object ?
Authentication Always Fails Solution
OK, so few more days, I added extra code to generate a User entity if one isn't found in my database, otherwise just return the found user.
The was one last problem, in my policies folder, I have a authenticated.js and it looked like this:
// We use passport to determine if we're authenticated
module.exports = function (req, res, next) {
if(req.authenticated) { // <---- this is the error line
return next();
}
else
{
res.send(401, {
error: 'Nice try buddy. Try logging in with Linkedin first :]'
});
}
};
Being new to all this web development stuff, I thought:
req.authenticated; // should call match name of the file ?
was correct but I was following this tutorial:
http://iliketomatoes.com/implement-passport-js-authentication-with-sails-js-0-10-2/
and he named his file: isAuthenticated.js I figured it's just a name....but I was wrong :D
Turns out, the correct code was:
req.isAuthenticated()
So in full, the correct code becomes:
// We use passport to determine if we're authenticated
module.exports = function (req, res, next) {
if(req.isAuthenticated()) { // alright, that's more like it!
return next();
}
else
{
res.send(401, {
error: 'Nice try buddy. Try logging in with Linkedin first :]'
});
}
};
Perhaps isAuthenticated is a Passportjs function and not just a name like I initially thought.
My further research shows this page which suggests so to me:
Problems getting Passport.js to authenticate user
Maybe req.authenticated can only be used for HTML email-password login form as suggested in above Stackoverflow post and req.isAuthenticated() is for OAuth stuff.
Anyhow, I still don't know if this is the right path but so far, I got authentication in my application now and I can access protected resources. Not sure how long I'll be logged in for, maybe I still need to build the refresh token thingo every 15 minute like the Linkedin documentation stated ?
Hope this helps other fellow Sailsjs users who are facing the same problem :)
Does Linkedin expect my server to be running on HTTPS before it lets
this whole thing starts working ?
No. The API works just as well on a local http setup.
Is there some special configurations that I need to do in my Linkedin
developers app setting ? (I've enabled all the correct Javascript SDK
URLs)
No, your setup is fine.
The browser keeps loading because after the authentication LinkedIn redirects to your callback action which isn't handling the response stream.
You need to handle the response in the callback action. Something like this will do:
callback: function(req, res) {
passport.authenticate('linkedin', function(err, user){
// handle error
// do something with the user (register/login)
return res.redirect('/home');
});
}
I'd highly recommend using sails-generate-auth for maintaining third-party logins. Very easy to setup and configure. All you need to do is serve the access tokens and secrets for the different strategies (either through config/passport.js or, preferably, through config/local.js). Will spare you a lot of redundant code.

NodeJS Passport local strategy inform client user is authed

I have implemented Passport with passport-local and MongoDB and it is working nicely.
However this is a pure client-side single-loading app and so node is not responsible for the rendering of html. So currently I show a loading a spinner on app load and make a separate call to an api to determine if the user is logged in to conditionally render some stuff:
router.get('/me', function (req, res) {
res.send(req.isAuthenticated() ? {} || 401);
});
Since passport already authenticates my routes and calls deserializeUser this seems pointless - I need a way to pass an extra piece of info (in the cookie?) stating that the user is authed, I am guessing in deserializeUser?
server.use(session({secret: settings.sessionSecret}));
server.use(passport.initialize());
server.use(passport.session());
....
passport.use(new LocalStrategy(
localOpts,
function(email, password, done) {
User.findOne({
email: email,
activated: true
}, function (err, user) {
....
});
}
));
passport.serializeUser(function (user, done) {
done(null, user._id);
});
passport.deserializeUser(function (id, done) {
User.findById(id, function(err, user) {
done(err, user);
});
});
Note that the two cookies that get created when sign in is successful:
express:sess
express:sess.sig
When it detects the presence of these cookies it seems to just call deserializeUser hence why I think I could possibly communicate to the client the user is authed there, or otherwise on sign in inside passport.use middleware?
It turns out that I can simply add a middleware after the passport.session. I was concerned that req.isAuthenticated would fire off another query to the db but it doesn't:
server.use(function(req, res, next) {
res.cookie('isAuthenticated', req.isAuthenticated());
next();
});

Express redirect and locals

I'm using passportjs in order to log user and I try to redirect them after the password verify is complete with angularjs.
But I keep getting "Cannot read property 'name' of undefined" when I try to get user data on another page
Snippet:
app.post('/login', function(req, res, next) {
passport.authenticate('local', function(err, usr, info) {
res.locals.user = req.usr;
res.json({msg:true});
return next();
})(req, res, next);
});
And somewhere else I try to do something like this:
user.find({name: req.user.name },function(err,q){
Which fire the error "Cannot read property 'name' of undefined"
You have to provide passport with serializeUser and deserializeUser functions in order for passport to store the user in the request object. For more info, check the guide:
http://passportjs.org/guide/configure/
Specifically, look at the bottom section on Sessions. Also, consult this similar question:
Do I implement serialize and deserialize NodesJS + Passport + RedisStore?
In your case, it looks like you're using name instead of id to identify users, so wherever you configure passport, you will probably want to do something like:
passport.serializeUser(function(user, done) {
done(null, user.name);
});
passport.deserializeUser(function(name, done) {
user.find({name: req.user.name }, function(err, user){
done(err, user);
});
});

How to do Authentication with Node.js and MEAN stack?

I am currently working on a text based game with a small team of developers. The game requires login and we are using the MEAN (MongoDB, Express, Angular, Node) Stack for the application codebase, however i am stuck on authentication, as a rails developer i am used to being able to drop in a gem and use the helpers available.
has anybody has any experience with MEAN and Authentication?
the MEAN stack by linnovate uses Passport.js for its authentication. Passport uses different strategies for authentication. One of these strategies is a username and password pair, which they call LocalStrategy.
Here is one of the samples from the Passportjs-Local Github Examples Page
Step 1: Require Passport
First you require the module after doing npm install passport
var passport = require('passport');
Step 2: Configure 'Verify' Function
Use the LocalStrategy within Passport. Strategies in passport require a verify function, which accept credentials (in this case, a username and password), and invoke a callback with a user object. In the real world, this would query a database; however, in this example we are using a baked-in set of users.
passport.use(new LocalStrategy(
function(username, password, done) {
// Find the user by username. If there is no user with the given
// username, or the password is not correct, set the user to `false` to
// indicate failure and set a flash message. Otherwise, return the
// authenticated `user`.
findByUsername(username, function(err, user) {
if (err) { return done(err); }
if (!user) {
return done(null, false, { message: 'Unknown user ' + username });
}
if (user.password != password) {
return done(null, false, { message: 'Invalid password' });
}
return done(null, user);
})
});
}
));
Step 3: Initialize Passport on app
You need to tell Express that you will be using passport and that it will be managing sessions for you. This is done by using the app.use() during app configuration.
app.use(passport.initialize());
app.use(passport.session());
Step 4: Configure Middleware on the login URI
Next we need to create a method that will accept when a user tries to login to the app using by POST-ing to a specific URI. It will look like this.
// POST /login
// Use passport.authenticate() as route middleware to authenticate the
// request. If authentication fails, the user will be redirected back to the
// login page. Otherwise, the primary route function function will be called,
// which, in this example, will redirect the user to the home page.
//
// curl -v -d "username=bob&password=secret" http://127.0.0.1:3000/login
app.post('/login',
passport.authenticate('local', { failureRedirect: '/login', failureFlash: true }),
function(req, res) {
res.redirect('/');
});
Step 5: Set up Sessions
You may have to create your own serialization for User objects that are being stored in the sessions. That is done with the following
// Passport session setup.
// To support persistent login sessions, Passport needs to be able to
// serialize users into and deserialize users out of the session. Typically,
// this will be as simple as storing the user ID when serializing, and finding
// the user by ID when deserializing.
passport.serializeUser(function(user, done) {
done(null, user.id);
});
passport.deserializeUser(function(id, done) {
findById(id, function (err, user) {
done(err, user);
});
});
You can have a look at http://meanjs.org/
They have a very solid integration of passport.js strategies.
Especally useful is the implementation of Salt and Crypto-Technies to make the integration safe. Search for Salz within the repo.
See
https://github.com/meanjs/mean/blob/master/modules/users/server/config/strategies/local.js
For serialization and deserialization.
Or if you'd prefer a custom implementation, I recently posted a complete MEAN Stack User Registration and Login Example
Here's the snippet from the user service that handles authentication:
function authenticate(username, password) {
var deferred = Q.defer();
usersDb.findOne({ username: username }, function (err, user) {
if (err) deferred.reject(err);
if (user && bcrypt.compareSync(password, user.hash)) {
// authentication successful
deferred.resolve(jwt.sign({ sub: user._id }, config.secret));
} else {
// authentication failed
deferred.resolve();
}
});
return deferred.promise;
}
Or use mean.io which has user management out of the box.

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