I want to make a JSON API with Rails 5 that will feed an angular app and possibly later mobile apps. I do not want to include any html in the rails application. I typically use devise to handle user creation and authentication in regular rails apps. I would like to implement an OAuth2 compliant flow so I found a gem called doorkeeper.
I like devise as it handles the sending of a confirmation email and password reseting, etc. I would like doorkeeper to keep my app OAuth2 compliant.
My issue is that the OAuth2 documentation says to try to not use the password grant type but I cannot find a better alternative method for a site being served by the same server the API is coming from. Should I require a CSRF token only for the OAuth route to acquire the access token to ensure the request is coming from the site? Should I use the CSRF token from within the angular app the entire time in conjunction with the access token?
Also should I have devise handle the sending of the access token? How would that work in the other flows besides password grant? I would also have to edit devise to only accommodate JSON requests and to respond in kind.
Also I would like to implement a JWT however I still think it best to have the token linked to a session ID, I know the kind of defeats the purpose of the JWT but I think its beneficial to use the JWT in order to accommodate native apps.
I am sure this is not an uncommon thing to want to set up nowadays but I have yet to find a solid walkthrough connecting devise, doorkeeper, and an API only setup. Has anyone experienced and implemented a something like this?
Related
I keep seeing lots of tutorials for Rails API services where they just bring back session cookies and use lots of configuration of Devise. I'm not opposed to using Devise Token Auth but as far as I can tell, it doesn't support JWTs.
I want JWT support but also I want features like confirming/locking/unlocking accounts like Devise does. Anytime I see tutorials for JWT with silent refreshing capability (after an access token expired or is about to expire, the refresh token is used to get a new token) they are tutorials with Node.js as the back end. Devise JWT is a library that sits on top of Devise but requires a bunch of configuring of Devise and it doesn't support refresh tokens and the author of the library seems to have a weird philosophy about revoking JWTs (which defeats the purpose of JWTs in my opinion).
I feel like this should've been solved with some kind of modernized library for API only applications already or some kind of configuration with Devise or Devise Token Auth that supports access and refresh JWTs for the purpose of silent refresh.
Alternatively, is there a course that exists that goes through this with the intention of using React as the front end?
I've decided to roll my own solution. I've created a new gem called devise_jwt_auth that is essentially a JWT-based, access/silent refresh solution ported from Devise Token Auth. At this stage it isn't a mature solution but I welcome any contributors who would like to help. You can find the project here and its been published through rubygems.org so you can gem install devise_jwt_auth and use it.
You can try this library: rails_jwt_auth
It doesn't support refresh tokens but you can add this funcionality.
I have a Rails app using Vue.js for some front-end components. I use Devise for authentication, but since some of my Vue components make JSON requests to my backend, should I be using something like JWT authentication? I'm confused about when Devise is enough and when some type of JSON web token authentication becomes necessary.
If you are developing a Single Page Application, maybe you need a JWT. The user must login once at the beginning, after login you will have a Json Web Token, and the next requests need to use the token in order to authenticate.
You can take a look a devise-jwt gem, to implement these feature.
https://github.com/waiting-for-dev/devise-jwt
I'm writing an application that will primarily be accessed via API, but will also have views for editing via web app.
I would like to create a User model with authentication and authorization across both platforms.
I'm having trouble understanding the relationship between the devise and devise_token_auth libraries, other than that the former is recommended for most rails apps and the latter is great for API-only authentication.
For my case, what is the appropriate library to use, or should I be using both? Should I be generating the User model via devise and then adding the token auth to it? Do both systems use different authentication schemes? I'm just trying to understand why devise_token_auth exists apart from devise.
I'm also just a bit confused about the added complexity of token-based authentication. What would be wrong with simply having the users be registered and managed through devise, generating an API secret key for them, and then having them sign their API requests with that. Why the need for token based auth in the API?
devise_token_auth is an advanced method of API authentication which may, or may not, be overkill for your application. Essentially, a new token is generated for each API request.
Depending on what your needs are, you may be fine with token-based authentication, or perhaps even HTTP Basic auth, which devise supports out of the box.
I have a rails web which has been using cookie session authentication (devise) from its beginning. Now, we are developing an ionic mobile application which uses the API available from the rails application.
I have considered to use JWT or token authentication for this new application but I can't find a way to combine both authentication methods, cookie and JWT. Also, both applications have different requirements. For example, in the web a user can have concurrent sessions only if he/she has a certain role. On the opposite, in the mobile application it is possible to have concurrent session without any restriction.
I have reading a lot trying to figure how to combine both methods but I can't find the way. Maybe I should consider to use only one of the methods (JWT) or use another approach (doorkeeper).
Finally I have found a solution. According to refaelos and Zac Stewart, I have combined devise with JWT gem, using the last as a new strategy for the first. By this way, when I don't use JWT tokens, devise will choose the default strategy (database_authenticatable in my case). Otherwise, it will use JWT strategy.
However, when the user is not authenticated and make a post request to Session#create to get the credentials, the strategy chosen by devise/warden is database_authenticatable. In order to avoid this, I needed to add a new parameter to the request but only for this case because, as I said, when the token appears in the request, the new strategy is selected.
See also:
An Introduction to Using JWT Authentication in Rails
I am building an API and I'm stuck at the authentication part. I will try to explain what I have and what I'm trying to accomplish:
First, the API is closed to the public, it will only be used on the admin's back-end and for 3rd party devices in the company.
I have a model called Member that is being used with Devise for authentication
I'm also using STI to distinguish between 3 levels of users (using CanCan for roles)
What I thought:
I tried the Token authentication by Rails, it worked but I was afraid of expose the token in each Ajax request, I don't know if I was right.
I also tried to use a '/token' route to post my credentials and get a token, but I was facing the same problem in a more complicated approach. The link with the tutorial
I don't wanna use OAuth because it's unnecessary for that kind of application.
Is it secure to use this token authentication with ajax requests or is there a more secure way to prevent people accessing my API?
Token authentication needs to be done over a secure connection.
If for example you are using Heroku, it is possible to use
their credentials to gain a HTTPS url. With this the contents
will be encrypted and so exposing the token through JSON
over the API will be acceptable.