djwt

the absolute minimum to make JSON Web Tokens on deno. Based on JWT and JWS specifications.

Features

After the Compact Serialization process where a web token is represented as the concatenation of

'BASE64URL(UTF8(JWS Protected Header))' || '.' || 'BASE64URL(JWS Payload)' ||'.'|| 'BASE64URL(JWS Signature)'

...the finalized JWT looks like this:

 eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLA0KICJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9
 .
 eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFtcGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ
 .
 dBjftJeZ4CVP-mB92K27uhbUJU1p1r_wW1gFWFOEjXk

Cryptographic Algorithm

Of the signature and MAC algorithms specified in JSON Web Algorithms JWA, only HMAC SHA-256 ("HS256"), HMAC SHA-512 ("HS512") and none have been implemented already. But more shall come soon.

Critical Header Parameter (crit)

It supports the Critical Header Parameter which is described in the JWS specification here.

You can find an example which includes the crit header parameter here.

API

The API consists mostly of the two functions makeJwt and validateJwt.

You can omit the JWT payload and its claims if you only need the signing and verification feature of the JWS.

makeJwt(headerObject: Jose, claims: Claims | string = "", key: string)

validateJwt(jwt: string, key: string, throwErrors: boolean = true, criticalHandlers: CritHandlers = {})

Additionally there is the helper function setExpiration which simplifies setting an expiration date.

setExpiration(exp: number | Date): number

// A specific date:
setExpiration(new Date("2020-07-01"))
// One hour from now:
setExpiration(new Date().getTime() + 60 * 60 * 1000)

Example

Try djwt out with this simple server example:

The server will respond to a GET request with a newly created JWT.
On the other hand, if you send a JWT as data along with a POST request, the server will check the JWT for validity.

import { serve } from "https://deno.land/std/http/server.ts"
import { encode, decode } from "https://deno.land/std/strings/mod.ts"
import makeJwt, { setExpiration } from "https://deno.land/x/djwt/create.ts"
import validateJwt from "https://deno.land/x/djwt/validate.ts"

const key = "abc123"
const claims = {
  iss: "joe",
  exp: setExpiration(new Date().getTime() + 60_000),
}
const headerObject = {
  alg: "HS512",
  typ: "JWT",
}
;(async () => {
  for await (const req of serve("0.0.0.0:8000")) {
    if (req.method === "GET") {
      const jwt = makeJwt(headerObject, claims, key)
      req.respond({ body: encode(jwt + "\n") })
    } else {
      const requestBody = decode(await req.body())
      validateJwt(requestBody, key, false)
        ? req.respond({ body: encode("Valid JWT\n") })
        : req.respond({ status: 401, body: encode("Invalid JWT\n") })
    }
  }
})()

Todo

  1. Add more optional features from the JWT and JWS specifications
  2. Improve documentation
  3. Make more tests