JWT Authentication for Asp.Net Web Api

Question

I'm trying to support JWT bearer token (Json Web Token) in my web api application and I'm getting lost.

I see support for .net core and for OWIN applications.
I'm currently hosting my application over the IIS.

How can I achieve this authentication module in my application? Is there any way I can use the <authentication> configuration similar to the way I use form's\windows authentication?

Answer 1

I've managed to achieve it with minimal effort (just as simple as with ASP.NET Core).

For that I use OWIN Startup.cs file and Microsoft.Owin.Security.Jwt library.

In order for the app to hit Startup.cs we need to amend Web.config:

<configuration>
  <appSettings>
    <add key="owin:AutomaticAppStartup" value="true" />
    ...

Here's how Startup.cs should look:

using MyApp.Helpers;
using Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens;
using Microsoft.Owin;
using Microsoft.Owin.Security;
using Microsoft.Owin.Security.Jwt;
using Owin;

[assembly: OwinStartup(typeof(MyApp.App_Start.Startup))]

namespace MyApp.App_Start
{
    public class Startup
    {
        public void Configuration(IAppBuilder app)
        {
            app.UseJwtBearerAuthentication(
                new JwtBearerAuthenticationOptions
                {
                    AuthenticationMode = AuthenticationMode.Active,
                    TokenValidationParameters = new TokenValidationParameters()
                    {
                        ValidAudience = ConfigHelper.GetAudience(),
                        ValidIssuer = ConfigHelper.GetIssuer(),
                        IssuerSigningKey = ConfigHelper.GetSymmetricSecurityKey(),
                        ValidateLifetime = true,
                        ValidateIssuerSigningKey = true
                    }
                });
        }
    }
}

Many of you guys use ASP.NET Core nowadays, so as you can see it doesn't differ a lot from what we have there.

It really got me perplexed first, I was trying to implement custom providers, etc. But I didn't expect it to be so simple. OWIN just rocks!

Just one thing to mention - after I enabled OWIN Startup NSWag library stopped working for me (e.g. some of you might want to auto-generate typescript HTTP proxies for Angular app).

The solution was also very simple - I replaced NSWag with Swashbuckle and didn't have any further issues.

---

Ok, now sharing ConfigHelper code:

public class ConfigHelper
{
    public static string GetIssuer()
    {
        string result = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Issuer"];
        return result;
    }

    public static string GetAudience()
    {
        string result = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Audience"];
        return result;
    }

    public static SigningCredentials GetSigningCredentials()
    {
        var result = new SigningCredentials(GetSymmetricSecurityKey(), SecurityAlgorithms.HmacSha256);
        return result;
    }

    public static string GetSecurityKey()
    {
        string result = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SecurityKey"];
        return result;
    }

    public static byte[] GetSymmetricSecurityKeyAsBytes()
    {
        var issuerSigningKey = GetSecurityKey();
        byte[] data = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(issuerSigningKey);
        return data;
    }

    public static SymmetricSecurityKey GetSymmetricSecurityKey()
    {
        byte[] data = GetSymmetricSecurityKeyAsBytes();
        var result = new SymmetricSecurityKey(data);
        return result;
    }

    public static string GetCorsOrigins()
    {
        string result = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["CorsOrigins"];
        return result;
    }
}

Another important aspect - I sent JWT Token via Authorization header, so typescript code looks for me as follows:

(the code below is generated by NSWag)

@Injectable()
export class TeamsServiceProxy {
    private http: HttpClient;
    private baseUrl: string;
    protected jsonParseReviver: ((key: string, value: any) => any) | undefined = undefined;

    constructor(@Inject(HttpClient) http: HttpClient, @Optional() @Inject(API_BASE_URL) baseUrl?: string) {
        this.http = http;
        this.baseUrl = baseUrl ? baseUrl : "https://localhost:44384";
    }

    add(input: TeamDto | null): Observable<boolean> {
        let url_ = this.baseUrl + "/api/Teams/Add";
        url_ = url_.replace(/[?&]$/, "");

        const content_ = JSON.stringify(input);

        let options_ : any = {
            body: content_,
            observe: "response",
            responseType: "blob",
            headers: new HttpHeaders({
                "Content-Type": "application/json", 
                "Accept": "application/json",
                "Authorization": "Bearer " + localStorage.getItem('token')
            })
        };

See headers part - "Authorization": "Bearer " + localStorage.getItem('token')

Answer 2

I also implement Jason Web Token API in my project, you can download from this link JWT API Token. You can use [authorize] to check if a user is authenticated or not?

Answer 3

I think you should use some 3d party server to support the JWT token and there is no out of the box JWT support in WEB API 2.

However there is an OWIN project for supporting some format of signed token (not JWT). It works as a reduced OAuth protocol to provide just a simple form of authentication for a web site.

You can read more about it e.g. here.

It's rather long, but most parts are details with controllers and ASP.NET Identity that you might not need at all. Most important are

Step 9: Add support for OAuth Bearer Tokens Generation

Step 12: Testing the Back-end API

There you can read how to set up endpoint (e.g. "/token") that you can access from frontend (and details on the format of the request).

Other steps provide details on how to connect that endpoint to the database, etc. and you can chose the parts that you require.

Answer 4

I answered this question: How to secure an ASP.NET Web API 4 years ago using HMAC.

Now, lots of things changed in security, esp JWT is getting popular. In here, I will try to explain how to use JWT in the simplest and basic way that I can, so we won't get lost from jungle of OWIN, Oauth2, ASP.NET Identity... :).

If you don't know JWT token, you need to take a look a little bit at:

https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7519

Basically, a JWT token look like:

<base64-encoded header>.<base64-encoded claims>.<base64-encoded signature>

Example:

eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJ1bmlxdWVfbmFtZSI6ImN1b25nIiwibmJmIjoxNDc3NTY1NzI0LCJleHAiOjE0Nzc1NjY5MjQsImlhdCI6MTQ3NzU2NTcyNH0.6MzD1VwA5AcOcajkFyKhLYybr3h13iZjDyHm9zysDFQ

JWT token has three sections:

1. Header: JSON format which is encoded as a base64
2. Claims: JSON format which is encoded as a base64.
3. Signature: Created and signed based on Header and Claims which is encoded as a base64.

If you use the website jwt.io with token above, you can decode and see the token like below:

Technically, JWT uses signature which is signed from headers and claims with security algorithm specified in the headers (example: HMACSHA256). Therefore, JWT is required to be transferred over HTTPs if you store any sensitive information in claims.

Now, in order to use JWT authentication, you don't really need an OWIN middleware if you have legacy Web Api system. The simple concept is how to provide JWT token and how to validate token when the request comes. That's it.

Back to the demo, to keep JWT token lightweight, I only store username and expiration time in JWT. But this way, you have to re-build new local identity (principal) to add more information like: roles.. if you want to do role authorization. But, if you want to add more information into JWT, it's up to you, very flexible.

Instead of using OWIN middleware, you can simply provide JWT token endpoint by using action from controller:

public class TokenController : ApiController
{
    // This is naive endpoint for demo, it should use Basic authentication to provide token or POST request
    [AllowAnonymous]
    public string Get(string username, string password)
    {
        if (CheckUser(username, password))
        {
            return JwtManager.GenerateToken(username);
        }

        throw new HttpResponseException(HttpStatusCode.Unauthorized);
    }

    public bool CheckUser(string username, string password)
    {
        // should check in the database
        return true;
    }
}

This is naive action, in production you should use POST request or Basic Authentication endpoint to provide JWT token.

How to generate the token based on username?

You can use the NuGet package called System.IdentityModel.Tokens.Jwt from MS to generate the token, or even another package if you like. In the demo, I use HMACSHA256 with SymmetricKey:

    /// <summary>
    /// Use the below code to generate symmetric Secret Key
    ///     var hmac = new HMACSHA256();
    ///     var key = Convert.ToBase64String(hmac.Key);
    /// </summary>
    private const string Secret = "db3OIsj+BXE9NZDy0t8W3TcNekrF+2d/1sFnWG4HnV8TZY30iTOdtVWJG8abWvB1GlOgJuQZdcF2Luqm/hccMw==";

    public static string GenerateToken(string username, int expireMinutes = 20)
    {
        var symmetricKey = Convert.FromBase64String(Secret);
        var tokenHandler = new JwtSecurityTokenHandler();

        var now = DateTime.UtcNow;
        var tokenDescriptor = new SecurityTokenDescriptor
        {
            Subject = new ClaimsIdentity(new[]
                    {
                        new Claim(ClaimTypes.Name, username)
                    }),

            Expires = now.AddMinutes(Convert.ToInt32(expireMinutes)),

            SigningCredentials = new SigningCredentials(new SymmetricSecurityKey(symmetricKey), SecurityAlgorithms.HmacSha256Signature)
        };

        var stoken = tokenHandler.CreateToken(tokenDescriptor);
        var token = tokenHandler.WriteToken(stoken);

        return token;
    }

The endpoint to provide the JWT token is done, now, how to validate the JWT when the request comes, in the demo I have built JwtAuthenticationAttribute which inherits from IAuthenticationFilter, more detail about authentication filter in here.

With this attribute, you can authenticate any action, you just put this attribute on that action.

public class ValueController : ApiController
{
    [JwtAuthentication]
    public string Get()
    {
        return "value";
    }
}

You also can use OWIN middleware or DelegateHander if you want to validate all incoming request for your WebApi (not specific on Controller or action)

Below is the core method from authentication filter:

    private static bool ValidateToken(string token, out string username)
    {
        username = null;

        var simplePrinciple = JwtManager.GetPrincipal(token);
        var identity = simplePrinciple.Identity as ClaimsIdentity;

        if (identity == null)
            return false;

        if (!identity.IsAuthenticated)
            return false;

        var usernameClaim = identity.FindFirst(ClaimTypes.Name);
        username = usernameClaim?.Value;

        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(username))
            return false;

        // More validate to check whether username exists in system

        return true;
    }

    protected Task<IPrincipal> AuthenticateJwtToken(string token)
    {
        string username;

        if (ValidateToken(token, out username))
        {
            // based on username to get more information from database in order to build local identity
            var claims = new List<Claim>
            {
                new Claim(ClaimTypes.Name, username)
                // Add more claims if needed: Roles, ...
            };

            var identity = new ClaimsIdentity(claims, "Jwt");
            IPrincipal user = new ClaimsPrincipal(identity);

            return Task.FromResult(user);
        }

        return Task.FromResult<IPrincipal>(null);
    }

The workflow is, using JWT library (NuGet package above) to validate JWT token and then return back ClaimsPrincipal. You can perform more validation like check whether user exists on your system and add other custom validations if you want. The code to validate JWT token and get principal back:

   public static ClaimsPrincipal GetPrincipal(string token)
    {
        try
        {
            var tokenHandler = new JwtSecurityTokenHandler();
            var jwtToken = tokenHandler.ReadToken(token) as JwtSecurityToken;

            if (jwtToken == null)
                return null;

            var symmetricKey = Convert.FromBase64String(Secret);

            var validationParameters = new TokenValidationParameters()
            {
               RequireExpirationTime = true,
               ValidateIssuer = false,
               ValidateAudience = false,
               IssuerSigningKey = new SymmetricSecurityKey(symmetricKey)
            };

            SecurityToken securityToken;
            var principal = tokenHandler.ValidateToken(token, validationParameters, out securityToken);

            return principal;
        }

        catch (Exception)
        {
            //should write log
            return null;
        }
    }

If the JWT token is validated and principal is return, you should build new local identity and put more information into it to check role authorization.

Remember to add config.Filters.Add(new AuthorizeAttribute()); (default authorization) at global scope in order to prevent any anonymous request to your resources.

You can use Postman to test the demo:

Request token (naive as I mentioned above, just for demo):

GET http://localhost:{port}/api/token?username=cuong&password=1

Put JWT token in the header for authorized request, example:

GET http://localhost:{port}/api/value

Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJ1bmlxdWVfbmFtZSI6ImN1b25nIiwibmJmIjoxNDc3NTY1MjU4LCJleHAiOjE0Nzc1NjY0NTgsImlhdCI6MTQ3NzU2NTI1OH0.dSwwufd4-gztkLpttZsZ1255oEzpWCJkayR_4yvNL1s

The demo is put in here: https://github.com/cuongle/WebApi.Jwt