Php rest api jwt authentication
Security has become a fundamental aspect to consider while developing an application. As people become more aware and hackers more notorious, you need to employ systems that strengthen your application's data security. Show
Previously, it was common to use session storage to secure applications. In recent times, sessions have proved inefficient, which pushed to migrate to authentication with APIs. Even though this was a superb and robust way to secure web applications, it became obsolete as hackers tried to figure out how to crack this authentication. As the web evolves to accept more and more users, the research for secure authentication techniques speeds up. In 2010, the world was introduced to a new and secure authentication standard -- JWT. Let's know more about JWT. What is JWT?JSON Web Token (JWT) is a safe way to authenticate users on a web app. Using JWT, you can securely transfer encrypted data and information between a client computer and a server.
JWT offers many benefits. Here are some of them. Benefits of Using JWT
Now that you've learned about the advantages, it's time to go deeper into the JWT. The Structure of JWT
The above string is an example of a JWT authentication string. At first glance, it may appear to be a randomly produced string. But don't underestimate; this string is made up of three separate components that are essential in a JWT. The header of a JWT is the initial section of the string before the first dot. This header is produced by acquiring plain text and performing cryptographic operations on it. Moreover, the header uses a very efficient Base64 encoding procedure. You can quickly obtain the JWT's headers using symmetric or asymmetric encryption techniques. JWT PayloadThe string's central component is the JWT's payload part. This string includes all of the important information about a received request and the user or client computer who created the request. There are predefined key-value pair fields in the payload that can be used to offer extra information about the received request. Here is an explanation of common payload fields.
JWT SignatureA cryptographic operation is performed on the JWT data to obtain this signature. It takes in the payload, secret key, and header value of a JWT. The signature is then generated by applying a function to these obtained values. The server and user can verify this signature to know about the data's security and integrity. If this signature matches at both ends, then the data is considered secure, and all other transactions can occur. Using JWTs to Secure PHP APIAs you've understood everything about JWT, let's secure your PHP API using JWT. Follow the code along, and, in the end, you'll create a tamper-proof PHP API. This article creates a simple login page and authenticates it using JWT. This will help you get started with JWT and PHP. To follow along, you'll need to have PHP and composer installed on your computer. If you haven't already installed composer on your computer, you can learn how to install composer here. Once you've installed composer, run the tool from your project folder. Composer will assist you in installing Firebase PHP-JWT, a third-party library for working with JWTs and Apache. Once the library is installed, you'll need to set up a login code in
When the form gets submitted, you need to check the entered data with a data source or database. For our
purpose, let's create a
Any further coding will be wrapped in this block itself. The value of the Creating JWTLet's start creating the JWT. First, you need to generate some more variables to aid in this process. As you saw in the payload section, you must create:
JWT's can be easily inspected and checked at client-side browsers. So it is better to hide your secret key and other important information in some environment file, which the user cannot access through client-side requests.
Now you have all the
required data in hand; you can easily create a JWT. Here, you'll use the PHP-JWT package's Following the conversion to a JSON object, the encode function produces JWT headers and signs the received payload with a cryptographic combination of all the information and the given secret key. It is essential to supply three arguments to the To obtain and return the JWT, you'll have to use the echo method above the encode method, as shown below.
Now that you have obtained the JWT token, you can transfer it to the client-side and save it using any web programming language of your choice. Let's start with a short JS demonstration of the route ahead. First, when a successful form submission takes place, save the created and received JWT in client-side memory. To display some output about the JWT's success, remove the login form and merely display a button that retrieves and displays the JWT's timestamp to the user when it is clicked. Here is some sample code for the process mentioned above.
You've already produced and submitted the JWT to the user. So now it's time to put the JWT to use on the user side. Using JWTAs previously stated, if the form submission is successful, you'll display a button to obtain a timestamp. This button will invoke the GET method on the The following code will help you achieve this feat.
Once you've written this code, run the program and enter your credentials into the form fields. A GET request will be sent when you click the submit button. Here is a sample GET request to assist you in making the correct identification.
Validating JWTIf you've followed along until here, everything should be working fine. Now, let's begin with validating the JWT. To get help with this operation, you've previously added the composer's autoloader function. You'll now use the
The code above attempts to extract the token from the Bearer header. In this case, error handling is utilized. Thus if the token is not discovered, an HTTP 404 error is displayed to the user. To validate the JWT, you must first compare it to the previously created JWT.
The extracted JWT is saved at the first index of the matches array. If the matching array is empty, it means no JWT was extracted. If the preceding code runs successfully, it implies that the JWT has been extracted, and you may now proceed. Decoding the received data is required for verifying a JWT. Only the secret key may be used to decode the received data. Once you've obtained the secret key, you may use the static decode function of the PHP-JWT module. The decode method requires three arguments, which are as follows.
If the decode method succeeds, you may proceed to validate the JWT. The code below will assist you in decoding and validating a JWT.
This code will provide all the necessary parameters to the decode function and save the method's result. Then, to prevent unauthorized access, error handling is employed. If any of the fields in the JWT are unavailable, an HTTP 401 error indicating unauthorized access will be issued to the user. LoginRadius Authentication for PHP AppsInstead of using the process discussed above, you can use LoginRadius Identity Platform to authenticate your PHP APIs quickly. You can start by referring to LoginRadius PHP documentation. In addition, you can use LoginRadius PHP SDK to add social single sign-on (SSO), which, in turn, simplifies signup and login for your users by eliminating the need for remembering an extra set of credentials for your app. ConclusionIn this tutorial, you've learned about JWT. Then created a PHP web application and secured it with JWT authentication. You understood how easy and important it is to secure a web application. You can find the complete code used in this tutorial here. Don't forget to try this out for your more significant projects. Finally, if you face any problems following this tutorial or have questions, please feel free to comment below. We'll respond as soon as we can to clarify your questions. How use JWT authentication with Web API in PHP?Once you've installed composer, run the tool from your project folder. Composer will assist you in installing Firebase PHP-JWT, a third-party library for working with JWTs and Apache. Once the library is installed, you'll need to set up a login code in authenticate. php .
How use JWT authentication for REST API?Procedure. Make sure that the JWT authentication is enabled for REST APIs by setting the value of servlet. jwt. auth. ... . The incoming HTTP request for REST API call must contain the request header “Authorization” with scheme “Bearer” followed by JWT. The signature of the token and expiration date is verified by the system.. How to add JWT token in PHP?How to Build a JSON Web Token in PHP. Create the Header and Payload. To begin we need to create header and payload JSON strings. ... . Create Base64Url Header and Payload Strings. ... . Create the Signature. ... . Base64Url Encode the Signature. ... . Create the JSON Web Token.. How use OAuth 2.0 for REST API calls in PHP?Using OAuth 2.0 for Web Server Applications. Step 1: Set authorization parameters.. Step 2: Redirect to Google's OAuth 2.0 server.. Step 3: Google prompts user for consent.. Step 4: Handle the OAuth 2.0 server response.. Step 5: Exchange authorization code for refresh and access tokens.. |