Articles tagged jwt
A Comparison of Cookies and Tokens for Secure Authentication
Access control in websites and web applications is a top priority for security, but how you set up access depends on how you store the data to be authenticated. This, in turn, enables user authorization. Cookies and tokens are two common ways of setting up authentication. Cookies are chunks of data created by the server and sent to the client for communication purposes. Tokens, usually referring to JSON Web Tokens (JWTs), are signed credentials encoded...
How to Write a Secure Python Serverless App on AWS Lambda
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. Modern authentication systems generate JSON Web Tokens (JWT). While there are several types of JWTs, we’re concentrating on access tokens. When a user successfully...
A Beginner's Guide to JWTs
JSON Web Tokens (JWT) are used everywhere (even places they shouldn’t be). This post will cover the basics of what you need to know about JWT and the related specifications in the Javascript Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) family. JWT is pronounced "jot". Table of Contents What is a JWT? How JWTs Are Used JWT Structure JWT Claims JWT Header JWT Signature Problems with JWTs Learn More About JWT What is a JWT? A JWT...
Protecting a Laravel API with JWT
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. With the increasing popularity of single-page apps and the growing API economy, JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) are becoming a very popular method for authenticating...
Build a Modern API using Fastify and Node.js
Fastify is just as the name implies, fast. Not just in terms of development speed—its low overhead means the server is fast as well. When writing APIs, speed on both sides is paramount. Fastify is a web framework for Node.js that was designed for efficiency. Fastify is fully extensible with hooks, plugins, and decorators. It is schema-based, meaning you can define your response and request objects in your routes and have Fastify do the data...
JWT vs Opaque Access Tokens: Use Both With Spring Boot
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. The topic of validating an OAuth 2.0 access tokens comes up frequently on this blog. Often we talk about how to validate JSON Web...
A Thorough Introduction to PASETO
Today I’m going to introduce you to one of my favorite pieces of security technology released in the last several years: PASETO (platform-agnostic security tokens). PASETO is a relatively new protocol, designed by Scott Arciszewski in early 2018 that is quickly gaining adoption in the security community. While PASETO is still a young technology, I thought it’d be interesting to take an in-depth look at it, since it’s both incredibly useful and solves a lot...
JWTs in React for Secure Authentication
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. Although authentication is a common requirement for web apps, it can be difficult to get it right, especially if you’re by yourself or part...
Build a Secure React Application with JWTs and Redux
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. If you’ve worked with React at all, chances are you’ve at least heard of Redux. But you may not know what it is, how...
Build a REST API Using Java, MicroProfile, and JWT Authentication
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. In this post, you will learn how to build a simple REST API using Eclipse MicroProfile and secure it using JSON Web Token (JWT)...
Decode JWTs in C# for Authorization
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. There are two main steps in securing an application: authentication and authorization. Authentication is easy enough. A user enters a username and password (maybe...
Angular Authentication with JWT
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. User registration and authentication are one of the features that almost no web application can do without. Authentication usually consists of a user entering...
Token Authentication in PHP
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) have turned into the de-facto standard for stateless authentication of mobile apps, single-page web applications, and machine-to-machine communication. They have...
Build a Simple REST API in PHP
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. REST APIs are the backbone of modern web development. Most web applications these days are developed as single-page applications on the frontend, connected to...
Modern Token Authentication in Node with Express
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. Token authentication is the hottest way to authenticate users to your web applications nowadays. There’s a lot of interest in token authentication because it...
Create and Verify JWTs in PHP with OAuth 2.0
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) allow you to implement stateless authentication (without the use of server-side sessions). JWTs are digitally signed with a secret key...
Create a Secure Spring REST API
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. “If it is useful, it will be modified.” Those words of wisdom came from a QA teacher of mine, to explain that all software...
Build a Basic App with Spring Boot and JPA using PostgreSQL
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. Every non-trivial application needs a way to save and update data: a resource server that is accessible via HTTP. Generally, this data must be...
Create and Verify JWTs with Node
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. Authentication on the internet has evolved quite a bit over the years. There are many ways to do it, but what worked well enough...
Tutorial: Create and Verify JWTs in Java
Java support for JWT (JSON Web Tokens) used to require a lot of work: extensive customization, hours lost resolving dependencies, and pages of code just to assemble a simple JWT. Not anymore! This tutorial will show you how to use an existing JWT library to do two things: Generate a JWT Decode and verify a JWT You’ll notice the tutorial is pretty short. That’s because it’s that easy. If you’d like to dig deeper, take...
Simple Token Authentication for Java Apps
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. JSON Web Tokens have quickly become the standard for securing web applications, superseding older technologies like cookies and sessions. Used properly, they address a...
Build a Java REST API with Java EE and OIDC
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. Java EE allows you to build Java REST APIs quickly and easily with JAX-RS and JPA. Java EE is an umbrella standards specification that...
What Happens If Your JWT Is Stolen?
All of us know what happens if our user credentials (email and password) are discovered by an attacker: they can log into our account and wreak havoc. But a lot of modern applications are using JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) to manage user sessions—what happens if a JWT is compromised? Because more and more applications are using token-based authentication, this question is increasingly relevant to developers and critical to understand if you’re building any sort of...
Secure a Node API with OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. Securing server-to-server API services can be tricky. OAuth 2.0 is an excellent way to offload user authentication to another service, but what if there...
Why JWTs Suck as Session Tokens
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) are so hot right now. They’re all the rage in web development: Trendy? ✓ Secure? ✓ Scalable? ✓ Compact? ✓...
Secure a Spring Microservices Architecture with Spring Security, JWTs, Juiser, and Okta
Note: In May 2025, the Okta Integrator Free Plan replaced Okta Developer Edition Accounts, and the Okta CLI was deprecated. We preserved this post for reference, but the instructions no longer work exactly as written. Replace the Okta CLI commands by manually configuring Okta following the instructions in our Developer Documentation. You’ve built a microservices architecture with Spring Boot and Spring Cloud. You’re happy with the results, and you like how it adds resiliency to...
REST Service Authorization with JWTs
Many companies are adopting micro-services based architectures to promote decoupling and separation of concerns in their applications. One inherent challenge with breaking applications up into small services is that now each service needs to deal with authenticating and authorizing requests made to it. Json Web Tokens (JWTs) offer a clean solution to this problem along with TLS client authentication lower down in the stack. Wils Dawson and I presented these topics to the Java User...