jose
## Implemented specs & features"JSON Web Almost Everything" - JWA, JWS, JWE, JWT, JWK, JWKS for Node.js with minimal dependencies
The following specifications are implemented by jose
- JSON Web Signature (JWS) - RFC7515
- JSON Web Encryption (JWE) - RFC7516
- JSON Web Key (JWK) - RFC7517
- JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) - RFC7518
- JSON Web Token (JWT) - RFC7519
- JSON Web Key Thumbprint - RFC7638
- JWS Unencoded Payload Option - RFC7797
- CFRG Elliptic Curve Signatures (EdDSA) - RFC8037
- secp256k1 curve EC Key support - JOSE Registrations for WebAuthn Algorithms
The test suite utilizes examples defined in RFC7520 to confirm its JOSE implementation is correct.
Available JWT validation profiles
- Generic JWT
- ID Token (id_token) - OpenID Connect Core 1.0
Detailed feature matrix (Click to expand)
Legend:
- ✓ Implemented
- ✕ Missing node crypto support / won't implement
- ◯ TBD
JWK Key Types | Supported | |
---|---|---|
RSA | ✓ | RSA |
Elliptic Curve | ✓ | EC |
Octet Key Pair | ✓ | OKP |
Octet sequence | ✓ | oct |
Serialization | JWS Sign | JWS Verify | JWE Encrypt | JWE Decrypt |
---|---|---|---|---|
Compact | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
General JSON | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Flattened JSON | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
JWS Algorithms | Supported | |
---|---|---|
RSASSA-PKCS1-v1_5 | ✓ | RS256, RS384, RS512 |
RSASSA-PSS | ✓ | PS256, PS384, PS512 |
ECDSA | ✓ | ES256, ES256K, ES384, ES512 |
Edwards-curve DSA | ✓ | EdDSA |
HMAC with SHA-2 | ✓ | HS256, HS384, HS512 |
JWE Key Management Algorithms | Supported | |
---|---|---|
AES | ✓ | A128KW, A192KW, A256KW |
AES GCM | ✓ | A128GCMKW, A192GCMKW, A256GCMKW |
Direct Key Agreement | ✓ | dir |
RSAES OAEP | ✓ | RSA-OAEP, RSA-OAEP-256 |
RSAES-PKCS1-v1_5 | ✓ | RSA1_5 |
PBES2 | ✓ | PBES2-HS256+A128KW, PBES2-HS384+A192KW, PBES2-HS512+A256KW |
ECDH-ES | ✓ | ECDH-ES, ECDH-ES+A128KW, ECDH-ES+A192KW, ECDH-ES+A256KW |
JWE Content Encryption Algorithms | Supported | |
---|---|---|
AES GCM | ✓ | A128GCM, A192GCM, A256GCM |
AES_CBC_HMAC_SHA2 | ✓ | A128CBC-HS256, A192CBC-HS384, A256CBC-HS512 |
JWT profile validation | Supported | profile option value |
---|---|---|
ID Token - OpenID Connect Core 1.0 | ✓ | id_token |
JWT Access Tokens JWT Profile for OAuth 2.0 Access Tokens | ◯ | |
Logout Token - OpenID Connect Back-Channel Logout 1.0 | ◯ | |
JARM - JWT Secured Authorization Response Mode for OAuth 2.0 | ◯ |
Notes
- RSA-OAEP-256 JWE algorithm is only supported when Node.js >= 12.9.0 runtime is detected
- Importing X.509 certificates and handling
x5c
is only supported when Node.js >= 12.0.0 runtime is detected - OKP keys are only supported when Node.js >= 12.0.0 runtime is detected
- See #electron-support for electron exceptions
Pending Node.js Support
- ECDH-ES with X25519 and X448 - see nodejs/node#26626
Won't implement:
- ✕ JWS embedded key / referenced verification
- one can decode the header and pass the (
x5c
,jwk
) toJWK.asKey
and validate with that key, similarly the application can handle fetching and then instantiating the referencedx5u
orjku
in its own code. This way you opt-in to these behaviours.
- one can decode the header and pass the (
- ✕ JWS detached content
- one can remove/attach the payload after/before the respective operation
- ✕ "none" alg support
- no crypto, no use
Have a question about using jose
? - ask.
Found a bug? - report it.
Missing a feature? - If it wasn't already discussed before, ask for it.
Found a vulnerability? - Reach out to us via email first, see security vulnerability disclosure.
Sponsor
If you want to quickly add secure token-based authentication to Node.js projects, feel free to check Auth0’s free plan at auth0.com/overview.
Support
If you or your business use jose
, please consider becoming a sponsor so I can continue maintaining it and adding new features carefree.
Documentation
Usage
For the best performance Node.js version >=12.0.0 is recommended, but ^10.13.0 lts/dubnium is also supported.
Installing jose
npm install jose
Usage
const jose = require('jose')
const {
JWE, // JSON Web Encryption (JWE)
JWK, // JSON Web Key (JWK)
JWKS, // JSON Web Key Set (JWKS)
JWS, // JSON Web Signature (JWS)
JWT, // JSON Web Token (JWT)
errors // errors utilized by jose
} = jose
Keys and KeyStores
Prepare your Keys and KeyStores. See the documentation for more.
const key = jose.JWK.asKey(fs.readFileSync('path/to/key/file'))
const jwk = { kty: 'EC',
kid: 'dl4M_fcI7XoFCsQ22PYrQBkuxZ2pDcbDimcdFmmXM98',
crv: 'P-256',
x: 'v37avifcL-xgh8cy6IFzcINqqmFLc2JF20XUpn4Y2uQ',
y: 'QTwy27XgP7ZMOdGOSopAHB-FU1JMQn3J9GEWGtUXreQ' }
const anotherKey = jose.JWK.asKey(jwk)
const keystore = new jose.JWKS.KeyStore(key, key2)
JWT vs JWS
The JWT module provides IANA registered claim type and format validations on top of JWS as well as convenience options for verifying UNIX timestamps, setting maximum allowed JWT age, verifying audiences, and more.
The JWS module on the other hand handles the other JWS Serialization Syntaxes with all their additional available features and allows signing of any payload, i.e. not just serialized JSON objects.
JWT Signing
Sign with a private or symmetric key with plethora of convenience options. See the documentation for more.
jose.JWT.sign(
{ 'urn:example:claim': 'foo' },
privateKey,
{
algorithm: 'PS256',
audience: 'urn:example:client_id',
expiresIn: '1 hour',
header: {
typ: 'JWT'
},
issuer: 'https://op.example.com'
}
)
JWT Verifying
Verify with a public or symmetric key with plethora of convenience options. See the documentation for more.
jose.JWT.verify(
'eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJQUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6IjRQQXBsVkJIN0toS1ZqN0xob0RFM0VVQnNGc0hvaTRhSmxBZGstM3JuME0ifQ.eyJ1cm46ZXhhbXBsZTpjbGFpbSI6ImZvbyIsImF1ZCI6InVybjpleGFtcGxlOmNsaWVudF9pZCIsImlzcyI6Imh0dHBzOi8vb3AuZXhhbXBsZS5jb20iLCJpYXQiOjE1NTEyOTI2MjksImV4cCI6MTU1MTI5NjIyOX0.nE5fgRL8gvlStf_wB4mJ0TSXVmhJRnUVQuZ0ts6a1nWnnk0Rv69bEJ12BoMdpyPrGa_W6dxU4HFj89F4pQwW0kqBK2-TZ_n9lq-iqupj46w_lpKOfPC3clVc7ZmqYF81bEA-nX93cSKqVV-qPNPEFenb8XHKszYhBFu_uiRg9rXj2qXVU7PXGJAGTzhVgVxB-3XDB1bQ_6KiDCwzVPftrHxEYLydRCaHzggDg6sAFUhQqhPguKuE2gs6jVUh_gIL2RXeoLoinx6gZ72rfovaOmud-yzNIUN8Tvo0pqBmx0s_lEhTlfrQCzN7hZNmV1eG0GDDE-S_CfZhPePnVJZoRA',
publicKey,
{
issuer: 'https://op.example.com',
audience: 'urn:example:client_id',
algorithms: ['PS256']
}
)
ID Token Verifying
ID Token is a JWT, but profiled, there are additional requirements to a JWT to be accepted as an
ID Token and it is pretty easy to omit some, use the profile
option of JWT.verify
to make sure
what you're accepting is really an ID Token meant to your Client. This will then perform all
doable validations given the input. See the documentation for more.
jose.JWT.verify(
'eyJhbGciOiJQUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCIsImtpZCI6InIxTGtiQm8zOTI1UmIyWkZGckt5VTNNVmV4OVQyODE3S3gwdmJpNmlfS2MifQ.eyJzdWIiOiJmb28iLCJub25jZSI6ImE1MWNjZjA4ZjRiYmIwNmU4ODcxNWRkYzRiYmI0MWQ4IiwiYXVkIjoidXJuOmV4YW1wbGU6Y2xpZW50X2lkIiwiZXhwIjoxNTYzODg4ODMwLCJpYXQiOjE1NjM4ODUyMzAsImlzcyI6Imh0dHBzOi8vb3AuZXhhbXBsZS5jb20ifQ.RKCZczgICF5G9XdNDSwe4dolGauQHptpFKPzahA2wYGG2HKrKhyC8ZzqpeVc8cbntuqFBgABJVv6_9YICRx_dgwPYydTpZfZYjHnxrdWF9QsIPEGs672mrnhqIXUnXoseZ0TF6GOq6P7Qbf6gk1ru7TAbr_ieyJnNWcJhh5iHpz1k3mFz0TyTh7UNXshtQXftPUipqz4OBni5r9UaZXHw8B3QYOnms8__GJ3owOxaqkr1jgRs_EWqMlBNjPaj7ElVaeBWljDKuoK673tH0heSpgzUmUX_W8IDUVqs33uglpZwAQC7cAA5mGEg2odcRpvpP5M-WaP4RE9dl9jzcYmrw',
keystore,
{
profile: 'id_token',
issuer: 'https://op.example.com',
audience: 'urn:example:client_id',
nonce: 'a51ccf08f4bbb06e88715ddc4bbb41d8',
algorithms: ['PS256']
}
)
Note: Depending on the channel you receive an ID Token from the following claims may be required
and must also be checked: at_hash
, c_hash
or s_hash
. Use e.g. oidc-token-hash
to validate those hashes after getting the ID Token payload and signature validated by jose
JWS Signing
Sign with a private or symmetric key using compact serialization. See the documentation for more.
jose.JWS.sign(
{ sub: 'johndoe' },
privateKey,
{ kid: privateKey.kid }
)
JWS Verifying
Verify with a public or symmetric key. See the documentation for more.
jose.JWS.verify(
'eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJqb2huZG9lIn0.T_SYLQV3A5_kFDDVNuoadoURSEtuSOR-dG2CMmrP-ULK9xbIf2vYeiHOkvTrnqGlWEGBGxYtsP1VkXmNsi1uOw',
publicKey
)
JWE Encrypting
Encrypt using the recipient's public key or a shared symmetrical secret. See the documentation for more.
jose.JWE.encrypt(
'eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJqb2huZG9lIn0.T_SYLQV3A5_kFDDVNuoadoURSEtuSOR-dG2CMmrP-ULK9xbIf2vYeiHOkvTrnqGlWEGBGxYtsP1VkXmNsi1uOw',
publicKey,
{ kid: publicKey.kid }
)
JWE Decrypting
Decrypt using the private key or a shared symmetrical secret. See the documentation for more.
jose.JWE.decrypt(
'eyJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2IiwiYWxnIjoiRUNESC1FUyIsImVwayI6eyJrdHkiOiJFQyIsImNydiI6IlAtMjU2IiwieCI6IkVsUGhsN1ljTVZsWkhHM0daSkRoOVJhemNYYlN2VFNheUF6aTBINFFtRUEiLCJ5IjoiM0hDREJTRy12emd6cGtLWmJqMU05UzVuUEJrTDBBdFM4U29ORUxMWE1SayJ9fQ..FhmidRo0twvFA7jcfKFNJw.o112vgiG_qUL1JR5WHpsErcxxgaK_FAa7vCWJ--WulndLpdwdRXHd9k3aL_k8K67xoAThrt10d7dSY2TlPpHdYkw979u0V-C4TNrpzNkv5jpBjU6hHyKpoGZfEsiTD1ivHaFy3ZLCTS69kN_eVKsZGLVf_dkq6Sz6bWE4-ln_fuwukPyMvjTyaTreLjPLBZW.ocKwptCm4Zn437L5hWFnHg',
privateKey
)
secp256k1
Note: the secp256k1 JOSE parameters registration and the RFC is still in a draft state. If the WG draft changes its mind about the parameter names again the new values will be propagated as a MINOR library version.
When you require jose
you can work with secp256k1
EC keys right away, the EC JWK crv
used is as per the specification secp256k1
.
const jose = require('jose')
let key = jose.JWK.generateSync('EC', 'secp256k1')
key = jose.JWK.asKey(fs.readFileSync('path/to/key/file'))
key.crv === 'secp256k1'
For legacy reasons the unregistered EC JWK crv
value P-256K
is also supported but you must
require jose
like so to use it:
const jose = require('jose/P-256K')
let key = jose.JWK.generateSync('EC', 'P-256K')
key = jose.JWK.asKey(fs.readFileSync('path/to/key/file'))
key.crv === 'P-256K'
Electron Support
Electron v6.x runtime is supported to the extent of the crypto engine BoringSSL feature parity with standard Node.js OpenSSL. The following is disabled in Electron runtime because of its lack of support.
- JWE
A128KW
,A192KW
andA256KW
algorithms are not available, this also means that other JWAs depending on those are not working, those areECDH-ES+A128KW
,ECDH-ES+A192KW
,ECDH-ES+A256KW
,PBES2-HS256+A128KW
,PBES2-HS384+A192KW
,PBES2-HS512+A256KW
) - OKP curves
Ed448
,X25519
andX448
are not supported - EC curve
secp256k1
is not supported
Customized sign and verify support
You can implement CustomKey in order to JWT signing via KMS like Google Cloud KMS.
const { JWT, JWK, KeyObject } = require('jose')
class CustomKey extends JWK.CustomKey {
constructor () {
super({ alg: 'EC', use: 'sig', kid: '12345678', ops: ['sign', 'verify'], keyType: 'private' })
}
toPEM (priv, encoding) {
return undefined
}
algorithms (operation) {
return new Set(['ES256'])
}
sign (alg, buffer) {
console.log('sign invoked: ', alg)
return 'BASE_64_ENCODED_SIGNATURE'
}
verify (alg, buffer) {
console.log('verify invoked: ', alg)
return true
}
}
const customKey = new CustomKey()
const encoded = JWT.sign({}, customKey, {
expiresIn: '600s'
})
console.log('encoded : ', encoded)
const decoded = JWT.verify(encoded, customKey)
console.log('decoded : ', decoded)
FAQ
Semver?
Yes. Everything that's either exported in the TypeScript definitions file or documented is subject to Semantic Versioning 2.0.0. The rest is to be considered private API and is subject to change between any versions.
How do I use it outside of Node.js
It is only built for ^10.13.0 || >=12.0.0 Node.js environment - including jose
in
transpiled browser-environment targeted projects is not supported and may result in unexpected
results.
jws
, jwa
or jsonwebtoken
?
How is it different from - it supports JWK Key Format for all four key types (oct, RSA, EC and OKP)
- it is providing Key and KeyStore abstractions
- there is JSON Web Encryption support
- it supports all JWS / JWE Serialization Syntaxes
- it supports the "crit" member validations to make sure extensions are handled correctly
- it is not only validating the signatures, it is making sure the JWE/JWS is syntactically correct, e.g. not having duplicated header parameters between protected/unprotected or per-recipient headers
node-jose
How is it different from node-jose
is built to work in any javascript runtime, to be able to do that it packs a lot of
backfill and javascript implementation code in the form of
node-forge
, this significantly increases the footprint
of the module with dependencies that either aren't ever used or have native implementation available
in Node.js already, those are often times faster and more reliable.
What is the ultimate goal?
-
No dependencies, the moment JWK formatted keys are supported by node's
crypto
the direct dependency count will go down from 1 to 0.🚀 - Just the API one needs, having used other jose modules for 3+ years I only include what's useful
Why? Just, why?
I was using node-jose
for
openid-client
and
oidc-provider
and came to realize its shortcomings
in terms of performance and API (not having well defined errors).
+ this was an amazing opportunity to learn JOSE as a whole