Node.js Projects

Chapter 10. App Authentication

This chapter covers the following:

• Designing login authentication logic

• Using the Passport.js library to authenticate users and manage session or token-based strategies

• Using JSON web tokens to authenticate across APIs

In this chapter, you’ll build authentication logic for a Node application. No matter the type of core application you decide to build, user authentication remains a vital component in securing your application data. With the expansion of the accessibility and availability of the internet, so too have applications become more vulnerable to attacks.

Applications have come a long way from verifying your identity via an email address and plain-text password. Most have implemented basic encryption or a hashing function to save only jumbled text versions of your passwords. Others have taken security to a new level with multifactor authentication (MFA), ensuring that a user may only log in with their password if they also verify their account with an additional code sent to their phone or email.

Each year, the tech community faces new user security and authentication problems, with many companies investing in dedicated teams to solve them. Luckily, most businesses have a mutual interest in protecting their clients’ account data, resulting in industry standards for creating new accounts and processing incoming requests. These best practices are extended beyond the standard web page to mobile clients and Application Programming Interfaces ...