I have an app where users can create posts. There is no login or user account needed! They submit content with a form as post request. The post request refers to my api endpoint. I also have some other api points which are fetching data.
My goal is to protect the api endpoints completely except some specific sites who are allowed to request the api ( I want to accomplish this by having domain name and a secure string in my database which will be asked for if its valid or not if you call the api). This seems good for me. But I also need to make sure that my own application is still able to call the api endpoints. And there is my big problem. I have no idea how to implement this and I didn't find anything good.
So the api endpoints should only be accessible for:
Next.js Application itself if somebody does the posting for example
some other selected domains which are getting credentials which are saved in my database.
Hopefully somebody has an idea.
I thought to maybe accomplish it by using env vars, read them in getinitalprops and reuse it in my post request (on the client side it can't be read) and on my api endpoint its readable again. Sadly it doesn't work as expected so I hope you have a smart idea/code example how to get this working without using any account/login strategy because in my case its not needed.
index.js
import Head from 'next/head'
import Image from 'next/image'
import styles from '../styles/Home.module.css'
export default function Home(props) {
async function post() {
console.log(process.env.MYSECRET)
const response = await fetch('/api/hello', {
method: 'POST',
body: JSON.stringify(process.env.MYSECRET),
})
if (!response.ok) {
console.log(response.statusText)
}
console.log(JSON.stringify(response))
return await response.json().then(s => {
console.log(s)
})
}
return (
<div className={styles.container}>
<button onClick={post}>Press me</button>
</div>
)
}
export async function getStaticProps(context) {
const myvar = process.env.MYSECRET
return {
props: { myvar },
}
}
api
// Next.js API route support: https://nextjs.org/docs/api-routes/introduction
export default function handler(req, res) {
const mysecret = req.body
res.status(200).json({ name: mysecret })
}
From what I understand, you want to create an API without user authentication and protect it from requests that are not coming from your client application.
First of all, I prefer to warn you, unless you only authorize requests coming from certain IPs (be careful with IP Spoofing methods which could bypass this protection), this will not be possible. If you set up an API key that is shared by all clients, reverse engineering or sniffing HTTP requests will retrieve that key and impersonate your application.
To my knowledge, there is no way to counter this apart from setting up a user authentication system.
EDIT - this question is still unanswered. There was an idea to listen to onIdTokenChanged, however the token is refreshed once every hour, which is not practical solution for me. I posted follow up question here if people can give me a hand that would be grant, because I am sitting on this problem since one week.
I am writing a simple react native app, and I want to show my main page only after user has verified their email. As far as I understand, there is no listener which I can use to listen to event where the user has been verified their email. I am using firebase.auth().onAuthStateChanged((user) => {....}) but the listener onAuthStateChanged has been called after user is logged in or registered in, not after a user has verified their email.
Few places suggested to use firebase.auth().user.reload() so that it will reload the current user and it will pick up the verification status from the database. However, I dont think it is a solution because I dont know when should I reload the current user, i.e. I dont know when the verification link has been clicked. So possible solution to this problem would be:
Send a confirmation 6 digit code to the user, and wait for the user to type it in the app; after the user types it, if the code is the same, I refresh the user. However I dont know how to send custom verification emails with firebase. I checked the documentation, but it is not helpful for me. If someone can point me to example written in react native, or write a small working example with custom email which I can send to the user (again in react native) that would be grant! EDIT - this doesn't seem like possible solution, since Firebase doesn't let you customize the emails
Is it possible solution for me to override onAuthStateChanged listener? S.t. it will listen for changes if the user's email has been verified or not? If that's a good idea can someone point me to the current onAuthStateChanged implementation in react-native, so I can see it as an "inspiration" when overriding? Or if someone has done something similar before, can you show me an example?
I've read several suggestions to use a deep link and to intersept the event when the link has been clicked, but I am not sure how to do this, or even if this is a proper solution to the problem.
Some people suggested to use firebase.auth().user.reload() when the app has been closed and reopened again. This comes from the assumption that when a user has been sent the link, in order for them to click on the link, they need to close the app, and reopen it again. I think this is pretty strong assumption, considering the fact, that they might verify their email via laptop and never close the app, so I dont think this is a good solution either.
Apparently this seems like a well known problem, yet there are not many good solutions. I think best possible solution would be to send 6 digit verification code to the user and after that code has been confirmed, I would reload the current user, pick up the emailVerified field, it will be set to true and then I will show the main screen. However, can someone help me with how do I send custom email in react native and firebase?
If anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know!
You can simply do this by passing a continue url in the actionCodeSettings as below:
const res = await firebase.auth().createUserWithEmailAndPassword(
email,
password
);
await res.user.sendEmailVerification({
url: "https://yoursite.com/continue-url"
});
Is it possible solution for me to override onAuthStateChanged listener? S.t. it will listen for changes if the user's email has been verified or not?
The onAuthStateChanged is called when the user's authentication state changes, so when they go from not being signed in to being signed in or vice versa. The email verification flag being set is not a change in authentication state, so the callback is not called in that case.
You can listen for onIdTokenChanged instead, which fires every time the ID token changes. Since the ID token includes the flag whether the user's email is verified, a callback on onIdTokenChanged will also be called when that changes.
I used #1man solution, just i make sure to delete the interval and unsubscribe from the onAuthStateChanged event:
const onAuthStateChangedUnsubscribe =
firebase.auth().onAuthStateChanged(async (user) => {
if (user) {
// -> Alert Email Verification
await user.sendEmailVerification()
const onIdTokenChangedUnsubscribe = firebase.auth().onIdTokenChanged((user) => {
const unsubscribeSetInterval = setTimeout(() => {
firebase.auth().currentUser.reload();
firebase.auth().currentUser.getIdToken(/* forceRefresh */ true)
}, 10000);
if (user && user.emailVerified) {
clearInterval(unsubscribeSetInterval) //delete interval
onAuthStateChangedUnsubscribe() //unsubscribe onAuthStateChanged
// -> Go to your screnn
return onIdTokenChangedUnsubscribe() //unsubscribe onIdTokenChanged
}
})
}
})
So, on my project I made a combination of sendEmailVerification() and reload().
Try it:
await firebase
.auth()
.currentUser.sendEmailVerification(actionCodeSettings)
.then(() => {
//useState used on my loading (user can cancel this loading and exit this task
setTextContent('Waiting for verification. Check your email!\nYou can close this verification and came back later');
const unsubscribeOnUserChanged = firebase
.auth()
.onUserChanged(response => {
const unsubscribeSetInterval = setInterval(() => {//this works as a next in for-like
firebase.auth().currentUser.reload();
}, 30000);
if (response.emailVerified) {
clearInterval(unsubscribeSetInterval); //stop setInterval
setLoading(false); //close loading describes above
navigation.goBack(); //return to parent (in my case to profile)
return unsubscribeOnUserChanged(); //unsubscribe onUserChanged
}
});
})
.catch(error => {
setLoading(false);
setError(true);
errorHandle(error);
});
#3 is a common workflow - Firebase sends the link which, when clicked, opens your app. Your app reads the deep link and handles the payload (email verified). I don't know what language you're using, but you mentioned that you don't know how to do this and it's probably something you'll want to explore.
Your concern in #4 (someone opening the link on a laptop) is only an issue if you allow it to be one. I don't know what language you're using, but when you call the verify email function, you have to pass a url to Firebase which it will use in the email it sends. So your users will be taken wherever you send them. If you send them to a web app or something because you want them to open it on a laptop, then I think your best bet in app would be to have your website (or wherever you're sending them) also write something to a Firestore or RTDB document and have your app listening to that doc for updates.
If the link you pass to Firebase is a deep link to your app, it won't work on their laptop. And in this case, you go back to #3 - read the deep link in your app and handle it early. Also, it's incumbent on you to explain to users how this works, so I'd have my send link confirmation screen explain that they should click the link on the current device.
An alternative would be to have your send link function in-app start a background timer that polls the auth record every few seconds/minutes (whatever your use case), and cancel it when the record is updated or the link expires. I don't love this because email links are valid for 3 days - that's an awful long time to be polling every few seconds in app.
I wanted to do the same thing on the web. I tried the previous three answers and searched a lot but was not able to find the answer. I ended up combining #Frank van Puffelen and #Hermanyo H's solutions into one and it worked for me:
const onAuthStateChangedUnsubscribe = firebase.auth().onAuthStateChanged(async (user) => {
if (user) {
setEmailVerified("Sent");
await user.sendEmailVerification();
const onIdTokenChangedUnsubscribe = firebase.auth().onIdTokenChanged((user) => {
if (user && user.emailVerified) {
setEmailVerified("Verified");
return onIdTokenChangedUnsubscribe(); //unsubscribe
}
setTimeout(() => {
firebase.auth().currentUser.reload();
firebase.auth().currentUser.getIdToken(/* forceRefresh */ true);
}, 10000);
});
}
});
I wrote my own events instead of using onAuthStateChange.
//Write this where you wrote onAuthStateChange event
import auth from '#react-native-firebase/auth';
import {DeviceEventEmitter} from 'react-native';
useEffect(()=>{
let loginListener = DeviceEventEmitter.addListener('#verified_login', params=>{
setUserDetails(auth()._user);
});
return loginListener;
}, []);
Then you can emit this event when you want to allow the user to log in. There's a lot of room for customization here.
await auth().signInWithEmailAndPassword(email, password);
if(auth()._user.emailVerified)
DeviceEventEmitter.emit('#verified_login');
else{
auth()._user.sendEmailVerification()
.then(()=>{
console.log('A verification link has been sent to your email. Please verify to proceed.');
let emailVerificationEventListener = setInterval(async ()=>{
auth().currentUser.reload();
if (auth().currentUser.emailVerified) {
clearInterval(emailVerificationEventListener);
DeviceEventEmitter.emit('#verified_login');
}
}, 1000);
})
.catch(error=>{
console.log(error);
});
}
The api seems to have changed, this worked for me.
auth.idTokenResult.subscribe((result) => {
console.log('onIdTokenChanged');
console.log(result);
})
This issue can be fixed smoothly using firebase dynamic links
when a user requests to authenticate their emails we send a dynamic link with the request:
auth().currentUser.sendEmailVerification({
url: "https://oursite.com/verified-email",
});
when the user clicks on the link in the email he will be redirected to the dynamic link we included above
then we listen to the link and handle it on the client:
dynamicLinks().onLink((link) => {
if (link.url.includes("verified-email")) {
auth().currentUser.reload();
}};
Did you consider the documentation on the Firebase documentation pages?
https://firebase.google.com/docs/auth/web/email-link-auth
Sample code on that page:
import { getAuth, isSignInWithEmailLink, signInWithEmailLink } from "firebase/auth";
// Confirm the link is a sign-in with email link.
const auth = getAuth();
if (isSignInWithEmailLink(auth, window.location.href)) {
// Additional state parameters can also be passed via URL.
// This can be used to continue the user's intended action before triggering
// the sign-in operation.
// Get the email if available. This should be available if the user completes
// the flow on the same device where they started it.
let email = window.localStorage.getItem('emailForSignIn');
if (!email) {
// User opened the link on a different device. To prevent session fixation
// attacks, ask the user to provide the associated email again. For example:
email = window.prompt('Please provide your email for confirmation');
}
// The client SDK will parse the code from the link for you.
signInWithEmailLink(auth, email, window.location.href)
.then((result) => {
// Clear email from storage.
window.localStorage.removeItem('emailForSignIn');
// You can access the new user via result.user
// Additional user info profile not available via:
// result.additionalUserInfo.profile == null
// You can check if the user is new or existing:
// result.additionalUserInfo.isNewUser
})
.catch((error) => {
// Some error occurred, you can inspect the code: error.code
// Common errors could be invalid email and invalid or expired OTPs.
});
}
I am having difficulty using the FirebaseApp (a 3rd party API) to generate an authentication token that can be passed to a sidebar and used by the client to login and access my Firebase Database client-side.
I'm trying to use this tutorial but cannot get it working without using a database secret (which is being depreciated) in makeToken(). I'd prefer to use a service account as reflected in this tutorial. When I look at the difference between the tokens generated, the first 2 pieces separated by a '.' are identical, the last piece after the final '.' is different. The lengths are the same as well. eg:
//Example Generated by Database Secret: TWFuIGlzIGRpc3Rpbmd1aXNoZWQsIG5vdCBv.ZGdlLCBleGNlZWRzIHRoZSBzaG9ydCB2ZWhlbWVuY2Ugb2YgYW55IGNhcm5hbCBwbGVhc3VyZS4=.dGhlIG1pbmQsIHRoYXQgYnkgYSBwZXJzZXZlcmFuY2U=
//Example Generated by Service Account: TWFuIGlzIGRpc3Rpbmd1aXNoZWQsIG5vdCBv.ZGdlLCBleGNlZWRzIHRoZSBzaG9ydCB2ZWhlbWVuY2Ugb2YgYW55IGNhcm5hbCBwbGVhc3VyZS4=.IHNpbmd1bGFyIHBhc3Npb24gZnJvbSBvdGhlciBhbml=
I can generate the OAuth access token, pass it to FirebaseApp and generate an authentication token, but when it is passed client-side and I attempt to authenticate I get an error: Login Failed! Error: INVALID_TOKEN: Failed to validate MAC.
It seems like there is a lot of misinformation and conflicting information on how this should be done.
I have a getFirebaseService() function server-side that uses Apps Script OAuth2 Library to get an access token.
function getFirebaseService() {
return OAuth2.createService('Firebase')
// Set the endpoint URL.
.setTokenUrl('https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token')
// Set the private key and issuer.
.setPrivateKey(fb_PRIVATE_KEY) //Service account private key
.setIssuer(fb_SERVICE_EMAIL) //Service account email
// Set the property store where authorized tokens should be persisted.
.setPropertyStore(PropertiesService.getScriptProperties())
// Set the scopes.
.setScope('https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email https://www.googleapis.com/auth/firebase.database');
}
I have a makeToken() function server-side that gets an authentication token from Firebase using the OAuth access token. I am able to use the service.getAccessToken() OAuth token server-side to access and store data. So that works, I guess my issue is creating a client auth token that's more restrictive.
function makeToken(){
var service = getFirebaseService();
if (service.hasAccess()) {
return FirebaseApp.getDatabaseByUrl(fb_URL, service.getAccessToken()) //Database Secret Works: "AAslhfi3MYACCESSTOKEN2930hf03ah4th8" but is being depreciated.
.createAuthToken(Session.getActiveUser().getEmail());
} else {
Logger.log("makeToken: " + service.getLastError());
}
}
Then client-side, from the sidebar, I try to authenticate with a custom auth token retrieved server-side from makeToken().
var userAuthToken;
google.script.run.withSuccessHandler(function (requestAuthToken) {
userAuthToken = authenticateClient(requestAuthToken)
}).makeToken();
function authenticateClient(userRequestToken) {
var ref = new Firebase(fb_URL);
ref.authWithCustomToken(userRequestToken, function (error, authData) {
if (error) {
console.log("FB Login Failed!", error); //Error below come from here.
}
else {
console.log("FB Login Succeeded!", authData);
}
});
return ref.authData.auth;
}
This results in Login Failed! Error: INVALID_TOKEN: Failed to validate MAC..
Edit: Is it possible FirebaseApp is incorrectly generating the JWT Authentication Token?
Edit2: I think the above edit is unlikely as I attempted to use the GSApp library and had the same issue. It only seems to want the depreciated database secret, not a service account OAuth.
Alright, so after a very long day I figured it out. I'm going to lay out what I ended up using for libraries and what the issue was (see the third library). The main problem was essentially that the tutorial was outdated and no a lot of people use Firebase in apps script.
OAuth2 (Server-side)
Link
I didn't have to change anything here! It was working fine and never an issue.
FirebaseApp (Server-side)
Link
This is a nice library and I stuck with it because it worked well (once I got it there). I had to make a change to my original code that came from the tutorial I mentioned. My code ended up like this and worked:
if (service.hasAccess()) {
return FirebaseApp.getDatabaseByUrl(fb_URL, service.getAccessToken()) //get OAuth Token
.createAuthToken(Session.getEffectiveUser().getEmail(), null, serviceAccount.client_email, serviceAccount.private_key);
//... Added the null, private key, and service email parameters.
Firebase (Client-side)
Link
Alright, so this is where my main issue was -- The tutorial I followed for client-side setup was old. I had to upgrade the code on my own to use the new 3.x version:
<script src="https://www.gstatic.com/firebasejs/5.8.2/firebase.js"></script>
// Initialize Firebase
var config = {
apiKey: "<Web API Key>",
authDomain: "<Project ID>.firebaseapp.com",
databaseURL: "https://<DB URL>.firebaseio.com/"
};
firebase.initializeApp(config);
With this firebase instance I was able to update my original authenticateClient() method:
function authenticateClient(userRequestToken) {
firebase.auth().signInWithCustomToken(userRequestToken).catch(function(error) {
// Handle Errors here.
console.error("authClient: ", error.code, error.message);
});
return {
uid: firebase.auth().currentUser.uid,
metadata: {
lastSignInTime: firebase.auth().currentUser.lastSignInTime
}
};
}
That's it! I now have a firebase instance with a signed in user via JWT Custom Token! I came across a few people with similar issues an I hope this helps.
I have several thousand OneSignal web push notification tokens I want to import to FCM. Is there a way to do this?
I see this endpoint which requires the https://fcm.googleapis.com/fcm/send/...key... endpoint that OneSignal gives me, but I don't know what to put in for auth and p256dh.
https://developers.google.com/instance-id/reference/server#create_registration_tokens_for_apns_tokens
So yes this can be done. First you will need to contact OneSignal support and get the public and private VAPID keys for your app. Each app in your dashboard will have a different set.
Next you will need to make an API call to OneSignal in order to export the users in a CSV file.
You can find the API url in the docs and use curl or use your favorite language. I used Node + Axios to make my calls. The API call will supply you with a link to download the CSV.
Here is the documentation https://documentation.onesignal.com/reference#csv-export
You want to make sure you add the "extra_fields" parameter to your request with the "web_auth" and "web_p256" fields added. The CSV will provide you with the other piece of the puzzle which is the endpoint url in their identifier column.
Once you have all this information you can now send pushes using a library such as web-push for Node
https://github.com/web-push-libs/web-push
Hope that helps!
EDIT
As Cedric stated the actual push payload is a little bit more complicated because you need to comply with the OneSignal Service worker data handling.
You can see the formatting starting at line 313 here
If you are using a library like web-push for Node to send your push payloads your payload would be formatted something like this for a standard push to a OneSignal service worker.
const uuidv1 = require('uuid/v1')
const webpush = require('web-push')
let subscription = {
endpoint: 'USER ENDPOINT URL',
keys: {
auth: 'USER AUTH KEY',
p256dh: 'USER P256 KEY'
}
}
let vapid = { private: 'VAPID PRIVATE KEY', public: 'VAPID PUBLIC KEY' }
// Format Message for OneSignal Service Worker
let notification = JSON.stringify({
custom: {
i: uuidv1(), //Generate UUID for the OneSignal Service worker to consume
u: 'CLICK URL'
},
title: 'TOP TITLE',
alert: 'MESSAGE BODY',
icon: 'ICON IMAGE URL'
})
webpush.setVapidDetails('mailto: sendError#YourEmail.com', vapid.public, vapid.private)
webpush.sendNotification(subscription, notification)
It's much more complex than Dan's answer. If your users don't subscribe to your own service worker, it won't work. OS will send its default notification when an 'unknown' error occurs, which it will send "You have new updates" as a notification to the user even though you passed different payload. You also need to pass: "custom": { "i": uuidv1() } to your payload for it to work. (don't forget to install uuid first through npm and call it). Check out this link and you'll figure out what other payload props you need to pass.
I have an application running on meteor.js and mongo.db. I am using robomongo as a tool for mongo.db. Now I'd like to do the following:
1. Somebody registers with my service (adding email to db)
2. I want to send an automatic welcome email to that person.
Is there any possibility how to do it?
You need an email server (SMTP), and then use the meteor email library. If you don't have an email server and don't want to create one, use a commercial solution. (Example)
Full working example you can find here: http://meteorpad.com/pad/iNMBHtNsv7XKHeq44
Notice it creates new users from within Meteor app, but the same effect will be when you use Robomongo or any other way of updating MongoDB.
First install package Email to be able to use Email.send.
In below example I assume that adding new user to collection Meteor.users should fire sending "invitation" email.
In very similar way you can detect if email was added to user object
(user.emails.length was changed) and then send email.
Then take a look at code:
// SERVER SIDE CODE:
Meteor.startup(function () {
// clean users on app resetart
// Meteor.users.remove({});
if(Meteor.users.find().count() === 0){
console.log("Create users");
Accounts.createUser({
username:"userA",
email:"userA#example.com",
profile:{
invitationEmailSend:false
}
}) ;
Accounts.createUser({
username:"userB",
email:"userB#example.com",
profile:{
invitationEmailSend:false
}
})
}
Meteor.users.find().observe({
added:function(user){
console.log(user.username, user.profile.invitationEmailSend)
if(!user.profile.invitationEmailSend){
Email.send({
from: "from#mailinator.com",
to: user.emails[0].address,
subject: "Welcome",
text: "Welcome !"
});
// set flag 'invitationEmailSend' to true, so email won't be send twice in the future ( ex. during restart of app)
Meteor.users.update({_id:user._id},{$set:{"profile.invitationEmailSend":true}});
}
}
})
});
Above code will send email to users who don't have flag equal to true in profile.invitationEmailSend. After e-mail is sent server updates user document in db and set user.profile.invitationEmailSend to true.
Whenever you add users to mongoDB (using Robomongo or any other way), then added function is executed and e-mail is send only to new users.