Sign in with Google - What should I do with `nonce`? - google-signin

What I'm doing now:
Using the JavaScript API to render the button on my web page.
When the Sign in with Google flow is complete, my client-side JavaScript callback is called.
That callback sends the given .credentials string to my server.
The backend server (Node.js) calls the google-auth-library library's OAuth2Client.verifyIdtoken method on the .credentials string, which returns the user's email address (among other things), which my server uses to verify the user and create a session.
Everything works, but I'm wondering if there are any security concerns I'm missing. In particular there's a nonce field. The docs (link) don't explain how to use it.
Note: I'm using "Sign in with Google" and not the deprecated "Google Sign-In".
Edit: I'm familiar with the concept of nonces and have used them when doing the OAuth 2 server-side flow myself. What I can't figure out is how the Sign in with Google SDK expects me to use its nonce parameter with the flow above, where I'm using both their client-side and server-side SDKs.

Nonces are used as a CSRF-prevention method. When you make a request to Google, you include a nonce, and when authentication is complete, Google will send the same nonce back. The magic in this method is that if the nonce does not match what you sent then you can ignore the response, because it was probably spoofed.
Read more about CSRF here: https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/csrf
Nonces are usually crytographically secure random strings/bytes.
I use crypto-random-string as a base to generate nonces, but any package with this functionality should suffice.
Sometimes I store nonces with a TTL in Redis, but other times I store nonces with an ID attached to the request so I can later verify it.
I'm telling you this since it took a bit long for me to figure out this nonce stuff :P

Using the example from Google's website (https://developers.google.com/identity/one-tap/android/idtoken-auth), I added the code for the nonce:
const nonce = '...'; // Supplied by client in addition to token
const {OAuth2Client} = require('google-auth-library');
const client = new OAuth2Client(CLIENT_ID);
async function verify() {
const ticket = await client.verifyIdToken({
idToken: token,
audience: CLIENT_ID, // Specify the CLIENT_ID of the app that accesses the backend
// Or, if multiple clients access the backend:
//[CLIENT_ID_1, CLIENT_ID_2, CLIENT_ID_3]
});
const payload = ticket.getPayload();
const serverNonce = payload['nonce'];
if (nonce != serverNonce) {
// Return an error
}
const userid = payload['sub'];
// If request specified a G Suite domain:
// const domain = payload['hd'];
}
verify().catch(console.error);

Related

Encryption key retrieve on http call to the API?

Can you tell me if the following flow is good practice for retrieving encryption key?
So I have an Angular app which has custom encryption service created by me and a npm library, which now uses simple string value for key.
I also store access token inside a cookie and the value is encrypted.
Is it good practice, while executing a standard CRUD operation method against my API, first in this method to execute a separate http get request to get the encryption key from the API (from a separate endpoint), then de-crypt the cookie and THEN send it in the http request?
For example, look at this pseudo-code:
getAllProductsAsAdmin(): Observable<any>{
let encryptionKey = callApiAndGetKeyMethod(this.encryptionKeyApiUrl);
let decryptedCookie = decryptCookie(this.existingCookie, encryptionKey);
this.headers = this.headers.set('Authorization', decryptedCookie);
return this.httpClient.get<IGetProductAdminModel[]>(this.getAllProductsAsAdminUrl, {headers: this.headers})
.pipe(
tap(data => console.log('All:',JSON.stringify(data))),
catchError(this.handleError)
);

How to set Authorization header while calling "callable function" on Firebase

Basically my problem is, I have my callable functions on Firebase where I want to use "context" to identify if the user is authenticated or not. In the front-end I am logging in user using Firebase authentication (which is an http function on firebase), and as I result I get my user token (which should be used as a Bearer token in the authorization header). The problem is I am not sure how to set the header when I sign in the user so that my "context.auth" would contain the logged in user info rather than being empty. I use firebase.functions().httpsCallable('myFunction'); as the document suggests to make the call from front-end where the problem is even though I logged in before making this call, my context is null.
To give more context think about the following scenario,
//Backend (deployed to cloud functions)
exports.signout = functions.https.onCall((data, context) => {
if(context.auth){
//do signout stuff and return true
}
else{
//not logged in so you can't sign out return false
}
});
//Client
let signout = firebase.functions().httpsCallable('signout');
signout()
.then(res => console.log("signed out"))
.catch(err => console.log(err))
So simply put, while making the httpsCallable('signout') in client, I should have the user token in the 'Authorization' header according to docs, so that I can access the context.auth from my callable function. The thing that I don't understand is how that header should be set there? The most logical thing is setting it on login, but it is not something like setting default header for axios since the call is not exactly an http request rather we use that special httpsCallable function. So how/when is that auth header should be set?
When you use a callable type function from a web or mobile client using the provided SDK, all of the details of the HTTP protocol are handled automatically. There's nothing you have to do to set any headers.
If the user is currently signed in at the time of the request, the SDK will add the authorization header automatically. If the user is signed out, then no header will be added. So, if you want to invoke signout with the authorization of the end user, you will obviously have to call it while they are signed in.
It sounds like you might have signed out the user before invoking the callable. In that case, your function will receive no user data.

How to retrieve email address from id_token Google Javascript API client (GAPI)

I have an SPA with Firebase backend and have integrated Google Calendar access.
To be able to authorise a user to use his/her Google Calendar I am using the gapi.auth2.authorize(params, callback) method. (this as opposed to the regular gapi.auth2.init and signIn flow because my users can link multiple Calendar accounts)
Docs: gapi.auth2.authorize
The problem I am experiencing:
Sometimes the id_token that is returned from authorize includes an email address, and sometimes it doesn't.
The id_token which is returned is a long string that can be read on the front end with a JavaScript function like so:
function parseJwt (token) {
let base64Url = token.split('.')[1]
let base64 = base64Url.replace('-', '+').replace('_', '/')
return JSON.parse(window.atob(base64))
}
When I parse the id_token, I am expecting an object including an email address. However sometimes it doesn't include the email property at all....
How can I retrieve the user's google calendar email address from this id_token in with JavaScript, so I can save it to the user's firestore DB?
Example of an expected result when parsing the id_token:
Example of an un-expected result (no email):
Possible cause:
I think that it might be related to the accounts not returning an email being a Google G-Suite account? And the ones that do return the email is a regular gmail account? But I don't know the solution.
PS:
My flow for re-authorisation for return users is to just use the same gapi.auth2.authorize but with {prompt: 'none', login_hint: 'emailaddress'} and fill in the user's saved email address. This works fine.
In case you want to authorise the JavaScript client with gapi.auth2.authorize but also require the email address the user authorised for, be sure to include email in the scope of the gapi.auth2.authorize(params, callback) parameters!!
A correct example of using JavaScript gapi for authorisation of Google calendar:
Step 1. Include in main HTML head:
<script type=text/javascript src="https://apis.google.com/js/api.js" async defer=defer></script>
Step 2. (once) Load the client: window.gapi.load('client', callbackFunction)Important: Only load the client!
Step 3. (once) Initialise the client for usage of Calendar API.
Important: Only include the discovery docs!
let calDocs = {
discoveryDocs: ['https://www.googleapis.com/discovery/v1/apis/calendar/v3/rest']
}
window.gapi.client.init(calDocs)
.then(_ => {
console.log('Calendar client initialised')
})
})
},
Step 4. (once) Authorise the gapi client for API calls with gapi.auth2.authorize(params, callbackFunction)
Important: Scope is a string with spaces! Include email in the scope. Do NOT include the discovery docs here!
params = {
client_id: clientId,
scope: 'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar email',
response_type: 'permission id_token'
}
You can repeat the gapi.auth2.authorize before any API call with extra params: {prompt: 'none', login_hint: 'emailaddress'} to refresh the user's access token. This will not show any prompt to the user if he already authorised once for your domain.

How to use Google Contacts API in meteor?

I am using meteor to create a webpage with a dropdown list of Google Groups to select from and once selected, the Google contacts will be displayed.
I am using HTTP.call POST to Google's API and testing with the accessToken from mongoDB but when I use that token after some time it expires. I looked into implementing an authentication flow but it is getting very complicated since there is no sample code on Google for meteor. I am new to nodeJS, Javascript and Meteor. Am I going about this the wrong way? How would I implement this in meteor?
https://developers.google.com/accounts/docs/OAuth2?csw=1#expiration
To deal with the expiration of the accessToken, you will need to obtain the refreshToken from Google. With this refreshToken, you can obtain a new accessToken whenever necessary via a simple HTTP POST to Google's API. Here is the relevant documentation from Google. To obtain the refreshToken, you will need to request for offline access and may also need to force the approval prompt, as detailed in this SO post.
forceApprovalPrompt: {google: true},
requestOfflineToken: {google: true},
I recommend achieving all of the above using Meteor's HTTP package. All the tools are there. You've probably already figured it out:
var result = HTTP.post(
"https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v3/token",
{
params: {
'client_id': config.clientId,
'client_secret': config.secret,
'refresh_token': user.services.google.refreshToken,
'grant_type': 'refresh_token'
}
});
//Do some error checking here
var newAccessToken = result.data.access_token;
refresh_token - The refresh token returned from the authorization
code exchange.
client_id - The client ID obtained from the
Developers Console.
client_secret - The client secret obtained from
the Developers Console.
grant_type - As defined in the OAuth 2.0
specification, this field must contain a value of refresh_token.
result.data will be a JSON object with the following
{
"access_token":"1/fFBGRNJru1FQd44AzqT3Zg",
"expires_in":3920,
"token_type":"Bearer",
}
Have a look at this package its a little wrapper that does auto refresh for you:
here
I actually ended up building my own auth flow for with oauth handler because i needed to move away from a tokens linked to user profiles.

Meteor.user() on iron-router server side

How can check, on server side route, if user is logged?
I would add check on 'before', but Metor.user() don't work here.
thanks in advance.
p.s. I have found How to get Meteor.user() to return on the server side?, but not work on iron-router
I'm afraid that this is not possible. I guess that the problem comes from the fact that you're trying to connect to the server with two different protocols - both literally and in logically - so there is no obvious way to relate this two actions.
There is, however, a pretty simple solution that may suit your needs. You'll need to develop a simple system of privileges tokens, or secret keys, or whatever you call them. First, create a server method
var Secrets = new Meteor.Collection("secrets"); // only on server!!!
Meteor.methods({
getSecretKey: function () {
if (!this.userId)
// check if the user has privileges
throw Meteor.Error(403);
return Secrets.insert({_id: Random.id(), user: this.userId});
},
});
Then, you can now use it on the client to get the secretKey which attach to your AJAX request (or something), either within the HTTP header or in the URL itself. Fear not!
They will all be encrypted if you're using HTTPS.
On the server side you can now retrieve the secretKey from the incoming request and check if it is present in the Secrets collection. You'll know then if the user is granted certain privileges or not.
Also you may want to remove your secret keys from the collection after some time for safety reasons.
If what you're looking to do is to authenticate the Meteor.user making the request, I'm currently doing this within the context of IronRouter.route(). The request must be made with a valid user ID and auth token in the header. I call this function from within Router.route(), which then gives me access to this.user:
###
Verify the request is being made by an actively logged in user
#context: IronRouter.Router.route()
###
authenticate = ->
# Get the auth info from header
userId = this.request.headers['x-user-id']
loginToken = this.request.headers['x-auth-token']
# Get the user from the database
if userId and loginToken
user = Meteor.users.findOne {'_id': userId, 'services.resume.loginTokens.token': loginToken}
# Return an error if the login token does not match any belonging to the user
if not user
respond.call this, {success: false, message: "You must be logged in to do this."}, 401
# Attach the user to the context so they can be accessed at this.user within route
this.user = user
###
Respond to an HTTP request
#context: IronRouter.Router.route()
###
respond = (body, statusCode=200, headers={'Content-Type':'text/json'}) ->
this.response.writeHead statusCode, headers
this.response.write(JSON.stringify(body))
this.response.end()
This code was heavily inspired by RestStop and RestStop2. It's part of a meteor package for writing REST APIs in Meteor 0.9.0+ (built on top of Iron Router). You can check out the complete source code here:
https://github.com/krose72205/meteor-restivus

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