persistant sessions? - firebase

Correct me if im wrong but the auth sessions have a 30day max limit? If that is the case, is there a way to keep my server node app listening to an authenticated dataRef persist forever?
Cheers,
Trav.

Since the on method has a cancel callback that is invoked any time permissions are revoked (i.e. auth expires), here's one (untested) possibility to handle the persistent connection:
var fb = new Firebase(URL_AND_PATH);
fb.auth( TOKEN, restart );
function _childAdded(ss) {
/* do something with data */
}
function _authRevoked() {
fb.unauth();
fb.auth( TOKEN, restart );
};
function restart(error) {
if( error ) { console.error(error); }
else {
fb.on('child_added', _childAdded, _authRevoked );
}
}

In addition to Kato's suggestion, what you can do is authenticate by passing in your global Firebase secret (available in Forge -> Auth -> Firebase Secrets -> "Show"). This is to be used only in trusted environments (e.g. your backend server), so be sure to not leak it by checking it in to your source control, passing it over to your client-code/end users, etc. This will only "expire" if the secret is revoked.

Related

Handle Firebase client-side token and access to protected pages

I'm using Firebase auth to login with Facebook, Google and email/pass. Basically, everything runs client-side, I make a call to Firebase and I receive an object containing an access token (that is a JWT ID Token), a customer id and its email. When I get this object, I put it into a persistent store (local storage, I know it's bad) and I perform an API call to one of my sveltekit endpoint that will in turn make another API call to a backend API (written in Go) to get all the user informations: firstname, lastname, phone, address, stats etc. To give a little bit of context, below is a diagram to illustrate what's happening when a user sign-in using Facebook.
Up to now, I just put the Firebase object into a store and just check if the information are there to allow access to a particular page. This check is done in the +layout.svelte page of the directory containing the page to be protected. It looks like something like this:
onMount(() => {
// redirect if not authenticated
if (browser && !$authStore?.uid) goto(`/auth/sign-in`);
});
It's probably not a good thing especially since my store persists in the local storage and therefore is prone to some javascript manipulation.
From my understanding, there's at least 2 things that could be better implemented but I may be wrong:
Set the access token in an httponly cookie straight after receiving it from Firebase. This would avoid storing the access token (that is a JWT) in the local storage and It could be used to authorize access or not to some protected pages...
I receive the Firebase authentication object on client-side buthttp only cookie can only be created from server side. I thought about sending the object as a payload to a POST sveltekit endpoint (like /routes/api/auth/token/+server.js) and set the cookie from here but apparently cookies is not available in a sveltekit endpoint.
So, how and where should I set this cookie ? I see that cookies is available in the load function of a +layout.server.js file, as well as in the handle function of a hooks.server.js file, but I don't see the logic here.
Populate locals.userwith the authenticated user once I've performed a call to my backend. Well, here, it's not obvious to me because I think point 1) would be enough to manage access to protected pages, but I see that a check of locals.user is something I've seen elsewhere.
I tried to set locals.user in the sveltekit endpoint that is making the API call to the backend API:
// /routes/api/users/[uid]/+server.js
import { json } from "#sveltejs/kit";
import axios from "axios";
import { GO_API_GATEWAY_BASE_URL } from "$env/static/private";
export async function GET({ request, locals, params }) {
try {
const config = {
method: "get",
baseURL: GO_API_GATEWAY_BASE_URL,
url: `/users/${params.uid}`,
headers: {
Authorization: `Bearer ${uidToken}`, // <-- the Firebase ID Token
},
withCredentials: true,
};
const res = await axios(config);
// set locals
locals.user = json(res.data); // <--- DOESN'T SEEM TO WORK
return json(res.data);
} catch (error) {...}
}
...but in the +layout.server.js page that I've created I see nothing:
// routes/app/protected_pages/+layout.server.js
import { redirect } from "#sveltejs/kit";
export function load({ locals }) {
console.log(locals); // <----- contains an empty object: {}
if (!locals.user) throw redirect(302, "/auth/sign-in");
}
Thank you so much for your help

How to always get latest Firebase Auth Token

Currently I am using this code to get the latest auth token for firebase, which I use in a header with Apollo or URQL to query something else to be validated...
async getToken(): Promise<any> {
return await new Promise((resolve: any, reject: any) => {
this.afa.onAuthStateChanged((user: any) => {
if (user) {
user.getIdToken(true).then((token: string) => {
resolve(token);
}, (e: any) => reject(e));
}
});
});
}
I am use getIdToken(true) to always make sure I get a valid token since the token expires after one hour and the custom claims could be updated at some point.
However, my code gets a new token every time, when really I only need to get a new token when the old one is expired, or there is new information in the token's custom claim.
Should I be using some for of onIdTokenChanged() ? Does firebase store all this automatically in the firebase localstoreage db (IndexedDB), or should I be using some form of localstorage and calculating the expiry time ?
Basically, what is the best way to minimize the number of refreshes to the token to speed up my app instead of getting a new token every time?
Thanks,
J
Unless you are using a custom solution with the REST API, the firebase client modules will automatically refresh the auth token with the refresh token when the old one expires.
As for updating the custom claims, you will have to communicate with the client app through some means such as a server response if you invoke a cloud function or a realtime database listener that the user is subscribed to if you are updating it based on 'external' conditions.

Firebase service account to generate authentication token for client-side use with Google Apps Script

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.

Firebase Web Admin

First of all, I am using nodejs for the backend. I use firebase hosting and firebase functions to deploy an express() app.
What I am trying to achieve is to make an admin website, which is connected to Firebase. so I have a route /admin/ like this:
adminApp.get("/", (request, response) => {
return response.redirect("/admin/login");
});
Here I basically want to check if a current user is logged in - or not.
I know firebase supports client side authentication using:
firebase.auth().onAuthStateChanged(user => {
if (user) {
} else {
}
});
And using
function login() {
var userEmail = document.getElementById("email").value;
var userPass = document.getElementById("password").value;
firebase.auth().signInWithEmailAndPassword(userEmail, userPass).catch(function(error) {
var errorCode = error.code;
var errorMessage = error.message;
if (error) {
document.getElementById('loginError').innerHTML = `Error signing in to firebase`;
}
});
}
However image this case:
Someone (not an admin) is visiting /admin/some_secret_website/ which he obviously does not have access to.
If I rely on client side authentication, it first loads the entire website and the scripts and then notices - hey I am not authenticated, let me redirect to /login. By then however anyone knows the source code of an admin page.
I'd rather have something like:
adminApp.get("/admin/some_secret_website", (request, response) => {
if (request.user) {
// user is authenticated we can check if the user is an admin and give access to the admin page
}
});
I know that you can get the user's token and validate that token using the AdminSDK, but the token must be send by the client code, meaning the website was already loaded.
I came across Authorized HTTPS Endpoint by firebase, but it only allows a middleware when using a bearer token.
Does anybody know how I can maintain a server side user object to not even return admin html to the browser but only allow access to admins?
Like Doug indicated, the way your admin website/webapp would function with Firebase Cloud Functions (which is effectively a Nodejs server) is that you get the request, then use the headers token to authenticate them against Firebase Auth. See this answer for a code snippet on this.
In your case, I'm thinking you would create a custom claim for an "administrator" group and use that to determine whether to send a pug templated page as a response upon authentication. As far as Authorization, your db rules will determine what said user can CRUD.

With Meteor, how to login from remote server?

I'm trying to use 2 servers using DDP.connect.
My subscription works well, but methods called using Meteor.call needs the user to be authenticated.
How can i connect the user to the remote server ?
You can authenticate this way:
var DDPConnection = DDP.connect(<url>);
DDPConnection.call("login", {
"password":"qwerty",
"user" : {
"email":"email#email.com"
}
},
function(err,result) {
//Check result
}
);
Check out my other answer on the different login options depending on the setup you have/want to use.

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