JWT Private / Public Key Confusion

Question

I'm trying to understand the logic of using JSON web tokens with private/public keys (RS512) when signing a payload of data sent from a client (in this case, a React Native App) to my server.

I thought the whole point of private/public keys was to keep the private key private (on my server) and hand the public key to the person who's successfully logged into the app.

I thought, with each API request to my server, the authenticated user of the app would use the public key to create the JWT (on the client side) and the server would use the private key to verify the signature/payload from the API request.

It seems I have it backwards because everywhere I read, you're supposed to sign a JWT with the private key -- but that goes against my understanding of who's in possession of the keys.

Depending on how the keys are created, some private keys can have a passcode which is supposed to be secret! So if the private key and the secret is out in the open (in client-side code) how secure can that be?

And where does the encryption come in? If the user of the app is sending sensitive data in the API, am I supposed to encrypt the payload and sign it with the JWT on the client side and then let the server verify the JWT signature and decrypt the data?

This tutorial was helpful https://medium.com/@siddharthac6/json-web-token-jwt-the-right-way-of-implementing-with-node-js-65b8915d550e but it seems backwards.

Any explanation would definitely help because all of the on-line tutorials aren't making sense.

Thank you.

Answer 1

The whole point of a bearer token, such as how JWTs are commonly used, is their intrinsic validity, i.e. you can verify them without being the issuer. This makes sense in a microservice architecture, where you have an auth server and many services that can accept the user token without asking the auth server. So, in the end, both the private and the public key are in the server, just in different machines. No one else is gonna verify a token in real life, but a company branch can set up a service from remote with just the public key received via email

Answer 2

With JWT, the possession and the use of the key materials are exactly the same as in any other contexts where cipher operations occur.

For signing:

• The private key is owned by the issuer and is used to compute the signature.
• The public key can be shared with all parties that need to verify the signature.

For encryption:

• The private key is owned by the recipient and is used to decrypt the data.
• The public key can be shared with any party that wants to send sensitive data to the recipient.

Encryption is rarely used with JWT. Most of the time the HTTPS layer is sufficient and the token itself only contains a few information that are not sensitive (datatime, IDs...).

The issuer of the token (the authentication server) has a private key to generate signed tokens (JWS). These tokens are sent to the clients (an API server, a web/native application...). The clients can verify the token with the public key. The key is usually fetched using a public URI.

If you have sensitive data that shall not be disclosed to a third party (phone numbers, personal address...), then the encrypted tokens (JWE) are highly recommended. In this case, each client (i.e. recipient of a token) shall have a private key and the issuer of the token must encrypt the token using the public key of each recipient. This means that the issuer of the token can select the appropriate key for a given client.

Answer 3

Hope this figure adds some clarity.

Answer 4

jwt.io does a great job of explaining that there is more than one way to sign the JWT. Users may sign and verify with a single secret, or use a public/private key pair for verifying/signing respectively.

JSON Web Token (JWT) is an open standard (RFC 7519) that defines a compact and self-contained way for securely transmitting information between parties as a JSON object. This information can be verified and trusted because it is digitally signed. JWTs can be signed using a secret (with the HMAC algorithm) or a public/private key pair using RSA or ECDSA.

Although JWTs can be encrypted to also provide secrecy between parties, we will focus on signed tokens. Signed tokens can verify the integrity of the claims contained within it, while encrypted tokens hide those claims from other parties. When tokens are signed using public/private key pairs, the signature also certifies that only the party holding the private key is the one that signed it.

Answer 5

Solution for JWE in React Native and Node Backend

The hardest part was finding a method that works in both RN and Node because I can't just use any Node library in RN.

I'm transmitting all of the API calls over HTTPS.

Create a JWE to encrypt the token and payload simultaneously.

React Native App Code

import {JWK, JWE} from 'react-native-jose';

/**
 * Create JWE encrypted web token
 *
 * @param payload
 * @returns {Promise<string>}
 */
async function createJWEToken(payload = {}) {

  // This is the Public Key created at login. It is stored in the App.  
  // I'm hard-coding the key here just for convenience but normally it 
  // would be kept in a Keychain, a flat file on the mobile device, or 
  // in React state to refer to before making the API call.

  const publicKey = `-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEApl9FLYsLnP10T98mT70e
qdAeHA8qDU5rmY8YFFlcOcy2q1dijpgfop8WyHu1ULufJJXm0PV20/J9BD2HqTAK
DZ+/qTv4glDJjyIlo/PIhehQJqSrdIim4fjuwkax9FOCuFQ9nesv32hZ6rbFjETe
QSxUPjNzsYGOuULWSR3cI8FuV9InlSZQ7q6dEunLPRf/rZujxiAxGzY8zrMehjM5
LNdl7qDEOsc109Yy3HBbOwUdJyyTg/GRPwklLogw9kkldz5+wMvwOT38IlkO2rCr
qJpqqt1KmxdOQNbeGwNzZiGiuYIdiQWjilq5a5K9e75z+Uivx+G3LfTxSAnebPlE
LwIDAQAB
-----END PUBLIC KEY-----`;

  try {

    const makeKey = pem => JWK.asKey(pem, 'pem');
    const key = await makeKey(publicKey);

    // This returns the encrypted JWE string

    return await JWE.createEncrypt({
      zip:    true,
      format: 'compact',
    }, key).update(JSON.stringify(payload)).final();

  } catch (err) {
    throw new Error(err.message);
  }

}

Node Backend

const keygen = require('generate-rsa-keypair');
const {JWK, JWE} = require('node-jose');

/**
 * Create private/public keys for JWE encrypt/decrypt
 *
 * @returns {Promise<object>}
 *
 */
async function createKeys() {

  // When user logs in, create a standard RSA key-pair.
  // The public key is returned to the user when he logs in.
  // The private key stays on the server to decrypt the message with each API call.
  // Keys are destroyed when the user logs out.

  const keys = keygen();
  const publicKey = keys.public;
  const privateKey = keys.private;

  return {
    publicKey,
    privateKey
  };

}

/**
 * Decrypt JWE Web Token
 *
 * @param input
 * @returns {Promise<object>}
 */
async function decryptJWEToken(input) {

  // This is the Private Key kept on the server.  This was
  // the key created along with the Public Key after login.
  // The public key was sent to the App and the Private Key
  // stays on the server.
  // I'm hard-coding the key here just for convenience but 
  // normally it would be held in a database to 
  // refer during the API call.

  const privateKey = `-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----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-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----`;

  try {

    const makeKey = pem => JWK.asKey(pem, 'pem');
    const key = await makeKey(privateKey);

    // This returns the decrypted data

    return await JWE.createDecrypt(key).decrypt(input);

  } catch (err) {
    throw new Error(err.message);
  }

}