Is the NEXTAUTH_SECRET variable the same as the backend secret used to generate the JWT token?

php Editor Apple, hello! Regarding your question, the NEXTAUTH_SECRET variable is different from the backend secret used to generate the JWT token. NEXTAUTH_SECRET is the key used in NextAuth.js to encrypt the session cookie, and the backend secret is the key used to verify and sign the JWT token. While both keys are used to secure user authentication to some extent, their role and how they are used are different. Make sure you set up and protect these keys correctly when using NextAuth.js and JWT to ensure the security of your application. hope it is of help to you! If you have any more questions, please feel free to continue consulting.

Question content

I am writing a front-end application using NextJS and using next auth for authentication (email, password login). My backend is a different codebase written in GoLang, so when a user logs in, it sends a request to the Golang backend endpoint and returns a JWT token, which is generated like this:

config := config.GetConfig()
atClaims := jwt.MapClaims{}
atClaims["authorized"] = true
atClaims["id"] = userId
atClaims["email"] = email
atClaims["exp"] = time.Now().Add(time.Hour * 24 * time.Duration(config.LoginExpire)).Unix()

token := jwt.NewWithClaims(jwt.SigningMethodHS256, atClaims)
signedToken, err := token.SignedString([]byte(config.AppSecret))

My problem is related to NEXTAUTH_SECRET this environment variable, I read from the Next Auth documentation that as you can see when generating tokens in Go, I use this config. AppSecret (environment variable for the backend), NEXTAUTH_SECRET need to be the same value as the backend's config.AppSecret, I'm not sure what the difference is.

Thanks in advance

Solution

The short answer is, no. NEXTAUTH_SECRET in Next.js and config.AppSecret in the GoLang backend do not need to be the same; they serve different purposes in your application stack.

NEXTAUTH_SECRET: Used in Next.js to secure NextAuth tokens, which are critical for session security within the NextAuth framework.

Backend Key (config.AppSecret): Used in the GoLang backend to sign JWT tokens to ensure the integrity and authenticity of the backend token.

If you want to use the token generated by the backend in your NextJs application, you should do the following:

1. Storage Token: Store the token in a secure location on the client side. Common practices include using localStorage, sessionStorage, or cookies. I prefer using cookies because they are automatically sent with every request and have security features such as HttpOnly and SameSite properties.

2. Send token in subsequent requests: When making requests to the backend, typically include this token in the Authorization header. The standard approach is to use the Bearer schema as follows: Authorization: Bearer <your_token_here></your_token_here>.

3. Token Validation: Your backend will validate this token on each protected route to authenticate the request. The token is decoded using the same key (config.AppSecret) used for signing.

In addition to this, you also need to handle token expiration, use the https channel for transmission, and implement CSRF protection if using cookies to store tokens.

However, if you wish to keep the authentication mechanisms of the frontend and backend separate and secure, you can use NEXTAUTH_SECRET in your Next.js application to secure the NextAuth session and ## for the GoLang backend. #config.AppSecret to securely sign JWT tokens.

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