API v12.0.x

Cookie authentication provides simple cookie-based session management. The user has to be authenticated via other means, typically a web form, and upon successful authentication the browser receives a reply with a session cookie. The cookie uses Iron to encrypt and sign the session content.

Subsequent requests containing the session cookie are authenticated and validated via the provided validate in case the cookie's encrypted content requires validation on each request.

It is important to remember a couple of things:

1. Each cookie operates as a bearer token and anyone in possession of the cookie content can use it to impersonate its true owner.
2. Cookies have a practical maximum length. All of the data you store in a cookie is sent to the browser. If your cookie is too long, browsers may not set it. Read more here and here. If you need to store more data, store a small amount of identifying data in the cookie and use that as a key to a server-side cache system.

The 'cookie' scheme takes the following options:

• cookie - an object with the following:

  • name - the cookie name. Defaults to 'sid'.
  • password - used for Iron cookie encoding. Should be at least 32 characters long.
  • ttl - sets the cookie expires time in milliseconds. Defaults to single browser session (ends when browser closes). Required when keepAlive is true.
  • domain - sets the cookie Domain value. Defaults to none.
  • path - sets the cookie path value. Defaults to none.
  • clearInvalid - if true, any authentication cookie that fails validation will be marked as expired in the response and cleared. Defaults to false.
  • isSameSite - if false omitted. Other options Strict or Lax. Defaults to Strict.
  • isSecure - if false, the cookie is allowed to be transmitted over insecure connections which exposes it to attacks. Defaults to true.
  • isHttpOnly - if false, the cookie will not include the 'HttpOnly' flag. Defaults to true.

• keepAlive - if true, automatically sets the session cookie after validation to extend the current session for a new ttl duration. Defaults to false.

• redirectTo - optional login URI or function function(request) that returns a URI to redirect unauthenticated requests to. Note that it will only trigger when the authentication mode is 'required'. To enable or disable redirections for a specific route, set the route plugins config ({ options: { plugins: { cookie: { redirectTo: false } } } }). Defaults to no redirection.

• appendNext - if redirectTo is true, can be a boolean, string, or object. Defaults to false.

  • if set to true, a string, or an object, appends the current request path to the query component of the redirectTo URI
  • set to a string value or set the name property in an object to define the parameter name. defaults to 'next'
  • set the raw property of the object to true to determine the current request path based on the raw node.js request object received from the HTTP server callback instead of the processed hapi request object

• async validate - an optional session validation function used to validate the content of the session cookie on each request. Used to verify that the internal session state is still valid (e.g. user account still exists). The function has the signature function(request, session) where:

  • request - is the Hapi request object of the request which is being authenticated.
  • session - is the session object set via request.cookieAuth.set().

  Must return an object that contains:

  • isValid - true if the content of the session is valid, otherwise false.
  • credentials - a credentials object passed back to the application in request.auth.credentials. If value is null or undefined, defaults to session. If set, will override the current cookie as if request.cookieAuth.set() was called.

• requestDecoratorName - USE WITH CAUTION an optional name to use with decorating the request object. Defaults to 'cookieAuth'. Using multiple decorator names for separate authentication strategies could allow a developer to call the methods for the wrong strategy. Potentially resulting in unintended authorized access.

When the cookie scheme is enabled on a route, the request.cookieAuth objects is decorated with the following methods:

• set(session) - sets the current session. Must be called after a successful login to begin the session. session must be a non-null object, which is set on successful subsequent authentications in request.auth.credentials where:
  • session - the session object.
• set(key, value) - sets a specific object key on the current session (which must already exist) where:
  • key - session key string.
  • value - value to assign key.
• clear([key]) - clears the current session or session key where:
  • key - optional key string to remove a specific property of the session. If none provided, defaults to removing the entire session which is used to log the user out.
• ttl(msecs) - sets the ttl of the current active session where:
  • msecs - the new ttl in milliseconds.

Because this scheme decorates the request object with session-specific methods, it cannot be registered more than once.

'use strict';

const Hapi = require('@hapi/hapi');


const internals = {};


// Simulate database for demo

internals.users = [
    {
        id: 1,
        name: 'john',
        password: 'password',
    },
];


internals.renderHtml = {
    login: (message) => {

        return `
    <html><head><title>Login page</title></head><body>
    ${message ? '<h3>' + message + '</h3><br></a>' : ''}
    <form method="post" action="/login">
      Username: <input type="text" name="username"><br>
      Password: <input type="password" name="password"><br></a>
    <input type="submit" value="Login"></form>
    </body></html>
      `;
    },
    home: (name) => {

        return `
    <html><head><title>Login page</title></head><body>
    <h3>Welcome ${name}! You are logged in!</h3>
    <form method="get" action="/logout">
      <input type="submit" value="Logout">
    </form>
    </body></html>
      `;
    }
};


internals.server = async function () {

    const server = Hapi.server({ port: 8000 });

    await server.register(require('@hapi/cookie'));

    server.auth.strategy('session', 'cookie', {

        cookie: {
            name: 'sid-example',

            // Don't forget to change it to your own secret password!
            password: 'password-should-be-32-characters',

            // For working via HTTP in localhost
            isSecure: false
        },

        redirectTo: '/login',

        validate: async (request, session) => {

            const account = internals.users.find((user) => (user.id === session.id));

            if (!account) {
                // Must return { isValid: false } for invalid cookies
                return { isValid: false };
            }

            return { isValid: true, credentials: account };
        }
    });

    server.auth.default('session');

    server.route([
        {
            method: 'GET',
            path: '/',
            options: {
                handler: (request, h) => {

                    return internals.renderHtml.home(request.auth.credentials.name);
                }
            }
        },
        {
            method: 'GET',
            path: '/login',
            options: {
                auth: {
                    mode: 'try'
                },
                plugins: {
                    cookie: {
                        redirectTo: false
                    }
                },
                handler: async (request, h) => {

                    if (request.auth.isAuthenticated) {
                        return h.redirect('/');
                    }

                    return internals.renderHtml.login();
                }
            }
        },
        {
            method: 'POST',
            path: '/login',
            options: {
                auth: {
                    mode: 'try'
                },
                handler: async (request, h) => {

                    const { username, password } = request.payload;
                    if (!username || !password) {
                        return internals.renderHtml.login('Missing username or password');
                    }

                    // Try to find user with given credentials

                    const account = internals.users.find(
                        (user) => user.name === username && user.password === password
                    );

                    if (!account) {
                        return internals.renderHtml.login('Invalid username or password');
                    }

                    request.cookieAuth.set({ id: account.id });
                    return h.redirect('/');
                }
            }
        },
        {
            method: 'GET',
            path: '/logout',
            options: {
                handler: (request, h) => {

                    request.cookieAuth.clear();
                    return h.redirect('/');
                }
            }
        }
    ]);

    await server.start();
    console.log(`Server started at: ${server.info.uri}`);
};


internals.start = async function() {

    try {
        await internals.server();
    }
    catch (err) {
        console.error(err.stack);
        process.exit(1);
    }
};

internals.start();