How to authorize logged in users using Google Auth JWT? (Picture)

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I currently have a backend running on AWS Lambda and I'm using DynamoDB as a database. In Dynamo, there is a list of users and each user has specific permissions as to what routes they have access to through the API. There is no issue here. I have not built the front end yet, but I will be logging in users using Google Auth, more specifically with the react-google-login component.

My question is: Once a user is logged in to the site, should I trust the JWT from Google (after verifying its legitimacy here with the Google API) which returns the user information (Name, Email), lookup the user item inside of Dynamo to retrieve their permissions, and then serve their request? This seems like the logical thing to do but I was looking for some confirmation. My one worry is that someone could use a supervisors name & email to authorize a request but if the lambda must accept a JWT created by Google as entry, I believe this problem is solved correct?

I have API Keys as well for every user for some external functionality, but I have that covered since it's just a Dynamo call away. My only concern is with the front end requests to Lambda since I do not want to roll my own auth/jwt.

Here is what I was envisioning. Thank you!

jwt oauth-2.0 google-authentication google-oauth oauth
1 Answers

Normally you should use access tokens for that purpose. The ID token should be meant only to authenticate the user, and the access token should be used to authorize access.

The best scenario would be to have a separate Authorization Server which could issue access tokens, and there are some open source solutions out there which you can use.

If you really don't want to setup your own AS then you could follow the scenario you outlined - the part with verifying JWT from Google and checking permissions in the DynamoDB is what the Authorization Server would normally do to issue an access token.

Just remember to thoroughly validate the incoming JWT - not only the signature with Google, but also check if that is a token created for your client / audience, etc. Otherwise someone could take a Google ID token JWT from their client and gain access to your API. This article lists best security practices when working with JWTs.

Also remember that ID tokens might have short expiration times and there are no means of automatically refreshing them (like you can do it with a refresh token in case of an access token), so you might end up having to reauthenticate quite often.

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