jose

What is jose?

The 'jose' npm package is a JavaScript library that provides a variety of cryptographic operations based on JSON Web Tokens (JWT), JSON Web Encryption (JWE), JSON Web Signature (JWS), and JSON Web Key (JWK). It is designed to be compliant with the JOSE (JSON Object Signing and Encryption) suite of standards, and it supports various algorithms for encryption, decryption, signing, and verification of tokens.

What are jose's main functionalities?

JWT Signing

This code sample demonstrates how to create and sign a JWT with a specified algorithm and secret.

const { SignJWT } = require('jose');

const jwt = await new SignJWT({ 'urn:example:claim': true })
  .setProtectedHeader({ alg: 'HS256' })
  .setIssuedAt()
  .setIssuer('urn:example:issuer')
  .setAudience('urn:example:audience')
  .setExpirationTime('2h')
  .sign(new TextEncoder().encode('your-256-bit-secret'));

console.log(jwt);

JWT Verification

This code sample shows how to verify a JWT using a secret key and retrieve the payload and protected header.

const { jwtVerify } = require('jose');

const { payload, protectedHeader } = await jwtVerify(jwt, new TextEncoder().encode('your-256-bit-secret'));

console.log(payload);
console.log(protectedHeader);

JWE Encryption

This code sample illustrates how to encrypt a JWT using RSA-OAEP-256 for key management and A256GCM for content encryption.

const { EncryptJWT } = require('jose');

const jwe = await new EncryptJWT({ 'urn:example:claim': true })
  .setProtectedHeader({ alg: 'RSA-OAEP-256', enc: 'A256GCM' })
  .setIssuedAt()
  .setIssuer('urn:example:issuer')
  .setAudience('urn:example:audience')
  .setExpirationTime('2h')
  .encrypt(publicKey);

console.log(jwe);

JWE Decryption

This code sample demonstrates how to decrypt a JWE and obtain the payload and protected header using a private key.

const { jwtDecrypt } = require('jose');

const { payload, protectedHeader } = await jwtDecrypt(jwe, privateKey);

console.log(payload);
console.log(protectedHeader);

JWK Key Generation

This code sample shows how to generate a public and private key pair for the RS256 algorithm.

const { generateKeyPair } = require('jose');

const { publicKey, privateKey } = await generateKeyPair('RS256');

console.log(publicKey);
console.log(privateKey);

Other packages similar to jose

jsonwebtoken

The 'jsonwebtoken' package is similar to 'jose' in that it provides functionality for creating and verifying JWTs. It is widely used and has a simpler API for basic JWT operations, but it does not support JWE or more advanced JOSE features.

node-jose

The 'node-jose' package is another alternative that implements the JOSE suite of standards. It offers similar functionalities to 'jose' but has a different API design and may have different performance characteristics.

jws

The 'jws' package is focused on JSON Web Signatures (JWS). It is a simpler library that allows signing and verifying messages but does not handle JWTs, JWEs, or JWKs directly.

README

jose

"JSON Web Almost Everything" - JWA, JWS, JWE, JWT, JWK, JWKS for Node.js with minimal dependencies

Implemented specs & features

The following specifications are implemented by jose

• JSON Web Signature (JWS) - RFC7515
• JSON Web Encryption (JWE) - RFC7516
• JSON Web Key (JWK) - RFC7517
• JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) - RFC7518
• JSON Web Token (JWT) - RFC7519
• JSON Web Key Thumbprint - RFC7638
• JWS Unencoded Payload Option - RFC7797
• CFRG Elliptic Curve ECDH and Signatures - RFC8037
• secp256k1 EC Key curve support - JOSE Registrations for WebAuthn Algorithms

The test suite utilizes examples defined in RFC7520 to confirm its JOSE implementation is correct.

Available JWT validation profiles

• Generic JWT
• OIDC ID Token (id_token) - OpenID Connect Core 1.0
• (draft 04) OIDC Logout Token (logout_token) - OpenID Connect Back-Channel Logout 1.0
• (draft 06) OAuth 2.0 JWT Access Tokens (at+JWT) - JWT Profile for OAuth 2.0 Access Tokens

Draft profiles are updated as minor versions of the library, therefore, since they may have breaking changes use the ~ semver operator when using these and pay close attention to changelog and the drafts themselves.

Sponsor

If you want to quickly add secure token-based authentication to Node.js projects, feel free to check Auth0’s free plan at auth0.com/overview.

Support

If you or your business use jose, please consider becoming a sponsor so I can continue maintaining it and adding new features carefree.

Documentation

• jose API Documentation
  • JWK (JSON Web Key)
  • JWKS (JSON Web Key Set)
  • JWT (JSON Web Token)
  • JWS (JSON Web Signature)
  • JWE (JSON Web Encryption)

Usage

For the best performance Node.js version >=12.0.0 is recommended, but ^10.13.0 lts/dubnium is also supported.

Installing jose

npm install jose

Usage

const jose = require('jose')
const {
  JWE,   // JSON Web Encryption (JWE)
  JWK,   // JSON Web Key (JWK)
  JWKS,  // JSON Web Key Set (JWKS)
  JWS,   // JSON Web Signature (JWS)
  JWT,   // JSON Web Token (JWT)
  errors // errors utilized by jose
} = jose

Keys and KeyStores

Prepare your Keys and KeyStores. See the documentation for more.

const key = jose.JWK.asKey(fs.readFileSync('path/to/key/file'))

const jwk = { kty: 'EC',
  kid: 'dl4M_fcI7XoFCsQ22PYrQBkuxZ2pDcbDimcdFmmXM98',
  crv: 'P-256',
  x: 'v37avifcL-xgh8cy6IFzcINqqmFLc2JF20XUpn4Y2uQ',
  y: 'QTwy27XgP7ZMOdGOSopAHB-FU1JMQn3J9GEWGtUXreQ' }
const anotherKey = jose.JWK.asKey(jwk)

const keystore = new jose.JWKS.KeyStore(key, anotherKey)

JWT vs JWS

The JWT module provides IANA registered claim type and format validations on top of JWS as well as convenience options for verifying UNIX timestamps, setting maximum allowed JWT age, verifying audiences, and more.

The JWS module on the other hand handles the other JWS Serialization Syntaxes with all their additional available features and allows signing of any payload, i.e. not just serialized JSON objects.

JWT Signing

Sign with a private or symmetric key with plethora of convenience options. See the documentation for more.

jose.JWT.sign(
  { 'urn:example:claim': 'foo' },
  privateKey,
  {
    algorithm: 'PS256',
    audience: 'urn:example:client_id',
    expiresIn: '1 hour',
    header: {
      typ: 'JWT'
    },
    issuer: 'https://op.example.com'
  }
)

JWT Verifying

Verify with a public or symmetric key with plethora of convenience options. See the documentation for more.

jose.JWT.verify(
  'eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJQUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6IjRQQXBsVkJIN0toS1ZqN0xob0RFM0VVQnNGc0hvaTRhSmxBZGstM3JuME0ifQ.eyJ1cm46ZXhhbXBsZTpjbGFpbSI6ImZvbyIsImF1ZCI6InVybjpleGFtcGxlOmNsaWVudF9pZCIsImlzcyI6Imh0dHBzOi8vb3AuZXhhbXBsZS5jb20iLCJpYXQiOjE1NTEyOTI2MjksImV4cCI6MTU1MTI5NjIyOX0.nE5fgRL8gvlStf_wB4mJ0TSXVmhJRnUVQuZ0ts6a1nWnnk0Rv69bEJ12BoMdpyPrGa_W6dxU4HFj89F4pQwW0kqBK2-TZ_n9lq-iqupj46w_lpKOfPC3clVc7ZmqYF81bEA-nX93cSKqVV-qPNPEFenb8XHKszYhBFu_uiRg9rXj2qXVU7PXGJAGTzhVgVxB-3XDB1bQ_6KiDCwzVPftrHxEYLydRCaHzggDg6sAFUhQqhPguKuE2gs6jVUh_gIL2RXeoLoinx6gZ72rfovaOmud-yzNIUN8Tvo0pqBmx0s_lEhTlfrQCzN7hZNmV1eG0GDDE-S_CfZhPePnVJZoRA',
  publicKey,
  {
    issuer: 'https://op.example.com',
    audience: 'urn:example:client_id',
    algorithms: ['PS256']
  }
)

Verifying OIDC ID Tokens (Click to expand)

ID Token is a JWT, but profiled, there are additional requirements to a JWT to be accepted as an ID Token and it is pretty easy to omit some, use the profile option of JWT.verify or the JWT.IdToken.verify shorthand to make sure what you're accepting is really an ID Token meant to your Client. This will then perform all doable validations given the input. See the documentation for more.

jose.JWT.IdToken.verify(
  'eyJhbGciOiJQUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCIsImtpZCI6InIxTGtiQm8zOTI1UmIyWkZGckt5VTNNVmV4OVQyODE3S3gwdmJpNmlfS2MifQ.eyJzdWIiOiJmb28iLCJub25jZSI6ImE1MWNjZjA4ZjRiYmIwNmU4ODcxNWRkYzRiYmI0MWQ4IiwiYXVkIjoidXJuOmV4YW1wbGU6Y2xpZW50X2lkIiwiZXhwIjoxNTYzODg4ODMwLCJpYXQiOjE1NjM4ODUyMzAsImlzcyI6Imh0dHBzOi8vb3AuZXhhbXBsZS5jb20ifQ.RKCZczgICF5G9XdNDSwe4dolGauQHptpFKPzahA2wYGG2HKrKhyC8ZzqpeVc8cbntuqFBgABJVv6_9YICRx_dgwPYydTpZfZYjHnxrdWF9QsIPEGs672mrnhqIXUnXoseZ0TF6GOq6P7Qbf6gk1ru7TAbr_ieyJnNWcJhh5iHpz1k3mFz0TyTh7UNXshtQXftPUipqz4OBni5r9UaZXHw8B3QYOnms8__GJ3owOxaqkr1jgRs_EWqMlBNjPaj7ElVaeBWljDKuoK673tH0heSpgzUmUX_W8IDUVqs33uglpZwAQC7cAA5mGEg2odcRpvpP5M-WaP4RE9dl9jzcYmrw',
  keyOrStore,
  {
    issuer: 'https://op.example.com',
    audience: 'urn:example:client_id',
    nonce: 'a51ccf08f4bbb06e88715ddc4bbb41d8',
    algorithms: ['PS256']
  }
)

Note: Depending on the channel you receive an ID Token from the following claims may be required and must also be checked: at_hash, c_hash or s_hash. Use e.g. oidc-token-hash to validate those hashes after getting the ID Token payload and signature validated by jose

Verifying OAuth 2.0 JWT Access Tokens (Click to expand)

Draft specification profiles are updated as minor versions of the library, therefore, since they may have breaking changes use the ~ semver operator when using these and pay close attention to changelog and the drafts themselves.

When accepting a JWT-formatted OAuth 2.0 Access Token there are additional requirements for the JWT to be accepted as an Access Token according to the specification and it is pretty easy to omit some. Use the profile option of JWT.verify or the JWT.AccessToken.verify shorthand to make sure what you're accepting is really a JWT Access Token meant for your Resource Server. This will then perform all doable validations given the input. See the documentation for more.

jose.JWT.AccessToken.verify(
  'eyJhbGciOiJQUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6ImF0K0pXVCIsImtpZCI6InIxTGtiQm8zOTI1UmIyWkZGckt5VTNNVmV4OVQyODE3S3gwdmJpNmlfS2MifQ.eyJzdWIiOiJmb28iLCJjbGllbnRfaWQiOiJ1cm46ZXhhbXBsZTpjbGllbnRfaWQiLCJhdWQiOiJ1cm46ZXhhbXBsZTpyZXNvdXJjZS1zZXJ2ZXIiLCJleHAiOjE1NjM4ODg4MzAsImlzcyI6Imh0dHBzOi8vb3AuZXhhbXBsZS5jb20iLCJzY29wZSI6ImFwaTpyZWFkIn0.UYy8vEGWS0cS24giCYobMMy9-bqI45p807yV1l-2WXX2J4UO-eohV_R58LE2oM88gl414c6XydO6QSYXul5roNPoOs41jpEvreQIP-HmegjbWGutktWJKfvoOblE5FjYwjrwStjLQGUzkq6KWcnDLPGmpFy7n6gZ4LF8YVz4dLEaO335hMNVNrmSPSXYqr7bAWybnLVpLxjDYwNfCO1g0_TlFx8fHh2OftHoOOmJFltFwb8JypkSB-JXVVSEh43IOEjeeMJIG_ylWIOxfLLi5Q7vPWgub83ZTkuGNe4KmlQJKIsH5k0yZSshsLYUOOH0RiXqQ-SA4Ubh3Fowigdu-g',
  keyOrStore,
  {
    issuer: 'https://op.example.com',
    audience: 'urn:example:resource-server',
    algorithms: ['PS256']
  }
)

Verifying OIDC Logout Token (Click to expand)

Draft specification profiles are updated as minor versions of the library, therefore, since they may have breaking changes use the ~ semver operator when using these and pay close attention to changelog and the drafts themselves.

Logout Token is a JWT, but profiled, there are additional requirements to a JWT to be accepted as an Logout Token and it is pretty easy to omit some, use the profile option of JWT.verify or the JWT.LogoutToken.verify to make sure what you're accepting is really an Logout Token meant to your Client. This will then perform all doable validations given the input. See the documentation for more.

jose.JWT.LogoutToken.verify(
  'eyJhbGciOiJQUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJmb28iLCJhdWQiOiJ1cm46ZXhhbXBsZTpjbGllbnRfaWQiLCJpYXQiOjE1NjM4ODg4MzAsImp0aSI6ImhqazMyN2RzYSIsImlzcyI6Imh0dHBzOi8vb3AuZXhhbXBsZS5jb20iLCJldmVudHMiOnsiaHR0cDovL3NjaGVtYXMub3BlbmlkLm5ldC9ldmVudC9iYWNrY2hhbm5lbC1sb2dvdXQiOnt9fX0.SBi7uNUvjHL9TFoFzautGgTQ1MjyeGUNYHL7inpgq3XgTv6xc9EAKuPRtpixmhdNhmInGwUvAeqDSJxomwv1KK1cTndrC9zAMZ7h657BGQAwGhu7nTm41fWMpKQdiLa9sqp3yit5_FNBmqUNeOoMPrYT_Vl9ytsoNO89MUQy2aqCd-Z7BrNJZH0QycdW6dmYlrmZL7w3t3TaAXoJDJ4Hgl2Itkkkb6_6gO-VoPIdVD8sDuf1zQzGhIkmcFrk0fXczVYOkeF2hNYBuvsM8LuO-EPA3oyE2In9djai3M7yceTQetRa1vwlqWkg_xmYS59ry-6wT44aN7-Y6p0TdXm-Zg',
  keyOrStore,
  {
    issuer: 'https://op.example.com',
    audience: 'urn:example:client_id',
    algorithms: ['PS256']
  }
)

JWS Signing

Sign with a private or symmetric key using compact serialization. See the documentation for more.

jose.JWS.sign(
  { sub: 'johndoe' },
  privateKey,
  { kid: privateKey.kid }
)

JWS Verifying

Verify with a public or symmetric key. See the documentation for more.

jose.JWS.verify(
  'eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJqb2huZG9lIn0.T_SYLQV3A5_kFDDVNuoadoURSEtuSOR-dG2CMmrP-ULK9xbIf2vYeiHOkvTrnqGlWEGBGxYtsP1VkXmNsi1uOw',
  publicKey
)

JWE Encrypting

Encrypt using the recipient's public key or a shared symmetrical secret. See the documentation for more.

jose.JWE.encrypt(
  'eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJqb2huZG9lIn0.T_SYLQV3A5_kFDDVNuoadoURSEtuSOR-dG2CMmrP-ULK9xbIf2vYeiHOkvTrnqGlWEGBGxYtsP1VkXmNsi1uOw',
  publicKey,
  { kid: publicKey.kid }
)

JWE Decrypting

Decrypt using the private key or a shared symmetrical secret. See the documentation for more.

jose.JWE.decrypt(
  'eyJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2IiwiYWxnIjoiRUNESC1FUyIsImVwayI6eyJrdHkiOiJFQyIsImNydiI6IlAtMjU2IiwieCI6IkVsUGhsN1ljTVZsWkhHM0daSkRoOVJhemNYYlN2VFNheUF6aTBINFFtRUEiLCJ5IjoiM0hDREJTRy12emd6cGtLWmJqMU05UzVuUEJrTDBBdFM4U29ORUxMWE1SayJ9fQ..FhmidRo0twvFA7jcfKFNJw.o112vgiG_qUL1JR5WHpsErcxxgaK_FAa7vCWJ--WulndLpdwdRXHd9k3aL_k8K67xoAThrt10d7dSY2TlPpHdYkw979u0V-C4TNrpzNkv5jpBjU6hHyKpoGZfEsiTD1ivHaFy3ZLCTS69kN_eVKsZGLVf_dkq6Sz6bWE4-ln_fuwukPyMvjTyaTreLjPLBZW.ocKwptCm4Zn437L5hWFnHg',
  privateKey
)

Detailed Support Matrix

JWK Key Types	Supported	kty value	crv values
RSA	✓	RSA
Elliptic Curve	✓	EC	P-256, secp256k1[1], P-384, P-521
Octet Key Pair	✓	OKP	Ed25519, Ed448[1], X25519[1], X448[1]
Octet sequence	✓	oct

Serialization	JWS Sign	JWS Verify	JWE Encrypt	JWE Decrypt
Compact	✓	✓	✓	✓
General JSON	✓	✓	✓	✓
Flattened JSON	✓	✓	✓	✓

JWS Algorithms	Supported
RSASSA-PKCS1-v1_5	✓	RS256, RS384, RS512
RSASSA-PSS	✓	PS256, PS384, PS512
ECDSA	✓	ES256, ES256K[1], ES384, ES512
Edwards-curve DSA	✓	EdDSA
HMAC with SHA-2	✓	HS256, HS384, HS512
Unsecured JWS	✓	none[2]

JWE Key Management Algorithms	Supported
AES	✓	A128KW[1], A192KW[1], A256KW[1]
AES GCM	✓	A128GCMKW, A192GCMKW, A256GCMKW
Direct Key Agreement	✓	dir
RSAES OAEP	✓	RSA-OAEP, RSA-OAEP-256[3], RSA-OAEP-384[3], RSA-OAEP-512[3]
RSAES-PKCS1-v1_5	✓	RSA1_5
PBES2	✓	PBES2-HS256+A128KW[1], PBES2-HS384+A192KW[1], PBES2-HS512+A256KW[1]
ECDH-ES	✓[4]	ECDH-ES, ECDH-ES+A128KW[1], ECDH-ES+A192KW[1], ECDH-ES+A256KW[1]

JWE Content Encryption Algorithms	Supported
AES GCM	✓	A128GCM, A192GCM, A256GCM
AES_CBC_HMAC_SHA2	✓	A128CBC-HS256, A192CBC-HS384, A256CBC-HS512

JWT profile validation	Supported	Stable profile	profile option value
ID Token - OpenID Connect Core 1.0	✓	✓	id_token
JWT Access Tokens - JWT Profile for OAuth 2.0 Access Tokens	✓	✕5	at+JWT
Logout Token - OpenID Connect Back-Channel Logout 1.0	✓	✕5	logout_token
JARM - JWT Secured Authorization Response Mode for OAuth 2.0	◯
JWT Response for OAuth Token Introspection	◯

Legend:

• ✓ Implemented
• ✕ Missing node crypto support / won't implement
• ◯ TBD

¹ Not supported in Electron due to Electron's use of BoringSSL
² Unsecured JWS is supported for the JWS and JWT sign and verify operations but it is an entirely opt-in behaviour, downgrade attacks are prevented by the required use of a special JWK.Key-like object that cannot be instantiated through the key import API
³ RSAES OAEP using SHA-2 and MGF1 with SHA-2 is only supported when Node.js >=12.9.0 runtime is detected
⁴ ECDH-ES with X25519 and X448 keys is only supported when Node.js ^12.17.0 || >=13.9.0 runtime is detected
⁵ Draft specification profiles are updated as minor versions of the library, therefore, since they may have breaking changes use the ~ semver operator when using these and pay close attention to changelog and the drafts themselves.

FAQ

Semver?

Yes. Everything that's either exported in the TypeScript definitions file or documented is subject to Semantic Versioning 2.0.0. The rest is to be considered private API and is subject to change between any versions.

Although. Draft specification profiles are updated as minor versions of the library, therefore, since they may have breaking changes use the ~ semver operator when using these and pay close attention to changelog and the drafts themselves.

How do I use it outside of Node.js

It is only built for >=10.13.0 Node.js environment - including jose in transpiled browser-environment targeted projects is not supported and may result in unexpected results.

How is it different from jws, jwa or jsonwebtoken?

• it supports JWK Key Format for all four key types (oct, RSA, EC and OKP)
• it is providing Key and KeyStore abstractions
• there is JSON Web Encryption support
• it supports all JWS / JWE Serialization Syntaxes
• it supports the "crit" member validations to make sure extensions are handled correctly
• it is not only validating the signatures, it is making sure the JWE/JWS is syntactically correct, e.g. not having duplicated header parameters between protected/unprotected or per-recipient headers

How is it different from node-jose

node-jose is built to work in any javascript runtime, to be able to do that it packs a lot of backfill and javascript implementation code in the form of node-forge, this significantly increases the footprint of the module with dependencies that either aren't ever used or have native implementation available in Node.js already, those are often times faster and more reliable.

What is the ultimate goal?

• No dependencies, the moment JWK formatted keys are supported by node's crypto the direct dependency count will go down from 1 to 0. 🚀
• Just the API one needs, having used other jose modules for 3+ years I only include what's useful

Why? Just, why?

I was using node-jose for openid-client and oidc-provider and came to realize its shortcomings in terms of performance and API (not having well defined errors).

+ this was an amazing opportunity to learn JOSE as a whole