jose
Advanced tools
Package description
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.
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);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.
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.
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
"JSON Web Almost Everything" - JWA, JWS, JWE, JWT, JWK, JWKS for Node.js with minimal dependencies
v2.x continues being supported. It will continue receiving
bug fixes until 2022-04-30. It will not be receiving any new
features.
v3.x is available with
The following specifications are implemented by jose
The test suite utilizes examples defined in RFC7520 to confirm its JOSE implementation is correct.
Available JWT validation profiles
If you or your business use jose, please consider becoming a sponsor so I can continue maintaining it and adding new features carefree.
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@2
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
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)
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.
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'
}
)
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']
}
)
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
JWT.IdToken.verify API 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
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
JWT.AccessToken.verify API 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']
}
)
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
JWT.LogoutToken.verify API 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']
}
)
Sign with a private or symmetric key using compact serialization. See the documentation for more.
jose.JWS.sign(
{ sub: 'johndoe' },
privateKey,
{ kid: privateKey.kid }
)
Verify with a public or symmetric key. See the documentation for more.
jose.JWS.verify(
'eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJqb2huZG9lIn0.T_SYLQV3A5_kFDDVNuoadoURSEtuSOR-dG2CMmrP-ULK9xbIf2vYeiHOkvTrnqGlWEGBGxYtsP1VkXmNsi1uOw',
publicKey
)
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 }
)
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
)
| 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| JWT Access Tokens - JWT Profile for OAuth 2.0 Access Tokens | ✓ | ✕5 | see JWT.AccessToken.verify |
| ID Token - OpenID Connect Core 1.0 | ✓ | ✓ | see JWT.IdToken.verify |
| Logout Token - OpenID Connect Back-Channel Logout 1.0 | ✓ | ✕5 | see JWT.LogoutToken.verify |
| JARM - JWT Secured Authorization Response Mode for OAuth 2.0 | ◯ | ||
| JWT Response for OAuth Token Introspection | ◯ | ||
| OAuth 2.0 DPoP | ◯ |
Legend:
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.
| Version | Bug Fixes 🐞 | New Features ⭐ |
|---|---|---|
| 3.x.x | ✅ | ✅ |
| 2.x.x | ✅ until 2022-04-30 | ❌ |
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.
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.
jws, jwa or jsonwebtoken?node-josenode-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.
crypto the direct
dependency count will go down from 1 to 0. 🚀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
FAQs
JWA, JWS, JWE, JWT, JWK, JWKS for Node.js, Browser, Cloudflare Workers, Deno, Bun, and other Web-interoperable runtimes
We found that jose demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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