README.md
1# jwt-go
2
3[](https://github.com/golang-jwt/jwt/actions/workflows/build.yml)
4[](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/golang-jwt/jwt)
5
6A [go](http://www.golang.org) (or 'golang' for search engine friendliness) implementation of [JSON Web Tokens](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7519).
7
8Starting with [v4.0.0](https://github.com/golang-jwt/jwt/releases/tag/v4.0.0) this project adds Go module support, but maintains backwards compataibility with older `v3.x.y` tags and upstream `github.com/dgrijalva/jwt-go`.
9See the `MIGRATION_GUIDE.md` for more information.
10
11> After the original author of the library suggested migrating the maintenance of `jwt-go`, a dedicated team of open source maintainers decided to clone the existing library into this repository. See [dgrijalva/jwt-go#462](https://github.com/dgrijalva/jwt-go/issues/462) for a detailed discussion on this topic.
12
13
14**SECURITY NOTICE:** Some older versions of Go have a security issue in the crypto/elliptic. Recommendation is to upgrade to at least 1.15 See issue [dgrijalva/jwt-go#216](https://github.com/dgrijalva/jwt-go/issues/216) for more detail.
15
16**SECURITY NOTICE:** It's important that you [validate the `alg` presented is what you expect](https://auth0.com/blog/critical-vulnerabilities-in-json-web-token-libraries/). This library attempts to make it easy to do the right thing by requiring key types match the expected alg, but you should take the extra step to verify it in your usage. See the examples provided.
17
18### Supported Go versions
19
20Our support of Go versions is aligned with Go's [version release policy](https://golang.org/doc/devel/release#policy).
21So we will support a major version of Go until there are two newer major releases.
22We no longer support building jwt-go with unsupported Go versions, as these contain security vulnerabilities
23which will not be fixed.
24
25## What the heck is a JWT?
26
27JWT.io has [a great introduction](https://jwt.io/introduction) to JSON Web Tokens.
28
29In short, it's a signed JSON object that does something useful (for example, authentication). It's commonly used for `Bearer` tokens in Oauth 2. A token is made of three parts, separated by `.`'s. The first two parts are JSON objects, that have been [base64url](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4648) encoded. The last part is the signature, encoded the same way.
30
31The first part is called the header. It contains the necessary information for verifying the last part, the signature. For example, which encryption method was used for signing and what key was used.
32
33The part in the middle is the interesting bit. It's called the Claims and contains the actual stuff you care about. Refer to [RFC 7519](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7519) for information about reserved keys and the proper way to add your own.
34
35## What's in the box?
36
37This library supports the parsing and verification as well as the generation and signing of JWTs. Current supported signing algorithms are HMAC SHA, RSA, RSA-PSS, and ECDSA, though hooks are present for adding your own.
38
39## Examples
40
41See [the project documentation](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/golang-jwt/jwt) for examples of usage:
42
43* [Simple example of parsing and validating a token](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/golang-jwt/jwt#example-Parse-Hmac)
44* [Simple example of building and signing a token](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/golang-jwt/jwt#example-New-Hmac)
45* [Directory of Examples](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/golang-jwt/jwt#pkg-examples)
46
47## Extensions
48
49This library publishes all the necessary components for adding your own signing methods. Simply implement the `SigningMethod` interface and register a factory method using `RegisterSigningMethod`.
50
51Here's an example of an extension that integrates with multiple Google Cloud Platform signing tools (AppEngine, IAM API, Cloud KMS): https://github.com/someone1/gcp-jwt-go
52
53## Compliance
54
55This library was last reviewed to comply with [RTF 7519](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7519) dated May 2015 with a few notable differences:
56
57* In order to protect against accidental use of [Unsecured JWTs](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7519#section-6), tokens using `alg=none` will only be accepted if the constant `jwt.UnsafeAllowNoneSignatureType` is provided as the key.
58
59## Project Status & Versioning
60
61This library is considered production ready. Feedback and feature requests are appreciated. The API should be considered stable. There should be very few backwards-incompatible changes outside of major version updates (and only with good reason).
62
63This project uses [Semantic Versioning 2.0.0](http://semver.org). Accepted pull requests will land on `main`. Periodically, versions will be tagged from `main`. You can find all the releases on [the project releases page](https://github.com/golang-jwt/jwt/releases).
64
65**BREAKING CHANGES:***
66A full list of breaking changes is available in `VERSION_HISTORY.md`. See `MIGRATION_GUIDE.md` for more information on updating your code.
67
68## Usage Tips
69
70### Signing vs Encryption
71
72A token is simply a JSON object that is signed by its author. this tells you exactly two things about the data:
73
74* The author of the token was in the possession of the signing secret
75* The data has not been modified since it was signed
76
77It's important to know that JWT does not provide encryption, which means anyone who has access to the token can read its contents. If you need to protect (encrypt) the data, there is a companion spec, `JWE`, that provides this functionality. JWE is currently outside the scope of this library.
78
79### Choosing a Signing Method
80
81There are several signing methods available, and you should probably take the time to learn about the various options before choosing one. The principal design decision is most likely going to be symmetric vs asymmetric.
82
83Symmetric signing methods, such as HSA, use only a single secret. This is probably the simplest signing method to use since any `[]byte` can be used as a valid secret. They are also slightly computationally faster to use, though this rarely is enough to matter. Symmetric signing methods work the best when both producers and consumers of tokens are trusted, or even the same system. Since the same secret is used to both sign and validate tokens, you can't easily distribute the key for validation.
84
85Asymmetric signing methods, such as RSA, use different keys for signing and verifying tokens. This makes it possible to produce tokens with a private key, and allow any consumer to access the public key for verification.
86
87### Signing Methods and Key Types
88
89Each signing method expects a different object type for its signing keys. See the package documentation for details. Here are the most common ones:
90
91* The [HMAC signing method](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/golang-jwt/jwt#SigningMethodHMAC) (`HS256`,`HS384`,`HS512`) expect `[]byte` values for signing and validation
92* The [RSA signing method](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/golang-jwt/jwt#SigningMethodRSA) (`RS256`,`RS384`,`RS512`) expect `*rsa.PrivateKey` for signing and `*rsa.PublicKey` for validation
93* The [ECDSA signing method](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/golang-jwt/jwt#SigningMethodECDSA) (`ES256`,`ES384`,`ES512`) expect `*ecdsa.PrivateKey` for signing and `*ecdsa.PublicKey` for validation
94
95### JWT and OAuth
96
97It's worth mentioning that OAuth and JWT are not the same thing. A JWT token is simply a signed JSON object. It can be used anywhere such a thing is useful. There is some confusion, though, as JWT is the most common type of bearer token used in OAuth2 authentication.
98
99Without going too far down the rabbit hole, here's a description of the interaction of these technologies:
100
101* OAuth is a protocol for allowing an identity provider to be separate from the service a user is logging in to. For example, whenever you use Facebook to log into a different service (Yelp, Spotify, etc), you are using OAuth.
102* OAuth defines several options for passing around authentication data. One popular method is called a "bearer token". A bearer token is simply a string that _should_ only be held by an authenticated user. Thus, simply presenting this token proves your identity. You can probably derive from here why a JWT might make a good bearer token.
103* Because bearer tokens are used for authentication, it's important they're kept secret. This is why transactions that use bearer tokens typically happen over SSL.
104
105### Troubleshooting
106
107This library uses descriptive error messages whenever possible. If you are not getting the expected result, have a look at the errors. The most common place people get stuck is providing the correct type of key to the parser. See the above section on signing methods and key types.
108
109## More
110
111Documentation can be found [on pkg.go.dev](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/golang-jwt/jwt).
112
113The command line utility included in this project (cmd/jwt) provides a straightforward example of token creation and parsing as well as a useful tool for debugging your own integration. You'll also find several implementation examples in the documentation.
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