Contents
- 1 Is token based authentication stateless?
- 2 Is cookie stateful or stateless?
- 3 Should I use token based authentication?
- 4 Where is token based authentication used?
- 5 Are sessions stateless?
- 6 What’s the difference between cookie based and token based authentication?
- 7 Which is worse a session cookie or a token?
- 8 Can a session token be revoked server-side?
Is token based authentication stateless?
How Token Based Works. Token based authentication is stateless. We are not storing any information about our user on the server or in a session. This concept alone takes care of many of the problems with having to store information on the server.
Cookie-based authentication is stateful. This means that an authentication record or session must be kept both server and client-side. The server needs to keep track of active sessions in a database, while on the front-end a cookie is created that holds a session identifier, thus the name cookie based authentication.
What is the difference between stateful session and stateless token authentication?
Stateful: You can revoke the authentication session on the IdP anytime. Stateless: The session expiration time is set when the authentication token is released. You cannot revoke the session on the IdP.
Should I use token based authentication?
The use of tokens has many benefits compared to traditional methods such as cookies. Tokens are stateless. The token is self-contained and contains all the information it needs for authentication. This is great for scalability as it frees your server from having to store session state.
Where is token based authentication used?
Token authentication requires users to obtain a computer-generated code (or token) before they’re granted network entry. Token authentication is typically used in conjunction with password authentication for an added layer of security.
Why is HTTP protocol stateless?
HTTP is called as a stateless protocol because each request is executed independently, without any knowledge of the requests that were executed before it, which means once the transaction ends the connection between the browser and the server is also lost.
Are sessions stateless?
Stateful vs Stateless Session. Stateful and Stateless applications store state from client requests on the server itself and use that state to process further requests. It uses DB for storing data as a backend, but session information stored on the server itself.
So, that’s the difference between cookie based and token based, the latter uses Web Storage. Token based authentication is stateless, server need not store user information in the session. This gives ability to scale application without worrying where the user has logged in.
How are cookies used in session based authentication?
In Session-based Authentication the Server does all the heavy lifting server-side. Broadly speaking a client authenticates with its credentials and receives a session_id (which can be stored in a cookie) and attaches this to every subsequent outgoing request.
The biggest disadvantage of token authentication is the size of JWTs. A session cookie is relatively tiny compared to even the smallest JWT. Depending on your use case, the size of the token could become problematic if you add many claims to it.
Can a session token be revoked server-side?
Tokens can be revoked server-side. Cookies do not have that option and will/should expire. Using only cookies means that sessionId is related to the user account and not limited in any way. I am hoping I am not too far off the mark and am thankful for any help!