Contents
Why do we need token based authentication in web API?
Implementing Token-Based Authentication in Web API. Testing the Token Authentication using Postman. Why do we need Token Based Authentication in Web API? The ASP.NET Web API is an ideal framework, provided by Microsoft that, to build Web API’s, i.e. HTTP based services on top of the.NET Framework.
Both HTTP Basic Authentication and HTTP Token Authentication offer really simple solutions to protect an API from unauthorized access. But, with Token Authentication, you will have one less thing to configure in your services and consumers.
Where does the token go in an HTTP request?
The client application then includes the Access Token in the Authorization header of the HTTP request to access the restricted resources from the Resource Server until the token is expired. Note: If this not clear at the moment then don’t worry, we will explain the above mentioned points one by one in detail with example.
How does a client get an access token?
The client then sends these credentials (i.e. username and password) to the Authorization Server. Then the Authorization Server authenticates the client credentials (i.e. username and password) and generates and returns an access token. This Access Token contains enough information to identify a user and also contains the token expiry time.
How are access tokens used for multiple APIs?
The third option—using multiple access tokens—involves obtaining a unique access token for each API that needs to be accessed by the application. Each of these access tokens will have a single audience that describes one API.
How is an auth token different from a password?
Auth tokens work like a stamped ticket. The user retains access as long as the token remains valid. Once the user logs out or quits an app, the token is invalidated. Token-based authentication is different from traditional password-based or server-based authentication techniques.
How to test an API using bearer tokens?
I have a Web API with tons of methods that all require a bearer token to be present in order to be used. These methods all extract information from the bearer token. I want to test whether the API is properly populating the bearer token upon its generation. I’m using the Microsoft.Owin.Testing framework to write my tests.
How to test the authorisation of an API?
The APIs being designed will often have logic that depends on the claims in the payload of the JWT for making authorisation decisions. Because of this, during the integration testing phase, your code will take a dependency on a token issuer at both ends of the communication.
How to add Microsoft identity to web API?
The line that contains .AddMicrosoftIdentityWebApi adds the Microsoft identity platform authorization to your web API. It’s then configured to validate access tokens issued by the Microsoft identity platform based on the information in the AzureAD section of the appsettings.json configuration file: