Not getting the req.user object using express-jwt

Question

Here is my setup with express-jwt:

exports.requireSignin = expressJwt({
   secret: process.env.JWT_SECRET,
   algorithms: ["HS256"], 
   userProperty: "auth"
 });

I am using it access a secret route for testing but however i am not getting the req.user property in my route here. It results in a empty object(undefined).

router.get("/secret",requireSignin,(req, res) => {
    res.json({
        message: req.user,
    });
});

I am using Postman to test and sending the token with the authorization header as a bearer token.

Answer 1

You are not verifying/decoding your JWT token from request, once decoded, assign it req object and call next()

const JWT = require('jsonwebtoken')

module.exports.requireSignin = (req, res, next) => {
  const token = req.headers.authorization

  if (!token) {
    res.status(400).json({ status: false, message: 'Token required' })
  }

  JWT.verify(token, process.env.JWT_SECRET, (err, decoded) => {
    if (err) {
      console.log(`JWT: ${err.message}`)
      return res
        .status(401)
        .json({ status: false, error: 'Token is not valid' })
    }
    req.user = decoded
    next()
  })
}

ohhhh, you're using express-jwt package. I didn't see at first my answer is general with how to get token payload object in the req. Hope it can help someone in future.

Answer 2

I also got stuck with this exercise. To solve the problem use req.auth instead like this:

router.get("/secret",requireSignin,(req, res) => {
    res.json({
        user: req.auth,
    });
   
});

I hope it is useful. Good Luck.

Answer 3

The requestProperty determine where the decoded token is going to be stored, with express-jwt version < 6, it was user by default and now it's auth. If you want req.user to not be undefined try:

import { expressjwt } from 'express-jwt';

exports.requireSignin = expressjwt({
   secret: process.env.JWT_SECRET,
   algorithms: ["HS256"], 
   requestProperty: "user",
 });

Or use req.auth instead of req.user with your current setup.