ASP.NET Core Web API Authentication

Question

I\'m struggling with how to set up authentication in my web service. The service is build with the ASP.NET Core web api.

All my clients (WPF applications) should us

Answer 1

I think you can go with JWT (Json Web Tokens).

First you need to install the package System.IdentityModel.Tokens.Jwt:

$ dotnet add package System.IdentityModel.Tokens.Jwt

You will need to add a controller for token generation and authentication like this one:

public class TokenController : Controller
{
    [Route("/token")]

    [HttpPost]
    public IActionResult Create(string username, string password)
    {
        if (IsValidUserAndPasswordCombination(username, password))
            return new ObjectResult(GenerateToken(username));
        return BadRequest();
    }

    private bool IsValidUserAndPasswordCombination(string username, string password)
    {
        return !string.IsNullOrEmpty(username) && username == password;
    }

    private string GenerateToken(string username)
    {
        var claims = new Claim[]
        {
            new Claim(ClaimTypes.Name, username),
            new Claim(JwtRegisteredClaimNames.Nbf, new DateTimeOffset(DateTime.Now).ToUnixTimeSeconds().ToString()),
            new Claim(JwtRegisteredClaimNames.Exp, new DateTimeOffset(DateTime.Now.AddDays(1)).ToUnixTimeSeconds().ToString()),
        };

        var token = new JwtSecurityToken(
            new JwtHeader(new SigningCredentials(
                new SymmetricSecurityKey(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("Secret Key You Devise")),
                                         SecurityAlgorithms.HmacSha256)),
            new JwtPayload(claims));

        return new JwtSecurityTokenHandler().WriteToken(token);
    }
}

After that update Startup.cs class to look like below:

namespace WebAPISecurity
{   
public class Startup
{
    public Startup(IConfiguration configuration)
    {
        Configuration = configuration;
    }

    public IConfiguration Configuration { get; }

    // This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to add services to the container.
    public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
    {
        services.AddMvc();

        services.AddAuthentication(options => {
            options.DefaultAuthenticateScheme = "JwtBearer";
            options.DefaultChallengeScheme = "JwtBearer";
        })
        .AddJwtBearer("JwtBearer", jwtBearerOptions =>
        {
            jwtBearerOptions.TokenValidationParameters = new TokenValidationParameters
            {
                ValidateIssuerSigningKey = true,
                IssuerSigningKey = new SymmetricSecurityKey(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("Secret Key You Devise")),
                ValidateIssuer = false,
                //ValidIssuer = "The name of the issuer",
                ValidateAudience = false,
                //ValidAudience = "The name of the audience",
                ValidateLifetime = true, //validate the expiration and not before values in the token
                ClockSkew = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5) //5 minute tolerance for the expiration date
            };
        });

    }

    // This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to configure the HTTP request pipeline.
    public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env)
    {
        if (env.IsDevelopment())
        {
            app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
        }

        app.UseAuthentication();

        app.UseMvc();
    }
}

And that's it, what is left now is to put [Authorize] attribute on the Controllers or Actions you want.

Here is a link of a complete straight forward tutorial.

http://www.blinkingcaret.com/2017/09/06/secure-web-api-in-asp-net-core/