JSON Web Tokens (JWTs)

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JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) Skill Overview

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Description

JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) are a compact, URL-safe means of representing claims to be transferred between two parties. They're used in authentication and information exchange, where they can confirm the identity of users and transmit data. A JWT consists of three parts: a header, a payload, and a signature. The header identifies which algorithm is used to generate the signature. The payload contains the actual information (claims), while the signature verifies that the sender is who they say they are. Understanding JWTs involves knowing how to create, sign, decode, and verify them, as well as implementing them securely in applications.

Expected Behaviors

Fundamental Awareness
At this level, individuals are expected to have a basic understanding of what JWTs are and their typical use cases. They should be able to recognize the structure of a JWT and understand its components. However, they may not yet be comfortable with creating or manipulating JWTs themselves.
Novice
Novices should be capable of creating and signing JWTs, as well as verifying their signatures and decoding their payloads. They should also understand the difference between public and private keys in JWTs. At this stage, they may still need guidance when implementing JWTs in real-world applications.
Intermediate
Intermediate users should be comfortable implementing JWT authentication in an application, handling JWT expiration and renewal, and using JWTs with cookies for session management. They should also have a good understanding of how to secure JWTs and mitigate potential security risks.
Advanced
Advanced users are expected to handle more complex tasks such as implementing JWT blacklisting, using JWTs with OAuth2.0, and implementing multi-factor authentication with JWTs. They should also be aware of common JWT security risks and know how to mitigate them.
Expert
Experts should be capable of designing and implementing a scalable JWT infrastructure, performing advanced JWT debugging and troubleshooting, and applying advanced JWT security practices. They should also be able to customize JWT encoding and decoding processes to suit specific needs.

Micro Skills

Fundamental Awareness9 micro skills • 0 months work experience

Knowing the definition of JWT

Recognizing the purpose of JWTs

Identifying the components of a JWT

Understanding the header, payload, and signature sections of a JWT

Recognizing the format of a JWT

Identifying common claims in a JWT payload

Identifying when to use JWTs for authentication

Recognizing when to use JWTs for information exchange

Understanding the benefits of using JWTs over traditional session cookies

Novice13 micro skills • 3 months work experience

Understanding the components of a JWT (header, payload, signature)

Choosing an appropriate signing algorithm

Generating a secret or key pair for signing

Using a JWT library to create and sign a token

Understanding how JWT signatures work

Using a JWT library to verify a token's signature

Handling cases where the signature verification fails

Understanding how JWT payloads are encoded

Using a JWT library to decode a token's payload

Handling cases where the payload decoding fails

Knowing what public and private keys are

Understanding how they are used in asymmetric JWT signing

Recognizing when to use symmetric vs asymmetric signing

Intermediate16 micro skills • 6 months work experience

Choosing a suitable JWT library for your programming language

Generating JWTs upon successful user authentication

Sending JWTs to the client side

Using JWTs for subsequent authenticated requests

Setting an expiration time for JWTs

Creating a process for refreshing expired JWTs

Handling JWT expiration on the client side

Handling JWT expiration on the server side

Storing JWTs in HTTP-only cookies

Sending JWTs via cookies in authenticated requests

Clearing JWT cookies upon logout

Handling CSRF protection when using JWTs with cookies

Knowing the importance of using HTTPS with JWTs

Understanding the risks of storing JWTs in local storage

Implementing measures to prevent JWT theft

Understanding the implications of JWT data being base64 encoded but not encrypted

Advanced16 micro skills • 12 months work experience

Understanding the need for JWT blacklisting

Creating a blacklist database or cache

Adding tokens to the blacklist upon certain events

Checking incoming tokens against the blacklist

Understanding the OAuth2.0 protocol

Knowing how JWTs fit into the OAuth2.0 flow

Implementing an OAuth2.0 authorization server that issues JWTs

Validating JWTs in an OAuth2.0 resource server

Identifying common JWT security risks

Implementing measures to prevent token theft

Securing the JWT signature

Preventing replay attacks

Understanding the concept of multi-factor authentication

Designing a JWT-based multi-factor authentication flow

Implementing a secondary authentication factor

Issuing and validating JWTs in a multi-factor authentication context

Expert16 micro skills • 24 months work experience

Understanding the requirements for scalability in JWT infrastructure

Designing a JWT infrastructure that can handle high traffic

Implementing load balancing in JWT infrastructure

Optimizing JWT infrastructure for performance

Identifying common JWT errors

Using debugging tools for JWT

Troubleshooting JWT signature issues

Resolving JWT expiration related problems

Implementing JWT encryption

Mitigating JWT replay attacks

Securing JWT at rest and in transit

Applying best practices for JWT secret key management

Understanding the JWT encoding process

Modifying the default JWT encoding process

Understanding the JWT decoding process

Modifying the default JWT decoding process

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