An essential segment of developing any sort of application is its Backend. While deploying the backend of any web/mobile application or say website, it is requisite to know web tokens as security is the most important aspect.
In this article, we'll mainly focus on two basic web tokens-Refresh Token and Access Token
Refresh Token:
A refresh token is a credential used to obtain a new access token when the current access token becomes invalid or expires.
Unlike access tokens, refresh tokens have a longer lifespan and are typically stored securely on the client side (e.g., in a cookie or local storage).
When an access token expires, the client can use the refresh token to request a new access token without requiring the user to log in again.
Refresh tokens add an extra layer of security because they are less frequently transmitted over the network, reducing the risk of interception.
Access Token:
An access token is a credential that represents the authorization granted to a client (e.g., a user or application) to access specific resources on behalf of the resource owner (user).
It is a short-lived token that provides limited and temporary access to protected resources.
Access tokens are commonly used in stateless authentication mechanisms like OAuth 2.0.
Here's a typical flow involving access and refresh tokens:
Authentication:
The user logs in and provides credentials.
The server verifies the credentials and issues an access token and a refresh token.
API Requests:
- The client includes the access token in the header of API requests to access protected resources.
Access Token Expiry:
Access tokens have a limited lifespan (e.g., 15 minutes).
When the access token expires, the client uses the refresh token to request a new access token without requiring the user to log in again.
Token Refresh:
The server validates the refresh token and issues a new access token.
If the refresh token is expired or invalid, the user may need to reauthenticate.
Let's see a few examples:
Payment Gateways:
Scenario: An e-commerce website needs to securely process payments through a third-party payment gateway.
Implementation: After the user provides payment details, the website obtains an access token and a refresh token from the payment gateway. The access token is used to authorize and process the payment, and the refresh token is used to obtain a new access token for future transactions.
OAuth 2.0 in Social Media Integration:
Scenario: Imagine a user wants to log in to a third-party application using their Google or Facebook credentials.
Implementation: The application uses OAuth 2.0 to authenticate the user. After successful authentication, the third-party service issues an access token and a refresh token. The access token is used to fetch user data or perform actions on behalf of the user, while the refresh token is used to obtain a new access token when it expires.
The above knowledge has been gathered from the Channel: Chai Aur Code