• Stitch >
• Users & Authentication >
• Authentication Providers

Custom Authentication

Overview

The Custom authentication provider allows users to authenticate with an authentication system that is independent from Stitch. The external system must return a signed JSON web token that contains a unique id value for the authenticated user. The Custom authentication provider uses this JWT to identify your application’s users.

Stitch imposes no restrictions on the methods and requirements that the system uses to authenticate users. For example, the system could require two factor authentication, specific user metadata, or any other information before it authenticates a user.

Configuration

• Stitch UI
• Import/Export

You can enable the Custom authentication provider from the Stitch UI by selecting Custom Authentication from the Users > Providers page.

You can enable the Custom authentication provider with stitch-cli by importing an application directory that contains a configuration file for the provider.

The configuration file must be named custom-token.json and stored in the /auth_providers directory. Configuration files for the Custom authentication provider have the following form:

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/auth_providers/custom-token.json

{
  "name": "custom-token",
  "type": "custom-token",
  "metadata_fields": [<document>, ...],
  "disabled": <boolean>,
}

The Custom authentication provider has the following configuration options:

Field	Description
Signing Key Defined in a Secret	Required. A Secret that contains the secret key with which the external authentication system signs JWTs. The Signing Key must be a string with length between 32 and 512 characters. Warning The Signing Key is a secret key and anyone with the key can issue valid user credentials for your app. Ensure that it’s never stored in a publicly accesible location, such as a git repository, message board, or in your code.
Metadata Fields metadata_fields	Optional. Any additional data that describes a user. Metadata fields are mapped from fields in the external authentication system’s JSON Web Token to data values in a user’s user object. Stitch refreshes each custom user’s metadata whenever they log in. To require a metadata field from a custom authentication configuration file, add an entry for the field to the metadata_fields array. Each entry should be a document of the following form: copy { required: <boolean>, name: "<field path>", field_name: "<metadata field name>" } Field Description Required required Required. If true, the metadata field is required for all custom authentication users, i.e. the JWT returned by the external system must have a value assigned to the field designated by Path. Path name Required. The JWT field that contains the value for the metadata field, specified in dot notation. Field Name field_name Optional. The name of the metadata field that Stitch includes in the custom user object’s data document. If not specified, Field Name defaults to the same name as the most deeply-nested field listed in Path. For example, given a Path of location.primary.city, Stitch would set the value of Field Name to city. Note Field Name may contain no more than 64 characters. Example Consider the following JWT returned from an external authentication system that includes additional information about the user in the user_data field: copy { "aud": "myapp-abcde", "exp": 1516239022, "sub": "24601", "user_data": { "name": "Jean Valjean", "aliases": [ "Monsieur Madeleine", "Ultime Fauchelevent", "Urbain Fabre" ] } } We want to include this user’s data in their user object, so we specify the following metadata fields to map the values: Path Field Name user_data.name name user_data.aliases aliases We can now access the mapped values directly from the user object, which would resemble the following for the given JWT: copy { "id": "59fdd02846244cdse5369ebf", "type": "normal", "data": { "name": "Jean Valjean", "aliases": [ "Monsieur Madeleine", "Ultime Fauchelevent", "Urbain Fabre" ] }, identities: [ { "id": "24601", "provider_type": "custom-token", "data": { "name": "Jean Valjean", "aliases": [ "Monsieur Madeleine", "Ultime Fauchelevent", "Urbain Fabre" ] }, } ] }

Usage

Authenticate a User

• JavaScript SDK
• Android SDK
• iOS SDK

To log a user in to your app with the Custom authentication provider, call StitchAuth.loginWithCredential() with an instance of CustomCredential created with a signed JWT from the external authentication system.

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const jwtString = getTokenFromCustomBuiltAuthSystem();
const credential = new CustomCredential(jwtString);

Stitch.defaultAppClient.auth.loginWithCredential(credential)
  .then(authedUser => console.log(`logged in with custom auth as user ${authedUser.id}`))
  .catch( err => console.error(`failed to log in with custom auth: ${err}`))

To log a user in to your app with the Custom authentication provider, instantiate a CustomCredential instance with a signed JWT from the external authentication system and pass it as the argument to StitchAppClient.loginWithCredential().

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String _jwtString = getTokenFromCustomBuiltAuthSystem();
CustomCredential credential = CustomCredential(_jwtString);

Stitch.getDefaultAppClient().getAuth().loginWithCredential(credential)
    .addOnCompleteListener(new OnCompleteListener<StitchUser>() {
        @Override
        public void onComplete(@NonNull final Task<StitchUser> task) {
            if (task.isSuccessful()) {
                Log.d("stitch", "logged in with custom auth as user " + task.getResult().id);
            } else {
                Log.e("stitch", "failed to log in with custom auth:", task.getException());
            }
        }
    });

To log a user in to your app with the Custom authentication provider, instantiate a CustomCredential instance with a signed JWT from the external authentication system and pass it to the StitchAuth.login(withCredential:_:) method as the withCredential argument.

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let jwtString = getTokenFromCustomBuiltAuthSystem()
let credential = CustomCredential.init(withToken: jwtString)

Stitch.defaultAppClient!.auth.login(withCredential: credential) { result in
  switch result {
  case .success(let user):
    print("logged in with custom auth as user \(user.id)")
  case .failure(let error):
    print("failed to log in with custom auth: \(error)")
}

JSON Web Tokens

The external authentication system must return a JSON web token that uniquely identifies the authenticated user. JSON web tokens are an industry standard (RFC 7519) for securely representing claims between two parties. A JWT is a string that consists of three parts: a header, a payload and a signature and has the following form:

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<header>.<payload>.<signature>

Header

The header portion of the JWT consists of a Base64UrlEncoded document of the following form:

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{
  "alg": "HS256",
  "typ": "JWT"
}

Field	Description
alg	Required. A string representing the hashing algorithm being used. Stitch supports JWTs encoded with the following algorithms: Algorithm Value HMAC SHA-256 "HS256" RSA Signature SHA-256 "RS256"
typ	Required. The type of the token. Stitch expects a JSON web token so the value should be "JWT".

Payload

The payload portion of the JWT consists of a Base64UrlEncoded document of the following form:

copy

{
  "aud": "<stitch app id>"
  "sub": "<unique user id>",
  "exp": <NumericDate>,
  "iat": <NumericDate>,
  "nbf": <NumericDate>,
  ...
}

Field	Description
aud	Required. The audience of the token. By default, Stitch expects this value to be the App ID of your Stitch application. If your external authentication service returns a different aud value, you should specify that value instead.
sub	Required. The subject of the token. The value should be a unique ID for the authenticated user from your custom-built authentication system.
exp	Required. The Expiration date of the token. The value should be a NumericDate number indicating the time at which the token expires. Note MongoDB Stitch will not accept expired authentication tokens.
iat	Optional. The “issued at” date of the token . The value should be a NumericDate number that indicates the time after which the token is considered valid. This field is functionally identical to nbf.
nbf	Optional. The “not before” date of the token. The value should be a NumericDate number that indicates the time before which the token is considered invalid. This field is functionally identical to iat.

Note

Stitch ignores any additional fields in the JWT payload unless you have mapped them to metadata fields in the provider configuration. Stitch includes the values of mapped fields in the data document of the authenticated user’s user object.

Signature

The signature portion of the JWT is a hash of the encoded token header and payload. To form the signature, concatentate the encoded header and payload with a period and sign the result with the Signing Key specified in the authentication provider configuration using the hashing algorithm specified in the "alg" field of the header.

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HMACSHA256(
  base64UrlEncode(header) + "." + base64UrlEncode(payload),
  signingKey
)

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