JWT, short for JSON Web Token, is a compact, URL-safe means of representing claims securely between two parties. It's commonly used for authentication and information exchange in web applications.
JSON Web Tokens (JWT) are a widely adopted method for securely transmitting information between parties as a JSON object. They consist of three sections: a header, a payload, and a signature. The header typically specifies the token type and the cryptographic algorithm used to secure the token. The payload contains the claims, which are statements about an entity (usually the user) and additional data. These claims can include information such as user ID, roles, and permissions.
JWTs are digitally signed using a secret key (symmetric cryptography) or a public/private key pair (asymmetric cryptography). This signature ensures that the token has not been tampered with and can be trusted by the recipient.
One of the key advantages of JWTs is their statelessness. Since JWTs contain all necessary information within themselves, there's no need to store session state on the server. This makes JWTs well-suited for use in stateless, distributed systems such as microservices architectures.
Often during debugging or troubleshooting we find the need to check if a JWT token is valid, for such tasks there are various online JWT decoders. One such tool can be found following this link
To test it out, simply copy the encoded JWT token below and enter it on the designated area on the form called JWT Token:
eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJleHAiOjE0ODUxNDA5ODQsImlhdCI6MTQ4NTEzNzM4NCwiaXNzIjoiYWNtZS5jb20iLCJzdWIiOiIyOWFjMGMxOC0wYjRhLTQyY2YtODJmYy0wM2Q1NzAzMThhMWQiLCJhcHBsaWNhdGlvbklkIjoiNzkxMDM3MzQtOTdhYi00ZDFhLWFmMzctZTAwNmQwNWQyOTUyIiwicm9sZXMiOltdfQ.Mp0Pcwsz5VECK11Kf2ZZNF_SMKu5CgBeLN9ZOP04kZo
And you will see the Decoded JWT
{
"header": {
"alg": "HS256",
"typ": "JWT"
},
"payload": {
"exp": 1485140984,
"iat": 1485137384,
"iss": "acme.com",
"sub": "29ac0c18-0b4a-42cf-82fc-03d570318a1d",
"applicationId": "79103734-97ab-4d1a-af37-e006d05d2952",
"roles": []
}
}