Re:JSON Web Tokens vs. Sessions
by Negative1 on Saturday June 18, 2016 @01:11PM
(#11929496)
This is the common misconception. Think of a cookie as a storage 'bucket' on a user's device. It can store up to 4KB in bytes of, well, anything (a string). JWT is format. That's it. It is enciphered and has the ability to store JSON, but otherwise, it's just a format or scheme that allows you to organize how you store your session (or whatever) data. As an example, in my usage I actually store my JWT in a user cookie and all it keeps is the expiration, user id and a few other tidbits I don't want to hit a database for but am comfortable exposing in case the token is cracked.
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I agree that's how we treat them with Feathers. You may know this already but JWT's are intended to be decrypted on the client so you shouldn't be be saying "if" it is cracked, more "when". The signature is only good for ensuring that the content hasn't been manipulated. Not that you are, but for others, never store anything inside a JWT that is sensitive, and if it is make sure you encrypt it first before you put it in the JWT payload.