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How Clients Authenticate RESTHeart Cloud

🔧 Configuration

▼
Sets localhost:8080 with admin:secret
Values are saved in your browser

What You’ll Learn

In this guide, you’ll learn how to:

  1. Authenticate using Basic Authentication with username and password

  2. Understand how the Authorization header works

  3. Use authentication tokens for subsequent requests

  4. Manage authentication tokens (retrieve and invalidate)

  5. Check user credentials and roles

  6. Avoid browser authentication popups

By the end, you’ll understand how clients authenticate with RESTHeart and how to implement authentication in your applications.

Note

In all examples below:

  • [RESTHEART-URL] - Replace with your RESTHeart server URL (e.g., http://localhost:8080)

  • [BASIC-AUTH] - Replace with username:password format (e.g., admin:secret)

The interactive examples on this page can automatically substitute these values.

⚡ Setup Guide

▼

To run the examples on this page, you need a RESTHeart instance.

Option 1: Use RESTHeart Cloud (Recommended)

The fastest way to get started is with RESTHeart Cloud. Create a free service in minutes:

  1. Sign up at cloud.restheart.com

  2. Create a free API service

  3. Set up your root user following the Root User Setup guide

  4. Use the configuration panel above to set your service URL and credentials

Tip
 All code examples on this page will automatically use your configured RESTHeart Cloud credentials.

Option 2: Run RESTHeart Locally

If you prefer local development, follow the Setup Guide to install RESTHeart on your machine.

Note
 Local instances run at http://localhost:8080 with default credentials admin:secret

Introduction

Clients can authenticate passing credentials via the different authentication schemes handled by restheart-security. This section shows how clients can authenticate using the simple basic authentication, a standard method for an HTTP user agent to provide a username and password when making a request.

Some examples

Here’s how to authenticate with basic credentials:

cURL

curl -i --user [BASIC-AUTH] -X GET [RESTHEART-URL]/

HTTPie

http -a [BASIC-AUTH] GET [RESTHEART-URL]/

JavaScript

const username = 'your-username';
const password = 'your-password';
const credentials = btoa(`${username}:${password}`);

fetch('[RESTHEART-URL]/', {
    method: 'GET',
    headers: {
        'Authorization': `Basic ${credentials}`
    }
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => {
    console.log('Retrieved data:', data);
})
.catch(error => console.error('Error:', error));

Basic Authentication for dummies

Basic Authentication requires the client to send its credentials with the Authorization request header.

The value of the Authorization request header must be: Basic base64(<userid> + ':' + <password>)

In other words:

  1. userid and password are combined into a string "userid:password". Note the colon between userid and password (userid cannot contain the ":" character).

  2. The resulting string is base 64 encoded

  3. The string "Basic " (note the space) is then put before the encoded string.

Authentication Token

RESTHeart v9 introduces dedicated OAuth 2.0-compatible token endpoints for secure and standards-compliant authentication. This is the recommended approach for new applications.

Available Endpoints:

  • POST /token - Returns JWT token in response body (OAuth 2.0 Resource Owner Password Credentials Grant)

  • POST /token/cookie - Sets JWT token as HttpOnly cookie (enhanced security for browser-based apps)

Benefits:

  • 85% performance improvement over the legacy token injection approach

  • Standards-compliant OAuth 2.0 implementation

  • Reduced attack surface with dedicated endpoints

  • Centralized authentication audit trails

  • No overhead on every authenticated request

Basic Authentication Method

Send credentials using HTTP Basic Authentication:

cURL

curl -i -X POST [RESTHEART-URL]/token \
  -u [BASIC-AUTH]

HTTPie

http POST [RESTHEART-URL]/token \
  Authorization:"Basic [BASIC-AUTH]"

JavaScript

const username = 'your-username';
const password = 'your-password';
const credentials = btoa(`${username}:${password}`);

fetch('[RESTHEART-URL]/token', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
        'Authorization': `Basic ${credentials}`
    }
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => {
    console.log('Access token:', data.access_token);
    console.log('Expires in:', data.expires_in, 'seconds');
    // Store the token for future requests
    sessionStorage.setItem('auth_token', data.access_token);
})
.catch(error => console.error('Error:', error));

Response:

{
  "access_token": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9...",
  "token_type": "Bearer",
  "expires_in": 900
}
OAuth 2.0 Form Data Method

Send credentials using OAuth 2.0 form data (application/x-www-form-urlencoded):

cURL

curl -i -X POST [RESTHEART-URL]/token \
  -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
  -d "grant_type=password&username=admin&password=secret"

HTTPie

http -f POST [RESTHEART-URL]/token \
  grant_type=password \
  username=admin \
  password=secret

JavaScript

const formData = new URLSearchParams({
    grant_type: 'password',
    username: 'your-username',
    password: 'your-password'
});

fetch('[RESTHEART-URL]/token', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
    },
    body: formData
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => {
    console.log('Access token:', data.access_token);
    sessionStorage.setItem('auth_token', data.access_token);
})
.catch(error => console.error('Error:', error));
Using the Token

Once you have the token, use it as a Bearer token in the Authorization header:

cURL

curl -i -X GET [RESTHEART-URL]/mycollection \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9..."

HTTPie

http GET [RESTHEART-URL]/mycollection \
  "Authorization:Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9..."

JavaScript

const token = sessionStorage.getItem('auth_token');

fetch('[RESTHEART-URL]/mycollection', {
    method: 'GET',
    headers: {
        'Authorization': `Bearer ${token}`
    }
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => console.log('Data:', data))
.catch(error => console.error('Error:', error));
Token Renewal

To renew an authentication token before it expires, add the ?renew query parameter to GET /token or GET /token/cookie requests:

cURL

curl -i -X GET [RESTHEART-URL]/token?renew \
  -u [BASIC-AUTH]

HTTPie

http GET [RESTHEART-URL]/token?renew \
  Authorization:"Basic [BASIC-AUTH]"

JavaScript

const username = 'your-username';
const password = 'your-password';
const credentials = btoa(`${username}:${password}`);

fetch('[RESTHEART-URL]/token?renew', {
    method: 'GET',
    headers: {
        'Authorization': `Basic ${credentials}`
    }
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => {
    console.log('New access token:', data.access_token);
    sessionStorage.setItem('auth_token', data.access_token);
})
.catch(error => console.error('Error:', error));
Note
 Generating a new token is a cryptographic operation and can have significant performance overhead. It is the responsibility of the client to renew the token using this query parameter when it is going to expire soon.

For browser-based applications, use the /token/cookie endpoint to set an HttpOnly cookie (more secure as the token isn’t exposed to JavaScript):

cURL

curl -i -X POST [RESTHEART-URL]/token/cookie \
  -u [BASIC-AUTH] \
  -c cookies.txt

HTTPie

http --session=./session.json POST [RESTHEART-URL]/token/cookie \
  Authorization:"Basic [BASIC-AUTH]"

JavaScript

const username = 'your-username';
const password = 'your-password';
const credentials = btoa(`${username}:${password}`);

fetch('[RESTHEART-URL]/token/cookie', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
        'Authorization': `Basic ${credentials}`
    },
    credentials: 'include'  // Important: include cookies
})
.then(response => {
    if (response.ok) {
        console.log('Authenticated! Cookie set.');
        // Subsequent requests will automatically include the cookie
    }
})
.catch(error => console.error('Error:', error));

// Subsequent requests automatically include the cookie
fetch('[RESTHEART-URL]/mycollection', {
    method: 'GET',
    credentials: 'include'  // Important: include cookies
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => console.log('Data:', data))
.catch(error => console.error('Error:', error));

Configuration:

The JWT Token Manager is enabled by default in RESTHeart v9:

jwtTokenManager:
    key: secret  # Change this in production!
    enabled: true
    ttl: 15  # Token time-to-live in minutes
    srv-uri: /tokens
    issuer: restheart.com
Important
 Always change the key value in production to a strong, random secret.

Legacy Token Management (Automatic Injection)

Note
 This is the legacy token management approach. For new applications, use the OAuth 2.0 /token endpoint described above.

RESTHeart can also automatically inject auth tokens into response headers. The default configuration includes the tokenBasicAuthMechanism and the rndTokenManager.

With those plugins enabled, when a request is successfully authenticated, an auth token is generated by the Token Manager and included in every subsequent responses.

the tokenBasicAuthMechanism allows to authenticate the client using the auth token; the auth token is used as a temporary password in the basic authentication scheme. This means that the Authorization request header can either be calculated from the the Auth-Token itself:

Authorization: Basic base64(<userid> + ':' + <password>) or Authorization: Basic base64(<userid> + ':' + <auth-token>)

Auth token information are passed in the following response headers:

Auth-Token: 6a81d622-5e24-4d9e-adc0-e3f7f2d93ac7
Auth-Token-Location: /tokens/user@si.com
Auth-Token-Valid-Until: 2015-04-16T13:28:10.749Z
Note
 the URI in the Auth-Token-Location header: the client can issue a GET request to obtain information about token or a DELETE request to invalidate it. Of course clients can only request their own tokens (otherwise response code will be 403 Forbidden).

Token Management Examples

To get information about your auth token:

cURL

curl -i --user [BASIC-AUTH] -X GET [RESTHEART-URL]/tokens/userid

HTTPie

http GET [RESTHEART-URL]/tokens/userid Authorization:"Basic [BASIC-AUTH]"

JavaScript

const username = 'your-username';
const password = 'your-password';
const credentials = btoa(`${username}:${password}`);

fetch('[RESTHEART-URL]/tokens/userid', {
    method: 'GET',
    headers: {
        'Authorization': `Basic ${credentials}`
    }
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => {
    console.log('Token information:', data);
})
.catch(error => console.error('Error:', error));

To invalidate your auth token:

cURL

curl -i --user [BASIC-AUTH] -X DELETE [RESTHEART-URL]/tokens/userid

HTTPie

http DELETE [RESTHEART-URL]/tokens/userid Authorization:"Basic [BASIC-AUTH]"

JavaScript

const username = 'your-username';
const password = 'your-password';
const credentials = btoa(`${username}:${password}`);

fetch('[RESTHEART-URL]/tokens/userid', {
    method: 'DELETE',
    headers: {
        'Authorization': `Basic ${credentials}`
    }
})
.then(response => {
    if (response.ok) {
        console.log('Token invalidated successfully');
    } else {
        console.error('Failed to invalidate token:', response.status);
    }
})
.catch(error => console.error('Error:', error));
Tip
 The Authentication Token is a very important feature when you are developing a web application. Since every request needs to include the credentials, you need to store them either in a cookie or (better) in the session storage. The sign-in form can check the credentials using the actual password; if it succeeds, the auth token can be stored and used.
Warning
 Pay attention to the authentication token in case of multi-node deployments (horizontal scalability). In this case, you need to either disable it or use a load balancer with the sticky session option or a different Token Manager implementation.

The rndTokenManager can be configured as follows (note option TTL the auth token Time To Live in minutes):

rndTokenManager:
    ttl: 15
    srv-uri: /tokens

Suggested way to check credentials

The default restheart configuration file sets up the useful service roles, bound to /roles/<userid>

Here’s how to check credentials using the roles endpoint:

cURL

curl -i --user [BASIC-AUTH] -X GET [RESTHEART-URL]/roles/userid

HTTPie

http GET [RESTHEART-URL]/roles/userid Authorization:"Basic [BASIC-AUTH]"

JavaScript

const username = 'your-username';
const password = 'your-password';
const credentials = btoa(`${username}:${password}`);

fetch('[RESTHEART-URL]/roles/userid', {
    method: 'GET',
    headers: {
        'Authorization': `Basic ${credentials}`
    }
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => {
    console.log('User roles:', data);
})
.catch(error => console.error('Error:', error));

The possible response codes of the request GET /roles/<userid> are:

  • 401 Unauthorized missing or wrong credentials

  • 403 Forbidden the userid in the URL does not match the one in the Authorization header

  • 200 OK credentials match; the following response document is sent back:

 {
    "authenticated": true,
    "roles": [
        "USER"
    ]
}

Of course, if the request succeeds, the client gets back the auth token as well.

Note
 It is easy to check the user credentials from a login form with this handler: in case the client gets back 200, they match and the auth token can be stored for further request; otherwise passed credentials are wrong.

How to avoid the basic authentication popup in browsers

With basic authentication, browsers can show a awful login popup window and this is not what you usually want.

What happens behind the scene, is that the server sends the WWW-Authenticate response header that actually leads to it.

You can avoid RESTHeart to actually send this header avoiding the popup login window altogether, either specifying the No-Auth-Challenge request header or using the noauthchallenge query parameter. In this case, RESTHeart will just respond with 401 Unauthorized in case of missing or wrong credentials.

Tip
 This feature together with the authentication token, allows you to implement a form based authentication experience on top of the simple and effective basic authentication mechanism.