Difference between SSL and JWT

Question

I've been reading and trying to comprehend the differences in browser side security. From what I gather, SSL is used to keep people from sniffing the traffic you send to the server. This allows you to send a password to a server in clear text...right? As long as you are in an SSL encrypted session you don't have to worry about hashing the password first or anything weird, just send it straight to the server along with the username. After the user authenticates you send them back a JWT and then all future requests to the server should include this JWT assuming they are trying to access a secured area. This allows the server to not even have to check the password, all the server does is verify the signature and that's all the server cares about. As long as the signature is verified you give the client whatever info they are requesting. Have I missed something?

Answer 1

You are correct. "This allows the server not to even have to check the password." Why would you have to check a password on each request?

A JWT is a means of verifying authentication. It is generated upon a successful authentication request and hence forth passed with each request to let the server know this user is authenticated.

It can be used to store arbitrary values such as user_id or api_key but they are not very secure so don't store any valuable information here.

Be wary though, if a plain JWT is intercepted by a third party, it can assume this user's session and possible data.

SSL is a lower level form of security, encrypting every request from and to the server to prevent interception and retains integrity. SSL is achieved by (purchasing) an SSL certificate and installing it on your server. Basically an SSL certificate is a small data file that binds a cryptographic key to an 'organisation'. Once installed succesfully, HTTPS requests (on port 443 by default) are possible.