JWT refresh token flow

Question

Below are the steps to do revoke your JWT access token:

1. When you do log in, send 2 tokens (Access token, Refresh token) in response to the client.
2. The access token will have less expiry time and Refresh will have long expiry time.
3. The client (Front end) will store refresh token in his local storage and access token in cookies.
4. The client will use an access token for calling APIs. But when it expires, pick the refresh token from local storage and call auth server API to get the new token.
5. Your auth server will have an API exposed which will accept refresh token and checks for its validity and return a new access token.
6. Once the refresh token is expired, the User will be logged out.

Please let me know if you need more details, I can share the code (Java + Spring boot) as well.

For your questions:

Q1: It's another JWT with fewer claims put in with long expiry time.

Q2: It won't be in a database. The backend will not store anywhere. They will just decrypt the token with private/public key and validate it with its expiry time also.

Q3: Yes, Correct

Assuming that this is about OAuth 2.0 since it is about JWTs and refresh tokens...:

1. just like an access token, in principle a refresh token can be anything including all of the options you describe; a JWT could be used when the Authorization Server wants to be stateless or wants to enforce some sort of "proof-of-possession" semantics on to the client presenting it; note that a refresh token differs from an access token in that it is not presented to a Resource Server but only to the Authorization Server that issued it in the first place, so the self-contained validation optimization for JWTs-as-access-tokens does not hold for refresh tokens

2. that depends on the security/access of the database; if the database can be accessed by other parties/servers/applications/users, then yes (but your mileage may vary with where and how you store the encryption key...)

3. an Authorization Server may issue both access tokens and refresh tokens at the same time, depending on the grant that is used by the client to obtain them; the spec contains the details and options on each of the standardized grants

Based in this implementation with Node.js of JWT with refresh token:

1. In this case they use a uid and it's not a JWT. When they refresh the token they send the refresh token and the user. If you implement it as a JWT, you don't need to send the user, because it be would inside the JWT.

2. They implement this in a separated document (table). It makes sense to me because a user can be logged in in different client applications and it could have a refresh token by app. If the user lose a device with one app installed, the refresh token of that device could be invalidated without affecting the other logged in devices.

3. In this implementation it response to the log in method with both, access token and refresh token. It seems correct to me.

The refresh token flow is described in the OAuth 2.0 specification document.

  +--------+                                           +---------------+
  |        |--(A)------- Authorization Grant --------->|               |
  |        |                                           |               |
  |        |<-(B)----------- Access Token -------------|               |
  |        |               & Refresh Token             |               |
  |        |                                           |               |
  |        |                            +----------+   |               |
  |        |--(C)---- Access Token ---->|          |   |               |
  |        |                            |          |   |               |
  |        |<-(D)- Protected Resource --| Resource |   | Authorization |
  | Client |                            |  Server  |   |     Server    |
  |        |--(E)---- Access Token ---->|          |   |               |
  |        |                            |          |   |               |
  |        |<-(F)- Invalid Token Error -|          |   |               |
  |        |                            +----------+   |               |
  |        |                                           |               |
  |        |--(G)----------- Refresh Token ----------->|               |
  |        |                                           |               |
  |        |<-(H)----------- Access Token -------------|               |
  +--------+           & Optional Refresh Token        +---------------+
  
  
  (A)  The client requests an access token by authenticating with the
       authorization server and presenting an authorization grant.
  
  (B)  The authorization server authenticates the client and validates
       the authorization grant, and if valid, issues an access token
       and a refresh token.
  
  (C)  The client makes a protected resource request to the resource
       server by presenting the access token.
  
  (D)  The resource server validates the access token, and if valid,
       serves the request.
  
  (E)  Steps (C) and (D) repeat until the access token expires.  If the
       client knows the access token expired, it skips to step (G);
       otherwise, it makes another protected resource request.
  
  (F)  Since the access token is invalid, the resource server returns
       an invalid token error.
  
  (G)  The client requests a new access token by authenticating with
       the authorization server and presenting the refresh token.  The
       client authentication requirements are based on the client type
       and on the authorization server policies.
  
  (H)  The authorization server authenticates the client and validates
       the refresh token, and if valid, issues a new access token (and,
       optionally, a new refresh token).

Regarding your questions:

1. It is another JWT
2. The refresh token has to be stored on the server side
3. Yes