.NET Core WebAPI + OpenIdDict (credentials flow) and Angular2 client: 401 after successful login (full repro)

Question

I'm trying to create an Angular2 SPA consuming a .NET Core Web API protected using OpenIdDict, with credentials flow. In creating a repro solution for this issue, I have also detailed all my steps in a readme, so hope this post can be useful to newbies like me. Please find the full repro solutions in these repositories:

• server-side (.NET Core + OpenIdDict), with detailed instructions to build your own: https://github.com/Myrmex/repro-oidang

• client-side (Angular2): https://github.com/Myrmex/repro-angoid

As for the server side, I followed the sample provided by OpenIdDict about this flow (https://github.com/openiddict/openiddict-samples/blob/master/samples/PasswordFlow). Here are the most relevant bits in Startup:

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    services.AddCors();

    services.AddEntityFrameworkSqlServer()
        .AddDbContext<CatalogContext>(options =>
                options.UseSqlServer(Configuration.GetConnectionString("Catalog")))
        .AddDbContext<ApplicationDbContext>(options =>
                options.UseSqlServer(Configuration.GetConnectionString("Catalog")));

    services.AddIdentity<ApplicationUser, ApplicationRole>()
        .AddEntityFrameworkStores<ApplicationDbContext>()
        .AddDefaultTokenProviders();

    services.AddOpenIddict<ApplicationDbContext>()
        .DisableHttpsRequirement()
        .EnableTokenEndpoint("/connect/token")
        .EnableLogoutEndpoint("/connect/logout")
        .EnableUserinfoEndpoint("/connect/userinfo")
        .AllowPasswordFlow()
        .AllowRefreshTokenFlow()
        .AddEphemeralSigningKey();

    services.AddMvc()
        .AddJsonOptions(options =>
        {
            options.SerializerSettings.ContractResolver =
                new Newtonsoft.Json.Serialization.CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver();
        });

    // add my services
    // ...

    services.AddTransient<IDatabaseInitializer, DatabaseInitializer>();
    services.AddSwaggerGen();
}

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env, 
    ILoggerFactory loggerFactory,
    IDatabaseInitializer databaseInitializer)
{
    loggerFactory.AddConsole(Configuration.GetSection("Logging"));
    loggerFactory.AddDebug();
    loggerFactory.AddNLog();

    app.UseDefaultFiles();
    app.UseStaticFiles();

    app.UseCors(builder =>
            builder.WithOrigins("http://localhost:4200")
                .AllowAnyHeader()
                .AllowAnyMethod());

    app.UseOAuthValidation();
    app.UseOpenIddict();
    app.UseMvc();
    databaseInitializer.Seed().GetAwaiter().GetResult();
    env.ConfigureNLog("nlog.config");
    app.UseSwagger();
    app.UseSwaggerUi();
}

If I test it with Fiddler, it works fine: the token request gets the token, and I can then include it in the Authorization header to access any protected API, which returns JSON data as expected.

Sample token request:

POST http://localhost:51346/connect/token
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

grant_type=password&scope=offline_access profile email roles&resource=http://localhost:4200&username=...&password=...

Sample resource request:

GET http://localhost:51346/api/values
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer ...received token here...

Yet, on the client side, whenever I try the same request I get a 401 error; looking at the log, it seems that Angular2 Http service is not sending the required header at all, as I get the error Authentication was skipped because no bearer token was received (see more log entries below).

A service retrieving some resources is like this:

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { Http, Response } from '@angular/http';
import { Observable } from 'rxjs/Observable';
import { SettingsService } from './settings.service';
import { AuthenticationService } from './authentication.service';

export interface ICategory {
  id: string;
  name: string;
}

@Injectable()
export class CategoryService {

  constructor(
    private _http: Http,
    private _settings: SettingsService,
    private _authService: AuthenticationService) { }

  public getCategories(): Observable<ICategory[]> {
    let url = this._settings.apiBaseUrl + 'categories';
    let options = {
      headers: this._authService.createAuthHeaders({
        'Content-Type': 'application/json'
      })
    };
    return this._http.get(url, options).map((res: Response) => res.json())
      .catch((error: any) => Observable.throw(error.json().error || 'server error'));
  }
}

Where the helper createAuthHeaders just gets some properties representing the Header (https://angular.io/docs/ts/latest/api/http/index/Headers-class.html) entries, retrieves the stored token, appends the Authentication entry to the header, and returns it:

public createAuthHeaders(headers?: { [name: string]: any }): Headers {
    let auth = new Headers();
    if (headers) {
        for (let key in headers) {
            if (headers.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
                auth.append(key, headers[key]);
            }
        }
    }
    let tokenResult = this._localStorage.retrieve(this._settings.tokenStorageKey, true);
    if (tokenResult) {
        auth.append('Authentication', 'Bearer ' + tokenResult.access_token);
    }
    return auth;
}

Yet, this request gets a 401 response and then Angular throws when trying to mapping the response to a JSON object (Unexpected end of JSON input).

I must add that as soon as the client gets the token, it makes another request with it, to retrieve user info, and this works fine; here is it (see the code after get user info):

public login(name: string, password: string) {
    let body = 'grant_type=password&scope=offline_access profile email roles' +
        `&resource=${this._settings.appBaseUrl}&username=${name}&password=${password}`;

    this._http.post(
        this._settings.authBaseUrl + `token`,
        body,
        {
            headers: new Headers({
                'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
            })
        }).map(res => res.json())
        .subscribe(
        (token: ITokenResult) => {
            if (token.expires_in) {
                token.expires_on = this.calculateExpirationDate(+token.expires_in);
            }
            this._localStorage.store(this._settings.tokenStorageKey, token, true);
            // get user info
            this._http.get(this._settings.authBaseUrl + 'userinfo', {
                headers: new Headers({
                    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
                    'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + token.access_token
                })
            }).map(res => res.json())
              .subscribe((info: IUserInfoResult) => {
                    let user: IUser = {
                        id: info.name,
                        email: info.email,
                        name: info.name,
                        firstName: info.given_name,
                        lastName: info.family_name,
                        role: info.role,
                        verified: info.email_verified
                    };
                    this._localStorage.store(this._settings.userStorageKey, user, true);
                    this.userChanged.emit(user);
                }, error => {
                    console.log(error);
                });
        },
        error => {
            console.log(error);
        });
    }

Yet, any other request, built using the service above, fails. What's wrong with the headers built with the quoted function?

Here are some log entries on the server side:

2016-11-18 20:41:31.9815|0|AspNet.Security.OAuth.Validation.OAuthValidationMiddleware|DEBUG|  Authentication was skipped because no bearer token was received. 
2016-11-18 20:41:31.9815|0|OpenIddict.Infrastructure.OpenIddictProvider|INFO|  The token request validation process was skipped because the client_id parameter was missing or empty. 
2016-11-18 20:41:32.0715|0|AspNet.Security.OpenIdConnect.Server.OpenIdConnectServerMiddleware|INFO|  No explicit audience was associated with the access token. 
2016-11-18 20:41:32.1165|10|AspNet.Security.OpenIdConnect.Server.OpenIdConnectServerMiddleware|INFO|  AuthenticationScheme: ASOS signed in. 
2016-11-18 20:41:32.1635|3|AspNet.Security.OAuth.Validation.OAuthValidationMiddleware|INFO|  HttpContext.User merged via AutomaticAuthentication from authenticationScheme: Bearer. 
2016-11-18 20:41:57.7430|0|AspNet.Security.OAuth.Validation.OAuthValidationMiddleware|DEBUG|  Authentication was skipped because no bearer token was received. 
2016-11-18 20:41:57.7430|0|AspNet.Security.OAuth.Validation.OAuthValidationMiddleware|DEBUG|  Authentication was skipped because no bearer token was received. 
2016-11-18 20:41:57.8820|12|AspNet.Security.OAuth.Validation.OAuthValidationMiddleware|INFO|  AuthenticationScheme: Bearer was challenged. 
2016-11-18 20:41:57.9305|12|AspNet.Security.OAuth.Validation.OAuthValidationMiddleware|INFO|  AuthenticationScheme: Bearer was challenged. 
2016-11-18 20:41:57.9465|0|AspNet.Security.OAuth.Validation.OAuthValidationMiddleware|DEBUG|  Authentication was skipped because no bearer token was received. 
2016-11-18 20:41:57.9925|12|AspNet.Security.OAuth.Validation.OAuthValidationMiddleware|INFO|  AuthenticationScheme: Bearer was challenged. 

Answer 1

Your bearer token usage is incorrect.

auth.append('Authentication', 'Bearer ' + tokenResult.access_token) // wrong
auth.append('Authorization', 'Bearer ' + tokenResult.access_token) // right

The header needs to be Authorization. See https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6750#section-2.1