Passport local strategy and cURL

Question

I would like to test my node.js + express + passport.js test application (RESTful) with CURL. My code:

var express = require('express');
var routes = require('./routes');
var http = require('http');
var path = require('path');
var passport = require('passport');
var LocalStrategy = require('passport-local').Strategy;

// Define the strategy to be used by PassportJS
passport.use(new LocalStrategy(
    function(username, password, done) {
        if (username === "admin" && password === "admin") // stupid example
            return done(null, {name: "admin"});

        return done(null, false, { message: 'Incorrect username.' });
    }
));

// Serialized and deserialized methods when got from session
passport.serializeUser(function(user, done) {
    done(null, user);
});

passport.deserializeUser(function(user, done) {
    done(null, user);
});

// Define a middleware function to be used for every secured routes
var auth = function(req, res, next){
    if (!req.isAuthenticated())
        res.send(401);
    else
        next();
};

var app = express();

// all environments
app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 3000);
app.set('views', path.join(__dirname, 'views'));
app.set('view engine', 'ejs');
app.use(express.favicon());
app.use(express.logger('dev'));
app.use(express.json());
app.use(express.urlencoded());
app.use(express.methodOverride());
app.use(passport.initialize());
app.use(passport.session());
app.use(app.router);
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));

// development only
if ('development' == app.get('env')) {
    app.use(express.errorHandler());
}

app.get('/test', auth, function(req, res){
    res.send([{name: "user1"}, {name: "user2"}]);
});

app.post('/login', passport.authenticate('local'), function(req, res) {
    res.send(req.user);
});

Calling /test with curl and

curl "http://localhost:3000/test"

returns "Unauthorized" (this is correct so far).

Calling /login (POST) with curl and

curl --data "username=admin&password=admin" http://localhost:3000/login

works. But at the next request my login was "forgotten". Is this because curl can't handle sessions? Is there any workaround? Is my procedure correct for a RESTful application?

Answer 1

First, make curl save cookies when you log in with

curl --cookie-jar jarfile --data "username=admin&password=admin" http://localhost:3000/login

Read the stored cookies when accessing /test:

curl --cookie jarfile "http://localhost:3000/test"

Some modifications to the app itself were needed before it worked on my machine (Ubuntu 12.04) with Node.js v0.10.26 and Express 3.5.0. I generated a new Express app with express --sessions nodetest and edited the code in app.js to be as you see below. Once I had the dependencies installed I ran the app and it worked with the curl commands.

app.js

var express = require('express');
var routes = require('./routes');
var user = require('./routes/user');
var http = require('http');
var path = require('path');
var passport = require('passport');
var LocalStrategy = require('passport-local').Strategy;

var app = express();

// Define the strategy to be used by PassportJS
passport.use(new LocalStrategy(
    function(username, password, done) {
        if (username === "admin" && password === "admin") // stupid example
            return done(null, {name: "admin"});

        return done(null, false, { message: 'Incorrect username.' });
    }
));

// Serialized and deserialized methods when got from session
passport.serializeUser(function(user, done) {
    done(null, user);
});

passport.deserializeUser(function(user, done) {
    done(null, user);
});

// Define a middleware function to be used for every secured routes
var auth = function(req, res, next){
    if (!req.isAuthenticated())
        res.send(401);
    else
        next();
};

// all environments
app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 3000);
app.set('views', path.join(__dirname, 'views'));
app.set('view engine', 'ejs');
app.use(express.favicon());
app.use(express.logger('dev'));
app.use(express.json());
app.use(express.urlencoded());
app.use(express.methodOverride());
app.use(express.cookieParser('your secret here'));
app.use(express.session());
app.use(passport.initialize());
app.use(passport.session());
app.use(app.router);
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));

// development only
if ('development' == app.get('env')) {
    app.use(express.errorHandler());
}

app.get('/test', auth, function(req, res){
    res.send([{name: "user1"}, {name: "user2"}]);
});

app.post('/login', passport.authenticate('local'), function(req, res) {
    res.send(req.user);
});

http.createServer(app).listen(app.get('port'), function(){
  console.log('Express server listening on port ' + app.get('port'));
});

curl script

#!/bin/sh
# curl-login.sh
rm jarfile
echo --- login
curl --cookie-jar jarfile --data "username=admin&password=admin" http://localhost:3000/login
echo --- test
curl --cookie jarfile "http://localhost:3000/test"

Console log with curl output

$ node app &
$ sh curl-login.sh
--- login
POST /login 200 2ms - 21b
{
  "name": "admin"
}--- test
GET /test 200 1ms - 60b
[
  {
    "name": "user1"
  },
  {
    "name": "user2"
  }
]

Note the use of

app.use(express.cookieParser('your secret here'));
app.use(express.session());

in app.js. Sessions did not work without the above two lines.

The code in your question also lacks the part where you create an HTTP server but I assume that's just a copy-paste issue; I'm referring to

http.createServer(app).listen(app.get('port'), function(){
  console.log('Express server listening on port ' + app.get('port'));
});