Vertx SockJs Eventbus Authentication

Question

I'm trying to make a sock.js connection from the frontend to the vertx backend.

my initial try looked like this:

let token = '<the token>';
let data = {'Authorization' : 'Bearer ' + token};
let eb = new EventBus("http://localhost:8080/eventbus");
  eb.onopen = function () {
  eb.registerHandler('notifications', data, (err, msg) =>  {
    // handle the response
  });
}

this doesn't work since I need to send the auth data on EventBus creation, even though the official sock.js documentation states that this is not supported. Obviously now sending new EventBus("http://localhost:9090/eventbus", data) doesn't work either.

https://github.com/sockjs/sockjs-node#authorisation

my backend handler for this:

final BridgeOptions bridgeOptions = new BridgeOptions()
  .addOutboundPermitted(new PermittedOptions().setAddress("notifications"))

final SockJSHandler sockJSHandler = SockJSHandler.create(vertx).bridge(bridgeOptions, event -> {
  event.complete(true);
});

router.route("/eventbus/*").handler(ctx -> {
  String token = ctx.request().getHeader("Authorization"); // null
});
router.route("/eventbus/*").handler(sockJSHandler);

whatever I tried the header field Authroization is always null.

What is the standard way to authenticate the sock.js connection and register to an eventbus request in vertx?

Have you checked the Requiring authorisation for messages section of the Vert.x Web doc? — tsegismont
OK. I asked because your snippet does not look like you use the Vert.x Web authorization functionality. — tsegismont
i already tried the standard JWTAuthHandler approach I do on normal http requests, but the error is the same -> Token not found because I don't know how to send it from the frontend side correctly. the backend works fine — Markus
Have a look at the vertx-examples repo to see the bridge auth in action. Please share a reproducer on GitHub if it still doesn't work. Thanks — tsegismont

berserkk berserkk · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-06T21:57:44

SockJS uses WebSockets by default. You can't add custom headers (Authorization, etc) using JavaScript WebSocket API. Read this thread for more explanation.

I see 2 ways, how you can add authorization:

Just add token parameter to URL:

let eb = new EventBus("http://localhost:8080/eventbus?token=" + token);

and here's how you can get it on a server:

String token = ctx.request().getParam("token");

Send authorization message after connecting to the server. It can be some JSON object, which contains token field.

I think, 1st option is enough, however, 2nd one can be harder to implement in terms of Event Bus and SockJS.

Vertx SockJs Eventbus Authentication

3 Answers