Infinite loop in authentication redirection in nodejs app

Question

While working with user authentication I am facing infinite loop during redirection.

Here is the peice of code from app.js:

const hauthen = require('./handlers/hauthen');

const routes = require('./routes/index');
const authen = require('./routes/authen');
const users = require('./routes/users');

app.use(hauthen);

// routes
app.use('/', routes);
app.use('/authen', authen);
app.use('/users', users);

And this code is from the authentication page hauthen.js:

router.all("/authen", (req, res, next) => {
    if (req.authen) {
        res.redirect("/");
    } else {
        next();
    }
});

router.all("*", function(req, res, next) {
    if (req.authen !== undefined) {
        next();
    } else {
        res.redirect('/authen');
    }
});

The basic idea is to redirect to login page if the user is not already authenticated. But I am getting this in console for the root url "/".

GET / 302 16.464 ms - 58
GET /authen 302 2.930 ms - 58
GET /authen 302 1.587 ms - 58
GET /authen 302 0.854 ms - 58
GET /authen 302 1.467 ms - 58
GET /authen 302 1.878 ms - 58
GET /authen 302 0.681 ms - 58

So, what is causing the problem of infinte redirection and how to fix it? Am I doing it in wrong way?

Yosvel Quintero · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-26 14:50:51Z

2

To avoid the infinite loop and protect routes in your project you can create an specific Route Middleware Function in your file hauthen.js, to Check if a User is Authenticated:

// Check if user is authenticated
function isAuthenticated(req, res, next) {
    if (req.user && req.user.authenticated) {
        return next();
    }

    // If user isn't authenticated, then redirect somewhere
    res.redirect('/login');
}

Than you can use the middleware in the routes you want to protect:

router.get('/protected', isAuthenticated, function(req, res) {
    res.send('Protected route!');
});

edited Sep 26, 2016 at 14:50

answered Sep 26, 2016 at 14:43

Yosvel Quintero

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2 Comments

iiR Over a year ago

I am aware of this method. But this way I will need to pass isAuthenticated function to every route. Instead I want to do it for all routes at once.

Yosvel Quintero Over a year ago

For all you can do router.all('*', isAuthenticated); and remember to exclude the route /login from the isAuthenticated middleware

O_Z · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-26 12:39:31Z

0

/ redirects to authen and authen redirect to / or continues to / (next) It's a loop.

answered Sep 26, 2016 at 12:39

O_Z

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2 Comments

iiR Over a year ago

does next() continues to "/" here? How can I make it to continue to next route that is to users route. My intention was to continue to users with next().

O_Z Over a year ago

if authen is defined then it will go back and forth from / to .authen.

iiR · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-26 15:59:34Z

The problem was with the two routes defined.

router.all("/authen", (req, res, next)

and

router.all("*", function(req, res, next)

The redirection is ok. But once redirected, the next() function will take it to the next route that is "router.all('*', .....". And this is where the loop is created. I changed the route as follows which fixed the problem.

router.all("*", (req, res, next) => {
    if (req.authen !== undefined) {
        if(req.url === "/authen" || req.url === "/authen/") {
            res.redirect("/");
        } else {
            next();
        }
    } else {
        if(req.url === "/authen" || req.url === "/authen/") {
            next();
        } else {
            res.redirect('/authen');    
        }
    }
});

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