🔐 S---

🚀 Features

🔐 Authentication & Security Auth Platform

Production-Grade Authentication & Authorization Service

A comprehensive, enterprise-ready authentication and authorization service built with Node.js, featuring RBAC, OAuth integration, advanced security hardening, and horizontal scalability.

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🌟 Key Features

🔑 Authentication

• JWT-based authentication with access + refresh tokens
• Token rotation for enhanced security
• Secure cookie handling with httpOnly and sameSite flags
• Password hashing with bcrypt (cost factor: 12)
• Account lockout after failed login attempts
• OAuth 2.0 integration (Google, GitHub)

🛡️ Authorization

• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
• Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) support
• Permission matrix system
• Middleware-driven authorization checks
• Policy-driven logic (not hardcoded)

🔒 Security Hardening

• Rate limiting on all auth endpoints
• CSRF protection for state-changing operations
• Secure headers via Helmet.js
• Input validation with Joi schemas
• Brute-force detection and prevention
• MongoDB injection protection
• XSS protection

📊 Observability

• Audit logging for all auth events
• Correlation IDs for request tracing
• Security alerts for suspicious activities
• Metrics tracking (failed logins, token refresh rates)
• Structured logging with Winston

🧪 Testing

• Unit tests for all auth flows
• Integration tests for API endpoints
• Security tests for attack scenarios
• Abuse scenario coverage

🚀 Deployment

• Dockerized service
• Environment separation (dev, staging, prod)
• Secrets management best practices
• Horizontal scaling ready (stateless architecture)

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📁 Project Structure

secure-auth-platform/
├── src/
│   ├── lib/
│   │   ├── security/         # Security middleware & utilities
│   │   ├── rateLimiter/      # Rate limiting configuration
│   │   ├── tokenManager/     # Token generation & validation
│   │   ├── auditLogger/      # Security event logging
│   │   └── oauth/            # OAuth providers
│   ├── models/
│   │   ├── User/             # User model with security features
│   │   ├── RefreshToken/     # Refresh token storage
│   │   └── AuditLog/         # Security audit logs
│   ├── routes/
│   │   ├── auth.js           # Authentication routes
│   │   ├── oauth.js          # OAuth routes
│   │   └── user.js           # User management routes
│   ├── services/
│   │   ├── auth/             # Authentication business logic
│   │   ├── token/            # Token management
│   │   └── oauth/            # OAuth integration
│   ├── middleware/
│   │   ├── rbac.js           # RBAC middleware
│   │   ├── abac.js           # ABAC middleware
│   │   └── bruteforce.js     # Brute-force protection
│   └── validations/          # Joi validation schemas
├── tests/
│   ├── unit/                 # Unit tests
│   ├── integration/          # Integration tests
│   └── security/             # Security & abuse tests
├── docs/
│   ├── auth-flow.md          # Authentication flow diagrams
│   ├── threat-model.md       # Security threat analysis
│   ├── token-strategy.md     # Token management strategy
│   ├── rate-limiting.md      # Rate limiting configuration
│   ├── rbac-permissions.md   # Permission matrix
│   └── deployment.md         # Deployment guide
├── infra/
│   ├── Dockerfile            # Container configuration
│   └── docker-compose.yml    # Multi-service setup
├── config/                   # Configuration files
└── README.md

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🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 14.x
• MongoDB >= 4.x
• Redis >= 6.x (for token blacklisting)

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/tapas100/node-auth-app.git
cd node-auth-app

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Set up environment variables
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your configuration

# Start MongoDB
sudo service mongod start

# Start Redis (for token management)
redis-server

# Start the application
npm run dev

Running with Docker

# Build the image
npm run docker:build

# Run the container
npm run docker:run

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🔐 Authentication Flow

Access Token + Refresh Token Strategy

Why we use refresh tokens:

1. Security: Short-lived access tokens limit exposure window
2. Revocation: Can invalidate refresh tokens without affecting active sessions
3. Scalability: Stateless access tokens reduce database lookups
4. User Experience: Seamless re-authentication without login

Flow:

1. User logs in → Server returns access token (15min) + refresh token (7d)
2. Client stores refresh token securely (httpOnly cookie)
3. Client uses access token for API requests
4. Access token expires → Client sends refresh token
5. Server validates refresh token → Issues new access + refresh token pair
6. Old refresh token is rotated (invalidated)

See docs/auth-flow.md for detailed diagrams.

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🛡️ Authorization System

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Default Roles:

• admin - Full system access
• moderator - Content management + user moderation
• editor - Content creation and editing
• user - Basic authenticated access
• guest - Read-only access

Permission Matrix:

Role	manage_users	publish_content	edit_content	read_content	delete_content
admin	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
moderator	✅	❌	✅	✅	✅
editor	❌	✅	✅	✅	❌
user	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌
guest	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌

See docs/rbac-permissions.md for the complete permission matrix.

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🔒 Security Features

Rate Limiting

// Login endpoint: 5 attempts per 15 minutes per IP
// Token refresh: 10 attempts per 15 minutes per IP
// Registration: 3 attempts per hour per IP

See docs/rate-limiting.md for configuration details.

Brute-Force Protection

• Account lockout after 5 failed attempts
• Progressive delays (exponential backoff)
• IP-based tracking
• CAPTCHA requirement after 3 failed attempts

Password Policy

• Minimum 8 characters
• Must contain: uppercase, lowercase, number, special character
• Cannot contain common passwords (dictionary check)
• Cannot reuse last 5 passwords
• Hashed with bcrypt (cost factor: 12)

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📊 API Endpoints

Authentication

POST   /api/v1/auth/register       - Register new user
POST   /api/v1/auth/login          - Login with credentials
POST   /api/v1/auth/logout         - Logout (invalidate tokens)
POST   /api/v1/auth/refresh        - Refresh access token
POST   /api/v1/auth/forgot-password - Request password reset
POST   /api/v1/auth/reset-password - Reset password with token

OAuth

GET    /api/v1/oauth/google        - Initiate Google OAuth
GET    /api/v1/oauth/google/callback - Google OAuth callback
GET    /api/v1/oauth/github        - Initiate GitHub OAuth
GET    /api/v1/oauth/github/callback - GitHub OAuth callback

User Management

GET    /api/v1/users/me            - Get current user profile
PUT    /api/v1/users/me            - Update current user
DELETE /api/v1/users/me            - Delete account
GET    /api/v1/users/:id           - Get user by ID (admin only)
PUT    /api/v1/users/:id/roles     - Update user roles (admin only)

Full API Documentation: Postman Collection

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🧪 Testing

# Run all tests
npm test

# Run tests in watch mode
npm run test:watch

# Run security tests only
npm run test:security

# View coverage report
npm test -- --coverage

Test Coverage

• Unit Tests: Authentication logic, token validation, password hashing
• Integration Tests: API endpoints, middleware chains, database operations
• Security Tests:
  • Token replay attacks
  • Expired token handling
  • Concurrent login scenarios
  • Brute-force attempts
  • SQL/NoSQL injection attempts
  • XSS attempts

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🔧 Configuration

Environment Variables

# Server
PORT=3000
NODE_ENV=production

# Database
MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/auth-platform
REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379

# JWT
JWT_SECRET=<your-super-secret-key>
JWT_ACCESS_EXPIRATION=15m
JWT_REFRESH_EXPIRATION=7d

# OAuth
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=<your-google-client-id>
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=<your-google-client-secret>
GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=<your-github-client-id>
GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET=<your-github-client-secret>

# Security
BCRYPT_ROUNDS=12
MAX_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS=5
LOCKOUT_DURATION=900000  # 15 minutes in ms
RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW=900000 # 15 minutes in ms

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📈 Monitoring & Observability

Audit Logs

All security events are logged with correlation IDs for tracing. See docs/security-logging.md for details.

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🎯 Design Decisions & Trade-offs

Stateless Authentication

Decision: Use JWT for access tokens (stateless)

Why:

• Horizontal scaling without session storage
• Reduced database lookups
• Better performance under load

Trade-off:

• Cannot immediately revoke access tokens
• Mitigated with short expiration (15 min) + refresh token rotation

Token Rotation

Decision: Rotate refresh tokens on every use

Why:

• Prevents token replay attacks
• Limits damage from token theft
• Detects concurrent token usage

Trade-off:

• Slightly more complex client logic
• Additional database writes

Redis for Token Blacklisting

Decision: Use Redis for revoked token tracking

Why:

• Fast in-memory lookups
• TTL support (auto-cleanup)
• Scales horizontally

Trade-off:

• Additional infrastructure dependency
• Requires Redis availability

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🚀 Scaling Considerations

What We'd Change at Scale

100K+ users:

• Add Redis cluster for distributed rate limiting
• Implement CDN for static assets
• Add read replicas for MongoDB

1M+ users:

• Microservices architecture (separate auth service)
• Event-driven architecture with message queues
• Distributed tracing (Jaeger/OpenTelemetry)
• Multi-region deployment

10M+ users:

• Dedicated identity provider (Keycloak/Auth0)
• Geographically distributed databases
• Edge authentication (Cloudflare Workers)
• Advanced fraud detection with ML

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🔍 Threat Model

See docs/threat-model.md for comprehensive threat analysis.

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📄 License

ISC License

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👨‍💻 Author

Tapas Mahanta - @tapas100