Expired or wrong signature?

I need to know exactly why a token failed verification.

Using the jwt.verify function I don’t know the reason as it might be expired or wrongly signed.

So I have implemented the following workaround:

let validationMessage = "ok";
let isValid = false;
try {
  isValid = await jwt.verify(token, SECRET);
  if (!isValid) {
    if (jwtClaims.exp < Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000)) {
      throw new Error('token expired')
    }
    throw new Error('wrong signature')
  }
} catch (error) {
  validationMessage = `jwt verify failed: ${error.message}`;
}

I would like to suggest throwing such errors from jwt.verify and only returning true in case of success (never return false).

I could prepare PR but it’s a breaking change, so I’m not sure if you accept it.

Maybe as a separate verify_unsafe function or add a boolean thow=false flag to the existing func?

What do you think?

[tsndr]

https://github.com/tsndr/cloudflare-worker-jwt/tree/v1.2.0

We happy now? 😉

[defudef]

I think, adding an optional flag (false by default) wouldn’t introduce breaking changes and could level up the developer experience for sure.

jwt.verify(token, SECRET) // returns boolean. "throwError" flag set as false by default
jwt.verify(token, SECRET, { throwError: true }) // returns true or throws an error (data type still the same)

I can raise a PR if you’re happy with that.