Difference between Passport and JWT?

Question

I'm pretty new to Express/Node - I'm trying to figure out what the difference between Passport and JWT is but can't find a definitive answer? I know you can use one or the other for auth purposes in an application, or together with an npm package like passport-jwt.

So what I want to know is:

1. What does JWT do that Passport doesn't (and vice versa)?

2. What is the preferred method for authentication/authorization and why?

Cardiology

Answer 1

Passport is Authentication Middleware for Node.JS, it is not for any specific method of authentication, the method for authentication like OAuth, JWT is implemented in Passport by Strategy pattern, so it means that you can swap the authentication mechanism without affecting other parts of your application.

Passport is authentication middleware for Node.js. Extremely flexible and modular, Passport can be unobtrusively dropped in to any Express-based web application. A comprehensive set of strategies support authentication using a username and password, Facebook, Twitter, and more.

http://passportjs.org/

A Passport strategy for authenticating with a JSON Web Token.

This module lets you authenticate endpoints using a JSON web token. It is intended to be used to secure RESTful endpoints without sessions.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/passport-jwt

Nuclei

What's the advantage (if any) of using passport-jwt over express-jwt? – Mess

@RonInbar passport-jwt is member of the passport ecosystem, while express-jwt is standalone. – Strapped

Answer 2

Passport is just middleware for Node.JS.

JSON Web Token can be used "inside" of passport. Passport offers other features too.

Ticktacktoe

Answer 3

Passports and JWTs (JSON Web Tokens) are both authentication mechanisms, but they serve slightly different purposes and operate at different levels of abstraction.

Passport:

Passport is a middleware for Node.js used for authentication. It provides a modular approach to handle authentication in web applications. Passport doesn't enforce any particular authentication strategy itself; instead, it acts as a middleware to delegate authentication to various strategies like OAuth, OpenID, local authentication (username/password), etc. Passport helps to manage user authentication sessions and serialize/deserialize user instances to and from the session. JWT (JSON Web Tokens):

JWT

Jwt is a compact, URL-safe means of representing claims to be transferred between two parties. These claims are typically used to encode information about an authenticated user. JWTs are commonly used for authentication and information exchange in client-server architectures. They are self-contained and can carry information such as user identity, permissions, and other metadata. JWTs are commonly used with stateless authentication mechanisms, where the server doesn't need to store session state. Once issued, JWTs can be verified and decoded by the server without needing to query a database or cache.

In summary, Passport is a middleware that facilitates authentication in Node.js applications, while JWT is a token format commonly used for representing claims about the user and enabling stateless authentication. In some cases, Passport can also be configured to use JWTs as a strategy for authentication.

Magnetize