Passwordless authentication allows logging in without a password, just an email. It’s a more secure way of doing than the classic email/password login.

I’ll show you how to code an HTTP API in Go that provides this service.

Flow

User inputs his email.

Server creates a temporal on-time-use code associated with the user (like a temporal password) and mails it to the user in the form of a “magic link”.

User clicks the magic link.

Server extracts the code from the magic link, fetch the user associated and redirects to the client with a new JWT.

Client will use the JWT in every new request to authenticate the user.

Requisites

Install Go from its page and check your installation went OK with go version (1.10 ATM).

We’ll use an SQL database called CockroachDB for this. It’s much like postgres, but written in Go. Download it, extract it and add it to your PATH . Check that all went OK with cockroach version (2.0 ATM).

To send mails we’ll use a third party mailing service. For development, we’ll use mailtrap. Mailtrap sends all the mails to its inbox, so you don’t have to create multiple fake email accounts to test it.

Database Schema

Now, create a new directory for the project inside GOPATH and start a new CockroachDB node with cockroach start :

cockroach start --insecure --host 127.0.0.1

It will print some things, but check the SQL address line, it should say something like postgresql://root@127.0.0.1:26257?sslmode=disable . We’ll use this to connect to the database later.

Create a schema.sql file with the following content.

DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS passwordless_demo CASCADE; CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS passwordless_demo; SET DATABASE = passwordless_demo; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS users ( id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(), email STRING UNIQUE, username STRING UNIQUE ); CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS verification_codes ( id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(), user_id UUID NOT NULL REFERENCES users ON DELETE CASCADE, created_at TIMESTAMPTZ NOT NULL DEFAULT now() ); INSERT INTO users (email, username) VALUES ('john@passwordless.local', 'john_doe');

This script creates a database passwordless_demo , two tables: users and verification_codes , and inserts a fake user just to test it later. Each verification code is associated with a user and stores the creation date, useful to check if the code is expired or not.

To execute this script use cockroach sql in another terminal:

cat schema.sql | cockroach sql --insecure

Environment Configuration

I want you to set two environment variables: SMTP_USERNAME and SMTP_PASSWORD that you can get from your mailtrap account. These two will be required by our program.

Go Dependencies

For Go, we’ll need the following packages:

github.com/lib/pq: Postgres driver which CockroachDB uses.

github.com/matryer/way: Router.

github.com/dgrijalva/jwt-go: JWT implementation.

go get -u github.com/lib/pq go get -u github.com/matryer/way go get -u github.com/dgrijalva/jwt-go

Coding

Init Function

Create the main.go and start by getting some configuration from the environment inside the init function.

var config struct { port int appURL *url.URL databaseURL string jwtKey []byte smtpAddr string smtpAuth smtp.Auth } func init() { config.port, _ = strconv.Atoi(env("PORT", "3000")) config.appURL, _ = url.Parse(env("APP_URL", "http://localhost:"+strconv.Itoa(config.port)+"/")) config.databaseURL = env("DATABASE_URL", "postgresql://root@127.0.0.1:26257/passwordless_demo?sslmode=disable") config.jwtKey = []byte(env("JWT_KEY", "super-duper-secret-key")) smtpHost := env("SMTP_HOST", "smtp.mailtrap.io") config.smtpAddr = net.JoinHostPort(smtpHost, env("SMTP_PORT", "25")) smtpUsername, ok := os.LookupEnv("SMTP_USERNAME") if !ok { log.Fatalln("could not find SMTP_USERNAME on environment variables") } smtpPassword, ok := os.LookupEnv("SMTP_PASSWORD") if !ok { log.Fatalln("could not find SMTP_PASSWORD on environment variables") } config.smtpAuth = smtp.PlainAuth("", smtpUsername, smtpPassword, smtpHost) } func env(key, fallbackValue string) string { v, ok := os.LookupEnv(key) if !ok { return fallbackValue } return v }

appURL will allow us to build the “magic link”.

will allow us to build the “magic link”. port in which the HTTP server will start.

in which the HTTP server will start. databaseURL is the CockroachDB address, I added /passwordless_demo to the previous address to indicate the database name.

is the CockroachDB address, I added to the previous address to indicate the database name. jwtKey used to sign JWTs.

used to sign JWTs. smtpAddr is a joint of SMTP_HOST + SMTP_PORT ; we’ll use it to to send mails.

is a joint of + ; we’ll use it to to send mails. smtpUsername and smtpPassword are the two required vars.

and are the two required vars. smtpAuth is also used to send mails.

The env function allows us to get an environment variable with a fallback value in case it doesn’t exist.

Main Function

var db *sql.DB func main() { var err error if db, err = sql.Open("postgres", config.databaseURL); err != nil { log.Fatalf("could not open database connection: %v

", err) } defer db.Close() if err = db.Ping(); err != nil { log.Fatalf("could not ping to database: %v

", err) } router := way.NewRouter() router.HandleFunc("POST", "/api/users", requireJSON(createUser)) router.HandleFunc("POST", "/api/passwordless/start", requireJSON(passwordlessStart)) router.HandleFunc("GET", "/api/passwordless/verify_redirect", passwordlessVerifyRedirect) router.Handle("GET", "/api/auth_user", guard(getAuthUser)) log.Printf("starting server at %s 🚀

", config.appURL) log.Fatalf("could not start server: %v

", http.ListenAndServe(fmt.Sprintf(":%d", config.port), router)) }

First, it opens a database connection. Remember to load the driver.

import ( _ "github.com/lib/pq" )

Then, we create the router and define some endpoints. For the passwordless flow we use two endpoints: /api/passwordless/start mails the magic link and /api/passwordless/verify_redirect respond with the JWT.

Require JSON Middleware

Endpoints that need to decode JSON from the request body need to make sure the request is of type application/json . Because that is a common thing, I decoupled it to a middleware.

func requireJSON(next http.HandlerFunc) http.HandlerFunc { return func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) { if ct := r.Header.Get("Content-Type"); !strings.HasPrefix(ct, "application/json") { http.Error(w, "Content type of application/json required", http.StatusUnsupportedMediaType) return } next(w, r) } }

As easy as that. First, it gets the request content type from the headers, then checks if it starts with “application/json”, otherwise it early return with 415 Unsupported Media Type .

Respond JSON Function

Responding with JSON is also a common thing, so I extracted it to a function.

func respondJSON(w http.ResponseWriter, payload interface{}, code int) { b, err := json.Marshal(payload) if err != nil { respondInternalError(w, fmt.Errorf("could not marshal response payload: %v", err)) return } w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8") w.WriteHeader(code) w.Write(b) }

It marshalls to JSON, sets the response content type and status code, and writes the JSON. In case the JSON marshalling fails, it responds with an internal error.

Respond Internal Error Function

respondInternalError is a function that responds with 500 Internal Server Error , but it also logs the error to the console.

func respondInternalError(w http.ResponseWriter, err error) { log.Println(err) http.Error(w, http.StatusText(http.StatusInternalServerError), http.StatusInternalServerError) }

Create User Handler

I’ll start coding the createUser handler because is the easiest and REST-ish.

type User struct { ID string `json:"id"` Email string `json:"email"` Username string `json:"username"` }

The User type is just like the users table.

var ( rxEmail = regexp.MustCompile("^[^\\s@]+@[^\\s@]+\\.[^\\s@]+$") rxUsername = regexp.MustCompile("^[a-zA-Z][\\w|-]{0,17}$") )

These regular expressions are to validate email and username respectively. Feel free to adapt them as you need.

Now, inside createUser function, we’ll start by decoding the request body.

func createUser(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) { var user User if err := json.NewDecoder(r.Body).Decode(&user); err != nil { http.Error(w, err.Error(), http.StatusBadRequest) return } defer r.Body.Close() // ...

We create a JSON decoder using the request body and decode to a user pointer. In case of an error, we return with a 400 Bad Request . Don’t forget to close the body reader.

// ... errs := make(map[string]string) if user.Email == "" { errs["email"] = "Email required" } else if !rxEmail.MatchString(user.Email) { errs["email"] = "Invalid email" } if user.Username == "" { errs["username"] = "Username required" } else if !rxUsername.MatchString(user.Username) { errs["username"] = "Invalid username" } if len(errs) != 0 { respondJSON(w, errs, http.StatusUnprocessableEntity) return } // ...

This is how I make validation; a map with the error messages and check if len(errs) != 0 to return with 422 Unprocessable Entity .

// ... err := db.QueryRowContext(r.Context(), ` INSERT INTO users (email, username) VALUES ($1, $2) RETURNING id `, user.Email, user.Username).Scan(&user.ID) if errPq, ok := err.(*pq.Error); ok && errPq.Code.Name() == "unique_violation" { if strings.Contains(errPq.Error(), "email") { errs["email"] = "Email taken" } else { errs["username"] = "Username taken" } respondJSON(w, errs, http.StatusForbidden) return } else if err != nil { respondInternalError(w, fmt.Errorf("could not insert user: %v", err)) return } // ...

This SQL query inserts a new user with the given email and username, and returns the auto generated id. Each $ will be replaced by the next arguments passed to QueryRowContext .

Because the users table had unique constraints on the email and username fields, I check for the “unique_violation” error to return with 403 Forbidden or I return with an internal error.

// ... respondJSON(w, user, http.StatusCreated) }

Finally, I just respond with the created user.

Passwordless Start Handler

var magicLinkTmpl = template.Must(template.ParseFiles("templates/magic-link.html"))

We’ll use the golang template engine to build the mailing so I’ll need you to create a magic-link.html file in a templates directory with a content like so:

<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <title>Magic Link</title> </head> <body> Click <a href="{{ .MagicLink }}" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> to login. <br> <em>This link expires in 15 minutes and can only be used once.</em> </body> </html>

This template is the mail we’ll send to the user with the magic link. Feel free to style it how you want.

Now, inside passwordlessStart function:

func passwordlessStart(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) { var input struct { Email string `json:"email"` RedirectURI string `json:"redirectUri"` } if err := json.NewDecoder(r.Body).Decode(&input); err != nil { http.Error(w, err.Error(), http.StatusBadRequest) return } defer r.Body.Close() // ...

Like before, we decode the request body. The redirect URI comes from the client (the app that will use our API) ex: https://frontend.app/callback .

// ... errs := make(map[string]string) if input.Email == "" { errs["email"] = "Email required" } else if !rxEmail.MatchString(input.Email) { errs["email"] = "Invalid email" } if input.RedirectURI == "" { errs["redirectUri"] = "Redirect URI required" } else if u, err := url.Parse(input.RedirectURI); err != nil || !u.IsAbs() { errs["redirectUri"] = "Invalid redirect URI" } if len(errs) != 0 { respondJSON(w, errs, http.StatusUnprocessableEntity) return } // ...

For the redirect URI validation we use the golang URL parser and check that is absolute.

// ... var verificationCode string err := db.QueryRowContext(r.Context(), ` INSERT INTO verification_codes (user_id) VALUES ((SELECT id FROM users WHERE email = $1)) RETURNING id `, input.Email).Scan(&verificationCode) if errPq, ok := err.(*pq.Error); ok && errPq.Code.Name() == "not_null_violation" { http.Error(w, "User not found", http.StatusNotFound) return } else if err != nil { respondInternalError(w, fmt.Errorf("could not insert verification code: %v", err)) return } // ...

This SQL query will insert a new verification code associated with a user with the given email and return the auto generated id. Because the user could not exist, that subquery can resolve to NULL which will fail the NOT NULL constraint on the user_id field, so I do a check on that and return with 404 Not Found in the case or an internal error otherwise.

// ... q := make(url.Values) q.Set("verification_code", verificationCode) q.Set("redirect_uri", input.RedirectURI) magicLink := *config.appURL magicLink.Path = "/api/passwordless/verify_redirect" magicLink.RawQuery = q.Encode() // ...

Now, I build the magic link, and set the verification_code and redirect_uri in the query string. Ex: http://localhost/api/passwordless/verify_redirect?verification_code=foo&redirect_uri=https://frontend.app/callback .

// ... var body bytes.Buffer data := map[string]string{"MagicLink": magicLink.String()} if err := magicLinkTmpl.Execute(&body, data); err != nil { respondInternalError(w, fmt.Errorf("could not execute magic link template: %v", err)) return } // ...

We’ll get the magic link template content saving it to a buffer. In case of error I return with an internal error.

// ... if err := sendMail(input.Email, "Magic Link", body.String()); err != nil { log.Printf("could not mail magic link to %s: %v

", input.Email, err) http.Error(w, "Could not mail your magic link. Try again latter", http.StatusServiceUnavailable) return } // ...

To mail the user I make use of a sendMail function that I’ll code now. In case of error I log it and return with a 503 Service Unavailable .

// ... w.WriteHeader(http.StatusNoContent) }

Finally, I just set the response status code to 204 No Content . The client doesn’t need more data than a success status code.

Send Mail Function

func sendMail(to, subject, body string) error { toAddr := mail.Address{Address: to} fromAddr := mail.Address{ Name: "Passwordless Demo", Address: "noreply@" + config.appURL.Host, } headers := map[string]string{ "From": fromAddr.String(), "To": toAddr.String(), "Subject": subject, "Content-Type": `text/html; charset="utf-8"`, } msg := "" for k, v := range headers { msg += fmt.Sprintf("%s: %s\r

", k, v) } msg += "\r

" msg += body return smtp.SendMail( config.smtpAddr, config.smtpAuth, fromAddr.Address, []string{toAddr.Address}, []byte(msg)) }

This function creates the structure of a basic HTML mail and sends it using the SMTP server. There are a lot of things you can customize of an email, but I kept it simple.

Passwordless Verify Redirect Handler

var rxUUID = regexp.MustCompile("^[0-9a-f]{8}-[0-9a-f]{4}-4[0-9a-f]{3}-[89ab][0-9a-f]{3}-[0-9a-f]{12}$")

First, this regular expression is to validate a UUID (the verification code).

Now, inside passwordlessVerifyRedirect function:

func passwordlessVerifyRedirect(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) { q := r.URL.Query() verificationCode := q.Get("verification_code") redirectURI := q.Get("redirect_uri") // ...

/api/passwordless/verify_redirect is a GET endpoint, so we read data from the query string.

// ... errs := make(map[string]string) if verificationCode == "" { errs["verification_code"] = "Verification code required" } else if !rxUUID.MatchString(verificationCode) { errs["verification_code"] = "Invalid verification code" } var callback *url.URL var err error if redirectURI == "" { errs["redirect_uri"] = "Redirect URI required" } else if callback, err = url.Parse(redirectURI); err != nil || !callback.IsAbs() { errs["redirect_uri"] = "Invalid redirect URI" } if len(errs) != 0 { respondJSON(w, errs, http.StatusUnprocessableEntity) return } // ...

Pretty similar validation, but we store the parsed redirect URI into a callback variable.

// ... var userID string if err := db.QueryRowContext(r.Context(), ` DELETE FROM verification_codes WHERE id = $1 AND created_at >= now() - INTERVAL '15m' RETURNING user_id `, verificationCode).Scan(&userID); err == sql.ErrNoRows { http.Error(w, "Link expired or already used", http.StatusBadRequest) return } else if err != nil { respondInternalError(w, fmt.Errorf("could not delete verification code: %v", err)) return } // ...

This SQL query deletes a verification code with the given id and makes sure it has been created no more than 15 minutes ago, it also returns the user_id associated. In case of no rows, means the code didn’t exist or it was expired so we respond with that, otherwise an internal error.

// ... expiresAt := time.Now().Add(time.Hour * 24 * 60) tokenString, err := jwt.NewWithClaims(jwt.SigningMethodHS256, jwt.StandardClaims{ Subject: userID, ExpiresAt: expiresAt.Unix(), }).SignedString(config.jwtKey) if err != nil { respondInternalError(w, fmt.Errorf("could not create JWT: %v", err)) return } // ...

This is how the JWT is created. We set an expiration date for the JWT within 60 days. Maybe you can give it less time and add a new endpoint to refresh tokens, but I didn’t want to add more complexity.

// ... expiresAtB, err := expiresAt.MarshalText() if err != nil { respondInternalError(w, fmt.Errorf("could not marshal expiration date: %v", err)) return } f := make(url.Values) f.Set("jwt", tokenString) f.Set("expires_at", string(expiresAtB)) callback.Fragment = f.Encode() // ...

We plan to redirect; you could use the query string to add the JWT, but I’ve seen that a hash fragment is more used. Ex: https://frontend.app/callback#jwt=token_here&expires_at=expiration_date_here .

The expiration date could be extracted from the JWT, but then the client will have to implement a JWT library to decode it, so to make the life easier I just added it there too.

// ... http.Redirect(w, r, callback.String(), http.StatusFound) }

Finally, we just redirect with a 302 Found .

The passwordless flow is completed. Now we just need to code the getAuthUser endpoint which is to get info about the current authenticated user. If you remember, this endpoint makes use of guard middleware.

With Auth Middleware

Before coding the guard middleware, I’ll code one that doesn’t require authentication. I mean, if no JWT is passed, it just continues without authenticating the user.

type ContextKey struct { Name string } var keyAuthUserID = ContextKey{"auth_user_id"} func withAuth(next http.HandlerFunc) http.HandlerFunc { return func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) { a := r.Header.Get("Authorization") hasToken := strings.HasPrefix(a, "Bearer ") if !hasToken { next(w, r) return } tokenString := a[7:] p := jwt.Parser{ValidMethods: []string{jwt.SigningMethodHS256.Name}} token, err := p.ParseWithClaims( tokenString, &jwt.StandardClaims{}, func (*jwt.Token) (interface{}, error) { return config.jwtKey, nil }, ) if err != nil { http.Error(w, http.StatusText(http.StatusUnauthorized), http.StatusUnauthorized) return } claims, ok := token.Claims.(*jwt.StandardClaims) if !ok || !token.Valid { http.Error(w, http.StatusText(http.StatusUnauthorized), http.StatusUnauthorized) return } ctx := r.Context() ctx = context.WithValue(ctx, keyAuthUserID, claims.Subject) next(w, r.WithContext(ctx)) } }

The JWT will come in every request inside the “Authorization” header in the form of “Bearer <token_here>”. So, if no token is present, we just pass to the next middleware.

We create a parser and parse the token. If fails, we return with 401 Unauthorized .

Then we extract the claims inside the JWT and add the Subject (which is the user ID) to the request context.

Guard Middleware

func guard(next http.HandlerFunc) http.HandlerFunc { return withAuth(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) { _, ok := r.Context().Value(keyAuthUserID).(string) if !ok { http.Error(w, http.StatusText(http.StatusUnauthorized), http.StatusUnauthorized) return } next(w, r) }) }

Now, guard will make use of withAuth and will try to extract the authenticated user ID from the request context. If it fails, it returns with 401 Unauthorized otherwise continues.

Get Auth User

func getAuthUser (w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) { ctx := r.Context() authUserID := ctx.Value(keyAuthUserID).(string) user, err := fetchUser(ctx, authUserID) if err == sql.ErrNoRows { http.Error(w, http.StatusText(http.StatusTeapot), http.StatusTeapot) return } else if err != nil { respondInternalError(w, fmt.Errorf("could not query auth user: %v", err)) return } respondJSON(w, user, http.StatusOK) }

First, we extract the ID of the authenticated user from the request context, we use that to fetch the user. In case of no row returned, we send a 418 I'm a teapot or an internal error otherwise. Lastly, we just respond with the user.

Fetch User Function

You saw a fetchUser function there.

func fetchUser(ctx context.Context, id string) (User, error) { if ctx == nil { ctx = context.Background() } user := User{ID: id} err := db.QueryRowContext(ctx, ` SELECT email, username FROM users WHERE id = $1 `, id).Scan(&user.Email, &user.Username) return user, err }

I decoupled it because fetching a user by ID is a common thing.

Now:

go build ./passwordless-demo

I’m on a directory called “passwordless-demo”, but if yours is different, go build will create an executable with that name. If you didn’t close the previous cockroach node and you set SMTP_USERNAME and SMTP_PASSWORD vars correctly, you should see starting server at http://localhost:3000/ 🚀 without errors.

That’s all for today. If you have problems about Blocked script execution because the document's frame is sandboxed and the 'allow-scripts' permission is not set after clicking the magic link on mailtrap, try doing a right click + “Open link in new tab”. This is a security thing where the mail content is sandboxed. I had this problem sometimes on localhost , but I think you should be fine once you deploy the server with https:// and use a normal SMTP service.

Source Code. • Demo.

I~~'ll write~~ wrote a second part for this post coding a JavaScript client for the API.