Java JWT: JSON Web Token for Java and Android

JJWT aims to be the easiest to use and understand library for creating and verifying JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) and JSON Web Keys (JWKs) on the JVM and Android.

JJWT is a pure Java implementation based exclusively on the JOSE Working Group RFC specifications:

• RFC 7519: JSON Web Token (JWT)
• RFC 7515: JSON Web Signature (JWS)
• RFC 7516: JSON Web Encryption (JWE)
• RFC 7517: JSON Web Key (JWK)
• RFC 7518: JSON Web Algorithms (JWA)
• RFC 7638: JSON Web Key Thumbprint
• RFC 9278: JSON Web Key Thumbprint URI
• RFC 7797: JWS Unencoded Payload Option
• RFC 8037: Edwards Curve algorithms and JWKs

It was created by Les Hazlewood and is supported and maintained by a community of contributors.

JJWT is open source under the terms of the Apache 2.0 License.

Table of Contents

• Features
  • Currently Unsupported Features
• Community
  • Getting Help
    • Questions
    • Bugs and Feature Requests
  • Contributing
    • Pull Requests
    • Help Wanted
• What is a JSON Web Token?
  • JWT Example
  • JWS Example
  • JWE Example
• Installation
  • JDK Projects
    • Maven
    • Gradle
  • Android Projects
    • Dependencies
    • Proguard Exclusions
    • Bouncy Castle
  • Understanding JJWT Dependencies
• Quickstart
• Create a JWT
  • Header
    • Header Builder
    • Header Parameters
    • Header Map
  • Payload
    • Arbitrary Content
    • Claims
      • Standard Claims
      • Custom Claims
      • Claims Instance
      • Claims Map
  • Compression
• Read a JWT
  • Static Parsing Key
  • Dynamic Parsing Key Lookup
    • Custom Key Locator
    • Key Locator Strategy
    • Key Locator Return Values
    • Provider-constrained Keys (PKCS11, HSM, etc)
  • Claim Assertions
  • Accounting for Clock Skew
    • Custom Clock Support
  • Decompression
• Signed JWTs
  • Standard Signature Algorithms
  • Signature Algorithm Keys
    • HMAC-SHA
    • RSA
    • Elliptic Curve
    • Creating Safe Keys
      • Secret Keys
      • Asymetric Keys
  • Create a JWS
    • Signing Key
      • SecretKey Formats
      • Signature Algorithm Override
    • Compression
  • Read a JWS
    • Verification Key
    • Verification Key Locator
    • Decompression
  • Unencoded Payload Option
    • Detached Payload Example
    • Non-Detached Payload Example
• Encrypted JWTs
  • JWE Encryption Algorithms
    • JWE Symmetric Encryption
  • JWE Key Management Algorithms
    • JWE Standard Key Management Algorithms
      • JWE RSA Key Encryption
      • JWE AES Key Encryption
      • JWE Direct Key Encryption
      • JWE Password-based Key Encryption
      • JWE Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral Static Key Agreement
  • Create a JWE
    • JWE Compression
  • Read a JWE
    • JWE Decryption Key
    • JWE Decryption Key Locator
    • ECDH-ES Decryption with PKCS11 PrivateKeys
    • JWE Decompression
• JSON Web Keys (JWKs)
  • Create a JWK
  • Read a JWK
  • PrivateKey JWKs
    • Private JWK PublicKey
    • Private JWK from KeyPair
    • Private JWK Public Conversion
  • JWK Thumbprints
    • JWK Thumbprint as Key ID
    • JWK Thumbprint URI
  • JWK Security Considerations
    • JWK toString() Safety
• JWK Sets
  • Create a JWK Set
  • Read a JWK Set
• Compression
  • Custom Compression Algorithm
• JSON Processor
  • Custom JSON Processor
  • Jackson ObjectMapper
    • Custom Claim Types
  • Gson
• Base64 Support
  • Base64 in Security Contexts
    • Base64 is not Encryption
    • Changing Base64 Characters
  • Custom Base64 Codec
• Examples
  • JWS Signed with HMAC
  • JWS Signed with RSA
  • JWS Signed with ECDSA
  • JWE Encrypted Directly with a SecretKey
  • JWE Encrypted with RSA
  • JWE Encrypted with AES Key Wrap
  • JWE Encrypted with ECDH-ES
  • JWE Encrypted with a Password
  • SecretKey JWK
  • RSA Public JWK
  • RSA Private JWK
  • Elliptic Curve Public JWK
  • Elliptic Curve Private JWK
  • Edwards Elliptic Curve Public JWK
  • Edwards Elliptic Curve Private JWK

Features

• Fully functional on all Java 7+ JDKs and Android

• Automatic security best practices and assertions

• Easy to learn and read API

• Convenient and readable fluent interfaces, great for IDE auto-completion to write code quickly

• Fully RFC specification compliant on all implemented functionality, tested against RFC-specified test vectors

• Stable implementation with almost 1,700 tests and enforced 100% test code coverage. Every single method, statement and conditional branch variant in the entire codebase is tested and required to pass on every build.

• Creating, parsing and verifying digitally signed compact JWTs (aka JWSs) with all standard JWS algorithms:

  Identifier	Signature Algorithm
  HS256	HMAC using SHA-256
  HS384	HMAC using SHA-384
  HS512	HMAC using SHA-512
  ES256	ECDSA using P-256 and SHA-256
  ES384	ECDSA using P-384 and SHA-384
  ES512	ECDSA using P-521 and SHA-512
  RS256	RSASSA-PKCS-v1_5 using SHA-256
  RS384	RSASSA-PKCS-v1_5 using SHA-384
  RS512	RSASSA-PKCS-v1_5 using SHA-512
  PS256	RSASSA-PSS using SHA-256 and MGF1 with SHA-2561
  PS384	RSASSA-PSS using SHA-384 and MGF1 with SHA-3841
  PS512	RSASSA-PSS using SHA-512 and MGF1 with SHA-5121
  EdDSA	Edwards-curve Digital Signature Algorithm2

  ^{1. Requires Java 11 or a compatible JCA Provider (like BouncyCastle) in the runtime classpath.}

  ^{2. Requires Java 15 or a compatible JCA Provider (like BouncyCastle) in the runtime classpath.}

• Creating, parsing and decrypting encrypted compact JWTs (aka JWEs) with all standard JWE encryption algorithms:

  Identifier	Encryption Algorithm
  A128CBC‑HS256	AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256 authenticated encryption algorithm
  A192CBC-HS384	AES_192_CBC_HMAC_SHA_384 authenticated encryption algorithm
  A256CBC-HS512	AES_256_CBC_HMAC_SHA_512 authenticated encryption algorithm
  A128GCM	AES GCM using 128-bit key3
  A192GCM	AES GCM using 192-bit key3
  A256GCM	AES GCM using 256-bit key3

  ^{3. Requires Java 8 or a compatible JCA Provider (like BouncyCastle) in the runtime classpath.}

• All Key Management Algorithms for obtaining JWE encryption and decryption keys:

  Identifier	Key Management Algorithm
  RSA1_5	RSAES-PKCS1-v1_5
  RSA-OAEP	RSAES OAEP using default parameters
  RSA-OAEP-256	RSAES OAEP using SHA-256 and MGF1 with SHA-256
  A128KW	AES Key Wrap with default initial value using 128-bit key
  A192KW	AES Key Wrap with default initial value using 192-bit key
  A256KW	AES Key Wrap with default initial value using 256-bit key
  dir	Direct use of a shared symmetric key as the CEK
  ECDH-ES	Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral Static key agreement using Concat KDF
  ECDH-ES+A128KW	ECDH-ES using Concat KDF and CEK wrapped with "A128KW"
  ECDH-ES+A192KW	ECDH-ES using Concat KDF and CEK wrapped with "A192KW"
  ECDH-ES+A256KW	ECDH-ES using Concat KDF and CEK wrapped with "A256KW"
  A128GCMKW	Key wrapping with AES GCM using 128-bit key4
  A192GCMKW	Key wrapping with AES GCM using 192-bit key4
  A256GCMKW	Key wrapping with AES GCM using 256-bit key4
  PBES2-HS256+A128KW	PBES2 with HMAC SHA-256 and "A128KW" wrapping4
  PBES2-HS384+A192KW	PBES2 with HMAC SHA-384 and "A192KW" wrapping4
  PBES2‑HS512+A256KW	PBES2 with HMAC SHA-512 and "A256KW" wrapping4

  ^{4. Requires Java 8 or a compatible JCA Provider (like BouncyCastle) in the runtime classpath.}

• Creating, parsing and verifying JSON Web Keys (JWKs) in all standard JWA key formats using native Java Key types:

  JWK Key Format	Java Key Type	JJWT Jwk Type
  Symmetric Key	SecretKey	SecretJwk
  Elliptic Curve Public Key	ECPublicKey	EcPublicJwk
  Elliptic Curve Private Key	ECPrivateKey	EcPrivateJwk
  RSA Public Key	RSAPublicKey	RsaPublicJwk
  RSA Private Key	RSAPrivateKey	RsaPrivateJwk
  XDH Private Key	XECPublicKey5	OctetPublicJwk
  XDH Private Key	XECPrivateKey5	OctetPrivateJwk
  EdDSA Public Key	EdECPublicKey6	OctetPublicJwk
  EdDSA Private Key	EdECPublicKey6	OctetPrivateJwk

  ^{5. Requires Java 11 or a compatible JCA Provider (like BouncyCastle) in the runtime classpath.}

  ^{6. Requires Java 15 or a compatible JCA Provider (like BouncyCastle) in the runtime classpath.}

• Convenience enhancements beyond the specification such as

  • Payload compression for any large JWT, not just JWEs
  • Claims assertions (requiring specific values)
  • Claim POJO marshaling and unmarshalling when using a compatible JSON parser (e.g. Jackson)
  • Secure Key generation based on desired JWA algorithms
  • and more...

Currently Unsupported Features

• Non-compact serialization and parsing.

This feature may be implemented in a future release. Community contributions are welcome!

Community

Getting Help

If you have trouble using JJWT, please first read the documentation on this page before asking questions. We try very hard to ensure JJWT's documentation is robust, categorized with a table of contents, and up to date for each release.

Questions

If the documentation or the API JavaDoc isn't sufficient, and you either have usability questions or are confused about something, please ask your question here. However:

Please do not create a GitHub issue to ask a question.

We use GitHub Issues to track actionable work that requires changes to JJWT's design and/or codebase. If you have a usability question, instead please ask your question here, and we can convert that to an issue if necessary.

If a GitHub Issue is created that does not represent actionable work for JJWT's codebase, it will be promptly closed.

Bugs, Feature Requests, Ideas and General Discussions

If you do not have a usability question and believe you have a legitimate bug or feature request, please discuss it here FIRST. Please do a quick search first to see if an existing discussion related to yours exist already and join that existing discussion if necesary.

If you feel like you'd like to help fix a bug or implement the new feature yourself, please read the Contributing section next before starting any work.

Contributing

Pull Requests

Simple Pull Requests that fix anything other than JJWT core code (documentation, JavaDoc, typos, test cases, etc) are always appreciated and have a high likelihood of being merged quickly. Please send them!

However, if you want or feel the need to change JJWT's functionality or core code, please do not issue a pull request without starting a new JJWT discussion and discussing your desired changes first, before you start working on it.

It would be a shame to reject your earnest and genuinely-appreciated pull request if it might not align with the project's goals, design expectations or planned functionality. We've sadly had to reject large PRs in the past because they were out of sync with project or design expectations - all because the PR author didn't first check in with the team first before working on a solution.

So, please create a new JJWT discussion first to discuss, and then we can see easily convert the discussion to an issue and then see if (or how) a PR is warranted. Thank you!

Help Wanted

If you would like to help, but don't know where to start, please visit the Help Wanted Issues page and pick any of the ones there, and we'll be happy to discuss and answer questions in the issue comments.

If any of those don't appeal to you, no worries! Any help you would like to offer would be appreciated based on the above caveats concerning contributing pull requests. Feel free to discuss or ask questions first if you're not sure. :)

What is a JSON Web Token?

JSON Web Token (JWT) is a general-purpose text-based messaging format for transmitting information in a compact and secure way. Contrary to popular belief, JWT is not just useful for sending and receiving identity tokens on the web - even if that is the most common use case. JWTs can be used as messages for any type of data.

A JWT in its simplest form contains two parts:

1. The primary data within the JWT, called the payload, and
2. A JSON Object with name/value pairs that represent metadata about the payload and the message itself, called the header.

A JWT payload can be absolutely anything at all - anything that can be represented as a byte array, such as Strings, images, documents, etc.

But because a JWT header is a JSON Object, it would make sense that a JWT payload could also be a JSON Object as well. In many cases, developers like the payload to be JSON that represents data about a user or computer or similar identity concept. When used this way, the payload is called a JSON Claims object, and each name/value pair within that object is called a claim - each piece of information within 'claims' something about an identity.

And while it is useful to 'claim' something about an identity, really anyone can do that. What's important is that you trust the claims by verifying they come from a person or computer you trust.

A nice feature of JWTs is that they can be secured in various ways. A JWT can be cryptographically signed (making it what we call a JWS) or encrypted (making it a JWE). This adds a powerful layer of verifiability to the JWT - a JWS or JWE recipient can have a high degree of confidence it comes from someone they trust by verifying a signature or decrypting it. It is this feature of verifiability that makes JWT a good choice for sending and receiving secure information, like identity claims.

Finally, JSON with whitespace for human readability is nice, but it doesn't make for a very efficient message format. Therefore, JWTs can be compacted (and even compressed) to a minimal representation - basically Base64URL-encoded strings - so they can be transmitted around the web more efficiently, such as in HTTP headers or URLs.

JWT Example

Once you have a payload and header, how are they compacted for web transmission, and what does the final JWT actually look like? Let's walk through a simplified version of the process with some pseudocode:

1. Assume we have a JWT with a JSON header and a simple text message payload:

   header

   {
     "alg": "none"
   }
   

   payload

   The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.
   

2. Remove all unnecessary whitespace in the JSON:

   String header = '{"alg":"none"}'
   String payload = 'The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.'
   

3. Get the UTF-8 bytes and Base64URL-encode each:

   String encodedHeader = base64URLEncode( header.getBytes("UTF-8") )
   String encodedPayload = base64URLEncode( payload.getBytes("UTF-8") )
   

4. Join the encoded header and claims with period ('.') characters:

   String compact = encodedHeader + '.' + encodedPayload + '.'
   

The final concatenated compact JWT String looks like this:

eyJhbGciOiJub25lIn0.VGhlIHRydWUgc2lnbiBvZiBpbnRlbGxpZ2VuY2UgaXMgbm90IGtub3dsZWRnZSBidXQgaW1hZ2luYXRpb24u.

This is called an 'unprotected' JWT because no security was involved - no digital signatures or encryption to 'protect' the JWT to ensure it cannot be changed by 3rd parties.

If we wanted to digitally sign the compact form so that we could at least guarantee that no-one changes the data without us detecting it, we'd have to perform a few more steps, shown next.

JWS Example

Instead of a plain text payload, the next example will use probably the most common type of payload - a JSON claims Object containing information about a particular identity. We'll also digitally sign the JWT to ensure it cannot be changed by a 3rd party without us knowing.

1. Assume we have a JSON header and a claims payload:

   header

   {
     "alg": "HS256"
   }
   

   payload

   {
     "sub": "Joe"
   }
   

   In this case, the header indicates that the HS256 (HMAC using SHA-256) algorithm will be used to cryptographically sign the JWT. Also, the payload JSON object has a single claim, sub with value Joe.

   There are a number of standard claims, called Registered Claims, in the specification and sub (for 'Subject') is one of them.

2. Remove all unnecessary whitespace in both JSON objects:

   String header = '{"alg":"HS256"}'
   String claims = '{"sub":"Joe"}'
   

3. Get their UTF-8 bytes and Base64URL-encode each:

   String encodedHeader = base64URLEncode( header.getBytes("UTF-8") )
   String encodedClaims = base64URLEncode( claims.getBytes("UTF-8") )
   

4. Concatenate the encoded header and claims with a period character '.' delimiter:

   String concatenated = encodedHeader + '.' + encodedClaims
   

5. Use a sufficiently-strong cryptographic secret or private key, along with a signing algorithm of your choice (we'll use HMAC-SHA-256 here), and sign the concatenated string:

   SecretKey key = getMySecretKey()
   byte[] signature = hmacSha256( concatenated, key )
   

6. Because signatures are always byte arrays, Base64URL-encode the signature and join it to the concatenated string with a period character '.' delimiter:

   String compact = concatenated + '.' + base64URLEncode( signature )
   

And there you have it, the final compact String looks like this:

eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJKb2UifQ.1KP0SsvENi7Uz1oQc07aXTL7kpQG5jBNIybqr60AlD4

This is called a 'JWS' - short for signed JWT.

Of course, no one would want to do this manually in code, and worse, if you get anything wrong, you could introduce serious security problems and weaknesses. As a result, JJWT was created to handle all of this for you: JJWT completely automates both the creation of JWSs and the parsing and verification of JWSs for you.

JWE Example

So far we have seen an unprotected JWT and a cryptographically signed JWT (called a 'JWS'). One of the things that is inherent to both of these two is that all the information within them can be seen by anyone - all the data in both the header and the payload is publicly visible. JWS just ensures the data hasn't been changed by anyone - it doesn't prevent anyone from seeing it. Many times, this is just fine because the data within them is not sensitive information.

But what if you needed to represent information in a JWT that is considered sensitive information - maybe someone's postal address or social security number or bank account number?

In these cases, we'd want a fully-encrypted JWT, called a 'JWE' for short. A JWE uses cryptography to ensure that the payload remains fully encrypted and authenticated so unauthorized parties cannot see data within, nor change the data without being detected. Specifically, the JWE specification requires that Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data algorithms are used to fully encrypt and protect data.

A full overview of AEAD algorithms are out of scope for this documentation, but here's an example of a final compact JWE that utilizes these algorithms (line breaks are for readability only):

eyJhbGciOiJBMTI4S1ciLCJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2In0.
6KB707dM9YTIgHtLvtgWQ8mKwboJW3of9locizkDTHzBC2IlrT1oOQ.
AxY8DCtDaGlsbGljb3RoZQ.
KDlTtXchhZTGufMYmOYGS4HffxPSUrfmqCHXaI9wOGY.
U0m_YmjN04DJvceFICbCVQ

Next we'll cover how to install JJWT in your project, and then we'll see how to use JJWT's nice fluent API instead of risky string manipulation to quickly and safely build JWTs, JWSs, and JWEs.

Installation

Use your favorite Maven-compatible build tool to pull the dependencies from Maven Central.

The dependencies could differ slightly if you are working with a JDK project or an Android project.

JDK Projects

If you're building a (non-Android) JDK project, you will want to define the following dependencies:

Maven

<dependency>
    <groupId>io.jsonwebtoken</groupId>
    <artifactId>jjwt-api</artifactId>
    <version>0.12.3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>io.jsonwebtoken</groupId>
    <artifactId>jjwt-impl</artifactId>
    <version>0.12.3</version>
    <scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>io.jsonwebtoken</groupId>
    <artifactId>jjwt-jackson</artifactId> <!-- or jjwt-gson if Gson is preferred -->
    <version>0.12.3</version>
    <scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
<!-- Uncomment this next dependency if you are using:
     - JDK 10 or earlier, and you want to use RSASSA-PSS (PS256, PS384, PS512) signature algorithms.  
     - JDK 10 or earlier, and you want to use EdECDH (X25519 or X448) Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman encryption.
     - JDK 14 or earlier, and you want to use EdDSA (Ed25519 or Ed448) Elliptic Curve signature algorithms.    
     It is unnecessary for these algorithms on JDK 15 or later.
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.bouncycastle</groupId>
    <artifactId>bcprov-jdk18on</artifactId> or bcprov-jdk15to18 on JDK 7
    <version>1.76</version>
    <scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
-->

Gradle

dependencies {
    implementation 'io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-api:0.12.3'
    runtimeOnly 'io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-impl:0.12.3'
    runtimeOnly 'io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-jackson:0.12.3' // or 'io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-gson:0.12.3' for gson
    /* 
      Uncomment this next dependency if you are using:
       - JDK 10 or earlier, and you want to use RSASSA-PSS (PS256, PS384, PS512) signature algorithms.
       - JDK 10 or earlier, and you want to use EdECDH (X25519 or X448) Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman encryption.
       - JDK 14 or earlier, and you want to use EdDSA (Ed25519 or Ed448) Elliptic Curve signature algorithms.
      It is unnecessary for these algorithms on JDK 15 or later.
    */
    // runtimeOnly 'org.bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk18on:1.76' // or bcprov-jdk15to18 on JDK 7
}

Android Projects

Android projects will want to define the following dependencies and Proguard exclusions, and optional BouncyCastle Provider:

Dependencies

Add the dependencies to your project:

dependencies {
    api('io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-api:0.12.3')
    runtimeOnly('io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-impl:0.12.3') 
    runtimeOnly('io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-orgjson:0.12.3') {
        exclude(group: 'org.json', module: 'json') //provided by Android natively
    }
    /* 
      Uncomment this next dependency if you want to use:
       - RSASSA-PSS (PS256, PS384, PS512) signature algorithms.
       - EdECDH (X25519 or X448) Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman encryption.
       - EdDSA (Ed25519 or Ed448) Elliptic Curve signature algorithms.
      ** AND ALSO ensure you enable the BouncyCastle provider as shown below **
    */
    //implementation('org.bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk18on:1.76') // or bcprov-jdk15to18 for JDK 7
}

Proguard

You can use the following Android Proguard exclusion rules:

-keepattributes InnerClasses

-keep class io.jsonwebtoken.** { *; }
-keepnames class io.jsonwebtoken.* { *; }
-keepnames interface io.jsonwebtoken.* { *; }

-keep class org.bouncycastle.** { *; }
-keepnames class org.bouncycastle.** { *; }
-dontwarn org.bouncycastle.**

Bouncy Castle

If you want to use JWT RSASSA-PSS algorithms (i.e. PS256, PS384, and PS512), EdECDH (X25512 or X448) Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman encryption, EdDSA (Ed25519 or Ed448) signature algorithms, or you just want to ensure your Android application is running an updated version of BouncyCastle, you will need to:

1. Uncomment the BouncyCastle dependency as commented above in the dependencies section.
2. Replace the legacy Android custom BC provider with the updated one.

Provider registration needs to be done early in the application's lifecycle, preferably in your application's main Activity class as a static initialization block. For example:

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    companion object {
        init {
            Security.removeProvider("BC") //remove old/legacy Android-provided BC provider
            Security.addProvider(BouncyCastleProvider()) // add 'real'/correct BC provider
        }
    }

    // ... etc ...
}

Understanding JJWT Dependencies

Notice the above JJWT dependency declarations all have only one compile-time dependency and the rest are declared as runtime dependencies.

This is because JJWT is designed so you only depend on the APIs that are explicitly designed for you to use in your applications and all other internal implementation details - that can change without warning - are relegated to runtime-only dependencies. This is an extremely important point if you want to ensure stable JJWT usage and upgrades over time:

Warning

JJWT guarantees semantic versioning compatibility for all of its artifacts except the jjwt-impl .jar. No such guarantee is made for the jjwt-impl .jar and internal changes in that .jar can happen at any time. Never add the jjwt-impl .jar to your project with compile scope - always declare it with runtime scope.

This is done to benefit you: great care goes into curating the jjwt-api .jar and ensuring it contains what you need and remains backwards compatible as much as is possible so you can depend on that safely with compile scope. The runtime jjwt-impl .jar strategy affords the JJWT developers the flexibility to change the internal packages and implementations whenever and however necessary. This helps us implement features, fix bugs, and ship new releases to you more quickly and efficiently.

Quickstart

Most complexity is hidden behind a convenient and readable builder-based fluent interface, great for relying on IDE auto-completion to write code quickly. Here's an example:

import io.jsonwebtoken.Jwts;
import io.jsonwebtoken.security.Keys;
import java.security.Key;

// We need a signing key, so we'll create one just for this example. Usually
// the key would be read from your application configuration instead.
SecretKey key = Jwts.SIG.HS256.key().build();

String jws = Jwts.builder().subject("Joe").signWith(key).compact();

How easy was that!?

In this case, we are:

1. building a JWT that will have the registered claim sub (Subject) set to Joe. We are then
2. signing the JWT using a key suitable for the HMAC-SHA-256 algorithm. Finally, we are
3. compacting it into its final String form. A signed JWT is called a 'JWS'.

The resultant jws String looks like this:

eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJKb2UifQ.1KP0SsvENi7Uz1oQc07aXTL7kpQG5jBNIybqr60AlD4

Now let's verify the JWT (you should always discard JWTs that don't match an expected signature):

assert Jwts.parser().verifyWith(key).build().parseSignedClaims(jws).getPayload().getSubject().equals("Joe");

There are two things going on here. The key from before is being used to verify the signature of the JWT. If it fails to verify the JWT, a SignatureException (which extends JwtException) is thrown. Assuming the JWT is verified, we parse the claims and assert that that subject is set to Joe. You have to love code one-liners that pack a punch!

Note

Type-safe JWTs: To get a type-safe Claims JWT result, call the parseSignedClaims method (since there are many similar methods available). You will get an UnsupportedJwtException if you parse your JWT with wrong method.

But what if parsing or signature validation failed? You can catch JwtException and react accordingly:

try {

    Jwts.parser().verifyWith(key).build().parseSignedClaims(compactJws);

    //OK, we can trust this JWT

} catch (JwtException e) {

    //don't trust the JWT!
}

Now that we've had a quickstart 'taste' of how to create and parse JWTs, let's cover JJWT's API in-depth.

Creating a JWT

You create a JWT as follows:

1. Use the Jwts.builder() method to create a JwtBuilder instance.
2. Optionally set any header parameters as desired.
3. Call builder methods to set the payload content or claims.
4. Optionally call signWith or encryptWith methods if you want to digitally sign or encrypt the JWT.
5. Call the compact() method to produce the resulting compact JWT string.

For example:

String jwt = Jwts.builder()                     // (1)
        
    .header()                                   // (2) optional
        .keyId("aKeyId")
        .and()
        
    .subject("Bob")                             // (3) JSON Claims, or
    //.content(aByteArray, "text/plain")        //     any byte[] content, with media type
        
    .signWith(signingKey)                       // (4) if signing, or
    //.encryptWith(key, keyAlg, encryptionAlg)  //     if encrypting
        
    .compact();                                 // (5)

• The JWT payload may be either byte[] content (via content) or JSON Claims (such as subject, claims, etc), but not both.
• Either digital signatures (signWith) or encryption (encryptWith) may be used, but not both.

Warning

Unprotected JWTs: If you do not use the signWith or encryptWith builder methods, an Unprotected JWT will be created, which offers no security protection at all. If you need security protection, consider either digitally signing or encrypting the JWT before calling the compact() builder method.

JWT Header

A JWT header is a JSON Object that provides metadata about the contents, format, and any cryptographic operations relevant to the JWT payload. JJWT provides a number of ways of setting the entire header and/or multiple individual header parameters (name/value pairs).

JwtBuilder Header

The easiest and recommended way to set one or more JWT header parameters (name/value pairs) is to use the JwtBuilder's header() builder as desired, and then call its and() method to return back to the JwtBuilder for further configuration. For example:

String jwt = Jwts.builder()
        
    .header()                        // <----
        .keyId("aKeyId")
        .x509Url(aUri)
        .add("someName", anyValue)
        .add(mapValues)
        // ... etc ...
        .and()                      // go back to the JwtBuilder
        
    .subject("Joe")                 // resume JwtBuilder calls...
    // ... etc ...    
    .compact();

The JwtBuilder header() builder also supports automatically calculating X.509 thumbprints and other builder-style benefits that a simple property getter/setter object would not do.

Note

Automatic Headers: You do not need to set the alg, enc or zip headers - JJWT will always set them automatically as needed.

Custom Header Parameters

In addition to type-safe builder methods for standard header parameters, JwtBuilder.header() can also support arbitrary name/value pairs via the add method:

Jwts.builder()
        
    .header()
        .add("aHeaderName", aValue)
        // ... etc ...
        .and() // return to the JwtBuilder
   
// ... etc ...

Header Parameter Map

The add method is also overloaded to support multiple parameters in a Map:

Jwts.builder()
        
    .header()
        .add(multipleHeaderParamsMap)
        // ... etc ...
        .and() // return to the JwtBuilder
   
// ... etc ...

Jwts HeaderBuilder

Using Jwts.builder().header() shown above is the preferred way to modify a header when using the JwtBuilder.

However, if you would like to create a 'standalone' Header outside of the context of using the JwtBuilder, you can use Jwts.header() instead to return an independent Header builder. For example:

Header header = Jwts.header() 

        .keyId("aKeyId")
        .x509Url(aUri)
        .add("someName", anyValue)
        .add(mapValues)
        // ... etc ...
        
        .build()  // <---- not 'and()'

There are only two differences between Jwts.header() and Jwts.builder().header():

1. Jwts.header() builds a 'detached' Header that is not associated with any particular JWT, whereas Jwts.builder().header() always modifies the header of the immediate JWT being constructed by its parent JwtBuilder.

2. Jwts.header() has a build() method to produce an explicit Header instance and Jwts.builder().header() does not (it has an and() method instead) because its parent JwtBuilder will implicitly create the header instance when necessary.

A standalone header might be useful if you want to aggregate common header parameters in a single 'template' instance so you don't have to repeat them for each JwtBuilder usage. Then this 'template' Header can be used to populate JwtBuilder usages by just appending it to the JwtBuilder header, for example:

// perhaps somewhere in application configuration:
Header commonHeaders = Jwts.header()
    .issuer("My Company")
    // ... etc ...
    .build();

// --------------------------------

// somewhere else during actual Jwt construction:
String jwt = Jwts.builder()

    .header()
        .add(commonHeaders)                   // <----
        .add("specificHeader", specificValue) // jwt-specific headers...
        .and()

    .subject("whatever")
    // ... etc ...
    .compact();

JWT Payload

A JWT payload can be anything at all - anything that can be represented as a byte array, such as text, images, documents, and more. But since a JWT header is always JSON, it makes sense that the payload could also be JSON, especially for representing identity claims.

As a result, the JwtBuilder supports two distinct payload options:

• content if you would like the payload to be arbitrary byte array content, or
• claims (and supporting helper methods) if you would like the payload to be a JSON Claims Object.

Either option may be used, but not both. Using both will cause compact() to throw an exception.

Arbitrary Content

You can set the JWT payload to be any arbitrary byte array content by using the JwtBuilder content method. For example:

byte[] content = "Hello World".getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);

String jwt = Jwts.builder()

    .content(content, "text/plain") // <---
    
    // ... etc ...
        
    .build();

Notice this particular example of content uses the two-argument convenience variant:

1. The first argument is the actual byte content to set as the JWT payload
2. The second argument is a String identifier of an IANA Media Type.

The second argument will cause the JwtBuilder to automatically set the cty (Content Type) header according to the JWT specification's recommended compact format.

This two-argument variant is typically recommended over the single-argument content(byte[]) method because it guarantees the JWT recipient can inspect the cty header to determine how to convert the payload byte array into a final form that the application can use.

Without setting the cty header, the JWT recipient must know via out-of-band (external) information how to process the byte array, which is usually less convenient and always requires code changes if the content format ever changes. For these reasons, it is strongly recommended to use the two-argument content method variant.

JWT Claims

Instead of a content byte array, a JWT payload may contain assertions or claims for a JWT recipient. In this case, the payload is a Claims JSON Object, and JJWT supports claims creation with type-safe builder methods.

Standard Claims

The JwtBuilder provides convenient builder methods for standard registered Claim names defined in the JWT specification. They are:

• issuer: sets the iss (Issuer) Claim
• subject: sets the sub (Subject) Claim
• audience: sets the aud (Audience) Claim
• expiration: sets the exp (Expiration Time) Claim
• notBefore: sets the nbf (Not Before) Claim
• issuedAt: sets the iat (Issued At) Claim
• id: sets the jti (JWT ID) Claim

For example:

String jws = Jwts.builder()

    .issuer("me")
    .subject("Bob")
    .audience("you")
    .expiration(expiration) //a java.util.Date
    .notBefore(notBefore) //a java.util.Date 
    .issuedAt(new Date()) // for example, now
    .id(UUID.randomUUID().toString()) //just an example id
    
    /// ... etc ...

Custom Claims

If you need to set one or more custom claims that don't match the standard setter method claims shown above, you can simply call the JwtBuilder claim method one or more times as needed:

String jws = Jwts.builder()

    .claim("hello", "world")
    
    // ... etc ...

Each time claim is called, it simply appends the key-value pair to an internal Claims builder, potentially overwriting any existing identically-named key/value pair.

Obviously, you do not need to call claim for any standard claim name, and it is recommended instead to call the standard respective type-safe named builder method as this enhances readability.

Claims Map

If you want to add multiple claims at once, you can use JwtBuilder claims(Map) method:

Map<String,?> claims = getMyClaimsMap(); //implement me

String jws = Jwts.builder()

    .claims(claims)
    
    // ... etc ...

JWT Compression

If your JWT payload is large (contains a lot of data), you might want to compress the JWT to reduce its size. Note that this is not a standard feature for all JWTs - only JWEs - and is not likely to be supported by other JWT libraries for non-JWE tokens. JJWT supports compression for both JWSs and JWEs, however.

Please see the main Compression section to see how to compress and decompress JWTs.

Reading a JWT

You read (parse) a JWT as follows:

1. Use the Jwts.parser() method to create a JwtParserBuilder instance.
2. Optionally call keyLocator, verifyWith or decryptWith methods if you expect to parse signed or encrypted JWTs.
3. Call the build() method on the JwtParserBuilder to create and return a thread-safe JwtParser.
4. Call one of the various parse* methods with your compact JWT string, depending on the type of JWT you expect.
5. Wrap the parse* call in a try/catch block in case parsing, signature verification, or decryption fails.

For example:

Jwt<?,?> jwt;

try {
    jwt = Jwts.parser()     // (1)
        
    .keyLocator(keyLocator) // (2) dynamically locate signing or encryption keys    
    //.verifyWith(key)      //     or a constant key used to verify all signed JWTs
    //.decryptWith(key)     //     or a constant key used to decrypt all encrypted JWTs
        
    .build()                // (3)
        
    .parse(compact);        // (4) or parseSignedClaims, parseEncryptedClaims, parseSignedContent, etc
    
    // we can safely trust the JWT
     
catch (JwtException ex) {   // (5)
    
    // we *cannot* use the JWT as intended by its creator
}

Note

Type-safe JWTs: If you are certain your parser will only ever encounter a specific kind of JWT (for example, you only ever use signed JWTs with Claims payloads, or encrypted JWTs with byte[] content payloads, etc), you can call the associated type-safe parseSignedClaims, parseEncryptedClaims, (etc) method variant instead of the generic parse method.

These parse* methods will return the type-safe JWT you are expecting, for example, a Jws<Claims> or Jwe<byte[]> instead of a generic Jwt<?,?> instance.

Constant Parsing Key

If the JWT parsed is a JWS or JWE, a key will be necessary to verify the signature or decrypt it. If a JWS and signature verification fails, or if a JWE and decryption fails, the JWT cannot be safely trusted and should be discarded.

So which key do we use?

• If parsing a JWS and the JWS was signed with a SecretKey, the same SecretKey should be specified on the JwtParserBuilder. For example:

  Jwts.parser()
  
    .verifyWith(secretKey) // <----
  
    .build()
    .parseSignedClaims(jwsString);
  

• If parsing a JWS and the JWS was signed with a PrivateKey, that key's corresponding PublicKey (not the PrivateKey) should be specified on the JwtParserBuilder. For example:

  Jwts.parser()
  
    .verifyWith(publicKey) // <---- publicKey, not privateKey
  
    .build()
    .parseSignedClaims(jwsString);
  

• If parsing a JWE and the JWE was encrypted with direct encryption using a SecretKey, the same SecretKey should be specified on the JwtParserBuilder. For example:

  Jwts.parser()
  
    .decryptWith(secretKey) // <---- or a Password from Keys.password(charArray)
  
    .build()
    .parseEncryptedClaims(jweString);
  

• If parsing a JWE and the JWE was encrypted with a key algorithm using with a PublicKey, that key's corresponding PrivateKey (not the PublicKey) should be specified on the JwtParserBuilder. For example:

  Jwts.parser()
  
    .decryptWith(privateKey) // <---- privateKey, not publicKey
  
    .build()
    .parseEncryptedClaims(jweString);
  

Multiple Keys?

But you might have noticed something - what if your application doesn't use just a single SecretKey or KeyPair? What if JWSs and JWEs can be created with different SecretKeys or public/private keys, or a combination of both? How do you know which key to specify if you don't inspect the JWT first?

In these cases, you can't call the JwtParserBuilder's verifyWith or decryptWith methods with a single key - instead, you'll need to configure a parsing Key Locator, discussed next.

Dynamic Key Lookup

It is common in many applications to receive JWTs that can be encrypted or signed by different cryptographic keys. For example, maybe a JWT created to assert a specific user identity uses a Key specific to that exact user. Or perhaps JWTs specific to a particular customer all use that customer's Key. Or maybe your application creates JWTs that are encrypted with a key specific to your application for your own use (e.g. a user session token).

In all of these and similar scenarios, you won't know which key was used to sign or encrypt a JWT until the JWT is received, at parse time, so you can't 'hard code' any verification or decryption key using the JwtParserBuilder's verifyWith or decryptWith methods. Those are only to be used when the same key is used to verify or decrypt all JWSs or JWEs, which won't work for dynamically signed or encrypted JWTs.

Key Locator

If you need to support dynamic key lookup when encountering JWTs, you'll need to implement the Locator<Key> interface and specify an instance on the JwtParserBuilder via the keyLocator method. For example:

Locator<Key> keyLocator = getMyKeyLocator();

Jwts.parser()

    .keyLocator(keyLocator) // <----
    
    .build()
    // ... etc ...

A Locator<Key> is used to lookup both JWS signature verification keys and JWE decryption keys. You need to determine which key to return based on information in the JWT header, for example:

public class MyKeyLocator extends LocatorAdapter<Key> {
    
    @Override
    public Key locate(ProtectedHeader<?> header) { // a JwsHeader or JweHeader
        // implement me
    }
}

The JwtParser will invoke the locate method after parsing the JWT header, but before parsing the payload, or verifying any JWS signature or decrypting any JWE ciphertext. This allows you to inspect the header argument for any information that can help you look up the Key to use for verifying that specific jwt. This is very powerful for applications with more complex security models that might use different keys at different times or for different users or customers.

Key Locator Strategy

What data might you inspect to determine how to lookup a signature verification or decryption key?

The JWT specifications' preferred approach is to set a kid (Key ID) header value when the JWT is being created, for example:

Key key = getSigningKey(); // or getEncryptionKey() for JWE

String keyId = getKeyId(key); //any mechanism you have to associate a key with an ID is fine

String jws = Jwts.builder()
        
    .header().keyId(keyId).and()               // <--- add `kid` header
    
    .signWith(key)                             // for JWS
    //.encryptWith(key, keyAlg, encryptionAlg) // for JWE
    .compact();

Then during parsing, your Locator<Key> implementation can inspect the header to get the kid value and then use it to look up the verification or decryption key from somewhere, like a database, keystore or Hardware Security Module (HSM). For example:

public class MyKeyLocator extends LocatorAdapter<Key> {
    
    @Override
    public Key locate(ProtectedHeader<?> header) { // both JwsHeader and JweHeader extend ProtectedHeader
        
        //inspect the header, lookup and return the verification key
        String keyId = header.getKeyId(); //or any other parameter that you need to inspect

        Key key = lookupKey(keyId); //implement me

        return key;
    }
}

Note that inspecting the header.getKeyId() is just the most common approach to look up a key - you could inspect any number of header parameters to determine how to lookup the verification or decryption key. It is all based on how the JWT was created.

If you extend LocatorAdapter<Key> as shown above, but for some reason have different lookup strategies for signature verification keys versus decryption keys, you can forego overriding the locate(ProtectedHeader<?>) method in favor of two respective locate(JwsHeader) and locate(JweHeader) methods:

public class MyKeyLocator extends LocatorAdapter<Key> {
    
    @Override
    public Key locate(JwsHeader header) {
        String keyId = header.getKeyId(); //or any other parameter that you need to inspect
        return lookupSignatureVerificationKey(keyId); //implement me
    }
    
    @Override
    public Key locate(JweHeader header) {
        String keyId = header.getKeyId(); //or any other parameter// that you need to inspect
        return lookupDecryptionKey(keyId); //implement me
    }
}

Note

Simpler Lookup: If possible, try to keep the key lookup strategy the same between JWSs and JWEs (i.e. using only locate(ProtectedHeader<?>)), preferably using only the kid (Key ID) header value or perhaps a public key thumbprint. You will find the implementation is much simpler and easier to maintain over time, and also creates smaller headers for compact transmission.

Key Locator Return Values

Regardless of which implementation strategy you choose, remember to return the appropriate type of key depending on the type of JWS or JWE algorithm used. That is:

• For JWS:
  • For HMAC-based signature algorithms, the returned verification key should be a SecretKey, and,
  • For asymmetric signature algorithms, the returned verification key should be a PublicKey (not a PrivateKey).
• For JWE:
  • For JWE direct encryption, the returned decryption key should be a SecretKey.
  • For password-based key derivation algorithms, the returned decryption key should be a io.jsonwebtoken.security.Password. You can create a Password instance by calling Keys.password(char[] passwordCharacters).
  • For asymmetric key management algorithms, the returned decryption key should be a PrivateKey (not a PublicKey).

Provider-constrained Keys

If any verification or decryption key returned from a Key Locator must be used with a specific security Provider (such as for PKCS11 or Hardware Security Module (HSM) keys), you must make that Provider available for JWT parsing in one of 3 ways, listed in order of recommendation and simplicity:

1. Configure the Provider in the JVM, either by modifying the java.security file or by registering the Provider dynamically via Security.addProvider(Provider). This is the recommended approach so you do not need to modify code anywhere that may need to parse JWTs.

2. Set the Provider as the parser default by calling JwtParserBuilder#provider(Provider). This will ensure the provider is used by default with all located keys unless overridden by a key-specific Provider. This is only recommended when you are confident that all JWTs encountered by the parser instance will use keys attributed to the same Provider, unless overridden by a specific key.

3. Associate the Provider with a specific key using Keys.builder so it is used for that key only. This option is useful if some located keys require a specific provider, while other located keys can assume a default provider. For example:

   public Key locate(Header<?> header) {
   
       PrivateKey /* or SecretKey */ key = findKey(header); // implement me
   
       Provider keySpecificProvider = findKeyProvider(key); // implement me
       if (keySpecificProvider != null) {
           // Ensure the key-specific provider (e.g. for PKCS11 or HSM) will be used 
           // during decryption with the KeyAlgorithm in the JWE 'alg' header
           return Keys.builder(key).provider(keySpecificProvider).build();
       }
   
       // otherwise default provider is fine:
       return key;
   }
   

Claim Assertions

You can enforce that the JWT you are parsing conforms to expectations that you require and are important for your application.

For example, let's say that you require that the JWT you are parsing has a specific sub (subject) value, otherwise you may not trust the token. You can do that by using one of the various require* methods on the JwtParserBuilder:

try {
    Jwts.parser().requireSubject("jsmith")/* etc... */.build().parse(s);
} catch (InvalidClaimException ice) {
    // the sub claim was missing or did not have a 'jsmith' value
}

If it is important to react to a missing vs an incorrect value, instead of catching InvalidClaimException, you can catch either MissingClaimException or IncorrectClaimException:

try {
    Jwts.parser().requireSubject("jsmith")/* etc... */.build().parse(s);
} catch(MissingClaimException mce) {
    // the parsed JWT did not have the sub claim
} catch(IncorrectClaimException ice) {
    // the parsed JWT had a sub claim, but its value was not equal to 'jsmith'
}

You can also require custom claims by using the require(claimName, requiredValue) method - for example:

try {
    Jwts.parser().require("myClaim", "myRequiredValue")/* etc... */.build().parse(s);
} catch(InvalidClaimException ice) {
    // the 'myClaim' claim was missing or did not have a 'myRequiredValue' value
}

(or, again, you could catch either MissingClaimException or IncorrectClaimException instead).

Please see the JwtParserBuilder class and/or JavaDoc for a full list of the various require* methods you may use for claims assertions.

Accounting for Clock Skew

When parsing a JWT, you might find that exp or nbf claim assertions fail (throw exceptions) because the clock on the parsing machine is not perfectly in sync with the clock on the machine that created the JWT. This can cause obvious problems since exp and nbf are time-based assertions, and clock times need to be reliably in sync for shared assertions.

You can account for these differences (usually no more than a few minutes) when parsing using the JwtParserBuilder's clockSkewSeconds. For example:

long seconds = 3 * 60; //3 minutes

Jwts.parser()
    
    .clockSkewSeconds(seconds) // <----
    
    // ... etc ...
    .build()
    .parse(jwt);

This ensures that minor clock differences between the machines can be ignored. Two or three minutes should be more than enough; it would be fairly strange if a production machine's clock was more than 5 minutes difference from most atomic clocks around the world.

Custom Clock Support

If the above clockSkewSeconds isn't sufficient for your needs, the timestamps created during parsing for timestamp comparisons can be obtained via a custom time source. Call the JwtParserBuilder's clock method with an implementation of the io.jsonwebtoken.Clock interface. For example:

Clock clock = new MyClock();

Jwts.parser().clock(myClock) //... etc ...

The JwtParser's default Clock implementation simply returns new Date() to reflect the time when parsing occurs, as most would expect. However, supplying your own clock could be useful, especially when writing test cases to guarantee deterministic behavior.

JWT Decompression

If you used JJWT to compress a JWT and you used a custom compression algorithm, you will need to tell the JwtParserBuilder how to resolve your CompressionAlgorithm to decompress the JWT.

Please see the Compression section below to see how to decompress JWTs during parsing.

Signed JWTs

The JWT specification provides for the ability to cryptographically sign a JWT. Signing a JWT:

1. guarantees the JWT was created by someone we know (it is authentic) as well as
2. guarantees that no-one has manipulated or changed the JWT after it was created (its integrity is maintained).

These two properties - authenticity and integrity - assure us that a JWT contains information we can trust. If a JWT fails authenticity or integrity checks, we should always reject that JWT because we can't trust it.

But before we dig in to showing you how to create a JWS using JJWT, let's briefly discuss Signature Algorithms and Keys, specifically as they relate to the JWT specifications. Understanding them is critical to being able to create a JWS properly.

Standard Signature Algorithms

The JWT specifications identify 13 standard signature algorithms - 3 secret key algorithms and 10 asymmetric key algorithms:

Identifier	Signature Algorithm
HS256	HMAC using SHA-256
HS384	HMAC using SHA-384
HS512	HMAC using SHA-512
ES256	ECDSA using P-256 and SHA-256
ES384	ECDSA using P-384 and SHA-384
ES512	ECDSA using P-521 and SHA-512
RS256	RSASSA-PKCS-v1_5 using SHA-256
RS384	RSASSA-PKCS-v1_5 using SHA-384
RS512	RSASSA-PKCS-v1_5 using SHA-512
PS256	RSASSA-PSS using SHA-256 and MGF1 with SHA-2561
PS384	RSASSA-PSS using SHA-384 and MGF1 with SHA-3841
PS512	RSASSA-PSS using SHA-512 and MGF1 with SHA-5121
EdDSA	Edwards-Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA)2

^{1. Requires Java 11 or a compatible JCA Provider (like BouncyCastle) in the runtime classpath.}

^{2. Requires Java 15 or a compatible JCA Provider (like BouncyCastle) in the runtime classpath.}

These are all represented as constants in the io.jsonwebtoken.Jwts.SIG registry class.

Signature Algorithms Keys

What's really important about the above standard signature algorithms - other than their security properties - is that the JWT specification RFC 7518, Sections 3.2 through 3.5 requires (mandates) that you MUST use keys that are sufficiently strong for a chosen algorithm.

This means that JJWT - a specification-compliant library - will also enforce that you use sufficiently strong keys for the algorithms you choose. If you provide a weak key for a given algorithm, JJWT will reject it and throw an exception.

This is not because we want to make your life difficult, we promise! The reason why the JWT specification, and consequently JJWT, mandates key lengths is that the security model of a particular algorithm can completely break down if you don't adhere to the mandatory key properties of the algorithm, effectively having no security at all. No one wants completely insecure JWTs, right? Right!

So what are the key strength requirements?

HMAC-SHA

JWT HMAC-SHA signature algorithms HS256, HS384, and HS512 require a secret key that is at least as many bits as the algorithm's signature (digest) length per RFC 7512 Section 3.2. This means:

• HS256 is HMAC-SHA-256, and that produces digests that are 256 bits (32 bytes) long, so HS256 requires that you use a secret key that is at least 32 bytes long.

• HS384 is HMAC-SHA-384, and that produces digests that are 384 bits (48 bytes) long, so HS384 requires that you use a secret key that is at least 48 bytes long.

• HS512 is HMAC-SHA-512, and that produces digests that are 512 bits (64 bytes) long, so HS512 requires that you use a secret key that is at least 64 bytes long.

RSA

JWT RSA signature algorithms RS256, RS384, RS512, PS256, PS384 and PS512 all require a minimum key length (aka an RSA modulus bit length) of 2048 bits per RFC 7512 Sections 3.3 and 3.5. Anything smaller than this (such as 1024 bits) will be rejected with an WeakKeyException.

That said, in keeping with best practices and increasing key lengths for security longevity, JJWT recommends that you use:

• at least 2048 bit keys with RS256 and PS256
• at least 3072 bit keys with RS384 and PS384
• at least 4096 bit keys with RS512 and PS512

These are only JJWT suggestions and not requirements. JJWT only enforces JWT specification requirements and for any RSA key, the requirement is the RSA key (modulus) length in bits MUST be >= 2048 bits.

Elliptic Curve

JWT Elliptic Curve signature algorithms ES256, ES384, and ES512 all require a key length (aka an Elliptic Curve order bit length) equal to the algorithm signature's individual R and S components per RFC 7512 Section 3.4. This means:

• ES256 requires that you use a private key that is exactly 256 bits (32 bytes) long.

• ES384 requires that you use a private key that is exactly 384 bits (48 bytes) long.

• ES512 requires that you use a private key that is exactly 521 bits (65 or 66 bytes) long (depending on format).

Edwards Curve

The JWT Edwards Curve signature algorithm EdDSA supports two sizes of private and public EdECKeys (these types were introduced in Java 15):

• Ed25519 algorithm keys must be 256 bits (32 bytes) long and produce signatures 512 bits (64 bytes) long.

• Ed448 algorithm keys must be 456 bits (57 bytes) long and produce signatures 912 bits (114 bytes) long.

Creating Safe Keys

If you don't want to think about bit length requirements or just want to make your life easier, JJWT has provided convenient builder classes that can generate sufficiently secure keys for any given JWT signature algorithm you might want to use.

Secret Keys

If you want to generate a sufficiently strong SecretKey for use with the JWT HMAC-SHA algorithms, use the respective algorithm's key() builder method:

SecretKey key = Jwts.SIG.HS256.key().build(); //or HS384.key() or HS512.key()

Under the hood, JJWT uses the JCA default provider's KeyGenerator to create a secure-random key with the correct minimum length for the given algorithm.

If you want to specify a specific JCA Provider or SecureRandom to use during key generation, you may specify those as builder arguments. For example:

SecretKey key = Jwts.SIG.HS256.key().provider(aProvider).random(aSecureRandom).build();

If you need to save this new SecretKey, you can Base64 (or Base64URL) encode it:

String secretString = Encoders.BASE64.encode(key.getEncoded());

Ensure you save the resulting secretString somewhere safe - Base64-encoding is not encryption, so it's still considered sensitive information. You can further encrypt it, etc, before saving to disk (for example).

Asymmetric Keys

If you want to generate sufficiently strong Elliptic Curve or RSA asymmetric key pairs for use with JWT ECDSA or RSA algorithms, use an algorithm's respective keyPair() builder method:

KeyPair keyPair = Jwts.SIG.RS256.keyPair().build(); //or RS384, RS512, PS256, etc...

Once you've generated a KeyPair, you can use the private key (keyPair.getPrivate()) to create a JWS and the public key (keyPair.getPublic()) to parse/verify a JWS.

Note

• The PS256, PS384, and PS512 algorithms require JDK 11 or a compatible JCA Provider (like BouncyCastle) in the runtime classpath.

• The EdDSA algorithms requires JDK 15 or a compatible JCA Provider (like BouncyCastle) in the runtime classpath.

If you want to use either set of algorithms, and you are on an earlier JDK that does not support them, see the Installation section to see how to enable BouncyCastle. All other algorithms are natively supported by the JDK.

Creating a JWS

You create a JWS as follows:

1. Use the Jwts.builder() method to create a JwtBuilder instance.
2. Call JwtBuilder methods to set the payload content or claims and any header parameters as desired.
3. Specify the SecretKey or asymmetric PrivateKey you want to use to sign the JWT.
4. Finally, call the compact() method to compact and sign, producing the final jws.

For example:

String jws = Jwts.builder() // (1)

    .subject("Bob")         // (2) 

    .signWith(key)          // (3) <---
     
    .compact();             // (4)

Signing Key

It is usually recommended to specify the signing key by calling the JwtBuilder's signWith method and let JJWT determine the most secure algorithm allowed for the specified key.:

String jws = Jwts.builder()

   // ... etc ...
   
   .signWith(key) // <---
   
   .compact();

For example, if you call signWith with a SecretKey that is 256 bits (32 bytes) long, it is not strong enough for HS384 or HS512, so JJWT will automatically sign the JWT using HS256.

When using signWith JJWT will also automatically set the required alg header with the associated algorithm identifier.

Similarly, if you called signWith with an RSA PrivateKey that was 4096 bits long, JJWT will use the RS512 algorithm and automatically set the alg header to RS512.

The same selection logic applies for Elliptic Curve PrivateKeys.

Note

You cannot sign JWTs with PublicKeys as this is always insecure. JJWT will reject any specified PublicKey for signing with an InvalidKeyException.

SecretKey Formats

If you want to sign a JWS using HMAC-SHA algorithms, and you have a secret key String or encoded byte array, you will need to convert it into a SecretKey instance to use as the signWith method argument.

If your secret key is:

• An encoded byte array:

  SecretKey key = Keys.hmacShaKeyFor(encodedKeyBytes);
  

• A Base64-encoded string:

  SecretKey key = Keys.hmacShaKeyFor(Decoders.BASE64.decode(secretString));
  

• A Base64URL-encoded string:

  SecretKey key = Keys.hmacShaKeyFor(Decoders.BASE64URL.decode(secretString));
  

• A raw (non-encoded) string (e.g. a password String):

  Password key = Keys.password(secretString.toCharArray());
  

Warning

It is almost always incorrect to call any variant of secretString.getBytes in any cryptographic context.
Safe cryptographic keys are never represented as direct (unencoded) strings. If you have a password that should be represented as a Key for HMAC-SHA algorithms, it is strongly recommended to use a key derivation algorithm to derive a cryptographically-strong Key from the password, and never use the password directly.

SignatureAlgorithm Override

In some specific cases, you might want to override JJWT's default selected signature algorithm for a given key.

For example, if you have an RSA PrivateKey that is 2048 bits, JJWT would automatically choose the RS256 algorithm. If you wanted to use RS384 or RS512 instead, you could manually specify it with the overloaded signWith method that accepts the SignatureAlgorithm as an additional argument:

   .signWith(privateKey, Jwts.SIG.RS512) // <---
   
   .compact();

This is allowed because the JWT specification allows any RSA algorithm strength for any RSA key >= 2048 bits. JJWT just prefers RS512 for keys >= 4096 bits, followed by RS384 for keys >= 3072 bits and finally RS256 for keys >= 2048 bits.

In all cases however, regardless of your chosen algorithms, JJWT will assert that the specified key is allowed to be used for that algorithm when possible according to the JWT specification requirements.

JWS Compression

If your JWT payload is large (contains a lot of data), and you are certain that JJWT will also be the same library that reads/parses your JWS, you might want to compress the JWS to reduce its size.

Warning

Not Standard for JWS: JJWT supports compression for JWS, but it is not a standard feature for JWS. The JWT RFC specifications standardize this only for JWEs, and it is not likely to be supported by other JWT libraries for JWS. Use JWS compression only if you are certain that JJWT (or another library that supports JWS compression) will be parsing the JWS

Please see the main Compression section to see how to compress and decompress JWTs.

Reading a JWS

You read (parse) a JWS as follows:

1. Use the Jwts.parser() method to create a JwtParserBuilder instance.
2. Call either keyLocator or verifyWith methods to determine the key used to verify the JWS signature.
3. Call the build() method on the JwtParserBuilder to return a thread-safe JwtParser.
4. Finally, call the parseSignedClaims(String) method with your jws String, producing the original JWS.
5. The entire call is wrapped in a try/catch block in case parsing or signature validation fails. We'll cover exceptions and causes for failure later.

For example:

Jws<Claims> jws;

try {
    jws = Jwts.parser()            // (1)
        
    .keyLocator(keyLocator)        // (2) dynamically lookup verification keys based on each JWS    
    //.verifyWith(key)             //     or a static key used to verify all encountered JWSs
        
    .build()                       // (3)
    .parseSignedClaims(jwsString); // (4) or parseSignedContent(jwsString)
    
    // we can safely trust the JWT
     
catch (JwtException ex) {          // (5)
    
    // we *cannot* use the JWT as intended by its creator
}

Note

Type-safe JWSs:

• If you are expecting a JWS with a Claims payload, call the JwtParser's parseSignedClaims method.
• If you are expecting a JWS with a content payload, call the JwtParser's parseSignedContent method.

Verification Key

The most important thing to do when reading a JWS is to specify the key used to verify the JWS's cryptographic signature. If signature verification fails, the JWT cannot be safely trusted and should be discarded.

So which key do we use for verification?

• If the jws was signed with a SecretKey, the same SecretKey should be specified on the JwtParserBuilder.
  For example:

  Jwts.parser()
  
    .verifyWith(secretKey) // <----
  
    .build()
    .parseSignedClaims(jwsString);
  

• If the jws was signed with a PrivateKey, that key's corresponding PublicKey (not the PrivateKey) should be specified on the JwtParserBuilder. For example:

  Jwts.parser()
  
    .verifyWith(publicKey) // <---- publicKey, not privateKey
  
    .build()
    .parseSignedClaims(jwsString);
  

Verification Key Locator

But you might have noticed something - what if your application doesn't use just a single SecretKey or KeyPair? What if JWSs can be created with different SecretKeys or public/private keys, or a combination of both? How do you know which key to specify if you can't inspect the JWT first?

In these cases, you can't call the JwtParserBuilder's verifyWith method with a single key - instead, you'll need a Key Locator. Please see the Key Lookup section to see how to dynamically obtain different keys when parsing JWSs or JWEs.

JWS Decompression

If you used JJWT to compress a JWS and you used a custom compression algorithm, you will need to tell the JwtParserBuilder how to resolve your CompressionAlgorithm to decompress the JWT.

Please see the Compression section below to see how to decompress JWTs during parsing.

Unencoded Payload Option

In some cases, especially if a JWS payload is large, it could be desirable to not Base64URL-encode the JWS payload, or even exclude the payload from the compact JWS string entirely. The JWT RFC specifications provide support for these use cases via the JSON Web Signature (JWS) Unencoded Payload Option specification, which JJWT supports.

This option comes with both benefits and disadvantages:

Benefits

A JWS producer can still create a JWS string to use for payload integrity verification without having to either:

1. Base64URL-encode the (potentially very large) payload, saving the time that could take.

2. Include the payload in the compact JWS string at all. Omitting the payload from the JWS compact string entirely produces smaller JWSs that can be more efficient to transfer.

Disadvantages

1. Your application, and not JJWT, incurs the responsibility to ensure the payload is not modified during transmission so the recipient can verify the JWS signature. For example, by using a sufficiently strong TLS (https) cipher suite as well as any additional care before and after transmission, since TLS does not guarantee end-to-end security.

2. If you choose to include the unencoded payload in the JWS compact string, your application MUST ensure that the payload does not contain a period (.) character anywhere in the payload. The JWS recipient will experience parsing errors otherwise.

Before attempting to use this option, one should be aware of the RFC's security considerations first.

Note

Protected JWS Only

The RFC specification defines the Unencoded Payload option for use only with JWSs. It may not be used with with unprotected JWTs or encrypted JWEs.

Detached Payload Example

This example shows creating and parsing a compact JWS using an unencoded payload that is detached, i.e. where the payload is not embedded in the compact JWS string at all.

We need to do three things during creation:

1. Specify the JWS signing key; it's a JWS and still needs to be signed.
2. Specify the raw payload bytes via the JwtBuilder's content method.
3. Indicate that the payload should not be Base64Url-encoded using the JwtBuilder's encodePayload(false) method.

// create a test key for this example:
SecretKey testKey = Jwts.SIG.HS512.key().build();

String message = "Hello World. It's a Beautiful Day!";
byte[] content = message.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);

String jws = Jwts.builder().signWith(testKey) // #1
        .content(content)                     // #2
        .encodePayload(false)                 // #3
        .compact();

To parse the resulting jws string, we need to do two things when creating the JwtParser:

1. Specify the signature verification key.
2. Specify the externally-transmitted unencoded payload bytes, required for signature verification.

Jws<byte[]> parsed = Jwts.parser().verifyWith(testKey) // 1
        .build()
        .parseSignedContent(jws, content);             // 2
        
assertArrayEquals(content, parsed.getPayload());

Non-Detached Payload Example

This example shows creating and parsing a compact JWS with what the RFC calls a 'non-detached' unencoded payload, i.e. a raw string directly embedded as the payload in the compact JWS string.

We need to do three things during creation:

1. Specify the JWS signing key; it's a JWS and still needs to be signed.
2. Specify the raw payload string via the JwtBuilder's content method. Per the RFC, the payload string MUST NOT contain any period (.) characters.
3. Indicate that the payload should not be Base64Url-encoded using the JwtBuilder's encodePayload(false) method.

// create a test key for this example:
SecretKey testKey = Jwts.SIG.HS512.key().build();

String claimsString = "{\"sub\":\"joe\",\"iss\":\"me\"}";

String jws = Jwts.builder().signWith(testKey) // #1
        .content(claimsString)                // #2
        .encodePayload(false)                 // #3
        .compact();

If you were to print the jws string, you'd see something like this:

eyJhbGciOiJIUzUxMiIsImI2NCI6ZmFsc2UsImNyaXQiOlsiYjY0Il19.{"sub":"joe","iss":"me"}.wkoxYEd//...etc...

See how the claimsString is embedded directly as the center payload token instead of a standard Base64URL value? This is why no period (.) characters can exist in the payload. If they did, any standard JWT parser would see more than two periods total, which is required for parsing standard JWSs.

To parse the resulting jws string, we need to do two things when creating the JwtParser:

1. Specify the signature verification key.
2. Indicate that we want to support Unencoded Payload Option JWSs by enabling the b64 crit header parameter.

Jws<Claims> parsed = Jwts.parser().verifyWith(testKey) // 1
        .critical().add("b64").and()                   // 2
        .build()
        .parseSignedClaims(jws);                          

assert "joe".equals(parsed.getPayload().getSubject());
assert "me".equals(parsed.getPayload().getIssuer());

Did you notice we used the .parseSignedClaims(String) method instead of .parseSignedClaims(String, byte[])? This is because the non-detached payload is already present and JJWT has what it needs for signature verification.

Additionally, we needed to specify the b64 critical value: because we're not using the two-argument parseSignedClaims(jws, content) method, the parser has no way of knowing if you wish to allow or support unencoded payloads. Unencoded payloads have additional security considerations as described above, so they are disabled by the parser by default unless you indicate you want to support them by using critical().add("b64").

Finally, even if the payload contains a non-detached String, you could still use the two-argument method using the payload String's UTF-8 bytes instead:

parsed = Jwts.parser().verifyWith(testKey)
        .build()
        .parseSignedClaims(jws, claimsString.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8)); // <---

Encrypted JWTs

The JWT specification also provides for the ability to encrypt and decrypt a JWT. Encrypting a JWT:

1. guarantees that no-one other than the intended JWT recipient can see the JWT payload (it is confidential), and
2. guarantees that no-one has manipulated or changed the JWT after it was created (its integrity is maintained).

These two properties - confidentiality and integrity - assure us that an encrypted JWT contains a payload that no-one else can see, nor has anyone changed or altered the data in transit.

Encryption and confidentiality seem somewhat obvious: if you encrypt a message, it is confidential by the notion that random 3rd parties cannot make sense of the encrypted message. But some might be surprised to know that general encryption does not guarantee that someone hasn't tampered/altered an encrypted message in transit. Most of us assume that if a message can be decrypted, then the message would be authentic and unchanged - after all, if you can decrypt it, it must not have been tampered with, right? Because if it was changed, decryption would surely fail, right?

Unfortunately, this is not actually guaranteed in all cryptographic ciphers. There are certain attack vectors where it is possible to change an encrypted payload (called 'ciphertext'), and the message recipient is still able to successfully decrypt the (modified) payload. In these cases, the ciphertext integrity was not maintained - a malicious 3rd party could intercept a message and change the payload content, even if they don't understand what is inside the payload, and the message recipient could never know.

To combat this, there is a category of encryption algorithms that ensures both confidentiality and integrity of the ciphertext data. These types of algorithms are called Authenticated Encryption algorithms.

As a result, to ensure JWTs do not suffer from this problem, the JWE RFC specifications require that any encryption algorithm used to encrypt a JWT MUST be an Authenticated Encryption algorithm. JWT users can be sufficiently confident their encrypted JWTs maintain the properties of both confidentiality and integrity.

JWE Encryption Algorithms

The JWT specification defines 6 standard Authenticated Encryption algorithms used to encrypt a JWT payload:

Identifier	Required Key Bit Length	Encryption Algorithm
A128CBC‑HS256	256	AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256 authenticated encryption algorithm
A192CBC-HS384	384	AES_192_CBC_HMAC_SHA_384 authenticated encryption algorithm
A256CBC-HS512	512	AES_256_CBC_HMAC_SHA_512 authenticated encryption algorithm
A128GCM	128	AES GCM using 128-bit key1
A192GCM	192	AES GCM using 192-bit key1
A256GCM	256	AES GCM using 256-bit key1

^{1. Requires Java 8+ or a compatible JCA Provider (like BouncyCastle) in the runtime classpath.}

These are all represented as constants in the io.jsonwebtoken.Jwts.ENC registry singleton as implementations of the io.jsonwebtoken.security.AeadAlgorithm interface.

As shown in the table above, each algorithm requires a key of sufficient length. The JWT specification RFC 7518, Sections 5.2.3 through 5.3 requires (mandates) that you MUST use keys that are sufficiently strong for a chosen algorithm. This means that JJWT - a specification-compliant library - will also enforce that you use sufficiently strong keys for the algorithms you choose. If you provide a weak key for a given algorithm, JJWT will reject it and throw an exception.

The reason why the JWT specification, and consequently JJWT, mandates key lengths is that the security model of a particular algorithm can completely break down if you don't adhere to the mandatory key properties of the algorithm, effectively having no security at all.

Symmetric Ciphers

You might have noticed something about the above Authenticated Encryption algorithms: they're all variants of the AES algorithm, and AES always uses a symmetric (secret) key to perform encryption and decryption. That's kind of strange, isn't it?

What about RSA and Elliptic Curve asymmetric key cryptography? And Diffie-Hellman key exchange? What about password-based key derivation algorithms? Surely any of those could be desirable depending on the use case, no?

Yes, they definitely can, and the JWT specifications do support them, albeit indirectly: those other algorithms are indeed supported and used, but they aren't used to encrypt the JWT payload directly. They are used to produce the actual key used to encrypt the JWT payload.

This is all done via the JWT specification's concept of a Key Management Algorithm, covered next. After we cover that, we'll show you how to encrypt and parse your own JWTs with the JwtBuilder and JwtParserBuilder.

JWE Key Management Algorithms

As stated above, all standard JWA Encryption Algorithms are AES-based authenticated encryption algorithms. So what about RSA and Elliptic Curve cryptography? And password-based key derivation, or Diffie-Hellman exchange?

All of those are supported as well, but they are not used directly for encryption. They are used to produce the key that will be used to directly encrypt the JWT payload.

That is, JWT encryption can be thought of as a two-step process, shown in the following pseudocode:

Key algorithmKey = getKeyManagementAlgorithmKey(); // PublicKey, SecretKey, or Password

SecretKey contentEncryptionKey = keyManagementAlgorithm.produceEncryptionKey(algorithmKey); // 1

byte[] ciphertext = encryptionAlgorithm.encrypt(payload, contentEncryptionKey);             // 2

Steps:

1. Use the algorithmKey to produce the actual key that will be used to encrypt the payload. The JWT specifications call this result the 'Content Encryption Key'.
2. Take the resulting Content Encryption Key and use it directly with the Authenticated Encryption algorithm to actually encrypt the JWT payload.

So why the indirection? Why not just use any PublicKey, SecretKey or Password to encrypt the payload directly ?

There are quite a few reasons for this.

1. Asymmetric key encryption (like RSA and Elliptic Curve) tends to be slow. Like really slow. Symmetric key cipher algorithms in contrast are really fast. This matters a lot in production applications that could be handling a JWT on every HTTP request, which could be thousands per second.
2. RSA encryption (for example) can only encrypt a relatively small amount of data. A 2048-bit RSA key can only encrypt up to a maximum of 245 bytes. A 4096-bit RSA key can only encrypt up to a maximum of 501 bytes. There are plenty of JWTs that can exceed 245 bytes, and that would make RSA unusable.
3. Passwords usually make for very poor encryption keys - they often have poor entropy, or they themselves are often too short to be used directly with algorithms that mandate minimum key lengths to help ensure safety.

For these reasons and more, using one secure algorithm to generate or encrypt a key used for another (very fast) secure algorithm has been proven to be a great way to increase security through many more secure algorithms while also still resulting in very fast and secure output. This is after all how TLS (for https encryption) works - two parties can use more complex cryptography (like RSA or Elliptic Curve) to negotiate a small, fast encryption key. This fast encryption key is produced during the 'TLS handshake' and is called the TLS 'session key'.

So the JWT specifications work much in the same way: one key from any number of various algorithm types can be used to produce a final symmetric key, and that symmetric key is used to encrypt the JWT payload.

JWE Standard Key Management Algorithms

The JWT specification defines 17 standard Key Management Algorithms used to produce the JWE Content Encryption Key (CEK):

Identifier	Key Management Algorithm
RSA1_5	RSAES-PKCS1-v1_5
RSA-OAEP	RSAES OAEP using default parameters
RSA-OAEP-256	RSAES OAEP using SHA-256 and MGF1 with SHA-256
A128KW	AES Key Wrap with default initial value using 128-bit key
A192KW	AES Key Wrap with default initial value using 192-bit key
A256KW	AES Key Wrap with default initial value using 256-bit key
dir	Direct use of a shared symmetric key as the Content Encryption Key
ECDH-ES	Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral Static key agreement using Concat KDF
ECDH-ES+A128KW	ECDH-ES using Concat KDF and CEK wrapped with "A128KW"
ECDH-ES+A192KW	ECDH-ES using Concat KDF and CEK wrapped with "A192KW"
ECDH-ES+A256KW	ECDH-ES using Concat KDF and CEK wrapped with "A256KW"
A128GCMKW	Key wrapping with AES GCM using 128-bit key3
A192GCMKW	Key wrapping with AES GCM using 192-bit key3
A256GCMKW	Key wrapping with AES GCM using 256-bit key3
PBES2-HS256+A128KW	PBES2 with HMAC SHA-256 and "A128KW" wrapping3
PBES2-HS384+A192KW	PBES2 with HMAC SHA-384 and "A192KW" wrapping3
PBES2‑HS512+A256KW	PBES2 with HMAC SHA-512 and "A256KW" wrapping3

^{3. Requires Java 8 or a compatible JCA Provider (like BouncyCastle) in the runtime classpath.}

These are all represented as constants in the io.jsonwebtoken.Jwts.KEY registry singleton as implementations of the io.jsonwebtoken.security.KeyAlgorithm interface.

But 17 algorithms are a lot to choose from. When would you use them? The sections below describe when you might choose each category of algorithms and how they behave.

RSA Key Encryption

The JWT RSA key management algorithms RSA1_5, RSA-OAEP, and RSA-OAEP-256 are used when you want to use the JWE recipient's RSA public key during encryption. This ensures that only the JWE recipient can decrypt and read the JWE (using their RSA private key).

During JWE creation, these algorithms:

• Generate a new secure-random Content Encryption Key (CEK) suitable for the desired encryption algorithm.
• Encrypt the JWE payload with the desired encryption algorithm using the new CEK, producing the JWE payload ciphertext.
• Encrypt the CEK itself with the specified RSA key wrap algorithm using the JWE recipient's RSA public key.
• Embed the payload ciphertext and encrypted CEK in the resulting JWE.

During JWE decryption, these algorithms:

• Retrieve the encrypted Content Encryption Key (CEK) embedded in the JWE.
• Decrypt the encrypted CEK with the discovered RSA key unwrap algorithm using the JWE recipient's RSA private key, producing the decrypted Content Encryption Key (CEK).
• Decrypt the JWE ciphertext payload with the JWE's identified encryption algorithm using the decrypted CEK.

Warning

RFC 7518 Sections 4.2 and 4.3 require (mandate) that RSA keys >= 2048 bits MUST be used with these algorithms. JJWT will throw an exception if it detects weaker keys being used.

AES Key Encryption

The JWT AES key management algorithms A128KW, A192KW, A256KW, A128GCMKW, A192GCMKW, and A256GCMKW are used when you have a symmetric secret key, but you don't want to use that secret key to directly encrypt/decrypt the JWT.

Instead, a new secure-random key is generated each time a JWE is created, and that new/random key is used to directly encrypt/decrypt the JWT payload. The secure-random key is itself encrypted with your symmetric secret key using the AES Wrap algorithm, and the encrypted key is embedded in the resulting JWE.

This allows the JWE to be encrypted with a random short-lived key, reducing material exposure of the potentially longer-lived symmetric secret key.

Because these particular algorithms use a symmetric secret key, they are best suited when the JWE creator and receiver are the same, ensuring the secret key does not need to be shared with multiple parties.

During JWE creation, these algorithms:

• Generate a new secure-random Content Encryption Key (CEK) suitable for the desired encryption algorithm.
• Encrypt the JWE payload with the desired encryption algorithm using the new CEK, producing the JWE payload ciphertext.
• Encrypt the CEK itself with the specified AES key algorithm (either AES Key Wrap or AES with GCM encryption), producing the encrypted CEK.
• Embed the payload ciphertext and encrypted CEK in the resulting JWE.

During JWE decryption, these algorithms:

• Retrieve the encrypted Content Encryption Key (CEK) embedded in the JWE.
• Decrypt the encrypted CEK with the discovered AES key algorithm using the symmetric secret key.
• Decrypt the JWE ciphertext payload with the JWE's identified encryption algorithm using the decrypted CEK.

Warning

The symmetric key used for the AES key algorithms MUST be 128, 192 or 256 bits as required by the specific AES key algorithm. JJWT will throw an exception if it detects weaker keys than what is required.

Direct Key Encryption

The JWT dir (direct) key management algorithm is used when you have a symmetric secret key, and you want to use it to directly encrypt the JWT payload.

Because this algorithm uses a symmetric secret key, it is best suited when the JWE creator and receiver are the same, ensuring the secret key does not need to be shared with multiple parties.

This is the simplest key algorithm for direct encryption that does not perform any key encryption. It is essentially a 'no op' key algorithm, allowing the shared key to be used to directly encrypt the JWT payload.

During JWE creation, this algorithm:

• Encrypts the JWE payload with the desired encryption algorithm directly using the symmetric secret key, producing the JWE payload ciphertext.
• Embeds the payload ciphertext in the resulting JWE.

Note that because this algorithm does not produce an encrypted key value, an encrypted CEK is not embedded in the resulting JWE.

During JWE decryption, this algorithm decrypts the JWE ciphertext payload with the JWE's identified encryption algorithm directly using the symmetric secret key. No encrypted CEK is used.

Warning

The symmetric secret key MUST be 128, 192 or 256 bits as required by the associated AEAD encryption algorithm used to encrypt the payload. JJWT will throw an exception if it detects weaker keys than what is required.

Password-Based Key Encryption

The JWT password-based key encryption algorithms PBES2-HS256+A128KW, PBES2-HS384+A192KW, and PBES2-HS512+A256KW are used when you want to use a password (character array) to encrypt and decrypt a JWT.

However, because passwords are usually too weak or problematic to use directly in cryptographic contexts, these algorithms utilize key derivation techniques with work factors (e.g. computation iterations) and secure-random salts to produce stronger cryptographic keys suitable for cryptographic operations.

This allows the payload to be encrypted with a random short-lived cryptographically-stronger key, reducing the need to expose the longer-lived (and potentially weaker) password.

Because these algorithms use a secret password, they are best suited when the JWE creator and receiver are the same, ensuring the secret password does not need to be shared with multiple parties.

During JWE creation, these algorithms:

• Generate a new secure-random Content Encryption Key (CEK) suitable for the desired encryption algorithm.
• Encrypt the JWE payload with the desired encryption algorithm using the new CEK, producing the JWE payload ciphertext.
• Derive a 'key encryption key' (KEK) with the desired "PBES2 with HMAC SHA" algorithm using the password, a suitable number of computational iterations, and a secure-random salt value.
• Encrypt the generated CEK with the corresponding AES Key Wrap algorithm using the password-derived KEK.
• Embed the payload ciphertext and encrypted CEK in the resulting JWE.

Note

Secure defaults: When using these algorithms, if you do not specify a work factor (i.e. number of computational iterations), JJWT will automatically use an OWASP PBKDF2 recommended default appropriate for the specified PBES2 algorithm.

During JWE decryption, these algorithms:

• Retrieve the encrypted Content Encryption Key (CEK) embedded in the JWE.
• Derive the 'key encryption key' (KEK) with the discovered "PBES2 with HMAC SHA" algorithm using the password and the number of computational iterations and secure-random salt value discovered in the JWE header.
• Decrypt the encrypted CEK with the corresponding AES Key Unwrap algorithm using the password-derived KEK.
• Decrypt the JWE ciphertext payload with the JWE's identified encryption algorithm using the decrypted CEK.

Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral Static Key Agreement (ECDH-ES)

The JWT Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral Static key agreement algorithms ECDH-ES, ECDH-ES+A128KW, ECDH-ES+A192KW, and ECDH-ES+A256KW are used when you want to use the JWE recipient's Elliptic Curve public key during encryption. This ensures that only the JWE recipient can decrypt and read the JWE (using their Elliptic Curve private key).

During JWE creation, these algorithms:

• Obtain the Content Encryption Key (CEK) used to encrypt the JWE payload as follows:
  • Inspect the JWE recipient's Elliptic Curve public key and determine its Curve.
  • Generate a new secure-random ephemeral Elliptic Curve public/private key pair on this same Curve.
  • Add the ephemeral EC public key to the JWE epk header for inclusion in the final JWE.
  • Produce an ECDH shared secret with the ECDH Key Agreement algorithm using the JWE recipient's EC public key and the ephemeral EC private key.
  • Derive a symmetric secret key with the Concat Key Derivation Function (NIST.800-56A, Section 5.8.1) using this ECDH shared secret and any provided PartyUInfo and/or PartyVInfo.
  • If the key algorithm is ECDH-ES:
    • Use the Concat KDF-derived symmetric secret key directly as the Content Encryption Key (CEK). No encrypted key is created, nor embedded in the resulting JWE.
  • Otherwise, if the key algorithm is ECDH-ES+A128KW, ECDH-ES+A192KW, or ECDH-ES+A256KW:
    • Generate a new secure-random Content Encryption Key (CEK) suitable for the desired encryption algorithm.
    • Encrypt this new CEK with the corresponding AES Key Wrap algorithm using the Concat KDF-derived secret key, producing the encrypted CEK.
    • Embed the encrypted CEK in the resulting JWE.
• Encrypt the JWE payload with the desired encryption algorithm using the obtained CEK, producing the JWE payload ciphertext.
• Embed the payload ciphertext in the resulting JWE.

During JWE decryption, these algorithms:

• Obtain the Content Encryption Key (CEK) used to decrypt the JWE payload as follows:
  • Retrieve the required ephemeral Elliptic Curve public key from the JWE's epk header.
  • Ensure the ephemeral EC public key exists on the same curve as the JWE recipient's EC private key.
  • Produce the ECDH shared secret with the ECDH Key Agreement algorithm using the JWE recipient's EC private key and the ephemeral EC public key.
  • Derive a symmetric secret key with the Concat Key Derivation Function (NIST.800-56A, Section 5.8.1) using this ECDH shared secret and any PartyUInfo and/or PartyVInfo found in the JWE header.
  • If the key algorithm is ECDH-ES:
    • Use the Concat KDF-derived secret key directly as the Content Encryption Key (CEK). No encrypted key is used.
  • Otherwise, if the key algorithm is ECDH-ES+A128KW, ECDH-ES+A192KW, or ECDH-ES+A256KW:
    • Obtain the encrypted key ciphertext embedded in the JWE.
    • Decrypt the encrypted key ciphertext with the associated AES Key Unwrap algorithm using the Concat KDF-derived secret key, producing the unencrypted Content Encryption Key (CEK).
• Decrypt the JWE payload ciphertext with the JWE's discovered encryption algorithm using the obtained CEK.

Creating a JWE

Now that we know the difference between a JWE Encryption Algorithm and a JWE Key Management Algorithm, how do we use them to encrypt a JWT?

You create an encrypted JWT (called a 'JWE') as follows:

1. Use the Jwts.builder() method to create a JwtBuilder instance.
2. Call JwtBuilder methods to set the payload content or claims and any header parameters as desired.
3. Call the encryptWith method, specifying the Key, Key Algorithm, and Encryption Algorithm you want to use.
4. Finally, call the compact() method to compact and encrypt, producing the final jwe.

For example:

String jwe = Jwts.builder()                              // (1)

    .subject("Bob")                                      // (2) 

    .encryptWith(key, keyAlgorithm, encryptionAlgorithm) // (3)
     
    .compact();                                          // (4)

Before calling compact(), you may set any header parameters and claims exactly the same way as described for JWS.

JWE Compression

If your JWT payload or Claims set is large (contains a lot of data), you might want to compress the JWE to reduce its size. Please see the main Compression section to see how to compress and decompress JWTs.

Reading a JWE

You read (parse) a JWE as follows:

1. Use the Jwts.parser() method to create a JwtParserBuilder instance.
2. Call either keyLocator or decryptWith methods to determine the key used to decrypt the JWE.
3. Call the JwtParserBuilder's build() method to create a thread-safe JwtParser.
4. Parse the jwe string with the JwtParser's parseEncryptedClaims or parseEncryptedContent method.
5. Wrap the entire call is in a try/catch block in case decryption or integrity verification fails.

For example:

Jwe<Claims> jwe;

try {
    jwe = Jwts.parser()               // (1)

    .keyLocator(keyLocator)           // (2) dynamically lookup decryption keys based on each JWE    
    //.decryptWith(key)               //     or a static key used to decrypt all encountered JWEs
        
    .build()                          // (3)
    .parseEncryptedClaims(jweString); // (4) or parseEncryptedContent(jweString);
    
    // we can safely trust the JWT
     
catch (JwtException ex) {             // (5)
    
    // we *cannot* use the JWT as intended by its creator
}

Note

Type-safe JWEs:

• If you are expecting a JWE with a Claims payload, call the JwtParser's parseEncryptedClaims method.
• If you are expecting a JWE with a content payload, call the JwtParser's parseEncryptedContent method.

Decryption Key

The most important thing to do when reading a JWE is to specify the key used during decryption. If decryption or integrity protection checks fail, the JWT cannot be safely trusted and should be discarded.

So which key do we use for decryption?

• If the jwe was encrypted directly with a SecretKey, the same SecretKey must be specified on the JwtParserBuilder. For example:

  Jwts.parser()
  
    .decryptWith(secretKey) // <----
  
    .build()
    .parseEncryptedClaims(jweString);
  

• If the jwe was encrypted using a key produced by a Password-based key derivation KeyAlgorithm, the same Password must be specified on the JwtParserBuilder. For example:

  Password password = Keys.password(passwordChars);
  
  Jwts.parser()
  
    .decryptWith(password) // <---- an `io.jsonwebtoken.security.Password` instance
  
    .build()
    .parseEncryptedClaims(jweString);
  

• If the jwe was encrypted with a key produced by an asymmetric KeyAlgorithm, the corresponding PrivateKey (not the PublicKey) must be specified on the JwtParserBuilder. For example:

  Jwts.parser()
  
    .decryptWith(privateKey) // <---- a `PrivateKey`, not a `PublicKey`
  
    .build()
    .parseSignedClaims(jweString);
  

Decryption Key Locator

What if your application doesn't use just a single SecretKey or KeyPair? What if JWEs can be created with different SecretKeys, Passwords or public/private keys, or a combination of all of them? How do you know which key to specify if you can't inspect the JWT first?

In these cases, you can't call the JwtParserBuilder's decryptWith method with a single key - instead, you'll need to use a Key Locator. Please see the Key Lookup section to see how to dynamically obtain different keys when parsing JWSs or JWEs.

ECDH-ES Decryption with PKCS11 PrivateKeys

The JWT ECDH-ES, ECDH-ES+A128KW, ECDH-ES+A192KW, and ECDH-ES+A256KW key algorithms validate JWE input using public key information, even when using PrivateKeys to decrypt. Ordinarily this is automatically performed by JJWT when your PrivateKey instances implement the ECKey or EdECKey (or BouncyCastle equivalent) interfaces, which is the case for most JCA Provider implementations.

However, if your decryption PrivateKeys are stored in a Hardware Security Module (HSM) and/or you use the SunPKCS11 Provider, it is likely that your PrivateKey instances do not implement ECKey.

In these cases, you need to provide both the PKCS11 PrivateKey and it's companion PublicKey during decryption by using the Keys.builder method. For example:

KeyPair pair = getMyPkcs11KeyPair();
PrivateKey jwtParserDecryptionKey = Keys.builder(pair.getPrivate())
    .publicKey(pair.getPublic()) // PublicKey must implement ECKey or EdECKey or BouncyCastle equivalent
    .build();

You then use the resulting jwtParserDecryptionKey (not pair.getPrivate()) with the JwtParserBuilder or as the return value from a custom Key Locator implementation. For example:

PrivateKey decryptionKey = Keys.builder(pkcs11PrivateKey).publicKey(pkcs11PublicKey).build();

Jwts.parser()
    .decryptWith(decryptionKey) // <----
    .build()
    .parseEncryptedClaims(jweString);

Or as the return value from your key locator:

Jwts.parser()
    .keyLocator(keyLocator) // your keyLocator.locate(header) would return Keys.builder...
    .build()
    .parseEncryptedClaims(jweString);

Please see the Provider-constrained Keys section for more information, as well as code examples of how to implement a Key Locator using the Keys.builder technique.

JWE Decompression

If a JWE is compressed using the DEF (DEFLATE) or GZIP (GZIP) compression algorithms, it will automatically be decompressed after decryption, and there is nothing you need to configure.

If, however, a custom compression algorithm was used to compress the JWE, you will need to tell the JwtParserBuilder how to resolve your CompressionAlgorithm to decompress the JWT.

Please see the Compression section below to see how to decompress JWTs during parsing.

JSON Web Keys (JWKs)

JSON Web Keys (JWKs) are JSON serializations of cryptographic keys, allowing key material to be embedded in JWTs or transmitted between parties in a standard JSON-based text format. They are essentially a JSON-based alternative to other text-based key formats, such as the DER, PEM and PKCS12 text strings or files commonly used when configuring TLS on web servers, for example.

For example, an identity web service may expose its RSA or Elliptic Curve Public Keys to 3rd parties in the JWK format. A client may then parse the public key JWKs to verify the service's JWS tokens, as well as send encrypted information to the service using JWEs.

JWKs can be converted to and from standard Java Key types as expected using the same builder/parser patterns we've seen for JWTs.

Create a JWK

You create a JWK as follows:

1. Use the Jwks.builder() method to create a JwkBuilder instance.
2. Call the key method with the Java key you wish to represent as a JWK.
3. Call builder methods to set any additional key parameters or metadata, such as a kid (Key ID), X509 Certificates, etc as desired.
4. Call the build() method to produce the resulting JWK.

For example:

SecretKey key = getSecretKey();     // or RSA or EC PublicKey or PrivateKey
SecretJwk = Jwks.builder().key(key) // (1) and (2)
        
    .id("mySecretKeyId")            // (3)
    // ... etc ...    
    
    .build();                       // (4)

JWK from a Map

If you have a Map<String,?> of name/value pairs that reflect an existing JWK, you add them and build a type-safe Jwk instance:

Map<String,?> jwkValues = getMyJwkMap();

Jwk<?> jwk = Jwks.builder().add(jwkValues).build();

Read a JWK

You can read/parse a JWK by building a JwkParser and parsing the JWK JSON string with its parse method:

String json = getJwkJsonString();
Jwk<?> jwk = Jwks.parser()
    //.provider(aJcaProvider)     // optional
    //.deserializer(deserializer) // optional
    .build()                      // create the parser
    .parse(json);                 // actually parse the JSON

Key key = jwk.toKey();            // convert to a Java Key instance

As shown above you can specify a custom JCA Provider or JSON deserializer in the same way as the JwtBuilder.

PrivateKey JWKs

Unlike Java, the JWA specification requires a private JWKs to contain both public key and private key material (see RFC 7518, Section 6.1.1 and RFC 7518, Section 6.3.2).

In this sense, a private JWK (represented as a PrivateJwk or a subtype, such as RsaPrivateJwk, EcPrivateJwk, etc) can be thought of more like a Java KeyPair instance. Consequently, when creating a PrivateJwk instance, the PrivateKey's corresponding PublicKey is required.

Private JWK PublicKey

If you do not provide a PublicKey when creating a PrivateJwk, JJWT will automatically derive the PublicKey from the PrivateKey instance if possible. However, because this can add some computing time, it is typically recommended to provide the PublicKey when possible to avoid this extra work.

For example:

RSAPrivateKey rsaPrivateKey = getRSAPrivateKey(); // or ECPrivateKey

RsaPrivateJwk jwk = Jwks.builder().key(rsaPrivateKey)

        //.publicKey(rsaPublicKey)  // optional, but recommended to avoid extra computation work
        
        .build();

Private JWK from KeyPair

If you have a Java KeyPair instance, then you have both the public and private key material necessary to create a PrivateJwk. For example:

KeyPair rsaKeyPair = getRSAKeyPair();
RsaPrivateJwk rsaPrivJwk = Jwks.builder().rsaKeyPair(rsaKeyPair).build();

KeyPair ecKeyPair = getECKeyPair();
EcPrivateJwk ecPrivJwk = Jwks.builder().ecKeyPair(ecKeyPair).build();

KeyPair edEcKeyPair = getEdECKeyPair();
OctetPrivateJwk edEcPrivJwk = Jwks.builder().octetKeyPair(edEcKeyPair).build();

Note that:

• An exception will be thrown when calling rsaKeyPair if the specified KeyPair instance does not contain RSAPublicKey and RSAPrivateKey instances.
• Similarly, an exception will be thrown when calling ecKeyPair if the KeyPair instance does not contain ECPublicKey and ECPrivateKey instances.
• Finally, an exception will be thrown when calling octetKeyPair if the KeyPair instance does not contain X25519, X448, Ed25519, or Ed448 keys (introduced in JDK 11 and 15 or when using BouncyCastle).

Private JWK Public Conversion

Because private JWKs contain public key material, you can always obtain the private JWK's corresponding public JWK and Java PublicKey or KeyPair. For example:

RsaPrivateJwk privateJwk = Jwks.builder().key(rsaPrivateKey).build(); // or ecPrivateKey or edEcPrivateKey

// Get the matching public JWK and/or PublicKey:
RsaPublicJwk pubJwk = privateJwk.toPublicJwk();       // JWK instance
RSAPublicKey pubKey = pubJwk.toKey();                 // Java PublicKey instance
KeyPair pair = privateJwk.toKeyPair();                // io.jsonwebtoken.security.KeyPair retains key types
java.security.KeyPair jdkPair = pair.toJavaKeyPair(); // does not retain pub/private key types

JWK Thumbprints

A JWK Thumbprint is a digest (aka hash) of a canonical JSON representation of a JWK's public properties. 'Canonical' in this case means that only RFC-specified values in any JWK are used in an exact order thumbprint calculation. This ensures that anyone can calculate a JWK's same exact thumbprint, regardless of custom parameters or JSON key/value ordering differences in a JWK.

All Jwk instances support JWK Thumbprints via the thumbprint() and thumbprint(HashAlgorithm) methods:

HashAlgorithm hashAlg = Jwks.HASH.SHA256; // or SHA384, SHA512, etc.

Jwk<?> jwk = Jwks.builder(). /* ... */ .build();

JwkThumbprint sha256Thumbprint = jwk.thumbprint(); // SHA-256 thumbprint by default

JwkThumbprint anotherThumbprint = jwk.thumbprint(Jwks.HASH.SHA512); // or a specified hash algorithm

The resulting JwkThumbprint instance provides some useful methods:

• jwkThumbprint.toByteArray(): the thumbprint's actual digest bytes - i.e. the raw output from the hash algorithm
• jwkThumbprint.toString(): the digest bytes as a Base64URL-encoded string
• jwkThumbprint.getHashAlgorithm(): the specific HashAlgorithm used to compute the thumbprint. Many standard IANA hash algorithms are available as constants in the Jwks.HASH utility class.
• jwkThumbprint.toURI(): the thumbprint's canonical URI as defined by the JWK Thumbprint URI specification

JWK Thumbprint as a Key ID

Because a thumbprint is an order-guaranteed unique digest of a JWK, JWK thumbprints are often used as convenient unique identifiers for a JWK (e.g. the JWK's kid (Key ID) value). These identifiers can be useful when locating keys for JWS signature verification or JWE decryption, for example.

For example:

String kid = jwk.thumbprint().toString(); // Thumbprint bytes as a Base64URL-encoded string
Key key = findKey(kid);
assert jwk.toKey().equals(key);

However, because Jwk instances are immutable, you can't set the key id after the JWK is created. For example, the following is not possible:

String kid = jwk.thumbprint().toString();
jwk.setId(kid) // Jwks are immutable - there is no `setId` method

Instead, you may use the idFromThumbprint methods on the JwkBuilder when creating a Jwk:

Jwk<?> jwk = Jwks.builder().key(aKey)

    .idFromThumbprint() // or idFromThumbprint(HashAlgorithm)

    .build();

Calling either idFromThumbprint method will ensure that calling jwk.getId() equals thumbprint.toString() (which is Encoders.BASE64URL.encode(thumbprint.toByteArray())).

JWK Thumbprint URI

A JWK's thumbprint's canonical URI as defined by the JWK Thumbprint URI specification may be obtained by calling the thumbprint's toURI() method:

URI canonicalThumbprintURI = jwk.thumbprint().toURI();

Per the RFC specification, if you call canonicalThumbprintURI.toString(), you would see a string that looks like this:

urn:ietf:params:oauth:jwk-thumbprint:HASH_ALG_ID:BASE64URL_DIGEST

where:

• urn:ietf:params:oauth:jwk-thumbprint: is the URI scheme+prefix
• HASH_ALG_ID is the standard identifier used to compute the thumbprint as defined in the IANA Named Information Hash Algorithm Registry. This is the same as thumbprint.getHashAlgorithm().getId().
• BASE64URL_DIGEST is the Base64URL-encoded thumbprint bytes, equal to jwkThumbprint.toString().

JWK Security Considerations

Because they contain secret or private key material, SecretJwk and PrivateJwk (e.g. RsaPrivateJwk,
EcPrivateJwk, etc) instances should be used with great care and never accidentally transmitted to 3rd parties.

Even so, JJWT's Jwk implementations will suppress certain values in toString() output for safety as described next.

JWK toString() Safety

Because it would be incredibly easy to accidentally print key material to System.out.println() or application logs, all Jwk implementations will print redacted values instead of actual secret or private key material.

For example, consider the following Secret JWK JSON example from RFC 7515, Appendix A.1.1:

{
  "kty": "oct",
  "k": "AyM1SysPpbyDfgZld3umj1qzKObwVMkoqQ-EstJQLr_T-1qS0gZH75aKtMN3Yj0iPS4hcgUuTwjAzZr1Z9CAow",
  "kid": "HMAC key used in https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7515#appendix-A.1.1 example."
}

The k value (AyAyM1SysPpby...) reflects secure key material and should never be accidentally exposed.

If you were to parse this JSON as a Jwk, calling toString() will NOT print this value. It will instead print the string literal <redacted> for any secret or private key data value. For example:

String json = getExampleSecretKeyJson();
Jwk<?> jwk = Jwks.parser().build().parse(json);

System.out.printn(jwk);

This code would print the following string literal to the System console:

{kty=oct, k=<redacted>, kid=HMAC key used in https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7515#appendix-A.1.1 example.}

This is true for all secret or private key members in SecretJwk and PrivateJwk (e.g. RsaPrivateJwk, EcPrivateJwk, etc) instances.

JWK Sets

The JWK specification specification also defines the concept of a JWK Set:

A JWK Set is a JSON object that represents a set of JWKs.  The JSON
object MUST have a "keys" member, with its value being an array of
JWKs.

For example:

{
  "keys": [jwk1, jwk2, ...]
}

Where jwk1, jwk2, etc., are each a single JWK JSON Object.

A JWK Set may have other members that are peers to the keys member, but the JWK specification does not define any others - any such additional members would be custom or unique based on an application's needs or preferences.

A JWK Set can be useful for conveying multiple keys simultaneously. For example, an identity web service could expose all of its RSA or Elliptic Curve public keys that might be used for various purposes or different algorithms to 3rd parties or API clients as a single JWK Set JSON Object or document. An API client can then parse the JWK Set to obtain the keys that might be used to verify or decrypt JWTs sent by the web service.

JWK Sets are (mostly) simple collections of JWKs, and they are easily supported by JJWT with parallel builder/parser concepts we've seen above.

Create a JWK Set

You create a JWK Set as follows:

1. Use the Jwks.set() method to create a JwkSetBuilder instance.
2. Call the add(Jwk) method any number of times to add one or more JWKs to the set.
3. Call builder methods to set any additional JSON members if desired, or the operationPolicy(KeyOperationPolicy) builder method to control what key operations may be assigned to any given JWK added to the set.
4. Call the build() method to produce the resulting JWK Set.

For example:

Jwk<?> jwk = Jwks.builder()/* ... */.build();
SecretJwk = Jwks.set()              // 1
    .add(jwk)                       // 2, appends a key
    //.add(aCollection)             //    append multiple keys
    //.keys(allJwks)                //    sets/replaces all keys
    //.add("aName", "aValue")       // 3, optional
    //.operationPolicy(Jwks.OP      // 3, optional
    //     .policy()
    //     /* etc... */
    //     .build())               
    //.provider(aJcaProvider)       //    optional
    .build();                       // (4)

As shown, you can optionally configure the .operationPolicy(KeyOperationPolicy) method using a Jwts.OP.policy() builder. A KeyOperationPolicy allows you control what operations are allowed for any JWK before being added to the JWK Set; any JWK that does not match the policy will be rejected and not added to the set. JJWT internally defaults to a standard RFC-compliant policy, but you can create a policy to override the default if desired using the Jwks.OP.policy() builder method.

Read a JWK Set

You can read/parse a JWK Set by building a JWK Set Parser and parsing the JWK Set JSON with one of its various parse methods:

JwkSet jwkSet = Jwks.setParser()
    //.provider(aJcaProvider)      // optional
    //.deserializer(deserializer)  // optional
    //.policy(aKeyOperationPolicy) // optional
    .build()                       // create the parser
    .parse(json);                  // actually parse JSON String, InputStream, Reader, etc.

jwkSet.forEach(jwk -> System.out.println(jwk));

As shown above, you can specify a custom JCA Provider, JSON deserializer or KeyOperationPolicy in the same way as the JwkSetBuilder. Any JWK that does not match the default (or configured) policy will be rejected. You can create a policy to override the default if desired using the Jwks.OP.policy() builder method.

Compression

Warning

The JWT specification standardizes compression for JWEs (Encrypted JWTs) ONLY, however JJWT supports it for JWS (Signed JWTs) as well.

If you are positive that a JWS you create with JJWT will also be parsed with JJWT, you can use this feature with both JWEs and JWSs, otherwise it is best to only use it for JWEs.

If a JWT's payload is sufficiently large - that is, it is a large content byte array or JSON with a lot of name/value pairs (or individual values are very large or verbose) - you can reduce the size of the compact JWT by compressing the payload.

This might be important to you if the resulting JWT is used in a URL for example, since URLs are best kept under 4096 characters due to browser, user mail agent, or HTTP gateway compatibility issues. Smaller JWTs also help reduce bandwidth utilization, which may or may not be important depending on your application's volume or needs.

If you want to compress your JWT, you can use the JwtBuilder's compressWith(CompressionAlgorithm) method. For example:

Jwts.builder()
   
   .compressWith(Jwts.ZIP.DEF) // DEFLATE compression algorithm
   
   // .. etc ...

If you use any of the algorithm constants in the Jwts.ZIP class, that's it, you're done. You don't have to do anything during parsing or configure the JwtParserBuilder for compression - JJWT will automatically decompress the payload as expected.

Custom Compression Algorithm

If the default Jwts.ZIP compression algorithms are not suitable for your needs, you can create your own CompressionAlgorithm implementation(s).

Just as you would with the default algorithms, you may specify that you want a JWT compressed by calling the JwtBuilder's compressWith method, supplying your custom implementation instance. For example:

CompressionAlgorithm myAlg = new MyCompressionAlgorithm();

Jwts.builder()
   
   .compressWith(myAlg) // <----
   
   // .. etc ...

When you call compressWith, the JWT payload will be compressed with your algorithm, and the zip (Compression Algorithm) header will automatically be set to the value returned by your algorithm's algorithm.getId() method as required by the JWT specification.

However, the JwtParser needs to be aware of this custom algorithm as well, so it can use it while parsing. You do this by modifying the JwtParserBuilder's zip() collection. For example:

CompressionAlgorithm myAlg = new MyCompressionAlgorithm();

Jwts.parser()

    .zip().add(myAlg).and() // <----
    
    // .. etc ...

This adds additional CompressionAlgorithm implementations to the parser's overall total set of supported compression algorithms (which already includes all of the Jwts.ZIP algorithms by default).

The parser will then automatically check to see if the JWT zip header has been set to see if a compression algorithm has been used to compress the JWT. If set, the parser will automatically look up your CompressionAlgorithm by its getId() value, and use it to decompress the JWT.

JSON Support

A JwtBuilder will serialize the Header and Claims maps (and potentially any Java objects they contain) to JSON with a Serializer<Map<String, ?>> instance. Similarly, a JwtParser will deserialize JSON into the Header and Claims using a Deserializer<Map<String, ?>> instance.

If you don't explicitly configure a JwtBuilder's Serializer or a JwtParserBuilder's Deserializer, JJWT will automatically attempt to discover and use the following JSON implementations if found in the runtime classpath.
They are checked in order, and the first one found is used:

1. Jackson: This will automatically be used if you specify io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-jackson as a project runtime dependency. Jackson supports POJOs as claims with full marshaling/unmarshaling as necessary.

2. Gson: This will automatically be used if you specify io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-gson as a project runtime dependency. Gson also supports POJOs as claims with full marshaling/unmarshaling as necessary.

3. JSON-Java (org.json): This will be used automatically if you specify io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-orgjson as a project runtime dependency.

   Note

   org.json APIs are natively enabled in Android environments so this is the recommended JSON processor for Android applications unless you want to use POJOs as claims. The org.json library supports simple Object-to-JSON marshaling, but it does not support JSON-to-Object unmarshalling.

If you want to use POJOs as claim values, use either the io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-jackson or io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-gson dependency (or implement your own Serializer and Deserializer if desired). But beware, Jackson will force a sizable (> 1 MB) dependency to an Android application thus increasing the app download size for mobile users.

Custom JSON Processor

If you don't want to use JJWT's runtime dependency approach, or just want to customize how JSON serialization and deserialization works, you can implement the Serializer and Deserializer interfaces and specify instances of them on the JwtBuilder and JwtParserBuilder respectively. For example:

When creating a JWT:

Serializer<Map<String,?>> serializer = getMySerializer(); //implement me

Jwts.builder()

    .json(serializer)
    
    // ... etc ...

When reading a JWT:

Deserializer<Map<String,?>> deserializer = getMyDeserializer(); //implement me

Jwts.parser()

    .json(deserializer)
    
    // ... etc ...

Jackson JSON Processor

If you want to use Jackson for JSON processing, just including the io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-jackson dependency as a runtime dependency is all that is necessary in most projects, since Gradle and Maven will automatically pull in the necessary Jackson dependencies as well.

After including this dependency, JJWT will automatically find the Jackson implementation on the runtime classpath and use it internally for JSON parsing. There is nothing else you need to do - JJWT will automatically create a new Jackson ObjectMapper for its needs as required.

However, if you have an application-wide Jackson ObjectMapper (as is typically recommended for most applications), you can configure JJWT to use your own ObjectMapper instead.

You do this by declaring the io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-jackson dependency with compile scope (not runtime scope which is the typical JJWT default). That is:

Maven

<dependency>
    <groupId>io.jsonwebtoken</groupId>
    <artifactId>jjwt-jackson</artifactId>
    <version>0.12.3</version>
    <scope>compile</scope> <!-- Not runtime -->
</dependency>

Gradle or Android

dependencies {
    implementation 'io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-jackson:0.12.3'
}

And then you can specify the JacksonSerializer using your own ObjectMapper on the JwtBuilder:

ObjectMapper objectMapper = getMyObjectMapper(); //implement me

String jws = Jwts.builder()

    .json(new JacksonSerializer(objectMapper))
    
    // ... etc ...

and the JacksonDeserializer using your ObjectMapper on the JwtParserBuilder:

ObjectMapper objectMapper = getMyObjectMapper(); //implement me

Jwts.parser()

    .json(new JacksonDeserializer(objectMapper))
    
    // ... etc ...

Parsing of Custom Claim Types

By default, JJWT will only convert simple claim types: String, Date, Long, Integer, Short and Byte. If you need to deserialize other types you can configure the JacksonDeserializer by passing a Map of claim names to types in through a constructor. For example:

new JacksonDeserializer(Maps.of("user", User.class).build())

This would trigger the value in the user claim to be deserialized into the custom type of User. Given the claims payload of:

{
    "issuer": "https://example.com/issuer",
    "user": {
      "firstName": "Jill",
      "lastName": "Coder"
    }
}

The User object could be retrieved from the user claim with the following code:

Jwts.parser()

    .json(new JacksonDeserializer(Maps.of("user", User.class).build())) // <-----

    .build()

    .parseUnprotectedClaims(aJwtString)

    .getPayload()
    
    .get("user", User.class); // <-----

Note

Using this constructor is mutually exclusive with the JacksonDeserializer(ObjectMapper) constructor described above. This is because JJWT configures an ObjectMapper directly and could have negative consequences for a shared ObjectMapper instance. This should work for most applications, if you need a more advanced parsing options, configure the mapper directly.

Gson JSON Processor

If you want to use Gson for JSON processing, just including the io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-gson dependency as a runtime dependency is all that is necessary in most projects, since Gradle and Maven will automatically pull in the necessary Gson dependencies as well.

After including this dependency, JJWT will automatically find the Gson implementation on the runtime classpath and use it internally for JSON parsing. There is nothing else you need to do - just declaring the dependency is all that is required, no code or config is necessary.

If you're curious, JJWT will automatically create an internal default Gson instance for its own needs as follows:

new GsonBuilder()
    .registerTypeHierarchyAdapter(io.jsonwebtoken.lang.Supplier.class, GsonSupplierSerializer.INSTANCE)    
    .disableHtmlEscaping().create();

The registerTypeHierarchyAdapter builder call is required to serialize JWKs with secret or private values.

However, if you prefer to use a different Gson instance instead of JJWT's default, you can configure JJWT to use your own - just don't forget to register the necessary JJWT type hierarchy adapter.

You do this by declaring the io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-gson dependency with compile scope (not runtime scope which is the typical JJWT default). That is:

Maven

<dependency>
    <groupId>io.jsonwebtoken</groupId>
    <artifactId>jjwt-gson</artifactId>
    <version>0.12.3</version>
    <scope>compile</scope> <!-- Not runtime -->
</dependency>

Gradle or Android

dependencies {
    implementation 'io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-gson:0.12.3'
}

And then you can specify the GsonSerializer using your own Gson instance on the JwtBuilder:

Gson gson = new GsonBuilder()
    // don't forget this line!:    
    .registerTypeHierarchyAdapter(io.jsonwebtoken.lang.Supplier.class, GsonSupplierSerializer.INSTANCE)
    .disableHtmlEscaping().create();

String jws = Jwts.builder()

    .json(new GsonSerializer(gson))
    
    // ... etc ...

and the GsonDeserializer using your Gson instance on the JwtParser:

Gson gson = getGson(); //implement me

Jwts.parser()

    .json(new GsonDeserializer(gson))
    
    // ... etc ...

Again, as shown above, it is critical to create your Gson instance using the GsonBuilder and include the line:

.registerTypeHierarchyAdapter(io.jsonwebtoken.lang.Supplier.class, GsonSupplierSerializer.INSTANCE)

to ensure JWK serialization works as expected.

Base64 Support

JJWT uses a very fast pure-Java Base64 codec for Base64 and Base64Url encoding and decoding that is guaranteed to work deterministically in all JDK and Android environments.

You can access JJWT's encoders and decoders using the io.jsonwebtoken.io.Encoders and io.jsonwebtoken.io.Decoders utility classes.

io.jsonwebtoken.io.Encoders:

• BASE64 is an RFC 4648 Base64 encoder
• BASE64URL is an RFC 4648 Base64URL encoder

io.jsonwebtoken.io.Decoders:

• BASE64 is an RFC 4648 Base64 decoder
• BASE64URL is an RFC 4648 Base64URL decoder

Understanding Base64 in Security Contexts

All cryptographic operations, like encryption and message digest calculations, result in binary data - raw byte arrays.

Because raw byte arrays cannot be represented natively in JSON, the JWT specifications employ the Base64URL encoding scheme to represent these raw byte values in JSON documents or compound structures like a JWT.

This means that the Base64 and Base64URL algorithms take a raw byte array and converts the bytes into a string suitable to use in text documents and protocols like HTTP. These algorithms can also convert these strings back into the original raw byte arrays for decryption or signature verification as necessary.

That's nice and convenient, but there are two very important properties of Base64 (and Base64URL) text strings that are critical to remember when they are used in security scenarios like with JWTs:

• Base64 is not encryption
• Changing Base64 characters does not automatically invalidate data.

Base64 is not encryption

Base64-encoded text is not encrypted.

While a byte array representation can be converted to text with the Base64 algorithms, anyone in the world can take Base64-encoded text, decode it with any standard Base64 decoder, and obtain the underlying raw byte array data. No key or secret is required to decode Base64 text - anyone can do it.

Based on this, when encoding sensitive byte data with Base64 - like a shared or private key - the resulting string is NOT safe to expose publicly.

A base64-encoded key is still sensitive information and must be kept as secret and as safe as the original source of the bytes (e.g. a Java PrivateKey or SecretKey instance).

After Base64-encoding data into a string, it is possible to then encrypt the string to keep it safe from prying eyes if desired, but this is different. Encryption is not encoding. They are separate concepts.

Changing Base64 Characters

In an effort to see if signatures or encryption is truly validated correctly, some try to edit a JWT string - particularly the Base64-encoded signature part - to see if the edited string fails security validations.

This conceptually makes sense: change the signature string, you would assume that signature validation would fail.

But this doesn't always work. Changing base64 characters is an invalid test.

Why?

Because of the way the Base64 algorithm works, there are multiple Base64 strings that can represent the same raw byte array.

Going into the details of the Base64 algorithm is out of scope for this documentation, but there are many good Stackoverflow answers and JJWT issue comments that explain this in detail. Here's one good answer:

Remember that Base64 encodes each 8 bit entity into 6 bit chars. The resulting string then needs exactly 11 * 8 / 6 bytes, or 14 2/3 chars. But you can't write partial characters. Only the first 4 bits (or 2/3 of the last char) are significant. The last two bits are not decoded. Thus all of:

dGVzdCBzdHJpbmo
dGVzdCBzdHJpbmp
dGVzdCBzdHJpbmq
dGVzdCBzdHJpbmr

All decode to the same 11 bytes (116, 101, 115, 116, 32, 115, 116, 114, 105, 110, 106).

As you can see by the above 4 examples, they all decode to the same exact 11 bytes. So just changing one or two characters at the end of a Base64 string may not work and can often result in an invalid test.

Adding Invalid Characters

JJWT's default Base64/Base64URL decoders automatically ignore illegal Base64 characters located in the beginning and end of an encoded string. Therefore, prepending or appending invalid characters like { or ] or similar will also not fail JJWT's signature checks either. Why?

Because such edits - whether changing a trailing character or two, or appending invalid characters - do not actually change the real signature, which in cryptographic contexts, is always a byte array. Instead, tests like these change a text encoding of the byte array, and as we covered above, they are different things.

So JJWT 'cares' more about the real byte array and less about its text encoding because that is what actually matters in cryptographic operations. In this sense, JJWT follows the Robustness Principle in being slightly lenient on what is accepted per the rules of Base64, but if anything in the real underlying byte array is changed, then yes, JJWT's cryptographic assertions will definitely fail.

To help understand JJWT's approach, we have to remember why signatures exist. From our documentation above on signing JWTs:

• guarantees it was created by someone we know (it is authentic), as well as
• guarantees that no-one has manipulated or changed it after it was created (its integrity is maintained).

Just prepending or appending invalid text to try to 'trick' the algorithm doesn't change the integrity of the underlying claims or signature byte arrays, nor the authenticity of the claims byte array, because those byte arrays are still obtained intact.

Please see JJWT Issue #518 and its referenced issues and links for more information.

Custom Base64

If for some reason you want to specify your own Base64Url encoder and decoder, you can use the JwtBuilder encoder method to set the encoder:

Encoder<byte[], String> encoder = getMyBase64UrlEncoder(); //implement me

String jws = Jwts.builder()

    .b64Url(encoder)
    
    // ... etc ...

and the JwtParserBuilder's decoder method to set the decoder:

Decoder<String, byte[]> decoder = getMyBase64UrlDecoder(); //implement me

Jwts.parser()

    .b64Url(decoder)
    
    // ... etc ...

Examples

• JWS Signed with HMAC
• JWS Signed with RSA
• JWS Signed with ECDSA
• JWS Signed with EdDSA
• JWE Encrypted Directly with a SecretKey
• JWE Encrypted with RSA
• JWE Encrypted with AES Key Wrap
• JWE Encrypted with ECDH-ES
• JWE Encrypted with a Password
• SecretKey JWK
• RSA Public JWK
• RSA Private JWK
• Elliptic Curve Public JWK
• Elliptic Curve Private JWK
• Edwards Elliptic Curve Public JWK
• Edwards Elliptic Curve Private JWK

JWT Signed with HMAC

This is an example showing how to digitally sign a JWT using an HMAC (hash-based message authentication code). The JWT specifications define 3 standard HMAC signing algorithms:

• HS256: HMAC with SHA-256. This requires a 256-bit (32 byte) SecretKey or larger.
• HS384: HMAC with SHA-384. This requires a 384-bit (48 byte) SecretKey or larger.
• HS512: HMAC with SHA-512. This requires a 512-bit (64 byte) SecretKey or larger.

Example:

// Create a test key suitable for the desired HMAC-SHA algorithm:
MacAlgorithm alg = Jwts.SIG.HS512; //or HS384 or HS256
SecretKey key = alg.key().build();

String message = "Hello World!";
byte[] content = message.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);

// Create the compact JWS:
String jws = Jwts.builder().content(content, "text/plain").signWith(key, alg).compact();

// Parse the compact JWS:
content = Jwts.parser().verifyWith(key).build().parseSignedContent(jws).getPayload();

assert message.equals(new String(content, StandardCharsets.UTF_8));

JWT Signed with RSA

This is an example showing how to digitally sign and verify a JWT using RSA cryptography. The JWT specifications define 6 standard RSA signing algorithms. All 6 require that RSA keys 2048-bits or larger must be used.

In this example, Bob will sign a JWT using his RSA private key, and Alice can verify it came from Bob using Bob's RSA public key:

// Create a test key suitable for the desired RSA signature algorithm:
SignatureAlgorithm alg = Jwts.SIG.RS512; //or PS512, RS256, etc...
KeyPair pair = alg.keyPair().build();

// Bob creates the compact JWS with his RSA private key:
String jws = Jwts.builder().subject("Alice")
    .signWith(pair.getPrivate(), alg) // <-- Bob's RSA private key
    .compact();

// Alice receives and verifies the compact JWS came from Bob:
String subject = Jwts.parser()
    .verifyWith(pair.getPublic()) // <-- Bob's RSA public key
    .build().parseSignedClaims(jws).getPayload().getSubject();

assert "Alice".equals(subject);

JWT Signed with ECDSA

This is an example showing how to digitally sign and verify a JWT using the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm. The JWT specifications define 3 standard ECDSA signing algorithms:

• ES256: ECDSA using P-256 and SHA-256. This requires an EC Key exactly 256 bits (32 bytes) long.
• ES384: ECDSA using P-384 and SHA-384. This requires an EC Key exactly 384 bits (48 bytes) long.
• ES512: ECDSA using P-521 and SHA-512. This requires an EC Key exactly 521 bits (65 or 66 bytes depending on format) long.

In this example, Bob will sign a JWT using his EC private key, and Alice can verify it came from Bob using Bob's EC public key:

// Create a test key suitable for the desired ECDSA signature algorithm:
SignatureAlgorithm alg = Jwts.SIG.ES512; //or ES256 or ES384
KeyPair pair = alg.keyPair().build();

// Bob creates the compact JWS with his EC private key:
String jws = Jwts.builder().subject("Alice")
    .signWith(pair.getPrivate(), alg) // <-- Bob's EC private key
    .compact();

// Alice receives and verifies the compact JWS came from Bob:
String subject = Jwts.parser()
    .verifyWith(pair.getPublic()) // <-- Bob's EC public key
    .build().parseSignedClaims(jws).getPayload().getSubject();

assert "Alice".equals(subject);

JWT Signed with EdDSA

This is an example showing how to digitally sign and verify a JWT using the Edwards Curve Digital Signature Algorithm using Ed25519 or Ed448 keys.

Note

The Ed25519 and Ed448 algorithms require JDK 15 or a compatible JCA Provider (like BouncyCastle) in the runtime classpath.

If you are using JDK 14 or earlier and you want to use them, see the Installation section to see how to enable BouncyCastle.

The EdDSA signature algorithm is defined for JWS in RFC 8037, Section 3.1 using keys for two Edwards curves:

• Ed25519: EdDSA using curve Ed25519. Ed25519 algorithm keys must be 255 bits long and produce signatures 512 bits (64 bytes) long.
• Ed448: EdDSA using curve Ed448. Ed448 algorithm keys must be 448 bits long and produce signatures 912 bits (114 bytes) long.

In this example, Bob will sign a JWT using his Edwards Curve private key, and Alice can verify it came from Bob using Bob's Edwards Curve public key:

// Create a test key suitable for the EdDSA signature algorithm using Ed25519 or Ed448 keys:
Curve curve = Jwks.CRV.Ed25519; //or Ed448
KeyPair pair = curve.keyPair().build();

// Bob creates the compact JWS with his Edwards Curve private key:
String jws = Jwts.builder().subject("Alice")
    .signWith(pair.getPrivate(), Jwts.SIG.EdDSA) // <-- Bob's Edwards Curve private key w/ EdDSA
    .compact();

// Alice receives and verifies the compact JWS came from Bob:
String subject = Jwts.parser()
    .verifyWith(pair.getPublic()) // <-- Bob's Edwards Curve public key
    .build().parseSignedClaims(jws).getPayload().getSubject();

assert "Alice".equals(subject);

JWT Encrypted Directly with a SecretKey

This is an example showing how to encrypt a JWT directly using a symmetric secret key. The JWT specifications define 6 standard AEAD Encryption algorithms:

• A128GCM: AES GCM using a 128-bit (16 byte) SecretKey or larger.
• A192GCM: AES GCM using a 192-bit (24 byte) SecretKey or larger.
• A256GCM: AES GCM using a 256-bit (32 byte) SecretKey or larger.
• A128CBC-HS256: AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256 using a 256-bit (32 byte) SecretKey.
• A192CBC-HS384: AES_192_CBC_HMAC_SHA_384 using a 384-bit (48 byte) SecretKey.
• A256CBC-HS512: AES_256_CBC_HMAC_SHA_512 using a 512-bit (64 byte) SecretKey.

The AES GCM (A128GCM, A192GCM and A256GCM) algorithms are strongly recommended - they are faster and more efficient than the A*CBC-HS* variants, but they do require JDK 8 or later (or JDK 7 + BouncyCastle).

Example:

// Create a test key suitable for the desired payload encryption algorithm:
// (A*GCM algorithms are recommended, but require JDK >= 8 or BouncyCastle)
AeadAlgorithm enc = Jwts.ENC.A256GCM; //or A128GCM, A192GCM, A256CBC-HS512, etc...
SecretKey key = enc.key().build();

String message = "Live long and prosper.";
byte[] content = message.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);

// Create the compact JWE:
String jwe = Jwts.builder().content(content, "text/plain").encryptWith(key, enc).compact();

// Parse the compact JWE:
content = Jwts.parser().decryptWith(key).build().parseEncryptedContent(jwe).getPayload();

assert message.equals(new String(content, StandardCharsets.UTF_8));

JWT Encrypted with RSA

This is an example showing how to encrypt and decrypt a JWT using RSA cryptography.

Because RSA cannot encrypt much data, RSA is used to encrypt and decrypt a secure-random key, and that generated key in turn is used to actually encrypt the payload as described in the RSA Key Encryption section above. As such, RSA Key Algorithms must be paired with an AEAD Encryption Algorithm, as shown below.

In this example, Bob will encrypt a JWT using Alice's RSA public key to ensure only she may read it. Alice can then decrypt the JWT using her RSA private key:

// Create a test KeyPair suitable for the desired RSA key algorithm:
KeyPair pair = Jwts.SIG.RS512.keyPair().build();

// Choose the key algorithm used encrypt the payload key:
KeyAlgorithm<PublicKey, PrivateKey> alg = Jwts.KEY.RSA_OAEP_256; //or RSA_OAEP or RSA1_5
// Choose the Encryption Algorithm to encrypt the payload:
AeadAlgorithm enc = Jwts.ENC.A256GCM; //or A192GCM, A128GCM, A256CBC-HS512, etc...

// Bob creates the compact JWE with Alice's RSA public key so only she may read it:
String jwe = Jwts.builder().audience().add("Alice").and()
    .encryptWith(pair.getPublic(), alg, enc) // <-- Alice's RSA public key
    .compact();

// Alice receives and decrypts the compact JWE:
Set<String> audience = Jwts.parser()
    .decryptWith(pair.getPrivate()) // <-- Alice's RSA private key
    .build().parseEncryptedClaims(jwe).getPayload().getAudience();

assert audience.contains("Alice");

JWT Encrypted with AES Key Wrap

This is an example showing how to encrypt and decrypt a JWT using AES Key Wrap algorithms.

These algorithms use AES to encrypt and decrypt a secure-random key, and that generated key in turn is used to actually encrypt the payload as described in the AES Key Encryption section above. This allows the payload to be encrypted with a random short-lived key, reducing material exposure of the potentially longer-lived symmetric secret key. This approach requires the AES Key Wrap algorithms to be paired with an AEAD content encryption algorithm, as shown below.

The AES GCM Key Wrap algorithms (A128GCMKW, A192GCMKW and A256GCMKW) are preferred - they are faster and more efficient than the A*KW variants, but they do require JDK 8 or later (or JDK 7 + BouncyCastle).

// Create a test SecretKey suitable for the desired AES Key Wrap algorithm:
SecretKeyAlgorithm alg = Jwts.KEY.A256GCMKW; //or A192GCMKW, A128GCMKW, A256KW, etc...
SecretKey key = alg.key().build();

// Chooose the Encryption Algorithm used to encrypt the payload:
AeadAlgorithm enc = Jwts.ENC.A256GCM; //or A192GCM, A128GCM, A256CBC-HS512, etc...

// Create the compact JWE:
String jwe = Jwts.builder().issuer("me").encryptWith(key, alg, enc).compact();

// Parse the compact JWE:
String issuer = Jwts.parser().decryptWith(key).build()
    .parseEncryptedClaims(jwe).getPayload().getIssuer();

assert "me".equals(issuer);

JWT Encrypted with ECDH-ES

This is an example showing how to encrypt and decrypt a JWT using Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral Static Key Agreement (ECDH-ES) algorithms.

These algorithms use ECDH-ES to encrypt and decrypt a secure-random key, and that generated key in turn is used to actually encrypt the payload as described in the Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral Static Key Agreement section above. Because of this, ECDH-ES Key Algorithms must be paired with an AEAD Encryption Algorithm, as shown below.

In this example, Bob will encrypt a JWT using Alice's Elliptic Curve public key to ensure only she may read it.
Alice can then decrypt the JWT using her Elliptic Curve private key:

// Create a test KeyPair suitable for the desired EC key algorithm:
KeyPair pair = Jwts.SIG.ES512.keyPair().build();

// Choose the key algorithm used encrypt the payload key:
KeyAlgorithm<PublicKey, PrivateKey> alg = Jwts.KEY.ECDH_ES_A256KW; //ECDH_ES_A192KW, etc...
// Choose the Encryption Algorithm to encrypt the payload:
AeadAlgorithm enc = Jwts.ENC.A256GCM; //or A192GCM, A128GCM, A256CBC-HS512, etc...

// Bob creates the compact JWE with Alice's EC public key so only she may read it:
String jwe = Jwts.builder().audience().add("Alice").and()
    .encryptWith(pair.getPublic(), alg, enc) // <-- Alice's EC public key
    .compact();

// Alice receives and decrypts the compact JWE:
Set<String> audience = Jwts.parser()
    .decryptWith(pair.getPrivate()) // <-- Alice's EC private key
    .build().parseEncryptedClaims(jwe).getPayload().getAudience();

assert audience.contains("Alice");

JWT Encrypted with a Password

This is an example showing how to encrypt and decrypt a JWT using Password-based key-derivation algorithms.

These algorithms use a password to securely derive a random key, and that derived random key in turn is used to actually encrypt the payload as described in the Password-based Key Encryption section above. This allows the payload to be encrypted with a random short-lived cryptographically-stronger key, reducing the need to expose the longer-lived (and potentially weaker) password.

This approach requires the Password-based Key Wrap algorithms to be paired with an AEAD content encryption algorithm, as shown below.

//DO NOT use this example password in a real app, it is well-known to password crackers:
String pw = "correct horse battery staple";
Password password = Keys.password(pw.toCharArray());

// Choose the desired PBES2 key derivation algorithm:
KeyAlgorithm<Password, Password> alg = Jwts.KEY.PBES2_HS512_A256KW; //or PBES2_HS384_A192KW or PBES2_HS256_A128KW

// Optionally choose the number of PBES2 computational iterations to use to derive the key.
// This is optional - if you do not specify a value, JJWT will automatically choose a value 
// based on your chosen PBES2 algorithm and OWASP PBKDF2 recommendations here: 
// https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/Password_Storage_Cheat_Sheet.html#pbkdf2
// 
// If you do specify a value, ensure the iterations are large enough for your desired alg
//int pbkdf2Iterations = 120000; //for HS512. Needs to be much higher for smaller hash algs.

// Choose the Encryption Algorithm used to encrypt the payload:
AeadAlgorithm enc = Jwts.ENC.A256GCM; //or A192GCM, A128GCM, A256CBC-HS512, etc...

// Create the compact JWE:
String jwe = Jwts.builder().issuer("me")
    // Optional work factor is specified in the header:
    //.header().pbes2Count(pbkdf2Iterations)).and()
    .encryptWith(password, alg, enc)
    .compact();

// Parse the compact JWE:
String issuer = Jwts.parser().decryptWith(password)
    .build().parseEncryptedClaims(jwe).getPayload().getIssuer();

assert "me".equals(issuer);

SecretKey JWK

Example creating and parsing a secret JWK:

SecretKey key = Jwts.SIG.HS512.key().build(); // or HS384 or HS256
SecretJwk jwk = Jwks.builder().key(key).idFromThumbprint().build();

assert jwk.getId().equals(jwk.thumbprint().toString());
assert key.equals(jwk.toKey());

byte[] utf8Bytes = new JacksonSerializer().serialize(jwk); // or GsonSerializer(), etc
String jwkJson = new String(utf8Bytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
Jwk<?> parsed = Jwks.parser().build().parse(jwkJson);

assert parsed instanceof SecretJwk;
assert jwk.equals(parsed);

RSA Public JWK

Example creating and parsing an RSA Public JWK:

RSAPublicKey key = (RSAPublicKey)Jwts.SIG.RS512.keyPair().build().getPublic();
RsaPublicJwk jwk = Jwks.builder().key(key).idFromThumbprint().build();

assert jwk.getId().equals(jwk.thumbprint().toString());
assert key.equals(jwk.toKey());

byte[] utf8Bytes = new JacksonSerializer().serialize(jwk); // or GsonSerializer(), etc
String jwkJson = new String(utf8Bytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
Jwk<?> parsed = Jwks.parser().build().parse(jwkJson);

assert parsed instanceof RsaPublicJwk;
assert jwk.equals(parsed);

RSA Private JWK

Example creating and parsing an RSA Private JWK:

KeyPair pair = Jwts.SIG.RS512.keyPair().build();
RSAPublicKey pubKey = (RSAPublicKey) pair.getPublic();
RSAPrivateKey privKey = (RSAPrivateKey) pair.getPrivate();

RsaPrivateJwk privJwk = Jwks.builder().key(privKey).idFromThumbprint().build();
RsaPublicJwk pubJwk = privJwk.toPublicJwk();

assert privJwk.getId().equals(privJwk.thumbprint().toString());
assert pubJwk.getId().equals(pubJwk.thumbprint().toString());
assert privKey.equals(privJwk.toKey());
assert pubKey.equals(pubJwk.toKey());

byte[] utf8Bytes = new JacksonSerializer().serialize(privJwk); // or GsonSerializer(), etc
String jwkJson = new String(utf8Bytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
Jwk<?> parsed = Jwks.parser().build().parse(jwkJson);

assert parsed instanceof RsaPrivateJwk;
assert privJwk.equals(parsed);

Elliptic Curve Public JWK

Example creating and parsing an Elliptic Curve Public JWK:

ECPublicKey key = (ECPublicKey) Jwts.SIG.ES512.keyPair().build().getPublic();
EcPublicJwk jwk = Jwks.builder().key(key).idFromThumbprint().build();

assert jwk.getId().equals(jwk.thumbprint().toString());
assert key.equals(jwk.toKey());

byte[] utf8Bytes = new JacksonSerializer().serialize(jwk); // or GsonSerializer(), etc
String jwkJson = new String(utf8Bytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
Jwk<?> parsed = Jwks.parser().build().parse(jwkJson);

assert parsed instanceof EcPublicJwk;
assert jwk.equals(parsed);

Elliptic Curve Private JWK

Example creating and parsing an Elliptic Curve Private JWK:

KeyPair pair = Jwts.SIG.ES512.keyPair().build();
ECPublicKey pubKey = (ECPublicKey) pair.getPublic();
ECPrivateKey privKey = (ECPrivateKey) pair.getPrivate();

EcPrivateJwk privJwk = Jwks.builder().key(privKey).idFromThumbprint().build();
EcPublicJwk pubJwk = privJwk.toPublicJwk();

assert privJwk.getId().equals(privJwk.thumbprint().toString());
assert pubJwk.getId().equals(pubJwk.thumbprint().toString());
assert privKey.equals(privJwk.toKey());
assert pubKey.equals(pubJwk.toKey());

byte[] utf8Bytes = new JacksonSerializer().serialize(privJwk); // or GsonSerializer(), etc
String jwkJson = new String(utf8Bytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
Jwk<?> parsed = Jwks.parser().build().parse(jwkJson);

assert parsed instanceof EcPrivateJwk;
assert privJwk.equals(parsed);

Edwards Elliptic Curve Public JWK

Example creating and parsing an Edwards Elliptic Curve (Ed25519, Ed448, X25519, X448) Public JWK (the JWT RFC 8037 specification calls these Octet keys, hence the OctetPublicJwk interface names):

PublicKey key = Jwks.CRV.Ed25519.keyPair().build().getPublic(); // or Ed448, X25519, X448
OctetPublicJwk<PublicKey> jwk = builder().octetKey(key).idFromThumbprint().build();

assert jwk.getId().equals(jwk.thumbprint().toString());
assert key.equals(jwk.toKey());

byte[] utf8Bytes = new JacksonSerializer().serialize(jwk); // or GsonSerializer(), etc
String jwkJson = new String(utf8Bytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
Jwk<?> parsed = Jwks.parser().build().parse(jwkJson);

assert parsed instanceof OctetPublicJwk;
assert jwk.equals(parsed);

Edwards Elliptic Curve Private JWK

Example creating and parsing an Edwards Elliptic Curve (Ed25519, Ed448, X25519, X448) Private JWK (the JWT RFC 8037 specification calls these Octet keys, hence the OctetPrivateJwk and OctetPublicJwk interface names):

KeyPair pair = Jwks.CRV.Ed448.keyPair().build(); // or Ed25519, X25519, X448
PublicKey pubKey = pair.getPublic();
PrivateKey privKey = pair.getPrivate();

OctetPrivateJwk<PrivateKey, PublicKey> privJwk = builder().octetKey(privKey).idFromThumbprint().build();
OctetPublicJwk<PublicKey> pubJwk = privJwk.toPublicJwk();

assert privJwk.getId().equals(privJwk.thumbprint().toString());
assert pubJwk.getId().equals(pubJwk.thumbprint().toString());
assert privKey.equals(privJwk.toKey());
assert pubKey.equals(pubJwk.toKey());

byte[] utf8Bytes = new JacksonSerializer().serialize(privJwk); // or GsonSerializer(), etc
String jwkJson = new String(utf8Bytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
Jwk<?> parsed = Jwks.parser().build().parse(jwkJson);

assert parsed instanceof OctetPrivateJwk;
assert privJwk.equals(parsed);

Learn More

• JSON Web Token for Java and Android
• How to Create and Verify JWTs in Java
• Where to Store Your JWTs - Cookies vs HTML5 Web Storage
• Use JWT the Right Way!
• Token Authentication for Java Applications
• JJWT Changelog

Author

Maintained by Les Hazlewood & the extended Java community ❤️

License

This project is open-source via the Apache 2.0 License.