horse-security-auth

Development

Guide for securing routes, configuring JWT and Basic-Auth middlewares, and handling route authentication groups.

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Horse Security & Authentication

1. Organizing Public and Protected Routes

Always separate public endpoints (e.g., authentication, login, system health) from protected ones. Use THorse.Group to configure middleware layers specifically for protected routes without affecting public endpoints:

begin
  // Global Middlewares (CORS, Johnson, etc.)
  THorse.Use(CORS).Use(Jhonson);

  // 1. Public Routes
  THorse.Post('/login', DoLoginHandler);
  THorse.Get('/health', GetHealthHandler);

  // 2. Protected Routes (Using a Group with JWT Middleware)
  THorse.Group.Prefix('/api/v1')
    .Use(HorseJWT('my_secret_key')) // Authenticates all routes within this group
    .Get('/customers', GetCustomersHandler)
    .Get('/orders', GetOrdersHandler);

  THorse.Listen(9000);
end;

2. Setting Up JWT (JSON Web Token) Authentication

The official JWT middleware is horse-jwt.

Acquiring Token Payload in Handlers

Once HorseJWT authenticates the request, it decodes the payload and stores it in the Session property of THorseRequest. You can retrieve claims using the Session dictionary:

procedure GetProfileHandler(Req: THorseRequest; Res: THorseResponse; Next: TProc);
var
  LClaims: TJWTClaims; // Or TJSONObject depending on the horse-jwt version used
  LUserId: string;
begin
  // Example of pulling JWT claims
  LUserId := Req.Session<TJSONObject>.GetValue<string>('sub');
  
  Res.Send(Format('Hello, User %s!', [LUserId]));
end;

3. Setting Up Basic Authentication

For quick, credential-based authentication, use the official horse-basic-auth middleware:

uses Horse.BasicAuth;

begin
  // Protect all API routes with Basic-Auth
  THorse.Group.Prefix('/api')
    .Use(HorseBasicAuth(
      function(AUsername, APassword: string): Boolean
      begin
        // Replace with secure database/credential lookup
        Result := (AUsername = 'admin') and (APassword = 'secret123');
      end
    ))
    .Get('/secrets', GetSecretsHandler);
end;

4. Security Best Practices

Secret Management: Never hardcode encryption keys directly in the source code. Always pull them from Environment Variables or external configurations (e.g., GetEnvironmentVariable('JWT_SECRET_KEY')).
JWT Lifetime: Set short expiration times (exp claim) on issued JWTs and implement a refresh token pattern for long-running client sessions.
Transport Security: Never transmit JWTs or credentials over HTTP. Always enforce HTTPS (SSL/TLS) in production environments.