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by matsemann 2314 days ago
> Blog posts, sign-up pages, and other reading material can't be tried out, so can't be Show HNs.

From https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html Edit: The title has removed show hn now

> JWT tokens authenticate the client, not the user

I think it's both. It just doesn't authorize the user for anything special.

1 comments

Ah thanks. I disagree though, with JWT tokens and especially assuming you’re using the redirect flow, for the server especially, the server doesn’t need to know if the user was even authenticated as it could be another service calling it, it only needs to know that whoever is calling it is allowed to act on behalf of the user and perform certain actions. An example of this would be if you connect your email to a CRM system, the crm system at that point might have been authorised by the user to send emails on their behalf, or might have been authorised by an admin to send users on everyone’s behalf. In the case where an admin has given permission then the CRM system can send emails on everyone’s behalf even if the user themselves were never authenticated. I believe it is the role of the IAM provider to authenticate the user, JWT tokens authorise callers to perform actions.