Create Digest Authentication in Node.js

In this article, you will learn how to create digest authentication in Node.js.

Creating digest authentication in Node.js

Digest authentication is a method of HTTP authentication that uses a message digest to provide a higher level of security than basic authentication. In Node.js, you can create digest authentication using the built-in crypto module. Here are the steps to do so:

Import the required modules

const crypto = require('crypto');
const http = require('http');

Define the username, password, realm, and nonce values

const username = 'example_user';
const password = 'example_password';
const realm = 'example_realm';
const nonce = 'example_nonce';

Create a function to calculate the digest hash

function digest(username, password, realm, method, uri, nonce, nc, cnonce) {
  const ha1 = crypto.createHash('md5').update(`${username}:${realm}:${password}`).digest('hex');
  const ha2 = crypto.createHash('md5').update(`${method}:${uri}`).digest('hex');
  const response = crypto.createHash('md5').update(`${ha1}:${nonce}:${nc}:${cnonce}:auth:${ha2}`).digest('hex');
  return response;
}

Define the options for the request

Define the options for the request, including the server URL, method, headers, and any other required options.

const options = {
  hostname: 'example.com',
  port: 80,
  path: '/page',
  method: 'GET',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': `Digest username="${username}", realm="${realm}", nonce="${nonce}", uri="${options.path}", qop=auth, nc=00000001, cnonce="example_cnonce", response="${digest(username, password, realm, options.method, options.path, nonce, '00000001', 'example_cnonce')}"`,
    'Content-Length': 0
  }
};

Send the request using the http.request() method

const req = http.request(options, (res) => {
  let data = '';

  res.on('data', (chunk) => {
    data += chunk;
  });

  res.on('end', () => {
    console.log(data);
  });
});

req.on('error', (error) => {
  console.error(error);
});

req.end();

In this example, we created a digest authentication request using the http module in Node.js. We defined the username, password, realm, and nonce values, then used the digest() function to calculate the response hash. Finally, we sent the request using the http.request() method, passing in the options object containing the authentication headers.

Note that digest authentication is more secure than basic authentication, as it hashes the password and uses a nonce value to prevent replay attacks.