SignalR dotnet core authentication

[amir734jj]

I am using Microsoft.AspNetCore.SignalR nuget package with Bazinga.AspNetCore.Authentication.Basic which adds basic authentication to dotnet core. My C# SignalR client connects when there is no authentication, but when I add AuthorizeAttribute it connects by http and http request header gets authenticated successfully but the Socket does not authenticate probably because there is no header in socket messages.

So I am wondering how should I pass a token or something to authenticated socket connection or is there a example code that I can follow. I think I should pass a random token to just authenticated user and the user needs to constantly pass the token in messages.

Client project, Server project

Server:

using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Bazinga.AspNetCore.Authentication.Basic;
using Domainlogic;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Cors.Infrastructure;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;

namespace API
{
    public class Startup
    {
        public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
        {
            services.AddCors(options => options.AddPolicy("CorsPolicy", builder =>
            {
                builder
                    .AllowAnyMethod()
                    .AllowAnyHeader()
                    .AllowAnyOrigin();
            }));

            services.AddSignalR();
            
            services.AddAuthentication(BasicAuthenticationDefaults.AuthenticationScheme)
                .AddBasicAuthentication(credentials => Task.FromResult(
                    credentials.username == "SomeUserName"
                    && credentials.password == "SomePassword"));
        }

        // This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to configure the HTTP request pipeline.
        public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env)
        {
            if (env.IsDevelopment())
            {
                app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
            }

            app.UseCors("CorsPolicy");

            app.UseCors(CorsConstants.AnyOrigin);

            app.UseFileServer();

            app.UseSignalR(route => { route.MapHub<MessageHub>("/chat"); });
            
            app.UseAuthentication();
        }
    }
}

Server hub:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authorization;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.SignalR;

namespace Domainlogic
{
    public class MessagePayload
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
        
        public string Message { get; set; }
        
        public DateTime Date { get; set; }        
    }
    
    [Authorize]
    public class MessageHub : Hub
    {   
        // connected IDs
        private static readonly HashSet<string> ConnectedIds = new HashSet<string>();

        public override async Task OnConnectedAsync()
        {
            ConnectedIds.Add(Context.ConnectionId);
            
            await Clients.All.SendAsync("SendAction", "joined", ConnectedIds.Count);
        }

        public override async Task OnDisconnectedAsync(Exception ex)
        {
            ConnectedIds.Remove(Context.ConnectionId);
            
            await Clients.All.SendAsync("SendAction", "left", ConnectedIds.Count);
        }

        public async Task Send(MessagePayload message)
        {
            await Clients.All.SendAsync("SendMessage", message);
        }
    }
}

Client:

using System;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.Connections.Client;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.SignalR.Client;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Options;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;

namespace SignalRClient
{
    public class MessagePayload
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
        
        public string Message { get; set; }
        
        public DateTime Date { get; set; }        
    }
    
    class Program
    {
        public static string Base64Encode(string plainText) {
            var plainTextBytes = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(plainText);
            return System.Convert.ToBase64String(plainTextBytes);
        }
        
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var credential = Convert.ToBase64String(System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("ISO-8859-1").GetBytes("SomeUserName" + ":" + "SomePassword"));
            
            //Set connection
            var connection = new HubConnectionBuilder()
                .WithUrl("http://localhost:5000/chat", options =>
                {
                    options.Headers.Add("Authorization", $"Basic {credential}");
                })
                .AddJsonProtocol()
                .Build();
                        
            connection.On<MessagePayload>("SendMessage", param =>
            {
                Console.WriteLine(param.Message);
            });

            connection.StartAsync().Wait();

            var startTimeSpan = TimeSpan.Zero;
            var periodTimeSpan = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(3);
            int i = 0;
            
            var timer = new System.Threading.Timer((e) =>
            {
                connection.InvokeAsync<MessagePayload>("Send", new MessagePayload()
                {
                    Message = "Some message: " + i++
                });
            }, null, startTimeSpan, periodTimeSpan);
            

            Console.Read();
            connection.StopAsync();
        }
    }
}

[davidfowl]

Move UseAuthentication above UseSignalR

[amir734jj]

@davidfowl Wow, it worked! Thank you so much!

[PSausM]

I had the same issue. It is not mentioned in the docs.

[timgabrhel]

I just ran in to this exact same issue.

@davidfowl Any chance you could give a little insight into what's happening internally when registering UseAuthentication?

[davidfowl]

The middleware sets the user on the http context.