How to implement guide with jwt token expiry handling in node.js and express application
I'm trying to configure I'm working on a project and hit a roadblock... I've been struggling with this for a few days now and could really use some help. I'm experimenting with I'm sure I'm missing something obvious here, but I've looked through the documentation and I'm still confused about I'm building an API using Node.js (version 16.14.0) and Express (version 4.17.1), and I'm working with a question with handling JWT (JSON Web Tokens) expiration... I generate tokens using the `jsonwebtoken` library (version 8.5.1) with a 1-hour expiration time. However, I'm experiencing unexpected behavior when the token expires. My client-side application doesn’t seem to recognize the token expiration properly. After the token expires, I still receive a `200 OK` response instead of an behavior message when trying to access protected routes. Here’s the relevant middleware for verifying the token: ```javascript const jwt = require('jsonwebtoken'); const authenticateToken = (req, res, next) => { const token = req.headers['authorization']?.split(' ')[1]; if (!token) return res.sendStatus(401); jwt.verify(token, process.env.TOKEN_SECRET, (err, user) => { if (err) return res.sendStatus(403); // invalid token req.user = user; next(); // proceed to the next middleware }); }; ``` I have also set up a protected route like this: ```javascript app.get('/protected', authenticateToken, (req, res) => { res.json({ message: 'This is protected data', user: req.user }); }); ``` When I call the `/protected` route with an expired token, I expect to receive a `403 Forbidden` response, but instead, I'm still getting `200 OK`, and my protected data is returned. I’ve tried logging the `err` variable inside the `jwt.verify` callback, but it only logs `null` when the token is expired, making it difficult to debug. I also double-checked that the `TOKEN_SECRET` environment variable is correctly set. Has anyone experienced a similar scenario or have any insights on how to properly handle expired JWT tokens in an Express application? What's the best practice here? I'm working on a desktop app that needs to handle this. I'm developing on macOS with Javascript. Has anyone dealt with something similar? What are your experiences with this? Any suggestions would be helpful. I'm coming from a different tech stack and learning Javascript. How would you solve this? Any ideas how to fix this?