Laravel Broadcasting - Private Channels Accessible Without Bearer Token

Question

I have setup socket.io with laravel-echo to join and listen to laravel broadcasting channels. Public channels are working fine as they do not require any auth. Private channels are not working as expected, i am able to join any private channel with socket.io client without passing the authorization token.

Socket.io Client

window.Echo = new Echo({
    host: "http://127.0.0.1:6001",
    auth:{
        headers: {
            Accept: 'application/json',
            Authorization: 'Bearer ',
        },
    },
    broadcaster: 'socket.io',
});

window.Echo.private('user'+"."+userid)
.listen('Notification', (e) => {
    console.log(e);
})

Laravel-Echo-Server Config

{
"authHost": "http://127.0.0.1:8000",
"authEndpoint": "/broadcasting/auth",
"clients": [],
"database": "redis",
"databaseConfig": {
    "redis": {
        "port": "6379",
        "host": "localhost"
    },
    "sqlite": {}
},
"devMode": true,
"host": null,
"port": "6001",
"protocol": "http",
"socketio": {},
"secureOptions": 67108864,
"sslCertPath": "",
"sslKeyPath": "",
"sslCertChainPath": "",
"sslPassphrase": "",
"subscribers": {
    "http": true,
    "redis": true
},
"apiOriginAllow": {
    "allowCors": true,
    "allowOrigin": "localhost",
    "allowMethods": "GET, POST",
    "allowHeaders": "Origin, Content-Type, X-Auth-Token, X-Requested-With, Accept, Authorization, X-CSRF-TOKEN, X-Socket-Id"
}
}

Channel Routes

Broadcast::channel('user.{userId}', function ($user, $userId) {
    return (int) $user->id === (int) $userId;
});

BroadcastServiceProvider

Broadcast::routes(['middleware' => ['auth:api']]);

Auth Config

'guards' => [
    'web' => [
        'driver' => 'session',
        'provider' => 'users',
    ],

    'api' => [
        'driver' => 'passport',
        'provider' => 'users',
        'hash' => false,
    ],
],

127.0.0.1:8000/broadcasting/auth Response When Accessing Without Token

{"message":"Unauthenticated."}

Laravel-Echo-Server

[4:50:17 PM] - Preparing authentication request to: http://127.0.0.1:8000
[4:50:17 PM] - Sending auth request to: http://127.0.0.1:8000/broadcasting/auth
[4:50:17 PM] - LtnbMInYDGa_QMMcAAAA authenticated for: private-user.1
[4:50:17 PM] - LtnbMInYDGa_QMMcAAAA joined channel: private-user.1

So my guess is that laravel-echo-server is not returning false on response "Unauthenticated"

Any help will be appreciated

Answer 1

Alright, this was fun solving. I decided to check how laravel-echo-server is requesting to "broadcasting/auth" and how its handling the response of that request.

You can have a look at here : https://github.com/tlaverdure/laravel-echo-server/blob/master/src/channels/private-channel.ts

So laravel-echo-server returns true if the response code of broadcasting/auth is 200 and returns false if the response code is not 200 or if there was an error requesting.

The problem here is that when you send a request to laravel api route handled by passport authentication , it does return "Unauthenticated" message but without 401 code due to which the laravel-echo-server thinks that the request was successful and allows the user to join the channel.

Solution:

1. Returning 401 Code With Passport Unauthenticated Response
2. Middleware for Channel Authentication

Returning 401 Code With Passport Unauthenticated Response

projectdir\app\Exceptions Handler.php

...
use Illuminate\Auth\AuthenticationException;

...
public function render($request, Exception $exception)
{
    if($exception instanceof AuthenticationException){
        return response()->json(['message' => $exception->getMessage()], 401);
    }else{
        return response()->json(['message' => $exception->getMessage() ]);
    }

    return parent::render($request, $exception);
}

Middleware for Channel Authentication

php artisan make:middleware [name]

projectdir\app\Http\Middleware [name].php

use Closure;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;

class SocketAuth
{

    public function handle($request, Closure $next)
    {
        $user = Auth::User();

        if($user !== null){
            if($request->channel_name == "private-user.".$user->id){
                return $next($request);
            }else{
                return response()->json(["message" => "Unauthenticated."], 401);
            }
        }

        return response()->json(["message" => "Unauthenticated."], 401);
    }
}

BroadcastServiceProvider

Broadcast::routes(["prefix" => "api", 'middleware' => ['auth:api', 'SocketAuth']]);

Register Middleware

projectdir\app\Http Kernel.php

protected $routeMiddleware = [
    ...
    'SocketAuth' => \App\Http\Middleware\SocketAuth::class,
];

Laravel-Echo-Server Config

"authEndpoint": "/api/broadcasting/auth",

Result

1. Unauthenticated 401 - (Laravel-Echo-Server False) On : [ No token present in request from client side, Requested user channel !== Requesting user's channel ]

2. Authenticated 200 - (Laravel-Echo-Server True) On : [ Token present in request from client side and Requested user channel == Requesting user's channel ]

You can apply your logic for authenticating users to channels in the middleware.