Sign requests
Verify a signed request using the HMAC and SHA-256 algorithms or return a 403.
You can both verify and generate signed requests from within a Worker using the Web Crypto APIs.
The following Worker will:
For request URLs beginning with
/generate/
, replace/generate/
with/
, sign the resulting path with its timestamp, and return the full, signed URL in the response body.For all other request URLs, verify the signed URL and allow the request through.
Run Workerimport { Buffer } from "node:buffer";
const encoder = new TextEncoder();
// How long an HMAC token should be valid for, in seconds
const EXPIRY = 60;
export default { /** * * @param {Request} request * @param {{SECRET_DATA: string}} env * @returns */ async fetch(request, env) { // You will need some secret data to use as a symmetric key. This should be // attached to your Worker as an encrypted secret. // Refer to https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/configuration/secrets/ const secretKeyData = encoder.encode( env.SECRET_DATA ?? "my secret symmetric key" );
// Import your secret as a CryptoKey for both 'sign' and 'verify' operations const key = await crypto.subtle.importKey( "raw", secretKeyData, { name: "HMAC", hash: "SHA-256" }, false, ["sign", "verify"] );
const url = new URL(request.url);
// This is a demonstration Worker that allows unauthenticated access to /generate // In a real application you would want to make sure that // users could only generate signed URLs when authenticated if (url.pathname.startsWith("/generate/")) { url.pathname = url.pathname.replace("/generate/", "/");
const timestamp = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000);
// This contains all the data about the request that you want to be able to verify // Here we only sign the timestamp and the pathname, but often you will want to // include more data (for instance, the URL hostname or query parameters) const dataToAuthenticate = `${url.pathname}${timestamp}`;
const mac = await crypto.subtle.sign( "HMAC", key, encoder.encode(dataToAuthenticate) );
// Refer to https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/runtime-apis/nodejs/ // for more details on using Node.js APIs in Workers const base64Mac = Buffer.from(mac).toString("base64");
url.searchParams.set("verify", `${timestamp}-${base64Mac}`);
return new Response(`${url.pathname}${url.search}`); // Verify all non /generate requests } else { // Make sure you have the minimum necessary query parameters. if (!url.searchParams.has("verify")) { return new Response("Missing query parameter", { status: 403 }); }
const [timestamp, hmac] = url.searchParams.get("verify").split("-");
const assertedTimestamp = Number(timestamp);
const dataToAuthenticate = `${url.pathname}${assertedTimestamp}`;
const receivedMac = Buffer.from(hmac, "base64");
// Use crypto.subtle.verify() to guard against timing attacks. Since HMACs use // symmetric keys, you could implement this by calling crypto.subtle.sign() and // then doing a string comparison -- this is insecure, as string comparisons // bail out on the first mismatch, which leaks information to potential // attackers. const verified = await crypto.subtle.verify( "HMAC", key, receivedMac, encoder.encode(dataToAuthenticate) );
if (!verified) { return new Response("Invalid MAC", { status: 403 }); }
// Signed requests expire after one minute. Note that this value should depend on your specific use case if (Date.now() / 1000 > assertedTimestamp + EXPIRY) { return new Response( `URL expired at ${new Date((assertedTimestamp + EXPIRY) * 1000)}`, { status: 403 } ); } }
return fetch(new URL(url.pathname, "https://example.com"), request); },
};
import { Buffer } from "node:buffer";
const encoder = new TextEncoder();
// How long an HMAC token should be valid for, in seconds
const EXPIRY = 60;
export default { async fetch(request, env) { // You will need some secret data to use as a symmetric key. This should be // attached to your Worker as an encrypted secret. // Refer to https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/configuration/secrets/ const secretKeyData = encoder.encode( env.SECRET_DATA ?? "my secret symmetric key" );
// Import your secret as a CryptoKey for both 'sign' and 'verify' operations const key = await crypto.subtle.importKey( "raw", secretKeyData, { name: "HMAC", hash: "SHA-256" }, false, ["sign", "verify"] );
const url = new URL(request.url);
// This is a demonstration Worker that allows unauthenticated access to /generate // In a real application you would want to make sure that // users could only generate signed URLs when authenticated if (url.pathname.startsWith("/generate/")) { url.pathname = url.pathname.replace("/generate/", "/");
const timestamp = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000);
// This contains all the data about the request that you want to be able to verify // Here we only sign the timestamp and the pathname, but often you will want to // include more data (for instance, the URL hostname or query parameters) const dataToAuthenticate = `${url.pathname}${timestamp}`;
const mac = await crypto.subtle.sign( "HMAC", key, encoder.encode(dataToAuthenticate) );
// Refer to https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/runtime-apis/nodejs/ // for more details on using NodeJS APIs in Workers const base64Mac = Buffer.from(mac).toString("base64");
url.searchParams.set("verify", `${timestamp}-${base64Mac}`);
return new Response(`${url.pathname}${url.search}`); // Verify all non /generate requests } else { // Make sure you have the minimum necessary query parameters. if (!url.searchParams.has("verify")) { return new Response("Missing query parameter", { status: 403 }); }
const [timestamp, hmac] = url.searchParams.get("verify").split("-");
const assertedTimestamp = Number(timestamp);
const dataToAuthenticate = `${url.pathname}${assertedTimestamp}`;
const receivedMac = Buffer.from(hmac, "base64");
// Use crypto.subtle.verify() to guard against timing attacks. Since HMACs use // symmetric keys, you could implement this by calling crypto.subtle.sign() and // then doing a string comparison -- this is insecure, as string comparisons // bail out on the first mismatch, which leaks information to potential // attackers. const verified = await crypto.subtle.verify( "HMAC", key, receivedMac, encoder.encode(dataToAuthenticate) );
if (!verified) { return new Response("Invalid MAC", { status: 403 }); }
// Signed requests expire after one minute. Note that this value should depend on your specific use case if (Date.now() / 1000 > assertedTimestamp + EXPIRY) { return new Response( `URL expired at ${new Date((assertedTimestamp + EXPIRY) * 1000)}`, { status: 403 } ); } }
return fetch(new URL(url.pathname, "https://example.com"), request); },
} satisfies ExportedHandler<{ SECRET_DATA: string }>;
Validate signed requests using the WAF
The provided example code for signing requests is compatible with the is_timed_hmac_valid_v0()
Rules language function. This means that you can verify requests signed by the Worker script using a WAF custom rule.