WebAuthn

Authenticate users with fingerprints, patterns and biometric data.

use Laragear\WebAuthn\Http\Requests\AssertedRequest;

public function login(AssertedRequest $request)
{
    $user = $request->login();

    return response()->json(['message' => "Welcome back, $user->name!"]);
}

You want to add two-factor authentication to your app? Check out Laragear TwoFactor.

Keep this package free

Your support allows me to keep this package free, up-to-date and maintainable. Alternatively, you can spread the word!

Requirements

• PHP 8.0 or later, with ext-openssl.
• Laravel 9.x or later.

Installation

Require this package into your project using Composer:

composer require laragear/webauthn

How does it work?

WebAuthn authentication process consists in two ceremonies: attestation, and assertion.

Attestation is the process of asking the authenticator (a phone, laptop, USB key...) to create a private-public key pair, and register the public key inside the app. For that to work, the user must exist, and the browser must support WebAuthn, which is what intermediates between the authenticator and the app.

Assertion is the process of pushing a cryptographic challenge to the device, which will return signed by the private key. Upon arrival, the app checks the signature with the public key, ready to log in.

The private key doesn't leave the authenticator, and there are no shared passwords to save, let alone remember.

Set up

We need to make sure your users can register their devices and authenticate with them.

1. Add the eloquent-webauthn driver
2. Create the webauthn_credentials table
3. Implement the contract and trait

After that, you can quickly start WebAuthn with the included controllers and helpers to make your life easier.

4. Register the controllers
5. Use the Javascript helper

1. Add the eloquent-webauthn driver

Laragear WebAuthn works by extending the Eloquent User Provider with an additional check to find a user for the given WebAuthn Credentials (Assertion). This makes this WebAuthn package compatible with any guard you may have.

Simply go into your auth.php configuration file, change the driver from eloquent to eloquent-webauthn, and add the password_fallback to true.

return [
    // ...

    'providers' => [
        'users' => [
            'driver' => 'eloquent-webauthn',
            'model' => App\User::class,
            'password_fallback' => true,
        ],
    ]
];

The password_fallback indicates the User Provider should fall back to validate the password when the request is not a WebAuthn Assertion. It's enabled to seamlessly use both classic and WebAuthn authentication procedures.

2. Create the webauthn_credentials table

Create the webauthn_credentials table by publishing the migration file and migrating the table:

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Laragear\WebAuthn\WebAuthnServiceProvider" --tag="migrations"
php artisan migrate

You may edit the migration to your liking, like adding new columns, but not to remove them or change their name.

3. Implement the contract and trait

Add the WebAuthnAuthenticatable contract and the WebAuthnAuthentication trait to the User class, or any other that uses authentication.

<?php

namespace App;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\User as Authenticatable;
use Laragear\WebAuthn\Contracts\WebAuthnAuthenticatable;
use Laragear\WebAuthn\WebAuthnAuthentication;

class User extends Authenticatable implements WebAuthnAuthenticatable
{
    use WebAuthnAuthentication;

    // ...
}

From here you're ready to work with WebAuthn Authentication. The following steps will help you close the gap to a full implementation.

4. Register the routes and controllers

WebAuthn uses exclusive routes to register and authenticate users. Creating these routes and controller may be cumbersome, specially if it's your first time in the WebAuthn real.

Instead, go for a quick start and publish the controllers included in Laragear WebAuthn. These controllers will be located at app\Http\Controllers\WebAuthn.

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Laragear\WebAuthn\WebAuthnServiceProvider" --tag="controllers"

Next, to pick these controllers easily, go into your web.php routes file and register a default set of routes with the WebAuthn::routes() method.

// web.php
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
use Laragear\WebAuthn\WebAuthn;

Route::view('welcome');

// WebAuthn Routes
WebAuthn::routes();

5. Use the Javascript helper

This package includes a simple but convenient script to handle WebAuthn Attestation and Assertion. To use it, just publish the webauthn.js asset into your application public resources.

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Laragear\WebAuthn\WebAuthnServiceProvider" --tag="js"

You will receive the resources/js/vendor/webauthn/webauthn.js file which you can include into your authentication views and use it programmatically, anyway you want. For example, compiling it through Laravel Mix into your application global Javascript.

<script src="/js/app.js"></script>

<!-- Registering credentials -->
<script>
    const register = event => {
        event.preventDefault()
        
        new WebAuthn().register()
          .then(response => alert('Registration successful!'))
          .catch(error => alert('Something went wrong, try again!'))
    }

    document.getElementById('register-form').addEventListener('submit', register)
</script>

<!-- Login users -->
<script>
    const login = event => {
        event.preventDefault()
        
        new WebAuthn().login({
            email: document.getElementById('email').value,
        }, {
            remember: document.getElementById('remember').checked ? 'on' : null,
        }).then(response => alert('Authentication successful!'))
          .catch(error => alert('Something went wrong, try again!'))
    }

    document.getElementById('login-form').addEventListener('submit', login)
</script>

You can copy-paste this helper into your authentication routes, or import it into a bundler like Laravel Vite, Webpack, parcel, or many more. If the script doesn't suit your needs, you're free to create your own.

Requests and Responses parameters

Both register() and login() accept different parameters for the initial request to the server, and the subsequent response to the server. For example, you can use this to remember the user being authenticated.

new WebAuthn().login({
    email: document.getElementById('email').value, // Initial request to the server
}, {
    remember: document.getElementById('remember').checked ? 'on' : null, // Response from the authenticator
})

Custom routes

By default, the helper assumes you're using the default WebAuthn routes. If you're using different routes for WebAuthn, you can set them at runtime.

const webAuthn = new WebAuthn({
    registerOptions: 'webauthn/register/options',
    register: 'webauthn/register',
    
    loginOptions: 'webauthn/login/options',
    login: 'webauthn/login',
});

Here is good place to use ziggy if it's in your project.

Headers

You may add headers to all WebAuthn authentication requests using the second parameter of the WebAuthn constructor. These headers will be present on all requests made by the instance.

const webAuthn = new WebAuthn({}, {
    'X-Colors': 'red',
});

You may use a different WebAuthn instances with different headers for both Attestation and Assertion.

Attestation

Attestation is the ceremony to create WebAuthn Credentials. To create an Attestable Response that the user device can understand, use the AttestationRequest::toCreate() form request.

use Laragear\WebAuthn\Http\Requests\AttestationRequest;

public function createChallenge(AttestationRequest $request)
{
    return $request->toCreate();
}

The device will receive the "instructions" to make a key, and will respond with it. You can use the AttestedRequest form request and its save() method to persist the WebAuthn key if it is valid. The request will automatically return a Validation exception if something fails.

use Laragear\WebAuthn\Http\Requests\AttestedRequest;

public function register(AttestedRequest $attestation)
{
    $attestation->save();
    
    return 'Now you can login without passwords!';
}

You may pass an array, or a callback, to the save(), which will allow you to modify the underlying WebAuthn Eloquent Model before saving it. For example, we could add an alias for the key present in the Request data.

use Laragear\WebAuthn\Http\Requests\AttestedRequest;

public function register(AttestedRequest $request)
{
    $request->validate(['alias' => 'nullable|string']);

    $attestation->save($request->input('alias'));
}

Both AttestationRequest and AttestedRequest validates the authenticated user. If the user is not authenticated, an HTTP 403 status code will be returned.

Attestation User verification

By default, the authenticator decides how to verify user when creating a credential. Some may ask to press a "Continue" button to confirm presence, others will verify the User with biometrics, patterns or passwords.

You can override this using fastRegistration() to only check for user presence if possible, or secureRegistration() to actively verify the User.

use Laragear\WebAuthn\Http\Requests\AttestationRequest;

public function createChallenge(AttestationRequest $request)
{
    return $request->fastRegistration()->toCreate();
}

Userless/One-touch/Typeless Login

Userless/One-touch/Typeless login This enables one click/tap login, without the need to specify the user credentials (like the email) beforehand.

For this to work, the device has to save the "username id" inside itself. Some authenticators may save it regardless, others may be not compatible. To make this mandatory when creating the WebAuthn Credential, use the userless() method of the AttestationRequest form request.

use Laragear\WebAuthn\Http\Requests\AttestationRequest;

public function registerDevice(AttestationRequest $request)
{
    return $request->userless()->toCreate();
}

The Authenticator WILL require user verification on login when using userless(). Its highly probable the user will also be asked for user verification on login, as it will depend on the authenticator itself.

Multiple credentials per device

By default, during Attestation, the device will be informed about the existing enabled credentials already registered in the application. This way the device can avoid creating another one for the same purpose.

You can enable multiple credentials per device using allowDuplicates(), which in turn will always return an empty list of credentials to exclude. This way the authenticator will think there are no already stored credentials for your app.

use Laragear\WebAuthn\Http\Requests\AttestationRequest;

public function registerDevice(AttestationRequest $request)
{
    return $request->allowDuplicates()->make();
}

Assertion

The Assertion procedure also follows a two-step procedure: the user will input its username, the server will return the IDs of the WebAuthn credentials to use, and the device pick one to sign the response. If you're using userless login, only the challenge is returned.

First, use the AssertionRequest::toVerify() form request. It will automatically create an assertion for the user that matches the credentials, or a blank one in case you're using userless login. Otherwise, you may set stricter validation rules to always ask for credentials.

use Laragear\WebAuthn\Http\Requests\AssertionRequest;

public function createChallenge(AssertionRequest $request)
{
    $request->validate(['email' => 'sometimes|email']);

    return $request->toVerify($request->only('email'));
}

After that, you may receive the challenge using the AssertedRequest request object by just type-hinting it in the controller.

Since the authentication is pretty much straightforward, you only need to check if the login() method returns the newly authenticated user or null when it fails. When it's a success, it will take care of regenerating the session for you.

use Laragear\WebAuthn\Http\Requests\AssertedRequest;

public function createChallenge(AssertedRequest $request)
{
    $user = $request->login();
    
    return $user 
        ? response("Welcome back, $user->name!");
        : response('Something went wrong, try again!');
}

If you need greater control on the Assertion procedure, you may want to Assert manually.

If you have debugging enabled the assertion error during authentication will be logged in your application logs, which by default is storage/logs/laravel.log.

Assertion User Verification

In the same style of attestation user verification, the authenticator decides if it should verify the user on login or not.

You may only require the user presence with fastLogin(), or actively verify the user with secureLogin().

use Laragear\WebAuthn\Http\Requests\AssertionRequest;

public function createChallenge(AssertionRequest $request)
{
    $request->validate(['email' => 'sometimes|email']);

    return $request->fastLogin()->toVerify($request->only('email'));
}

Password Fallback

By default, the eloquent-webauthn can be used to log in users with passwords when the credentials are not a WebAuthn JSON payload. This way, your normal Authentication flow is unaffected:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;

public function login(Request $request)
{
    $request->validate(['email' => 'required|email', 'password' => 'required|string']);

    if (Auth::attempt($request->only('email', 'password'))) {
        return redirect()->home();
    }
    
    return back()->withErrors(['email' => 'No user found with these credentials']);
}

You may disable the fallback to only allow WebAuthn authentication by setting password_fallback to false. This may force you to handle classic user/password using a separate guard.

Detecting Cloned Credentials

During assertion, the package will automatically detect if a Credential has been cloned by comparing how many times the user has logged in with it.

If it's detected as cloned, the Credential is disabled, a CredentialCloned event is fired, and the Assertion gets denied.

You can use the event to warn the user:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Event;
use Laragear\WebAuthn\Events\CredentialCloned;
use App\Notifications\SecureYourDevice;

Event::listen(CredentialCloned::class, function ($cloned) {
    $notification = new SecureYourDevice($cloned->credential);
    
    $cloned->credential->user->notify($notification);
});

Managing Credentials

The purpose of the WebAuthnAuthenticatable contract is to allow managing credentials within the User instance. The most useful methods are:

• webAuthnData(): Returns the non-variable WebAuthn user data to create credentials.
• flushCredentials(): Removes all credentials. You can exclude credentials by their id.
• disableAllCredentials(): Disables all credentials. You can exclude credentials by their id.
• makeWebAuthnCredential(): Creates a new WebAuthn Credential instance.
• webAuthnCredentials(): One-to-Many relation to query for WebAuthn Credentials.

You can use these methods to, for example, find a credential to blacklist, or disable WebAuthn completely by flushing all registered devices.

Events

The following events are fired by this package, which you can hook into in your application:

Manually Attesting and Asserting

If you want to manually Attest and Assert users, you may instance their respective pipelines used for both WebAuthn Ceremonies:

All of these pipelines require the current Request to work, as is used to generate Challenges in the Session and validate different parts of the authentication data.

For example, you may manually authenticate a user with its WebAuthn Credentials AssertionValidator pipeline.

use Laragear\WebAuthn\Assertion\Validator\AssertionValidation;
use Laragear\WebAuthn\Assertion\Validator\AssertionValidator;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;

public function authenticate(Request $request, AssertionValidator $assertion)
{
    $credential = $assertion
        ->send(new AssertionValidation($request))
        ->thenReturn()
        ->credential;
    
    Auth::login($credential->user);
    
    return "Welcome aboard, {$credential->user->name}!";
}

Since these are Laravel Pipelines, you're free to push additional pipes:

use Laragear\WebAuthn\Assertion\Validator\AssertionValidator;

public function addPipes(AssertionValidator $attestation)
{
    $attestation->pipe(VerifyUserIsAwesome::class, NotifyIfAssertionFailed::class);
}

The pipes list and the pipes themselves are not covered by API changes, and are marked as internal. These may change between versions without notice.

Advanced Configuration

Laragear WebAuthn was made to work out-of-the-box, but you can override the configuration by simply publishing the config file.

php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Laragear\WebAuthn\WebAuthnServiceProvider" --tag="config"

After that, you will receive the config/webauthn.php config file with an array like this:

<?php

return [
    'relaying_party' => [
        'name' => env('WEBAUTHN_NAME', env('APP_NAME')),
        'id'   => env('WEBAUTHN_ID'),
    ],
    'challenge' => [
        'bytes' => 16,
        'timeout' => 60,
        'key' => '_webauthn',
    ]
];

Relaying Party Information

return [
    'relaying_party' => [
        'name' => env('WEBAUTHN_NAME', env('APP_NAME')),
        'id'   => env('WEBAUTHN_ID'),
    ],
];

The Relaying Party is just a way to uniquely identify your application in the user device:

• name: The name of the application. Defaults to the application name.
• id: An unique ID the application, like the site domain. If null, the device may fill it internally, usually as the full domain.

WebAuthn authentication only work on the top domain it was registered.

Challenge configuration

return [
    'challenge' => [
        'bytes' => 16,
        'timeout' => 60,
        'key' => '_webauthn',
    ]
];

The outgoing challenges are random string of bytes. This controls how many bytes, the seconds which the challenge is valid, and the session key used to store the challenge while its being resolved by the device.

Laravel UI, Jetstream, Fortify, Sanctum, Breeze, Inertia and Livewire

In theory this package should work without any problems with these packages, but you may need to override or redirect the authentication flow (read: method codes) to one using WebAuthn.

There is no support for using WebAuthn with these packages because these are meant to be used with classic user-password authentication. Any issue regarding these packages will be shot down with extreme prejudice.

If you think WebAuthn is critical for these packages, consider supporting this package.

FAQ

• Does this work with any browser?

Yes. In the case of old browsers, you should have a fallback detection script. This can be asked with the included Javascript helper in a breeze:

if (WebAuthn.doesntSupportWebAuthn()) {
   alert('Your device is not secure enough to use this site!');
}

• Does this store the user fingerprints, PINs or patterns in my site?

No. WebAuthn only stores a cryptographic public key generated randomly by the device.

• Can a phishing site steal WebAuthn credentials and use them in my site?

No. WebAuthn kills the phishing because, unlike passwords, the private key never leaves the device.

• Can WebAuthn data identify a particular device?

No, unless explicitly requested and consented. This package doesn't support other attestation conveyances than none, so it's never transmitted.

• Are my user's classic passwords safe?

Yes, as long you are hashing them as you should. This is done by Laravel by default. You can also disable them.

• Can a user register two or more different devices for the same account?

Yes.

• Can a user register two or more credentials in the same device?

Not by default, but you can enable it.

• If a user loses his device, can he register a new device?

Yes. If you're not using a password fallback, you may need to create a logic to register a new device using an email. It's assumed he is reading his email using a trusted device.

• What's the difference between disabling and deleting a credential?

Disabling a credential doesn't delete it, so it's useful as a blacklisting mechanism and these can also be re-enabled. When the credential is deleted, it goes away forever.

• Can a user delete its credentials from its device?

Yes. If it does, the other part of the credentials in your server gets virtually orphaned. You may want to show the user a list of registered credentials in the application to delete them.

• How secure is this against passwords or 2FA?

Extremely secure since it works only on HTTPS (or localhost), no password or codes are exchanged nor visible in the screen.

• Can I deactivate the password fallback? Can I enforce only WebAuthn authentication?

Yes. Just be sure to create recovery helpers to avoid locking out your users.

• Does this includes a frontend Javascript?

Yes, but it's very basic.

• Does WebAuthn eliminate bots? Can I forget about captchas?

No, you still need to use captcha, honeypots, or other mechanisms to stop bots.

• Does this encodes/decode the WebAuthn data automatically in the frontend?

Yes, the included WebAuthn Helper does it automatically for you.

• Does this encrypts the public keys?

Yes, public keys are encrypted when saved into the database.

• Does this include a credential recovery routes?

No. You're free to create your own flow for recovery.

• Can I use my smartphone as authenticator through my PC or Mac?

It depends. This is entirely up to hardware, OS and browser vendor themselves.

• Why my device doesn't show Windows Hello/Passkey/TouchId/FaceId/pattern/fingerprint authentication?

By default, this WebAuthn implementation accepts almost everything. Some combinations of devices, OS and Web browsers may differ on what to make available for WebAuthn authentication. For example, Windows 7 only supports USB keys.

• Why my device doesn't work at all with this package?

This package supports WebAuthn 2.0, which is W3C Recommendation. Your device/OS/browser may be using an unsupported version. There are no plans to support older specs.

• I'm trying to test this in my development server, but it doesn't work

Use localhost exclusively, not 127.0.0.1, or use a proxy to tunnel your site through HTTPS. WebAuthn only works on localhost or under HTTPS only.

• Why this package supports only none attestation conveyance?

Because direct, indirect and enterprise attestations are mostly used on high-security high-risk scenarios, where an entity has total control on the devices used to authenticate.

If you deem this feature critical for you, consider supporting this package.

• Can I allow logins with only USB keys?

No. The user can use whatever to authenticate in your app. This may be enabled on future versions.

• Everytime I make attestations or assertions, it says no challenge exists!

Remember that your WebAuthn routes must use Sessions, because the Challenge gets saved there.

Laravel Octane Compatibility

• There are no singletons using a stale application instance.
• There are no singletons using a stale config instance.
• There are no singletons using a stale request instance.
• There are no static properties written during a request.

There should be no problems using this package with Laravel Octane.

Security

These are some details about this WebAuthn implementation:

• Registration (attestation) and Login (assertion) challenges use the current request session.
• Only one ceremony can be done at a time.
• Challenges are pulled from the session on resolution, independently of their result.
• All challenges and ceremonies expire at 60 seconds.
• WebAuthn User Handle is UUID v4, reusable if another credential exists.
• Credentials can be blacklisted (enabled/disabled).
• Public Keys are encrypted in the database automatically.

If you discover any security related issues, please email [email protected] instead of using the issue tracker.

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.

Contains Code from Lukas Buchs WebAuthn 2.0 implementation. The MIT License (MIT) where applicable.

Laravel is a Trademark of Taylor Otwell. Copyright © 2011-2022 Laravel LLC.