Error invalid expiresin option for string payload

➜  backend git:(user-auth) ✗ node
> var j= require('jsonwebtoken');
undefined
> j.sign('test', 'test', {expiresInMinutes:1});
invalid "expiresInMinutes" option for string payload
jsonwebtoken: expiresInMinutes and expiresInSeconds is deprecated. ()
Use "expiresIn" expressed in seconds.
'eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.dGVzdA.2WmFS_EAdYFCBOFM9pVPo9g4bpuI2I9U_JGTCfrx7Tk'
> j.sign('test', 'test', {expiresIn:60});
invalid "expiresIn" option for string payload
Error: "expiresIn" should be a number of seconds or string representing a timespan eg: "1d", "20h", 60
    at Object.JWT.sign (/Users/joehenry/meals/backend/node_modules/jsonwebtoken/index.js:109:13)
    at repl:1:3
    at REPLServer.defaultEval (repl.js:252:27)
    at bound (domain.js:287:14)
    at REPLServer.runBound [as eval] (domain.js:300:12)
    at REPLServer.<anonymous> (repl.js:417:12)
    at emitOne (events.js:82:20)
    at REPLServer.emit (events.js:169:7)
    at REPLServer.Interface._onLine (readline.js:210:10)
    at REPLServer.Interface._line (readline.js:549:8)
> 

Am I doing something wrong?

expiresInMinutes was deprecated, you should use expiresIn: '5m' for instance.

Where did you saw that so we can update?

I was getting a deprecation for expiresInMinutes so changed to expireIn, and am still getting similar.
var token = jwt.sign(escaped, config.secret, { expiresIn: '5h' });
and
var token = jwt.sign(escaped, config.secret, { expiresIn: 60*60*5 });
both resulted in the error

invalid "expiresIn" option for string payload
Error: "expiresIn" should be a number of seconds or string representing a timespan eg: "1d", "20h", 60

It looks like the issue is exactly what the warning is. You can’t put an expiration on a string payload. It throws a warning about it then continues to fall through and attempt to set payload.exp (but payload is a string), then sees that payload.exp is undefined so assumed you passed something poorly instead of ignoring the invalid option.

yes, I am planning to fail that explicitly instead of warning on the next major version

@rjVapes, ah, I see. If I pass in an object it works. Only for strings does the exp not work. Thanks for pointing that out.

So instead of using this in my code:

return done(err, status, jwt.sign(JSON.stringify(jsonToken), config.secret, {expiresIn: '10h'}));

I instead have to use this?

return done(err, status, jwt.sign(jsonToken, config.secret, {expiresIn: '10h'}));

Is that what we’re looking at here? This has been driving me crazy because no matter what I did with the expires time, it failed. And it didn’t fail on all environments where the application was running.

@michaeloryl yes, if you use an string payload expiresIn is ignored. You should use an object instead.

Thanks @michaeloryl I think the error message should be more explicit… I lost a couple of hours here also

@jfromaniello jfromaniello
Just out of curiosity… why is expiresIn ignored when I pass a string instead of an object? What’s the reason for such an implementation?

@kamilbrzezinski JWT is JSON Web Token, the exp field is an standard claim and is part of the json.

an string is a valid json:

> JSON.stringify("foo")
'"foo"'
> JSON.parse(JSON.stringify("foo")) === 'foo'
true

but a string can’t have a property… it will be the equivalent to something like this:

> var a = "foo"
> a.exp = 12333
> JSON.stringify(a)
'"foo"'

Besides the fact that you can’t add a property to an string in javascript, there is not a representation in JSON of an string with a property.

if I set the expiry as { expiresIn : ‘365d’ } , so should i be assured it will last for 1 year

I’m sorry but i didnt understand nothing…. i’m using JSON.stringify(‘7d’) and it’s not working at all… and the error is caming from the verify :
«Illegal argument undefined»

I have no words

@Masterchoc can you explain what you are trying to do? Thanks

for me ,this error occurs because payload is string.
pass object like this to sign function
let payload ={test: 'test string'}

I was getting this error, and it had nothing to do with the options I was passing or anything to do with the expiresIn option. Like what @alikarimii was saying, the payload you are signing needs to be an Object.
WRONG: jwt.sign(user.id, secret, { expiresIn: 60 * 60, algorithm: 'HS256'})
GOOD: jwt.sign({ uid: user.id }, secret, { expiresIn: 60 * 60, algorithm: 'HS256'})

@ddcech , good info, thanks it’s work , the solution is to put an object

I was using JSON.stringify() then it breaks the options.

jwt.sign(JSON.stringify(profile},process.env.SECRET,{expiresIn: 60 * 60, algorithm: "HS256"})

When I use JSON.stringify, even options are OK as @ddcech described good ones, it breaks. So I change it to.

jwt.sign({profile},process.env.SECRET,{expiresIn: 60 * 60, algorithm: "HS256"})

Thank you ddcech! This work —
jwt.sign( { userId: user.id }, config.secret , { expiresIn: "2h" });

So instead of using this in my code:

return done(err, status, jwt.sign(JSON.stringify(jsonToken), config.secret, {expiresIn: '10h'}));

I instead have to use this?

return done(err, status, jwt.sign(jsonToken, config.secret, {expiresIn: '10h'}));

Is that what we’re looking at here? This has been driving me crazy because no matter what I did with the expires time, it failed. And it didn’t fail on all environments where the application was running.

That helped me a lot ty

Getting the error

"expiresIn" should be a number of seconds or string representing a timespan eg: "1d", "20h", 60

I looked at where the error was being thrown in index.js line 86:

payload.exp = timespan(options.expiresIn);

I stepped through the timespan function and everything looks good there if I pass in either string or number. However the function always returns undefined?

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