CNCF and Synadia Align on Securing the Future of the NATS.io Project. Read the joint press release.
NATS Docs
NATS.ioNATS by ExampleGitHubSlackTwitter
  • Welcome
  • Release Notes
    • What's New!
      • NATS 2.11
      • NATS 2.10
      • NATS 2.2
      • NATS 2.0
  • NATS Concepts
    • Overview
      • Compare NATS
    • What is NATS
      • Walkthrough Setup
    • Subject-Based Messaging
    • Core NATS
      • Publish-Subscribe
        • Pub/Sub Walkthrough
      • Request-Reply
        • Request-Reply Walkthrough
      • Queue Groups
        • Queueing Walkthrough
    • JetStream
      • Streams
      • Source and Mirror Streams
        • Example
      • Consumers
        • Example
      • JetStream Walkthrough
      • Key/Value Store
        • Key/Value Store Walkthrough
      • Object Store
        • Object Store Walkthrough
      • Headers
    • Subject Mapping and Partitioning
    • NATS Service Infrastructure
      • NATS Adaptive Deployment Architectures
    • Security
    • Connectivity
  • Using NATS
    • NATS Tools
      • nats
        • nats bench
      • nk
      • nsc
        • Basics
        • Streams
        • Services
        • Signing Keys
        • Revocation
        • Managed Operators
      • nats-top
        • Tutorial
    • Developing With NATS
      • Anatomy of a NATS application
      • Connecting
        • Connecting to the Default Server
        • Connecting to a Specific Server
        • Connecting to a Cluster
        • Connection Name
        • Authenticating with a User and Password
        • Authenticating with a Token
        • Authenticating with an NKey
        • Authenticating with a Credentials File
        • Encrypting Connections with TLS
        • Setting a Connect Timeout
        • Ping/Pong Protocol
        • Turning Off Echo'd Messages
        • Miscellaneous functionalities
        • Automatic Reconnections
          • Disabling Reconnect
          • Set the Number of Reconnect Attempts
          • Avoiding the Thundering Herd
          • Pausing Between Reconnect Attempts
          • Listening for Reconnect Events
          • Buffering Messages During Reconnect Attempts
        • Monitoring the Connection
          • Listen for Connection Events
          • Slow Consumers
      • Receiving Messages
        • Synchronous Subscriptions
        • Asynchronous Subscriptions
        • Unsubscribing
        • Unsubscribing After N Messages
        • Replying to a Message
        • Wildcard Subscriptions
        • Queue Subscriptions
        • Draining Messages Before Disconnect
        • Receiving Structured Data
      • Sending Messages
        • Including a Reply Subject
        • Request-Reply Semantics
        • Caches, Flush and Ping
        • Sending Structured Data
      • Building Services
      • JetStream
        • JetStream Model Deep Dive
        • Managing Streams and consumers
        • Consumer Details
        • Publishing to Streams
        • Using the Key/Value Store
        • Using the Object Store
      • Tutorials
        • Advanced Connect and Custom Dialer in Go
    • Running Workloads on NATS
      • Getting Started
        • Installing Nex
        • Building a Service
        • Starting a Node
        • Deploying Services
        • Building a Function
        • Deploying Functions
      • Host Services
        • Javascript | V8
      • Nex Internals
        • Architecture Overview
        • Node Process
        • Nex Agent
        • No Sandbox Mode
        • Root File System
        • Control Interface
      • FAQ
  • Running a NATS service
    • Installing, running and deploying a NATS Server
      • Installing a NATS Server
      • Running and deploying a NATS Server
      • Windows Service
      • Flags
    • Environmental considerations
    • NATS and Docker
      • Tutorial
      • Docker Swarm
      • Python and NGS Running in Docker
      • JetStream
      • NGS Leaf Nodes
    • NATS and Kubernetes
    • NATS Server Clients
    • Configuring NATS Server
      • Configuring JetStream
        • Configuration Management
          • NATS Admin CLI
          • Terraform
          • GitHub Actions
          • Kubernetes Controller
      • Clustering
        • Clustering Configuration
        • v2 Routes
        • JetStream Clustering
          • Administration
          • Troubleshooting
      • Super-cluster with Gateways
        • Configuration
      • Leaf Nodes
        • Configuration
        • JetStream on Leaf Nodes
      • Securing NATS
        • Enabling TLS
        • Authentication
          • Tokens
          • Username/Password
          • TLS Authentication
            • TLS Authentication in clusters
          • NKeys
          • Authentication Timeout
          • Decentralized JWT Authentication/Authorization
            • Account lookup using Resolver
            • Memory Resolver Tutorial
            • Mixed Authentication/Authorization Setup
        • Authorization
        • Multi Tenancy using Accounts
        • OCSP Stapling
        • Auth Callout
      • Logging
      • Enabling Monitoring
      • MQTT
        • Configuration
      • Configuring Subject Mapping
      • System Events
        • System Events & Decentralized JWT Tutorial
      • WebSocket
        • Configuration
    • Managing and Monitoring your NATS Server Infrastructure
      • Monitoring
        • Monitoring JetStream
      • Managing JetStream
        • Account Information
        • Naming Streams, Consumers, and Accounts
        • Streams
        • Consumers
        • Data Replication
        • Disaster Recovery
        • Encryption at Rest
      • Managing JWT Security
        • In Depth JWT Guide
      • Upgrading a Cluster
      • Slow Consumers
      • Signals
      • Lame Duck Mode
      • Profiling
  • Reference
    • FAQ
    • NATS Protocols
      • Protocol Demo
      • Client Protocol
        • Developing a Client
      • NATS Cluster Protocol
      • JetStream wire API Reference
    • Roadmap
    • Contributing
  • Legacy
    • nats-account-server
Powered by GitBook
On this page

Was this helpful?

Edit on GitHub
Export as PDF
  1. Using NATS
  2. Developing With NATS
  3. Connecting

Authenticating with a Credentials File

PreviousAuthenticating with an NKeyNextEncrypting Connections with TLS

Last updated 6 months ago

Was this helpful?

The 2.0 version of NATS server introduced the idea of decentralized authentication based on . Clients interact with this new scheme using a and corresponding private key. To help make connecting with a JWT easier, the client libraries support the concept of a credentials file. This file contains both the private key and the JWT and can be generated with the nsc . The contents will look like the following and should be protected because it contains a private key. This credentials file is unused and only for example purposes.

-----BEGIN NATS USER JWT-----
eyJ0eXAiOiJqd3QiLCJhbGciOiJlZDI1NTE5In0.eyJqdGkiOiJUVlNNTEtTWkJBN01VWDNYQUxNUVQzTjRISUw1UkZGQU9YNUtaUFhEU0oyWlAzNkVMNVJBIiwiaWF0IjoxNTU4MDQ1NTYyLCJpc3MiOiJBQlZTQk0zVTQ1REdZRVVFQ0tYUVM3QkVOSFdHN0tGUVVEUlRFSEFKQVNPUlBWV0JaNEhPSUtDSCIsIm5hbWUiOiJvbWVnYSIsInN1YiI6IlVEWEIyVk1MWFBBU0FKN1pEVEtZTlE3UU9DRldTR0I0Rk9NWVFRMjVIUVdTQUY3WlFKRUJTUVNXIiwidHlwZSI6InVzZXIiLCJuYXRzIjp7InB1YiI6e30sInN1YiI6e319fQ.6TQ2ilCDb6m2ZDiJuj_D_OePGXFyN3Ap2DEm3ipcU5AhrWrNvneJryWrpgi_yuVWKo1UoD5s8bxlmwypWVGFAA
------END NATS USER JWT------

************************* IMPORTANT *************************
NKEY Seed printed below can be used to sign and prove identity.
NKEYs are sensitive and should be treated as secrets.

-----BEGIN USER NKEY SEED-----
SUAOY5JZ2WJKVR4UO2KJ2P3SW6FZFNWEOIMAXF4WZEUNVQXXUOKGM55CYE
------END USER NKEY SEED------

*************************************************************

Given a creds file, a client can authenticate as a specific user belonging to a specific account:

nc, err := nats.Connect("127.0.0.1", nats.UserCredentials("path_to_creds_file"))
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}
defer nc.Close()

// Do something with the connection
Options options = new Options.Builder()
    .server("nats://localhost:4222")
    .authHandler(Nats.credentials("path_to_creds_file"))
    .build();
Connection nc = Nats.connect(options);

// Do something with the connection

nc.close();
// credentials file contains the JWT and the secret signing key
  const authenticator = credsAuthenticator(creds);
  const nc = await connect({
    port: ns.port,
    authenticator: authenticator,
});
nc = NATS()

async def error_cb(e):
    print("Error:", e)

await nc.connect("nats://localhost:4222",
                 user_credentials="path_to_creds_file",
                 error_cb=error_cb,
                 )

# Do something with the connection

await nc.close()
// dotnet add package NATS.Net
using NATS.Net;

await using var client = new NatsClient("127.0.0.1", credsFile: "/path/to/file.creds");
natsConnection      *conn      = NULL;
natsOptions         *opts      = NULL;
natsStatus          s          = NATS_OK;

s = natsOptions_Create(&opts);
if (s == NATS_OK)
    // Pass the credential file this way if the file contains both user JWT and seed.
    // Otherwise, if the content is split, the first file is the user JWT, the second
    // contains the seed.
    s = natsOptions_SetUserCredentialsFromFiles(opts, "path_to_creds_file", NULL);
if (s == NATS_OK)
    s = natsConnection_Connect(&conn, opts);

(...)

// Destroy objects that were created
natsConnection_Destroy(conn);
natsOptions_Destroy(opts);
JSON Web Tokens (JWT)
user JWT
NKey
tool