[c#] JWT authentication for ASP.NET Web API

Here's a very minimal and secure implementation of a Claims based Authentication using JWT token in an ASP.NET Core Web API.

first of all, you need to expose an endpoint that returns a JWT token with claims assigned to a user:

 /// <summary>
        /// Login provides API to verify user and returns authentication token.
        /// API Path:  api/account/login
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="paramUser">Username and Password</param>
        /// <returns>{Token: [Token] }</returns>
        [HttpPost("login")]
        [AllowAnonymous]
        public async Task<IActionResult> Login([FromBody] UserRequestVM paramUser, CancellationToken ct)
        {

            var result = await UserApplication.PasswordSignInAsync(paramUser.Email, paramUser.Password, false, lockoutOnFailure: false);

            if (result.Succeeded)
            {
                UserRequestVM request = new UserRequestVM();
                request.Email = paramUser.Email;


                ApplicationUser UserDetails = await this.GetUserByEmail(request);
                List<ApplicationClaim> UserClaims = await this.ClaimApplication.GetListByUser(UserDetails);

                var Claims = new ClaimsIdentity(new Claim[]
                                {
                                    new Claim(JwtRegisteredClaimNames.Sub, paramUser.Email.ToString()),
                                    new Claim(UserId, UserDetails.UserId.ToString())
                                });


                //Adding UserClaims to JWT claims
                foreach (var item in UserClaims)
                {
                    Claims.AddClaim(new Claim(item.ClaimCode, string.Empty));
                }

                var tokenHandler = new JwtSecurityTokenHandler();
                  // this information will be retrived from you Configuration
                //I have injected Configuration provider service into my controller
                var encryptionkey = Configuration["Jwt:Encryptionkey"];
                var key = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(encryptionkey);
                var tokenDescriptor = new SecurityTokenDescriptor
                {
                    Issuer = Configuration["Jwt:Issuer"],
                    Subject = Claims,

                // this information will be retrived from you Configuration
                //I have injected Configuration provider service into my controller
                    Expires = DateTime.UtcNow.AddMinutes(Convert.ToDouble(Configuration["Jwt:ExpiryTimeInMinutes"])),

                    //algorithm to sign the token
                    SigningCredentials = new SigningCredentials(new SymmetricSecurityKey(key), SecurityAlgorithms.HmacSha256Signature)

                };

                var token = tokenHandler.CreateToken(tokenDescriptor);
                var tokenString = tokenHandler.WriteToken(token);

                return Ok(new
                {
                    token = tokenString
                });
            }

            return BadRequest("Wrong Username or password");
        }

now you need to Add Authentication to your services in your ConfigureServices inside your startup.cs to add JWT authentication as your default authentication service like this:

services.AddAuthentication(x =>
            {
                x.DefaultAuthenticateScheme = JwtBearerDefaults.AuthenticationScheme;
                x.DefaultChallengeScheme = JwtBearerDefaults.AuthenticationScheme;
            })
             .AddJwtBearer(cfg =>
             {
                 cfg.RequireHttpsMetadata = false;
                 cfg.SaveToken = true;
                 cfg.TokenValidationParameters = new TokenValidationParameters()
                 {
                     //ValidateIssuerSigningKey = true,
                     IssuerSigningKey = new SymmetricSecurityKey(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(configuration["JWT:Encryptionkey"])),
                     ValidateAudience = false,
                     ValidateLifetime = true,
                     ValidIssuer = configuration["Jwt:Issuer"],
                     //ValidAudience = Configuration["Jwt:Audience"],
                     //IssuerSigningKey = new SymmetricSecurityKey(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(Configuration["JWT:Key"])),
                 };
             });

now you can add policies to your authorization services like this:

services.AddAuthorization(options =>
            {
                options.AddPolicy("YourPolicyNameHere",
                                policy => policy.RequireClaim("YourClaimNameHere"));
            });

ALTERNATIVELY, You can also (not necessary) populate all of your claims from your database as this will only run once on your application startup and add them to policies like this:

  services.AddAuthorization(async options =>
            {
                var ClaimList = await claimApplication.GetList(applicationClaim);
                foreach (var item in ClaimList)
                {                        
                    options.AddPolicy(item.ClaimCode, policy => policy.RequireClaim(item.ClaimCode));                       
                }
            });

now you can put the Policy filter on any of the methods that you want to be authorized like this:

 [HttpPost("update")]
        [Authorize(Policy = "ACC_UP")]
        public async Task<IActionResult> Update([FromBody] UserRequestVM requestVm, CancellationToken ct)
        {
//your logic goes here
}

Hope this helps