[c#] How to update a claim in ASP.NET Identity?

I'm using OWIN authentication for my MVC5 project. This is my SignInAsync

 private async Task SignInAsync(ApplicationUser user, bool isPersistent)
        {
            var AccountNo = "101";
            AuthenticationManager.SignOut(DefaultAuthenticationTypes.ExternalCookie);
            var identity = await UserManager.CreateIdentityAsync(user, DefaultAuthenticationTypes.ApplicationCookie);
            identity.AddClaim(new Claim(ClaimTypes.UserData, AccountNo));
            AuthenticationManager.SignIn(new AuthenticationProperties() { IsPersistent = isPersistent, RedirectUri="Account/Index"}, identity);
        }

As you can see, i added AccountNo into the Claims list.

Now, how can I update this Claim at some point in my application? So far, i have this:

 public string AccountNo
        {

            get
            {
                var CP = ClaimsPrincipal.Current.Identities.First();
                var Account= CP.Claims.FirstOrDefault(p => p.Type == ClaimTypes.UserData);
                return Account.Value;
            }
            set
            {
                var CP = ClaimsPrincipal.Current.Identities.First();
                var AccountNo= CP.Claims.FirstOrDefault(p => p.Type == ClaimTypes.UserData).Value;
                CP.RemoveClaim(new Claim(ClaimTypes.UserData,AccountNo));
                CP.AddClaim(new Claim(ClaimTypes.UserData, value));
            }

        }

when i try to remove the claim, I get this exception:

The Claim 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/ws/2008/06/identity/claims/userdata: 101' was not able to be removed. It is either not part of this Identity or it is a claim that is owned by the Principal that contains this Identity. For example, the Principal will own the claim when creating a GenericPrincipal with roles. The roles will be exposed through the Identity that is passed in the constructor, but not actually owned by the Identity. Similar logic exists for a RolePrincipal.

Could someone help me figure out how to update the Claim?

The extension method worked great for me with one exception that if the user logs out there old claim sets still existed so with a tiny modification as in passing usermanager through everything works great and you dont need to logout and login. I cant answer directly as my reputation has been dissed :(

public static class ClaimExtensions
{
    public static void AddUpdateClaim(this IPrincipal currentPrincipal,    string key, string value, ApplicationUserManager userManager)
    {
        var identity = currentPrincipal.Identity as ClaimsIdentity;
        if (identity == null)
            return;

        // check for existing claim and remove it
        var existingClaim = identity.FindFirst(key);
        if (existingClaim != null)
        {
            RemoveClaim(currentPrincipal, key, userManager);
        }

        // add new claim
        var claim = new Claim(key, value);
        identity.AddClaim(claim);
        var authenticationManager = HttpContext.Current.GetOwinContext().Authentication;
        authenticationManager.AuthenticationResponseGrant = new AuthenticationResponseGrant(new ClaimsPrincipal(identity), new AuthenticationProperties() { IsPersistent = true });
        //Persist to store
        userManager.AddClaim(identity.GetUserId(),claim);

    }

    public static void RemoveClaim(this IPrincipal currentPrincipal, string key, ApplicationUserManager userManager)
    {
        var identity = currentPrincipal.Identity as ClaimsIdentity;
        if (identity == null)
            return ;

        // check for existing claim and remove it
        var existingClaims = identity.FindAll(key);
        existingClaims.ForEach(c=> identity.RemoveClaim(c));

        //remove old claims from store
        var user = userManager.FindById(identity.GetUserId());
        var claims =  userManager.GetClaims(user.Id);
        claims.Where(x => x.Type == key).ToList().ForEach(c => userManager.RemoveClaim(user.Id, c));

    }

    public static string GetClaimValue(this IPrincipal currentPrincipal, string key)
    {
        var identity = currentPrincipal.Identity as ClaimsIdentity;
        if (identity == null)
            return null;

        var claim = identity.Claims.First(c => c.Type == key);
        return claim.Value;
    }

    public static string GetAllClaims(this IPrincipal currentPrincipal, ApplicationUserManager userManager)
    {
        var identity = currentPrincipal.Identity as ClaimsIdentity;
        if (identity == null)
            return null;

        var claims = userManager.GetClaims(identity.GetUserId());
        var userClaims = new StringBuilder();
        claims.ForEach(c => userClaims.AppendLine($"<li>{c.Type}, {c.Value}</li>"));
        return userClaims.ToString();
    }


}

I get that exception too and cleared things up like this

var identity = User.Identity as ClaimsIdentity;
var newIdentity = new ClaimsIdentity(identity.AuthenticationType, identity.NameClaimType, identity.RoleClaimType);
newIdentity.AddClaims(identity.Claims.Where(c => false == (c.Type == claim.Type && c.Value == claim.Value)));
// the claim has been removed, you can add it with a new value now if desired
AuthenticationManager.SignOut(identity.AuthenticationType);
AuthenticationManager.SignIn(new AuthenticationProperties() { IsPersistent = isPersistent }, newIdentity);

when I use MVC5, and add the claim here.

public async Task<ClaimsIdentity> GenerateUserIdentityAsync(PATAUserManager manager)
    {
        // Note the authenticationType must match the one defined in CookieAuthenticationOptions.AuthenticationType
        var userIdentity = await manager.CreateIdentityAsync(this, DefaultAuthenticationTypes.ApplicationCookie);
        // Add custom user claims here
        userIdentity.AddClaim(new Claim(ClaimTypes.Role, this.Role));

        return userIdentity;
    }

when I'm check the claim result in the SignInAsync function,i can't get the role value use anyway. But...

after this request finished, I can access Role in other action(anther request).

 var userWithClaims = (ClaimsPrincipal)User;
        Claim CRole = userWithClaims.Claims.First(c => c.Type == ClaimTypes.Role);

so, i think maybe asynchronous cause the IEnumerable updated behind the process.

Compiled some answers from here into re-usable ClaimsManager class with my additions.

Claims got persisted, user cookie updated, sign in refreshed.

Please note that ApplicationUser can be substituted with IdentityUser if you didn't customize former. Also in my case it needs to have slightly different logic in Development environment, so you might want to remove IWebHostEnvironment dependency.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Security.Claims;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using YourMvcCoreProject.Models;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;

namespace YourMvcCoreProject.Identity
{
    public class ClaimsManager
    {
        private readonly UserManager<ApplicationUser> _userManager;
        private readonly SignInManager<ApplicationUser> _signInManager;
        private readonly IWebHostEnvironment _env;
        private readonly ClaimsPrincipalAccessor _currentPrincipalAccessor;

        public ClaimsManager(
            ClaimsPrincipalAccessor currentPrincipalAccessor,
            UserManager<ApplicationUser> userManager,
            SignInManager<ApplicationUser> signInManager,
            IWebHostEnvironment env)
        {
            _currentPrincipalAccessor = currentPrincipalAccessor;
            _userManager = userManager;
            _signInManager = signInManager;
            _env = env;
        }

        /// <param name="refreshSignin">Sometimes (e.g. when adding multiple claims at once) it is desirable to refresh cookie only once, for the last one </param>
        public async Task AddUpdateClaim(string claimType, string claimValue, bool refreshSignin = true)
        {
            await AddClaim(
                _currentPrincipalAccessor.ClaimsPrincipal,
                claimType,
                claimValue, 
                async user =>
                {
                    await RemoveClaim(_currentPrincipalAccessor.ClaimsPrincipal, user, claimType);
                },
                refreshSignin);
        }

        public async Task AddClaim(string claimType, string claimValue, bool refreshSignin = true)
        {
            await AddClaim(_currentPrincipalAccessor.ClaimsPrincipal, claimType, claimValue, refreshSignin);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// At certain stages of user auth there is no user yet in context but there is one to work with in client code (e.g. calling from ClaimsTransformer)
        /// that's why we have principal as param
        /// </summary>
        public async Task AddClaim(ClaimsPrincipal principal, string claimType, string claimValue, bool refreshSignin = true)
        {
            await AddClaim(
                principal,
                claimType,
                claimValue, 
                async user =>
                {
                    // allow reassignment in dev
                    if (_env.IsDevelopment()) 
                        await RemoveClaim(principal, user, claimType);

                    if (GetClaim(principal, claimType) != null)
                        throw new ClaimCantBeReassignedException(claimType);                
                },
                refreshSignin);
        }

        public async Task RemoveClaims(IEnumerable<string> claimTypes, bool refreshSignin = true)
        {
            await RemoveClaims(_currentPrincipalAccessor.ClaimsPrincipal, claimTypes, refreshSignin);
        }

        public async Task RemoveClaims(ClaimsPrincipal principal, IEnumerable<string> claimTypes, bool refreshSignin = true)
        {
            AssertAuthenticated(principal);
            foreach (var claimType in claimTypes)
            {
                await RemoveClaim(principal, claimType);
            }
            // reflect the change in the Identity cookie
            if (refreshSignin)
                await _signInManager.RefreshSignInAsync(await _userManager.GetUserAsync(principal));
        }

        public async Task RemoveClaim(string claimType, bool refreshSignin = true)
        {
            await RemoveClaim(_currentPrincipalAccessor.ClaimsPrincipal, claimType, refreshSignin);
        }

        public async Task RemoveClaim(ClaimsPrincipal principal, string claimType, bool refreshSignin = true)
        {
            AssertAuthenticated(principal);
            var user = await _userManager.GetUserAsync(principal);
            await RemoveClaim(principal, user, claimType);
            // reflect the change in the Identity cookie
            if (refreshSignin)
                await _signInManager.RefreshSignInAsync(user);
        }

        private async Task AddClaim(ClaimsPrincipal principal, string claimType, string claimValue, Func<ApplicationUser, Task> processExistingClaims, bool refreshSignin)
        {
            AssertAuthenticated(principal);
            var user = await _userManager.GetUserAsync(principal);
            await processExistingClaims(user);
            var claim = new Claim(claimType, claimValue);
            ClaimsIdentity(principal).AddClaim(claim);
            await _userManager.AddClaimAsync(user, claim);
            // reflect the change in the Identity cookie
            if (refreshSignin)
                await _signInManager.RefreshSignInAsync(user);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Due to bugs or as result of debug it can be more than one identity of the same type.
        /// The method removes all the claims of a given type.
        /// </summary>
        private async Task RemoveClaim(ClaimsPrincipal principal, ApplicationUser user, string claimType)
        {
            AssertAuthenticated(principal);
            var identity = ClaimsIdentity(principal);
            var claims = identity.FindAll(claimType).ToArray();
            if (claims.Length > 0)
            {
                await _userManager.RemoveClaimsAsync(user, claims);
                foreach (var c in claims)
                {
                    identity.RemoveClaim(c);
                }
            }
        }

        private static Claim GetClaim(ClaimsPrincipal principal, string claimType)
        {
            return ClaimsIdentity(principal).FindFirst(claimType);    
        }    

        /// <summary>
        /// This kind of bugs has to be found during testing phase
        /// </summary>
        private static void AssertAuthenticated(ClaimsPrincipal principal)
        {
            if (!principal.Identity.IsAuthenticated)
                throw new InvalidOperationException("User should be authenticated in order to update claims");
        }

        private static ClaimsIdentity ClaimsIdentity(ClaimsPrincipal principal)
        {
            return (ClaimsIdentity) principal.Identity;
        }
    }


    public class ClaimCantBeReassignedException : Exception
    {
        public ClaimCantBeReassignedException(string claimType) : base($"{claimType} can not be reassigned")
        {
        }
    }

public class ClaimsPrincipalAccessor
{
    private readonly IHttpContextAccessor _httpContextAccessor;

    public ClaimsPrincipalAccessor(IHttpContextAccessor httpContextAccessor)
    {
        _httpContextAccessor = httpContextAccessor;
    }

    public ClaimsPrincipal ClaimsPrincipal => _httpContextAccessor.HttpContext.User;
}

// to register dependency put this into your Startup.cs and inject ClaimsManager into Controller constructor (or other class) the in same way as you do for other dependencies    
public class Startup
{
    public IServiceProvider ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
    {
        services.AddTransient<ClaimsPrincipalAccessor>();
        services.AddTransient<ClaimsManager>();
    }
}

}

You can update claims for the current user by implementing a CookieAuthenticationEvents class and overriding ValidatePrincipal. There you can remove the old claim, add the new one, and then replace the principal using CookieValidatePrincipalContext.ReplacePrincipal. This does not affect any claims stored in the database. This is using ASP.NET Core Identity 2.2.

public class MyCookieAuthenticationEvents : CookieAuthenticationEvents
{
    string newAccountNo = "102";

    public override Task ValidatePrincipal(CookieValidatePrincipalContext context)
    {
        // first remove the old claim
        var claim = context.Principal.FindFirst(ClaimTypes.UserData);
        if (claim != null)
        {
            ((ClaimsIdentity)context.Principal.Identity).RemoveClaim(claim);
        }

        // add the new claim
        ((ClaimsIdentity)context.Principal.Identity).AddClaim(new Claim(ClaimTypes.UserData, newAccountNo));

        // replace the claims
        context.ReplacePrincipal(context.Principal);
        context.ShouldRenew = true;

        return Task.CompletedTask;
    }
}

You need to register the events class in Startup.cs:

public IServiceProvider ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    services.AddScoped<MyCookieAuthenticationEvents>();

    services.ConfigureApplicationCookie(o =>
    {
        o.EventsType = typeof(MyCookieAuthenticationEvents);
    });
}

You can inject services into the events class to access the new AccountNo value but as per the warning on this page you should avoid doing anything too expensive:

Warning

The approach described here is triggered on every request. Validating authentication cookies for all users on every request can result in a large performance penalty for the app.

    if (HttpContext.User.Identity is ClaimsIdentity identity)
        {
            identity.RemoveClaim(identity.FindFirst("userId"));
            identity.AddClaim(new Claim("userId", userInfo?.id.ToString()));
            await HttpContext.SignInAsync(
                CookieAuthenticationDefaults.AuthenticationScheme,
                new ClaimsPrincipal(HttpContext.User.Identity));
        }

You can create a new ClaimsIdentity and then do the claims update with such.

set {
    // get context of the authentication manager
    var authenticationManager = HttpContext.GetOwinContext().Authentication;

    // create a new identity from the old one
    var identity = new ClaimsIdentity(User.Identity);

    // update claim value
    identity.RemoveClaim(identity.FindFirst("AccountNo"));
    identity.AddClaim(new Claim("AccountNo", value));

    // tell the authentication manager to use this new identity
    authenticationManager.AuthenticationResponseGrant = 
        new AuthenticationResponseGrant(
            new ClaimsPrincipal(identity),
            new AuthenticationProperties { IsPersistent = true }
        );
}

Multiple Cookies,Multiple Claims

public class ClaimsCookie
    {
        private readonly ClaimsPrincipal _user;
        private readonly HttpContext _httpContext;
        public ClaimsCookie(ClaimsPrincipal user, HttpContext httpContext = null)
        {
            _user = user;
            _httpContext = httpContext;
        }

        public string GetValue(CookieName cookieName, KeyName keyName)
        {
            var principal = _user as ClaimsPrincipal;
            var cp = principal.Identities.First(i => i.AuthenticationType == ((CookieName)cookieName).ToString());
            return cp.FindFirst(((KeyName)keyName).ToString()).Value;
        }
        public async void SetValue(CookieName cookieName, KeyName[] keyName, string[] value)
        {
            if (keyName.Length != value.Length)
            {
                return;
            }
            var principal = _user as ClaimsPrincipal;
            var cp = principal.Identities.First(i => i.AuthenticationType == ((CookieName)cookieName).ToString());
            for (int i = 0; i < keyName.Length; i++)
            {
                if (cp.FindFirst(((KeyName)keyName[i]).ToString()) != null)
                {
                    cp.RemoveClaim(cp.FindFirst(((KeyName)keyName[i]).ToString()));
                    cp.AddClaim(new Claim(((KeyName)keyName[i]).ToString(), value[i]));
                }

            }
            await _httpContext.SignOutAsync(CookieName.UserProfilCookie.ToString());
            await _httpContext.SignInAsync(CookieName.UserProfilCookie.ToString(), new ClaimsPrincipal(cp),
                new AuthenticationProperties
                {
                    IsPersistent = bool.Parse(cp.FindFirst(KeyName.IsPersistent.ToString()).Value),
                    AllowRefresh = true
                });
        }
        public enum CookieName
        {
            CompanyUserProfilCookie = 0, UserProfilCookie = 1, AdminPanelCookie = 2
        }
        public enum KeyName
        {
            Id, Name, Surname, Image, IsPersistent
        }
    }

Using latest Asp.Net Identity with .net core 2.1, I'm being able to update user claims with the following logic.

1. Register a UserClaimsPrincipalFactory so that every time SignInManager sings user in, the claims are created.

   services.AddScoped<IUserClaimsPrincipalFactory<ApplicationUser>, UserClaimService>();
   

2. Implement a custom UserClaimsPrincipalFactory<TUser, TRole> like below

   public class UserClaimService : UserClaimsPrincipalFactory<ApplicationUser, ApplicationRole>
   {
       private readonly ApplicationDbContext _dbContext;
   
       public UserClaimService(ApplicationDbContext dbContext, UserManager<ApplicationUser> userManager, RoleManager<ApplicationRole> roleManager, IOptions<IdentityOptions> optionsAccessor) : base(userManager, roleManager, optionsAccessor)
       {
           _dbContext = dbContext;
       }
   
       public override async Task<ClaimsPrincipal> CreateAsync(ApplicationUser user)
       {
           var principal = await base.CreateAsync(user);
   
           // Get user claims from DB using dbContext
   
           // Add claims
           ((ClaimsIdentity)principal.Identity).AddClaim(new Claim("claimType", "some important claim value"));
   
           return principal;
       }
   }
   

3. Later in your application when you change something in the DB and would like to reflect this to your authenticated and signed in user, following lines achieves this:

   var user = await _userManager.GetUserAsync(User);
   await _signInManager.RefreshSignInAsync(user);
   

This makes sure user can see up to date information without requiring login again. I put this just before returning the result in the controller so that when the operation finishes, everything securely refreshed.

Instead of editing existing claims and creating race conditions for secure cookie etc, you just sign user in silently and refresh the state :)

Here you go:

            var user = User as ClaimsPrincipal;
            var identity = user.Identity as ClaimsIdentity;
            var claim = (from c in user.Claims
                         where c.Type == ClaimTypes.UserData
                         select c).Single();
            identity.RemoveClaim(claim);

taken from here.

To remove claim details from database we can use below code. Also, we need to sign in again to update the cookie values

 // create a new identity 
            var identity = new ClaimsIdentity(User.Identity);

            // Remove the existing claim value of current user from database
            if(identity.FindFirst("NameOfUser")!=null)
                await UserManager.RemoveClaimAsync(applicationUser.Id, identity.FindFirst("NameOfUser"));

            // Update customized claim 
            await UserManager.AddClaimAsync(applicationUser.Id, new Claim("NameOfUser", applicationUser.Name));

            // the claim has been updates, We need to change the cookie value for getting the updated claim
            AuthenticationManager.SignOut(identity.AuthenticationType);
            await SignInManager.SignInAsync(Userprofile, isPersistent: false, rememberBrowser: false);

            return RedirectToAction("Index", "Home");

Another (async) approach, using Identity's UserManager and SigninManager to reflect the change in the Identity cookie (and to optionally remove claims from db table AspNetUserClaims):

// Get User and a claims-based identity
ApplicationUser user = await UserManager.FindByIdAsync(User.Identity.GetUserId());
var Identity = new ClaimsIdentity(User.Identity);

// Remove existing claim and replace with a new value
await UserManager.RemoveClaimAsync(user.Id, Identity.FindFirst("AccountNo"));
await UserManager.AddClaimAsync(user.Id, new Claim("AccountNo", value));

// Re-Signin User to reflect the change in the Identity cookie
await SignInManager.SignInAsync(user, isPersistent: false, rememberBrowser: false);

// [optional] remove claims from claims table dbo.AspNetUserClaims, if not needed
var userClaims = UserManager.GetClaims(user.Id);
if (userClaims.Any())
{
  foreach (var item in userClaims)
  {
    UserManager.RemoveClaim(user.Id, item);
  }
}

I am using a .net core 2.2 app and used the following solution: in my statup.cs

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
        {
        ...
           services.AddIdentity<IdentityUser, IdentityRole>(options =>
               {
                  ...
               })
               .AddEntityFrameworkStores<AdminDbContext>()
               .AddDefaultTokenProviders()
               .AddSignInManager();

usage

  private readonly SignInManager<IdentityUser> _signInManager;


        public YourController(
                                    ...,
SignInManager<IdentityUser> signInManager)
        {
           ...
            _signInManager = signInManager;
        }

 public async Task<IActionResult> YourMethod() // <-NOTE IT IS ASYNC
        {
                var user = _userManager.FindByNameAsync(User.Identity.Name).Result;
                var claimToUse = ClaimsHelpers.CreateClaim(ClaimTypes.ActiveCompany, JsonConvert.SerializeObject(cc));
                var claimToRemove = _userManager.GetClaimsAsync(user).Result
                    .FirstOrDefault(x => x.Type == ClaimTypes.ActiveCompany.ToString());
                if (claimToRemove != null)
                {
                    var result = _userManager.ReplaceClaimAsync(user, claimToRemove, claimToUse).Result;
                    await _signInManager.RefreshSignInAsync(user); //<--- THIS
                }
                else ...