Authorization and Authentication in Rust: Libraries and…

Authorization and Authentication in Rust: A Complete Overview of Tools

Rust is a systems programming language increasingly used for building high-load web services. Security issues, including authentication (verifying user identity) and authorization (checking access rights), are particularly critical here. In this article, we will review the key libraries and approaches for implementing these mechanisms in the Rust ecosystem.

Main Authentication Approaches

Three strategies are most commonly used in Rust projects:

Session-based authentication — the server stores session state (usually in Redis or memory), and the client receives a cookie with the session ID.
JWT (JSON Web Token) — stateless tokens that contain claims and are signed by the server.
OAuth2 / OpenID Connect — decentralized authentication through third-party providers (Google, GitHub, Yandex).

Key Rust Libraries

1. `jsonwebtoken` — Working with JWT

The most popular library for creating and verifying JWT tokens. Supports HS256, RS256, ES256, and other algorithms.

use jsonwebtoken::{encode, decode, Header, Validation, EncodingKey, DecodingKey};

// Creating a tokenlet claims = serde_json::json!({    "sub": "user123",    "exp": 1740000000,    "role": "admin"});let token = encode(&Header::default(), &claims, &EncodingKey::from_secret("secret".as_ref())).unwrap();

// Verificationlet token_data = decode::<serde_json::Value>(    &token,    &DecodingKey::from_secret("secret".as_ref()),    &Validation::default()).unwrap();println!("Token belongs to: {}", token_data.claims["sub"]);

2. `bcrypt` — Password Hashing

Secure hashing with salt. Used for safely storing passwords in the database.

use bcrypt::{hash, verify, DEFAULT_COST};

let password = "super_secret_123";let hashed = hash(password, DEFAULT_COST).unwrap();println!("Hash: {}", hashed);

let valid = verify(password, &hashed).unwrap();println!("Password is valid: {}", valid); // true

3. `actix-web-identity` / `actix-web-flash` — Sessions for Actix Web

If you are using the Actix Web framework, these crates help manage sessions via cookies or Redis.

use actix_web::{web, App, HttpServer, HttpRequest, HttpResponse, middleware::IdentityService};use actix_web::cookie::Key;

async fn login(req: HttpRequest) -> HttpResponse {    let identity = req.extensions().get::<Identity>().unwrap();    identity.remember("user_id=42".to_string());    HttpResponse::Ok().body("Authorized")}

#[actix_web::main]async fn main() -> std::io::Result<()> {    HttpServer::new(|| {        App::new()            .wrap(IdentityService::new(Key::from(&[0; 32])))            .route("/login", web::get().to(login))    })    .bind("127.0.0.1:8080")?    .run()    .await}

4. `oauth2` — OAuth2 Client

A library for implementing OAuth2 flows (e.g., "Login with GitHub"). Supports Authorization Code, Client Credentials, and Refresh Token.

use oauth2::{basic::BasicClient, AuthUrl, TokenUrl, ClientId, ClientSecret, RedirectUrl};

let client = BasicClient::new(    ClientId::new("your_client_id".to_string()),    Some(ClientSecret::new("your_client_secret".to_string())),    AuthUrl::new("https://github.com/login/oauth/authorize".to_string()).unwrap(),    Some(TokenUrl::new("https://github.com/login/oauth/access_token".to_string()).unwrap())).set_redirect_uri(RedirectUrl::new("http://localhost:8080/callback".to_string()).unwrap());