Troubleshooting a 400 Bad Request Error when calling ValidateClientAuthentication in ASP.NET WebApi, even after using context.Validated()

I am currently facing an issue with my angularjs HTML client connected to a WebApi project. The APIs work fine when tested using POSTMAN or other REST clients. However, when I try to use browsers with my angularjs client, the browsers always initiate preflight requests with OPTIONS. At this point, my WebAPI consistently responds with a 400 Bad Request error, specifically during the "/api/token" phase.

I have meticulously debugged every aspect of my WebAPI project and made adjustments based on various responses from the SO community on enabling CORS. Some of the methods I have attempted include modifying the web.config to add headers enabling CORS for every request, integrating CORS into the WebApi startup process, and enabling CORS for "/token" overridden functions.

My Angularjs TypeScript call to "/api/token" looks like this:

logIn = (userName: string, userPassword: string): ng.IPromise<void> => {
    var postData = {
        "grant_type": "password",
        "client_id": this.appConfiguration.ClientId,
        "client_secret": this.appConfiguration.ClientSecret,
        "username": userName,
        "password": userPassword
    };
    return this.$http.post<models.LoggedUserModel>('http://local.web.api/api/token', $.param(postData), {
        headers: {
            'Accept': 'application/json',
            'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
        }
    }).then((result) => {
        this.localStorageService.set('Auth', result);
        this.goHome(true);
    }).catch((error) => {
        console.warn(error);
    });
}

Here is the primary function called in my WebApi:

  public override async Task ValidateClientAuthentication(OAuthValidateClientAuthenticationContext context)
  {
      // Handle CORS requests
      if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(context.OwinContext.Request.Headers.Get("Origin")))
      {
          context.OwinContext.Response.Headers.Add("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", new string[] { "*" });
      }
      try
      {
          // Retrieve clientId and clientSecret from the request body
          string clientId;
          string clientSecret;
          if (context.TryGetFormCredentials(out clientId, out clientSecret))
          {
              // Execute our specific application security code....
          }
          else
          {
              // This is part of enabling CORS
              if (context.Request.Method.ToUpper() == "OPTIONS")
              {
                  context.Validated(); // Return OK to preflight requests with empty body
              }
          }
      }
      finally
      {
          // Log activities...
      }
  }

Despite leaving out OWIN Cors configurations, adding headers, and calling 'context.Validated()', the issue persists. The behavior I am encountering is detailed below:

Firefox Network Tab:
--------------------
Request URL: http://local.web.api/api/token
Request method: OPTIONS
Remote address: 127.0.0.1:80
Status code: 400 Bad Request
Version: HTTP/1.1
...

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on how to proceed with this issue as it is a new challenge for me, although I have experience with other WebApi projects and angularjs integration.

Answer №1

Well, after some investigation, I managed to pinpoint the problem. I had set up an http interceptor in my angularjs code to handle user authentication by automatically adding the Authorization header with the Bearer token when necessary. However, I had made a mistake in the implementation.

I mistakenly introduced a new property called bypassToken in the config object as a boolean flag to control whether the Authorization header should be added. Removing this unnecessary property resolved the issue. Strangely, everything seems to be working fine now, with all headers being sent correctly, including the Content-Type which was previously missing. It's odd that angularjs did not throw any warnings despite my mistake.

// http auth interceptor
angularApplication.factory('httpAuthInterceptor', ['$rootScope', '$injector', '$location', ($rootScope, $injector, $location): ng.IHttpInterceptor => {

    var $q: ng.IQService = $injector.get('$q');
    var localStorageService: ng.local.storage.ILocalStorageService = $injector.get('localStorageService');

    return {
        request: (config: ng.IRequestConfig): ng.IRequestConfig => {
            // check if headers are present
            config.headers = config.headers || {};

            // problematic code removed here
            // if (!config.bypassToken) {

            // check if user is logged in
            var loggedUserInfo = localStorageService.get<models.LoggedUserInfoModel>('Auth');
            if (loggedUserInfo) {
                config.headers['Authorization'] = 'Bearer ' + loggedUserInfo.access_token;
            }
            return config;
        },
        responseError: (rejection)  => {
            // check if user is logged in
            var loggedUserInfo = localStorageService.get<models.LoggedUserInfoModel>('Auth');
            if ((rejection.status === 401) && (loggedUserInfo)) {

                // user needs to log in again
                localStorageService.remove('Auth');
                $location.path('/home');
                console.error(rejection);
            }
            return $q.reject(rejection);
        }
    };
}]);

Thank you for your assistance. I'm sharing this experience here in case it helps someone else. Lesson learned: avoid unnecessary meddling with the config object!

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