Using a private key when validating JWT

[Petr Dvořák]

Describe the problem

Documentation uses the following code snippet for the JWT verification example:

String token = "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXUyJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJhdXRoMCJ9.AbIJTDMFc7yUa5MhvcP03nJPyCPzZtQcGEp-zWfOkEE";
RSAPublicKey publicKey = //Get the key instance
RSAPrivateKey privateKey = //Get the key instance
try {
    Algorithm algorithm = Algorithm.RSA256(publicKey, privateKey);
    JWTVerifier verifier = JWT.require(algorithm)
        .withIssuer("auth0")
        .build(); //Reusable verifier instance
    DecodedJWT jwt = verifier.verify(token);
} catch (JWTVerificationException exception){
    //Invalid signature/claims
}

This suggests that the private key somehow enters the verification process, and that it is required. The documentation should clearly specify that the private key must be set to null in such case, to avoid accidental fetch of the plain private key in the code that does not need it.

Suggested update:

String token = "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXUyJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJhdXRoMCJ9.AbIJTDMFc7yUa5MhvcP03nJPyCPzZtQcGEp-zWfOkEE";
RSAPublicKey publicKey = //Get the key instance
try {
    Algorithm algorithm = Algorithm.RSA256(publicKey, null); // only public key is required
    JWTVerifier verifier = JWT.require(algorithm)
        .withIssuer("auth0")
        .build(); //Reusable verifier instance
    DecodedJWT jwt = verifier.verify(token);
} catch (JWTVerificationException exception){
    //Invalid signature/claims
}