Socket authentication with Pow

Here’s what I do in a production app.

Update the fetch/2 method so we can expose a get_credentials/3 method to the APIAuthPlug:

defmodule MyAppWeb.APIAuthPlug do
  @moduledoc false
  use Pow.Plug.Base

  alias Plug.Conn
  alias Pow.{Config, Plug, Store.CredentialsCache}
  alias PowPersistentSession.Store.PersistentSessionCache

  @doc """
  Fetches the user from access token.
  """
  @impl true
  @spec fetch(Conn.t(), Config.t()) :: {Conn.t(), map() | nil}
  def fetch(conn, config) do
    with {:ok, signed_token} <- fetch_access_token(conn),
         {:ok, token}        <- get_credentials(conn, signed_token, config) do
      {conn, user}
    else
      _any -> {conn, nil}
    end
  end

  @spec get_credentials(Conn.t(), binary(), Config.t()) :: map() | nil
  def get_credentials(conn, signed_token, config) do
    with {:ok, token}      <- verify_token(conn, signed_token, config),
         {user, _metadata} <- CredentialsCache.get(store_config(config), token) do
      {conn, user}
    else
      _any -> {conn, nil}
    end
  end

  @doc """
  Creates an access and renewal token for the user.

  The tokens are added to the `conn.private` as `:api_access_token` and
  `:api_renewal_token`. The renewal token is stored in the access token
  metadata and vice versa.
  """
  @impl true
  @spec create(Conn.t(), map(), Config.t()) :: {Conn.t(), map()}
  def create(conn, user, config) do
    store_config  = store_config(config)
    access_token  = Pow.UUID.generate()
    renewal_token = Pow.UUID.generate()
    conn          =
      conn
      |> Conn.put_private(:api_access_token, sign_token(conn, access_token, config))
      |> Conn.put_private(:api_renewal_token, sign_token(conn, renewal_token, config))

    CredentialsCache.put(store_config, access_token, {user, [renewal_token: renewal_token]})
    PersistentSessionCache.put(store_config, renewal_token, {[id: user.id], [access_token: access_token]})

    {conn, user}
  end

  @doc """
  Delete the access token from the cache.

  The renewal token is deleted by fetching it from the access token metadata.
  """
  @impl true
  @spec delete(Conn.t(), Config.t()) :: Conn.t()
  def delete(conn, config) do
    store_config = store_config(config)

    with {:ok, signed_token} <- fetch_access_token(conn),
         {:ok, token}        <- verify_token(conn, signed_token, config),
         {_user, metadata}   <- CredentialsCache.get(store_config, token) do

      PersistentSessionCache.delete(store_config, metadata[:renewal_token])
      CredentialsCache.delete(store_config, token)
    else
      _any -> :ok
    end

    conn
  end

  @doc """
  Creates new tokens using the renewal token.

  The access token, if any, will be deleted by fetching it from the renewal
  token metadata. The renewal token will be deleted from the store after the
  it has been fetched.
  """
  @spec renew(Conn.t(), Config.t()) :: {Conn.t(), map() | nil}
  def renew(conn, config) do
    store_config = store_config(config)

    with {:ok, signed_token} <- fetch_access_token(conn),
         {:ok, token}        <- verify_token(conn, signed_token, config),
         {clauses, metadata} <- PersistentSessionCache.get(store_config, token) do

      CredentialsCache.delete(store_config, metadata[:access_token])
      PersistentSessionCache.delete(store_config, token)

      load_and_create_session(conn, {clauses, metadata}, config)
    else
      _any -> {conn, nil}
    end
  end

  defp load_and_create_session(conn, {clauses, _metadata}, config) do
    case Pow.Operations.get_by(clauses, config) do
      nil  -> {conn, nil}
      user -> create(conn, user, config)
    end
  end

  defp sign_token(conn, token, config) do
    Plug.sign_token(conn, signing_salt(), token, config)
  end

  defp signing_salt(), do: Atom.to_string(__MODULE__)

  defp fetch_access_token(conn) do
    case Conn.get_req_header(conn, "authorization") do
      [token | _rest] -> {:ok, token}
      _any            -> :error
    end
  end

  defp verify_token(conn, token, config),
    do: Plug.verify_token(conn, signing_salt(), token, config)

  defp store_config(config) do
    backend = Config.get(config, :cache_store_backend, Pow.Store.Backend.EtsCache)

    [backend: backend]
  end
end

Then this can be used in the UserSocket:

  def connect(%{"token" => token} = _params, socket, %{pow_config: config}) do
    %Plug.Conn{secret_key_base: socket.endpoint.config(:secret_key_base)}
    |> ApiAuthPlug.get_credentials(token, config)
    |> case do
      nil -> :error

      {user, metadata} ->
        fingerprint = Keyword.fetch!(metadata, :fingerprint)
        socket      =
          socket
          |> assign(:session_fingerprint, fingerprint)
          |> assign(:user_id, user.id)

        {:ok, socket}
    end
  end
  # ...

  def id(%{assigns: %{session_fingerprint: session_fingerprint}}), do: "user_socket:#{session_fingerprint}"

Notice that I’m passing pow_config in the connect_info. This is done in the endpoint:

  @pow_config otp_app: :my_app

  # ...

  socket("/user_socket", MyAppWeb.UserSocket,
    websocket: [
      connect_info: [pow_config: @pow_config]
    ]
  )

  # ...

  plug Pow.Plug.Session, @pow_config

I’m working on a Pow.Phoenix.Socket module to help with all this though

Have you had a read through Instructions for WebSocket usage (e.g. Phoenix Channels and LiveView) · Issue #271 · pow-auth/pow · GitHub ? I don’t know if that covers your use case - there are a few options presented there.