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OTP for specific users

In this page, we will show you how to implement an MFA policy that requires certain users to do the OTP challenge via email or sms. You can decide which those users are based on any criteria. For example:

  • Only users that have an admin role require to do OTP; OR
  • Only users that have enabled OTP on their account require to do OTP; OR
  • Only users that have a paid account require to do OTP.

Whatever the criteria is, the steps to implementing this type of a flow is the same.

note

We assume that the first factor is email password or social login, but the same set of steps will be applicable for other first factor types as well.

Single tenant setup#

Backend setup#

Example 1: Only enable OTP for users that have an `admin` role

To start with, we configure the backend in the following way:

import supertokens, { User, RecipeUserId, } from "supertokens-node";
import { UserContext } from "supertokens-node/types";
import ThirdPartyEmailPassword from "supertokens-node/recipe/thirdpartyemailpassword"
import MultiFactorAuth from "supertokens-node/recipe/multifactorauth"
import Passwordless from "supertokens-node/recipe/passwordless"
import Session from "supertokens-node/recipe/session"
import UserRoles from "supertokens-node/recipe/userroles"
import AccountLinking from "supertokens-node/recipe/accountlinking"
import { AccountInfoWithRecipeId } from "supertokens-node/recipe/accountlinking/types";
import { SessionContainerInterface } from "supertokens-node/recipe/session/types";

supertokens.init({
    supertokens: {
        connectionURI: "..."
    },
    appInfo: {
        appName: "...",
        apiDomain: "...",
        websiteDomain: "..."
    },
    recipeList: [
        Session.init(),
        UserRoles.init(),
        ThirdPartyEmailPassword.init({
            //...
        }),
        Passwordless.init({
            contactMethod: "EMAIL",
            flowType: "USER_INPUT_CODE"
        }),
        AccountLinking.init({
            shouldDoAutomaticAccountLinking: async (newAccountInfo: AccountInfoWithRecipeId & { recipeUserId?: RecipeUserId }, user: User | undefined, session: SessionContainerInterface | undefined, tenantId: string, userContext: UserContext) => {
                // This will enable first factor account linking. 
                // For example, if a user logs in via email password with email e1, 
                // and then signs out and logs in via Google with the same email, 
                // we will link the accounts (as long as the email password user's email is 
                // verified).
                // It will also enable account linking for MFA purposes.
                return {
                    shouldAutomaticallyLink: true,
                    shouldRequireVerification: true
                }
            }
        }),
        MultiFactorAuth.init({
            firstFactors: ["emailpassword", "thirdparty"],
            override: {
                functions: (originalImplementation) => {
                    return {
                        ...originalImplementation,
                        getMFARequirementsForAuth: async function (input) {
                            let roles = await UserRoles.getRolesForUser(input.tenantId, (await input.user).id)
                            if (roles.roles.includes("admin")) {
                                // we only want otp-email for admins
                                return ["otp-email"]
                            } else {
                                // no MFA for non admin users.
                                return []
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        })
    ]
})

We override the getMFARequirementsForAuth function to indicate that otp-email must be completed only for users that have the admin role. You can also have any other criteria here.

Example 2: Ask for OTP only for users that have enabled OTP on their account

To start with, we configure the backend in the following way:

import supertokens, { User, RecipeUserId, } from "supertokens-node";
import { UserContext } from "supertokens-node/types";
import ThirdPartyEmailPassword from "supertokens-node/recipe/thirdpartyemailpassword"
import MultiFactorAuth, { MultiFactorAuthClaim } from "supertokens-node/recipe/multifactorauth"
import Passwordless from "supertokens-node/recipe/passwordless"
import Session from "supertokens-node/recipe/session"
import AccountLinking from "supertokens-node/recipe/accountlinking"
import { AccountInfoWithRecipeId } from "supertokens-node/recipe/accountlinking/types";
import { SessionContainerInterface } from "supertokens-node/recipe/session/types";

supertokens.init({
    supertokens: {
        connectionURI: "..."
    },
    appInfo: {
        appName: "...",
        apiDomain: "...",
        websiteDomain: "..."
    },
    recipeList: [
        Session.init(),
        ThirdPartyEmailPassword.init({
            //...
        }),
        Passwordless.init({
            contactMethod: "EMAIL",
            flowType: "USER_INPUT_CODE",
            override: {
                apis: (oI) => {
                    return {
                        ...oI,
                        consumeCodePOST: async function (input) {
                            let response = await oI.consumeCodePOST!(input);
                            if (response.status === "OK" && input.session !== undefined) {
                                // We do this only if a session exists, which means that it's not being called for first factor login.
                                
                                // OTP challenge completed successfully. We save that this user has enabled otp-email in the user metadata.
                                // The multifactorauth recipe will pick this value up next time the user is trying to login, and
                                // ask them to enter the OTP code.
                                await MultiFactorAuth.addToRequiredSecondaryFactorsForUser(input.session.getUserId(), MultiFactorAuth.FactorIds.OTP_EMAIL);
                            }
                            return response;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }),
        AccountLinking.init({
            shouldDoAutomaticAccountLinking: async (newAccountInfo: AccountInfoWithRecipeId & { recipeUserId?: RecipeUserId }, user: User | undefined, session: SessionContainerInterface | undefined, tenantId: string, userContext: UserContext) => {
                // This will enable first factor account linking. 
                // For example, if a user logs in via email password with email e1, 
                // and then signs out and logs in via Google with the same email, 
                // we will link the accounts (as long as the email password user's email is 
                // verified).
                // It will also enable account linking for MFA purposes.
                return {
                    shouldAutomaticallyLink: true,
                    shouldRequireVerification: true
                }
            }
        }),
        MultiFactorAuth.init({
            firstFactors: ["emailpassword", "thirdparty"],
        })
    ]
})
  • We simply initialise the multi factor auth recipe here without any override to getMFARequirementsForAuth. The default implementation of this function already checks what factors are enabled for a user and returns those. So all we need to do is mark otp-email as enabled for a user as soon as they have completed the OTP challenge successfuly. This happens in the consumeCodePOST API override as shown above. Once the code is consumed successfully, we mark the otp-email factor as enabled for the user, and the next time they login, they will be asked to complete the OTP challenge.
  • Notice that before we call addToRequiredSecondaryFactorsForUser, we check if there is an input session or not. We only want to call addToRequiredSecondaryFactorsForUser function if there is a session which indicates that the user has finished some first factor already.

In both of the examples above, notice that we have initialised the Passwordless recipe in the recipeList. In this example, we only want to enable email based OTP, so we set the contactMethod to EMAIL and flowType to USER_INPUT_CODE (i.e. otp). If instead, you want to use phone sms based OTP, you should set the contact method to PHONE. If you want to give users both the options, or for some users use email, and for others use phone, you should set contactMethod to EMAIL_OR_PHONE.

We have also enabled the account linking feature since it's required for MFA to work. The above enables account linking for first and second factor login, but if you only want to enable it for second factor, see this section.

Once the user finishes the first factor (for example, with emailpassword), their session access token payload will look like this (for those that require OTP):

{
    "st-mfa": {
        "c": {
            "emailpassword": 1702877939,
        },
        "v": false
    }
}

The v being false indicates that there are still factors that are pending. After the user has finished otp-email, the payload will look like:

{
    "st-mfa": {
        "c": {
            "emailpassword": 1702877939,
            "otp-email": 1702877999
        },
        "v": true
    }
}

Indicating that the user has finished all required factors, and should be allowed to access the app.

caution

If you are already using Passwordless or ThirdPartyPasswordless in your app as a first factor, you do not need to explicitly initialise the Passwordless recipe again.

Frontend setup#

There are two parts to this:

  • Configuring the frontend to show the OTP challenge UI when required during login / sign up
  • Allowing users to enable / disable OTP challenge on their account via the settings page (If you are following Example 2 from above).

The first part is identical to the steps mentioned in this section, so please follow that.

The second part, which is only applicable in case you want to allow users to enable / disable OTP themselves, can be achieved by creating the following flow on your frontend:

  • When the user navigates to their settings page, you can show them if OTP challenge is enabled or not.
  • If enabled, you can allow them to disable it, or vice versa.

In order to know if the user has enabled OTP, you can make an API your backend which calls the following function:

import MultiFactorAuth from "supertokens-node/recipe/multifactorauth";

async function isOTPEmailEnabledForUser(userId: string) {
    let factors = await MultiFactorAuth.getRequiredSecondaryFactorsForUser(userId)
    return factors.includes("otp-email")
}

If the user wants to enable or disable otp-email for them, you can make an API on your backend which calls the following function:

import MultiFactorAuth from "supertokens-node/recipe/multifactorauth";

async function enableMFAForUser(userId: string) {
    await MultiFactorAuth.addToRequiredSecondaryFactorsForUser(userId, "otp-email")
}

async function disableMFAForUser(userId: string) {
    await MultiFactorAuth.removeFromRequiredSecondaryFactorsForUser(userId, "otp-email")
}
note

If instead you want to work with otp-phone, you can replace otp-email with otp-phone in the above snippets. Also make sure that the contactMethod is set to PHONE in the Passwordless recipe on the frontend (for pre built UI) and backend.

Multi tenant setup#

Backend setup#

A user can be a part of several tenants. So if you want OTP to be enabled for a specific user across all the tenants that they are a part of, the steps are the same as in the Backend setup section above.

However, if you want OTP to be enabled for a specific user, for a specific tenant (or a sub set of tenants that the user is a part of), then you will have to add additional logic to the getMFARequirementsForAuth function override. Modifying the example code from the Backend setup section above:

Example 1: Only enable OTP for users that have an `admin` role
import supertokens, { User, RecipeUserId, } from "supertokens-node";
import { UserContext } from "supertokens-node/types";
import ThirdPartyEmailPassword from "supertokens-node/recipe/thirdpartyemailpassword"
import MultiFactorAuth from "supertokens-node/recipe/multifactorauth"
import Passwordless from "supertokens-node/recipe/passwordless"
import Session from "supertokens-node/recipe/session"
import UserRoles from "supertokens-node/recipe/userroles"
import AccountLinking from "supertokens-node/recipe/accountlinking"
import { AccountInfoWithRecipeId } from "supertokens-node/recipe/accountlinking/types";
import { SessionContainerInterface } from "supertokens-node/recipe/session/types";

supertokens.init({
    supertokens: {
        connectionURI: "..."
    },
    appInfo: {
        appName: "...",
        apiDomain: "...",
        websiteDomain: "..."
    },
    recipeList: [
        Session.init(),
        UserRoles.init(),
        ThirdPartyEmailPassword.init({
            //...
        }),
        Passwordless.init({
            contactMethod: "EMAIL",
            flowType: "USER_INPUT_CODE"
        }),
        AccountLinking.init({
            shouldDoAutomaticAccountLinking: async (newAccountInfo: AccountInfoWithRecipeId & { recipeUserId?: RecipeUserId }, user: User | undefined, session: SessionContainerInterface | undefined, tenantId: string, userContext: UserContext) => {
                // This will enable first factor account linking. 
                // For example, if a user logs in via email password with email e1, 
                // and then signs out and logs in via Google with the same email, 
                // we will link the accounts (as long as the email password user's email is 
                // verified).
                // It will also enable account linking for MFA purposes.
                return {
                    shouldAutomaticallyLink: true,
                    shouldRequireVerification: true
                }
            }
        }),
        MultiFactorAuth.init({
            firstFactors: ["emailpassword", "thirdparty"],
            override: {
                functions: (originalImplementation) => {
                    return {
                        ...originalImplementation,
                        getMFARequirementsForAuth: async function (input) {
                            let roles = await UserRoles.getRolesForUser(input.tenantId, (await input.user).id)
                            if (roles.roles.includes("admin") && (await input.requiredSecondaryFactorsForTenant).includes("otp-email")) {
                                // we only want otp-email for admins
                                return ["otp-email"]
                            } else {
                                // no MFA for non admin users.
                                return []
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        })
    ]
})
  • The implementation of shouldRequireOTPEmailForTenant is entirely up to you.
Example 2: Ask for OTP only for users that have enabled OTP on their account
import supertokens, { User, RecipeUserId, } from "supertokens-node";
import { UserContext } from "supertokens-node/types";
import ThirdPartyEmailPassword from "supertokens-node/recipe/thirdpartyemailpassword"
import MultiFactorAuth, { MultiFactorAuthClaim } from "supertokens-node/recipe/multifactorauth"
import Passwordless from "supertokens-node/recipe/passwordless"
import Session from "supertokens-node/recipe/session"
import AccountLinking from "supertokens-node/recipe/accountlinking"
import { AccountInfoWithRecipeId } from "supertokens-node/recipe/accountlinking/types";
import { SessionContainerInterface } from "supertokens-node/recipe/session/types";

supertokens.init({
    supertokens: {
        connectionURI: "..."
    },
    appInfo: {
        appName: "...",
        apiDomain: "...",
        websiteDomain: "..."
    },
    recipeList: [
        Session.init(),
        ThirdPartyEmailPassword.init({
            //...
        }),
        Passwordless.init({
            contactMethod: "EMAIL",
            flowType: "USER_INPUT_CODE",
            override: {
                apis: (oI) => {
                    return {
                        ...oI,
                        consumeCodePOST: async function (input) {
                            let response = await oI.consumeCodePOST!(input);
                            if (response.status === "OK" && input.session !== undefined) {
                                // We do this only if a session exists, which means that it's not being called for first factor login.
                                
                                // OTP challenge completed successfully. We save that this user has enabled otp-email in the user metadata.
                                // The multifactorauth recipe will pick this value up next time the user is trying to login, and
                                // ask them to enter the OTP code.
                                await MultiFactorAuth.addToRequiredSecondaryFactorsForUser(input.session.getUserId(), MultiFactorAuth.FactorIds.OTP_EMAIL);
                            }
                            return response;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }),
        AccountLinking.init({
            shouldDoAutomaticAccountLinking: async (newAccountInfo: AccountInfoWithRecipeId & { recipeUserId?: RecipeUserId }, user: User | undefined, session: SessionContainerInterface | undefined, tenantId: string, userContext: UserContext) => {
                // This will enable first factor account linking. 
                // For example, if a user logs in via email password with email e1, 
                // and then signs out and logs in via Google with the same email, 
                // we will link the accounts (as long as the email password user's email is 
                // verified).
                // It will also enable account linking for MFA purposes.
                return {
                    shouldAutomaticallyLink: true,
                    shouldRequireVerification: true
                }
            }
        }),
        MultiFactorAuth.init({
            firstFactors: ["emailpassword", "thirdparty"],
            override: {
                functions: (originalImplementation) => {
                    return {
                        ...originalImplementation,
                        getMFARequirementsForAuth: async function (input) {
                            if ((await input.requiredSecondaryFactorsForUser).includes("otp-email")) {
                                if ((await input.requiredSecondaryFactorsForTenant).includes("otp-email")) {
                                    return ["otp-email"]
                                }
                            }
                            // no otp-email required for input.user, with the input.tenant.
                            return []
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        })
    ]
})

We provide an override for getMFARequirementsForAuth which checks if otp-email is enabled for the user, and also take into account the tenantId to decide if we want to have this user go through the otp-email flow whilst logging into this tenant. The implementation of shouldRequireOTPEmailForTenant is entirely up to you.

Frontend setup#

The frontend setup is identical to the frontend setup section above.

Protecting frontend and backend routes#

See the section on protecting frontend and backend routes.

Email / SMS sending and design#

By default, the email template used for otp-email login is as shown here, and the default SMS template is as shown here. The method for sending them is via an email and sms sending service that we provide.

If you would like to learn more about this, or change the content of the email, or the method by which they are sent, checkout the email / sms delivery section in the recipe docs:

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