Authenticate from a Non-Trusted Device

Steps

There are 2 steps in authenticating a Non-Trusted Device

Make a request from the Non-Trusted Device and wait for approval
Approve the request from a Trusted Device.

Step 1: Making an Authentication Request

Same as how it works with Authenticating from a Trusted Device, to authenticate a device, call the cotter?.loginWithTrustedDevice function. This will automatically detect whether the current device is a Trusted Device or not.

Example:

class SomeUIVC: UIViewController {
  var cotter: Cotter?

  override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    self.cotter = Cotter(
      apiSecretKey: "588d6f67-0981-4718-899b-bcd512de1aca",
      apiKeyID: "w4FK6Zz0XIhtGY3o5biI",
      cotterURL: "https://www.cotter.app/api/v0",
      userID: "hello@example.com",
      configuration: [:]
    );
  }

  // On Button Click
  @IBAction func login(_ sender: UIButton) {
    func callback(token: String, err: Error?) {
      if err != nil {
        // Failed login. Go to Error Page View Controller
        print(err?.localizedDescription)
        self.performSegue(withIdentifier: "segueToErrorView", sender: self)
        return
      }
      // Successful login. Go to Dashboard View Controller
      self.performSegue(withIdentifier: "segueToDashboard", sender: self)
    }

    /* Login using Cotter's Trusted Device Feature. */
    self.cotter?.loginWithTrustedDevice(vc: self, cb: callback)
  }
}

JSON Result:

{
  "ID": 1361, // Event ID
  "CreatedAt": "2020-02-27T22:22:48.705212512Z",
  "UpdatedAt": "2020-02-27T22:22:48.705212512Z",
  "DeletedAt": null,
  "client_user_id": "1014", // your client's User ID
  "issuer": "afcabd98-745f-4b9e-98de-af968d9951d3", // your API Key
  "event": "<EVENT NAME>",// requested event (LOGIN, or TRANSACTION, etc)
  "ip": "192.168.232.2", 
  "location": "Unknown",
  "timestamp": "1582842167",
  "method": "TRUSTED_DEVICE", // auth method: TRUSTED_DEVICE (other choices are PIN / BIOMETRIC)
  "new": false, // Is this a new pending event. More explanation in the next section about Non-Trusted Device
  "approved": true, // Is this event approved.
  "signature": "oonMGCAxp3..." // Signature to make sure this event comes from Cotter's server
}

Event Name

The event refers to what type of authentication event was requested. Example: LOGIN event, TRANSACTION event, UPDATE_PROFILE event, etc.

Callback Class

The callback should be filled with the View Controller to go to when the request is approved. For example, if this is a login request, and the request is approved, then the callback can perform a segue to your Dashboard View Controller. Else, if the login completely failed (.failure), then the callback can perform a segue to your 'Login Failed' View Controller.

When an Authentication Event is requested TRUSTED_DEVICE, there are 2 possible cases:

Case 1: The current device is a Trusted Device

You will be automatically approved if the request is coming from a Trusted Device. This is covered in Authenticate from a Trusted Device.

Case 2: The current device is NOT a Trusted Device

If the current device is not a Trusted Device, then it will create a pending event. This pending event will need to be approved by a Trusted Device. You should see a JSON result looking like:

{
  ...
  "method": "TRUSTED_DEVICE",
  // This is a pending event. 
  // It will turn to false once there's a Trusted Device 
  // responded to approve or reject this event
  "new": true, 

  // Since it's a pending event, it's not yet approved.
  "approved": false
}

The SDK will automatically show a prompt for the user to approve the event from a Trusted Device.

Step 2: How to approve a pending request from a Trusted Device

Note: This is the flow for the user's trusted device to approve the login from the non-trusted device.

To check if there's a pending event for this user, you can call the cotter?.getEventTrustedDevice method from a Trusted Device. You can also setup a Push Notification to be sent to the Trusted Device when there's a new Login Request.

Example:

class SomeUIVC: UIViewController {
  var cotter: Cotter?

  override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    self.cotter = Cotter(
      apiSecretKey: "588d6f67-0981-4718-899b-bcd512de1aca",
      apiKeyID: "w4FK6Zz0XIhtGY3o5biI",
      cotterURL: "https://www.cotter.app/api/v0",
      userID: "hello@example.com",
      configuration: [:]
    )
  }

  // On Button Click
  @IBAction func checkForPendingEvent(_ sender: UIButton) {

    /* Checks for pending event associated with the userID. If an event exists, 
        a prompt in the trusted device would pop up. If not, nothing happens. 
        As such, you don't need to pass in a callback function in this case. */
    self.cotter?.getEventTrustedDevice(vc: self, cb: nil)
  }
}

In the future, your app that is installed in a Trusted Device will receive a notification and this method is invoked when the notification is opened.

For now, you should tell your user to press a button and invoke this method when they try to login from a non-trusted device.

The SDK will open a prompt in the Trusted Device asking if the user want to approve or reject the authentication request

Receiving the result and check if the request was approved

Note: This is the flow for the user's non-trusted device that requested the login.

Case 1: The request is approved

When the request is approved, the SDK will automatically redirect to your Callback function, which will be in the form of FinalAuthCallback.

Handle the response in your callback class

If the login is approved, then an Error does not exist, and you can redirect the user to, for instance, the Dashboard View Controller (Successful login).

Example:

func callback(token: String, err: Error?) {
  if err != nil {
    // Failed login. Go to Error Page View Controller
    print(err?.localizedDescription)
    self.performSegue(withIdentifier: "segueToErrorView", sender: self)
    return
  }
  // Successful login. Go to Dashboard View Controller
  self.performSegue(withIdentifier: "segueToDashboard", sender: self)
}

Case 2: The request is rejected

However, if the request is not approved for 1 minute, the prompt in the Non-Trusted Device will show an error message (will auto-dismiss in 3 seconds). The prompt will not show an error immediately when the Trusted Device denied the request, i.e. there is no difference between rejection and no response from the Trusted Device.

In this case, after the prompt is dismissed, the user will remain on the same view where he/she started the prompted the authentication request.

PreviousSign In with Device NextPush Notification

Last updated 4 years ago