nestjs/nest · error · UnauthorizedException

Unauthorized

Error message

Unauthorized

What it means

Error "Unauthorized" thrown in nestjs/nest.

Source

Thrown at sample/19-auth-jwt/src/auth/auth.guard.ts:33

  constructor(
    private jwtService: JwtService,
    private reflector: Reflector,
  ) {}

  async canActivate(context: ExecutionContext): Promise<boolean> {
    const isPublic = this.reflector.getAllAndOverride<boolean>(IS_PUBLIC_KEY, [
      context.getHandler(),
      context.getClass(),
    ]);
    if (isPublic) {
      // 💡 See this condition
      return true;
    }

    const request = context.switchToHttp().getRequest();
    const token = this.extractTokenFromHeader(request);
    if (!token) {
      throw new UnauthorizedException();
    }
    try {
      const payload = await this.jwtService.verifyAsync(token, {
        secret: jwtConstants.secret,
      });
      // 💡 We're assigning the payload to the request object here
      // so that we can access it in our route handlers
      request['user'] = payload;
    } catch {
      throw new UnauthorizedException();
    }
    return true;
  }

  private extractTokenFromHeader(request: Request): string | undefined {
    const [type, token] = request.headers.authorization?.split(' ') ?? [];
    return type === 'Bearer' ? token : undefined;
  }

View on GitHub (pinned to 6ec0e2783d)

Solutions

1. Send a valid JWT in the Authorization: Bearer <token> header; the guard throws Unauthorized when the token is missing or invalid.
2. Verify the token has not expired and was signed with the expected secret (jwtConstants.secret).
3. Ensure the Authorization header is formatted exactly as 'Bearer <token>'.

Example fix

// client request
fetch('/profile', {
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${accessToken}` }
});

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at sample/19-auth-jwt/src/auth/auth.guard.ts:33 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of nestjs/nest@6ec0e2783d (2026-08-03). Data as JSON: /data/errors/deed89a37b89ec77.json. Report an issue: GitHub.