passport.js successful authentication not calling next()

Question

I am using passport.js for authentication. It seems that upon successful authentication, passport does not call next() , so my Express route is never executed. I see this behavior for both authentication strategies I've implemented.

app.js

app.use(passport.initialize());
passport.use(authentication.local);
passport.use(authentication.bearer);

routes.setup(app, passport);

routes.js

function setup (app, passport) {
  // routes.authentication.token not called, despite successful authentication.
  app.post('/authentication/token', passport.authenticate('local'), 
      routes.authentication.token);
}

authentication.js

var local = new LocalStrategy(
  {
    usernameField: 'email',
    passwordField: 'password'
  },

  function (email, password, done) {
    var user = new User({ email: email });

    user.fetch({
      success: function (user) {
        if (bcrypt.compareSync(password, user.get('encryptedPassword'))) {
          // This line shows in the console, but the route after is never executed.
          console.log("LocalStrategy success!");
          done(null, user); // Tell passport we have success.
        } else {
          done(null, false, { message: 'The password given was incorrect.' });
        }
      },

      error: function (err) {
        done(null, false, { message: 'The email address (' + email + ') does not belong to any user.' });
      }
    });
  }
);

UPDATE

Here's a one-file replication of the issue, which may be easier to follow than the incomplete, multi-file issue above:

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Environment/Configuration
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
var config =  require('./lib/config');

var environment = process.env.NODE_ENV || 'development';
config.load(__dirname + '/config/environment', environment);
config.loadDev(__dirname + '/config/environment', environment);

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Requirements
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
var express = require('express')
  , passport = require('passport')
  , bcrypt = require('bcrypt')
  , LocalStrategy = require('passport-local').Strategy
  , User = require('./app/models/user');


// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// HTTP Server
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
var app = express();

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Middleware
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.use(express.methodOverride());
app.use(app.router);

app.use(passport.initialize());

passport.use(new LocalStrategy(
  {
    usernameField: 'email',
    passwordField: 'password'
  },

  function (email, password, done) {
    console.log("Authenticating user.", email, password);
    var user = new User({ email: email });

    user.fetch({
      success: function (user) {
        if (bcrypt.compareSync(password, user.get('encryptedPassword'))) {
          // This log statement shows in the console.
          console.log("LocalStrategy success!");
          done(null, user);
        } else {
          done(null, false, { message: 'The password given was incorrect.' });
        }
      },

      error: function (err) {
        console.log('LocalStrategy failure!');
        done(null, false, { message: 'The email address (' + email + ') does not belong to any user.' });
      },

      complete: function (user, res) {
        console.log(res);
      }
    });
  }
));

app.post('/authentication/token', passport.authenticate('local'), function (req, res, next) {
  // This line is never reached.
  console.log('I\'m authenticated!');
});

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Boot
// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
app.listen(process.env.PORT);
console.log('Server started on port: %d', process.env.PORT);

Answer 1

I had the same issue and i'd accidentally removed the callback from my serializeUser function.

Maybe check that both your serialization and deserialization functions are correct.

The code below is what i use, yours will probably differ, depending on if you are using the id of your user to serialize, or a different field.

passport.serializeUser(function(user, done) {
    done(null, user.id);
});

passport.deserializeUser(function(id, done) {
    User.findById(id, function(err, user) {
        done(err, user);
    });
});

Answer 2

The problem appears to have the ordering of the Express middleware. app.use(passport.initialize()); and passport setup needs to come before app.use(app.router);