Continued my web security studies. Looked into JSON Web Tokens (JWT). This time around went a bit better than my previous attempt at learning how to work with them. I think the improvement is the result of my increased knowledge on the basic concepts of authentication / authorization in software development. That being said, there are still a lot of concepts involved with JWTs that go right over my head because I have not fully comprehended some of the more complicated concepts / patterns in encryption.
Right now, I only know of specific encryption algorithms like RSA, or PGP. However, there are grouping for different types of encryptions that share similar features or use similar math equations to encrypt / decrypt the data. That is where I draw a blank. There is some information surrounding JWTs being similar to SSH public – private key pairs but I am not entirely sure how those work either.
Ultimately, Encryption is the next big topic that I need to better understand within this cybersecurity space. The problem is that I am feeling a bit burnt out from the PassportJS saga that I have been on for almost a month now. I don’t know if I want to dive into another huge endeavor like understanding and organizing the major concepts and history surrounding encryption. I might just have to tackle that issue the next time I revisit this topic. For now I think I need to get back to some projects??? I don’t know… I am still on the fence. We will see what happens.
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TLDR;
Okay, so here are the highlights of what I did:
- Backend -> Continued studying the concepts mentioned in the web security section. Read the JWT introduction article that explains how it works. A lot of the information went over my head or was superficially absorbed. There is clearly some information I am missing.
Goal For Round 8 of the #100DaysofCode Challenge
This is my eighth round of the “#100daysofcode” challenge. I will be continuing my work from round five, six, and seven into round eight. I was working through the book “Cracking the Coding Interview” by Gayle Laakmann McDowell. My goal was to become more familiar with algorithms and data structures. This goal was derived from my goal to better understand operating systems and key programs that I use in the terminal regularly e.g. Git. This goal was in turn derived from my desire to better understand the fundamental tools used for coding outside of popular GUIs. This in turn was derived from my desire to be a better back-end developer.
I am currently putting a pause on the algorithm work to build some backend/full stack projects. I primarily want to improve my skills with the back-end from an implementation perspective. I have improved tremendously in terminal and CLI skills but I lost focus due to how abstract the algorithm concepts got. I wanted to work on things that were more tangible until I can get to a position where I could directly benefit from improving my algorithm skills and theoretical knowledge. So that’s the focus right now. Build my backend skills and prove my full stack capabilities by building some dope projects.
Again, I still have no idea if my path is correct but I am walking down this road anyways. Worst case scenario I learn a whole bunch of stuff that will help me out on my own personal projects. Best case scenario I actually become one of those unicorn developers that go on to start a billion dollar company… You never know LOL.