The stateless dilemma
Self contained tokens are fast because no lookup is needed, but that means a leaked token stays valid until it expires. When a user logs out or an account is compromised, you need to revoke access immediately, which fights against statelessness.
Strategies
- Short lived access tokens with a refresh token limit exposure; revoke by refusing to issue new access tokens at refresh.
- A revocation list tracks revoked token identifiers, checked on each request for instant effect at the cost of a lookup.
- Token versioning stores a counter per user; bumping it invalidates all of that user existing tokens at once.
Picking a balance
Pure statelessness gives speed but slow revocation. Adding a small denylist or version check restores fast revocation while keeping most validation local. The right point depends on how fast you must cut off a compromised session.
Key idea
Revocation trades statelessness for speed of cutoff, using short lifetimes plus a denylist or version counter to invalidate tokens before they expire.