Start with Identity
← Glossary
Standard

JWKS

JSON Web Key Set. A published set of public keys an issuer uses to sign tokens, letting relying parties verify JWT signatures and handle key rotation.

The JWKS endpoint is what makes key rotation possible without coordinating with every relying party, and caching it correctly is what makes rotation not cause an outage. Cache with a sane TTL, refetch on an unknown key id rather than on every request, and never disable signature verification to work around a rotation problem. Pinning a single key defeats the purpose and eventually breaks.

See also: JWT, ID token, OpenID Connect, validate a JWT recipe

Related terms
Last reviewed By SWI Community TeamSuggest a correctionHow we research