How to do authentication with Node.js, Express and Mongoose?

Some useful links:

how to implement login auth in node.js

creating registration and login form in node.js and mongodb

Also session management isn't done by Mongoose, but by connect-mongodb or connect-redis. You can checkout an example on how to do user auth and session management in a real application here:

https://github.com/alexyoung/nodepad/blob/master/app.js

Further explanations for that app you can find here: http://dailyjs.com/tag/lmawa or http://dailyjs.com/2010/12/06/node-tutorial-5/

Just use mongoose-auth by Brian Noguchi https://github.com/bnoguchi/mongoose-auth

It's a drop in solution for your question, it's well documented and extensible.

EDIT

mongoose-auth is no longer maintained. If you need to make it work with more recent versions of mongoose (ie > v3.x.x) and express (ie. > v3.x.x), here's an excerpt from a package.json file I'm currently using in production (It's hacky but it works):

"everyauth": "https://github.com/bnoguchi/everyauth/tarball/express3","mongoose-3x-types": "~1.0.5","mongoose-auth": "https://github.com/cbou/mongoose-auth/tarball/everymodule-fix",

I you are starting a new project don't use mongoose-auth, instead try out passport. It offers the same functionality, it's very flexible, however it has a different api. It's part of the locomotive MVC framework and as such it's actively maintained.

I've posted a complete example of a complete auth system using mongoose + expressjs on here, in case you want to take a look:

Simple login page in nodejs using express and passport with mongodb