How to add step-up authentication to your Next.js app with WorkOS AuthKit

Step-up authentication adds a fresh identity check before high-risk actions rather than treating a long-lived session as sufficient, helping mitigate risks from unattended devices, stolen cookies, or shared machines. The tutorial demonstrates how to build this in a Next.js application using WorkOS AuthKit, protecting an irreversible “revoke all API keys” action by checking the access token’s `auth_time` server-side against a five-minute freshness window and requiring reauthentication through OIDC’s `max_age` parameter when it is stale. AuthKit preserves the existing session ID while updating `auth_time` only after an interactive challenge, such as password entry, MFA, or SSO verification; client-side freshness hooks are used only to inform the interface, while the server action remains the security boundary. The implementation includes authentication routes, middleware coverage, a validated return path to prevent open redirects, and a resume mechanism that returns users to the confirmation dialog without automatically executing the destructive action. It also recommends logging reauthentication events for auditing, selecting freshness windows according to action sensitivity, and avoiding common mistakes such as trusting client checks, assuming token refreshes count as authentication, or losing user context during redirects.

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