Right now /login answers every try. A script could send thousands of passwords for one email until one works. A rate limit stops it: the shop counts the failed logins of each email, and after 3 it answers 429 Too Many Requests without even checking the password.
Counting with an object: an object can map each key to a count. A key that isn't there yet gives undefined, and || 0 turns that into 0. Here it counts the likes of each product:
const LIKES = {};
app.post("/products/:productId/like", (req, res) => {
const productId = req.params.productId;
LIKES[productId] = (LIKES[productId] || 0) + 1;
res.json({ likes: LIKES[productId] });
});
Three details make the limit work. The check comes first, before the password: once the count is 3, even the right password gets 429, so a guesser can't tell a right guess from a wrong one. Emails with no account are counted too, so the answers look the same whether the account exists or not. And a right password sets the count back to 0, so three typos spread over a year don't lock anyone out.
Ana's password is secret123. Your code must give these answers, in this order:
POST /login {"email": "ana@example.com", "password": "guess1"} → 401 {"error": "Wrong email or password"}
POST /login {"email": "ana@example.com", "password": "guess2"} → 401 {"error": "Wrong email or password"}
POST /login {"email": "ana@example.com", "password": "secret123"} → 200 {"token": "<token>"}
POST /login "guess3", then "guess4", then "guess5" → 401 each time
POST /login {"email": "ana@example.com", "password": "secret123"} → 429 {"error": "Too many failed logins, try again later"}
POST /login {"email": "admin@example.com", "password": "admin-pass-123"} → 200 {"token": "<admin>"}
GET /me (Bearer <token>) → 200 {"email": "ana@example.com", "id": 2, "role": "customer"}
Your task: create the object FAILED_LOGINS. In the /login route, answer { error: "Too many failed logins, try again later" } with 429 when the email already has 3 or more failed tries. Add 1 to the email's count on every failed login, and set it back to 0 on a good one.
Assignment
Follow the Coding Tutorial to add a rate limit to the /login route: the counter, the 429 check, counting failures and the reset.
Hint
Read a count with (FAILED_LOGINS[data.email] || 0), parentheses included: an email that never failed isn't a key yet. The 429 check goes right after the data line, before the user is even looked up.
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