Delete A Card from the Virgil Cloud

This guide shows how to delete (deactivate) a Virgil Card, which is associated with a user or device, and a corresponding public key on the Virgil Cloud.

There are three ways to delete a Virgil Card:

using the Virgil E3Kit SDK
using the Virgil Core SDK
using the Virgil Cards Service API

In this guide you'll find out how to delete a Card using Virgil E3Kit SDK or Core SDK.

How card deletion works

When you use the Virgil SDK to delete a user's card, you don't fully delete it from the Virgil Cloud, you only deactivate (revoke) the card by updating (replacing) an active Virgil Card with a new one that has an empty public key. A user's card that is going to be deleted, should have the same identity which is used to generate a JWT. Any deactivated cards will still be available to application users by searching the card by its ID.

Prerequisites for card deletion

In this tutorial we assume that you have a basic backend server for your app. Your server must be able to create and store user records in persistent storage and provide a user authentication strategy, whether it's a simple username/password or a third-party provider like GitHub or Facebook.

To give your users access to the Virgil Cloud you'll need to setup authentication on your server side and provide users with a JWT for the client-side SDK's initialization. Go through this guide to setup your application's backend.

Delete a Card with the E3Kit SDK

To deactivate (unregister) a user from the Virgil Cloud, you have to initialize the E3Kit SDK on the client side.

Initialize the E3Kit SDK

GitHub

EThree.initialize(context, new OnGetTokenCallback() {
    @NotNull
    @Override
    public String onGetToken() {
        return virgilToken;
    }
}).addCallback(new OnResultListener() {
    @Override public void onSuccess(EThree result) {
        // Init success
    }

    @Override public void onError(@NotNull Throwable throwable) {
        // Error
    }
});

GitHub

import { EThree } from '@virgilsecurity/e3kit';

// This function returns a token that will be used to authenticate requests
// to your backend.
// This is a simplified solution without any real protection, so here you need use your
// application authentication mechanism.
async function authenticate(identity) {
    const response = await fetch('http://localhost:3000/authenticate', {
        method: 'POST',
        headers: {
            'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        },
        body: JSON.stringify({
            identity: identity
        })
    });
    if (!response.ok) {
        throw new Error(`Error code: ${response.status} \nMessage: ${response.statusText}`);
    }

    return response.json().then(data => data.authToken);
}

// Log in as `alice`
const eThreePromise = authenticate('alice').then(authToken => {
    // E3kit will call this callback function and wait for the Promise resolve.
    // When it receives Virgil JWT it can do authorized requests to Virgil Cloud.
    // E3kit uses the identity encoded in the JWT as the current user's identity.
    return EThree.initialize(getVirgilToken);

    // This function makes authenticated request to GET /virgil-jwt endpoint
    // The token it returns serves to make authenticated requests to Virgil Cloud
    async function getVirgilToken() {
        const response = await fetch('http://localhost:3000/virgil-jwt', {
            headers: {
                // We use bearer authorization, but you can use any other mechanism.
                // The point is only, this endpoint should be protected.
                Authorization: `Bearer ${authToken}`,
            }
        })
        if (!response.ok) {
            throw new Error(`Error code: ${response.status} \nMessage: ${response.statusText}`);
        }

        // If request was successful we return Promise which will resolve with token string.
        return response.json().then(data => data.virgilToken);
    }
});

// then you can get instance of EThree in that way:
eThreePromise.then(eThree => { /* eThree.encrypt/decrypt/lookupPublicKeys */})
// or
const eThree = await eThreePromise;

GitHub

// Init e3kit (EThree) SDK

EThree.initialize(context,
    object : OnGetTokenCallback {
        override fun onGetToken(): String {
          return virgilToken
        }
    }).addCallback(object : OnResultListener {
        override fun onSuccess(result: EThree) {
            // Init success
        }

        override fun onError(throwable: Throwable) {
            // Error
        }
    })

GitHub

import VirgilE3Kit
import VirgilSDK

let connection = HttpConnection()

// This function returns a token that will be used to authenticate requests
// to your backend.
// This is a simplified solution without any real protection, so here you need
// use your application authentication mechanism.
let authCallback = { () -> String in
    let url = URL(string: "http://localhost:3000/authenticate")!
    let headers = ["Content-Type": "application/json"]
    let params = ["identity": identity]
    let requestBody = try! JSONSerialization.data(withJSONObject: params,
                                                  options: [])

    let request = Request(url: url, method: .post,
                          headers: headers, body: requestBody)
    let resonse = try! connection.send(request)

    let json = try! JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: resonse.body!,
                                                 options: []) as! [String: Any]
    let authToken = json["authToken"] as! String

    return authToken
}

let authToken = authCallback()

let url = URL(string: "http://localhost:3000/virgil-jwt")!
// We use bearer authorization, but you can use any other mechanism.
// The point is only, this endpoint should be protected.
let headers = ["Content-Type": "application/json",
               "Authorization": "Bearer " + authToken]

// This function makes authenticated request to GET /virgil-jwt endpoint
// The token it returns serves to make authenticated requests to Virgil Cloud
let tokenCallback: EThree.RenewJwtCallback = { completion in
    let request = Request(url: url, method: .get, headers: headers)

    guard let response = try? connection.send(request),
        let body = response.body,
        let json = try? JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: body, options: []) as? [String: Any],
        let jwtString = json?["virgilToken"] as? String else {
            completion(nil, AppError.gettingJwtFailed)
            return
    }

    completion(jwtString, nil)
}

let eThree = try EThree(identity: identity, tokenCallback: tokenCallback)

Then use the eThree.unregister() method which will delete the private key from local storage, reversing the actions of the register function.

// TODO: init and register user (see EThree.initialize and EThree#register)
OnCompleteListener unregisterListener = new OnCompleteListener() {
    @Override public void onSuccess() {
        // Public key (Card) revoked successfully, private key removed successfully.
    }

    @Override public void onError(@NotNull Throwable throwable) {
        // Handle error
    }
};

// Revokes Card from Virgil Cards Service, deletes Private Key from local storage
eThree.unregister().addCallback(unregisterListener);

GitHub

// TODO: init and register user (see eThree.initialize and eThree.register)

// Revokes Card from Virgil Cards Service, deletes Private Key from local storage
await eThree.unregister();
// or
eThree.unregister()
    .then(() => console.log('success'))
    .catch(e => console.error('error: ', e));

// TODO: init and register user (see EThree.initialize and EThree.register)
val unregisterListener = object : OnCompleteListener {
    override fun onSuccess() {
        // Public key (Card) revoked successfully, private key removed successfully.
    }

    override fun onError(throwable: Throwable) {
        // Handle error
    }
}

// Revokes Card from Virgil Cards Service, deletes Private Key from local storage
eThree.unregister().addCallback(unregisterListener)

GitHub

import VirgilE3Kit

// TODO: init and register user (see EThree.init and EThree.register)

// Revokes Card from Virgil Cards Service, deletes Private Key from local storage
eThree.unregister { error in
    guard error == nil else {
        // Error handling here
    }
}

Delete A Card with the Core SDK

The Virgil Core SDK allows you to delete user cards on the Virgil Cloud from the client side or from an application server.

In order to deactivate a user's card, you have to:

Then use the following lines of code to deactivate the user's card:

GitHub

try {
    cardManager.revokeCard(card.getIdentifier());
} catch (Exception e) {
    // Error handling
}

GitHub

cardManager.revokeCard(myCardId)
    .then(() => console.log('Card revoked'));

import VirgilSDK

let result = cardManager.revokeCard(withId: card.identifier).start { result in
    switch result {
        // Card is revoked
        case .success: break
        // Error occured
        case .failure(let error): break
    }
}