Metamask: How to authenticate with an Ethereum account through personalSign?

User Authentication with PersonalSign in Ethereum on MetaMask

As an Ethereum developer, you are probably familiar with the importance of user authentication and verification in your applications. In this article, we will explore how to authenticate a user with their Ethereum account using the MetaMask personalSign feature.

What is PersonalSign?

PersonalSign is a proprietary signing service provided by MetaMask that allows users to securely sign transactions on the Ethereum network without exposing their private keys. This feature offers several benefits, including:

• Reduced risk of 2FA (two-factor authentication) compromises.

• Ability to generate and store session IDs for multiple accounts

• Support for signing large numbers of signatures

Why use PersonalSign?

PersonalSign is a great option when you need to authenticate users without exposing their private keys. This approach offers several benefits:

• Security: Private keys are never exposed, reducing the risk of 2FA compromises.

• Scalability: Users can sign multiple accounts and session IDs without any additional cost or complexity.

• Flexibility

  : PersonalSign supports a variety of use cases, including signing contracts, sending Ether, and more.

Setting up PersonalSign on MetaMask

To get started with personalSigning on MetaMask:

• Open your MetaMask account and go to the “Settings” menu (three horizontal lines in the upper right corner).

• Click “Advanced” and then select “Personal Sign”.

• Generate a new session ID by clicking “Create Session”.

• Click “Save Session” to save the session ID.

Authenticating a User with PersonalSign

To authenticate a user with their Ethereum account via a personal signature:

• Open MetaMask and go to the “Settings” menu.

• Select “Advanced” and then select “Personal Character”.

• Enter the following parameters:

* personal.sign (required): This specifies that you want to use personal signing for authentication.

* session.id (required): Use your generated session ID from the MetaMask settings page.

* accountAddress (required): Ethereum address of the user you are authenticating.

• Click “Submit” to authenticate the user.

Example code

Here is an example code snippet that demonstrates how to use personalSigning in a JavaScript application:

const web3 = require('web3');

const MetaMask = require('metamask');


// Initialize MetaMask using the wallet mnemonic or private key

const metaMask = new MetaMask({

  accounts: '0xYourWalletAddress',

});


// User authentication using a personal signature

metaMask.personal.sign(

  (Session ID) => {

    // Use the session ID to sign the transaction on Ethereum

    web3.eth.sendTransaction({

      from: '0xYourAccountAddress',

      to: '0xYourRecipientAddress',

      value: web3.utils.toWei('1', 'ether'),

      data: '',

    }, (error, response) => {

      if (error) {

        console.error(error);

      } otherwise {

        console.log(Transaction sent successfully! Session ID: ${sessionID});

      }

    });

  },

);


// Clear the session ID

metaMask.personal.clearSessionId();

In this example, we use personalSigning to sign a transaction on Ethereum using a user’s account address. We then use the generated session ID to send the transaction.

Conclusion

PersonalSign provides a secure and scalable way to authenticate users with their Ethereum accounts on MetaMask. By following these steps and examples, you can easily integrate personalSigning into your own applications and protect sensitive data while providing a seamless user experience.

Metamask Error Ethereum Account