[FEAT} : Validate JWT Payload Structure Before User Lookup

[Devexhhh]

Description

The authentication middleware assumes that the decoded JWT payload always contains an id field and directly uses it for database queries. If the payload is malformed, incomplete, or generated from an unexpected source, the application may attempt a database lookup using an undefined value.

Proposed Solution

Add validation to ensure the decoded token contains a valid user identifier before querying the database.

Example:

if (!decoded?.id) {
  return res.status(401).json({
    message: 'Invalid token payload'
  });
}

Benefits

• Prevents unnecessary database queries.
• Improves robustness against malformed tokens.
• Makes authentication failures easier to diagnose.
• Adds an extra layer of defensive programming.

[Devexhhh]

Kindly assign this issue to me under GSSoC'26