Managing the renewal and revocation of JSON Web Tokens (JWT) for service accounts and exchanged user tokens is important because short-lived tokens and frequent key rotation help protect your system from security breaches. By limiting token lifetime and rotating keys quickly, you reduce the risk of unauthorized access if a token is leaked.

Recommended renewal and revocation strategies

Use the following table to understand renewal triggers and revocation strategies for different token types:
Token type Renewal trigger Revocation strategy
Service account JWT Renew before expiration, for example at 80% of its lifetime Rotate the signing key. Old tokens will naturally expire because of their short time-to-live (TTL).
Exchanged user token Renew per session or per API call, or use a short TTL of 5 to 15 minutes Rely on the upstream identity provider (IdP) for revocation and blacklist enforcement.
Note: Short-lived tokens combined with fast key rotation significantly reduce the blast radius in case of token leakage.