Middleware is not applied to static paths (like before)

[danr-za]

Verify canary release

• I verified that the issue exists in Next.js canary release

Provide environment information

Operating System:
      Platform: darwin
      Arch: x64
      Version: Darwin Kernel Version 21.4.0: Mon Feb 21 20:34:37 PST 2022; root:xnu-8020.101.4~2/RELEASE_X86_64
    Binaries:
      Node: 16.13.0
      npm: 8.1.0
      Yarn: 3.2.0
      pnpm: N/A
    Relevant packages:
      next: 12.1.5-canary.0
      react: 17.0.2
      react-dom: 17.0.2

What browser are you using? (if relevant)

Chrome 99

How are you deploying your application? (if relevant)

aws, next start

Describe the Bug

Opening the issue again because for some reason the previous one was deleted (???)

We are using middleware in order to protect static assets from unauthenticated users.
Until v12.1.3 it was possible to protect them using middleware.
Currently, middleware is not invoked when fetching an asset, e.g. /_next/static/chunks/something.js or /_next/static/media/image.png

Looks like its a result of #32601

Expected Behavior

I do understand that this feature was not "officially" supported, but middleware should be invoked also for static assets.
An idea might be separating page/api middleware and static assets middleware (e.g under _next folder) or a custom configuration that supports it.

To Reproduce

• Add a middleware - pages/_middleware.js
• Observe that requests under _next path are not invoked

[iamkhalidbashir]

Yupe this is needed. Critical for us

[mmmulani]

fwiw I couldn't find a version where the behaviour was as you describe it (except as a bug #31324), and the docs at https://nextjs.org/docs/middleware say:

Middleware runs directly after redirects and headers, before the first filesystem lookup. This excludes /_next files.

on the other hand though, this functionality would be useful imo

[danr-za]

as per docs, you're right.
once you install v12.1.2 you'll see that behavior.

[javivelasco]

With the most recent canary we have enabled back the ability to run middleware in front of static assets which means that this behaviour is back. Glad to see there are important use cases for it 🎉

Thanks!

[github-actions]

This closed issue has been automatically locked because it had no new activity for a month. If you are running into a similar issue, please create a new issue with the steps to reproduce. Thank you.