Mike Jones: self-issued

Musings on Digital Identity

Category: OpenID Page 1 of 10

OpenID Federation Session at April 2024 IIW

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On April 18, 2024

In Events, Federation, OpenID

OpenID logoJohn Bradley and I convened a session on Trust Establishment with OpenID Federation at the Internet Identity Workshop (IIW) on Thursday, April 18, 2024. The material used to drive the discussion was:

The session was well attended and the discussion lively. Numerous people with trust establishment problems to solve contributed, including experts from the SAML federation world, people involved in digital wallet projects, and several people already using or considering using OpenID Federation. Thanks to all who participated!

OpenID Presentations at April 2024 OpenID Workshop and IIW

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On April 16, 2024

In Events, OpenID

OpenID logoAs has become traditional, I gave the following presentation at the Monday, April 15, 2024 OpenID Workshop at Google:

I also gave this invited “101” session presentation at the Internet Identity Workshop (IIW) on Tuesday, April 16, 2024:

Continued refinement: OpenID Federation draft 33 published

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On February 23, 2024

In Federation, OpenID, Specifications

OpenID logoOpenID Federation draft 33 has been published at https://openid.net/specs/openid-federation-1_0-33.html and https://openid.net/specs/openid-federation-1_0.html. The working group continues refining the specification to make it more consistent and easier to read and implement.

We published draft 33 now to get these improvements out to implementers. Per the history entries at https://openid.net/specs/openid-federation-1_0-33.html#name-document-history, a summary of changes made in -32 and -33 is:

-33:

  • Addressed #2111: The metadata_policy_crit claim MAY only appear in Subordinate Statements and its values apply to all metadata_policies found in the Trust Chain.
  • Fixed #2096: Authorization Signed Request Object may contain trust_chain in its payload and should not in its JWS header parameters.
  • Strengthen language requiring client verification with automatic registration.
  • Fixed #2076: Promoted Trust Marks to be a top-level section.
  • Added General-Purpose JWT Claims section.
  • Moved Federation Endpoints section before Obtaining Federation Entity Configuration Information section.
  • Fixed #2110: Explanation text when multiple entity_type parameters are provided in the Subordinate Listing endpoint.
  • Fixed #2112, #2113, and #2114: Defined that client authentication is not used by default and that the default client authentication method, when used, is private_key_jwt. Specified that requests using client authentication use HTTP POST.
  • Fixed #2104: Allow trust marks in Subordinate Statements for implementation profiles that might want this.
  • Fixed #2103: Addressed ambiguities in the definition of constraints.

-32:

  • Tightened OpenID Connect Client Registration section.
  • Tightened appendix examples.
  • Fixed #2075: Trust Mark endpoint for the provisioning of the Trust Marks.
  • Fixed #2085: Trust Marked Entities Listing, added sub URL query parameter.
  • Made fetch issuer unambiguous by making the iss parameter REQUIRED.
  • Introduced the term “Subordinate Statement” and applied it throughout the specification. Also consistently use the term “registration Entity Statement” for Explicit Client Registration results.
  • Clarified where Entity Statement claims can and cannot occur.
  • Renamed policy_language_crit to metadata_policy_crit.
  • Fixed #2093: Numbered the list defining the order policy operators are applied in.

Special thanks to Stefan Santesson for his thorough review of the specification in the context of the Swedish Federation deployment!

Invited OpenID Federation Presentation at 2024 FIM4R Workshop

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On January 31, 2024

In Events, Federation, OpenID, Specifications

OpenID logoThe OpenID Federation editors were invited to give a presentation on OpenID Federation at the 18th FIM4R Workshop, which was held at the 2024 TIIME Unconference. Giuseppe De Marco, Roland Hedberg, John Bradley, and I tag-teamed the presentation, with Vladimir Dzhuvinov also participating in the Q&A. Topics covered included motivations, architecture, design decisions, capabilities, use cases, history, status, implementations, and people.

Here’s the material we used:

It was the perfect audience – chock full of people with practical federation deployment experience!

Celebrating Ten Years of OpenID Connect at the OpenID Summit Tokyo 2024

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On January 20, 2024

In Claims, Events, Federation, History, JSON, OAuth, OpenID, Specifications

OpenID logoWe held the first of three planned tenth anniversary celebrations for the completion of OpenID Connect at the OpenID Summit Tokyo 2024. The four panelists were Nov Matake, Ryo Ito, Nat Sakimura, and myself. We shared our perspectives on what led to OpenID Connect, why it succeeded, and what lessons we learned along the way.

The most common refrain throughout our descriptions was the design philosophy to “Keep simple things simple”. I believe that three of the four of us cited it.

I recounted that we even had a thought experiment used to make the “Keep simple things simple” principle actionable in real time: the “Nov Matake Test”. As we considered new features, we’d ask ourselves “Would Nov want to add it to his implementation?” And “Is it simple enough that he could build it in a few hours?”

The other common thread was the criticality of interop testing and certification. We held five rounds of interop testing before finishing the specifications, with the specs being refined after each round based on the feedback received. The early developer feedback was priceless – much of it from Japan!

Our OpenID Connect 10th anniversary presentations were:

Thanks to the OpenID Foundation Japan for the thought-provoking and enjoyable OpenID Summit Tokyo 2024!

Panel in Tokyo

The Nov Matake Test

25 Years of OpenID

There Came Mike Jones

2024 OpenID Foundation Board Election Results

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On January 19, 2024

In OpenID, People

OpenID logoThanks to those of you who elected me to a two-year term on the OpenID Foundation board of directors. This is an incredibly exciting time for the OpenID Foundation and for digital identity, and I’m thrilled to be able to contribute via the OpenID board. Thanks for placing your trust in me!

I’d like to also take this opportunity to congratulate my fellow board members who were also elected: George Fletcher, Atul Tulshibagwale, and Mark Verstege. See the OpenID Foundation’s announcement of the 2024 election results.

My candidate statement was:

I am on a mission to build the Internet’s missing identity layer. OpenID specifications and initiatives are key to realizing that vision.

Widespread deployment of OpenID specifications has the potential to make people’s online interactions more seamless, secure, and valuable. I have been actively working since 2007 to make that an everyday reality.

2024 has huge potential for advances in digital identity. People are starting to have identity wallets holding digital credentials that they control. National and international federations are being established. Open Banking and Open Finance deployments are ongoing. Adoption of OpenID Connect (which we created a decade ago!) continues going strong. We’re on track to have OpenID Connect be published as ISO standards. OpenID specifications and programs are essential to all these outcomes.

While many of you know me and my work, here’s a few highlights of my contributions to the digital identity space and the OpenID community:

– I was primary editor of OpenID Connect, primary editor of the OAuth 2.0 bearer token specification [RFC 6750], and primary editor of the JSON Web Token (JWT) specification [RFC 7519] and the JSON Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) specifications [RFCs 7515-7518], which are used by OpenID Connect. I was an editor of the Security Event Token specification [RFC 8417], which is used by Shared Signals and OpenID Connect. I’m an editor of the SIOPv2 specification and a contributor to the other OpenID for Verifiable Credentials specifications. I’m an editor of the OpenID Federation specification. The OAuth DPoP specification [RFC 9449] was my latest RFC. I’m an author of 32 RFCs and 17 final OpenID specifications, with more of each in the pipeline.

– I spearheaded creation of the successful OpenID Connect certification program and continue actively contributing to its success. Over 2,800 certifications have been performed and the pace keeps increasing! Certification furthers the Foundation’s goals of promoting interoperation and increasing the quality of implementations. It’s also become an important revenue stream for the Foundation.

– My contributions to the Foundation have included serving on the board since 2008, serving as board secretary during most of my tenure. I’ve helped organize numerous OpenID summits and working group meetings and regularly present there. I chaired the election committee that developed the Foundation’s election procedures and software. I co-chaired the local chapters committee that developed the policies governing the relationships with local OpenID chapters around the world. I serve on the liaison committee, facilitating our cooperation with other organizations. And way back in 2007, I worked with the community to create the legal framework for the OpenID Foundation, enabling both individuals and corporations to be full participants in developing OpenID specifications and ensuring that they can be freely used by all.

I’d like to continue serving on the OpenID board, because while the OpenID community is having notable successes, our work is far from done. Taking it to the next level will involve both additional specifications work and strategic initiatives by the Foundation. We need to continue building a broad base of supporters and deployers of OpenID specifications around the world. We need to continue fostering close working relationships with partner organizations. And we need to continue safeguarding OpenID’s intellectual property and trademarks, so they remain freely available for all to use.

I have a demonstrated track record of energetically serving the OpenID community and producing results that people actually use. I plan to continue taking an active role in making open identity solutions even more successful and ubiquitous. That’s why I’m running for a community board seat in 2024.

Mike Jones
michael_b_jones@hotmail.com
Blog: https://self-issued.info/
Professional Website: https://self-issued.consulting/

Ten Years of OpenID Connect and Looking to the Future

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On December 19, 2023

In Claims, Federation, History, JSON, OAuth, OpenID, Specifications

OpenID logoTen years ago today the drafts that would be approved as the final OpenID Connect specifications were published, as announced in my post Fourth and possibly last Release Candidates for final OpenID Connect specifications and Notice of 24 hour review period.

The adoption of OpenID Connect has exceeded our wildest expectations. The vast majority of federated signins to sites and applications today use OpenID Connect. Android, AOL, Apple, AT&T, Auth0, Deutsche Telekom, ForgeRock, Google, GrabTaxi, GSMA Mobile Connect, IBM, KDDI, Microsoft, NEC, NRI, NTT, Okta, Oracle, Orange, Ping Identity, Red Hat, Salesforce, Softbank, Symantec, T-Mobile, Telefónica, Verizon, Yahoo, and Yahoo! Japan, all use OpenID Connect, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. While OpenID Connect is “plumbing” and not a consumer brand, it’s filling a need and doing it well.

It’s fitting that the second set of errata corrections to the OpenID Connect specifications were just approved, as described in the post Second Errata Set for OpenID Connect Specifications Approved. While we are proud of the quality of the final specifications, with 9 3/4 years of thousands of developers using and deploying the specifications, it’s unsurprising that issues would be found that needed clarification and correction.

The updated OpenID Connect specifications have just been submitted to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for Publicly Available Submission (PAS) status. Approved PAS submissions are published as ISO specifications. This will foster adoption in jurisdictions that require using standards that are published by organizations with international treaty status.

Celebrations of the tenth anniversary of the approval of OpenID Connect will occur worldwide in 2024. The first will be in Asia at the OpenID Summit Tokyo in January. The second will be in the Americas at Identiverse in May. The third will be in Europe at the European Identity and Cloud Conference in June. Join us at these events for the celebrations!

I can’t wait to see what the next decade brings for OpenID Connect!

On the journey to an Implementer’s Draft: OpenID Federation draft 31 published

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On November 8, 2023

In Federation, OpenID, Specifications

OpenID logoOpenID Federation draft 31 has been published at https://openid.net/specs/openid-federation-1_0-31.html and https://openid.net/specs/openid-federation-1_0.html. It’s the result of concerted efforts to make the specification straightforward to read, understand, and implement for developers. Many sections have been rewritten and simplified. Some content has been reorganized to make its structure and relationships more approachable. Many inconsistencies were addressed.

Some inconsistencies fixed resulted in a small number of breaking changes. For instance, the name “trust_mark_owners” is now consistently used throughout, whereas an alternate spelling was formerly also used. The editors tried to make all known such changes in this version, so hopefully this will be the last set of breaking changes. We published draft 31 now in part to get these changes out to implementers. See the history entries at https://openid.net/specs/openid-federation-1_0-31.html#name-document-history for a detailed description of the changes made.

A comprehensive review of the specification is still ongoing. Expect more improvements in the exposition in draft 32. With any luck, -32 will be the basis of the next proposed Implementer’s Draft.

We’re definitely grateful for all the useful feedback we’re receiving from developers. Developer feedback is gold!

On the Closing Stretch for Errata Corrections to OpenID Connect

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On October 30, 2023

In OpenID, Specifications

OpenID logoThe initial OpenID Connect specifications became final on February 25, 2014. While the working group is rightfully proud of the quality of the work and the widespread adoption it has attained, specification writing is a human endeavor and mistakes will inevitably be made. That’s why the OpenID Foundation has a process for publishing Errata corrections to specifications.

Eight issues were identified and corrected that year, with the first set of errata corrections being published on November 8, 2014. Since that time, suggestions for improvements have continued to trickle in, but with a 9+ year trickle, a total of 95 errata issues have been filed! They range from the nearly trivial, such as an instance of http that should have been https, to the more consequential, such as language that could be interpreted in different ways.

I’m pleased to report that, with a substantial investment by the working group, I’ve managed to work through all the 87 additional errata issues filed since the first errata set and incorporate corrections for them into published specification drafts. They are currently undergoing OpenID Foundation-wide review in preparation for a vote to approve the second set of errata corrections.

As a bonus, the OpenID Foundation plans to submit the newly minted corrected drafts for publication by ISO as Publicly Available Specifications. This should foster even broader adoption of OpenID Connect by enabling deployments in some jurisdictions around the world that have legal requirements to use specifications from standards bodies recognized by international treaties, of which ISO is one. Just in time for OpenID Connect’s 10th anniversary!

OpenID Summit Tokyo 2024 and the 10th Anniversary of OpenID Connect

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On October 30, 2023

In Events, OpenID

OpenID logoI’m pleased to bring your attention to the upcoming OpenID Summit Tokyo 2024, which will be held on Friday, January 19, 2024. Join us there for a stellar line-up of speakers and consequential conversations!

OpenID Summit Tokyo 2024

This builds on the successes of past summits organized by the OpenID Foundation Japan. For instance, I found the OpenID Summit Tokyo 2020 and associated activities and discussions both very useful and very enjoyable.

A special feature of the 2024 summit will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the OpenID Connect specifications, which were approved on February 25, 2014. Speakers who were there for its creation, interop testing, and early deployments will share their experiences and lessons learned, including several key participants from Japan. As I recounted at EIC 2023, building ecosystems is hard. And yet we achieved that for OpenID Connect! We are working to create new identity ecosystems as we speak. I believe that the lessons learned from OpenID Connect are very applicable today. Come join the conversation!

Finally, as a teaser, I’m also helping the OpenID Foundation to plan two additional 10th anniversary celebrations at prominent 2024 identity events – one in Europe and one in the Americas. Watch this space for further news about these as it develops!

OpenID Presentations at October 2023 OpenID Workshop and IIW

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On October 10, 2023

In Events, OpenID

OpenID logoI gave the following presentation at the Monday, October 9, 2023 OpenID Workshop at CISCO:

I also gave the following invited “101” session presentation at the Internet Identity Workshop (IIW) on Tuesday, October 10, 2023:

The Key Is Not Enough! – OpenID Connect Federation at OSW 2023

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On August 27, 2023

In Events, Federation, OAuth, OpenID, Specifications

OAuth Security WorkshopVladimir Dzhuvinov gave the innovative and informative presentation “The Key Is Not Enough!” on OpenID Connect Federation at the 2023 OAuth Security Workshop in London. This action thriller of a presentation covers history, goals, mechanisms, status, deployments, and possible futures of the work. The comparisons between X.509 certificates and Federation Trust Infrastructure are particularly enlightening!

Touchstones Along My Identity Journey

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On May 22, 2023

In Claims, Cryptography, Events, Federation, FIDO, History, IETF, Information Cards, Interoperability, JSON, OAuth, OpenID, People, Phishing Resistance, Specifications, Windows CardSpace

EIC 2023 LogoI had the distinct honor of being invited to give a keynote talk at EIC 2023. The result was Touchstones Along My Identity Journey. My talk abstract was:

In 2005, Kim Cameron excitedly told me about digital identity and set my life on a course to “Build the Internet’s missing identity layer”. In this talk I’ll tell key stories from my identity journey — stories of the people, ideas, and lessons learned along the way. I’ll speak of technology and collaboration, usability and business models, solving problems people actually have, and building new ecosystems. Come with me on this journey of exploration, trials, triumphs, and humor as I recount touchstones of the human endeavor that is digital identity.

Kuppinger Cole has posted a video of my keynote on YouTube. I was pleased with how well it went. After the first few sentences, I was in the zone! I hope many of you find the messages in the talk useful.

My slides are also available in (PowerPoint) and PDF.

Special thanks go to the OpenID Foundation for supporting my trip to EIC this year and to designer Alistair Kincaid at MATTR for helping me transcend my usual black-bulleted-text-on-a-white-background presentation style!

EIC 2023 Keynote Photo

EIC 2023 Keynote Photo with Kim Cameron

EIC 2023 Keynote Photo for OAuth

How do you know who to trust?

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On May 22, 2023

In Events, Federation, OpenID, People

EIC 2023 LogoGiuseppe De Marco and I presented the session How do you know who to trust? at EIC 2023.

A key question when granting access to resources is ‘Who do you trust?’. It’s often important to know who the party is that you’re interacting with and whether they’ve agreed to the terms and conditions that apply when accessing a resource.

OpenID Connect enables identities of participants to be securely established but doesn’t answer the question of whether a participant is trusted to access a resource such as your personal data. A complementary mechanism is needed to do that. In small-scale and static deployments, it’s possible to keep a list of the trusted participants. However, in large-scale and dynamic deployments, that doesn’t scale.

This presentation described how the OpenID Connect Federation protocol enables scalable trust establishment with dynamic policies. It does so by employing trust hierarchies of authorities, each of which are independently administered. Examples of authorities are federation operators, organizations, departments within organizations, and individual sites.

Two OpenID Connect Federations are deployed in Italy, enabling secure access to digital services operated by Italian public and private services with Italian digital identities. This presentation described why OpenID Connect Federation was selected for them and how it meets their needs. OpenID Connect Federation is also being used by the GAIN PoC.

Our presentation is available in (PowerPoint) and PDF.

EIC 2023 Federation Photo

OpenID Presentations at April 2023 OpenID Workshop and IIW

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On April 19, 2023

In Events, OpenID

OpenID logoI gave the following presentation at the Monday, April 17, 2023 OpenID Workshop at Microsoft:

I also gave the following invited “101” session presentation at the Internet Identity Workshop (IIW) on Tuesday, April 18, 2023:

OpenID Presentations at November 2022 OpenID Workshop and IIW

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On November 15, 2022

In Events, OpenID

OpenID logoI gave the following presentation at the Monday, November 14, 2022 OpenID Workshop at VISA:

I also gave the following invited “101” session presentation at the Internet Identity Workshop (IIW) on Tuesday, November 15, 2022:

The OpenID Connect Logout specifications are now Final Specifications

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On September 27, 2022

In OpenID, Specifications

OpenID logoThanks to all who helped us reach this important milestone! This was originally announced on the OpenID blog. These now Final specifications are:

Don’t just sign in. Also sign out!

JWK Thumbprint URI is now RFC 9278

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On August 10, 2022

In Cryptography, IETF, OAuth, OpenID, Specifications

IETF logoThe JWK Thumbprint URI specification has been published as RFC 9278. Congratulations to my co-author, Kristina Yasuda, on the publication of her first RFC!

The abstract of the RFC is:


This specification registers a kind of URI that represents a JSON Web Key (JWK) Thumbprint value. JWK Thumbprints are defined in RFC 7638. This enables JWK Thumbprints to be used, for instance, as key identifiers in contexts requiring URIs.

The need for this arose during specification work in the OpenID Connect working group. In particular, JWK Thumbprint URIs are used as key identifiers that can be syntactically distinguished from other kinds of identifiers also expressed as URIs in the Self-Issued OpenID Provider v2 specification.

JWK Thumbprint URI Draft Addressing IETF Last Call Comments

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On May 16, 2022

In Claims, Cryptography, IETF, OAuth, OpenID

OAuth logoKristina Yasuda and I have published a new JWK Thumbprint URI draft that addresses the IETF Last Call comments received. Changes made were:

  • Clarified the requirement to use registered hash algorithm identifiers.
  • Acknowledged IETF Last Call reviewers.

The specification is available at:

OpenID Presentations at April 2022 OpenID Workshop and IIW

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On April 26, 2022

In Events, OpenID

OpenID logoI gave the following presentations at the Monday, April 25, 2022 OpenID Workshop at Google:

I also gave the following invited “101” session presentation at the Internet Identity Workshop (IIW) on Tuesday, April 26, 2022:

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