| Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) | M. Jones |
| Request for Comments: 7516 | Microsoft |
| Category: Standards Track | J. Hildebrand |
| ISSN: 2070-1721 | Cisco |
| May 2015 |
JSON Web Encryption (JWE)
JSON Web Encryption (JWE) represents encrypted content using JSON-based data structures. Cryptographic algorithms and identifiers for use with this specification are described in the separate JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) specification and IANA registries defined by that specification. Related digital signature and Message Authentication Code (MAC) capabilities are described in the separate JSON Web Signature (JWS) specification.
This is an Internet Standards Track document.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has received public review and has been approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata, and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7516.
Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.
JSON Web Encryption (JWE) represents encrypted content using JSON-based data structures [RFC7159]. The JWE cryptographic mechanisms encrypt and provide integrity protection for an arbitrary sequence of octets.
Two closely related serializations for JWEs are defined. The JWE Compact Serialization is a compact, URL-safe representation intended for space constrained environments such as HTTP Authorization headers and URI query parameters. The JWE JSON Serialization represents JWEs as JSON objects and enables the same content to be encrypted to multiple parties. Both share the same cryptographic underpinnings.
Cryptographic algorithms and identifiers for use with this specification are described in the separate JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) [JWA] specification and IANA registries defined by that specification. Related digital signature and MAC capabilities are described in the separate JSON Web Signature (JWS) [JWS] specification.
Names defined by this specification are short because a core goal is for the resulting representations to be compact.
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels" [RFC2119]. The interpretation should only be applied when the terms appear in all capital letters.
BASE64URL(OCTETS) denotes the base64url encoding of OCTETS, per Section 2 of [JWS].
UTF8(STRING) denotes the octets of the UTF-8 [RFC3629] representation of STRING, where STRING is a sequence of zero or more Unicode [UNICODE] characters.
ASCII(STRING) denotes the octets of the ASCII [RFC20] representation of STRING, where STRING is a sequence of zero or more ASCII characters.
The concatenation of two values A and B is denoted as A || B.
The terms "JSON Web Signature (JWS)", "Base64url Encoding", "Collision-Resistant Name", "Header Parameter", "JOSE Header", and "StringOrURI" are defined by the JWS specification [JWS].
The terms "Ciphertext", "Digital Signature", "Initialization Vector (IV)", "Message Authentication Code (MAC)", and "Plaintext" are defined by the "Internet Security Glossary, Version 2" [RFC4949].
These terms are defined by this specification:
JWE represents encrypted content using JSON data structures and base64url encoding. These JSON data structures MAY contain whitespace and/or line breaks before or after any JSON values or structural characters, in accordance with Section 2 of RFC 7159 [RFC7159]. A JWE represents these logical values (each of which is defined in Section 2):
For a JWE, the JOSE Header members are the union of the members of these values (each of which is defined in Section 2):
JWE utilizes authenticated encryption to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the plaintext and the integrity of the JWE Protected Header and the JWE AAD.
This document defines two serializations for JWEs: a compact, URL-safe serialization called the JWE Compact Serialization and a JSON serialization called the JWE JSON Serialization. In both serializations, the JWE Protected Header, JWE Encrypted Key, JWE Initialization Vector, JWE Ciphertext, and JWE Authentication Tag are base64url encoded, since JSON lacks a way to directly represent arbitrary octet sequences. When present, the JWE AAD is also base64url encoded.
In the JWE Compact Serialization, no JWE Shared Unprotected Header or JWE Per-Recipient Unprotected Header are used. In this case, the JOSE Header and the JWE Protected Header are the same.
In the JWE Compact Serialization, a JWE is represented as the concatenation:
See Section 7.1 for more information about the JWE Compact Serialization.
In the JWE JSON Serialization, one or more of the JWE Protected Header, JWE Shared Unprotected Header, and JWE Per-Recipient Unprotected Header MUST be present. In this case, the members of the JOSE Header are the union of the members of the JWE Protected Header, JWE Shared Unprotected Header, and JWE Per-Recipient Unprotected Header values that are present.
In the JWE JSON Serialization, a JWE is represented as a JSON object containing some or all of these eight members:
The six base64url-encoded result strings and the two unprotected JSON object values are represented as members within a JSON object. The inclusion of some of these values is OPTIONAL. The JWE JSON Serialization can also encrypt the plaintext to multiple recipients. See Section 7.2 for more information about the JWE JSON Serialization.
This example encrypts the plaintext "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination." to the recipient.
The following example JWE Protected Header declares that:
{"alg":"RSA-OAEP","enc":"A256GCM"}
Encoding this JWE Protected Header as BASE64URL(UTF8(JWE Protected Header)) gives this value:
eyJhbGciOiJSU0EtT0FFUCIsImVuYyI6IkEyNTZHQ00ifQ
The remaining steps to finish creating this JWE are:
The final result in this example (with line breaks for display purposes only) is:
eyJhbGciOiJSU0EtT0FFUCIsImVuYyI6IkEyNTZHQ00ifQ. OKOawDo13gRp2ojaHV7LFpZcgV7T6DVZKTyKOMTYUmKoTCVJRgckCL9kiMT03JGe ipsEdY3mx_etLbbWSrFr05kLzcSr4qKAq7YN7e9jwQRb23nfa6c9d-StnImGyFDb Sv04uVuxIp5Zms1gNxKKK2Da14B8S4rzVRltdYwam_lDp5XnZAYpQdb76FdIKLaV mqgfwX7XWRxv2322i-vDxRfqNzo_tETKzpVLzfiwQyeyPGLBIO56YJ7eObdv0je8 1860ppamavo35UgoRdbYaBcoh9QcfylQr66oc6vFWXRcZ_ZT2LawVCWTIy3brGPi 6UklfCpIMfIjf7iGdXKHzg. 48V1_ALb6US04U3b. 5eym8TW_c8SuK0ltJ3rpYIzOeDQz7TALvtu6UG9oMo4vpzs9tX_EFShS8iB7j6ji SdiwkIr3ajwQzaBtQD_A. XFBoMYUZodetZdvTiFvSkQ
See Appendix A.1 for the complete details of computing this JWE. See Appendix A for additional examples, including examples using the JWE JSON Serialization in Sections A.4 and A.5.
For a JWE, the members of the JSON object(s) representing the JOSE Header describe the encryption applied to the plaintext and optionally additional properties of the JWE. The Header Parameter names within the JOSE Header MUST be unique, just as described in Section 4 of [JWS]. The rules about handling Header Parameters that are not understood by the implementation are also the same. The classes of Header Parameter names are likewise the same.
The following Header Parameter names for use in JWEs are registered in the IANA "JSON Web Signature and Encryption Header Parameters" registry established by [JWS], with meanings as defined below.
As indicated by the common registry, JWSs and JWEs share a common Header Parameter space; when a parameter is used by both specifications, its usage must be compatible between the specifications.
This parameter has the same meaning, syntax, and processing rules as the alg Header Parameter defined in Section 4.1.1 of [JWS], except that the Header Parameter identifies the cryptographic algorithm used to encrypt or determine the value of the CEK. The encrypted content is not usable if the alg value does not represent a supported algorithm, or if the recipient does not have a key that can be used with that algorithm.
A list of defined alg values for this use can be found in the IANA "JSON Web Signature and Encryption Algorithms" registry established by [JWA]; the initial contents of this registry are the values defined in Section 4.1 of [JWA].
The enc (encryption algorithm) Header Parameter identifies the content encryption algorithm used to perform authenticated encryption on the plaintext to produce the ciphertext and the Authentication Tag. This algorithm MUST be an AEAD algorithm with a specified key length. The encrypted content is not usable if the enc value does not represent a supported algorithm. enc values should either be registered in the IANA "JSON Web Signature and Encryption Algorithms" registry established by [JWA] or be a value that contains a Collision-Resistant Name. The enc value is a case-sensitive ASCII string containing a StringOrURI value. This Header Parameter MUST be present and MUST be understood and processed by implementations.
A list of defined enc values for this use can be found in the IANA "JSON Web Signature and Encryption Algorithms" registry established by [JWA]; the initial contents of this registry are the values defined in Section 5.1 of [JWA].
The zip (compression algorithm) applied to the plaintext before encryption, if any. The zip value defined by this specification is:
Other values MAY be used. Compression algorithm values can be registered in the IANA "JSON Web Encryption Compression Algorithms" registry established by [JWA]. The zip value is a case-sensitive string. If no zip parameter is present, no compression is applied to the plaintext before encryption. When used, this Header Parameter MUST be integrity protected; therefore, it MUST occur only within the JWE Protected Header. Use of this Header Parameter is OPTIONAL. This Header Parameter MUST be understood and processed by implementations.
This parameter has the same meaning, syntax, and processing rules as the jku Header Parameter defined in Section 4.1.2 of [JWS], except that the JWK Set resource contains the public key to which the JWE was encrypted; this can be used to determine the private key needed to decrypt the JWE.
This parameter has the same meaning, syntax, and processing rules as the jwk Header Parameter defined in Section 4.1.3 of [JWS], except that the key is the public key to which the JWE was encrypted; this can be used to determine the private key needed to decrypt the JWE.
This parameter has the same meaning, syntax, and processing rules as the kid Header Parameter defined in Section 4.1.4 of [JWS], except that the key hint references the public key to which the JWE was encrypted; this can be used to determine the private key needed to decrypt the JWE. This parameter allows originators to explicitly signal a change of key to JWE recipients.
This parameter has the same meaning, syntax, and processing rules as the x5u Header Parameter defined in Section 4.1.5 of [JWS], except that the X.509 public key certificate or certificate chain [RFC5280] contains the public key to which the JWE was encrypted; this can be used to determine the private key needed to decrypt the JWE.
This parameter has the same meaning, syntax, and processing rules as the x5c Header Parameter defined in Section 4.1.6 of [JWS], except that the X.509 public key certificate or certificate chain [RFC5280] contains the public key to which the JWE was encrypted; this can be used to determine the private key needed to decrypt the JWE.
See Appendix B of [JWS] for an example x5c value.
This parameter has the same meaning, syntax, and processing rules as the x5t Header Parameter defined in Section 4.1.7 of [JWS], except that the certificate referenced by the thumbprint contains the public key to which the JWE was encrypted; this can be used to determine the private key needed to decrypt the JWE. Note that certificate thumbprints are also sometimes known as certificate fingerprints.
This parameter has the same meaning, syntax, and processing rules as the x5t#S256 Header Parameter defined in Section 4.1.8 of [JWS], except that the certificate referenced by the thumbprint contains the public key to which the JWE was encrypted; this can be used to determine the private key needed to decrypt the JWE. Note that certificate thumbprints are also sometimes known as certificate fingerprints.
This parameter has the same meaning, syntax, and processing rules as the typ Header Parameter defined in Section 4.1.9 of [JWS], except that the type is that of this complete JWE.
This parameter has the same meaning, syntax, and processing rules as the cty Header Parameter defined in Section 4.1.10 of [JWS], except that the type is that of the secured content (the plaintext).
This parameter has the same meaning, syntax, and processing rules as the crit Header Parameter defined in Section 4.1.11 of [JWS], except that Header Parameters for a JWE are being referred to, rather than Header Parameters for a JWS.
Additional Header Parameter names can be defined by those using JWEs. However, in order to prevent collisions, any new Header Parameter name should either be registered in the IANA "JSON Web Signature and Encryption Header Parameters" registry established by [JWS] or be a Public Name: a value that contains a Collision-Resistant Name. In each case, the definer of the name or value needs to take reasonable precautions to make sure they are in control of the part of the namespace they use to define the Header Parameter name.
New Header Parameters should be introduced sparingly, as they can result in non-interoperable JWEs.
A producer and consumer of a JWE may agree to use Header Parameter names that are Private Names: names that are not Registered Header Parameter names (Section 4.1) or Public Header Parameter names (Section 4.2). Unlike Public Header Parameter names, Private Header Parameter names are subject to collision and should be used with caution.
The message encryption process is as follows. The order of the steps is not significant in cases where there are no dependencies between the inputs and outputs of the steps.
The message decryption process is the reverse of the encryption process. The order of the steps is not significant in cases where there are no dependencies between the inputs and outputs of the steps. If any of these steps fail, the encrypted content cannot be validated.
When there are multiple recipients, it is an application decision which of the recipients' encrypted content must successfully validate for the JWE to be accepted. In some cases, encrypted content for all recipients must successfully validate or the JWE will be considered invalid. In other cases, only the encrypted content for a single recipient needs to be successfully validated. However, in all cases, the encrypted content for at least one recipient MUST successfully validate or the JWE MUST be considered invalid.
Finally, note that it is an application decision which algorithms may be used in a given context. Even if a JWE can be successfully decrypted, unless the algorithms used in the JWE are acceptable to the application, it SHOULD consider the JWE to be invalid.
The string comparison rules for this specification are the same as those defined in Section 5.3 of [JWS].
The key identification methods for this specification are the same as those defined in Section 6 of [JWS], except that the key being identified is the public key to which the JWE was encrypted.
JWEs use one of two serializations: the JWE Compact Serialization or the JWE JSON Serialization. Applications using this specification need to specify what serialization and serialization features are used for that application. For instance, applications might specify that only the JWE JSON Serialization is used, that only JWE JSON Serialization support for a single recipient is used, or that support for multiple recipients is used. JWE implementations only need to implement the features needed for the applications they are designed to support.
The JWE Compact Serialization represents encrypted content as a compact, URL-safe string. This string is:
Only one recipient is supported by the JWE Compact Serialization and it provides no syntax to represent JWE Shared Unprotected Header, JWE Per-Recipient Unprotected Header, or JWE AAD values.
The JWE JSON Serialization represents encrypted content as a JSON object. This representation is neither optimized for compactness nor URL safe.
Two closely related syntaxes are defined for the JWE JSON Serialization: a fully general syntax, with which content can be encrypted to more than one recipient, and a flattened syntax, which is optimized for the single-recipient case.
The following members are defined for use in top-level JSON objects used for the fully general JWE JSON Serialization syntax:
The following members are defined for use in the JSON objects that are elements of the recipients array:
At least one of the header, protected, and unprotected members MUST be present so that alg and enc Header Parameter values are conveyed for each recipient computation.
Additional members can be present in both the JSON objects defined above; if not understood by implementations encountering them, they MUST be ignored.
Some Header Parameters, including the alg parameter, can be shared among all recipient computations. Header Parameters in the JWE Protected Header and JWE Shared Unprotected Header values are shared among all recipients.
The Header Parameter values used when creating or validating per-recipient ciphertext and Authentication Tag values are the union of the three sets of Header Parameter values that may be present: (1) the JWE Protected Header represented in the protected member, (2) the JWE Shared Unprotected Header represented in the unprotected member, and (3) the JWE Per-Recipient Unprotected Header represented in the header member of the recipient's array element. The union of these sets of Header Parameters comprises the JOSE Header. The Header Parameter names in the three locations MUST be disjoint.
Each JWE Encrypted Key value is computed using the parameters of the corresponding JOSE Header value in the same manner as for the JWE Compact Serialization. This has the desirable property that each JWE Encrypted Key value in the recipients array is identical to the value that would have been computed for the same parameter in the JWE Compact Serialization. Likewise, the JWE Ciphertext and JWE Authentication Tag values match those produced for the JWE Compact Serialization, provided that the JWE Protected Header value (which represents the integrity-protected Header Parameter values) matches that used in the JWE Compact Serialization.
All recipients use the same JWE Protected Header, JWE Initialization Vector, JWE Ciphertext, and JWE Authentication Tag values, when present, resulting in potentially significant space savings if the message is large. Therefore, all Header Parameters that specify the treatment of the plaintext value MUST be the same for all recipients. This primarily means that the enc (encryption algorithm) Header Parameter value in the JOSE Header for each recipient and any parameters of that algorithm MUST be the same.
In summary, the syntax of a JWE using the general JWE JSON Serialization is as follows:
{
"protected":"<integrity-protected shared header contents>",
"unprotected":<non-integrity-protected shared header contents>,
"recipients":[
{"header":<per-recipient unprotected header 1 contents>,
"encrypted_key":"<encrypted key 1 contents>"},
...
{"header":<per-recipient unprotected header N contents>,
"encrypted_key":"<encrypted key N contents>"}],
"aad":"<additional authenticated data contents>",
"iv":"<initialization vector contents>",
"ciphertext":"<ciphertext contents>",
"tag":"<authentication tag contents>"
}
See Appendix A.4 for an example JWE using the general JWE JSON Serialization syntax.
The flattened JWE JSON Serialization syntax is based upon the general syntax, but flattens it, optimizing it for the single-recipient case. It flattens it by removing the recipients member and instead placing those members defined for use in the recipients array (the header and encrypted_key members) in the top-level JSON object (at the same level as the ciphertext member).
The recipients member MUST NOT be present when using this syntax. Other than this syntax difference, JWE JSON Serialization objects using the flattened syntax are processed identically to those using the general syntax.
In summary, the syntax of a JWE using the flattened JWE JSON Serialization is as follows:
{
"protected":"<integrity-protected header contents>",
"unprotected":<non-integrity-protected header contents>,
"header":<more non-integrity-protected header contents>,
"encrypted_key":"<encrypted key contents>",
"aad":"<additional authenticated data contents>",
"iv":"<initialization vector contents>",
"ciphertext":"<ciphertext contents>",
"tag":"<authentication tag contents>"
}
Note that when using the flattened syntax, just as when using the general syntax, any unprotected Header Parameter values can reside in either the unprotected member or the header member, or in both.
See Appendix A.5 for an example JWE using the flattened JWE JSON Serialization syntax.
The Transport Layer Security (TLS) requirements for this specification are the same as those defined in Section 8 of [JWS].
There are several ways of distinguishing whether an object is a JWS or JWE. All these methods will yield the same result for all legal input values; they may yield different results for malformed inputs.
This section registers the Header Parameter names defined in Section 4.1 in the IANA "JSON Web Signature and Encryption Header Parameters" registry established by [JWS].
All of the security issues that are pertinent to any cryptographic application must be addressed by JWS/JWE/JWK agents. Among these issues are protecting the user's asymmetric private and symmetric secret keys and employing countermeasures to various attacks.
All the security considerations in the JWS specification also apply to this specification. Likewise, all the security considerations in XML Encryption 1.1 [W3C.REC-xmlenc-core1-20130411] also apply, other than those that are XML specific.
See Section 10.1 of [JWS] for security considerations on key entropy and random values. In addition to the uses of random values listed there, note that random values are also used for Content Encryption Keys (CEKs) and Initialization Vectors (IVs) when performing encryption.
See Section 10.2 of [JWS] for security considerations on key protection. In addition to the keys listed there that must be protected, implementations performing encryption must protect the key encryption key and the Content Encryption Key. Compromise of the key encryption key may result in the disclosure of all contents protected with that key. Similarly, compromise of the Content Encryption Key may result in disclosure of the associated encrypted content.
Algorithms of matching strengths should be used together whenever possible. For instance, when AES Key Wrap is used with a given key size, using the same key size is recommended when AES GCM is also used. If the key encryption and content encryption algorithms are different, the effective security is determined by the weaker of the two algorithms.
Also, see RFC 3766 [RFC3766] for information on determining strengths for public keys used for exchanging symmetric keys.
When decrypting, particular care must be taken not to allow the JWE recipient to be used as an oracle for decrypting messages. RFC 3218 [RFC3218] should be consulted for specific countermeasures to attacks on RSAES-PKCS1-v1_5. An attacker might modify the contents of the alg Header Parameter from RSA-OAEP to RSA1_5 in order to generate a formatting error that can be detected and used to recover the CEK even if RSAES-OAEP was used to encrypt the CEK. It is therefore particularly important to report all formatting errors to the CEK, Additional Authenticated Data, or ciphertext as a single error when the encrypted content is rejected.
Additionally, this type of attack can be prevented by restricting the use of a key to a limited set of algorithms -- usually one. This means, for instance, that if the key is marked as being for RSA‑OAEP only, any attempt to decrypt a message using the RSA1_5 algorithm with that key should fail immediately due to invalid use of the key.
To mitigate the attacks described in RFC 3218 [RFC3218], the recipient MUST NOT distinguish between format, padding, and length errors of encrypted keys. It is strongly recommended, in the event of receiving an improperly formatted key, that the recipient substitute a randomly generated CEK and proceed to the next step, to mitigate timing attacks.
This section provides examples of JWE computations.
This example encrypts the plaintext "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination." to the recipient using RSAES-OAEP for key encryption and AES GCM for content encryption. The representation of this plaintext (using JSON array notation) is:
[84, 104, 101, 32, 116, 114, 117, 101, 32, 115, 105, 103, 110, 32, 111, 102, 32, 105, 110, 116, 101, 108, 108, 105, 103, 101, 110, 99, 101, 32, 105, 115, 32, 110, 111, 116, 32, 107, 110, 111, 119, 108, 101, 100, 103, 101, 32, 98, 117, 116, 32, 105, 109, 97, 103, 105, 110, 97, 116, 105, 111, 110, 46]
The following example JWE Protected Header declares that:
{"alg":"RSA-OAEP","enc":"A256GCM"}
Encoding this JWE Protected Header as BASE64URL(UTF8(JWE Protected Header)) gives this value:
eyJhbGciOiJSU0EtT0FFUCIsImVuYyI6IkEyNTZHQ00ifQ
Generate a 256-bit random CEK. In this example, the value (using JSON array notation) is:
[177, 161, 244, 128, 84, 143, 225, 115, 63, 180, 3, 255, 107, 154, 212, 246, 138, 7, 110, 91, 112, 46, 34, 105, 47, 130, 203, 46, 122, 234, 64, 252]
Encrypt the CEK with the recipient's public key using the RSAES‑OAEP algorithm to produce the JWE Encrypted Key. This example uses the RSA key represented in JSON Web Key [JWK] format below (with line breaks within values for display purposes only):
{"kty":"RSA",
"n":"oahUIoWw0K0usKNuOR6H4wkf4oBUXHTxRvgb48E-BVvxkeDNjbC4he8rUW
cJoZmds2h7M70imEVhRU5djINXtqllXI4DFqcI1DgjT9LewND8MW2Krf3S
psk_ZkoFnilakGygTwpZ3uesH-PFABNIUYpOiN15dsQRkgr0vEhxN92i2a
sbOenSZeyaxziK72UwxrrKoExv6kc5twXTq4h-QChLOln0_mtUZwfsRaMS
tPs6mS6XrgxnxbWhojf663tuEQueGC-FCMfra36C9knDFGzKsNa7LZK2dj
YgyD3JR_MB_4NUJW_TqOQtwHYbxevoJArm-L5StowjzGy-_bq6Gw",
"e":"AQAB",
"d":"kLdtIj6GbDks_ApCSTYQtelcNttlKiOyPzMrXHeI-yk1F7-kpDxY4-WY5N
WV5KntaEeXS1j82E375xxhWMHXyvjYecPT9fpwR_M9gV8n9Hrh2anTpTD9
3Dt62ypW3yDsJzBnTnrYu1iwWRgBKrEYY46qAZIrA2xAwnm2X7uGR1hghk
qDp0Vqj3kbSCz1XyfCs6_LehBwtxHIyh8Ripy40p24moOAbgxVw3rxT_vl
t3UVe4WO3JkJOzlpUf-KTVI2Ptgm-dARxTEtE-id-4OJr0h-K-VFs3VSnd
VTIznSxfyrj8ILL6MG_Uv8YAu7VILSB3lOW085-4qE3DzgrTjgyQ",
"p":"1r52Xk46c-LsfB5P442p7atdPUrxQSy4mti_tZI3Mgf2EuFVbUoDBvaRQ-
SWxkbkmoEzL7JXroSBjSrK3YIQgYdMgyAEPTPjXv_hI2_1eTSPVZfzL0lf
fNn03IXqWF5MDFuoUYE0hzb2vhrlN_rKrbfDIwUbTrjjgieRbwC6Cl0",
"q":"wLb35x7hmQWZsWJmB_vle87ihgZ19S8lBEROLIsZG4ayZVe9Hi9gDVCOBm
UDdaDYVTSNx_8Fyw1YYa9XGrGnDew00J28cRUoeBB_jKI1oma0Orv1T9aX
IWxKwd4gvxFImOWr3QRL9KEBRzk2RatUBnmDZJTIAfwTs0g68UZHvtc",
"dp":"ZK-YwE7diUh0qR1tR7w8WHtolDx3MZ_OTowiFvgfeQ3SiresXjm9gZ5KL
hMXvo-uz-KUJWDxS5pFQ_M0evdo1dKiRTjVw_x4NyqyXPM5nULPkcpU827
rnpZzAJKpdhWAgqrXGKAECQH0Xt4taznjnd_zVpAmZZq60WPMBMfKcuE",
"dq":"Dq0gfgJ1DdFGXiLvQEZnuKEN0UUmsJBxkjydc3j4ZYdBiMRAy86x0vHCj
ywcMlYYg4yoC4YZa9hNVcsjqA3FeiL19rk8g6Qn29Tt0cj8qqyFpz9vNDB
UfCAiJVeESOjJDZPYHdHY8v1b-o-Z2X5tvLx-TCekf7oxyeKDUqKWjis",
"qi":"VIMpMYbPf47dT1w_zDUXfPimsSegnMOA1zTaX7aGk_8urY6R8-ZW1FxU7
AlWAyLWybqq6t16VFd7hQd0y6flUK4SlOydB61gwanOsXGOAOv82cHq0E3
eL4HrtZkUuKvnPrMnsUUFlfUdybVzxyjz9JF_XyaY14ardLSjf4L_FNY"
}
The resulting JWE Encrypted Key value is:
[56, 163, 154, 192, 58, 53, 222, 4, 105, 218, 136, 218, 29, 94, 203, 22, 150, 92, 129, 94, 211, 232, 53, 89, 41, 60, 138, 56, 196, 216, 82, 98, 168, 76, 37, 73, 70, 7, 36, 8, 191, 100, 136, 196, 244, 220, 145, 158, 138, 155, 4, 117, 141, 230, 199, 247, 173, 45, 182, 214, 74, 177, 107, 211, 153, 11, 205, 196, 171, 226, 162, 128, 171, 182, 13, 237, 239, 99, 193, 4, 91, 219, 121, 223, 107, 167, 61, 119, 228, 173, 156, 137, 134, 200, 80, 219, 74, 253, 56, 185, 91, 177, 34, 158, 89, 154, 205, 96, 55, 18, 138, 43, 96, 218, 215, 128, 124, 75, 138, 243, 85, 25, 109, 117, 140, 26, 155, 249, 67, 167, 149, 231, 100, 6, 41, 65, 214, 251, 232, 87, 72, 40, 182, 149, 154, 168, 31, 193, 126, 215, 89, 28, 111, 219, 125, 182, 139, 235, 195, 197, 23, 234, 55, 58, 63, 180, 68, 202, 206, 149, 75, 205, 248, 176, 67, 39, 178, 60, 98, 193, 32, 238, 122, 96, 158, 222, 57, 183, 111, 210, 55, 188, 215, 206, 180, 166, 150, 166, 106, 250, 55, 229, 72, 40, 69, 214, 216, 104, 23, 40, 135, 212, 28, 127, 41, 80, 175, 174, 168, 115, 171, 197, 89, 116, 92, 103, 246, 83, 216, 182, 176, 84, 37, 147, 35, 45, 219, 172, 99, 226, 233, 73, 37, 124, 42, 72, 49, 242, 35, 127, 184, 134, 117, 114, 135, 206]
Encoding this JWE Encrypted Key as BASE64URL(JWE Encrypted Key) gives this value (with line breaks for display purposes only):
OKOawDo13gRp2ojaHV7LFpZcgV7T6DVZKTyKOMTYUmKoTCVJRgckCL9kiMT03JGe ipsEdY3mx_etLbbWSrFr05kLzcSr4qKAq7YN7e9jwQRb23nfa6c9d-StnImGyFDb Sv04uVuxIp5Zms1gNxKKK2Da14B8S4rzVRltdYwam_lDp5XnZAYpQdb76FdIKLaV mqgfwX7XWRxv2322i-vDxRfqNzo_tETKzpVLzfiwQyeyPGLBIO56YJ7eObdv0je8 1860ppamavo35UgoRdbYaBcoh9QcfylQr66oc6vFWXRcZ_ZT2LawVCWTIy3brGPi 6UklfCpIMfIjf7iGdXKHzg
Generate a random 96-bit JWE Initialization Vector. In this example, the value is:
[227, 197, 117, 252, 2, 219, 233, 68, 180, 225, 77, 219]
Encoding this JWE Initialization Vector as BASE64URL(JWE Initialization Vector) gives this value:
48V1_ALb6US04U3b
Let the Additional Authenticated Data encryption parameter be ASCII(BASE64URL(UTF8(JWE Protected Header))). This value is:
[101, 121, 74, 104, 98, 71, 99, 105, 79, 105, 74, 83, 85, 48, 69, 116, 84, 48, 70, 70, 85, 67, 73, 115, 73, 109, 86, 117, 89, 121, 73, 54, 73, 107, 69, 121, 78, 84, 90, 72, 81, 48, 48, 105, 102, 81]
Perform authenticated encryption on the plaintext with the AES GCM algorithm using the CEK as the encryption key, the JWE Initialization Vector, and the Additional Authenticated Data value above, requesting a 128-bit Authentication Tag output. The resulting ciphertext is:
[229, 236, 166, 241, 53, 191, 115, 196, 174, 43, 73, 109, 39, 122, 233, 96, 140, 206, 120, 52, 51, 237, 48, 11, 190, 219, 186, 80, 111, 104, 50, 142, 47, 167, 59, 61, 181, 127, 196, 21, 40, 82, 242, 32, 123, 143, 168, 226, 73, 216, 176, 144, 138, 247, 106, 60, 16, 205, 160, 109, 64, 63, 192]
The resulting Authentication Tag value is:
[92, 80, 104, 49, 133, 25, 161, 215, 173, 101, 219, 211, 136, 91, 210, 145]
Encoding this JWE Ciphertext as BASE64URL(JWE Ciphertext) gives this value (with line breaks for display purposes only):
5eym8TW_c8SuK0ltJ3rpYIzOeDQz7TALvtu6UG9oMo4vpzs9tX_EFShS8iB7j6ji SdiwkIr3ajwQzaBtQD_A
Encoding this JWE Authentication Tag as BASE64URL(JWE Authentication Tag) gives this value:
XFBoMYUZodetZdvTiFvSkQ
Assemble the final representation: The Compact Serialization of this result is the string BASE64URL(UTF8(JWE Protected Header)) || '.' || BASE64URL(JWE Encrypted Key) || '.' || BASE64URL(JWE Initialization Vector) || '.' || BASE64URL(JWE Ciphertext) || '.' || BASE64URL(JWE Authentication Tag).
The final result in this example (with line breaks for display purposes only) is:
eyJhbGciOiJSU0EtT0FFUCIsImVuYyI6IkEyNTZHQ00ifQ. OKOawDo13gRp2ojaHV7LFpZcgV7T6DVZKTyKOMTYUmKoTCVJRgckCL9kiMT03JGe ipsEdY3mx_etLbbWSrFr05kLzcSr4qKAq7YN7e9jwQRb23nfa6c9d-StnImGyFDb Sv04uVuxIp5Zms1gNxKKK2Da14B8S4rzVRltdYwam_lDp5XnZAYpQdb76FdIKLaV mqgfwX7XWRxv2322i-vDxRfqNzo_tETKzpVLzfiwQyeyPGLBIO56YJ7eObdv0je8 1860ppamavo35UgoRdbYaBcoh9QcfylQr66oc6vFWXRcZ_ZT2LawVCWTIy3brGPi 6UklfCpIMfIjf7iGdXKHzg. 48V1_ALb6US04U3b. 5eym8TW_c8SuK0ltJ3rpYIzOeDQz7TALvtu6UG9oMo4vpzs9tX_EFShS8iB7j6ji SdiwkIr3ajwQzaBtQD_A. XFBoMYUZodetZdvTiFvSkQ
This example illustrates the process of creating a JWE with RSAES‑OAEP for key encryption and AES GCM for content encryption. These results can be used to validate JWE decryption implementations for these algorithms. Note that since the RSAES-OAEP computation includes random values, the encryption results above will not be completely reproducible. However, since the AES GCM computation is deterministic, the JWE Encrypted Ciphertext values will be the same for all encryptions performed using these inputs.
This example encrypts the plaintext "Live long and prosper." to the recipient using RSAES-PKCS1-v1_5 for key encryption and AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256 for content encryption. The representation of this plaintext (using JSON array notation) is:
[76, 105, 118, 101, 32, 108, 111, 110, 103, 32, 97, 110, 100, 32, 112, 114, 111, 115, 112, 101, 114, 46]
The following example JWE Protected Header declares that:
{"alg":"RSA1_5","enc":"A128CBC-HS256"}
Encoding this JWE Protected Header as BASE64URL(UTF8(JWE Protected Header)) gives this value:
eyJhbGciOiJSU0ExXzUiLCJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2In0
Generate a 256-bit random CEK. In this example, the key value is:
[4, 211, 31, 197, 84, 157, 252, 254, 11, 100, 157, 250, 63, 170, 106, 206, 107, 124, 212, 45, 111, 107, 9, 219, 200, 177, 0, 240, 143, 156, 44, 207]
Encrypt the CEK with the recipient's public key using the RSAES‑PKCS1‑v1_5 algorithm to produce the JWE Encrypted Key. This example uses the RSA key represented in JSON Web Key [JWK] format below (with line breaks within values for display purposes only):
{"kty":"RSA",
"n":"sXchDaQebHnPiGvyDOAT4saGEUetSyo9MKLOoWFsueri23bOdgWp4Dy1Wl
UzewbgBHod5pcM9H95GQRV3JDXboIRROSBigeC5yjU1hGzHHyXss8UDpre
cbAYxknTcQkhslANGRUZmdTOQ5qTRsLAt6BTYuyvVRdhS8exSZEy_c4gs_
7svlJJQ4H9_NxsiIoLwAEk7-Q3UXERGYw_75IDrGA84-lA_-Ct4eTlXHBI
Y2EaV7t7LjJaynVJCpkv4LKjTTAumiGUIuQhrNhZLuF_RJLqHpM2kgWFLU
7-VTdL1VbC2tejvcI2BlMkEpk1BzBZI0KQB0GaDWFLN-aEAw3vRw",
"e":"AQAB",
"d":"VFCWOqXr8nvZNyaaJLXdnNPXZKRaWCjkU5Q2egQQpTBMwhprMzWzpR8Sxq
1OPThh_J6MUD8Z35wky9b8eEO0pwNS8xlh1lOFRRBoNqDIKVOku0aZb-ry
nq8cxjDTLZQ6Fz7jSjR1Klop-YKaUHc9GsEofQqYruPhzSA-QgajZGPbE_
0ZaVDJHfyd7UUBUKunFMScbflYAAOYJqVIVwaYR5zWEEceUjNnTNo_CVSj
-VvXLO5VZfCUAVLgW4dpf1SrtZjSt34YLsRarSb127reG_DUwg9Ch-Kyvj
T1SkHgUWRVGcyly7uvVGRSDwsXypdrNinPA4jlhoNdizK2zF2CWQ",
"p":"9gY2w6I6S6L0juEKsbeDAwpd9WMfgqFoeA9vEyEUuk4kLwBKcoe1x4HG68
ik918hdDSE9vDQSccA3xXHOAFOPJ8R9EeIAbTi1VwBYnbTp87X-xcPWlEP
krdoUKW60tgs1aNd_Nnc9LEVVPMS390zbFxt8TN_biaBgelNgbC95sM",
"q":"uKlCKvKv_ZJMVcdIs5vVSU_6cPtYI1ljWytExV_skstvRSNi9r66jdd9-y
BhVfuG4shsp2j7rGnIio901RBeHo6TPKWVVykPu1iYhQXw1jIABfw-MVsN
-3bQ76WLdt2SDxsHs7q7zPyUyHXmps7ycZ5c72wGkUwNOjYelmkiNS0",
"dp":"w0kZbV63cVRvVX6yk3C8cMxo2qCM4Y8nsq1lmMSYhG4EcL6FWbX5h9yuv
ngs4iLEFk6eALoUS4vIWEwcL4txw9LsWH_zKI-hwoReoP77cOdSL4AVcra
Hawlkpyd2TWjE5evgbhWtOxnZee3cXJBkAi64Ik6jZxbvk-RR3pEhnCs",
"dq":"o_8V14SezckO6CNLKs_btPdFiO9_kC1DsuUTd2LAfIIVeMZ7jn1Gus_Ff
7B7IVx3p5KuBGOVF8L-qifLb6nQnLysgHDh132NDioZkhH7mI7hPG-PYE_
odApKdnqECHWw0J-F0JWnUd6D2B_1TvF9mXA2Qx-iGYn8OVV1Bsmp6qU",
"qi":"eNho5yRBEBxhGBtQRww9QirZsB66TrfFReG_CcteI1aCneT0ELGhYlRlC
tUkTRclIfuEPmNsNDPbLoLqqCVznFbvdB7x-Tl-m0l_eFTj2KiqwGqE9PZ
B9nNTwMVvH3VRRSLWACvPnSiwP8N5Usy-WRXS-V7TbpxIhvepTfE0NNo"
}
The resulting JWE Encrypted Key value is:
[80, 104, 72, 58, 11, 130, 236, 139, 132, 189, 255, 205, 61, 86, 151, 176, 99, 40, 44, 233, 176, 189, 205, 70, 202, 169, 72, 40, 226, 181, 156, 223, 120, 156, 115, 232, 150, 209, 145, 133, 104, 112, 237, 156, 116, 250, 65, 102, 212, 210, 103, 240, 177, 61, 93, 40, 71, 231, 223, 226, 240, 157, 15, 31, 150, 89, 200, 215, 198, 203, 108, 70, 117, 66, 212, 238, 193, 205, 23, 161, 169, 218, 243, 203, 128, 214, 127, 253, 215, 139, 43, 17, 135, 103, 179, 220, 28, 2, 212, 206, 131, 158, 128, 66, 62, 240, 78, 186, 141, 125, 132, 227, 60, 137, 43, 31, 152, 199, 54, 72, 34, 212, 115, 11, 152, 101, 70, 42, 219, 233, 142, 66, 151, 250, 126, 146, 141, 216, 190, 73, 50, 177, 146, 5, 52, 247, 28, 197, 21, 59, 170, 247, 181, 89, 131, 241, 169, 182, 246, 99, 15, 36, 102, 166, 182, 172, 197, 136, 230, 120, 60, 58, 219, 243, 149, 94, 222, 150, 154, 194, 110, 227, 225, 112, 39, 89, 233, 112, 207, 211, 241, 124, 174, 69, 221, 179, 107, 196, 225, 127, 167, 112, 226, 12, 242, 16, 24, 28, 120, 182, 244, 213, 244, 153, 194, 162, 69, 160, 244, 248, 63, 165, 141, 4, 207, 249, 193, 79, 131, 0, 169, 233, 127, 167, 101, 151, 125, 56, 112, 111, 248, 29, 232, 90, 29, 147, 110, 169, 146, 114, 165, 204, 71, 136, 41, 252]
Encoding this JWE Encrypted Key as BASE64URL(JWE Encrypted Key) gives this value (with line breaks for display purposes only):
UGhIOguC7IuEvf_NPVaXsGMoLOmwvc1GyqlIKOK1nN94nHPoltGRhWhw7Zx0-kFm 1NJn8LE9XShH59_i8J0PH5ZZyNfGy2xGdULU7sHNF6Gp2vPLgNZ__deLKxGHZ7Pc HALUzoOegEI-8E66jX2E4zyJKx-YxzZIItRzC5hlRirb6Y5Cl_p-ko3YvkkysZIF NPccxRU7qve1WYPxqbb2Yw8kZqa2rMWI5ng8OtvzlV7elprCbuPhcCdZ6XDP0_F8 rkXds2vE4X-ncOIM8hAYHHi29NX0mcKiRaD0-D-ljQTP-cFPgwCp6X-nZZd9OHBv -B3oWh2TbqmScqXMR4gp_A
Generate a random 128-bit JWE Initialization Vector. In this example, the value is:
[3, 22, 60, 12, 43, 67, 104, 105, 108, 108, 105, 99, 111, 116, 104, 101]
Encoding this JWE Initialization Vector as BASE64URL(JWE Initialization Vector) gives this value:
AxY8DCtDaGlsbGljb3RoZQ
Let the Additional Authenticated Data encryption parameter be ASCII(BASE64URL(UTF8(JWE Protected Header))). This value is:
[101, 121, 74, 104, 98, 71, 99, 105, 79, 105, 74, 83, 85, 48, 69, 120, 88, 122, 85, 105, 76, 67, 74, 108, 98, 109, 77, 105, 79, 105, 74, 66, 77, 84, 73, 52, 81, 48, 74, 68, 76, 85, 104, 84, 77, 106, 85, 50, 73, 110, 48]
Perform authenticated encryption on the plaintext with the AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256 algorithm using the CEK as the encryption key, the JWE Initialization Vector, and the Additional Authenticated Data value above. The steps for doing this using the values from Appendix A.3 are detailed in Appendix B. The resulting ciphertext is:
[40, 57, 83, 181, 119, 33, 133, 148, 198, 185, 243, 24, 152, 230, 6, 75, 129, 223, 127, 19, 210, 82, 183, 230, 168, 33, 215, 104, 143, 112, 56, 102]
The resulting Authentication Tag value is:
[246, 17, 244, 190, 4, 95, 98, 3, 231, 0, 115, 157, 242, 203, 100, 191]
Encoding this JWE Ciphertext as BASE64URL(JWE Ciphertext) gives this value:
KDlTtXchhZTGufMYmOYGS4HffxPSUrfmqCHXaI9wOGY
Encoding this JWE Authentication Tag as BASE64URL(JWE Authentication Tag) gives this value:
9hH0vgRfYgPnAHOd8stkvw
Assemble the final representation: The Compact Serialization of this result is the string BASE64URL(UTF8(JWE Protected Header)) || '.' || BASE64URL(JWE Encrypted Key) || '.' || BASE64URL(JWE Initialization Vector) || '.' || BASE64URL(JWE Ciphertext) || '.' || BASE64URL(JWE Authentication Tag).
The final result in this example (with line breaks for display purposes only) is:
eyJhbGciOiJSU0ExXzUiLCJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2In0. UGhIOguC7IuEvf_NPVaXsGMoLOmwvc1GyqlIKOK1nN94nHPoltGRhWhw7Zx0-kFm 1NJn8LE9XShH59_i8J0PH5ZZyNfGy2xGdULU7sHNF6Gp2vPLgNZ__deLKxGHZ7Pc HALUzoOegEI-8E66jX2E4zyJKx-YxzZIItRzC5hlRirb6Y5Cl_p-ko3YvkkysZIF NPccxRU7qve1WYPxqbb2Yw8kZqa2rMWI5ng8OtvzlV7elprCbuPhcCdZ6XDP0_F8 rkXds2vE4X-ncOIM8hAYHHi29NX0mcKiRaD0-D-ljQTP-cFPgwCp6X-nZZd9OHBv -B3oWh2TbqmScqXMR4gp_A. AxY8DCtDaGlsbGljb3RoZQ. KDlTtXchhZTGufMYmOYGS4HffxPSUrfmqCHXaI9wOGY. 9hH0vgRfYgPnAHOd8stkvw
This example illustrates the process of creating a JWE with RSAES‑PKCS1‑v1_5 for key encryption and AES_CBC_HMAC_SHA2 for content encryption. These results can be used to validate JWE decryption implementations for these algorithms. Note that since the RSAES‑PKCS1‑v1_5 computation includes random values, the encryption results above will not be completely reproducible. However, since the AES-CBC computation is deterministic, the JWE Encrypted Ciphertext values will be the same for all encryptions performed using these inputs.
This example encrypts the plaintext "Live long and prosper." to the recipient using AES Key Wrap for key encryption and AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256 for content encryption. The representation of this plaintext (using JSON array notation) is:
[76, 105, 118, 101, 32, 108, 111, 110, 103, 32, 97, 110, 100, 32, 112, 114, 111, 115, 112, 101, 114, 46]
The following example JWE Protected Header declares that:
{"alg":"A128KW","enc":"A128CBC-HS256"}
Encoding this JWE Protected Header as BASE64URL(UTF8(JWE Protected Header)) gives this value:
eyJhbGciOiJBMTI4S1ciLCJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2In0
Generate a 256-bit random CEK. In this example, the value is:
[4, 211, 31, 197, 84, 157, 252, 254, 11, 100, 157, 250, 63, 170, 106, 206, 107, 124, 212, 45, 111, 107, 9, 219, 200, 177, 0, 240, 143, 156, 44, 207]
Encrypt the CEK with the shared symmetric key using the AES Key Wrap algorithm to produce the JWE Encrypted Key. This example uses the symmetric key represented in JSON Web Key [JWK] format below:
{"kty":"oct",
"k":"GawgguFyGrWKav7AX4VKUg"
}
The resulting JWE Encrypted Key value is:
[232, 160, 123, 211, 183, 76, 245, 132, 200, 128, 123, 75, 190, 216, 22, 67, 201, 138, 193, 186, 9, 91, 122, 31, 246, 90, 28, 139, 57, 3, 76, 124, 193, 11, 98, 37, 173, 61, 104, 57]
Encoding this JWE Encrypted Key as BASE64URL(JWE Encrypted Key) gives this value:
6KB707dM9YTIgHtLvtgWQ8mKwboJW3of9locizkDTHzBC2IlrT1oOQ
Generate a random 128-bit JWE Initialization Vector. In this example, the value is:
[3, 22, 60, 12, 43, 67, 104, 105, 108, 108, 105, 99, 111, 116, 104, 101]
Encoding this JWE Initialization Vector as BASE64URL(JWE Initialization Vector) gives this value:
AxY8DCtDaGlsbGljb3RoZQ
Let the Additional Authenticated Data encryption parameter be ASCII(BASE64URL(UTF8(JWE Protected Header))). This value is:
[101, 121, 74, 104, 98, 71, 99, 105, 79, 105, 74, 66, 77, 84, 73, 52, 83, 49, 99, 105, 76, 67, 74, 108, 98, 109, 77, 105, 79, 105, 74, 66, 77, 84, 73, 52, 81, 48, 74, 68, 76, 85, 104, 84, 77, 106, 85, 50, 73, 110, 48]
Perform authenticated encryption on the plaintext with the AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256 algorithm using the CEK as the encryption key, the JWE Initialization Vector, and the Additional Authenticated Data value above. The steps for doing this using the values from this example are detailed in Appendix B. The resulting ciphertext is:
[40, 57, 83, 181, 119, 33, 133, 148, 198, 185, 243, 24, 152, 230, 6, 75, 129, 223, 127, 19, 210, 82, 183, 230, 168, 33, 215, 104, 143, 112, 56, 102]
The resulting Authentication Tag value is:
[83, 73, 191, 98, 104, 205, 211, 128, 201, 189, 199, 133, 32, 38, 194, 85]
Encoding this JWE Ciphertext as BASE64URL(JWE Ciphertext) gives this value:
KDlTtXchhZTGufMYmOYGS4HffxPSUrfmqCHXaI9wOGY
Encoding this JWE Authentication Tag as BASE64URL(JWE Authentication Tag) gives this value:
U0m_YmjN04DJvceFICbCVQ
Assemble the final representation: The Compact Serialization of this result is the string BASE64URL(UTF8(JWE Protected Header)) || '.' || BASE64URL(JWE Encrypted Key) || '.' || BASE64URL(JWE Initialization Vector) || '.' || BASE64URL(JWE Ciphertext) || '.' || BASE64URL(JWE Authentication Tag).
The final result in this example (with line breaks for display purposes only) is:
eyJhbGciOiJBMTI4S1ciLCJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2In0. 6KB707dM9YTIgHtLvtgWQ8mKwboJW3of9locizkDTHzBC2IlrT1oOQ. AxY8DCtDaGlsbGljb3RoZQ. KDlTtXchhZTGufMYmOYGS4HffxPSUrfmqCHXaI9wOGY. U0m_YmjN04DJvceFICbCVQ
This example illustrates the process of creating a JWE with AES Key Wrap for key encryption and AES GCM for content encryption. These results can be used to validate JWE decryption implementations for these algorithms. Also, since both the AES Key Wrap and AES GCM computations are deterministic, the resulting JWE value will be the same for all encryptions performed using these inputs. Since the computation is reproducible, these results can also be used to validate JWE encryption implementations for these algorithms.
This section contains an example using the general JWE JSON Serialization syntax. This example demonstrates the capability for encrypting the same plaintext to multiple recipients.
Two recipients are present in this example. The algorithm and key used for the first recipient are the same as that used in Appendix A.2. The algorithm and key used for the second recipient are the same as that used in Appendix A.3. The resulting JWE Encrypted Key values are therefore the same; those computations are not repeated here.
The plaintext, the CEK, JWE Initialization Vector, and JWE Protected Header are shared by all recipients (which must be the case, since the ciphertext and Authentication Tag are also shared).
The first recipient uses the RSAES-PKCS1-v1_5 algorithm to encrypt the CEK. The second uses AES Key Wrap to encrypt the CEK. Key ID values are supplied for both keys. The two JWE Per-Recipient Unprotected Header values used to represent these algorithms and key IDs are:
{"alg":"RSA1_5","kid":"2011-04-29"}
and
{"alg":"A128KW","kid":"7"}
Authenticated encryption is performed on the plaintext using the AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256 algorithm to produce the common JWE Ciphertext and JWE Authentication Tag values. The JWE Protected Header value representing this is:
{"enc":"A128CBC-HS256"}
Encoding this JWE Protected Header as BASE64URL(UTF8(JWE Protected Header)) gives this value:
eyJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2In0
This JWE uses the jku Header Parameter to reference a JWK Set. This is represented in the following JWE Shared Unprotected Header value as:
{"jku":"https://server.example.com/keys.jwks"}
Combining the JWE Per-Recipient Unprotected Header, JWE Protected Header, and JWE Shared Unprotected Header values supplied, the JOSE Header values used for the first and second recipient, respectively, are:
{"alg":"RSA1_5",
"kid":"2011-04-29",
"enc":"A128CBC-HS256",
"jku":"https://server.example.com/keys.jwks"}
and
{"alg":"A128KW",
"kid":"7",
"enc":"A128CBC-HS256",
"jku":"https://server.example.com/keys.jwks"}
Let the Additional Authenticated Data encryption parameter be ASCII(BASE64URL(UTF8(JWE Protected Header))). This value is:
[101, 121, 74, 108, 98, 109, 77, 105, 79, 105, 74, 66, 77, 84, 73, 52, 81, 48, 74, 68, 76, 85, 104, 84, 77, 106, 85, 50, 73, 110, 48]
Perform authenticated encryption on the plaintext with the AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256 algorithm using the CEK as the encryption key, the JWE Initialization Vector, and the Additional Authenticated Data value above. The steps for doing this using the values from Appendix A.3 are detailed in Appendix B. The resulting ciphertext is:
[40, 57, 83, 181, 119, 33, 133, 148, 198, 185, 243, 24, 152, 230, 6, 75, 129, 223, 127, 19, 210, 82, 183, 230, 168, 33, 215, 104, 143, 112, 56, 102]
The resulting Authentication Tag value is:
[51, 63, 149, 60, 252, 148, 225, 25, 92, 185, 139, 245, 35, 2, 47, 207]
Encoding this JWE Ciphertext as BASE64URL(JWE Ciphertext) gives this value:
KDlTtXchhZTGufMYmOYGS4HffxPSUrfmqCHXaI9wOGY
Encoding this JWE Authentication Tag as BASE64URL(JWE Authentication Tag) gives this value:
Mz-VPPyU4RlcuYv1IwIvzw
The complete JWE JSON Serialization for these values is as follows (with line breaks within values for display purposes only):
{
"protected":
"eyJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2In0",
"unprotected":
{"jku":"https://server.example.com/keys.jwks"},
"recipients":[
{"header":
{"alg":"RSA1_5","kid":"2011-04-29"},
"encrypted_key":
"UGhIOguC7IuEvf_NPVaXsGMoLOmwvc1GyqlIKOK1nN94nHPoltGRhWhw7Zx0-
kFm1NJn8LE9XShH59_i8J0PH5ZZyNfGy2xGdULU7sHNF6Gp2vPLgNZ__deLKx
GHZ7PcHALUzoOegEI-8E66jX2E4zyJKx-YxzZIItRzC5hlRirb6Y5Cl_p-ko3
YvkkysZIFNPccxRU7qve1WYPxqbb2Yw8kZqa2rMWI5ng8OtvzlV7elprCbuPh
cCdZ6XDP0_F8rkXds2vE4X-ncOIM8hAYHHi29NX0mcKiRaD0-D-ljQTP-cFPg
wCp6X-nZZd9OHBv-B3oWh2TbqmScqXMR4gp_A"},
{"header":
{"alg":"A128KW","kid":"7"},
"encrypted_key":
"6KB707dM9YTIgHtLvtgWQ8mKwboJW3of9locizkDTHzBC2IlrT1oOQ"}],
"iv":
"AxY8DCtDaGlsbGljb3RoZQ",
"ciphertext":
"KDlTtXchhZTGufMYmOYGS4HffxPSUrfmqCHXaI9wOGY",
"tag":
"Mz-VPPyU4RlcuYv1IwIvzw"
}
This section contains an example using the flattened JWE JSON Serialization syntax. This example demonstrates the capability for encrypting the plaintext to a single recipient in a flattened JSON structure.
The values in this example are the same as those for the second recipient of the previous example in Appendix A.4.
The complete JWE JSON Serialization for these values is as follows (with line breaks within values for display purposes only):
{
"protected":
"eyJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2In0",
"unprotected":
{"jku":"https://server.example.com/keys.jwks"},
"header":
{"alg":"A128KW","kid":"7"},
"encrypted_key":
"6KB707dM9YTIgHtLvtgWQ8mKwboJW3of9locizkDTHzBC2IlrT1oOQ",
"iv":
"AxY8DCtDaGlsbGljb3RoZQ",
"ciphertext":
"KDlTtXchhZTGufMYmOYGS4HffxPSUrfmqCHXaI9wOGY",
"tag":
"Mz-VPPyU4RlcuYv1IwIvzw"
}
This example shows the steps in the AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256 authenticated encryption computation using the values from the example in Appendix A.3. As described where this algorithm is defined in Sections 5.2 and 5.2.3 of JWA, the AES_CBC_HMAC_SHA2 family of algorithms are implemented using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) in Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) mode with Public-Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS) #7 padding to perform the encryption and an HMAC SHA-2 function to perform the integrity calculation -- in this case, HMAC SHA-256.
The 256 bit AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256 key K used in this example (using JSON array notation) is:
[4, 211, 31, 197, 84, 157, 252, 254, 11, 100, 157, 250, 63, 170, 106, 206, 107, 124, 212, 45, 111, 107, 9, 219, 200, 177, 0, 240, 143, 156, 44, 207]
Use the first 128 bits of this key as the HMAC SHA-256 key MAC_KEY, which is:
[4, 211, 31, 197, 84, 157, 252, 254, 11, 100, 157, 250, 63, 170, 106, 206]
Use the last 128 bits of this key as the AES-CBC key ENC_KEY, which is:
[107, 124, 212, 45, 111, 107, 9, 219, 200, 177, 0, 240, 143, 156, 44, 207]
Note that the MAC key comes before the encryption key in the input key K; this is in the opposite order of the algorithm names in the identifiers "AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256" and A128CBC-HS256.
Encrypt the plaintext with AES in CBC mode using PKCS #7 padding using the ENC_KEY above. The plaintext in this example is:
[76, 105, 118, 101, 32, 108, 111, 110, 103, 32, 97, 110, 100, 32, 112, 114, 111, 115, 112, 101, 114, 46]
The encryption result is as follows, which is the ciphertext output:
[40, 57, 83, 181, 119, 33, 133, 148, 198, 185, 243, 24, 152, 230, 6, 75, 129, 223, 127, 19, 210, 82, 183, 230, 168, 33, 215, 104, 143, 112, 56, 102]
The Additional Authenticated Data (AAD) in this example is:
[101, 121, 74, 104, 98, 71, 99, 105, 79, 105, 74, 66, 77, 84, 73, 52, 83, 49, 99, 105, 76, 67, 74, 108, 98, 109, 77, 105, 79, 105, 74, 66, 77, 84, 73, 52, 81, 48, 74, 68, 76, 85, 104, 84, 77, 106, 85, 50, 73, 110, 48]
This AAD is 51-bytes long, which is 408-bits long. The octet string AL, which is the number of bits in AAD expressed as a big-endian 64-bit unsigned integer is:
[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 152]
The Initialization Vector value used in this example is:
[3, 22, 60, 12, 43, 67, 104, 105, 108, 108, 105, 99, 111, 116, 104, 101]
Concatenate the AAD, the Initialization Vector, the ciphertext, and the AL value. The result of this concatenation is:
[101, 121, 74, 104, 98, 71, 99, 105, 79, 105, 74, 66, 77, 84, 73, 52, 83, 49, 99, 105, 76, 67, 74, 108, 98, 109, 77, 105, 79, 105, 74, 66, 77, 84, 73, 52, 81, 48, 74, 68, 76, 85, 104, 84, 77, 106, 85, 50, 73, 110, 48, 3, 22, 60, 12, 43, 67, 104, 105, 108, 108, 105, 99, 111, 116, 104, 101, 40, 57, 83, 181, 119, 33, 133, 148, 198, 185, 243, 24, 152, 230, 6, 75, 129, 223, 127, 19, 210, 82, 183, 230, 168, 33, 215, 104, 143, 112, 56, 102, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 152]
Compute the HMAC SHA-256 of the concatenated value above. This result M is:
[83, 73, 191, 98, 104, 205, 211, 128, 201, 189, 199, 133, 32, 38, 194, 85, 9, 84, 229, 201, 219, 135, 44, 252, 145, 102, 179, 140, 105, 86, 229, 116]
Use the first half (128 bits) of the HMAC output M as the Authentication Tag output T. This truncated value is:
[83, 73, 191, 98, 104, 205, 211, 128, 201, 189, 199, 133, 32, 38, 194, 85]
Solutions for encrypting JSON content were also explored by "JSON Simple Encryption" [JSE] and "JavaScript Message Security Format" [JSMS], both of which significantly influenced this document. This document attempts to explicitly reuse as many of the relevant concepts from XML Encryption 1.1 [W3C.REC-xmlenc-core1-20130411] and RFC 5652 [RFC5652] as possible, while utilizing simple, compact JSON-based data structures.
Special thanks are due to John Bradley, Eric Rescorla, and Nat Sakimura for the discussions that helped inform the content of this specification; to Eric Rescorla and Joe Hildebrand for allowing the reuse of text from [JSMS] in this document; and to Eric Rescorla for co-authoring many drafts of this specification.
Thanks to Axel Nennker, Emmanuel Raviart, Brian Campbell, and Edmund Jay for validating the examples in this specification.
This specification is the work of the JOSE working group, which includes dozens of active and dedicated participants. In particular, the following individuals contributed ideas, feedback, and wording that influenced this specification:
Richard Barnes, John Bradley, Brian Campbell, Alissa Cooper, Breno de Medeiros, Stephen Farrell, Dick Hardt, Jeff Hodges, Russ Housley, Edmund Jay, Scott Kelly, Stephen Kent, Barry Leiba, James Manger, Matt Miller, Kathleen Moriarty, Tony Nadalin, Hideki Nara, Axel Nennker, Ray Polk, Emmanuel Raviart, Eric Rescorla, Pete Resnick, Nat Sakimura, Jim Schaad, Hannes Tschofenig, and Sean Turner.
Jim Schaad and Karen O'Donoghue chaired the JOSE working group and Sean Turner, Stephen Farrell, and Kathleen Moriarty served as Security Area Directors during the creation of this specification.