Author: Mike Jones Page 23 of 35

Building the Internet's missing identity layer

JOSE -17 and JWT -12 drafts reducing duplicated text

On October 7, 2013

In Claims, Cryptography, JSON, OAuth, Specifications

JSON Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) -17 and JSON Web Token (JWT) -12 drafts have been published with editorial changes that reduce duplicated text between the JOSE specs. Also, the “typ” and “cty” header parameters were revised to always refer to media type values. The text about which serializations are mandatory to implement was updated. Finally, thanks to Matt Miller for supplying an encryption example using PBES2.

See the Document History appendices for more details on the changes made and issues addressed.

The drafts are available at:

HTML formatted versions are also available at:

WebFinger is now RFC 7033!

On September 27, 2013

In JSON, Specifications

I’m pleased to announce that the WebFinger specification has now been published as an RFC — RFC 7033. WebFinger enables discovery of information about a user or resource at a host using an HTTP query to a well-known https endpoint, with the discovered information being returned in a simple JSON structure. For instance, OpenID Connect uses WebFinger to discover the location of a user’s OpenID Connect server.

Thanks particularly go to Paul Jones, who tirelessly edited the spec, ably navigating the sometimes thankless task of addressing the numerous and sometimes conflicting comments and suggestions that were made, and in the end, resolving them to everyone’s satisfaction, and in a high-quality manner. Thanks a bunch, Paul!

I’ll also take the occasion to thank Yaron Goland for inventing the Simple Web Discovery specification. I believe that the simplicity of the approved WebFinger specification is a direct result of the influence that Simple Web Discovery had upon WebFinger.

I look forward to seeing all the useful things that will be accomplished using WebFinger!

JOSE -16 drafts addressing 45 editorial and minor issues

On September 15, 2013

In Cryptography, JSON, Specifications

JSON Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) -16 drafts have been published that address 45 editorial and minor issues. See the Document History sections for lists of the specific issues addressed. Thanks to Jim Schaad for again meeting with me in person to go over proposed text changes in my working drafts before these specifications were published.

One breaking change was made: When doing ECDH-ES key agreement, the AlgorithmID value used in the KDF computation now has a length prefix. So for instance, the representation of the “enc” value “A128GCM” is now prefixed by the number 7, represented as a 32-bit big-endian value, when used as the AlgorithmID value. (Such prefixes were already in place for the other variable-length KDF parameters.)

The drafts are available at:

HTML formatted versions are also available at:

JOSE -15 drafts addressing 37 editorial and minor issues

On September 3, 2013

In Cryptography, JSON, Specifications

JSON Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) -15 drafts have been published that address 37 editorial and minor issues filed by Jim Schaad. See the Document History sections for lists of the specific issues addressed. Thanks to Jim for meeting with me in person to go over proposed text changes in my working drafts before these specifications were published. We also agreed on a number of additional proposed resolutions that will be addressed in the next set of drafts published.

The one substantive change worth noting is that when multiple signatures or encryption recipients are present, it is now up to the application whether to reject the entire JWS or JWE when some, but not all of the signature or encryption validations fail. (Previously, if any validation failed, the entire JWS or JWE was always rejected.)

The drafts are available at:

HTML formatted versions are also available at:

WebFinger Specification Ready for RFC Editor

On August 26, 2013

In JSON, Specifications

The WebFinger specification enables discovery of information about a user or resource at a host using an HTTP query to a well-known https endpoint, with the discovered information being returned in a simple JSON structure. For instance, OpenID Connect uses WebFinger to discover the location of a user’s OpenID Connect server.

I’m pleased to report that WebFinger has now completed working group last call, IETF last call, and IESG review. The next step is for the draft to be sent to the RFC Editor for publication as an RFC. The current draft is available at:

http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-appsawg-webfinger-18

Those of you who have been following WebFinger probably realize that I have been an active contributor in moving WebFinger forward as a standard and keeping it simple. WebFinger, as it exists today, was directly influenced by the Simple Web Discovery spec that Yaron Goland and I wrote earlier. I have reviewed every IETF draft and provided comments as well as specific text to the authors. I am grateful to authors Paul Jones and Gonzalo Salgueiro for deciding to add me as a co-author, in recognition of my participation as a de-facto co-author behind the scenes.

Second OpenID Connect Implementer’s Drafts Approved

On July 31, 2013

In Claims, JSON, OAuth, OpenID, Specifications

The OpenID Foundation members have voted to approve a second set of OpenID Connect Implementer’s Drafts. The working group intends for the final specifications to be compatible with these Implementer’s Drafts.

Implementer’s Drafts are stable versions of specifications intended for trial implementations and deployments that provide specific IPR protections to those using them. Implementers and deployers are encouraged to continue providing feedback to the working group on these specifications based upon their experiences using them.

OpenID Connect Server in a Nutshell

On July 30, 2013

In Documentation, OpenID, People

Nat Sakimura has written a valuable post describing how to write an OpenID Connect server in three simple steps. It shows by example how simple it is for OAuth servers to add OpenID Connect functionality. This post is a companion to his previous post OpenID Connect in a Nutshell, which described how simple it is to build OpenID Connect clients. If you’re involved in OpenID Connect in any way, or are considering becoming involved, these posts are well worth reading.

JOSE -14 and JWT -11 drafts with additional algorithms and examples published

On July 29, 2013

In Claims, Cryptography, JSON, OAuth, Specifications

JSON Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) -14 drafts have been published that incorporate minor updates requested by the working group since the last working group call. The primary change was adding algorithm identifiers for AES algorithms using 192 bit keys; supporting these algorithms is optional. The only breaking changes were to the password-based encryption algorithm parameter representation. This version adds an example ECDH-ES Key Agreement computation.

The JSON Web Token (JWT) -11 draft adds a Nested JWT example — in which the claims are first signed, and then encrypted.

The drafts are available at:

HTML formatted versions are also available at:

OpenID Connect Presentation at IETF 87

On July 28, 2013

In Events, OpenID

I’ve posted the OpenID Connect presentation that I gave at the OpenID Workshop at IETF 87. Besides giving an overview of the specification status, unsurprisingly given the setting at IETF 87, it also talks about the relationship between OpenID Connect and the IETF specifications that it depends upon. It’s available as PowerPoint and PDF.

JOSE -13 drafts

On July 15, 2013

In Cryptography, JSON, Specifications

The JSON Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) -13 drafts are now available, which incorporate issue resolutions agreed to on today’s JOSE working group call. The only breaking change was to the JWS JSON Serialization, by making all header parameters be per-signature (which is actually a simplification and makes it more parallel to the JWS Compact Serialization). Algorithms were added to JWA for key encryption with AES GCM and for password-based encryption. An optional “aad” (Additional Authenticated Data) member was added to the JWE JSON Serialization.

Thanks to Matt Miller for the password-based encryption write-up, which is based on draft-miller-jose-jwe-protected-jwk-02.

The drafts are available at:

HTML formatted versions are also available at:

OAuth assertions drafts improving interop characteristics

On July 15, 2013

In Claims, JSON, OAuth, Specifications

Updated OAuth assertions drafts have been posted that improve their interoperability characteristics in a manner suggested during IESG review: they now state that issuer and audience values should be compared using the Simple String Comparison method defined in Section 6.2.1 of RFC 3986 unless otherwise specified by the application.

The drafts are available at:

HTML formatted versions are available at:

JWT draft -10

On July 14, 2013

In Claims, Cryptography, JSON, OAuth, Specifications

JSON Web Token (JWT) draft -10 allows Claims to be replicated as Header Parameters in encrypted JWTs as needed by applications that require an unencrypted representation of specific Claims. This draft is available at http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-oauth-json-web-token-10, with an HTML formatted version also available at https://self-issued.info/docs/draft-ietf-oauth-json-web-token-10.html.

AES GCM Key Wrapping draft -01

On July 14, 2013

In Cryptography, JSON, Specifications

I’ve updated the AES GCM Key Wrapping draft to represent the Initialization Vector and Authentication Tag values used as header parameter values so as to be more parallel with their treatment when using AES GCM for content encryption, per working group request. This draft is now available as http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-jones-jose-aes-gcm-key-wrap-01. It is also available in HTML format at https://self-issued.info/docs/draft-jones-jose-aes-gcm-key-wrap-01.html.

JOSE -12 and JWT -09 drafts released

On July 14, 2013

In Claims, Cryptography, JSON, OAuth, Specifications

The -12 JSON Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) drafts have been released incorporating issue resolutions agreed to on the July 1, 2013 working group call and on the mailing list. Most of the changes were editorial improvements suggested by Jim Schaad and Richard Barnes. Changes included clarifying that the “typ” and “cty” header parameters are for use by applications and don’t affect JOSE processing, replacing the MIME types application/jws, application/jwe, application/jws+json, and application/jwe+json with application/jose and application/jose+json, and relaxing language on JSON parsing when duplicate member names are encountered to allow use of ECMAScript JSON parsers. See the history entries for the full set of changes.

Corresponding changes to the JSON Web Token (JWT) spec were also published in draft -09.

The drafts are available at:

HTML formatted versions are also available at:

OpenID Connect Update Presentation at CIS 2013

On July 8, 2013

In Events, OpenID

I’ve posted the OpenID Connect Update presentation that I gave today during the OpenID Workshop at the Cloud Identity Summit 2013. I’ve trimmed down the presentation to be lighter on the “how” and focus more on the “what” and “why”, relative to the one I gave at EIC in May. It’s available in PowerPoint and PDF formats.

Production Release of Microsoft JWT Support

On June 13, 2013

In Claims, Cryptography, JSON, Software

Microsoft has released production support for the JSON Web Token (JWT). Read about it in Alex Simons’ release announcement and Vittorio Bertocci’s blog post on the JWT support.

Proposed Second OpenID Connect Implementer’s Drafts Published

On June 7, 2013

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

Today marks another significant milestone towards completing the OpenID Connect standard. The OpenID Foundation has announced that the 45 day review period for the second set of proposed Implementer’s Drafts has begun. The working group believes that these are stable and complete drafts. They are being proposed as Implementer’s Drafts, rather than Final Specifications at this time, because of the dependencies on some IETF specifications that are still undergoing standardization — primarily the JSON Web Token (JWT) specification and the JSON Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) specifications underlying it.

An Implementer’s Draft is a stable version of a specification intended for implementation and deployment that provides intellectual property protections to implementers of the specification. These updated drafts are the product of incorporating months of feedback from implementers and reviewers on earlier specification drafts, starting with the previous Implementer’s Drafts, including feedback resulting from several rounds of interop testing. Thanks to all of you who have been working towards the completion of OpenID Connect!

These specifications are available at:

JOSE -11 drafts and JWT -08 released

On May 28, 2013

In Claims, Cryptography, JSON, OAuth, Specifications

The -11 drafts of the JSON Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) specifications have been released that incorporate the changes agreed to at the interim working group meeting last month. Most of the changes were to the JWS and JWE JSON Serialization representations, enabling more flexible treatment of header parameter values. Other changes included removing the Encrypted Key value from the JWE integrity calculation, saying more about key identification, adding key identification parameters to some of the examples, clarifying the use of “kid” values in JWK Sets, enabling X.509 key representations in JWKs, recommending protecting JWKs containing non-public information by encrypting them with JWE, adding “alg” values for RSASSA-PSS, registering additional MIME types, and a number of clarifications. A corresponding -08 JSON Web Token (JWT) spec was also released that updated the encrypted JWT example value to track the JWE change. Hopefully this will be the last breaking change to the encryption calculations.

The specifications are available at:

HTML formatted versions are available at:

OAuth 2.0 has won the 2013 European Identity Award

On May 15, 2013

In Events, OAuth, Specifications

OAuth logo I’m pleased to report that OAuth 2.0 has won the 2013 European Identity Award for Best Innovation/New Standard. I was honored to accept the award from Kuppinger Cole at the 2013 European Identity and Cloud Conference on behalf of all who contributed to creating the OAuth 2.0 standards [RFC 6749, RFC 6750] and who are building solutions with them.

EIC 2013 Award Mike Jones EIC 2013 Award Chuck Mortimore, Mike Jones, John Bradley EIC 2013 Award Presentation EIC 2013 Award Acceptance

OpenID Connect Update Presentation

On May 14, 2013

In Events, OpenID

I’ve posted the OpenID Connect Update presentation that I gave today during the OpenID Workshop at the European Identity and Cloud Conference. It’s available in PowerPoint and PDF formats.

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