Mike Jones: self-issued

Musings on Digital Identity

Category: Phishing Resistance Page 1 of 3

Standards are About Making Choices

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On June 9, 2024

In CBOR, Claims, Cryptography, Events, FIDO, IETF, Interoperability, JSON, OAuth, OpenID, Phishing Resistance, Specifications, W3C

EIC 2024 LogoI was honored to give the keynote presentation Standards are About Making Choices at the 2024 European Identity and Cloud Conference (PowerPoint) (PDF). The abstract was:

When building machines, we take for granted being able to use nuts, bolts, wires, light bulbs, and countless other parts made to industry standards. Standards contain choices about dimensions of screw threads, nut sizes, etc., enabling a marketplace of interoperable parts from multiple suppliers. Without these choices, every part would be custom manufactured. The same is true of the identity and security standards we use to build identity systems.

However, the identity and security standards at our disposal differ wildly in the degree to which they do and don’t make choices. Some consistently define ONE way to do things, resulting in everyone doing it that way (interoperability!). Others leave critical choices unmade, passing the buck to implementers and applications (your mileage may vary).

In this talk, I’ll name names and take prisoners, critiquing existing and emerging standards through the lens of the choices they made and failed to make. Hold on to your hats as we examine the pros and cons of the choices made by OAuth, SAML, X.509, OpenID Connect, Verifiable Credentials, DIDs, WebCrypto, JOSE, COSE, and many others through this lens!

I believe you’ll agree with me that making choices matters.

The conference keynote description includes a recording of the presentation.

Thanks to MATTR for providing a designer to work with me on the presentation, enabling the visual design to transcend my usual black-text-on-white-background design style!

Using Standards: Some Assembly Required

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On May 30, 2024

In CBOR, Claims, Cryptography, Events, FIDO, IETF, Interoperability, JSON, OAuth, OpenID, Phishing Resistance, Specifications, W3C

Identiverse LogoI gave the following presentation in the session Using Standards: Some Assembly Required at the 2024 Identiverse conference (PowerPoint) (PDF). The abstract was:

  • Standards are about making choices. When building machines, we take for granted being able to use nuts, bolts, wires, light bulbs, and countless other parts made to industry standards. Standards contain choices about dimensions of screw threads, nut sizes, etc., enabling a marketplace of interoperable parts from multiple suppliers. Without these choices, every part would be custom-manufactured. The same is true of the identity and security standards we use to build the Identity Engine. However, the identity and security standards at our disposal differ wildly in the degree to which they do and don’t make choices. Some consistently define ONE way to do things, resulting in everyone doing it that way (interoperability!). Others leave critical choices unmade, passing the buck to implementers and applications (your mileage may vary). In this talk, I’ll name names and take prisoners, critiquing existing and emerging standards through the lens of the choices they made and failed to make. Hold on to your hats as we examine the pros and cons of the choices made by OAuth, SAML, X.509, OpenID Connect, Verifiable Credentials, DIDs, WebCrypto, JOSE, COSE, and many others through this lens! I believe you’ll agree with me that making choices matters.

The audience was highly engaged by the process of giving existing and emerging standards letter grades based on the choices they made (or failed to make)!

Public Drafts of Third W3C WebAuthn and FIDO2 CTAP Specifications

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On October 10, 2023

In Cryptography, FIDO, Phishing Resistance, Privacy, Specifications, W3C

W3C logoFIDO logoThe W3C WebAuthn and FIDO2 working groups have been actively creating third versions of the W3C Web Authentication (WebAuthn) and FIDO2 Client to Authenticator Protocol (CTAP) specifications. While remaining compatible with the original and second standards, these third versions add features that have been motivated by experience with deployments of the previous versions. Additions include Cross-Origin Authentication within an iFrame, Credential Backup State, the isPasskeyPlatformAuthenticatorAvailable method, Conditional Mediation, Device-Bound Public Keys (since renamed Supplemental Public Keys), requesting Attestations during authenticatorGetAssertion, the Pseudo-Random Function (PRF) extension, the Hybrid Transport, and Third-Party Payment Authentication.

I often tell people that I use my blog as my external memory. I thought I’d post references to these drafts to help me and others find them. They are:

Thanks to John Bradley for helping me compile the list of deltas!

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

OpenID and FIDO Presentation at October 2021 FIDO Plenary

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On October 21, 2021

In Events, FIDO, OpenID, Phishing Resistance

OpenID logoFIDO logoI described the relationship between OpenID and FIDO during the October 21, 2021 FIDO Alliance plenary meeting, including how OpenID Connect and FIDO are complementary. In particular, I explained that using WebAuthn/FIDO authenticators to sign into OpenID Providers brings phishing resistance to millions of OpenID Relying Parties without them having to do anything!

The presentation was:

Proof-of-possession (pop) AMR method added to OpenID Enhanced Authentication Profile spec

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On October 13, 2021

In FIDO, OpenID, Phishing Resistance, Specifications, W3C

OpenID logoI’ve defined an Authentication Method Reference (AMR) value called “pop” to indicate that Proof-of-possession of a key was performed. Unlike the existing “hwk” (hardware key) and “swk” (software key) methods, it is intentionally unspecified whether the proof-of-possession key is hardware-secured or software-secured. Among other use cases, this AMR method is applicable whenever a WebAuthn or FIDO authenticator are used.

The specification is available at these locations:

Thanks to Christiaan Brand for suggesting this.

Second Version of FIDO2 Client to Authenticator Protocol (CTAP) Now a Standard

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On June 23, 2021

In Cryptography, FIDO, Phishing Resistance, Privacy, Specifications

FIDO logoThe FIDO Alliance has completed the CTAP 2.1 Specification. This follows the publication of the closely-related second version of the W3C Web Authentication (WebAuthn) specification.

Today’s FIDO Alliance announcement describes the enhancements in the second version as follows:

Enhancements to FIDO standards to accelerate passwordless in the enterprise

The FIDO Alliance has announced enhancements to its FIDO2 specifications, which include several new features that will be helpful for passwordless enterprise deployments and other complex security applications. Both FIDO2 specifications were recently updated by their governing bodies — with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) approving WebAuthn Level 2 and FIDO doing the same for CTAP 2.1.

Key to these enhancements is enterprise attestation, which provides enterprise IT with improved management of FIDO authenticators used by employees. Enterprise attestation enables better binding of an authenticator to an account, assists with usage tracking and other management functions including credential and pin management, and biometric enrollment required in the enterprise.

Other updates include support for cross-origin iFrames and Apple attestation, as well as improvements to resident credentials. More details on these and other FIDO specification enhancements are available here.

Second Version of W3C Web Authentication (WebAuthn) Now a Standard

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On April 14, 2021

In Cryptography, FIDO, Phishing Resistance, Privacy, Specifications, W3C

W3C logoThe World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has published this Recommendation for the Web Authentication (WebAuthn) Level 2 specification, meaning that it now a completed standard. While remaining compatible with the original standard, this second version adds additional features, among them for user verification enhancements, manageability, enterprise features, and an Apple attestation format. The companion second FIDO2 Client to Authenticator Protocol (CTAP) specification is also approaching becoming a completed standard.

See the W3C announcement of this achievement. Also, see Tim Cappalli‘s summary of the changes in the second versions of WebAuthn and FIDO2.

Second Version of FIDO2 Client to Authenticator Protocol (CTAP) advanced to Public Review Draft

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On March 31, 2021

In Cryptography, FIDO, Phishing Resistance, Privacy

FIDO logoThe FIDO Alliance has published this Public Review Draft for the FIDO2 Client to Authenticator Protocol (CTAP) specification, bringing the second version of FIDO2 one step closer to becoming a completed standard. While remaining compatible with the original standard, this second version adds additional features, among them for user verification enhancements, manageability, enterprise features, and an Apple attestation format.

This parallels the similar progress of the closely related second version of the W3C Web Authentication (WebAuthn) specification, which recently achieved Proposed Recommendation (PR) status.

Second Version of W3C Web Authentication (WebAuthn) advances to Proposed Recommendation (PR)

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On February 28, 2021

In Cryptography, Phishing Resistance, Privacy, Specifications, W3C

W3C logoThe World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has published this Proposed Recommendation (PR) for the Web Authentication (WebAuthn) Level 2 specification, bringing the second version of WebAuthn one step closer to becoming a completed standard. While remaining compatible with the original standard, this second version adds additional features, among them for user verification enhancements, manageability, enterprise features, and an Apple attestation format.

Near-Final Second W3C WebAuthn and FIDO2 CTAP Specifications

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On December 31, 2020

In Cryptography, FIDO, Phishing Resistance, Privacy, Specifications, W3C

W3C logoFIDO logoThe W3C WebAuthn and FIDO2 working groups have been busy this year preparing to finish second versions of the W3C Web Authentication (WebAuthn) and FIDO2 Client to Authenticator Protocol (CTAP) specifications. While remaining compatible with the original standards, these second versions add additional features, among them for user verification enhancements, manageability, enterprise features, and an Apple attestation format. Near-final review drafts of both have been published:

Expect these to become approved standards in early 2021. Happy New Year!

W3C WebAuthn and FIDO 2.0 win 2019 European Identity and Cloud Award

By

On May 22, 2019

In Events, FIDO, Phishing Resistance, Specifications, W3C

EIC logoThe W3C WebAuthn and FIDO 2.0 standards have won the 2019 European Identity and Cloud Award for Best Future Technology / Standard Project at the European Identity and Cloud (EIC) conference. This award recognizes the significance of these recently-approved standards, which enable password-less sign-in with platform authenticators, mobile devices, and security keys. They provide a huge step forward for online security, privacy, and convenience.

Thanks to Kuppinger Cole for recognizing the importance and impact of these important new standards!

EIC 2019 Award EIC 2019 Award Certificate

FIDO2 Client to Authenticator Protocol (CTAP) standard published

By

On March 9, 2019

In Cryptography, FIDO, Phishing Resistance, Privacy, Specifications, W3C

FIDO logoI’m thrilled to report that the FIDO2 Client to Authenticator Protocol (CTAP) is now a published FIDO Alliance standard! Together with the now-standard Web Authentication (WebAuthn) specification, this completes standardization of the APIs and protocols needed to enable password-less logins on the Web, on PCs, and on and mobile devices. This is a huge step forward for online security, privacy, and convenience!

The FIDO2 CTAP standard is available in HTML and PDF versions at these locations:

The W3C Web Authentication (WebAuthn) specification is now a standard!

By

On March 4, 2019

In Cryptography, FIDO, Phishing Resistance, Privacy, Specifications, W3C

W3C logoI’m thrilled to report that the Web Authentication (WebAuthn) specification is now a W3C standard! See the W3C press release describing this major advance in Web security and convenience, which enables logging in without passwords. Alex Simons, Microsoft Vice President of Identity Program Management is quoted in the release, saying:

“Our work with W3C and FIDO Alliance, and contributions to FIDO2 standards have been a critical piece of Microsoft’s commitment to a world without passwords, which started in 2015. Today, Windows 10 with Microsoft Edge fully supports the WebAuthn standard and millions of users can log in to their Microsoft account without using a password.”

The release also describes commitments to the standard by Google, Mozilla, and Apple, among others. Thanks to all who worked on the standard and who built implementations as we developed the standard — ensuring that that the standard can be used for a broad set of use cases, including password-less sign-in with platform authenticators, mobile devices, and security keys.

W3C Web Authentication (WebAuthn) advances to Proposed Recommendation (PR)

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On January 17, 2019

In Cryptography, Phishing Resistance, Privacy, Specifications, W3C

W3C logoThe World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has published a Proposed Recommendation (PR) for the Web Authentication (WebAuthn) specification, bringing WebAuthn one step closer to becoming a completed standard. The Proposed Recommendation is at https://www.w3.org/TR/2019/PR-webauthn-20190117/.

The PR contains only clarifications and editorial improvements to the second Candidate Recommendation (CR), with no substantial changes. The next step will be to publish a Recommendation – a W3C standard – based on the Proposed Recommendation.

Second W3C Web Authentication (WebAuthn) Candidate Recommendation (CR)

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On August 7, 2018

In Cryptography, Phishing Resistance, Privacy, Specifications, W3C

W3C logoW3C has published a second W3C Candidate Recommendation (CR) for the Web Authentication (WebAuthn) specification. The second Candidate Recommendation is at https://www.w3.org/TR/2018/CR-webauthn-20180807/.

This draft contains a few refinements since the first candidate recommendation but no substantial changes. The new CR was needed to fulfill the W3C’s IPR protection requirements. The few changes were based, in part, upon things learned during multiple interop events for WebAuthn implementations. The working group plans to base coming the Proposed Recommendation on this draft.

IETF Token Binding specifications sent to the RFC Editor

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On July 20, 2018

In Cryptography, IETF, Phishing Resistance, Specifications

IETF logoThe three core IETF Token Binding Specifications have been sent to the RFC Editor, which means that their normative content will no longer change. It’s time to move implementations to version 1.0! The abstract of the Token Binding over HTTP specification describes Token Binding as:

This document describes a collection of mechanisms that allow HTTP servers to cryptographically bind security tokens (such as cookies and OAuth tokens) to TLS connections.

We describe both first-party and federated scenarios. In a first-party scenario, an HTTP server is able to cryptographically bind the security tokens it issues to a client, and which the client subsequently returns to the server, to the TLS connection between the client and server. Such bound security tokens are protected from misuse since the server can generally detect if they are replayed inappropriately, e.g., over other TLS connections.

Federated token bindings, on the other hand, allow servers to cryptographically bind security tokens to a TLS connection that the client has with a different server than the one issuing the token.

This document is a companion document to The Token Binding Protocol.

This is a huge step towards cryptographically protecting data structures that had previously been bearer tokens, such as browser cookies, refresh tokens, access tokens, ID Tokens, etc., so that they can only be used by the intended party. Congratulations especially to the editors Andrei Popov, Dirk Balfanz, and Jeff Hodges, as well as the chairs John Bradley and Leif Johansson for getting us to this important milestone!

The three specifications are:

Deprecating the Password: A Progress Report

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On May 22, 2018

In Cryptography, Events, FIDO, Phishing Resistance, W3C

EIC logoI gave the well-received presentation “Deprecating the Password: A Progress Report” at the May 2018 European Identity and Cloud Conference (EIC). The presentation is available as PowerPoint (large because of the embedded video) and PDF.

The presentation abstract is:

If you ask almost anyone you meet if they have too many passwords, if they have trouble remembering their passwords, or if they are reusing the same passwords in multiple places, you’re likely to get an ear-full. People intuitively know that there has to be something better than having to have a password for everything they do!

The good news is that passwords are being used for fewer and fewer identity interactions. They are being replaced by biometrics (sign into your phone, your PC, or your bank with your face or fingerprint), local PINs (prove it’s you to your device and it does the rest), and federation (sign in with Facebook, Google, Microsoft, etc.). This presentation will examine the progress we’ve made, the standards and devices making it possible, and stimulate a discussion on what’s left to do to deprecate the password.

Key takeaways are:

    There are good alternatives to passwords in use today.
    Passwords are being used for fewer and fewer identity interactions.
    Devices are increasingly enabling authentication without passwords.
    New standards are enabling cross-platform password-less authentication.
    The days of having to use passwords for everything you do are numbered!

Thanks to Steve Hutchinson for this photo from the presentation and his vote of confidence.
Mike presenting at EIC 2018

Extra: See all the Microsoft presentations at EIC 2018, including videos of Joy Chik’s and Kim Cameron’s keynotes.

On our journey to deprecate the password: Public Implementation Draft of FIDO2 Client to Authenticator Protocol (CTAP) specification

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On May 7, 2018

In Cryptography, FIDO, Phishing Resistance, Privacy, Specifications

FIDO logoI’m pleased to report that a public Implementation Draft of the FIDO2 Client to Authenticator Protocol (CTAP) specification has been published. This specification enables FIDO2 clients, such as browsers implementing the W3C Web Authentication (WebAuthn) specification, to perform authentication using pairwise public/private key pairs securely held by authenticators speaking the CTAP protocol (rather than passwords). Use of three transports for communicating with authenticators is specified in the CTAP specification: USB Human Interface Device (USB HID), Near Field Communication (NFC), and Bluetooth Smart/Bluetooth Low Energy Technology (BLE).

This specification was developed in parallel with WebAuthn, including having a number of common authors. This CTAP version is aligned with the WebAuthn Candidate Recommendation (CR) version.

The CTAP Implementation Draft is available at:

Congratulations to the members of the FIDO2 working group for reaching this important milestone. This is a major step in our journey to deprecate the password!

W3C Web Authentication (WebAuthn) specification has achieved Candidate Recommendation (CR) status

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On March 20, 2018

In Cryptography, Phishing Resistance, Privacy, Specifications, W3C

W3C logoThe W3C Web Authentication (WebAuthn) specification is now a W3C Candidate Recommendation (CR). See the specification at https://www.w3.org/TR/2018/CR-webauthn-20180320/ and my blog post announcing this result for the WebAuthn working group at https://www.w3.org/blog/webauthn/2018/03/20/candidate-recommendation/.

This milestone represents a huge step towards enabling logins to occur using privacy-preserving public/private key pairs securely held by authenticators, rather than passwords. Its contents have been informed by what we learned during several rounds of interop testing by multiple browser and authenticator vendors. The Web Authentication spec has also progressed in parallel with and been kept in sync with the FIDO2 Client To Authenticator Protocol (CTAP) specification, so that they work well together.

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