TOC 
JOSE Working GroupM. Jones
Internet-DraftMicrosoft
Intended status: Standards TrackE. Rescorla
Expires: September 13, 2012RTFM, Inc.
 J. Hildebrand
 Cisco Systems, Inc.
 March 12, 2012


JSON Web Encryption (JWE)
draft-ietf-jose-json-web-encryption-01

Abstract

JSON Web Encryption (JWE) is a means of representing encrypted content using JSON data structures. Cryptographic algorithms and identifiers used with this specification are enumerated in the separate JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) specification. Related digital signature and HMAC capabilities are described in the separate JSON Web Signature (JWS) specification.

Requirements Language

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 (Bradner, S., “Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels,” March 1997.) [RFC2119].

Status of this Memo

This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as “work in progress.”

This Internet-Draft will expire on September 13, 2012.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (c) 2012 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.



Table of Contents

1.  Introduction
2.  Terminology
3.  JSON Web Encryption (JWE) Overview
    3.1.  Example JWE with an Integrated Integrity Check
    3.2.  Example JWE with a Separate Integrity Check
4.  JWE Header
    4.1.  Reserved Header Parameter Names
    4.2.  Public Header Parameter Names
    4.3.  Private Header Parameter Names
5.  Message Encryption
6.  Message Decryption
7.  Key Derivation
8.  CMK Encryption
    8.1.  Asymmetric Encryption
    8.2.  Symmetric Encryption
9.  Integrity Value Calculation
10.  Encrypting JWEs with Cryptographic Algorithms
11.  IANA Considerations
12.  Security Considerations
    12.1.  Unicode Comparison Security Issues
13.  Open Issues and Things To Be Done (TBD)
14.  References
    14.1.  Normative References
    14.2.  Informative References
Appendix A.  JWE Examples
    A.1.  JWE Example using TBD Algorithm
        A.1.1.  Encrypting
        A.1.2.  Decrypting
Appendix B.  Acknowledgements
Appendix C.  Document History
§  Authors' Addresses




 TOC 

1.  Introduction

JSON Web Encryption (JWE) is a compact encryption format intended for space constrained environments such as HTTP Authorization headers and URI query parameters. It provides a wrapper for encrypted content using JSON RFC 4627 (Crockford, D., “The application/json Media Type for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON),” July 2006.) [RFC4627] data structures. The JWE encryption mechanisms are independent of the type of content being encrypted. Cryptographic algorithms and identifiers used with this specification are enumerated in the separate JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) [JWA] (Jones, M., “JSON Web Algorithms (JWA),” January 2012.) specification. Related digital signature and HMAC capabilities are described in the separate JSON Web Signature (JWS) [JWS] (Jones, M., Bradley, J., and N. Sakimura, “JSON Web Signature (JWS),” January 2012.) specification.



 TOC 

2.  Terminology

JSON Web Encryption (JWE)
A data structure representing an encrypted version of a Plaintext. The structure consists of four parts: the JWE Header, the JWE Encrypted Key, the JWE Ciphertext, and the JWE Integrity Value.
Plaintext
The bytes to be encrypted - a.k.a., the message.
Ciphertext
The encrypted version of the Plaintext.
Content Encryption Key (CEK)
A symmetric key used to encrypt the Plaintext for the recipient to produce the Ciphertext.
Content Integrity Key (CIK)
A key used with an HMAC function to ensure the integrity of the Ciphertext and the parameters used to create it.
Content Master Key (CMK)
A randomly generated key from which the CEK and CIK are derived, which is encrypted to the recipient as the JWE Encrypted Key.
JWE Header
A string representing a JSON object that describes the encryption operations applied to create the JWE Encrypted Key and the JWE Ciphertext.
JWE Encrypted Key
The Content Encryption Key (CEK) is encrypted with the intended recipient's key and the resulting encrypted content is recorded as a byte array, which is referred to as the JWE Encrypted Key.
JWE Ciphertext
A byte array containing the Ciphertext.
JWE Integrity Value
A byte array containing a HMAC value that ensures the integrity of the Ciphertext and the parameters used to create it.
Encoded JWE Header
Base64url encoding of the bytes of the UTF-8 RFC 3629 (Yergeau, F., “UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646,” November 2003.) [RFC3629] representation of the JWE Header.
Encoded JWE Encrypted Key
Base64url encoding of the JWE Encrypted Key.
Encoded JWE Ciphertext
Base64url encoding of the JWE Ciphertext.
Encoded JWE Integrity Value
Base64url encoding of the JWE Integrity Value.
Header Parameter Names
The names of the members within the JWE Header.
Header Parameter Values
The values of the members within the JWE Header.
JWE Compact Serialization
A representation of the JWE as the concatenation of the Encoded JWE Header, the Encoded JWE Encrypted Key, the Encoded JWE Ciphertext, and the Encoded JWE Integrity Value in that order, with the four strings being separated by period ('.') characters.
AEAD Algorithm
An Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data (AEAD) [RFC5116] (McGrew, D., “An Interface and Algorithms for Authenticated Encryption,” January 2008.) encryption algorithm is one that provides an integrated content integrity check. AES Galois/Counter Mode (GCM) is one such algorithm.
Base64url Encoding
For the purposes of this specification, this term always refers to the URL- and filename-safe Base64 encoding described in RFC 4648 (Josefsson, S., “The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data Encodings,” October 2006.) [RFC4648], Section 5, with the (non URL-safe) '=' padding characters omitted, as permitted by Section 3.2. (See Appendix B of [JWS] (Jones, M., Bradley, J., and N. Sakimura, “JSON Web Signature (JWS),” January 2012.) for notes on implementing base64url encoding without padding.)



 TOC 

3.  JSON Web Encryption (JWE) Overview

JWE represents encrypted content using JSON data structures and base64url encoding. The representation consists of four parts: the JWE Header, the JWE Encrypted Key, the JWE Ciphertext, and the JWE Integrity Value. In the Compact Serialization, the four parts are base64url-encoded for transmission, and represented as the concatenation of the encoded strings in that order, with the four strings being separated by period ('.') characters. (A JSON Serialization for this information is defined in the separate JSON Web Encryption JSON Serialization (JWE-JS) [JWE‑JS] (Jones, M., “JSON Web Encryption JSON Serialization (JWE-JS),” March 2012.) specification.)

JWE utilizes encryption to ensure the confidentiality of the contents of the Plaintext. JWE adds a content integrity check if not provided by the underlying encryption algorithm.



 TOC 

3.1.  Example JWE with an Integrated Integrity Check

The following example JWE Header declares that:

{"alg":"RSA1_5",
 "enc":"A256GCM",
 "iv":"__79_Pv6-fg",
 "jku":"https://example.com/public_key.jwk"}

Base64url encoding the bytes of the UTF-8 representation of the JWE Header yields this Encoded JWE Header value (with line breaks for display purposes only):

eyJhbGciOiJSU0ExXzUiLA0KICJlbmMiOiJBMjU2R0NNIiwNCiAiaXYiOiJfXzc5
X1B2Ni1mZyIsDQogImprdSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vZXhhbXBsZS5jb20vcHVibGljX2tl
eS5qd2sifQ

TBD: Finish this example by showing generation of a Content Master Key (CMK), saying that the CMK is used as the CEK and there is no separate integrity check since AES GCM is an AEAD algorithm, using the CEK to encrypt the Plaintext to produce the Ciphertext, using the recipient's key to encrypt the CMK to produce the JWE Encrypted Key, base64url encoding these values, and assembling the result.

Concatenating these parts in the order Header.EncryptedKey.Ciphertext.IntegrityValue with period characters between the parts yields this complete JWE representation (with line breaks for display purposes only):

eyJhbGciOiJSU0ExXzUiLA0KICJlbmMiOiJBMjU2R0NNIiwNCiAiaXYiOiJfXzc5
X1B2Ni1mZyIsDQogImprdSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vZXhhbXBsZS5jb20vcHVibGljX2tl
eS5qd2sifQ
.
TBD_encrypted_key_value_TBD
.
TBD_ciphertext_value_TBD
.


 TOC 

3.2.  Example JWE with a Separate Integrity Check

The following example JWE Header declares that:

{"alg":"RSA1_5",
 "enc":"A256CBC",
 "int":"HS256",
 "iv":"Mz-mW_4JHfg",
 "x5t":"7noOPq-hJ1_hCnvWh6IeYI2w9Q0"}

Because AES CBC is not an AEAD algorithm (and so provides no integrated content integrity check), a separate integrity check value is used.

Base64url encoding the bytes of the UTF-8 representation of the JWE Header yields this Encoded JWE Header value (with line breaks for display purposes only):

eyJhbGciOiJSU0ExXzUiLA0KICJlbmMiOiJBMjU2Q0JDIiwNCiAiaW50IjoiSFMy
NTYiLA0KICJpdiI6Ik16LW1XXzRKSGZnIiwNCiAieDV0IjoiN25vT1BxLWhKMV9o
Q252V2g2SWVZSTJ3OVEwIn0

TBD: Finish this example by showing generation of a Content Master Key (CMK), showing the derivation of the CEK and the CEK from the CMK, using the CEK to encrypt the Plaintext to produce the Ciphertext, using the recipient's key to encrypt the CMK to produce the JWE Encrypted Key, showing the computation of the JWE Integrity Value, base64url encoding these values, and assembling the result.

eyJhbGciOiJSU0ExXzUiLA0KICJlbmMiOiJBMjU2Q0JDIiwNCiAiaW50IjoiSFMy
NTYiLA0KICJpdiI6Ik16LW1XXzRKSGZnIiwNCiAieDV0IjoiN25vT1BxLWhKMV9o
Q252V2g2SWVZSTJ3OVEwIn0
.
TBD_encrypted_key_value_TBD
.
TBD_ciphertext_value_TBD
.
TBD_integrity_value_TBD


 TOC 

4.  JWE Header

The members of the JSON object represented by the JWE Header describe the encryption applied to the Plaintext and optionally additional properties of the JWE. The Header Parameter Names within this object MUST be unique. Implementations MUST understand the entire contents of the header; otherwise, the JWE MUST be rejected.



 TOC 

4.1.  Reserved Header Parameter Names

The following header parameter names are reserved. All the names are short because a core goal of JWE is for the representations to be compact.



Header Parameter NameJSON Value TypeHeader Parameter SyntaxHeader Parameter Semantics
alg string StringOrURI The alg (algorithm) header parameter identifies the cryptographic algorithm used to secure the JWE Encrypted Key. A list of defined encryption alg values is presented in Section 4, Table 2 of the JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) [JWA] (Jones, M., “JSON Web Algorithms (JWA),” January 2012.) specification. The processing of the alg (algorithm) header parameter requires that the value MUST be one that is both supported and for which there exists a key for use with that algorithm associated with the intended recipient. The alg value is case sensitive. This header parameter is REQUIRED.
enc string StringOrURI The enc (encryption method) header parameter identifies the symmetric encryption algorithm used to secure the Ciphertext. A list of defined enc values is presented in Section 4, Table 3 of the JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) [JWA] (Jones, M., “JSON Web Algorithms (JWA),” January 2012.) specification. The processing of the enc (encryption method) header parameter requires that the value MUST be one that is supported. The enc value is case sensitive. This header parameter is REQUIRED.
int string StringOrURI The int (integrity algorithm) header parameter identifies the cryptographic algorithm used to safeguard the integrity of the Ciphertext and the parameters used to create it. The int parameter uses the same values as the JWS alg parameter; a list of defined JWS alg values is presented in Section 3, Table 1 of the JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) [JWA] (Jones, M., “JSON Web Algorithms (JWA),” January 2012.) specification. This header parameter is REQUIRED when an AEAD algorithm is not used to encrypt the Plaintext and MUST NOT be present when an AEAD algorithm is used.
iv string String Initialization Vector (iv) value for algorithms requiring it, represented as a base64url encoded string. This header parameter is OPTIONAL.
epk object JWK Key Object Ephemeral Public Key (epk) value created by the originator for the use in ECDH-ES RFC 6090 (McGrew, D., Igoe, K., and M. Salter, “Fundamental Elliptic Curve Cryptography Algorithms,” February 2011.) [RFC6090] encryption. This key is represented in the same manner as a JSON Web Key [JWK] (Jones, M., “JSON Web Key (JWK),” March 2012.) JWK Key Object value, containing crv (curve), x, and y members. The inclusion of the JWK Key Object alg (algorithm) member is OPTIONAL. This header parameter is OPTIONAL.
zip string String Compression algorithm (zip) applied to the Plaintext before encryption, if any. This specification defines the value GZIP to refer to the encoding format produced by the file compression program "gzip" (GNU zip) as described in [RFC1952] (Deutsch, P., Gailly, J-L., Adler, M., Deutsch, L., and G. Randers-Pehrson, “GZIP file format specification version 4.3,” May 1996.); this format is a Lempel-Ziv coding (LZ77) with a 32 bit CRC. If no zip parameter is present, or its value is none, no compression is applied to the Plaintext before encryption. The zip value is case sensitive. This header parameter is OPTIONAL.
jku string URL The jku (JSON Web Key URL) header parameter is an absolute URL that refers to a resource for a set of JSON-encoded public keys, one of which corresponds to the key that was used to encrypt the JWE. The keys MUST be encoded as described in the JSON Web Key (JWK) [JWK] (Jones, M., “JSON Web Key (JWK),” March 2012.) specification. The protocol used to acquire the resource MUST provide integrity protection. An HTTP GET request to retrieve the certificate MUST use TLS RFC 2818 (Rescorla, E., “HTTP Over TLS,” May 2000.) [RFC2818] RFC 5246 (Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, “The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2,” August 2008.) [RFC5246] with server authentication RFC 6125 (Saint-Andre, P. and J. Hodges, “Representation and Verification of Domain-Based Application Service Identity within Internet Public Key Infrastructure Using X.509 (PKIX) Certificates in the Context of Transport Layer Security (TLS),” March 2011.) [RFC6125]. This header parameter is OPTIONAL.
kid string String The kid (key ID) header parameter is a hint indicating which key was used to encrypt the JWE. This allows originators to explicitly signal a change of key to recipients. The interpretation of the contents of the kid parameter is unspecified. This header parameter is OPTIONAL.
jpk object JWK Key Object The jpk (JSON Public Key) header parameter is a public key that corresponds to the key that was used to encrypt the JWE. This key is represented in the same manner as a JSON Web Key [JWK] (Jones, M., “JSON Web Key (JWK),” March 2012.) JWK Key Object value. This header parameter is OPTIONAL.
x5u string URL The x5u (X.509 URL) header parameter is an absolute URL that refers to a resource for the X.509 public key certificate or certificate chain corresponding to the key used to encrypt the JWE. The identified resource MUST provide a representation of the certificate or certificate chain that conforms to RFC 5280 (Cooper, D., Santesson, S., Farrell, S., Boeyen, S., Housley, R., and W. Polk, “Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile,” May 2008.) [RFC5280] in PEM encoded form RFC 1421 (Linn, J., “Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part I: Message Encryption and Authentication Procedures,” February 1993.) [RFC1421]. The certificate containing the public key of the entity encrypting the JWE MUST be the first certificate. This MAY be followed by additional certificates, with each subsequent certificate being the one used to certify the previous one. The protocol used to acquire the resource MUST provide integrity protection. An HTTP GET request to retrieve the certificate MUST use TLS RFC 2818 (Rescorla, E., “HTTP Over TLS,” May 2000.) [RFC2818] RFC 5246 (Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, “The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2,” August 2008.) [RFC5246] with server authentication RFC 6125 (Saint-Andre, P. and J. Hodges, “Representation and Verification of Domain-Based Application Service Identity within Internet Public Key Infrastructure Using X.509 (PKIX) Certificates in the Context of Transport Layer Security (TLS),” March 2011.) [RFC6125]. This header parameter is OPTIONAL.
x5t string String The x5t (x.509 certificate thumbprint) header parameter provides a base64url encoded SHA-1 thumbprint (a.k.a. digest) of the DER encoding of the X.509 certificate that corresponds to the key that was used to encrypt the JWE. This header parameter is OPTIONAL.
x5c array ArrayOfStrings The x5c (x.509 certificate chain) header parameter contains the X.509 public key certificate or certificate chain corresponding to the key used to encrypt the JWE. The certificate or certificate chain is represented as an array of certificate values. Each value is a base64-encoded (not base64url encoded) DER/BER PKIX certificate value. The certificate containing the public key of the entity encrypting the JWE MUST be the first certificate. This MAY be followed by additional certificates, with each subsequent certificate being the one used to certify the previous one. The recipient MUST verify the certificate chain according to [RFC5280] (Cooper, D., Santesson, S., Farrell, S., Boeyen, S., Housley, R., and W. Polk, “Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile,” May 2008.) and reject the JWE if any validation failure occurs. This header parameter is OPTIONAL.
typ string String The typ (type) header parameter is used to declare the type of the encrypted content. The typ value is case sensitive. This header parameter is OPTIONAL.

 Table 1: Reserved Header Parameter Definitions 

Additional reserved header parameter names MAY be defined via the IANA JSON Web Encryption Header Parameters registry, as per Section 11 (IANA Considerations). The syntax values used above are defined as follows:



Syntax NameSyntax Definition
String Any string value MAY be used.
StringOrURI Any string value MAY be used but a value containing a ":" character MUST be a URI as defined in RFC 3986 (Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, “Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax,” January 2005.) [RFC3986].
URL A URL as defined in RFC 1738 (Berners-Lee, T., Masinter, L., and M. McCahill, “Uniform Resource Locators (URL),” December 1994.) [RFC1738].
ArrayOfStrings An array of string values.

 Table 2: Header Parameter Syntax Definitions 



 TOC 

4.2.  Public Header Parameter Names

Additional header parameter names can be defined by those using JWE. However, in order to prevent collisions, any new header parameter name or algorithm value SHOULD either be defined in the IANA JSON Web Encryption Header Parameters registry or be defined as a URI that contains a collision resistant namespace. 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 since an implementation that does not understand a parameter MUST reject the JWE.



 TOC 

4.3.  Private Header Parameter Names

A producer and consumer of a JWE may agree to any header parameter name that is not a Reserved Name Section 4.1 (Reserved Header Parameter Names) or a Public Name Section 4.2 (Public Header Parameter Names). Unlike Public Names, these private names are subject to collision and should be used with caution.

New header parameters should be introduced sparingly, as they can result in non-interoperable JWEs.



 TOC 

5.  Message Encryption

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.

  1. Generate a random Content Master Key (CMK). The CMK MUST have a length at least equal to that of the larger of the required encryption or integrity keys and MUST be generated randomly. See RFC 4086 (Eastlake, D., Schiller, J., and S. Crocker, “Randomness Requirements for Security,” June 2005.) [RFC4086] for considerations on generating random values.
  2. Encrypt the CMK for the recipient (see Section 8 (CMK Encryption)) and let the result be the JWE Encrypted Key.
  3. Base64url encode the JWE Encrypted Key to create the Encoded JWE Encrypted Key.
  4. Generate a random Initialization Vector (IV) (if required for the algorithm).
  5. If not using an AEAD algorithm, run the key derivation algorithm (see Section 7 (Key Derivation)) to generate the Content Encryption Key (CEK) and the Content Integrity Key (CIK); otherwise (when using an AEAD algorithm), set the CEK to be the CMK.
  6. Compress the Plaintext if a zip parameter was included.
  7. Serialize the (compressed) Plaintext into a bitstring M.
  8. Encrypt M using the CEK and IV to form the bitstring C.
  9. Base64url encode C to create the Encoded JWE Ciphertext.
  10. Create a JWE Header containing the encryption parameters used. Note that white space is explicitly allowed in the representation and no canonicalization need be performed before encoding.
  11. Base64url encode the bytes of the UTF-8 representation of the JWE Header to create the Encoded JWE Header.
  12. If not using an AEAD algorithm, run the integrity algorithm (see Section 9 (Integrity Value Calculation)) using the CIK to compute the JWE Integrity Value; otherwise (when using an AEAD algorithm), set the JWE Integrity Value to be the empty byte string.
  13. Base64url encode the JWE Integrity Value to create the Encoded JWE Integrity Value.
  14. The four encoded parts, taken together, are the result. The Compact Serialization of this result is the concatenation of the Encoded JWE Header, the Encoded JWE Encrypted Key, the Encoded JWE Ciphertext, and the Encoded JWE Integrity Value in that order, with the four strings being separated by period ('.') characters.


 TOC 

6.  Message Decryption

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 fails, the JWE MUST be rejected.

  1. Parse the four parts of the input (which are separated by period characters when using the JWE Compact Serialization) into the Encoded JWE Header, the Encoded JWE Encrypted Key, the Encoded JWE Ciphertext, and the Encoded JWE Integrity Value.
  2. The Encoded JWE Header, the Encoded JWE Encrypted Key, the Encoded JWE Ciphertext, and the Encoded JWE Integrity Value MUST be successfully base64url decoded following the restriction that no padding characters have been used.
  3. The resulting JWE Header MUST be completely valid JSON syntax conforming to RFC 4627 (Crockford, D., “The application/json Media Type for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON),” July 2006.) [RFC4627].
  4. The resulting JWE Header MUST be validated to only include parameters and values whose syntax and semantics are both understood and supported.
  5. Verify that the JWE Header references a key known to the recipient.
  6. Decrypt the JWE Encrypted Key to produce the Content Master Key (CMK).
  7. If not using an AEAD algorithm, run the key derivation algorithm (see Section 7 (Key Derivation)) to generate the Content Encryption Key (CEK) and the Content Integrity Key (CIK); otherwise (when using an AEAD algorithm), set the CEK to be the CMK.
  8. If not using an AEAD algorithm, run the integrity algorithm (see Section 9 (Integrity Value Calculation)) using the CIK to compute an integrity value for the input received. This computed value MUST match the received JWE Integrity Value; otherwise (when using an AEAD algorithm), the received JWE Integrity Value MUST be empty.
  9. Decrypt the binary representation of the JWE Ciphertext using the CEK.
  10. Remove the Initialization Vector (IV) value from the decrypted result (if an IV was used).
  11. Uncompress the result of the previous step, if a zip parameter was included.
  12. Output the resulting Plaintext.



 TOC 

7.  Key Derivation

The key derivation process converts the CMK into a CEK and a CIK. It assumes as a primitive a Key Derivation Function (KDF) which notionally takes three arguments:

MasterKey:
The master key used to compute the individual use keys
Label:
The use key label, used to differentiate individual use keys
Length:
The length of the desired use key

The only KDF used in this document is the Concat KDF, as defined in [NIST‑800‑56A] (National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), “Recommendation for Pair-Wise Key Establishment Schemes Using Discrete Logarithm Cryptography (Revised),” March 2007.), where the Digest Method is SHA-256, the SuppPubInfo parameter is the Label, and the remaining OtherInfo parameters are the empty bit string.

To compute the CEK from the CMK, the ASCII label "Encryption" is used.

To compute the CIK from the CMK, the ASCII label "Integrity" is used.

When AEAD algorithms are used the KDF element MUST NOT be present. When they are not used, it MUST be present.



 TOC 

8.  CMK Encryption

JWE supports two forms of CMK encryption:



 TOC 

8.1.  Asymmetric Encryption

In the asymmetric encryption mode, the CMK is encrypted under the recipient's public key. The asymmetric encryption modes defined for use with this in this specification are listed in Section 4, Table 2 of the JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) [JWA] (Jones, M., “JSON Web Algorithms (JWA),” January 2012.) specification.



 TOC 

8.2.  Symmetric Encryption

In the symmetric encryption mode, the CMK is encrypted under a symmetric key shared between the sender and receiver. The symmetric encryption modes defined for use with this in this specification are listed in Section 4, Table 2 of the JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) [JWA] (Jones, M., “JSON Web Algorithms (JWA),” January 2012.) specification. For GCM, the random 64-bit IV is prepended to the ciphertext.



 TOC 

9.  Integrity Value Calculation

When a non-AEAD algorithm is used (an algorithm without an integrated content check), JWE adds an explicit integrity check value to the representation. This value is computed in the manner described in the JSON Web Signature (JWS) [JWS] (Jones, M., Bradley, J., and N. Sakimura, “JSON Web Signature (JWS),” January 2012.) specification, with these modifications:

The computed JWS Signature value is the resulting integrity value.



 TOC 

10.  Encrypting JWEs with Cryptographic Algorithms

JWE uses cryptographic algorithms to encrypt the Content Encryption Key (CMK) and the Plaintext. The JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) [JWA] (Jones, M., “JSON Web Algorithms (JWA),” January 2012.) specification enumerates a set of cryptographic algorithms and identifiers to be used with this specification. Specifically, Section 4, Table 2 enumerates a set of alg (algorithm) header parameter values and Section 4, Table 3 enumerates a set of enc (encryption method) header parameter values intended for use this specification. It also describes the semantics and operations that are specific to these algorithms and algorithm families.

Public keys employed for encryption can be identified using the Header Parameter methods described in Section 4.1 (Reserved Header Parameter Names) or can be distributed using methods that are outside the scope of this specification.



 TOC 

11.  IANA Considerations

This specification calls for:



 TOC 

12.  Security Considerations

TBD: Lots of work to do here. We need to remember to look into any issues relating to security and JSON parsing. One wonders just how secure most JSON parsing libraries are. Were they ever hardened for security scenarios? If not, what kind of holes does that open up? Also, we need to walk through the JSON standard and see what kind of issues we have especially around comparison of names. For instance, comparisons of header parameter names and other parameters must occur after they are unescaped. Need to also put in text about: Importance of keeping secrets secret. Rotating keys. Strengths and weaknesses of the different algorithms.

TBD: Need to put in text about why strict JSON validation is necessary. Basically, that if malformed JSON is received then the intent of the sender is impossible to reliably discern. One example of malformed JSON that MUST be rejected is an object in which the same member name occurs multiple times.

TBD: We need a section on generating randomness in browsers - it's easy to screw up.

When utilizing TLS to retrieve information, the authority providing the resource MUST be authenticated and the information retrieved MUST be free from modification.



 TOC 

12.1.  Unicode Comparison Security Issues

Header parameter names in JWEs are Unicode strings. For security reasons, the representations of these names must be compared verbatim after performing any escape processing (as per RFC 4627 (Crockford, D., “The application/json Media Type for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON),” July 2006.) [RFC4627], Section 2.5).

This means, for instance, that these JSON strings must compare as being equal ("enc", "\u0065nc"), whereas these must all compare as being not equal to the first set or to each other ("ENC", "Enc", "en\u0043").

JSON strings MAY contain characters outside the Unicode Basic Multilingual Plane. For instance, the G clef character (U+1D11E) may be represented in a JSON string as "\uD834\uDD1E". Ideally, JWE implementations SHOULD ensure that characters outside the Basic Multilingual Plane are preserved and compared correctly; alternatively, if this is not possible due to these characters exercising limitations present in the underlying JSON implementation, then input containing them MUST be rejected.



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13.  Open Issues and Things To Be Done (TBD)

The following items remain to be done in this draft:



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14.  References



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14.1. Normative References

[JWA] Jones, M., “JSON Web Algorithms (JWA),” January 2012.
[JWK] Jones, M., “JSON Web Key (JWK),” March 2012.
[JWS] Jones, M., Bradley, J., and N. Sakimura, “JSON Web Signature (JWS),” January 2012.
[NIST-800-38D] National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), “Recommendation for Block Cipher Modes of Operation: Galois/Counter Mode (GCM) and GMAC,” NIST PUB 800-38D, December 2001.
[NIST-800-56A] National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), “Recommendation for Pair-Wise Key Establishment Schemes Using Discrete Logarithm Cryptography (Revised),” NIST PUB 800-56A, March 2007.
[RFC1421] Linn, J., “Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic Mail: Part I: Message Encryption and Authentication Procedures,” RFC 1421, February 1993 (TXT).
[RFC1738] Berners-Lee, T., Masinter, L., and M. McCahill, “Uniform Resource Locators (URL),” RFC 1738, December 1994 (TXT).
[RFC1952] Deutsch, P., Gailly, J-L., Adler, M., Deutsch, L., and G. Randers-Pehrson, “GZIP file format specification version 4.3,” RFC 1952, May 1996 (TXT, PS, PDF).
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., “Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels,” BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997 (TXT, HTML, XML).
[RFC2818] Rescorla, E., “HTTP Over TLS,” RFC 2818, May 2000 (TXT).
[RFC3629] Yergeau, F., “UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646,” STD 63, RFC 3629, November 2003 (TXT).
[RFC3986] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, “Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax,” STD 66, RFC 3986, January 2005 (TXT, HTML, XML).
[RFC4086] Eastlake, D., Schiller, J., and S. Crocker, “Randomness Requirements for Security,” BCP 106, RFC 4086, June 2005 (TXT).
[RFC4627] Crockford, D., “The application/json Media Type for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON),” RFC 4627, July 2006 (TXT).
[RFC4648] Josefsson, S., “The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data Encodings,” RFC 4648, October 2006 (TXT).
[RFC5116] McGrew, D., “An Interface and Algorithms for Authenticated Encryption,” RFC 5116, January 2008 (TXT).
[RFC5226] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, “Guidelines for Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs,” BCP 26, RFC 5226, May 2008 (TXT).
[RFC5246] Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, “The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2,” RFC 5246, August 2008 (TXT).
[RFC5280] Cooper, D., Santesson, S., Farrell, S., Boeyen, S., Housley, R., and W. Polk, “Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile,” RFC 5280, May 2008 (TXT).
[RFC6090] McGrew, D., Igoe, K., and M. Salter, “Fundamental Elliptic Curve Cryptography Algorithms,” RFC 6090, February 2011 (TXT).
[RFC6125] Saint-Andre, P. and J. Hodges, “Representation and Verification of Domain-Based Application Service Identity within Internet Public Key Infrastructure Using X.509 (PKIX) Certificates in the Context of Transport Layer Security (TLS),” RFC 6125, March 2011 (TXT).


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14.2. Informative References

[I-D.rescorla-jsms] Rescorla, E. and J. Hildebrand, “JavaScript Message Security Format,” draft-rescorla-jsms-00 (work in progress), March 2011 (TXT).
[JSE] Bradley, J. and N. Sakimura (editor), “JSON Simple Encryption,” September 2010.
[JWE-JS] Jones, M., “JSON Web Encryption JSON Serialization (JWE-JS),” March 2012.
[RFC5652] Housley, R., “Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS),” STD 70, RFC 5652, September 2009 (TXT).
[W3C.CR-xmlenc-core1-20110303] Hirsch, F., Roessler, T., Reagle, J., and D. Eastlake, “XML Encryption Syntax and Processing Version 1.1,” World Wide Web Consortium CR CR-xmlenc-core1-20110303, March 2011 (HTML).


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Appendix A.  JWE Examples

This section provides several examples of JWEs.



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A.1.  JWE Example using TBD Algorithm



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A.1.1.  Encrypting

TBD: Demonstrate encryption steps with this algorithm



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A.1.2.  Decrypting

TBD: Demonstrate decryption steps with this algorithm



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Appendix B.  Acknowledgements

Solutions for encrypting JSON content were also explored by JSON Simple Encryption (Bradley, J. and N. Sakimura (editor), “JSON Simple Encryption,” September 2010.) [JSE] and JavaScript Message Security Format (Rescorla, E. and J. Hildebrand, “JavaScript Message Security Format,” March 2011.) [I‑D.rescorla‑jsms], both of which significantly influenced this draft. This draft attempts to explicitly reuse as many of the relevant concepts from XML Encryption 1.1 (Hirsch, F., Roessler, T., Reagle, J., and D. Eastlake, “XML Encryption Syntax and Processing Version 1.1,” March 2011.) [W3C.CR‑xmlenc‑core1‑20110303] and RFC 5652 (Housley, R., “Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS),” September 2009.) [RFC5652] as possible, while utilizing simple compact JSON-based data structures.

Special thanks are due to John Bradley and Nat Sakimura for the discussions that helped inform the content of this specification and to Eric Rescorla and Joe Hildebrand for allowing the reuse of text from [I‑D.rescorla‑jsms] (Rescorla, E. and J. Hildebrand, “JavaScript Message Security Format,” March 2011.) in this document.



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Appendix C.  Document History

-01

-00



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Authors' Addresses

  Michael B. Jones
  Microsoft
Email:  mbj@microsoft.com
URI:  http://self-issued.info/
  
  Eric Rescorla
  RTFM, Inc.
Email:  ekr@rtfm.com
  
  Joe Hildebrand
  Cisco Systems, Inc.
Email:  jhildebr@cisco.com