Network Working Group | Richer |
Internet-Draft | The MITRE Corporation |
Intended status: Standards Track | W. Mills |
Expires: October 13, 2013 | Yahoo! Inc. |
H. Tschofenig, Ed. | |
Nokia Siemens Networks | |
April 11, 2013 |
OAuth 2.0 Message Authentication Code (MAC) Tokens
draft-ietf-oauth-v2-http-mac-03
This specification describes how to use MAC Tokens in HTTP requests to access OAuth 2.0 protected resources. An OAuth client willing to access a protected resource needs to demonstrate possession of a crytographic key by using it with a keyed message digest function to the request.
The document also defines a key distribution protocol for obtaining a fresh session key.
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This specification describes how to use MAC Tokens in HTTP requests and responses to access protected resources via the OAuth 2.0 protocol [RFC6749]. An OAuth client willing to access a protected resource needs to demonstrate possession of a symmetric key by using it with a keyed message digest function to the request. The keyed message digest function is computed over a flexible set of parameters from the HTTP message.
The MAC Token mechanism requires the establishment of a shared symmetric key between the client and the resource server. This specification defines a three party key distribution protocol to dynamically distribute this session key from the authorization server to the client and the resource server.
The design goal for this mechanism is to support the requirements outlined in [I-D.tschofenig-oauth-security]. In particular, when a server uses this mechanism, a passive attacker will be unable to use an eavesdropped access token exchanged between the client and the resource server. In addition, this mechanism helps secure the access token against leakage when sent over a secure channel to the wrong resource server if the client provided information about the resource server it wants to interact with in the request to the authorization server.
Since a keyed message digest only provides integrity protection and data-origin authentication confidentiality protection can only be added by the usage of Transport Layer Security (TLS). This specification provides a mechanism for channel binding is included to ensure that a TLS channel is not terminated prematurely and indeed covers the entire end-to-end communication.
The key words 'MUST', 'MUST NOT', 'REQUIRED', 'SHALL', 'SHALL NOT', 'SHOULD', 'SHOULD NOT', 'RECOMMENDED', 'MAY', and 'OPTIONAL' in this specification are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
This specification uses the Augmented Backus-Naur Form (ABNF) notation of [I-D.ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging]. Additionally, the following rules are included from [RFC2617]: auth-param.
The architecture of the proposal described in this document assumes that the authorization server acts as a trusted third party that provides session keys to clients and to resource servers. These session keys are used by the client and the resource server as input to a MAC. In order to obtain the session key the client interacts with the authorization server as part of the a normal grant exchange. This is shown in an abstract way in Figure 1. Together with the access token the authorization server returns a session key (in the mac_key parameter) and several other parameters. The resource server obtains the session key via the access token. Both of these two key distribution steps are described in more detail in Section 4.
+---------------+ ^| | AS-RS Key // | Authorization |<******* / | Server | * // | | * / | | * (I) // /+---------------+ * Access / // * Token / / * Request// // (II) Access Token * / / +Session Key (SK) * // // * / v v +-----------+ +------------+ | | | | | | | Resource | | Client | | Server | | | | | | | | | +-----------+ +------------+ ****: Out-of-Band Long-Term Key Establishment ----: Dynamic Session Key Distribution
Figure 1: Architecture: Interaction between the Client and the Authorization Server.
+---------------+ | | | Authorization | | Server | | | | | +---------------+ +-----------+ Authenticator (a) +------------+ | |---------------------->| | | | [+Access Token] | Resource | | Client | | Server | | | Authenticator (b) | | | |<----------------------| | +-----------+ +------------+ ^ ^ | | | | SK SK +param +param
Figure 2: Architecture: Interaction between the Client and the Resource Server.
Once the client has obtained the necessary access token and the session key (including parameters) it can start to interact with the resource server. To demonstrate possession of the session key it computes a MAC and adds various fields to the outgoing request message. We call this structure the "Authenticator". The server evaluates the request, includes an Authenticator and returns a response back to the client. Since the access token is valid for a period of time the resource server may decide to cache it so that it does not need to be provided in every request from the client. This interaction is shown in Figure 2.
For this scheme to function a session key must be available to the client and the resource server, which is then used as a parameter in the keyed message digest function. This document describes the key distribution mechanism that uses the authorization server as a trusted third party, which ensures that the session key is transported from the authorization server to the client and the resource server.
Authorization servers issue MAC Tokens based on requests from clients. The request MUST include the audience parameter defined in [I-D.tschofenig-oauth-audience], which indicates the resource server the client wants to interact with. This specification assumes use of the 'Authorization Code' grant. If the request is processed successfully by the authorization server it MUST return at least the following parameters to the client:
For example:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: application/json Cache-Control: no-store { "access_token": "eyJhbGciOiJSU0ExXzUiLCJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDK0hTMjU2In0. pwaFh7yJPivLjjPkzC-GeAyHuy7AinGcS51AZ7TXnwkC80Ow1aW47kcT_UV54ubo nONbeArwOVuR7shveXnwPmucwrk_3OCcHrCbE1HR-Jfme2mF_WR3zUMcwqmU0RlH kwx9txo_sKRasjlXc8RYP-evLCmT1XRXKjtY5l44Gnh0A84hGvVfMxMfCWXh38hi 2h8JMjQHGQ3mivVui5lbf-zzb3qXXxNO1ZYoWgs5tP1-T54QYc9Bi9wodFPWNPKB kY-BgewG-Vmc59JqFeprk1O08qhKQeOGCWc0WPC_n_LIpGWH6spRm7KGuYdgDMkQ bd4uuB0uPPLx_euVCdrVrA. AxY8DCtDaGlsbGljb3RoZQ. 7MI2lRCaoyYx1HclVXkr8DhmDoikTmOp3IdEmm4qgBThFkqFqOs3ivXLJTku4M0f laMAbGG_X6K8_B-0E-7ak-Olm_-_V03oBUUGTAc-F0A. OwWNxnC-BMEie-GkFHzVWiNiaV3zUHf6fCOGTwbRckU", "token_type":"mac", "expires_in":3600, "refresh_token":"8xLOxBtZp8", "kid":"22BIjxU93h/IgwEb4zCRu5WF37s=", "mac_key":"adijq39jdlaska9asud", "mac_algorithm":"hmac-sha-256" }
The transport of the mac_key from the authorization server to the resource server is accomplished by conveying the encrypting mac_key inside the access token. At the time of writing only one standardized format for carrying the access token is defined: the JSON Web Token (JWT) [I-D.ietf-oauth-json-web-token]. Note that the header of the JSON Web Encryption (JWE) structure [I-D.ietf-jose-json-web-encryption], which is a JWT with encrypted content, MUST contain a key id (kid) in the header to allow the resource server to select the appropriate keying material for decryption. This keying material is a symmetric or an asymmetric long-term key established between the resource server and the authorization server, as shown in Figure 1 as AS-RS key. The establishment of this long-term key is outside the scope of this specification.
This document defines two new claims to be carried in the JWT: mac_key, kid. These two parameters match the content of the mac_key and the kid conveyed to the client, as shown in Section 4.1.
This example shows a JWT claim set without header and without encryption:
{"iss":"authorization-server.example.com", "exp":1300819380, "kid":"22BIjxU93h/IgwEb4zCRu5WF37s=", "mac_key":"adijq39jdlaska9asud", "aud":"apps.example.com" }
To access a protected resource the client must be in the possession of a valid set of session key provided by the authorization server. The client constructs the authenticator, as described in Section 5.1.
The client constructs the authenticator and adds the resulting fields to the HTTP request using the Authorization request header field. The Authorization request header field uses the framework defined by [RFC2617]. To include the authenticator in a subsequent response from the authorization server to the client the WWW-Authenticate header is used. For further exchanges a new, yet-to-be-defined header will be used.
authenticator = "MAC" 1*SP #params params = id / ts / seq-nr / access_token / mac / h / cb kid = "kid" "=" string-value ts = "ts" "=" ( <"> timestamp <"> ) / timestamp seq-nr = "seq-nr" "=" string-value access_token = "access_token" "=" b64token mac = "mac" "=" string-value cb = "cb" "=" token h = "h" "=" h-tag h-tag = %x68 [FWS] "=" [FWS] hdr-name *( [FWS] ":" [FWS] hdr-name ) hdr-name = token timestamp = 1*DIGIT string-value = ( <"> plain-string <"> ) / plain-string plain-string = 1*( %x20-21 / %x23-5B / %x5D-7E ) b64token = 1*( ALPHA / DIGIT / "-" / "." / "_" / "~" / "+" / "/" ) *"="
The header attributes are set as follows:
Attributes MUST NOT appear more than once. Attribute values are limited to a subset of ASCII, which does not require escaping, as defined by the plain-string ABNF.
An HTTP message can either be a request from client to server or a response from server to client. Syntactically, the two types of message differ only in the start-line, which is either a request-line (for requests) or a status-line (for responses).
Two parameters serve as input to a keyed message digest function: a key and an input string. Depending on the communication direction either the request-line or the status-line is used as the first value followed by the HTTP header fields listed in the 'h' parameter. Then, the timestamp field and the seq-nr field (if present) is concatenated.
POST /request?b5=%3D%253D&a3=a&c%40=&a2=r%20b&c2&a3=2+q HTTP/1.1 Host: example.com Hello World!
As an example, consider the HTTP request with the new line separator character represented by \n for editorial purposes only. The h parameter is set to h=host, the kid is 314906b0-7c55, and the timstamp is 1361471629.
POST /request?b5=%3D%253D&a3=a&c%40=&a2=r%20b&c2&a3=2+q HTTP/1.1\n 1361471629\n example.com\n
The resulting string is:
The client uses a cryptographic algorithm together with a session key to calculate a keyed message digest. This specification defines two algorithms: hmac-sha-1 and hmac-sha-256, and provides an extension registry for additional algorithms.
hmac-sha-1 uses the HMAC-SHA1 algorithm, as defined in [RFC2104]:
mac = HMAC-SHA1 (key, text)
Where:
hmac-sha-256 uses the HMAC algorithm, as defined in [RFC2104], with the SHA-256 hash function, defined in [NIST-FIPS-180-3]:
mac = HMAC-SHA256 (key, text)
Where:
When receiving a message with an authenticator the following steps are performed:
Error handling is described in Section 6.2.
The timestamp field enables the server to detect replay attacks. Without replay protection, an attacker can use an eavesdropped request to gain access to a protected resource. The following procedure is used to detect replays:
If the protected resource request does not include an access token, lacks the keyed message digest, contains an invalid key identifier, or is malformed, the server SHOULD return a 401 (Unauthorized) HTTP status code.
For example:
HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized WWW-Authenticate: MAC
The WWW-Authenticate request header field uses the framework defined by [RFC2617] as follows:
challenge = "MAC" [ 1*SP #param ] param = error / auth-param error = "error" "=" ( token / quoted-string)
Each attribute MUST NOT appear more than once.
If the protected resource request included a MAC Authorization request header field and failed authentication, the server MAY include the error attribute to provide the client with a human-readable explanation why the access request was declined to assist the client developer in identifying the problem.
For example:
HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized WWW-Authenticate: MAC error="The MAC credentials expired"
[Editor's Note: Full example goes in here.]
As stated in [RFC2617], the greatest sources of risks are usually found not in the core protocol itself but in policies and procedures surrounding its use. Implementers are strongly encouraged to assess how this protocol addresses their security requirements and the security threats they want to mitigate.
This specification describes a key distribution mechanism for providing the session key (and parameters) from the authorization server to the client. The interaction between the client and the authorization server requires Transport Layer Security (TLS) with a ciphersuite offering confidentiality protection. The session key MUST NOT be transmitted in clear since this would completely destroy the security benefits of the proposed scheme. Furthermore, the obtained session key MUST be stored so that only the client instance has access to it. Storing the session key, for example, in a cookie allows other parties to gain access to this confidential information and compromises the security of the protocol.
This specification can be used with and without Transport Layer Security (TLS).
Without TLS this protocol provides a mechanism for verifying the integrity of requests and responses, it provides no confidentiality protection. Consequently, eavesdroppers will have full access to request content and further messages exchanged between the client and the resource server. This could be problematic when data is exchanged that requires care, such as personal data.
When TLS is used then confidentiality can be ensured and with the use of the TLS channel binding feature it ensures that the TLS channel is cryptographically bound to the used MAC token. TLS in combination with channel bindings bound to the MAC token provide security superiour to the OAuth Bearer Token.
The use of TLS in combination with the MAC token is highly recommended to ensure the confidentiality of the user's data.
This protocol allows clients to verify the authenticity of resource servers in two ways:
The MAC key works in the same way passwords do in traditional authentication systems. In order to compute the keyed message digest, the client and the resource server must have access to the MAC key in plaintext form.
If an attacker were to gain access to these MAC keys - or worse, to the resource server's or the authorization server's database of all such MAC keys - he or she would be able to perform any action on behalf of any client.
It is therefore paramount to the security of the protocol that these session keys are protected from unauthorized access.
Unless TLS is used between the client and the resource server, eavesdroppers will have full access to requests sent by the client. They will thus be able to mount offline brute-force attacks to recover the session key used to compute the keyed message digest. Authorization servers should be careful to generate fresh and unique session keys with sufficient entrophy to resist such attacks for at least the length of time that the session keys are valid.
For example, if a session key is valid for one day, authorization servers must ensure that it is not possible to mount a brute force attack that recovers the session key in less than one day. Of course, servers are urged to err on the side of caution, and use the longest session key reasonable.
It is equally important that the pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) used to generate these session keys be of sufficiently high quality. Many PRNG implementations generate number sequences that may appear to be random, but which nevertheless exhibit patterns, which make cryptanalysis easier. Implementers are advised to follow the guidance on random number generation in [RFC4086].
This specification includes a number of features which may make resource exhaustion attacks against resource servers possible. For example, a resource server may need to need to consult backend databases and the authorization server to verify an incoming request including an access token before granting access to the protected resource.
An attacker may exploit this to perform a denial of service attack by sending a large number of invalid requests to the server. The computational overhead of verifying the keyed message digest alone is, however, not sufficient to mount a denial of service attack since keyed message digest functions belong to the computationally fastest cryptographic algorithms. The usage of TLS does, however, require additional computational capabity to perform the asymmetric cryptographic operations. For a brief discussion about denial of service vulnerabilities of TLS please consult Appendix F.5 of RFC 5246 [RFC5246].
This specification makes use of HMACs, for which a signature verification involves comparing the received MAC string to the expected one. If the string comparison operator operates in observably different times depending on inputs, e.g. because it compares the strings character by character and returns a negative result as soon as two characters fail to match, then it may be possible to use this timing information to determine the expected MAC, character by character.
Implementers are encouraged to use fixed-time string comparators for MAC verification. This means that the comparison operation is not terminated once a mismatch is found.
A Cross-Site Request Forgery attack occurs when a site, evil.com, initiates within the victim's browser the loading of a URL from or the posting of a form to a web site where a side-effect will occur, e.g. transfer of money, change of status message, etc. To prevent this kind of attack, web sites may use various techniques to determine that the originator of the request is indeed the site itself, rather than a third party. The classic approach is to include, in the set of URL parameters or form content, a nonce generated by the server and tied to the user's session, which indicates that only the server could have triggered the action.
Recently, the Origin HTTP header has been proposed and deployed in some browsers. This header indicates the scheme, host, and port of the originator of a request. Some web applications may use this Origin header as a defense against CSRF.
To keep this specification simple, HTTP headers are not part of the string to be MAC'ed. As a result, MAC authentication cannot defend against header spoofing, and a web site that uses the Host header to defend against CSRF attacks cannot use MAC authentication to defend against active network attackers. Sites that want the full protection of MAC Authentication should use traditional, cookie-tied CSRF defenses.
This specification provides flexibility for selectively protecting header fields and even the body of the message. At a minimum the following fields are included in the keyed message digest.
This document adds the following claims to the JSON Web Token Claims registry established with [I-D.ietf-oauth-json-web-token]:
This specification establishes the MAC Token Algorithm registry.
Additional keyed message digest algorithms are registered on the advice of one or more Designated Experts (appointed by the IESG or their delegate), with a Specification Required (using terminology from [RFC5226]). However, to allow for the allocation of values prior to publication, the Designated Expert(s) may approve registration once they are satisfied that such a specification will be published.
Registration requests should be sent to the [TBD]@ietf.org mailing list for review and comment, with an appropriate subject (e.g., "Request for MAC Algorithm: example"). [[ Note to RFC-EDITOR: The name of the mailing list should be determined in consultation with the IESG and IANA. Suggested name: http-mac-ext-review. ]]
Within at most 14 days of the request, the Designated Expert(s) will either approve or deny the registration request, communicating this decision to the review list and IANA. Denials should include an explanation and, if applicable, suggestions as to how to make the request successful.
Decisions (or lack thereof) made by the Designated Expert can be first appealed to Application Area Directors (contactable using app-ads@tools.ietf.org email address or directly by looking up their email addresses on http://www.iesg.org/ website) and, if the appellant is not satisfied with the response, to the full IESG (using the iesg@iesg.org mailing list).
IANA should only accept registry updates from the Designated Expert(s), and should direct all requests for registration to the review mailing list.
The HTTP MAC authentication scheme algorithm registry's initial contents are:
This specification registers the following access token type in the OAuth Access Token Type Registry.
This specification registers the following parameters in the OAuth Parameters Registry established by [RFC6749].
This document is based on OAuth 1.0 and we would like to thank Eran Hammer-Lahav for his work on incorporating the ideas into OAuth 2.0. As part of this initial work the following persons provided feedback: Ben Adida, Adam Barth, Phil Hunt, Rasmus Lerdorf, James Manger, William Mills, Scott Renfro, Justin Richer, Toby White, Peter Wolanin, and Skylar Woodward
Further work in this document was done as part of OAuth working group conference calls late 2012/early 2013 and in design team conference calls February 2013. The following persons (in addition to the OAuth WG chairs, Hannes Tschofenig, and Derek Atkins) provided their input during these calls: Bill Mills, Justin Richer, Phil Hunt, Prateek Mishra, Mike Jones, George Fletcher, John Bradley, Tony Nadalin, Thomas Hardjono, Brian Campbell
[I-D.tschofenig-oauth-security] | Tschofenig, H. and P. Hunt, "OAuth 2.0 Security: Going Beyond Bearer Tokens", Internet-Draft draft-tschofenig-oauth-security-01, December 2012. |