idnits 2.17.1 draft-ietf-oauth-json-web-token-18.txt: Checking boilerplate required by RFC 5378 and the IETF Trust (see https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info): ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No issues found here. Checking nits according to https://www.ietf.org/id-info/1id-guidelines.txt: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No issues found here. Checking nits according to https://www.ietf.org/id-info/checklist : ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No issues found here. Miscellaneous warnings: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- == The copyright year in the IETF Trust and authors Copyright Line does not match the current year -- The document date (March 3, 2014) is 3706 days in the past. Is this intentional? Checking references for intended status: Proposed Standard ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (See RFCs 3967 and 4897 for information about using normative references to lower-maturity documents in RFCs) -- Possible downref: Non-RFC (?) normative reference: ref. 'ECMAScript' ** Obsolete normative reference: RFC 7158 (Obsoleted by RFC 7159) -- Obsolete informational reference (is this intentional?): RFC 5226 (Obsoleted by RFC 8126) Summary: 1 error (**), 0 flaws (~~), 1 warning (==), 3 comments (--). Run idnits with the --verbose option for more detailed information about the items above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 OAuth Working Group M. Jones 3 Internet-Draft Microsoft 4 Intended status: Standards Track J. Bradley 5 Expires: September 4, 2014 Ping Identity 6 N. Sakimura 7 NRI 8 March 3, 2014 10 JSON Web Token (JWT) 11 draft-ietf-oauth-json-web-token-18 13 Abstract 15 JSON Web Token (JWT) is a compact URL-safe means of representing 16 claims to be transferred between two parties. The claims in a JWT 17 are encoded as a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) object that is 18 used as the payload of a JSON Web Signature (JWS) structure or as the 19 plaintext of a JSON Web Encryption (JWE) structure, enabling the 20 claims to be digitally signed or MACed and/or encrypted. 22 The suggested pronunciation of JWT is the same as the English word 23 "jot". 25 Status of this Memo 27 This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the 28 provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. 30 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 31 Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute 32 working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- 33 Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. 35 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months 36 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any 37 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference 38 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 40 This Internet-Draft will expire on September 4, 2014. 42 Copyright Notice 44 Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the 45 document authors. All rights reserved. 47 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal 48 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents 49 (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of 50 publication of this document. Please review these documents 51 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect 52 to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must 53 include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of 54 the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as 55 described in the Simplified BSD License. 57 Table of Contents 59 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 60 1.1. Notational Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 61 2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 62 3. JSON Web Token (JWT) Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 63 3.1. Example JWT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 64 4. JWT Claims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 65 4.1. Registered Claim Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 66 4.1.1. "iss" (Issuer) Claim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 67 4.1.2. "sub" (Subject) Claim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 68 4.1.3. "aud" (Audience) Claim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 69 4.1.4. "exp" (Expiration Time) Claim . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 70 4.1.5. "nbf" (Not Before) Claim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 71 4.1.6. "iat" (Issued At) Claim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 72 4.1.7. "jti" (JWT ID) Claim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 73 4.2. Public Claim Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 74 4.3. Private Claim Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 75 5. JWT Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 76 5.1. "typ" (Type) Header Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 77 5.2. "cty" (Content Type) Header Parameter . . . . . . . . . . 11 78 5.3. Replicating Claims as Header Parameters . . . . . . . . . 11 79 6. Plaintext JWTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 80 6.1. Example Plaintext JWT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 81 7. Rules for Creating and Validating a JWT . . . . . . . . . . . 13 82 7.1. String Comparison Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 83 8. Cryptographic Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 84 9. URI for Declaring that Content is a JWT . . . . . . . . . . . 15 85 10. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 86 10.1. JSON Web Token Claims Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 87 10.1.1. Registration Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 88 10.1.2. Initial Registry Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 89 10.2. Sub-Namespace Registration of 90 urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:jwt . . . . . . . . . . . 18 91 10.2.1. Registry Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 92 10.3. Media Type Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 93 10.3.1. Registry Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 94 10.4. Registration of JWE Header Parameter Names . . . . . . . . 19 95 10.4.1. Registry Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 97 11. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 98 12. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 99 12.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 100 12.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 101 Appendix A. JWT Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 102 A.1. Example Encrypted JWT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 103 A.2. Example Nested JWT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 104 Appendix B. Relationship of JWTs to SAML Assertions . . . . . . . 25 105 Appendix C. Relationship of JWTs to Simple Web Tokens (SWTs) . . 25 106 Appendix D. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 107 Appendix E. Document History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 108 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 110 1. Introduction 112 JSON Web Token (JWT) is a compact claims representation format 113 intended for space constrained environments such as HTTP 114 Authorization headers and URI query parameters. JWTs encode claims 115 to be transmitted as a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) [RFC7158] 116 object that is used as the payload of a JSON Web Signature (JWS) 117 [JWS] structure or as the plaintext of a JSON Web Encryption (JWE) 118 [JWE] structure, enabling the claims to be digitally signed or MACed 119 and/or encrypted. JWTs are always represented using the JWS Compact 120 Serialization or the JWE Compact Serialization. 122 The suggested pronunciation of JWT is the same as the English word 123 "jot". 125 1.1. Notational Conventions 127 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 128 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and 129 "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in Key 130 words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels [RFC2119]. If 131 these words are used without being spelled in uppercase then they are 132 to be interpreted with their normal natural language meanings. 134 2. Terminology 136 JSON Web Token (JWT) 137 A string representing a set of claims as a JSON object that is 138 encoded in a JWS or JWE, enabling the claims to be digitally 139 signed or MACed and/or encrypted. 141 Base64url Encoding 142 Base64 encoding using the URL- and filename-safe character set 143 defined in Section 5 of RFC 4648 [RFC4648], with all trailing '=' 144 characters omitted (as permitted by Section 3.2) and without the 145 inclusion of any line breaks, white space, or other additional 146 characters. (See Appendix C of [JWS] for notes on implementing 147 base64url encoding without padding.) 149 JWT Header 150 A JSON object that describes the cryptographic operations applied 151 to the JWT. When the JWT is digitally signed or MACed, the JWT 152 Header is a JWS Header. When the JWT is encrypted, the JWT Header 153 is a JWE Header. 155 Header Parameter 156 A name/value pair that is member of the JWT Header. 158 Header Parameter Name 159 The name of a member of the JWT Header. 161 Header Parameter Value 162 The value of a member of the JWT Header. 164 JWT Claims Set 165 A JSON object that contains the Claims conveyed by the JWT. 167 Claim 168 A piece of information asserted about a subject. A Claim is 169 represented as a name/value pair consisting of a Claim Name and a 170 Claim Value. 172 Claim Name 173 The name portion of a Claim representation. A Claim Name is 174 always a string. 176 Claim Value 177 The value portion of a Claim representation. A Claim Value can be 178 any JSON value. 180 Encoded JWT Header 181 Base64url encoding of the JWT Header. 183 Nested JWT 184 A JWT in which nested signing and/or encryption are employed. In 185 nested JWTs, a JWT is used as the payload or plaintext value of an 186 enclosing JWS or JWE structure, respectively. 188 Plaintext JWT 189 A JWT whose Claims are not integrity protected or encrypted. 191 Collision-Resistant Name 192 A name in a namespace that enables names to be allocated in a 193 manner such that they are highly unlikely to collide with other 194 names. Examples of collision-resistant namespaces include: Domain 195 Names, Object Identifiers (OIDs) as defined in the ITU-T X.660 and 196 X.670 Recommendation series, and Universally Unique IDentifiers 197 (UUIDs) [RFC4122]. When using an administratively delegated 198 namespace, the definer of a name needs to take reasonable 199 precautions to ensure they are in control of the portion of the 200 namespace they use to define the name. 202 StringOrURI 203 A JSON string value, with the additional requirement that while 204 arbitrary string values MAY be used, any value containing a ":" 205 character MUST be a URI [RFC3986]. StringOrURI values are 206 compared as case-sensitive strings with no transformations or 207 canonicalizations applied. 209 IntDate 210 A JSON numeric value representing the number of seconds from 1970- 211 01-01T0:0:0Z UTC until the specified UTC date/time. See RFC 3339 212 [RFC3339] for details regarding date/times in general and UTC in 213 particular. 215 3. JSON Web Token (JWT) Overview 217 JWTs represent a set of claims as a JSON object that is encoded in a 218 JWS and/or JWE structure. This JSON object is the JWT Claims Set. As 219 per Section 4 of [RFC7158], the JSON object consists of zero or more 220 name/value pairs (or members), where the names are strings and the 221 values are arbitrary JSON values. These members are the claims 222 represented by the JWT. 224 The member names within the JWT Claims Set are referred to as Claim 225 Names. The corresponding values are referred to as Claim Values. 227 The contents of the JWT Header describe the cryptographic operations 228 applied to the JWT Claims Set. If the JWT Header is a JWS Header, the 229 JWT is represented as a JWS, and the claims are digitally signed or 230 MACed, with the JWT Claims Set being the JWS Payload. If the JWT 231 Header is a JWE Header, the JWT is represented as a JWE, and the 232 claims are encrypted, with the JWT Claims Set being the input 233 Plaintext. A JWT may be enclosed in another JWE or JWS structure to 234 create a Nested JWT, enabling nested signing and encryption to be 235 performed. 237 A JWT is represented as a sequence of URL-safe parts separated by 238 period ('.') characters. Each part contains a base64url encoded 239 value. The number of parts in the JWT is dependent upon the 240 representation of the resulting JWS or JWE object using the JWS 241 Compact Serialization or the JWE Compact Serialization. 243 3.1. Example JWT 245 The following example JWT Header declares that the encoded object is 246 a JSON Web Token (JWT) and the JWT is a JWS that is MACed using the 247 HMAC SHA-256 algorithm: 249 {"typ":"JWT", 250 "alg":"HS256"} 252 The following octet sequence is the UTF-8 representation of the JWT 253 Header/JWS Header above: 255 [123, 34, 116, 121, 112, 34, 58, 34, 74, 87, 84, 34, 44, 13, 10, 32, 256 34, 97, 108, 103, 34, 58, 34, 72, 83, 50, 53, 54, 34, 125] 258 Base64url encoding the octets of the UTF-8 representation of the JWT 259 Header yields this Encoded JWT Header value (which is also the 260 underlying encoded JWS Header value): 262 eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLA0KICJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9 264 The following is an example of a JWT Claims Set: 266 {"iss":"joe", 267 "exp":1300819380, 268 "http://example.com/is_root":true} 270 The following octet sequence, which is the UTF-8 representation of 271 the JWT Claims Set above, is the JWS Payload: 273 [123, 34, 105, 115, 115, 34, 58, 34, 106, 111, 101, 34, 44, 13, 10, 274 32, 34, 101, 120, 112, 34, 58, 49, 51, 48, 48, 56, 49, 57, 51, 56, 275 48, 44, 13, 10, 32, 34, 104, 116, 116, 112, 58, 47, 47, 101, 120, 97, 276 109, 112, 108, 101, 46, 99, 111, 109, 47, 105, 115, 95, 114, 111, 277 111, 116, 34, 58, 116, 114, 117, 101, 125] 279 Base64url encoding the JWS Payload yields this encoded JWS Payload 280 (with line breaks for display purposes only): 282 eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly 283 9leGFtcGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ 285 Computing the MAC of the encoded JWS Header and encoded JWS Payload 286 with the HMAC SHA-256 algorithm and base64url encoding the HMAC value 287 in the manner specified in [JWS], yields this encoded JWS Signature: 289 dBjftJeZ4CVP-mB92K27uhbUJU1p1r_wW1gFWFOEjXk 291 Concatenating these encoded parts in this order with period ('.') 292 characters between the parts yields this complete JWT (with line 293 breaks for display purposes only): 295 eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLA0KICJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9 296 . 297 eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt 298 cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ 299 . 300 dBjftJeZ4CVP-mB92K27uhbUJU1p1r_wW1gFWFOEjXk 302 This computation is illustrated in more detail in Appendix A.1 of 303 [JWS]. See Appendix A.1 for an example of an encrypted JWT. 305 4. JWT Claims 307 The JWT Claims Set represents a JSON object whose members are the 308 claims conveyed by the JWT. The Claim Names within a JWT Claims Set 309 MUST be unique; recipients MUST either reject JWTs with duplicate 310 Claim Names or use a JSON parser that returns only the lexically last 311 duplicate member name, as specified in Section 15.12 (The JSON 312 Object) of ECMAScript 5.1 [ECMAScript]. 314 The set of claims that a JWT must contain to be considered valid is 315 context-dependent and is outside the scope of this specification. 316 Specific applications of JWTs will require implementations to 317 understand and process some claims in particular ways. However, in 318 the absence of such requirements, all claims that are not understood 319 by implementations MUST be ignored. 321 There are three classes of JWT Claim Names: Registered Claim Names, 322 Public Claim Names, and Private Claim Names. 324 4.1. Registered Claim Names 326 The following Claim Names are registered in the IANA JSON Web Token 327 Claims registry defined in Section 10.1. None of the claims defined 328 below are intended to be mandatory to use or implement in all cases, 329 but rather, provide a starting point for a set of useful, 330 interoperable claims. Applications using JWTs should define which 331 specific claims they use and when they are required or optional. All 332 the names are short because a core goal of JWTs is for the 333 representation to be compact. 335 4.1.1. "iss" (Issuer) Claim 337 The "iss" (issuer) claim identifies the principal that issued the 338 JWT. The processing of this claim is generally application specific. 339 The "iss" value is a case-sensitive string containing a StringOrURI 340 value. Use of this claim is OPTIONAL. 342 4.1.2. "sub" (Subject) Claim 344 The "sub" (subject) claim identifies the principal that is the 345 subject of the JWT. The Claims in a JWT are normally statements 346 about the subject. The subject value MAY be scoped to be locally 347 unique in the context of the issuer or MAY be globally unique. The 348 processing of this claim is generally application specific. The 349 "sub" value is a case-sensitive string containing a StringOrURI 350 value. Use of this claim is OPTIONAL. 352 4.1.3. "aud" (Audience) Claim 354 The "aud" (audience) claim identifies the recipients that the JWT is 355 intended for. Each principal intended to process the JWT MUST 356 identify itself with a value in the audience claim. If the principal 357 processing the claim does not identify itself with a value in the 358 "aud" claim when this claim is present, then the JWT MUST be 359 rejected. In the general case, the "aud" value is an array of case- 360 sensitive strings, each containing a StringOrURI value. In the 361 special case when the JWT has one audience, the "aud" value MAY be a 362 single case-sensitive string containing a StringOrURI value. The 363 interpretation of audience values is generally application specific. 364 Use of this claim is OPTIONAL. 366 4.1.4. "exp" (Expiration Time) Claim 368 The "exp" (expiration time) claim identifies the expiration time on 369 or after which the JWT MUST NOT be accepted for processing. The 370 processing of the "exp" claim requires that the current date/time 371 MUST be before the expiration date/time listed in the "exp" claim. 372 Implementers MAY provide for some small leeway, usually no more than 373 a few minutes, to account for clock skew. Its value MUST be a number 374 containing an IntDate value. Use of this claim is OPTIONAL. 376 4.1.5. "nbf" (Not Before) Claim 378 The "nbf" (not before) claim identifies the time before which the JWT 379 MUST NOT be accepted for processing. The processing of the "nbf" 380 claim requires that the current date/time MUST be after or equal to 381 the not-before date/time listed in the "nbf" claim. Implementers MAY 382 provide for some small leeway, usually no more than a few minutes, to 383 account for clock skew. Its value MUST be a number containing an 384 IntDate value. Use of this claim is OPTIONAL. 386 4.1.6. "iat" (Issued At) Claim 388 The "iat" (issued at) claim identifies the time at which the JWT was 389 issued. This claim can be used to determine the age of the JWT. Its 390 value MUST be a number containing an IntDate value. Use of this 391 claim is OPTIONAL. 393 4.1.7. "jti" (JWT ID) Claim 395 The "jti" (JWT ID) claim provides a unique identifier for the JWT. 396 The identifier value MUST be assigned in a manner that ensures that 397 there is a negligible probability that the same value will be 398 accidentally assigned to a different data object. The "jti" claim 399 can be used to prevent the JWT from being replayed. The "jti" value 400 is a case-sensitive string. Use of this claim is OPTIONAL. 402 4.2. Public Claim Names 404 Claim Names can be defined at will by those using JWTs. However, in 405 order to prevent collisions, any new Claim Name should either be 406 registered in the IANA JSON Web Token Claims registry defined in 407 Section 10.1 or be a Public Name: a value that contains a Collision- 408 Resistant Name. In each case, the definer of the name or value needs 409 to take reasonable precautions to make sure they are in control of 410 the part of the namespace they use to define the Claim Name. 412 4.3. Private Claim Names 414 A producer and consumer of a JWT MAY agree to use Claim Names that 415 are Private Names: names that are not Registered Claim Names 416 Section 4.1 or Public Claim Names Section 4.2. Unlike Public Claim 417 Names, Private Claim Names are subject to collision and should be 418 used with caution. 420 5. JWT Header 422 The members of the JSON object represented by the JWT Header describe 423 the cryptographic operations applied to the JWT and optionally, 424 additional properties of the JWT. The member names within the JWT 425 Header are referred to as Header Parameter Names. These names MUST 426 be unique; recipients MUST either reject JWTs with duplicate Header 427 Parameter Names or use a JSON parser that returns only the lexically 428 last duplicate member name, as specified in Section 15.12 (The JSON 429 Object) of ECMAScript 5.1 [ECMAScript]. The corresponding values are 430 referred to as Header Parameter Values. 432 JWS Header Parameters are defined by [JWS]. JWE Header Parameters 433 are defined by [JWE]. This specification further specifies the use 434 of the following Header Parameters in both the cases where the JWT is 435 a JWS and where it is a JWE. 437 5.1. "typ" (Type) Header Parameter 439 The "typ" (type) Header Parameter defined by [JWS] and [JWE] is used 440 to declare the MIME Media Type [IANA.MediaTypes] of this complete JWT 441 in contexts where this is useful to the application. This parameter 442 has no effect upon the JWT processing. If present, it is RECOMMENDED 443 that its value be "JWT" to indicate that this object is a JWT. While 444 media type names are not case-sensitive, it is RECOMMENDED that "JWT" 445 always be spelled using uppercase characters for compatibility with 446 legacy implementations. Use of this Header Parameter is OPTIONAL. 448 5.2. "cty" (Content Type) Header Parameter 450 The "cty" (content type) Header Parameter defined by [JWS] and [JWE] 451 is used by this specification to convey structural information about 452 the JWT. 454 In the normal case where nested signing or encryption operations are 455 not employed, the use of this Header Parameter is NOT RECOMMENDED. 456 In the case that nested signing or encryption is employed, this 457 Header Parameter MUST be present; in this case, the value MUST be 458 "JWT", to indicate that a Nested JWT is carried in this JWT. While 459 media type names are not case-sensitive, it is RECOMMENDED that "JWT" 460 always be spelled using uppercase characters for compatibility with 461 legacy implementations. See Appendix A.2 for an example of a Nested 462 JWT. 464 5.3. Replicating Claims as Header Parameters 466 In some applications using encrypted JWTs, it is useful to have an 467 unencrypted representation of some Claims. This might be used, for 468 instance, in application processing rules to determine whether and 469 how to process the JWT before it is decrypted. 471 This specification allows Claims present in the JWT Claims Set to be 472 replicated as Header Parameters in a JWT that is a JWE, as needed by 473 the application. If such replicated Claims are present, the 474 application receiving them SHOULD verify that their values are 475 identical, unless the application defines other specific processing 476 rules for these Claims. It is the responsibility of the application 477 to ensure that only claims that are safe to be transmitted in an 478 unencrypted manner are replicated as Header Parameter Values in the 479 JWT. 481 Section 10.4.1 of this specification registers the "iss" (issuer), 482 "sub" (subject), and "aud" (audience) Header Parameter Names for the 483 purpose of providing unencrypted replicas of these Claims in 484 encrypted JWTs for applications that need them. Other specifications 485 MAY similarly register other names that are registered Claim Names as 486 Header Parameter Names, as needed. 488 6. Plaintext JWTs 490 To support use cases where the JWT content is secured by a means 491 other than a signature and/or encryption contained within the JWT 492 (such as a signature on a data structure containing the JWT), JWTs 493 MAY also be created without a signature or encryption. A plaintext 494 JWT is a JWS using the "none" JWS "alg" Header Parameter Value 495 defined in JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) [JWA]; it is a JWS with the 496 empty string for its JWS Signature value. 498 6.1. Example Plaintext JWT 500 The following example JWT Header declares that the encoded object is 501 a Plaintext JWT: 503 {"alg":"none"} 505 Base64url encoding the octets of the UTF-8 representation of the JWT 506 Header yields this Encoded JWT Header: 508 eyJhbGciOiJub25lIn0 510 The following is an example of a JWT Claims Set: 512 {"iss":"joe", 513 "exp":1300819380, 514 "http://example.com/is_root":true} 516 Base64url encoding the octets of the UTF-8 representation of the JWT 517 Claims Set yields this encoded JWS Payload (with line breaks for 518 display purposes only): 520 eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt 521 cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ 523 The encoded JWS Signature is the empty string. 525 Concatenating these encoded parts in this order with period ('.') 526 characters between the parts yields this complete JWT (with line 527 breaks for display purposes only): 529 eyJhbGciOiJub25lIn0 530 . 531 eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt 532 cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ 533 . 535 7. Rules for Creating and Validating a JWT 537 To create a JWT, the following steps MUST be taken. The order of the 538 steps is not significant in cases where there are no dependencies 539 between the inputs and outputs of the steps. 541 1. Create a JWT Claims Set containing the desired claims. Note that 542 white space is explicitly allowed in the representation and no 543 canonicalization need be performed before encoding. 545 2. Let the Message be the octets of the UTF-8 representation of the 546 JWT Claims Set. 548 3. Create a JWT Header containing the desired set of Header 549 Parameters. The JWT MUST conform to either the [JWS] or [JWE] 550 specifications. Note that white space is explicitly allowed in 551 the representation and no canonicalization need be performed 552 before encoding. 554 4. Depending upon whether the JWT is a JWS or JWE, there are two 555 cases: 557 * If the JWT is a JWS, create a JWS using the JWT Header as the 558 JWS Header and the Message as the JWS Payload; all steps 559 specified in [JWS] for creating a JWS MUST be followed. 561 * Else, if the JWT is a JWE, create a JWE using the JWT Header 562 as the JWE Header and the Message as the JWE Plaintext; all 563 steps specified in [JWE] for creating a JWE MUST be followed. 565 5. If a nested signing or encryption operation will be performed, 566 let the Message be the JWS or JWE, and return to Step 3, using a 567 "cty" (content type) value of "JWT" in the new JWT Header created 568 in that step. 570 6. Otherwise, let the resulting JWT be the JWS or JWE. 572 When validating a JWT, the following steps MUST be taken. The order 573 of the steps is not significant in cases where there are no 574 dependencies between the inputs and outputs of the steps. If any of 575 the listed steps fails then the JWT MUST be rejected for processing. 577 1. The JWT MUST contain at least one period ('.') character. 579 2. Let the Encoded JWT Header be the portion of the JWT before the 580 first period ('.') character. 582 3. The Encoded JWT Header MUST be successfully base64url decoded 583 following the restriction given in this specification that no 584 padding characters have been used. 586 4. The resulting JWT Header MUST be completely valid JSON syntax 587 conforming to [RFC7158]. 589 5. The resulting JWT Header MUST be validated to only include 590 parameters and values whose syntax and semantics are both 591 understood and supported or that are specified as being ignored 592 when not understood. 594 6. Determine whether the JWT is a JWS or a JWE using any of the 595 methods described in Section 9 of [JWE]. 597 7. Depending upon whether the JWT is a JWS or JWE, there are two 598 cases: 600 * If the JWT is a JWS, all steps specified in [JWS] for 601 validating a JWS MUST be followed. Let the Message be the 602 result of base64url decoding the JWS Payload. 604 * Else, if the JWT is a JWE, all steps specified in [JWE] for 605 validating a JWE MUST be followed. Let the Message be the 606 JWE Plaintext. 608 8. If the JWT Header contains a "cty" (content type) value of 609 "JWT", then the Message is a JWT that was the subject of nested 610 signing or encryption operations. In this case, return to Step 611 1, using the Message as the JWT. 613 9. Otherwise, let the JWT Claims Set be the Message. 615 10. The JWT Claims Set MUST be completely valid JSON syntax 616 conforming to [RFC7158]. 618 7.1. String Comparison Rules 620 Processing a JWT inevitably requires comparing known strings to 621 values in JSON objects. For example, in checking what the algorithm 622 is, the Unicode string encoding "alg" will be checked against the 623 member names in the JWT Header to see if there is a matching Header 624 Parameter Name. 626 Comparisons between JSON strings and other Unicode strings MUST be 627 performed by comparing Unicode code points without normalization, as 628 specified in the String Comparison Rules in Section 5.3 of [JWS]. 630 8. Cryptographic Algorithms 632 JWTs use JSON Web Signature (JWS) [JWS] and JSON Web Encryption (JWE) 633 [JWE] to sign and/or encrypt the contents of the JWT. 635 Of the signature and MAC algorithms specified in JSON Web Algorithms 636 (JWA) [JWA], only HMAC SHA-256 ("HS256") and "none" MUST be 637 implemented by conforming JWT implementations. It is RECOMMENDED 638 that implementations also support RSASSA-PKCS1-V1_5 with the SHA-256 639 hash algorithm ("RS256") and ECDSA using the P-256 curve and the SHA- 640 256 hash algorithm ("ES256"). Support for other algorithms and key 641 sizes is OPTIONAL. 643 If an implementation provides encryption capabilities, of the 644 encryption algorithms specified in [JWA], only RSAES-PKCS1-V1_5 with 645 2048 bit keys ("RSA1_5"), AES Key Wrap with 128 and 256 bit keys 646 ("A128KW" and "A256KW"), and the composite authenticated encryption 647 algorithm using AES CBC and HMAC SHA-2 ("A128CBC-HS256" and 648 "A256CBC-HS512") MUST be implemented by conforming implementations. 649 It is RECOMMENDED that implementations also support using ECDH-ES to 650 agree upon a key used to wrap the Content Encryption Key 651 ("ECDH-ES+A128KW" and "ECDH-ES+A256KW") and AES in Galois/Counter 652 Mode (GCM) with 128 bit and 256 bit keys ("A128GCM" and "A256GCM"). 653 Support for other algorithms and key sizes is OPTIONAL. 655 9. URI for Declaring that Content is a JWT 657 This specification registers the URN 658 "urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:jwt" for use by applications that 659 declare content types using URIs (rather than, for instance, MIME 660 Media Types) to indicate that the content referred to is a JWT. 662 10. IANA Considerations 664 10.1. JSON Web Token Claims Registry 666 This specification establishes the IANA JSON Web Token Claims 667 registry for JWT Claim Names. The registry records the Claim Name 668 and a reference to the specification that defines it. This 669 specification registers the Claim Names defined in Section 4.1. 671 Values are registered with a Specification Required [RFC5226] after a 672 two-week review period on the [TBD]@ietf.org mailing list, on the 673 advice of one or more Designated Experts. However, to allow for the 674 allocation of values prior to publication, the Designated Expert(s) 675 may approve registration once they are satisfied that such a 676 specification will be published. 678 Registration requests must be sent to the [TBD]@ietf.org mailing list 679 for review and comment, with an appropriate subject (e.g., "Request 680 for access token type: example"). [[ Note to the RFC Editor: The name 681 of the mailing list should be determined in consultation with the 682 IESG and IANA. Suggested name: jwt-reg-review. ]] 684 Within the review period, the Designated Expert(s) will either 685 approve or deny the registration request, communicating this decision 686 to the review list and IANA. Denials should include an explanation 687 and, if applicable, suggestions as to how to make the request 688 successful. Registration requests that are undetermined for a period 689 longer than 21 days can be brought to the IESG's attention (using the 690 iesg@iesg.org mailing list) for resolution. 692 Criteria that should be applied by the Designated Expert(s) includes 693 determining whether the proposed registration duplicates existing 694 functionality, determining whether it is likely to be of general 695 applicability or whether it is useful only for a single application, 696 and whether the registration makes sense. 698 IANA must only accept registry updates from the Designated Expert(s) 699 and should direct all requests for registration to the review mailing 700 list. 702 It is suggested that multiple Designated Experts be appointed who are 703 able to represent the perspectives of different applications using 704 this specification, in order to enable broadly-informed review of 705 registration decisions. In cases where a registration decision could 706 be perceived as creating a conflict of interest for a particular 707 Expert, that Expert should defer to the judgment of the other 708 Expert(s). 710 10.1.1. Registration Template 712 Claim Name: 713 The name requested (e.g., "example"). Because a core goal of this 714 specification is for the resulting representations to be compact, 715 it is RECOMMENDED that the name be short -- not to exceed 8 716 characters without a compelling reason to do so. This name is 717 case-sensitive. Names may not match other registered names in a 718 case-insensitive manner unless the Designated Expert(s) state that 719 there is a compelling reason to allow an exception in this 720 particular case. 722 Claim Description: 723 Brief description of the Claim (e.g., "Example description"). 725 Change Controller: 726 For Standards Track RFCs, state "IESG". For others, give the name 727 of the responsible party. Other details (e.g., postal address, 728 email address, home page URI) may also be included. 730 Specification Document(s): 731 Reference to the document(s) that specify the parameter, 732 preferably including URI(s) that can be used to retrieve copies of 733 the document(s). An indication of the relevant sections may also 734 be included but is not required. 736 10.1.2. Initial Registry Contents 738 o Claim Name: "iss" 739 o Claim Description: Issuer 740 o Change Controller: IESG 741 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.1 of [[ this document ]] 743 o Claim Name: "sub" 744 o Claim Description: Subject 745 o Change Controller: IESG 746 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.2 of [[ this document ]] 748 o Claim Name: "aud" 749 o Claim Description: Audience 750 o Change Controller: IESG 751 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.3 of [[ this document ]] 753 o Claim Name: "exp" 754 o Claim Description: Expiration Time 755 o Change Controller: IESG 756 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.4 of [[ this document ]] 758 o Claim Name: "nbf" 759 o Claim Description: Not Before 760 o Change Controller: IESG 761 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.5 of [[ this document ]] 763 o Claim Name: "iat" 764 o Claim Description: Issued At 765 o Change Controller: IESG 766 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.6 of [[ this document ]] 768 o Claim Name: "jti" 769 o Claim Description: JWT ID 770 o Change Controller: IESG 771 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.7 of [[ this document ]] 773 10.2. Sub-Namespace Registration of 774 urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:jwt 776 10.2.1. Registry Contents 778 This specification registers the value "token-type:jwt" in the IANA 779 urn:ietf:params:oauth registry established in An IETF URN Sub- 780 Namespace for OAuth [RFC6755], which can be used to indicate that the 781 content is a JWT. 783 o URN: urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:jwt 784 o Common Name: JSON Web Token (JWT) Token Type 785 o Change Controller: IESG 786 o Specification Document(s): [[this document]] 788 10.3. Media Type Registration 790 10.3.1. Registry Contents 792 This specification registers the "application/jwt" Media Type 793 [RFC2046] in the MIME Media Types registry [IANA.MediaTypes], which 794 can be used to indicate that the content is a JWT. 796 o Type Name: application 797 o Subtype Name: jwt 798 o Required Parameters: n/a 799 o Optional Parameters: n/a 800 o Encoding considerations: 8bit; JWT values are encoded as a series 801 of base64url encoded values (some of which may be the empty 802 string) separated by period ('.') characters. 803 o Security Considerations: See the Security Considerations section 804 of [[ this document ]] 805 o Interoperability Considerations: n/a 806 o Published Specification: [[ this document ]] 807 o Applications that use this media type: OpenID Connect, Mozilla 808 Persona, Salesforce, Google, numerous others 809 o Additional Information: Magic number(s): n/a, File extension(s): 810 n/a, Macintosh file type code(s): n/a 812 o Person & email address to contact for further information: Michael 813 B. Jones, mbj@microsoft.com 814 o Intended Usage: COMMON 815 o Restrictions on Usage: none 816 o Author: Michael B. Jones, mbj@microsoft.com 817 o Change Controller: IESG 819 10.4. Registration of JWE Header Parameter Names 821 This specification registers specific Claim Names defined in 822 Section 4.1 in the IANA JSON Web Signature and Encryption Header 823 Parameters registry defined in [JWS] for use by Claims replicated as 824 Header Parameters, per Section 5.3. 826 10.4.1. Registry Contents 828 o Header Parameter Name: "iss" 829 o Header Parameter Description: Issuer 830 o Header Parameter Usage Location(s): JWE 831 o Change Controller: IESG 832 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.1 of [[ this document ]] 834 o Header Parameter Name: "sub" 835 o Header Parameter Description: Subject 836 o Header Parameter Usage Location(s): JWE 837 o Change Controller: IESG 838 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.2 of [[ this document ]] 840 o Header Parameter Name: "aud" 841 o Header Parameter Description: Audience 842 o Header Parameter Usage Location(s): JWE 843 o Change Controller: IESG 844 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.3 of [[ this document ]] 846 11. Security Considerations 848 All of the security issues faced by any cryptographic application 849 must be faced by a JWT/JWS/JWE/JWK agent. Among these issues are 850 protecting the user's private and symmetric keys, preventing various 851 attacks, and helping the user avoid mistakes such as inadvertently 852 encrypting a message for the wrong recipient. The entire list of 853 security considerations is beyond the scope of this document. 855 All the security considerations in the JWS specification also apply 856 to JWT, as do the JWE security considerations when encryption is 857 employed. In particular, the JWS JSON Security Considerations and 858 Unicode Comparison Security Considerations apply equally to the JWT 859 Claims Set in the same manner that they do to the JWS Header. 861 While syntactically, the signing and encryption operations for Nested 862 JWTs may be applied in any order, normally senders should sign the 863 message and then encrypt the result (thus encrypting the signature). 864 This prevents attacks in which the signature is stripped, leaving 865 just an encrypted message, as well as providing privacy for the 866 signer. Furthermore, signatures over encrypted text are not 867 considered valid in many jurisdictions. 869 Note that potential concerns about security issues related to the 870 order of signing and encryption operations are already addressed by 871 the underlying JWS and JWE specifications; in particular, because JWE 872 only supports the use of authenticated encryption algorithms, 873 cryptographic concerns about the potential need to sign after 874 encryption that apply in many contexts do not apply to this 875 specification. 877 The contents of a JWT cannot be relied upon in a trust decision 878 unless its contents have been cryptographically secured and bound to 879 the context necessary for the trust decision. In particular, the 880 key(s) used to sign and/or encrypt the JWT will typically need to 881 verifiably be under the control of the party identified as the issuer 882 of the JWT. 884 12. References 886 12.1. Normative References 888 [ECMAScript] 889 Ecma International, "ECMAScript Language Specification, 890 5.1 Edition", ECMA 262, June 2011. 892 [IANA.MediaTypes] 893 Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), "MIME Media 894 Types", 2005. 896 [JWA] Jones, M., "JSON Web Algorithms (JWA)", 897 draft-ietf-jose-json-web-algorithms (work in progress), 898 March 2014. 900 [JWE] Jones, M., Rescorla, E., and J. Hildebrand, "JSON Web 901 Encryption (JWE)", draft-ietf-jose-json-web-encryption 902 (work in progress), March 2014. 904 [JWK] Jones, M., "JSON Web Key (JWK)", 905 draft-ietf-jose-json-web-key (work in progress), 906 March 2014. 908 [JWS] Jones, M., Bradley, J., and N. Sakimura, "JSON Web 909 Signature (JWS)", draft-ietf-jose-json-web-signature (work 910 in progress), March 2014. 912 [RFC2046] Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail 913 Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types", RFC 2046, 914 November 1996. 916 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate 917 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 919 [RFC3986] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform 920 Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66, 921 RFC 3986, January 2005. 923 [RFC4648] Josefsson, S., "The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data 924 Encodings", RFC 4648, October 2006. 926 [RFC7158] Bray, T., "The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data 927 Interchange Format", RFC 7158, March 2014. 929 12.2. Informative References 931 [CanvasApp] 932 Facebook, "Canvas Applications", 2010. 934 [JSS] Bradley, J. and N. Sakimura (editor), "JSON Simple Sign", 935 September 2010. 937 [MagicSignatures] 938 Panzer (editor), J., Laurie, B., and D. Balfanz, "Magic 939 Signatures", January 2011. 941 [OASIS.saml-core-2.0-os] 942 Cantor, S., Kemp, J., Philpott, R., and E. Maler, 943 "Assertions and Protocol for the OASIS Security Assertion 944 Markup Language (SAML) V2.0", OASIS Standard saml-core- 945 2.0-os, March 2005. 947 [RFC3275] Eastlake, D., Reagle, J., and D. Solo, "(Extensible Markup 948 Language) XML-Signature Syntax and Processing", RFC 3275, 949 March 2002. 951 [RFC3339] Klyne, G., Ed. and C. Newman, "Date and Time on the 952 Internet: Timestamps", RFC 3339, July 2002. 954 [RFC4122] Leach, P., Mealling, M., and R. Salz, "A Universally 955 Unique IDentifier (UUID) URN Namespace", RFC 4122, 956 July 2005. 958 [RFC5226] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an 959 IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226, 960 May 2008. 962 [RFC6755] Campbell, B. and H. Tschofenig, "An IETF URN Sub-Namespace 963 for OAuth", RFC 6755, October 2012. 965 [SWT] Hardt, D. and Y. Goland, "Simple Web Token (SWT)", 966 Version 0.9.5.1, November 2009. 968 [W3C.CR-xml11-20021015] 969 Cowan, J., "Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.1", W3C 970 CR CR-xml11-20021015, October 2002. 972 [W3C.REC-xml-c14n-20010315] 973 Boyer, J., "Canonical XML Version 1.0", World Wide Web 974 Consortium Recommendation REC-xml-c14n-20010315, 975 March 2001, 976 . 978 Appendix A. JWT Examples 980 This section contains examples of JWTs. For other example JWTs, see 981 Section 6.1 and Appendices A.1, A.2, and A.3 of [JWS]. 983 A.1. Example Encrypted JWT 985 This example encrypts the same claims as used in Section 3.1 to the 986 recipient using RSAES-PKCS1-V1_5 and AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256. 988 The following example JWE Header (with line breaks for display 989 purposes only) declares that: 991 o the Content Encryption Key is encrypted to the recipient using the 992 RSAES-PKCS1-V1_5 algorithm to produce the JWE Encrypted Key and 994 o the Plaintext is encrypted using the AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256 995 algorithm to produce the Ciphertext. 997 {"alg":"RSA1_5","enc":"A128CBC-HS256"} 999 Other than using the octets of the UTF-8 representation of the JWT 1000 Claims Set from Section 3.1 as the plaintext value, the computation 1001 of this JWT is identical to the computation of the JWE in Appendix 1002 A.2 of [JWE], including the keys used. 1004 The final result in this example (with line breaks for display 1005 purposes only) is: 1007 eyJhbGciOiJSU0ExXzUiLCJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2In0. 1008 QR1Owv2ug2WyPBnbQrRARTeEk9kDO2w8qDcjiHnSJflSdv1iNqhWXaKH4MqAkQtM 1009 oNfABIPJaZm0HaA415sv3aeuBWnD8J-Ui7Ah6cWafs3ZwwFKDFUUsWHSK-IPKxLG 1010 TkND09XyjORj_CHAgOPJ-Sd8ONQRnJvWn_hXV1BNMHzUjPyYwEsRhDhzjAD26ima 1011 sOTsgruobpYGoQcXUwFDn7moXPRfDE8-NoQX7N7ZYMmpUDkR-Cx9obNGwJQ3nM52 1012 YCitxoQVPzjbl7WBuB7AohdBoZOdZ24WlN1lVIeh8v1K4krB8xgKvRU8kgFrEn_a 1013 1rZgN5TiysnmzTROF869lQ. 1014 AxY8DCtDaGlsbGljb3RoZQ. 1015 MKOle7UQrG6nSxTLX6Mqwt0orbHvAKeWnDYvpIAeZ72deHxz3roJDXQyhxx0wKaM 1016 HDjUEOKIwrtkHthpqEanSBNYHZgmNOV7sln1Eu9g3J8. 1017 fiK51VwhsxJ-siBMR-YFiA 1019 A.2. Example Nested JWT 1021 This example shows how a JWT can be used as the payload of a JWE or 1022 JWS to create a Nested JWT. In this case, the JWT Claims Set is 1023 first signed, and then encrypted. 1025 The inner signed JWT is identical to the example in Appendix A.2 of 1026 [JWS]. Therefore, its computation is not repeated here. This 1027 example then encrypts this inner JWT to the recipient using RSAES- 1028 PKCS1-V1_5 and AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256. 1030 The following example JWE Header (with line breaks for display 1031 purposes only) declares that: 1033 o the Content Encryption Key is encrypted to the recipient using the 1034 RSAES-PKCS1-V1_5 algorithm to produce the JWE Encrypted Key, 1036 o the Plaintext is encrypted using the AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256 1037 algorithm to produce the Ciphertext, and 1039 o the Plaintext is itself a JWT. 1041 {"alg":"RSA1_5","enc":"A128CBC-HS256","cty":"JWT"} 1043 Base64url encoding the octets of the UTF-8 representation of the JWE 1044 Header yields this encoded JWE Header value: 1046 eyJhbGciOiJSU0ExXzUiLCJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2IiwiY3R5IjoiSldUIn0 1048 The computation of this JWT is identical to the computation of the 1049 JWE in Appendix A.2 of [JWE], other than that different JWE Header, 1050 Plaintext, Initialization Vector, and Content Encryption Key values 1051 are used. (The RSA key used is the same.) 1053 The Payload used is the octets of the ASCII representation of the JWT 1054 at the end of Appendix Section A.2.1 of [JWS] (with all whitespace 1055 and line breaks removed), which is a sequence of 458 octets. 1057 The Initialization Vector value used is: 1059 [82, 101, 100, 109, 111, 110, 100, 32, 87, 65, 32, 57, 56, 48, 53, 1060 50] 1062 This example uses the Content Encryption Key represented in JSON Web 1063 Key [JWK] format below: 1065 {"kty":"oct", 1066 "k":"GawgguFyGrWKav7AX4VKUg" 1067 } 1069 The final result for this Nested JWT (with line breaks for display 1070 purposes only) is: 1072 eyJhbGciOiJSU0ExXzUiLCJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2IiwiY3R5IjoiSldU 1073 In0. 1074 g_hEwksO1Ax8Qn7HoN-BVeBoa8FXe0kpyk_XdcSmxvcM5_P296JXXtoHISr_DD_M 1075 qewaQSH4dZOQHoUgKLeFly-9RI11TG-_Ge1bZFazBPwKC5lJ6OLANLMd0QSL4fYE 1076 b9ERe-epKYE3xb2jfY1AltHqBO-PM6j23Guj2yDKnFv6WO72tteVzm_2n17SBFvh 1077 DuR9a2nHTE67pe0XGBUS_TK7ecA-iVq5COeVdJR4U4VZGGlxRGPLRHvolVLEHx6D 1078 YyLpw30Ay9R6d68YCLi9FYTq3hIXPK_-dmPlOUlKvPr1GgJzRoeC9G5qCvdcHWsq 1079 JGTO_z3Wfo5zsqwkxruxwA. 1080 UmVkbW9uZCBXQSA5ODA1Mg. 1081 VwHERHPvCNcHHpTjkoigx3_ExK0Qc71RMEParpatm0X_qpg-w8kozSjfNIPPXiTB 1082 BLXR65CIPkFqz4l1Ae9w_uowKiwyi9acgVztAi-pSL8GQSXnaamh9kX1mdh3M_TT 1083 -FZGQFQsFhu0Z72gJKGdfGE-OE7hS1zuBD5oEUfk0Dmb0VzWEzpxxiSSBbBAzP10 1084 l56pPfAtrjEYw-7ygeMkwBl6Z_mLS6w6xUgKlvW6ULmkV-uLC4FUiyKECK4e3WZY 1085 Kw1bpgIqGYsw2v_grHjszJZ-_I5uM-9RA8ycX9KqPRp9gc6pXmoU_-27ATs9XCvr 1086 ZXUtK2902AUzqpeEUJYjWWxSNsS-r1TJ1I-FMJ4XyAiGrfmo9hQPcNBYxPz3GQb2 1087 8Y5CLSQfNgKSGt0A4isp1hBUXBHAndgtcslt7ZoQJaKe_nNJgNliWtWpJ_ebuOpE 1088 l8jdhehdccnRMIwAmU1n7SPkmhIl1HlSOpvcvDfhUN5wuqU955vOBvfkBOh5A11U 1089 zBuo2WlgZ6hYi9-e3w29bR0C2-pp3jbqxEDw3iWaf2dc5b-LnR0FEYXvI_tYk5rd 1090 _J9N0mg0tQ6RbpxNEMNoA9QWk5lgdPvbh9BaO195abQ. 1091 AVO9iT5AV4CzvDJCdhSFlQ 1093 Appendix B. Relationship of JWTs to SAML Assertions 1095 SAML 2.0 [OASIS.saml-core-2.0-os] provides a standard for creating 1096 security tokens with greater expressivity and more security options 1097 than supported by JWTs. However, the cost of this flexibility and 1098 expressiveness is both size and complexity. SAML's use of XML 1099 [W3C.CR-xml11-20021015] and XML DSIG [RFC3275] contributes to the 1100 size of SAML assertions; its use of XML and especially XML 1101 Canonicalization [W3C.REC-xml-c14n-20010315] contributes to their 1102 complexity. 1104 JWTs are intended to provide a simple security token format that is 1105 small enough to fit into HTTP headers and query arguments in URIs. 1106 It does this by supporting a much simpler token model than SAML and 1107 using the JSON [RFC7158] object encoding syntax. It also supports 1108 securing tokens using Message Authentication Codes (MACs) and digital 1109 signatures using a smaller (and less flexible) format than XML DSIG. 1111 Therefore, while JWTs can do some of the things SAML assertions do, 1112 JWTs are not intended as a full replacement for SAML assertions, but 1113 rather as a token format to be used when ease of implementation or 1114 compactness are considerations. 1116 SAML Assertions are always statements made by an entity about a 1117 subject. JWTs are often used in the same manner, with the entity 1118 making the statements being represented by the "iss" (issuer) claim, 1119 and the subject being represented by the "sub" (subject) claim. 1120 However, with these claims being optional, other uses of the JWT 1121 format are also permitted. 1123 Appendix C. Relationship of JWTs to Simple Web Tokens (SWTs) 1125 Both JWTs and Simple Web Tokens SWT [SWT], at their core, enable sets 1126 of claims to be communicated between applications. For SWTs, both 1127 the claim names and claim values are strings. For JWTs, while claim 1128 names are strings, claim values can be any JSON type. Both token 1129 types offer cryptographic protection of their content: SWTs with HMAC 1130 SHA-256 and JWTs with a choice of algorithms, including signature, 1131 MAC, and encryption algorithms. 1133 Appendix D. Acknowledgements 1135 The authors acknowledge that the design of JWTs was intentionally 1136 influenced by the design and simplicity of Simple Web Tokens [SWT] 1137 and ideas for JSON tokens that Dick Hardt discussed within the OpenID 1138 community. 1140 Solutions for signing JSON content were previously explored by Magic 1141 Signatures [MagicSignatures], JSON Simple Sign [JSS], and Canvas 1142 Applications [CanvasApp], all of which influenced this draft. 1144 This specification is the work of the OAuth Working Group, which 1145 includes dozens of active and dedicated participants. In particular, 1146 the following individuals contributed ideas, feedback, and wording 1147 that influenced this specification: 1149 Dirk Balfanz, Richard Barnes, Brian Campbell, Breno de Medeiros, Dick 1150 Hardt, Joe Hildebrand, Jeff Hodges, Edmund Jay, Yaron Y. Goland, Ben 1151 Laurie, James Manger, Prateek Mishra, Tony Nadalin, Axel Nennker, 1152 John Panzer, Emmanuel Raviart, David Recordon, Eric Rescorla, Jim 1153 Schaad, Paul Tarjan, Hannes Tschofenig, and Sean Turner. 1155 Hannes Tschofenig and Derek Atkins chaired the OAuth working group 1156 and Sean Turner and Stephen Farrell served as Security area directors 1157 during the creation of this specification. 1159 Appendix E. Document History 1161 [[ to be removed by the RFC Editor before publication as an RFC ]] 1163 -18 1165 o Clarified that the base64url encoding includes no line breaks, 1166 white space, or other additional characters. 1168 o Removed circularity in the audience claim definition. 1170 o Clarified that it is entirely up to applications which claims to 1171 use. 1173 o Changed "SHOULD" to "MUST" in "in the absence of such 1174 requirements, all claims that are not understood by 1175 implementations MUST be ignored". 1177 o Clarified that applications can define their own processing rules 1178 for claims replicated in header parameters, rather than always 1179 requiring that they be identical in the JWT Header and JWT Claims 1180 Set. 1182 o Removed a JWT creation step that duplicated a step in the 1183 underlying JWS or JWE creation. 1185 o Added security considerations about using JWTs in trust decisions. 1187 -17 1189 o Corrected RFC 2119 terminology usage. 1191 o Replaced references to draft-ietf-json-rfc4627bis with RFC 7158. 1193 -16 1195 o Changed some references from being normative to informative, per 1196 JOSE issue #90. 1198 -15 1200 o Replaced references to RFC 4627 with draft-ietf-json-rfc4627bis. 1202 -14 1204 o Referenced the JWE section on Distinguishing between JWS and JWE 1205 Objects. 1207 -13 1209 o Added Claim Description registry field. 1211 o Used Header Parameter Description registry field. 1213 o Removed the phrases "JWA signing algorithms" and "JWA encryption 1214 algorithms". 1216 o Removed the term JSON Text Object. 1218 -12 1220 o Tracked the JOSE change refining the "typ" and "cty" definitions 1221 to always be MIME Media Types, with the omission of "application/" 1222 prefixes recommended for brevity. For compatibility with legacy 1223 implementations, it is RECOMMENDED that "JWT" always be spelled 1224 using uppercase characters when used as a "typ" or "cty" value. 1225 As side effects, this change removed the "typ" Claim definition 1226 and narrowed the uses of the URI 1227 "urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:jwt". 1229 o Updated base64url definition to match JOSE definition. 1231 o Changed terminology from "Reserved Claim Name" to "Registered 1232 Claim Name" to match JOSE terminology change. 1234 o Applied other editorial changes to track parallel JOSE changes. 1236 o Clarified that the subject value may be scoped to be locally 1237 unique in the context of the issuer or may be globally unique. 1239 -11 1241 o Added a Nested JWT example. 1243 o Added "sub" to the list of Claims registered for use as Header 1244 Parameter values when an unencrypted representation is required in 1245 an encrypted JWT. 1247 -10 1249 o Allowed Claims to be replicated as Header Parameters in encrypted 1250 JWTs as needed by applications that require an unencrypted 1251 representation of specific Claims. 1253 -09 1255 o Clarified that the "typ" header parameter is used in an 1256 application-specific manner and has no effect upon the JWT 1257 processing. 1259 o Stated that recipients MUST either reject JWTs with duplicate 1260 Header Parameter Names or with duplicate Claim Names or use a JSON 1261 parser that returns only the lexically last duplicate member name. 1263 -08 1265 o Tracked a change to how JWEs are computed (which only affected the 1266 example encrypted JWT value). 1268 -07 1270 o Defined that the default action for claims that are not understood 1271 is to ignore them unless otherwise specified by applications. 1273 o Changed from using the term "byte" to "octet" when referring to 8 1274 bit values. 1276 o Tracked encryption computation changes in the JWE specification. 1278 -06 1280 o Changed the name of the "prn" claim to "sub" (subject) both to 1281 more closely align with SAML name usage and to use a more 1282 intuitive name. 1284 o Allow JWTs to have multiple audiences. 1286 o Applied editorial improvements suggested by Jeff Hodges, Prateek 1287 Mishra, and Hannes Tschofenig. Many of these simplified the 1288 terminology used. 1290 o Explained why Nested JWTs should be signed and then encrypted. 1292 o Clarified statements of the form "This claim is OPTIONAL" to "Use 1293 of this claim is OPTIONAL". 1295 o Referenced String Comparison Rules in JWS. 1297 o Added seriesInfo information to Internet Draft references. 1299 -05 1301 o Updated values for example AES CBC calculations. 1303 -04 1305 o Promoted Initialization Vector from being a header parameter to 1306 being a top-level JWE element. This saves approximately 16 bytes 1307 in the compact serialization, which is a significant savings for 1308 some use cases. Promoting the Initialization Vector out of the 1309 header also avoids repeating this shared value in the JSON 1310 serialization. 1312 o Applied changes made by the RFC Editor to RFC 6749's registry 1313 language to this specification. 1315 o Reference RFC 6755 -- An IETF URN Sub-Namespace for OAuth. 1317 -03 1319 o Added statement that "StringOrURI values are compared as case- 1320 sensitive strings with no transformations or canonicalizations 1321 applied". 1323 o Indented artwork elements to better distinguish them from the body 1324 text. 1326 -02 1328 o Added an example of an encrypted JWT. 1330 o Added this language to Registration Templates: "This name is case 1331 sensitive. Names that match other registered names in a case 1332 insensitive manner SHOULD NOT be accepted." 1334 o Applied editorial suggestions. 1336 -01 1338 o Added the "cty" (content type) header parameter for declaring type 1339 information about the secured content, as opposed to the "typ" 1340 (type) header parameter, which declares type information about 1341 this object. This significantly simplified nested JWTs. 1343 o Moved description of how to determine whether a header is for a 1344 JWS or a JWE from the JWT spec to the JWE spec. 1346 o Changed registration requirements from RFC Required to 1347 Specification Required with Expert Review. 1349 o Added Registration Template sections for defined registries. 1351 o Added Registry Contents sections to populate registry values. 1353 o Added "Collision Resistant Namespace" to the terminology section. 1355 o Numerous editorial improvements. 1357 -00 1359 o Created the initial IETF draft based upon 1360 draft-jones-json-web-token-10 with no normative changes. 1362 Authors' Addresses 1364 Michael B. Jones 1365 Microsoft 1367 Email: mbj@microsoft.com 1368 URI: http://self-issued.info/ 1370 John Bradley 1371 Ping Identity 1373 Email: ve7jtb@ve7jtb.com 1374 URI: http://www.thread-safe.com/ 1375 Nat Sakimura 1376 Nomura Research Institute 1378 Email: n-sakimura@nri.co.jp 1379 URI: http://nat.sakimura.org/