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Miscellaneous warnings: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- == The copyright year in the IETF Trust and authors Copyright Line does not match the current year == The document seems to use 'NOT RECOMMENDED' as an RFC 2119 keyword, but does not include the phrase in its RFC 2119 key words list. -- The document date (December 29, 2013) is 3064 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 'ECMAScript' == Outdated reference: draft-ietf-jose-json-web-algorithms has been published as RFC 7518 == Outdated reference: draft-ietf-jose-json-web-encryption has been published as RFC 7516 == Outdated reference: draft-ietf-jose-json-web-key has been published as RFC 7517 == Outdated reference: draft-ietf-jose-json-web-signature has been published as RFC 7515 ** Obsolete normative reference: RFC 4627 (Obsoleted by RFC 7158, RFC 7159) ** Obsolete normative reference: RFC 5226 (Obsoleted by RFC 8126) ** Downref: Normative reference to an Informational RFC: RFC 6755 Summary: 3 errors (**), 0 flaws (~~), 6 warnings (==), 2 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: July 2, 2014 Ping Identity 6 N. Sakimura 7 NRI 8 December 29, 2013 10 JSON Web Token (JWT) 11 draft-ietf-oauth-json-web-token-14 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 July 2, 2014. 42 Copyright Notice 44 Copyright (c) 2013 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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 65 4.1. Registered Claim Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 66 4.1.1. "iss" (Issuer) Claim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 67 4.1.2. "sub" (Subject) Claim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 68 4.1.3. "aud" (Audience) Claim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 73 4.2. Public Claim Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 74 4.3. Private Claim Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 75 5. JWT Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 76 5.1. "typ" (Type) Header Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 77 5.2. "cty" (Content Type) Header Parameter . . . . . . . . . . 10 78 5.3. Replicating Claims as Header Parameters . . . . . . . . . 11 79 6. Plaintext JWTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 80 6.1. Example Plaintext JWT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 81 7. Rules for Creating and Validating a JWT . . . . . . . . . . . 12 82 7.1. String Comparison Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 83 8. Cryptographic Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 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 . . . . . . . . . . . 17 91 10.2.1. Registry Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 92 10.3. Media Type Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 93 10.3.1. Registry Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 94 10.4. Registration of JWE Header Parameter Names . . . . . . . . 18 95 10.4.1. Registry Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 104 Appendix B. Relationship of JWTs to SAML Assertions . . . . . . . 24 105 Appendix C. Relationship of JWTs to Simple Web Tokens (SWTs) . . 25 106 Appendix D. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 107 Appendix E. Document History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 108 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 110 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) [RFC4627] 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", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this 129 document are to be interpreted as described in Key words for use in 130 RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels [RFC2119]. If these words are 131 used without being spelled in uppercase then they are to be 132 interpreted with their normal natural language meanings. 134 2. Terminology 136 JSON Web Token (JWT) A string representing a set of claims as a JSON 137 object that is encoded in a JWS or JWE, enabling the claims to be 138 digitally signed or MACed and/or encrypted. 140 Base64url Encoding Base64 encoding using the URL- and filename-safe 141 character set defined in Section 5 of RFC 4648 [RFC4648], with all 142 trailing '=' characters omitted (as permitted by Section 3.2). 143 (See Appendix C of [JWS] for notes on implementing base64url 144 encoding without padding.) 146 JWT Header A JSON object that describes the cryptographic operations 147 applied to the JWT. When the JWT is digitally signed or MACed, 148 the JWT Header is a JWS Header. When the JWT is encrypted, the 149 JWT Header is a JWE Header. 151 Header Parameter A name/value pair that is member of the JWT Header. 153 Header Parameter Name The name of a member of the JWT Header. 155 Header Parameter Value The value of a member of the JWT Header. 157 JWT Claims Set A JSON object that contains the Claims conveyed by 158 the JWT. 160 Claim A piece of information asserted about a subject. A Claim is 161 represented as a name/value pair consisting of a Claim Name and a 162 Claim Value. 164 Claim Name The name portion of a Claim representation. A Claim Name 165 is always a string. 167 Claim Value The value portion of a Claim representation. A Claim 168 Value can be any JSON value. 170 Encoded JWT Header Base64url encoding of the JWT Header. 172 Nested JWT A JWT in which nested signing and/or encryption are 173 employed. In nested JWTs, a JWT is used as the payload or 174 plaintext value of an enclosing JWS or JWE structure, 175 respectively. 177 Plaintext JWT A JWT whose Claims are not integrity protected or 178 encrypted. 180 Collision-Resistant Name A name in a namespace that enables names to 181 be allocated in a manner such that they are highly unlikely to 182 collide with other names. Examples of collision-resistant 183 namespaces include: Domain Names, Object Identifiers (OIDs) as 184 defined in the ITU-T X.660 and X.670 Recommendation series, and 185 Universally Unique IDentifiers (UUIDs) [RFC4122]. When using an 186 administratively delegated namespace, the definer of a name needs 187 to take reasonable precautions to ensure they are in control of 188 the portion of the namespace they use to define the name. 190 StringOrURI A JSON string value, with the additional requirement 191 that while arbitrary string values MAY be used, any value 192 containing a ":" character MUST be a URI [RFC3986]. StringOrURI 193 values are compared as case-sensitive strings with no 194 transformations or canonicalizations applied. 196 IntDate A JSON numeric value representing the number of seconds from 197 1970-01-01T0:0:0Z UTC until the specified UTC date/time. See RFC 198 3339 [RFC3339] for details regarding date/times in general and UTC 199 in particular. 201 3. JSON Web Token (JWT) Overview 203 JWTs represent a set of claims as a JSON object that is encoded in a 204 JWS and/or JWE structure. This JSON object is the JWT Claims Set. As 205 per RFC 4627 [RFC4627] Section 2.2, the JSON object consists of zero 206 or more name/value pairs (or members), where the names are strings 207 and the values are arbitrary JSON values. These members are the 208 claims represented by the JWT. 210 The member names within the JWT Claims Set are referred to as Claim 211 Names. The corresponding values are referred to as Claim Values. 213 The contents of the JWT Header describe the cryptographic operations 214 applied to the JWT Claims Set. If the JWT Header is a JWS Header, the 215 JWT is represented as a JWS, and the claims are digitally signed or 216 MACed, with the JWT Claims Set being the JWS Payload. If the JWT 217 Header is a JWE Header, the JWT is represented as a JWE, and the 218 claims are encrypted, with the JWT Claims Set being the input 219 Plaintext. A JWT may be enclosed in another JWE or JWS structure to 220 create a Nested JWT, enabling nested signing and encryption to be 221 performed. 223 A JWT is represented as a sequence of URL-safe parts separated by 224 period ('.') characters. Each part contains a base64url encoded 225 value. The number of parts in the JWT is dependent upon the 226 representation of the resulting JWS or JWE object using the JWS 227 Compact Serialization or the JWE Compact Serialization. 229 3.1. Example JWT 231 The following example JWT Header declares that the encoded object is 232 a JSON Web Token (JWT) and the JWT is a JWS that is MACed using the 233 HMAC SHA-256 algorithm: 235 {"typ":"JWT", 236 "alg":"HS256"} 238 The following octet sequence is the UTF-8 representation of the JWT 239 Header/JWS Header above: 241 [123, 34, 116, 121, 112, 34, 58, 34, 74, 87, 84, 34, 44, 13, 10, 32, 242 34, 97, 108, 103, 34, 58, 34, 72, 83, 50, 53, 54, 34, 125] 244 Base64url encoding the octets of the UTF-8 representation of the JWT 245 Header yields this Encoded JWT Header value (which is also the 246 underlying encoded JWS Header value): 248 eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLA0KICJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9 250 The following is an example of a JWT Claims Set: 252 {"iss":"joe", 253 "exp":1300819380, 254 "http://example.com/is_root":true} 256 The following octet sequence, which is the UTF-8 representation of 257 the JWT Claims Set above, is the JWS Payload: 259 [123, 34, 105, 115, 115, 34, 58, 34, 106, 111, 101, 34, 44, 13, 10, 260 32, 34, 101, 120, 112, 34, 58, 49, 51, 48, 48, 56, 49, 57, 51, 56, 261 48, 44, 13, 10, 32, 34, 104, 116, 116, 112, 58, 47, 47, 101, 120, 97, 262 109, 112, 108, 101, 46, 99, 111, 109, 47, 105, 115, 95, 114, 111, 263 111, 116, 34, 58, 116, 114, 117, 101, 125] 265 Base64url encoding the JWS Payload yields this encoded JWS Payload 266 (with line breaks for display purposes only): 268 eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly 269 9leGFtcGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ 271 Computing the MAC of the encoded JWS Header and encoded JWS Payload 272 with the HMAC SHA-256 algorithm and base64url encoding the HMAC value 273 in the manner specified in [JWS], yields this encoded JWS Signature: 275 dBjftJeZ4CVP-mB92K27uhbUJU1p1r_wW1gFWFOEjXk 277 Concatenating these encoded parts in this order with period ('.') 278 characters between the parts yields this complete JWT (with line 279 breaks for display purposes only): 281 eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLA0KICJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9 282 . 283 eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt 284 cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ 285 . 286 dBjftJeZ4CVP-mB92K27uhbUJU1p1r_wW1gFWFOEjXk 288 This computation is illustrated in more detail in Appendix A.1 of 289 [JWS]. See Appendix A.1 for an example of an encrypted JWT. 291 4. JWT Claims 293 The JWT Claims Set represents a JSON object whose members are the 294 claims conveyed by the JWT. The Claim Names within a JWT Claims Set 295 MUST be unique; recipients MUST either reject JWTs with duplicate 296 Claim Names or use a JSON parser that returns only the lexically last 297 duplicate member name, as specified in Section 15.12 (The JSON 298 Object) of ECMAScript 5.1 [ECMAScript]. 300 The set of claims that a JWT must contain to be considered valid is 301 context-dependent and is outside the scope of this specification. 302 Specific applications of JWTs will require implementations to 303 understand and process some claims in particular ways. However, in 304 the absence of such requirements, all claims that are not understood 305 by implementations SHOULD be ignored. 307 There are three classes of JWT Claim Names: Registered Claim Names, 308 Public Claim Names, and Private Claim Names. 310 4.1. Registered Claim Names 312 The following Claim Names are registered in the IANA JSON Web Token 313 Claims registry defined in Section 10.1. None of the claims defined 314 below are intended to be mandatory to use, but rather, provide a 315 starting point for a set of useful, interoperable claims. All the 316 names are short because a core goal of JWTs is for the representation 317 to be compact. 319 4.1.1. "iss" (Issuer) Claim 321 The "iss" (issuer) claim identifies the principal that issued the 322 JWT. The processing of this claim is generally application specific. 323 The "iss" value is a case-sensitive string containing a StringOrURI 324 value. Use of this claim is OPTIONAL. 326 4.1.2. "sub" (Subject) Claim 328 The "sub" (subject) claim identifies the principal that is the 329 subject of the JWT. The Claims in a JWT are normally statements 330 about the subject. The subject value MAY be scoped to be locally 331 unique in the context of the issuer or MAY be globally unique. The 332 processing of this claim is generally application specific. The 333 "sub" value is a case-sensitive string containing a StringOrURI 334 value. Use of this claim is OPTIONAL. 336 4.1.3. "aud" (Audience) Claim 338 The "aud" (audience) claim identifies the audiences that the JWT is 339 intended for. Each principal intended to process the JWT MUST 340 identify itself with a value in audience claim. If the principal 341 processing the claim does not identify itself with a value in the 342 "aud" claim, then the JWT MUST be rejected. In the general case, the 343 "aud" value is an array of case-sensitive strings, each containing a 344 StringOrURI value. In the special case when the JWT has one 345 audience, the "aud" value MAY be a single case-sensitive string 346 containing a StringOrURI value. The interpretation of audience 347 values is generally application specific. Use of this claim is 348 OPTIONAL. 350 4.1.4. "exp" (Expiration Time) Claim 352 The "exp" (expiration time) claim identifies the expiration time on 353 or after which the JWT MUST NOT be accepted for processing. The 354 processing of the "exp" claim requires that the current date/time 355 MUST be before the expiration date/time listed in the "exp" claim. 356 Implementers MAY provide for some small leeway, usually no more than 357 a few minutes, to account for clock skew. Its value MUST be a number 358 containing an IntDate value. Use of this claim is OPTIONAL. 360 4.1.5. "nbf" (Not Before) Claim 362 The "nbf" (not before) claim identifies the time before which the JWT 363 MUST NOT be accepted for processing. The processing of the "nbf" 364 claim requires that the current date/time MUST be after or equal to 365 the not-before date/time listed in the "nbf" claim. Implementers MAY 366 provide for some small leeway, usually no more than a few minutes, to 367 account for clock skew. Its value MUST be a number containing an 368 IntDate value. Use of this claim is OPTIONAL. 370 4.1.6. "iat" (Issued At) Claim 372 The "iat" (issued at) claim identifies the time at which the JWT was 373 issued. This claim can be used to determine the age of the JWT. Its 374 value MUST be a number containing an IntDate value. Use of this 375 claim is OPTIONAL. 377 4.1.7. "jti" (JWT ID) Claim 379 The "jti" (JWT ID) claim provides a unique identifier for the JWT. 380 The identifier value MUST be assigned in a manner that ensures that 381 there is a negligible probability that the same value will be 382 accidentally assigned to a different data object. The "jti" claim 383 can be used to prevent the JWT from being replayed. The "jti" value 384 is a case-sensitive string. Use of this claim is OPTIONAL. 386 4.2. Public Claim Names 388 Claim Names can be defined at will by those using JWTs. However, in 389 order to prevent collisions, any new Claim Name should either be 390 registered in the IANA JSON Web Token Claims registry defined in 391 Section 10.1 or be a Public Name: a value that contains a Collision- 392 Resistant Name. In each case, the definer of the name or value needs 393 to take reasonable precautions to make sure they are in control of 394 the part of the namespace they use to define the Claim Name. 396 4.3. Private Claim Names 398 A producer and consumer of a JWT MAY agree to use Claim Names that 399 are Private Names: names that are not Registered Claim Names 400 Section 4.1 or Public Claim Names Section 4.2. Unlike Public Claim 401 Names, Private Claim Names are subject to collision and should be 402 used with caution. 404 5. JWT Header 406 The members of the JSON object represented by the JWT Header describe 407 the cryptographic operations applied to the JWT and optionally, 408 additional properties of the JWT. The member names within the JWT 409 Header are referred to as Header Parameter Names. These names MUST 410 be unique; recipients MUST either reject JWTs with duplicate Header 411 Parameter Names or use a JSON parser that returns only the lexically 412 last duplicate member name, as specified in Section 15.12 (The JSON 413 Object) of ECMAScript 5.1 [ECMAScript]. The corresponding values are 414 referred to as Header Parameter Values. 416 JWS Header Parameters are defined by [JWS]. JWE Header Parameters 417 are defined by [JWE]. This specification further specifies the use 418 of the following Header Parameter in both the cases where the JWT is 419 a JWS and where it is a JWE. 421 5.1. "typ" (Type) Header Parameter 423 The "typ" (type) Header Parameter defined by [JWS] and [JWE] is used 424 to declare the MIME Media Type [IANA.MediaTypes] of this complete JWT 425 in contexts where this is useful to the application. This parameter 426 has no effect upon the JWT processing. If present, it is RECOMMENDED 427 that its value be "JWT" to indicate that this object is a JWT. While 428 media type names are not case-sensitive, it is RECOMMENDED that "JWT" 429 always be spelled using uppercase characters for compatibility with 430 legacy implementations. Use of this Header Parameter is OPTIONAL. 432 5.2. "cty" (Content Type) Header Parameter 434 The "cty" (content type) Header Parameter defined by [JWS] and [JWE] 435 is used by this specification to convey structural information about 436 the JWT. 438 In the normal case where nested signing or encryption operations are 439 not employed, the use of this Header Parameter is NOT RECOMMENDED. 441 In the case that nested signing or encryption is employed, this 442 Header Parameter MUST be present; in this case, the value MUST be 443 "JWT", to indicate that a Nested JWT is carried in this 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. See Appendix A.2 for an example of a Nested 447 JWT. 449 5.3. Replicating Claims as Header Parameters 451 In some applications using encrypted JWTs, it is useful to have an 452 unencrypted representation of some Claims. This might be used, for 453 instance, in application processing rules to determine whether and 454 how to process the JWT before it is decrypted. 456 This specification allows Claims present in the JWT Claims Set to be 457 replicated as Header Parameters in a JWT that is a JWE, as needed by 458 the application. If such replicated Claims are present, the 459 application receiving them SHOULD verify that their values are 460 identical. It is the responsibility of the application to ensure 461 that only claims that are safe to be transmitted in an unencrypted 462 manner are replicated as Header Parameter Values in the JWT. 464 This specification registers the "iss" (issuer), "sub" (subject), and 465 "aud" (audience) Header Parameter Names for the purpose of providing 466 unencrypted replicas of these Claims in encrypted JWTs for 467 applications that need them. Other specifications MAY similarly 468 register other names that are registered Claim Names as Header 469 Parameter Names, as needed. 471 6. Plaintext JWTs 473 To support use cases where the JWT content is secured by a means 474 other than a signature and/or encryption contained within the JWT 475 (such as a signature on a data structure containing the JWT), JWTs 476 MAY also be created without a signature or encryption. A plaintext 477 JWT is a JWS using the "none" JWS "alg" Header Parameter Value 478 defined in JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) [JWA]; it is a JWS with the 479 empty string for its JWS Signature value. 481 6.1. Example Plaintext JWT 483 The following example JWT Header declares that the encoded object is 484 a Plaintext JWT: 486 {"alg":"none"} 488 Base64url encoding the octets of the UTF-8 representation of the JWT 489 Header yields this Encoded JWT Header: 491 eyJhbGciOiJub25lIn0 493 The following is an example of a JWT Claims Set: 495 {"iss":"joe", 496 "exp":1300819380, 497 "http://example.com/is_root":true} 499 Base64url encoding the octets of the UTF-8 representation of the JWT 500 Claims Set yields this encoded JWS Payload (with line breaks for 501 display purposes only): 503 eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt 504 cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ 506 The encoded JWS Signature is the empty string. 508 Concatenating these encoded parts in this order with period ('.') 509 characters between the parts yields this complete JWT (with line 510 breaks for display purposes only): 512 eyJhbGciOiJub25lIn0 513 . 514 eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt 515 cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ 516 . 518 7. Rules for Creating and Validating a JWT 520 To create a JWT, one MUST perform these steps. The order of the 521 steps is not significant in cases where there are no dependencies 522 between the inputs and outputs of the steps. 524 1. Create a JWT Claims Set containing the desired claims. Note that 525 white space is explicitly allowed in the representation and no 526 canonicalization need be performed before encoding. 528 2. Let the Message be the octets of the UTF-8 representation of the 529 JWT Claims Set. 531 3. Create a JWT Header containing the desired set of Header 532 Parameters. The JWT MUST conform to either the [JWS] or [JWE] 533 specifications. Note that white space is explicitly allowed in 534 the representation and no canonicalization need be performed 535 before encoding. 537 4. Base64url encode the octets of the UTF-8 representation of the 538 JWT Header. Let this be the Encoded JWT Header. 540 5. Depending upon whether the JWT is a JWS or JWE, there are two 541 cases: 543 * If the JWT is a JWS, create a JWS using the JWT Header as the 544 JWS Header and the Message as the JWS Payload; all steps 545 specified in [JWS] for creating a JWS MUST be followed. 547 * Else, if the JWT is a JWE, create a JWE using the JWT Header 548 as the JWE Header and the Message as the JWE Plaintext; all 549 steps specified in [JWE] for creating a JWE MUST be followed. 551 6. If a nested signing or encryption operation will be performed, 552 let the Message be the JWS or JWE, and return to Step 3, using a 553 "cty" (content type) value of "JWT" in the new JWT Header created 554 in that step. 556 7. Otherwise, let the resulting JWT be the JWS or JWE. 558 When validating a JWT the following steps MUST be taken. The order 559 of the steps is not significant in cases where there are no 560 dependencies between the inputs and outputs of the steps. If any of 561 the listed steps fails then the JWT MUST be rejected for processing. 563 1. The JWT MUST contain at least one period ('.') character. 565 2. Let the Encoded JWT Header be the portion of the JWT before the 566 first period ('.') character. 568 3. The Encoded JWT Header MUST be successfully base64url decoded 569 following the restriction given in this specification that no 570 padding characters have been used. 572 4. The resulting JWT Header MUST be completely valid JSON syntax 573 conforming to RFC 4627 [RFC4627]. 575 5. The resulting JWT Header MUST be validated to only include 576 parameters and values whose syntax and semantics are both 577 understood and supported or that are specified as being ignored 578 when not understood. 580 6. Determine whether the JWT is a JWS or a JWE using any of the 581 methods described in Section 9 of [JWE]. 583 7. Depending upon whether the JWT is a JWS or JWE, there are two 584 cases: 586 * If the JWT is a JWS, all steps specified in [JWS] for 587 validating a JWS MUST be followed. Let the Message be the 588 result of base64url decoding the JWS Payload. 590 * Else, if the JWT is a JWE, all steps specified in [JWE] for 591 validating a JWE MUST be followed. Let the Message be the 592 JWE Plaintext. 594 8. If the JWT Header contains a "cty" (content type) value of 595 "JWT", then the Message is a JWT that was the subject of nested 596 signing or encryption operations. In this case, return to Step 597 1, using the Message as the JWT. 599 9. Otherwise, let the JWT Claims Set be the Message. 601 10. The JWT Claims Set MUST be completely valid JSON syntax 602 conforming to RFC 4627 [RFC4627]. 604 7.1. String Comparison Rules 606 Processing a JWT inevitably requires comparing known strings to 607 values in JSON objects. For example, in checking what the algorithm 608 is, the Unicode string encoding "alg" will be checked against the 609 member names in the JWT Header to see if there is a matching Header 610 Parameter Name. 612 Comparisons between JSON strings and other Unicode strings MUST be 613 performed by comparing Unicode code points without normalization, as 614 specified in the String Comparison Rules in Section 5.3 of [JWS]. 616 8. Cryptographic Algorithms 618 JWTs use JSON Web Signature (JWS) [JWS] and JSON Web Encryption (JWE) 619 [JWE] to sign and/or encrypt the contents of the JWT. 621 Of the signature and MAC algorithms specified in JSON Web Algorithms 622 (JWA) [JWA], only HMAC SHA-256 ("HS256") and "none" MUST be 623 implemented by conforming JWT implementations. It is RECOMMENDED 624 that implementations also support RSASSA-PKCS1-V1_5 with the SHA-256 625 hash algorithm ("RS256") and ECDSA using the P-256 curve and the SHA- 626 256 hash algorithm ("ES256"). Support for other algorithms and key 627 sizes is OPTIONAL. 629 If an implementation provides encryption capabilities, of the 630 encryption algorithms specified in [JWA], only RSAES-PKCS1-V1_5 with 631 2048 bit keys ("RSA1_5"), AES Key Wrap with 128 and 256 bit keys 632 ("A128KW" and "A256KW"), and the composite authenticated encryption 633 algorithm using AES CBC and HMAC SHA-2 ("A128CBC-HS256" and 634 "A256CBC-HS512") MUST be implemented by conforming implementations. 635 It is RECOMMENDED that implementations also support using ECDH-ES to 636 agree upon a key used to wrap the Content Encryption Key 637 ("ECDH-ES+A128KW" and "ECDH-ES+A256KW") and AES in Galois/Counter 638 Mode (GCM) with 128 bit and 256 bit keys ("A128GCM" and "A256GCM"). 639 Support for other algorithms and key sizes is OPTIONAL. 641 9. URI for Declaring that Content is a JWT 643 This specification registers the URN 644 "urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:jwt" for use by applications that 645 declare content types using URIs (rather than, for instance, MIME 646 Media Types) to indicate that the content referred to is a JWT. 648 10. IANA Considerations 650 10.1. JSON Web Token Claims Registry 652 This specification establishes the IANA JSON Web Token Claims 653 registry for JWT Claim Names. The registry records the Claim Name 654 and a reference to the specification that defines it. This 655 specification registers the Claim Names defined in Section 4.1. 657 Values are registered with a Specification Required [RFC5226] after a 658 two-week review period on the [TBD]@ietf.org mailing list, on the 659 advice of one or more Designated Experts. However, to allow for the 660 allocation of values prior to publication, the Designated Expert(s) 661 may approve registration once they are satisfied that such a 662 specification will be published. 664 Registration requests must be sent to the [TBD]@ietf.org mailing list 665 for review and comment, with an appropriate subject (e.g., "Request 666 for access token type: example"). [[ Note to the RFC Editor: The name 667 of the mailing list should be determined in consultation with the 668 IESG and IANA. Suggested name: jwt-reg-review. ]] 670 Within the review period, the Designated Expert(s) will either 671 approve or deny the registration request, communicating this decision 672 to the review list and IANA. Denials should include an explanation 673 and, if applicable, suggestions as to how to make the request 674 successful. Registration requests that are undetermined for a period 675 longer than 21 days can be brought to the IESG's attention (using the 676 iesg@iesg.org mailing list) for resolution. 678 Criteria that should be applied by the Designated Expert(s) includes 679 determining whether the proposed registration duplicates existing 680 functionality, determining whether it is likely to be of general 681 applicability or whether it is useful only for a single application, 682 and whether the registration makes sense. 684 IANA must only accept registry updates from the Designated Expert(s) 685 and should direct all requests for registration to the review mailing 686 list. 688 It is suggested that multiple Designated Experts be appointed who are 689 able to represent the perspectives of different applications using 690 this specification, in order to enable broadly-informed review of 691 registration decisions. In cases where a registration decision could 692 be perceived as creating a conflict of interest for a particular 693 Expert, that Expert should defer to the judgment of the other 694 Expert(s). 696 10.1.1. Registration Template 698 Claim Name: 699 The name requested (e.g., "example"). Because a core goal of this 700 specification is for the resulting representations to be compact, 701 it is RECOMMENDED that the name be short -- not to exceed 8 702 characters without a compelling reason to do so. This name is 703 case-sensitive. Names may not match other registered names in a 704 case-insensitive manner unless the Designated Expert(s) state that 705 there is a compelling reason to allow an exception in this 706 particular case. 708 Claim Description: 709 Brief description of the Claim (e.g., "Example description"). 711 Change Controller: 712 For Standards Track RFCs, state "IESG". For others, give the name 713 of the responsible party. Other details (e.g., postal address, 714 email address, home page URI) may also be included. 716 Specification Document(s): 717 Reference to the document(s) that specify the parameter, 718 preferably including URI(s) that can be used to retrieve copies of 719 the document(s). An indication of the relevant sections may also 720 be included but is not required. 722 10.1.2. Initial Registry Contents 724 o Claim Name: "iss" 725 o Claim Description: Issuer 726 o Change Controller: IESG 727 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.1 of [[ this document ]] 729 o Claim Name: "sub" 730 o Claim Description: Subject 731 o Change Controller: IESG 732 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.2 of [[ this document ]] 734 o Claim Name: "aud" 735 o Claim Description: Audience 736 o Change Controller: IESG 737 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.3 of [[ this document ]] 739 o Claim Name: "exp" 740 o Claim Description: Expiration Time 741 o Change Controller: IESG 742 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.4 of [[ this document ]] 744 o Claim Name: "nbf" 745 o Claim Description: Not Before 746 o Change Controller: IESG 747 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.5 of [[ this document ]] 749 o Claim Name: "iat" 750 o Claim Description: Issued At 751 o Change Controller: IESG 752 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.6 of [[ this document ]] 754 o Claim Name: "jti" 755 o Claim Description: JWT ID 756 o Change Controller: IESG 757 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.7 of [[ this document ]] 759 10.2. Sub-Namespace Registration of 760 urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:jwt 762 10.2.1. Registry Contents 764 This specification registers the value "token-type:jwt" in the IANA 765 urn:ietf:params:oauth registry established in An IETF URN Sub- 766 Namespace for OAuth [RFC6755], which can be used to indicate that the 767 content is a JWT. 769 o URN: urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:jwt 770 o Common Name: JSON Web Token (JWT) Token Type 771 o Change Controller: IESG 772 o Specification Document(s): [[this document]] 774 10.3. Media Type Registration 776 10.3.1. Registry Contents 778 This specification registers the "application/jwt" Media Type 779 [RFC2046] in the MIME Media Types registry [IANA.MediaTypes], which 780 can be used to indicate that the content is a JWT. 782 o Type Name: application 783 o Subtype Name: jwt 784 o Required Parameters: n/a 785 o Optional Parameters: n/a 786 o Encoding considerations: 8bit; JWT values are encoded as a series 787 of base64url encoded values (some of which may be the empty 788 string) separated by period ('.') characters. 789 o Security Considerations: See the Security Considerations section 790 of [[ this document ]] 791 o Interoperability Considerations: n/a 792 o Published Specification: [[ this document ]] 793 o Applications that use this media type: OpenID Connect, Mozilla 794 Persona, Salesforce, Google, numerous others 795 o Additional Information: Magic number(s): n/a, File extension(s): 796 n/a, Macintosh file type code(s): n/a 797 o Person & email address to contact for further information: Michael 798 B. Jones, mbj@microsoft.com 799 o Intended Usage: COMMON 800 o Restrictions on Usage: none 801 o Author: Michael B. Jones, mbj@microsoft.com 802 o Change Controller: IESG 804 10.4. Registration of JWE Header Parameter Names 806 This specification registers specific Claim Names defined in 807 Section 4.1 in the IANA JSON Web Signature and Encryption Header 808 Parameters registry defined in [JWS] for use by Claims replicated as 809 Header Parameters, per Section 5.3. 811 10.4.1. Registry Contents 813 o Header Parameter Name: "iss" 814 o Header Parameter Description: Issuer 815 o Header Parameter Usage Location(s): JWE 816 o Change Controller: IESG 817 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.1 of [[ this document ]] 819 o Header Parameter Name: "sub" 820 o Header Parameter Description: Subject 821 o Header Parameter Usage Location(s): JWE 822 o Change Controller: IESG 823 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.2 of [[ this document ]] 825 o Header Parameter Name: "aud" 826 o Header Parameter Description: Audience 827 o Header Parameter Usage Location(s): JWE 828 o Change Controller: IESG 829 o Specification Document(s): Section 4.1.3 of [[ this document ]] 831 11. Security Considerations 833 All of the security issues faced by any cryptographic application 834 must be faced by a JWT/JWS/JWE/JWK agent. Among these issues are 835 protecting the user's private and symmetric keys, preventing various 836 attacks, and helping the user avoid mistakes such as inadvertently 837 encrypting a message for the wrong recipient. The entire list of 838 security considerations is beyond the scope of this document. 840 All the security considerations in the JWS specification also apply 841 to JWT, as do the JWE security considerations when encryption is 842 employed. In particular, the JWS JSON Security Considerations and 843 Unicode Comparison Security Considerations apply equally to the JWT 844 Claims Set in the same manner that they do to the JWS Header. 846 While syntactically, the signing and encryption operations for Nested 847 JWTs may be applied in any order, normally senders should sign the 848 message and then encrypt the result (thus encrypting the signature). 849 This prevents attacks in which the signature is stripped, leaving 850 just an encrypted message, as well as providing privacy for the 851 signer. Furthermore, signatures over encrypted text are not 852 considered valid in many jurisdictions. 854 Note that potential concerns about security issues related to the 855 order of signing and encryption operations are already addressed by 856 the underlying JWS and JWE specifications; in particular, because JWE 857 only supports the use of authenticated encryption algorithms, 858 cryptographic concerns about the potential need to sign after 859 encryption that apply in many contexts do not apply to this 860 specification. 862 12. References 864 12.1. Normative References 866 [ECMAScript] 867 Ecma International, "ECMAScript Language Specification, 868 5.1 Edition", ECMA 262, June 2011. 870 [IANA.MediaTypes] 871 Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), "MIME Media 872 Types", 2005. 874 [JWA] Jones, M., "JSON Web Algorithms (JWA)", 875 draft-ietf-jose-json-web-algorithms (work in progress), 876 December 2013. 878 [JWE] Jones, M., Rescorla, E., and J. Hildebrand, "JSON Web 879 Encryption (JWE)", draft-ietf-jose-json-web-encryption 880 (work in progress), December 2013. 882 [JWK] Jones, M., "JSON Web Key (JWK)", 883 draft-ietf-jose-json-web-key (work in progress), 884 December 2013. 886 [JWS] Jones, M., Bradley, J., and N. Sakimura, "JSON Web 887 Signature (JWS)", draft-ietf-jose-json-web-signature (work 888 in progress), December 2013. 890 [RFC2046] Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail 891 Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types", RFC 2046, 892 November 1996. 894 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate 895 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 897 [RFC3339] Klyne, G., Ed. and C. Newman, "Date and Time on the 898 Internet: Timestamps", RFC 3339, July 2002. 900 [RFC3986] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform 901 Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66, 902 RFC 3986, January 2005. 904 [RFC4627] Crockford, D., "The application/json Media Type for 905 JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)", RFC 4627, July 2006. 907 [RFC4648] Josefsson, S., "The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data 908 Encodings", RFC 4648, October 2006. 910 [RFC5226] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an 911 IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226, 912 May 2008. 914 [RFC6755] Campbell, B. and H. Tschofenig, "An IETF URN Sub-Namespace 915 for OAuth", RFC 6755, October 2012. 917 12.2. Informative References 919 [CanvasApp] 920 Facebook, "Canvas Applications", 2010. 922 [JSS] Bradley, J. and N. Sakimura (editor), "JSON Simple Sign", 923 September 2010. 925 [MagicSignatures] 926 Panzer (editor), J., Laurie, B., and D. Balfanz, "Magic 927 Signatures", January 2011. 929 [OASIS.saml-core-2.0-os] 930 Cantor, S., Kemp, J., Philpott, R., and E. Maler, 931 "Assertions and Protocol for the OASIS Security Assertion 932 Markup Language (SAML) V2.0", OASIS Standard saml-core- 933 2.0-os, March 2005. 935 [RFC3275] Eastlake, D., Reagle, J., and D. Solo, "(Extensible Markup 936 Language) XML-Signature Syntax and Processing", RFC 3275, 937 March 2002. 939 [RFC4122] Leach, P., Mealling, M., and R. Salz, "A Universally 940 Unique IDentifier (UUID) URN Namespace", RFC 4122, 941 July 2005. 943 [SWT] Hardt, D. and Y. Goland, "Simple Web Token (SWT)", 944 Version 0.9.5.1, November 2009. 946 [W3C.CR-xml11-20021015] 947 Cowan, J., "Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.1", W3C 948 CR CR-xml11-20021015, October 2002. 950 [W3C.REC-xml-c14n-20010315] 951 Boyer, J., "Canonical XML Version 1.0", World Wide Web 952 Consortium Recommendation REC-xml-c14n-20010315, 953 March 2001, 954 . 956 Appendix A. JWT Examples 958 This section contains examples of JWTs. For other example JWTs, see 959 Section 6.1 and Appendices A.1, A.2, and A.3 of [JWS]. 961 A.1. Example Encrypted JWT 963 This example encrypts the same claims as used in Section 3.1 to the 964 recipient using RSAES-PKCS1-V1_5 and AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256. 966 The following example JWE Header (with line breaks for display 967 purposes only) declares that: 969 o the Content Encryption Key is encrypted to the recipient using the 970 RSAES-PKCS1-V1_5 algorithm to produce the JWE Encrypted Key and 972 o the Plaintext is encrypted using the AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256 973 algorithm to produce the Ciphertext. 975 {"alg":"RSA1_5","enc":"A128CBC-HS256"} 977 Other than using the octets of the UTF-8 representation of the JWT 978 Claims Set from Section 3.1 as the plaintext value, the computation 979 of this JWT is identical to the computation of the JWE in Appendix 980 A.2 of [JWE], including the keys used. 982 The final result in this example (with line breaks for display 983 purposes only) is: 985 eyJhbGciOiJSU0ExXzUiLCJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2In0. 986 QR1Owv2ug2WyPBnbQrRARTeEk9kDO2w8qDcjiHnSJflSdv1iNqhWXaKH4MqAkQtM 987 oNfABIPJaZm0HaA415sv3aeuBWnD8J-Ui7Ah6cWafs3ZwwFKDFUUsWHSK-IPKxLG 988 TkND09XyjORj_CHAgOPJ-Sd8ONQRnJvWn_hXV1BNMHzUjPyYwEsRhDhzjAD26ima 989 sOTsgruobpYGoQcXUwFDn7moXPRfDE8-NoQX7N7ZYMmpUDkR-Cx9obNGwJQ3nM52 990 YCitxoQVPzjbl7WBuB7AohdBoZOdZ24WlN1lVIeh8v1K4krB8xgKvRU8kgFrEn_a 991 1rZgN5TiysnmzTROF869lQ. 992 AxY8DCtDaGlsbGljb3RoZQ. 993 MKOle7UQrG6nSxTLX6Mqwt0orbHvAKeWnDYvpIAeZ72deHxz3roJDXQyhxx0wKaM 994 HDjUEOKIwrtkHthpqEanSBNYHZgmNOV7sln1Eu9g3J8. 995 fiK51VwhsxJ-siBMR-YFiA 997 A.2. Example Nested JWT 999 This example shows how a JWT can be used as the payload of a JWE or 1000 JWS to create a Nested JWT. In this case, the JWT Claims Set is 1001 first signed, and then encrypted. 1003 The inner signed JWT is identical to the example in Appendix A.2 of 1004 [JWS]. Therefore, its computation is not repeated here. This 1005 example then encrypts this inner JWT to the recipient using RSAES- 1006 PKCS1-V1_5 and AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256. 1008 The following example JWE Header (with line breaks for display 1009 purposes only) declares that: 1011 o the Content Encryption Key is encrypted to the recipient using the 1012 RSAES-PKCS1-V1_5 algorithm to produce the JWE Encrypted Key, 1014 o the Plaintext is encrypted using the AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256 1015 algorithm to produce the Ciphertext, and 1017 o the Plaintext is itself a JWT. 1019 {"alg":"RSA1_5","enc":"A128CBC-HS256","cty":"JWT"} 1021 Base64url encoding the octets of the UTF-8 representation of the JWE 1022 Header yields this encoded JWE Header value: 1024 eyJhbGciOiJSU0ExXzUiLCJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2IiwiY3R5IjoiSldUIn0 1026 The computation of this JWT is identical to the computation of the 1027 JWE in Appendix A.2 of [JWE], other than that different JWE Header, 1028 Plaintext, Initialization Vector, and Content Encryption Key values 1029 are used. (The RSA key used is the same.) 1031 The Payload used is the octets of the ASCII representation of the JWT 1032 at the end of Appendix Section A.2.1 of [JWS] (with all whitespace 1033 and line breaks removed), which is a sequence of 458 octets. 1035 The Initialization Vector value used is: 1037 [82, 101, 100, 109, 111, 110, 100, 32, 87, 65, 32, 57, 56, 48, 53, 1038 50] 1040 This example uses the Content Encryption Key represented in JSON Web 1041 Key [JWK] format below: 1043 {"kty":"oct", 1044 "k":"GawgguFyGrWKav7AX4VKUg" 1045 } 1047 The final result for this Nested JWT (with line breaks for display 1048 purposes only) is: 1050 eyJhbGciOiJSU0ExXzUiLCJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2IiwiY3R5IjoiSldU 1051 In0. 1052 g_hEwksO1Ax8Qn7HoN-BVeBoa8FXe0kpyk_XdcSmxvcM5_P296JXXtoHISr_DD_M 1053 qewaQSH4dZOQHoUgKLeFly-9RI11TG-_Ge1bZFazBPwKC5lJ6OLANLMd0QSL4fYE 1054 b9ERe-epKYE3xb2jfY1AltHqBO-PM6j23Guj2yDKnFv6WO72tteVzm_2n17SBFvh 1055 DuR9a2nHTE67pe0XGBUS_TK7ecA-iVq5COeVdJR4U4VZGGlxRGPLRHvolVLEHx6D 1056 YyLpw30Ay9R6d68YCLi9FYTq3hIXPK_-dmPlOUlKvPr1GgJzRoeC9G5qCvdcHWsq 1057 JGTO_z3Wfo5zsqwkxruxwA. 1058 UmVkbW9uZCBXQSA5ODA1Mg. 1059 VwHERHPvCNcHHpTjkoigx3_ExK0Qc71RMEParpatm0X_qpg-w8kozSjfNIPPXiTB 1060 BLXR65CIPkFqz4l1Ae9w_uowKiwyi9acgVztAi-pSL8GQSXnaamh9kX1mdh3M_TT 1061 -FZGQFQsFhu0Z72gJKGdfGE-OE7hS1zuBD5oEUfk0Dmb0VzWEzpxxiSSBbBAzP10 1062 l56pPfAtrjEYw-7ygeMkwBl6Z_mLS6w6xUgKlvW6ULmkV-uLC4FUiyKECK4e3WZY 1063 Kw1bpgIqGYsw2v_grHjszJZ-_I5uM-9RA8ycX9KqPRp9gc6pXmoU_-27ATs9XCvr 1064 ZXUtK2902AUzqpeEUJYjWWxSNsS-r1TJ1I-FMJ4XyAiGrfmo9hQPcNBYxPz3GQb2 1065 8Y5CLSQfNgKSGt0A4isp1hBUXBHAndgtcslt7ZoQJaKe_nNJgNliWtWpJ_ebuOpE 1066 l8jdhehdccnRMIwAmU1n7SPkmhIl1HlSOpvcvDfhUN5wuqU955vOBvfkBOh5A11U 1067 zBuo2WlgZ6hYi9-e3w29bR0C2-pp3jbqxEDw3iWaf2dc5b-LnR0FEYXvI_tYk5rd 1068 _J9N0mg0tQ6RbpxNEMNoA9QWk5lgdPvbh9BaO195abQ. 1069 AVO9iT5AV4CzvDJCdhSFlQ 1071 Appendix B. Relationship of JWTs to SAML Assertions 1073 SAML 2.0 [OASIS.saml-core-2.0-os] provides a standard for creating 1074 security tokens with greater expressivity and more security options 1075 than supported by JWTs. However, the cost of this flexibility and 1076 expressiveness is both size and complexity. SAML's use of XML 1077 [W3C.CR-xml11-20021015] and XML DSIG [RFC3275] contributes to the 1078 size of SAML assertions; its use of XML and especially XML 1079 Canonicalization [W3C.REC-xml-c14n-20010315] contributes to their 1080 complexity. 1082 JWTs are intended to provide a simple security token format that is 1083 small enough to fit into HTTP headers and query arguments in URIs. 1084 It does this by supporting a much simpler token model than SAML and 1085 using the JSON [RFC4627] object encoding syntax. It also supports 1086 securing tokens using Message Authentication Codes (MACs) and digital 1087 signatures using a smaller (and less flexible) format than XML DSIG. 1089 Therefore, while JWTs can do some of the things SAML assertions do, 1090 JWTs are not intended as a full replacement for SAML assertions, but 1091 rather as a token format to be used when ease of implementation or 1092 compactness are considerations. 1094 SAML Assertions are always statements made by an entity about a 1095 subject. JWTs are often used in the same manner, with the entity 1096 making the statements being represented by the "iss" (issuer) claim, 1097 and the subject being represented by the "sub" (subject) claim. 1098 However, with these claims being optional, other uses of the JWT 1099 format are also permitted. 1101 Appendix C. Relationship of JWTs to Simple Web Tokens (SWTs) 1103 Both JWTs and Simple Web Tokens SWT [SWT], at their core, enable sets 1104 of claims to be communicated between applications. For SWTs, both 1105 the claim names and claim values are strings. For JWTs, while claim 1106 names are strings, claim values can be any JSON type. Both token 1107 types offer cryptographic protection of their content: SWTs with HMAC 1108 SHA-256 and JWTs with a choice of algorithms, including signature, 1109 MAC, and encryption algorithms. 1111 Appendix D. Acknowledgements 1113 The authors acknowledge that the design of JWTs was intentionally 1114 influenced by the design and simplicity of Simple Web Tokens [SWT] 1115 and ideas for JSON tokens that Dick Hardt discussed within the OpenID 1116 community. 1118 Solutions for signing JSON content were previously explored by Magic 1119 Signatures [MagicSignatures], JSON Simple Sign [JSS], and Canvas 1120 Applications [CanvasApp], all of which influenced this draft. 1122 This specification is the work of the OAuth Working Group, which 1123 includes dozens of active and dedicated participants. In particular, 1124 the following individuals contributed ideas, feedback, and wording 1125 that influenced this specification: 1127 Dirk Balfanz, Richard Barnes, Brian Campbell, Breno de Medeiros, Dick 1128 Hardt, Joe Hildebrand, Jeff Hodges, Edmund Jay, Yaron Y. Goland, Ben 1129 Laurie, James Manger, Prateek Mishra, Tony Nadalin, Axel Nennker, 1130 John Panzer, Emmanuel Raviart, David Recordon, Eric Rescorla, Jim 1131 Schaad, Paul Tarjan, Hannes Tschofenig, and Sean Turner. 1133 Hannes Tschofenig and Derek Atkins chaired the OAuth working group 1134 and Sean Turner and Stephen Farrell served as Security area directors 1135 during the creation of this specification. 1137 Appendix E. Document History 1139 [[ to be removed by the RFC Editor before publication as an RFC ]] 1141 -14 1142 o Referenced the JWE section on Distinguishing between JWS and JWE 1143 Objects. 1145 -13 1147 o Added Claim Description registry field. 1149 o Used Header Parameter Description registry field. 1151 o Removed the phrases "JWA signing algorithms" and "JWA encryption 1152 algorithms". 1154 o Removed the term JSON Text Object. 1156 -12 1158 o Tracked the JOSE change refining the "typ" and "cty" definitions 1159 to always be MIME Media Types, with the omission of "application/" 1160 prefixes recommended for brevity. For compatibility with legacy 1161 implementations, it is RECOMMENDED that "JWT" always be spelled 1162 using uppercase characters when used as a "typ" or "cty" value. 1163 As side effects, this change removed the "typ" Claim definition 1164 and narrowed the uses of the URI 1165 "urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:jwt". 1167 o Updated base64url definition to match JOSE definition. 1169 o Changed terminology from "Reserved Claim Name" to "Registered 1170 Claim Name" to match JOSE terminology change. 1172 o Applied other editorial changes to track parallel JOSE changes. 1174 o Clarified that the subject value may be scoped to be locally 1175 unique in the context of the issuer or may be globally unique. 1177 -11 1179 o Added a Nested JWT example. 1181 o Added "sub" to the list of Claims registered for use as Header 1182 Parameter values when an unencrypted representation is required in 1183 an encrypted JWT. 1185 -10 1187 o Allowed Claims to be replicated as Header Parameters in encrypted 1188 JWTs as needed by applications that require an unencrypted 1189 representation of specific Claims. 1191 -09 1193 o Clarified that the "typ" header parameter is used in an 1194 application-specific manner and has no effect upon the JWT 1195 processing. 1197 o Stated that recipients MUST either reject JWTs with duplicate 1198 Header Parameter Names or with duplicate Claim Names or use a JSON 1199 parser that returns only the lexically last duplicate member name. 1201 -08 1203 o Tracked a change to how JWEs are computed (which only affected the 1204 example encrypted JWT value). 1206 -07 1208 o Defined that the default action for claims that are not understood 1209 is to ignore them unless otherwise specified by applications. 1211 o Changed from using the term "byte" to "octet" when referring to 8 1212 bit values. 1214 o Tracked encryption computation changes in the JWE specification. 1216 -06 1218 o Changed the name of the "prn" claim to "sub" (subject) both to 1219 more closely align with SAML name usage and to use a more 1220 intuitive name. 1222 o Allow JWTs to have multiple audiences. 1224 o Applied editorial improvements suggested by Jeff Hodges, Prateek 1225 Mishra, and Hannes Tschofenig. Many of these simplified the 1226 terminology used. 1228 o Explained why Nested JWTs should be signed and then encrypted. 1230 o Clarified statements of the form "This claim is OPTIONAL" to "Use 1231 of this claim is OPTIONAL". 1233 o Referenced String Comparison Rules in JWS. 1235 o Added seriesInfo information to Internet Draft references. 1237 -05 1238 o Updated values for example AES CBC calculations. 1240 -04 1242 o Promoted Initialization Vector from being a header parameter to 1243 being a top-level JWE element. This saves approximately 16 bytes 1244 in the compact serialization, which is a significant savings for 1245 some use cases. Promoting the Initialization Vector out of the 1246 header also avoids repeating this shared value in the JSON 1247 serialization. 1249 o Applied changes made by the RFC Editor to RFC 6749's registry 1250 language to this specification. 1252 o Reference RFC 6755 -- An IETF URN Sub-Namespace for OAuth. 1254 -03 1256 o Added statement that "StringOrURI values are compared as case- 1257 sensitive strings with no transformations or canonicalizations 1258 applied". 1260 o Indented artwork elements to better distinguish them from the body 1261 text. 1263 -02 1265 o Added an example of an encrypted JWT. 1267 o Added this language to Registration Templates: "This name is case 1268 sensitive. Names that match other registered names in a case 1269 insensitive manner SHOULD NOT be accepted." 1271 o Applied editorial suggestions. 1273 -01 1275 o Added the "cty" (content type) header parameter for declaring type 1276 information about the secured content, as opposed to the "typ" 1277 (type) header parameter, which declares type information about 1278 this object. This significantly simplified nested JWTs. 1280 o Moved description of how to determine whether a header is for a 1281 JWS or a JWE from the JWT spec to the JWE spec. 1283 o Changed registration requirements from RFC Required to 1284 Specification Required with Expert Review. 1286 o Added Registration Template sections for defined registries. 1288 o Added Registry Contents sections to populate registry values. 1290 o Added "Collision Resistant Namespace" to the terminology section. 1292 o Numerous editorial improvements. 1294 -00 1296 o Created the initial IETF draft based upon 1297 draft-jones-json-web-token-10 with no normative changes. 1299 Authors' Addresses 1301 Michael B. Jones 1302 Microsoft 1304 Email: mbj@microsoft.com 1305 URI: http://self-issued.info/ 1307 John Bradley 1308 Ping Identity 1310 Email: ve7jtb@ve7jtb.com 1311 URI: http://www.thread-safe.com/ 1313 Nat Sakimura 1314 Nomura Research Institute 1316 Email: n-sakimura@nri.co.jp 1317 URI: http://nat.sakimura.org/