Signing HTTP Messages
draft-ietf-httpbis-message-signatures-01
HTTP A. Backman, Ed.
Internet-Draft Amazon
Intended status: Standards Track J. Richer
Expires: 21 May 2021 Bespoke Engineering
M. Sporny
Digital Bazaar
17 November 2020
Signing HTTP Messages
draft-ietf-httpbis-message-signatures-01
Abstract
This document describes a mechanism for creating, encoding, and
verifying digital signatures or message authentication codes over
content within an HTTP message. This mechanism supports use cases
where the full HTTP message may not be known to the signer, and where
the message may be transformed (e.g., by intermediaries) before
reaching the verifier.
Note to Readers
_RFC EDITOR: please remove this section before publication_
This work was originally based on draft-cavage-http-signatures-12,
but has since diverged from it, to reflect discussion since adoption
by the HTTP Working Group. In particular, it addresses issues that
have been identified, and adds features to support new use cases. It
is a work-in-progress and not yet suitable for deployment.
Status of This Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on 21 May 2021.
Backman, et al. Expires 21 May 2021 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft Signing HTTP Messages November 2020
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1. Requirements Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2. HTTP Message Transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3. Safe Transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4. Conventions and Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2. Identifying and Canonicalizing Content . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.1. HTTP Header Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.1.1. Canonicalization Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2. Dictionary Structured Field Members . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2.1. Canonicalization Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3. List Prefixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3.1. Canonicalization Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4. Signature Creation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.5. Signature Expiration Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.6. Target Endpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.6.1. Canonicalization Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3. HTTP Message Signatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.1. Signature Metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.2. Creating a Signature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.2.1. Choose and Set Signature Metadata Properties . . . . 14
3.2.2. Create the Signature Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.2.3. Sign the Signature Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.3. Verifying a Signature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.3.1. Enforcing Application Requirements . . . . . . . . . 18
4. Including a Message Signature in a Message . . . . . . . . . 19
4.1. The 'Signature-Input' HTTP Header . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.1.1. Metadata Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.2. The 'Signature' HTTP Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
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