JOSE Working Group M. Jones
Internet-Draft Microsoft
Intended status: Standards Track J. Bradley
Expires: June 30, 2013 independent
N. Sakimura
Nomura Research Institute
December 27, 2012
JSON Web Signature JSON Serialization (JWS-JS)
draft-jones-jose-jws-json-serialization-04
Abstract
The JSON Web Signature JSON Serialization (JWS-JS) is a means of
representing content secured with digital signatures or Message
Authentication Codes (MACs) using JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)
data structures. This specification describes a means of
representing secured content as a JSON data object (as opposed to the
JWS specification, which uses a compact serialization with a URL-safe
representation). It enables multiple digital signatures and/or MACs
to be applied to the same content (unlike JWS). Cryptographic
algorithms and identifiers used with this specification are described
in the separate JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) specification. The JSON
Serialization for related encryption functionality is described in
the separate JSON Web Encryption JSON Serialization (JWE-JS)
specification.
Status of this Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on June 30, 2013.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
Jones, et al. Expires June 30, 2013 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft JWS JSON Serialization (JWS-JS) December 2012
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1. Notational Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. JSON Serialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. Example JWS-JS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
7.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
7.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Appendix A. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Appendix B. Open Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Appendix C. Document History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Jones, et al. Expires June 30, 2013 [Page 2]
Internet-Draft JWS JSON Serialization (JWS-JS) December 2012
1. Introduction
The JSON Web Signature JSON Serialization (JWS-JS) is a format for
representing content secured with digital signatures or Message
Authentication Codes (MACs) as a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)
[RFC4627] object. It enables multiple digital signatures and/or MACs
to be applied to the same content (unlike JWS [JWS]). The digital
signature and MAC mechanisms used are independent of the type of
content being secured, allowing arbitrary content to be secured.
Cryptographic algorithms and identifiers used with this specification
are described in the separate JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) [JWA]
specification. The JSON Serialization for related encryption
functionality is described in the separate JSON Web Encryption JSON
Serialization (JWE-JS) [JWE-JS] specification.
1.1. Notational Conventions
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in Key words for use in
RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels [RFC2119].
2. Terminology
This specification uses the same terminology as the JSON Web
Signature (JWS) [JWS] specification.
3. JSON Serialization
The JSON Serialization represents secured content as a JSON object
with a "recipients" member containing an array of per-recipient
information and a "payload" member containing a shared Encoded JWS
Payload value. Each member of the "recipients" array is a JSON
object with a "header" member containing an Encoded JWS Header value
and a "signature" member containing an Encoded JWS Signature value.
Unlike the compact serialization used by JWSs, content using the JSON
Serialization MAY be secured with more than one digital signature
and/or MAC value. Each is represented as an Encoded JWS Signature
value in the "signature" member of an object in the "recipients"
array. For each, there is an Encoded JWS Encoded Header value in the
"header" member of the same object in the "recipients" array. This
specifies the digital signature or MAC applied to the Encoded JWS
Header value and the shared Encoded JWS Payload value to create the
JWS Signature value. Therefore, the syntax is:
Jones, et al. Expires June 30, 2013 [Page 3]
Internet-Draft JWS JSON Serialization (JWS-JS) December 2012
{"recipients":[
{"header":"<header 1 contents>",
"signature":"<signature 1 contents>"},
...
{"header":"<header N contents>",
"signature":"<signature N contents>"}],
"payload":"<payload contents>"
}
The contents of the Encoded JWS Header, Encoded JWS Payload, and
Encoded JWS Signature values are exactly as specified in JSON Web
Signature (JWS) [JWS]. They are interpreted and validated in the
same manner, with each corresponding "header" and "signature" value
being created and validated together.
Each JWS Signature value is computed on the JWS Secured Input
corresponding to the concatenation of the Encoded JWS Header, a
period ('.') character, and the Encoded JWS Payload in the same
manner described in the JWS specification. This has the desirable
result that each Encoded JWS signature value in the "recipients"
array is identical to the value that would be used for the same
parameters in a JWS.
4. Example JWS-JS
This section contains an example using the JWS JSON Serialization.
This example demonstrates the capability for conveying multiple
digital signatures and/or MACs for the same payload.
The Encoded JWS Payload used in this example is the same as used in
the examples in Appendix A of JWS (with line breaks for display
purposes only):
eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt
cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ
Two digital signatures are used in this example: an RSA SHA-256
signature, for which the header and signature values are the same as
in Appendix A.2 of JWS, and an ECDSA P-256 SHA-256 signature, for
which the header and signature values are the same as in Appendix A.3
of JWS. The two Decoded JWS Header Segments used are:
{"alg":"RS256"}
and:
{"alg":"ES256"}
Jones, et al. Expires June 30, 2013 [Page 4]
Internet-Draft JWS JSON Serialization (JWS-JS) December 2012
Since the computations of the JWS Header and JWS Signature values are
the same as in Appendix A.2 and Appendix A.3 of JWS, they are not
repeated here.
The complete JSON Web Signature JSON Serialization (JWS-JS) for these
values is as follows (with line breaks for display purposes only):
{"recipients":[
{"header":"eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiJ9",
"signature":
"cC4hiUPoj9Eetdgtv3hF80EGrhuB__dzERat0XF9g2VtQgr9PJbu3XOiZj5RZ
mh7AAuHIm4Bh-0Qc_lF5YKt_O8W2Fp5jujGbds9uJdbF9CUAr7t1dnZcAcQjb
KBYNX4BAynRFdiuB--f_nZLgrnbyTyWzO75vRK5h6xBArLIARNPvkSjtQBMHl
b1L07Qe7K0GarZRmB_eSN9383LcOLn6_dO--xi12jzDwusC-eOkHWEsqtFZES
c6BfI7noOPqvhJ1phCnvWh6IeYI2w9QOYEUipUTI8np6LbgGY9Fs98rqVt5AX
LIhWkWywlVmtVrBp0igcN_IoypGlUPQGe77Rw"},
{"header":"eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiJ9",
"signature":
"DtEhU3ljbEg8L38VWAfUAqOyKAM6-Xx-F4GawxaepmXFCgfTjDxw5djxLa8IS
lSApmWQxfKTUJqPP3-Kg6NU1Q"}],
"payload":
"eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGF
tcGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ"
}
5. IANA Considerations
This specification makes no requests of IANA.
6. Security Considerations
The security considerations for this specification are the same as
those for the JSON Web Signature (JWS) [JWS] specification.
7. References
7.1. Normative References
[JWA] Jones, M., "JSON Web Algorithms (JWA)",
draft-ietf-jose-json-web-algorithms (work in progress),
December 2012.
[JWS] Jones, M., Bradley, J., and N. Sakimura, "JSON Web
Signature (JWS)", draft-ietf-jose-json-web-signature (work
in progress), December 2012.
Jones, et al. Expires June 30, 2013 [Page 5]
Internet-Draft JWS JSON Serialization (JWS-JS) December 2012
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[RFC4627] Crockford, D., "The application/json Media Type for
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)", RFC 4627, July 2006.
7.2. Informative References
[JSS] Bradley, J. and N. Sakimura (editor), "JSON Simple Sign",
September 2010.
[JWE-JS] Jones, M., "JSON Web Encryption JSON Serialization
(JWE-JS)", draft-jones-jose-jwe-json-serialization (work
in progress), December 2012.
[MagicSignatures]
Panzer (editor), J., Laurie, B., and D. Balfanz, "Magic
Signatures", January 2011.
Appendix A. Acknowledgements
JSON serializations for secured content were previously explored by
Magic Signatures [MagicSignatures] and JSON Simple Sign [JSS].
Appendix B. Open Issues
[[ to be removed by the RFC editor before publication as an RFC ]]
The following items remain to be considered or done in this draft:
o Track changes that occur in the JWS spec.
Appendix C. Document History
[[ to be removed by the RFC editor before publication as an RFC ]]
-04
o Added seriesInfo information to Internet Draft references.
-03
o Updated references.
-02
Jones, et al. Expires June 30, 2013 [Page 6]
Internet-Draft JWS JSON Serialization (JWS-JS) December 2012
o Changed to use an array of structures for per-recipient values,
rather than a set of parallel arrays.
-01
o Generalized language to refer to Message Authentication Codes
(MACs) rather than Hash-based Message Authentication Codes
(HMACs).
-00
o Renamed draft-jones-json-web-signature-json-serialization to
draft-jones-jose-jws-json-serialization to have "jose" be in the
document name so it can be included in the Related Documents list
at http://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/jose/. No normative changes.
draft-jones-json-web-signature-json-serialization-02
o Tracked editorial changes made to the JWS spec.
draft-jones-json-web-signature-json-serialization-01
o Corrected the Magic Signatures reference.
draft-jones-json-web-signature-json-serialization-00
o Created the initial version incorporating JOSE working group input
and drawing from the JSON Serialization previously proposed in
draft-jones-json-web-token-01.
Authors' Addresses
Michael B. Jones
Microsoft
Email: mbj@microsoft.com
URI: http://self-issued.info/
John Bradley
independent
Email: ve7jtb@ve7jtb.com
Jones, et al. Expires June 30, 2013 [Page 7]
Internet-Draft JWS JSON Serialization (JWS-JS) December 2012
Nat Sakimura
Nomura Research Institute
Email: n-sakimura@nri.co.jp
Jones, et al. Expires June 30, 2013 [Page 8]