Network Working Group J. Richer, Ed.
Internet-Draft The MITRE Corporation
Intended status: Standards Track November 27, 2012
Expires: May 31, 2013
OAuth Token Introspection
draft-richer-oauth-introspection-00
Abstract
This specification defines a method for a client or protected
resource to query an OAuth authorization server to determine meta-
information about an OAuth token.
Requirements Language
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 RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
Status of this Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
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This Internet-Draft will expire on May 31, 2013.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
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described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Introspection Endpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1. Introspection Request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2. Introspection Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.3. Non-normative Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
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1. Introduction
In OAuth, the contents of tokens are opaque to clients. This means
that the client does not need to know anything about the content or
structure of the token itself, if there is any. However, there is
still a large amount of metadata that may be attached to a token,
such as its current validity, approved scopes, and extra information
about the authentication context in which the token was issued.
This specification defines an Introspection Endpoint that allows the
holder of a token to query the Authorization Server to discover the
set of meta-information for a token.
2. Introspection Endpoint
The Introspection Endpoint is an OAuth 2 Endpoint that responds to
HTTP GET and HTTP POST requests from token holders. The endpoint
takes a single parameter representing the token (and optionally
further authentication) and returns a JSON document representing the
meta information surrounding the token.
2.1. Introspection Request
token the string value of the token.
The endpoint SHOULD also require some form of authentication to
access this endpoint, such as the Client Authentication as described
in OAuth 2 Core Specification [RFC6749] or a separate OAuth2 Access
Token. The methods of managing and validating these authentication
credentials are out of scope of this specification.
2.2. Introspection Response
The server responds with a JSON object in application/json format
with the following top-level members. Specific implementations MAY
extend this structure with their own service-specific pieces of
information.
valid REQUIRED. Boolean indicator of whether or not the presented
token is valid.
expires_at OPTIONAL. Integer timestamp, measured in the number of
seconds since January 1 1970 UTC, indicating when this token will
expire.
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issued_at OPTIONAL. Integer timestamp, measured in the number of
seconds since January 1 1970 UTC, indicating when this token was
originally issued.
scope OPTIONAL. Array of strings representing the scopes associated
with this token.
user_id OPTIONAL. Local identifier of the Resource Owner who
authorized this token.
client_id OPTIONAL. Client Identifier for the Client that requested
this token.
audience OPTIONAL. Service-specific string identifier of the
intended audience for this token.
2.3. Non-normative Example
For example, a Protected Resource accepts a request from a Client
carrying an OAuth2 Bearer Token. In order to know how and whether to
serve the request, the Protected Resource then makes the following
request to the Introspection Endpoint of the Authorization Server.
Following is a non-normative example request (with line wraps for
display purposes only):
POST /register HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Host: server.example.com
Authorization: Basic czZCaGRSa3F0Mzo3RmpmcDBaQnIxS3REUmJuZlZkbUl3
token=X3241Affw.4233-99JXJ
The Authorization Server validates the client credentials and looks
up the information in the token. If the token is valid, it returns
the following JSON document.
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Following is a non-normative example request (with line wraps for
display purposes only):
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Cache-Control: no-store
{
"valid": true,
"client_id":"s6BhdRkqt3",
"scope": ["read", "write", "dolphin"],
"user_id": "2309fj32kl",
"audience": "http://example.org/protected-resource/*"
}
If the token presented is not valid (but the authentication presented
is valid), it returns the following JSON document.
Following is a non-normative example request (with line wraps for
display purposes only):
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Cache-Control: no-store
{
"valid": false
}
If the credentials are invalid, the Authorization Server responds
with the appropriate error response from the OAuth2 Core.
3. IANA Considerations
This document makes no request of IANA.
4. Security Considerations
If left unprotected and un-throttled, the Introspection Endpoint
could present a means for an attacker to poll a series of possible
token values, fishing for a valid token. Therefore, the
Authorization Server SHOULD issue special client credentials to any
protected resources or clients that need to access the introspection
endpoint. These credentials may be used directly at the endpoint, or
they may be exchanged for an OAuth2 Access token scoped specifically
for the Introspection Endpoint.
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5. Acknowledgements
Thanks to the OAuth Working Group for feedback.
6. Normative References
[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.
[RFC6749] Hardt, D., "The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework",
RFC 6749, October 2012.
[RFC6750] Jones, M. and D. Hardt, "The OAuth 2.0 Authorization
Framework: Bearer Token Usage", RFC 6750, October 2012.
Author's Address
Justin Richer (editor)
The MITRE Corporation
Email: jricher@mitre.org
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