Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) P. Jones
Request for Comments: 7033 G. Salgueiro
Category: Standards Track Cisco Systems
ISSN: 2070-1721 M. Jones
Microsoft
J. Smarr
Google
September 2013
WebFinger
Abstract
This specification defines the WebFinger protocol, which can be used
to discover information about people or other entities on the
Internet using standard HTTP methods. WebFinger discovers
information for a URI that might not be usable as a locator
otherwise, such as account or email URIs.
Status of This Memo
This is an Internet Standards Track document.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on
Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7033.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2013 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
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.
Jones, et al. Standards Track [Page 1]RFC 7033 WebFinger September 2013Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................3
2. Terminology .....................................................3
3. Example Uses of WebFinger .......................................4
3.1. Identity Provider Discovery for OpenID Connect .............4
3.2. Getting Author and Copyright Information for a Web Page ....5
4. WebFinger Protocol ..............................................7
4.1. Constructing the Query Component of the Request URI.......7
4.2. Performing a WebFinger Query..............................8
4.3. The "rel" Parameter.......................................9
4.4. The JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD).......................11
4.4.1. subject.............................................11
4.4.2. aliases.............................................11
4.4.3. properties..........................................12
4.4.4. links...............................................12
4.5. WebFinger and URIs.......................................14
5. Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) ...........................14
6. Access Control .................................................15
7. Hosted WebFinger Services ......................................15
8. Definition of WebFinger Applications ...........................16
8.1. Specification of the URI Scheme and URI ...................17
8.2. Host Resolution ...........................................17
8.3. Specification of Properties ...............................17
8.4. Specification of Links ....................................18
8.5. One URI, Multiple Applications ............................18
8.6. Registration of Link Relation Types and Properties ........19
9. Security Considerations ........................................19
9.1. Transport-Related Issues ..................................19
9.2. User Privacy Considerations ...............................19
9.3. Abuse Potential ...........................................21
9.4. Information Reliability ...................................21
10. IANA Considerations ...........................................22
10.1. Well-Known URI ...........................................22
10.2. JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD) Media Type ................22
10.3. Registering Link Relation Types ..........................24
datatracker.ietf.org