JSON Web Signature (JWS) Unencoded Payload Option
RFC 7797
| Document | Type |
RFC - Proposed Standard
(February 2016; No errata)
Updates RFC 7519
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Last updated | 2016-02-25 | ||
| Replaces | draft-jones-jose-jws-signing-input-options | ||
| Stream | IETF | ||
| Formats | plain text pdf html bibtex | ||
| Reviews | |||
| Stream | WG state | Submitted to IESG for Publication | |
| Document shepherd | Jim Schaad | ||
| Shepherd write-up | Show (last changed 2015-11-19) | ||
| IESG | IESG state | RFC 7797 (Proposed Standard) | |
| Consensus Boilerplate | Yes | ||
| Telechat date | |||
| Responsible AD | Kathleen Moriarty | ||
| Send notices to | "Jim Schaad" <ietf@augustcellars.com>, mbj@microsoft.com | ||
| IANA | IANA review state | Version Changed - Review Needed | |
| IANA action state | RFC-Ed-Ack | ||
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) M. Jones
Request for Comments: 7797 Microsoft
Updates: 7519 February 2016
Category: Standards Track
ISSN: 2070-1721
JSON Web Signature (JWS) Unencoded Payload Option
Abstract
JSON Web Signature (JWS) represents the payload of a JWS as a
base64url-encoded value and uses this value in the JWS Signature
computation. While this enables arbitrary payloads to be integrity
protected, some have described use cases in which the base64url
encoding is unnecessary and/or an impediment to adoption, especially
when the payload is large and/or detached. This specification
defines a means of accommodating these use cases by defining an
option to change the JWS Signing Input computation to not base64url-
encode the payload. This option is intended to broaden the set of
use cases for which the use of JWS is a good fit.
This specification updates RFC 7519 by stating that JSON Web Tokens
(JWTs) MUST NOT use the unencoded payload option defined by this
specification.
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/rfc7797.
Jones Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 7797 JWS Unencoded Payload Option February 2016
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2016 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.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1. Notational Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. The "b64" Header Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.1. Example with Header Parameters {"alg":"HS256"} . . . . . 6
4.2. Example with Header Parameters
{"alg":"HS256","b64":false,"crit":["b64"]} . . . . . . . 7
5. Unencoded Payload Content Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.1. Unencoded Detached Payload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5.2. Unencoded JWS Compact Serialization Payload . . . . . . . 8
5.3. Unencoded JWS JSON Serialization Payload . . . . . . . . 8
6. Using "crit" with "b64" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
7. Intended Use by Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
9. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
9.1. JSON Web Signature and Encryption Header Parameter
Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
9.1.1. Registry Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
10. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
10.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
10.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Jones Standards Track [Page 2]
RFC 7797 JWS Unencoded Payload Option February 2016
1. Introduction
The "JSON Web Signature (JWS)" [JWS] specification defines the JWS
Signing Input as the input to the digital signature or Message
Authentication Code (MAC) computation, with the value
ASCII(BASE64URL(UTF8(JWS Protected Header)) || '.' || BASE64URL(JWS
Payload)). While this works well in practice for many use cases,
including those accommodating arbitrary payload values, other use
cases have been described in which base64url-encoding the payload is
unnecessary and/or an impediment to adoption, particularly when the
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