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OAuth Token Introspection
draft-richer-oauth-introspection-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Replaced".
Author Justin Richer
Last updated 2012-11-27
Replaced by draft-ietf-oauth-introspection, draft-ietf-oauth-introspection, RFC 7662
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draft-richer-oauth-introspection-00
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.

   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 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
   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

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   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
   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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