Network Working Group M. Jones
Internet-Draft Microsoft
Intended status: Standards Track D. Balfanz
Expires: June 15, 2012 Google
J. Bradley
independent
Y. Goland
Microsoft
J. Panzer
Google
N. Sakimura
Nomura Research Institute
P. Tarjan
Facebook
December 13, 2011
JSON Web Signature (JWS)
draft-jones-json-web-signature-04
Abstract
JSON Web Signature (JWS) is a means of representing signed content
using JSON data structures. Related encryption capabilities are
described in the separate JSON Web Encryption (JWE) specification.
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 June 15, 2012.
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2011 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.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. JSON Web Signature (JWS) Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.1. Example JWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4. JWS Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.1. Reserved Header Parameter Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.2. Public Header Parameter Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.3. Private Header Parameter Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5. Rules for Creating and Validating a JWS . . . . . . . . . . . 9
6. Signing JWSs with Cryptographic Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . 11
6.1. Creating a JWS with HMAC SHA-256, HMAC SHA-384, or
HMAC SHA-512 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6.2. Creating a JWS with RSA SHA-256, RSA SHA-384, or RSA
SHA-512 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6.3. Creating a JWS with ECDSA P-256 SHA-256, ECDSA P-384
SHA-384, or ECDSA P-521 SHA-512 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.4. Additional Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
7. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
8.1. Unicode Comparison Security Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
9. Open Issues and Things To Be Done (TBD) . . . . . . . . . . . 17
10. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
10.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
10.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Appendix A. JWS Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
A.1. JWS using HMAC SHA-256 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
A.1.1. Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
A.1.2. Decoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
A.1.3. Validating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
A.2. JWS using RSA SHA-256 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
A.2.1. Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
A.2.2. Decoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
A.2.3. Validating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
A.3. JWS using ECDSA P-256 SHA-256 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
A.3.1. Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
A.3.2. Decoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
A.3.3. Validating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Appendix B. Algorithm Identifier Cross-Reference . . . . . . . . 30
Appendix C. Notes on implementing base64url encoding without
padding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Appendix D. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Appendix E. Document History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
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1. Introduction
JSON Web Signature (JWS) is a compact signature format intended for
space constrained environments such as HTTP Authorization headers and
URI query parameters. It represents signed content using JSON
[RFC4627] data structures. The JWS signature mechanisms are
independent of the type of content being signed, allowing arbitrary
content to be signed. A related encryption capability is described
in a separate JSON Web Encryption (JWE) [JWE] specification.
2. Terminology
JSON Web Signature (JWS) A data structure cryptographically securing
a JWS Header and a JWS Payload with a JWS Signature.
JWS Header A string representing a JSON object that describes the
signature applied to the JWS Header and the JWS Payload to create
the JWS Signature.
JWS Payload The bytes to be signed - a.k.a., the message.
JWS Signature A byte array containing the cryptographic material
that secures the contents of the JWS Header and the JWS Payload.
Encoded JWS Header Base64url encoding of the bytes of the UTF-8 RFC
3629 [RFC3629] representation of the JWS Header.
Encoded JWS Payload Base64url encoding of the JWS Payload.
Encoded JWS Signature Base64url encoding of the JWS Signature.
JWS Signing Input The concatenation of the Encoded JWS Header, a
period ('.') character, and the Encoded JWS Payload.
Header Parameter Names The names of the members within the JSON
object represented in a JWS Header.
Header Parameter Values The values of the members within the JSON
object represented in a JWS Header.
Digital Signature For the purposes of this specification, we use
this term to encompass both Hash-based Message Authentication
Codes (HMACs), which can provide authenticity but not non-
repudiation, and digital signatures using public key algorithms,
which can provide both. Readers should be aware of this
distinction, despite the decision to use a single term for both
concepts to improve readability of the specification.
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Base64url Encoding For the purposes of this specification, this term
always refers to the URL- and filename-safe Base64 encoding
described in RFC 4648 [RFC4648], Section 5, with the (non URL-
safe) '=' padding characters omitted, as permitted by Section 3.2.
(See Appendix C for notes on implementing base64url encoding
without padding.)
3. JSON Web Signature (JWS) Overview
JWS represents signed content using JSON data structures and
base64url encoding. The representation consists of three parts: the
JWS Header, the JWS Payload, and the JWS Signature. The three parts
are base64url-encoded for transmission, and typically represented as
the concatenation of the encoded strings in that order, with the
three strings being separated by period ('.') characters.
The JWS Header describes the signature method and parameters
employed. The JWS Payload is the message content to be secured. The
JWS Signature ensures the integrity of both the JWS Header and the
JWS Payload.
3.1. Example JWS
The following example JWS Header declares that the encoded object is
a JSON Web Token (JWT) [JWT] and the JWS Header and the JWS Payload
are signed using the HMAC SHA-256 algorithm:
{"typ":"JWT",
"alg":"HS256"}
Base64url encoding the bytes of the UTF-8 representation of the JWS
Header yields this Encoded JWS Header value:
eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLA0KICJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9
The following is an example of a JSON object that can be used as a
JWS Payload. (Note that the payload can be any content, and need not
be a representation of a JSON object.)
{"iss":"joe",
"exp":1300819380,
"http://example.com/is_root":true}
Base64url encoding the bytes of the UTF-8 representation of the JSON
object yields the following Encoded JWS Payload (with line breaks for
display purposes only):
eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt
cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ
Signing the UTF-8 representation of the JWS Signing Input (the
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concatenation of the Encoded JWS Header, a period ('.') character,
and the Encoded JWS Payload) with the HMAC SHA-256 algorithm and
base64url encoding the result, as per Section 6.1, yields this
Encoded JWS Signature value:
dBjftJeZ4CVP-mB92K27uhbUJU1p1r_wW1gFWFOEjXk
Concatenating these parts in the order Header.Payload.Signature with
period characters between the parts yields this complete JWS
representation (with line breaks for display purposes only):
eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLA0KICJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9
.
eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt
cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ
.
dBjftJeZ4CVP-mB92K27uhbUJU1p1r_wW1gFWFOEjXk
This computation is illustrated in more detail in Appendix A.1.
4. JWS Header
The members of the JSON object represented by the JWS Header describe
the signature applied to the Encoded JWS Header and the Encoded JWS
Payload and optionally additional properties of the JWS. The Header
Parameter Names within this object MUST be unique. Implementations
MUST understand the entire contents of the header; otherwise, the JWS
MUST be rejected for processing.
The JWS Header MUST contain an "alg" parameter, the value of which is
a string that unambiguously identifies the algorithm used to sign the
JWS Header and the JWS Payload to produce the JWS Signature.
There are three classes of Header Parameter Names: Reserved Header
Parameter Names, Public Header Parameter Names, and Private Header
Parameter Names.
4.1. Reserved Header Parameter Names
The following header parameter names are reserved. All the names are
short because a core goal of JWSs is for the representations to be
compact.
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+-----------+--------+-------------+--------------------------------+
| Header | JSON | Header | Header Parameter Semantics |
| Parameter | Value | Parameter | |
| Name | Type | Syntax | |
+-----------+--------+-------------+--------------------------------+
| alg | string | StringOrURI | The "alg" (algorithm) header |
| | | | parameter identifies the |
| | | | cryptographic algorithm used |
| | | | to secure the JWS. A list of |
| | | | defined "alg" values is |
| | | | presented in Table 3. The |
| | | | processing of the "alg" header |
| | | | parameter requires that the |
| | | | value MUST be one that is both |
| | | | supported and for which there |
| | | | exists a key for use with that |
| | | | algorithm associated with the |
| | | | signer of the content. The |
| | | | "alg" parameter value is case |
| | | | sensitive. This header |
| | | | parameter is REQUIRED. |
| typ | string | String | The "typ" (type) header |
| | | | parameter is used to declare |
| | | | the type of the signed |
| | | | content. The "typ" value is |
| | | | case sensitive. This header |
| | | | parameter is OPTIONAL. |
| jku | string | URL | The "jku" (JSON Web Key URL) |
| | | | header parameter is an |
| | | | absolute URL that refers to a |
| | | | resource for a set of |
| | | | JSON-encoded public keys, one |
| | | | of which corresponds to the |
| | | | key that was used to sign the |
| | | | JWS. The keys MUST be encoded |
| | | | as described in the JSON Web |
| | | | Key (JWK) [JWK] specification. |
| | | | The protocol used to acquire |
| | | | the resource MUST provide |
| | | | integrity protection. An HTTP |
| | | | GET request to retrieve the |
| | | | certificate MUST use TLS RFC |
| | | | 2818 [RFC2818] RFC 5246 |
| | | | [RFC5246] with server |
| | | | authentication RFC 6125 |
| | | | [RFC6125]. This header |
| | | | parameter is OPTIONAL. |
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| kid | string | String | The "kid" (key ID) header |
| | | | parameter is a hint indicating |
| | | | which specific key owned by |
| | | | the signer should be used to |
| | | | validate the signature. This |
| | | | allows signers to explicitly |
| | | | signal a change of key to |
| | | | recipients. The |
| | | | interpretation of the contents |
| | | | of the "kid" parameter is |
| | | | unspecified. This header |
| | | | parameter is OPTIONAL. |
| x5u | string | URL | The "x5u" (X.509 URL) header |
| | | | parameter is an absolute URL |
| | | | that refers to a resource for |
| | | | the X.509 public key |
| | | | certificate or certificate |
| | | | chain corresponding to the key |
| | | | used to sign the JWS. The |
| | | | identified resource MUST |
| | | | provide a representation of |
| | | | the certificate or certificate |
| | | | chain that conforms to RFC |
| | | | 5280 [RFC5280] in PEM encoded |
| | | | form RFC 1421 [RFC1421]. The |
| | | | protocol used to acquire the |
| | | | resource MUST provide |
| | | | integrity protection. An HTTP |
| | | | GET request to retrieve the |
| | | | certificate MUST use TLS RFC |
| | | | 2818 [RFC2818] RFC 5246 |
| | | | [RFC5246] with server |
| | | | authentication RFC 6125 |
| | | | [RFC6125]. This header |
| | | | parameter is OPTIONAL. |
| x5t | string | String | The "x5t" (x.509 certificate |
| | | | thumbprint) header parameter |
| | | | provides a base64url encoded |
| | | | SHA-1 thumbprint (a.k.a. |
| | | | digest) of the DER encoding of |
| | | | an X.509 certificate that can |
| | | | be used to match the |
| | | | certificate. This header |
| | | | parameter is OPTIONAL. |
+-----------+--------+-------------+--------------------------------+
Table 1: Reserved Header Parameter Definitions
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Additional reserved header parameter names MAY be defined via the
IANA JSON Web Signature Header Parameters registry, as per Section 7.
The syntax values used above are defined as follows:
+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
| Syntax Name | Syntax Definition |
+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
| IntDate | The number of seconds from 1970-01-01T0:0:0Z as |
| | measured in UTC until the desired date/time. See |
| | RFC 3339 [RFC3339] for details regarding date/times |
| | in general and UTC in particular. |
| String | Any string value MAY be used. |
| StringOrURI | Any string value MAY be used but a value containing |
| | a ":" character MUST be a URI as defined in RFC |
| | 3986 [RFC3986]. |
| URL | A URL as defined in RFC 1738 [RFC1738]. |
+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------+
Table 2: Header Parameter Syntax Definitions
4.2. Public Header Parameter Names
Additional header parameter names can be defined by those using JWSs.
However, in order to prevent collisions, any new header parameter
name or algorithm value SHOULD either be defined in the IANA JSON Web
Signature Header Parameters registry or be defined as a URI that
contains a collision resistant namespace. In each case, the definer
of the name or value needs to take reasonable precautions to make
sure they are in control of the part of the namespace they use to
define the header parameter name.
New header parameters should be introduced sparingly, as they can
result in non-interoperable JWSs.
4.3. Private Header Parameter Names
A producer and consumer of a JWS may agree to any header parameter
name that is not a Reserved Name Section 4.1 or a Public Name
Section 4.2. Unlike Public Names, these private names are subject to
collision and should be used with caution.
New header parameters should be introduced sparingly, as they can
result in non-interoperable JWSs.
5. Rules for Creating and Validating a JWS
To create a JWS, one MUST perform these steps:
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1. Create the content to be used as the JWS Payload.
2. Base64url encode the bytes of the JWS Payload. This encoding
becomes the Encoded JWS Payload.
3. Create a JWS Header containing the desired set of header
parameters. Note that white space is explicitly allowed in the
representation and no canonicalization is performed before
encoding.
4. Base64url encode the bytes of the UTF-8 representation of the JWS
Header to create the Encoded JWS Header.
5. Compute the JWS Signature in the manner defined for the
particular algorithm being used. The JWS Signing Input is always
the concatenation of the Encoded JWS Header, a period ('.')
character, and the Encoded JWS Payload. The "alg" header
parameter MUST be present in the JSON Header, with the algorithm
value accurately representing the algorithm used to construct the
JWS Signature.
6. Base64url encode the representation of the JWS Signature to
create the Encoded JWS Signature.
When validating a JWS, the following steps MUST be taken. If any of
the listed steps fails, then the signed content MUST be rejected.
1. The Encoded JWS Header MUST be successfully base64url decoded
following the restriction given in this specification that no
padding characters have been used.
2. The JWS Header MUST be completely valid JSON syntax conforming to
RFC 4627 [RFC4627].
3. The JWS Header MUST be validated to only include parameters and
values whose syntax and semantics are both understood and
supported.
4. The Encoded JWS Payload MUST be successfully base64url decoded
following the restriction given in this specification that no
padding characters have been used.
5. The Encoded JWS Signature MUST be successfully base64url decoded
following the restriction given in this specification that no
padding characters have been used.
6. The JWS Signature MUST be successfully validated against the JWS
Header and JWS Payload in the manner defined for the algorithm
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being used, which MUST be accurately represented by the value of
the "alg" header parameter, which MUST be present.
Processing a JWS inevitably requires comparing known strings to
values in the header. For example, in checking what the algorithm
is, the Unicode string encoding "alg" will be checked against the
member names in the JWS Header to see if there is a matching header
parameter name. A similar process occurs when determining if the
value of the "alg" header parameter represents a supported algorithm.
Comparisons between JSON strings and other Unicode strings MUST be
performed as specified below:
1. Remove any JSON applied escaping to produce an array of Unicode
code points.
2. Unicode Normalization [USA15] MUST NOT be applied at any point to
either the JSON string or to the string it is to be compared
against.
3. Comparisons between the two strings MUST be performed as a
Unicode code point to code point equality comparison.
6. Signing JWSs with Cryptographic Algorithms
JWSs use specific cryptographic algorithms to sign the contents of
the JWS Header and the JWS Payload. The use of the following
algorithms for producing JWSs is defined in this section. The table
below is the list of "alg" header parameter values defined by this
specification, each of which is explained in more detail in the
following sections:
+--------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| Alg Parameter | Algorithm |
| Value | |
+--------------------+----------------------------------------------+
| HS256 | HMAC using SHA-256 hash algorithm |
| HS384 | HMAC using SHA-384 hash algorithm |
| HS512 | HMAC using SHA-512 hash algorithm |
| RS256 | RSA using SHA-256 hash algorithm |
| RS384 | RSA using SHA-384 hash algorithm |
| RS512 | RSA using SHA-512 hash algorithm |
| ES256 | ECDSA using P-256 curve and SHA-256 hash |
| | algorithm |
| ES384 | ECDSA using P-384 curve and SHA-384 hash |
| | algorithm |
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| ES512 | ECDSA using P-521 curve and SHA-512 hash |
| | algorithm |
+--------------------+----------------------------------------------+
Table 3: JWS Defined "alg" Parameter Values
See Appendix B for a table cross-referencing the "alg" values used in
this specification with the equivalent identifiers used by other
standards and software packages.
Of these algorithms, only HMAC SHA-256 MUST be implemented by
conforming implementations. It is RECOMMENDED that implementations
also support the RSA SHA-256 and ECDSA P-256 SHA-256 algorithms.
Support for other algorithms and key sizes is OPTIONAL.
The signed content for a JWS is the same for all algorithms: the
concatenation of the Encoded JWS Header, a period ('.') character,
and the Encoded JWS Payload. This character sequence is referred to
as the JWS Signing Input. Note that if the JWS represents a JWT,
this corresponds to the portion of the JWT representation preceding
the second period character. The UTF-8 representation of the JWS
Signing Input is passed to the respective signing algorithms.
6.1. Creating a JWS with HMAC SHA-256, HMAC SHA-384, or HMAC SHA-512
Hash based Message Authentication Codes (HMACs) enable one to use a
secret plus a cryptographic hash function to generate a Message
Authentication Code (MAC). This can be used to demonstrate that the
MAC matches the hashed content, in this case the JWS Signing Input,
which therefore demonstrates that whoever generated the MAC was in
possession of the secret. The means of exchanging the shared key is
outside the scope of this specification.
The algorithm for implementing and validating HMACs is provided in
RFC 2104 [RFC2104]. This section defines the use of the HMAC SHA-
256, HMAC SHA-384, and HMAC SHA-512 cryptographic hash functions as
defined in FIPS 180-3 [FIPS.180-3]. The "alg" header parameter
values "HS256", "HS384", and "HS512" are used in the JWS Header to
indicate that the Encoded JWS Signature contains a base64url encoded
HMAC value using the respective hash function.
The HMAC SHA-256 MAC is generated as follows:
1. Apply the HMAC SHA-256 algorithm to the UTF-8 representation of
the JWS Signing Input using the shared key to produce an HMAC
value.
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2. Base64url encode the resulting HMAC value.
The output is the Encoded JWS Signature for that JWS.
The HMAC SHA-256 MAC for a JWS is validated as follows:
1. Apply the HMAC SHA-256 algorithm to the UTF-8 representation of
the JWS Signing Input of the JWS using the shared key.
2. Base64url encode the resulting HMAC value.
3. If the JWS Signature and the base64url encoded HMAC value exactly
match, then one has confirmation that the shared key was used to
generate the HMAC on the JWS and that the contents of the JWS
have not be tampered with.
4. If the validation fails, the signed content MUST be rejected.
Signing with the HMAC SHA-384 and HMAC SHA-512 algorithms is
performed identically to the procedure for HMAC SHA-256 - just with
correspondingly longer key and result values.
6.2. Creating a JWS with RSA SHA-256, RSA SHA-384, or RSA SHA-512
This section defines the use of the RSASSA-PKCS1-v1_5 signature
algorithm as defined in RFC 3447 [RFC3447], Section 8.2 (commonly
known as PKCS#1), using SHA-256, SHA-384, or SHA-512 as the hash
function. The RSASSA-PKCS1-v1_5 algorithm is described in FIPS 186-3
[FIPS.186-3], Section 5.5, and the SHA-256, SHA-384, and SHA-512
cryptographic hash functions are defined in FIPS 180-3 [FIPS.180-3].
The "alg" header parameter values "RS256", "RS384", and "RS512" are
used in the JWS Header to indicate that the Encoded JWS Signature
contains a base64url encoded RSA signature using the respective hash
function.
The public keys employed can be identified using Header Parameter
methods described in Section 4.1 or can be distributed using methods
that are outside the scope of this specification.
A 2048-bit or longer key length MUST be used with this algorithm.
The RSA SHA-256 signature is generated as follows:
1. Generate a digital signature of the UTF-8 representation of the
JWS Signing Input using RSASSA-PKCS1-V1_5-SIGN and the SHA-256
hash function with the desired private key. The output will be a
byte array.
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2. Base64url encode the resulting byte array.
The output is the Encoded JWS Signature for that JWS.
The RSA SHA-256 signature for a JWS is validated as follows:
1. Take the Encoded JWS Signature and base64url decode it into a
byte array. If decoding fails, the signed content MUST be
rejected.
2. Submit the UTF-8 representation of the JWS Signing Input and the
public key corresponding to the private key used by the signer to
the RSASSA-PKCS1-V1_5-VERIFY algorithm using SHA-256 as the hash
function.
3. If the validation fails, the signed content MUST be rejected.
Signing with the RSA SHA-384 and RSA SHA-512 algorithms is performed
identically to the procedure for RSA SHA-256 - just with
correspondingly longer key and result values.
6.3. Creating a JWS with ECDSA P-256 SHA-256, ECDSA P-384 SHA-384, or
ECDSA P-521 SHA-512
The Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) is defined by
FIPS 186-3 [FIPS.186-3]. ECDSA provides for the use of Elliptic
Curve cryptography, which is able to provide equivalent security to
RSA cryptography but using shorter key lengths and with greater
processing speed. This means that ECDSA signatures will be
substantially smaller in terms of length than equivalently strong RSA
Digital Signatures.
This specification defines the use of ECDSA with the P-256 curve and
the SHA-256 cryptographic hash function, ECDSA with the P-384 curve
and the SHA-384 hash function, and ECDSA with the P-521 curve and the
SHA-512 hash function. The P-256, P-384, and P-521 curves are also
defined in FIPS 186-3. The "alg" header parameter values "ES256",
"ES384", and "ES512" are used in the JWS Header to indicate that the
Encoded JWS Signature contains a base64url encoded ECDSA P-256 SHA-
256, ECDSA P-384 SHA-384, or ECDSA P-521 SHA-512 signature,
respectively.
The public keys employed can be identified using Header Parameter
methods described in Section 4.1 or can be distributed using methods
that are outside the scope of this specification.
A JWS is signed with an ECDSA P-256 SHA-256 signature as follows:
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1. Generate a digital signature of the UTF-8 representation of the
JWS Signing Input using ECDSA P-256 SHA-256 with the desired
private key. The output will be the EC point (R, S), where R and
S are unsigned integers.
2. Turn R and S into byte arrays in big endian order. Each array
will be 32 bytes long.
3. Concatenate the two byte arrays in the order R and then S.
4. Base64url encode the resulting 64 byte array.
The output is the Encoded JWS Signature for the JWS.
The ECDSA P-256 SHA-256 signature for a JWS is validated as follows:
1. Take the Encoded JWS Signature and base64url decode it into a
byte array. If decoding fails, the signed content MUST be
rejected.
2. The output of the base64url decoding MUST be a 64 byte array.
3. Split the 64 byte array into two 32 byte arrays. The first array
will be R and the second S. Remember that the byte arrays are in
big endian byte order; please check the ECDSA validator in use to
see what byte order it requires.
4. Submit the UTF-8 representation of the JWS Signing Input, R, S
and the public key (x, y) to the ECDSA P-256 SHA-256 validator.
5. If the validation fails, the signed content MUST be rejected.
The ECDSA validator will then determine if the digital signature is
valid, given the inputs. Note that ECDSA digital signature contains
a value referred to as K, which is a random number generated for each
digital signature instance. This means that two ECDSA digital
signatures using exactly the same input parameters will output
different signatures because their K values will be different. The
consequence of this is that one must validate an ECDSA signature by
submitting the previously specified inputs to an ECDSA validator.
Signing with the ECDSA P-384 SHA-384 and ECDSA P-521 SHA-512
algorithms is performed identically to the procedure for ECDSA P-256
SHA-256 - just with correspondingly longer key and result values.
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6.4. Additional Algorithms
Additional algorithms MAY be used to protect JWSs with corresponding
"alg" header parameter values being defined to refer to them. New
"alg" header parameter values SHOULD either be defined in the IANA
JSON Web Signature Algorithms registry or be a URI that contains a
collision resistant namespace. In particular, it is permissible to
use the algorithm identifiers defined in XML DSIG [RFC3275] and
related specifications as "alg" values.
7. IANA Considerations
This specification calls for:
o A new IANA registry entitled "JSON Web Signature Header
Parameters" for reserved header parameter names is defined in
Section 4.1. Inclusion in the registry is RFC Required in the RFC
5226 [RFC5226] sense for reserved JWS header parameter names that
are intended to be interoperable between implementations. The
registry will just record the reserved header parameter name and a
pointer to the RFC that defines it. This specification defines
inclusion of the header parameter names defined in Table 1.
o A new IANA registry entitled "JSON Web Signature Algorithms" for
values of the "alg" header parameter is defined in Section 6.4.
Inclusion in the registry is RFC Required in the RFC 5226
[RFC5226] sense. The registry will just record the "alg" value
and a pointer to the RFC that defines it. This specification
defines inclusion of the algorithm values defined in Table 3.
8. Security Considerations
TBD: Lots of work to do here. We need to remember to look into any
issues relating to security and JSON parsing. One wonders just how
secure most JSON parsing libraries are. Were they ever hardened for
security scenarios? If not, what kind of holes does that open up?
Also, we need to walk through the JSON standard and see what kind of
issues we have especially around comparison of names. For instance,
comparisons of header parameter names and other parameters must occur
after they are unescaped. Need to also put in text about: Importance
of keeping secrets secret. Rotating keys. Strengths and weaknesses
of the different algorithms.
TBD: Need to put in text about why strict JSON validation is
necessary. Basically, that if malformed JSON is received then the
intent of the sender is impossible to reliably discern. One example
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of malformed JSON that MUST be rejected is an object in which the
same member name occurs multiple times.
TBD: Write security considerations about the implications of using a
SHA-1 hash (for compatibility reasons) for the "x5t" (x.509
certificate thumbprint).
When utilizing TLS to retrieve information, the authority providing
the resource MUST be authenticated and the information retrieved MUST
be free from modification.
8.1. Unicode Comparison Security Issues
Header parameter names in JWSs are Unicode strings. For security
reasons, the representations of these names must be compared verbatim
after performing any escape processing (as per RFC 4627 [RFC4627],
Section 2.5).
This means, for instance, that these JSON strings must compare as
being equal ("sig", "\u0073ig"), whereas these must all compare as
being not equal to the first set or to each other ("SIG", "Sig",
"si\u0047").
JSON strings MAY contain characters outside the Unicode Basic
Multilingual Plane. For instance, the G clef character (U+1D11E) may
be represented in a JSON string as "\uD834\uDD1E". Ideally, JWS
implementations SHOULD ensure that characters outside the Basic
Multilingual Plane are preserved and compared correctly;
alternatively, if this is not possible due to these characters
exercising limitations present in the underlying JSON implementation,
then input containing them MUST be rejected.
9. Open Issues and Things To Be Done (TBD)
The following items remain to be done in this draft:
o Consider whether there is a better term than "Digital Signature"
for the concept that includes both HMACs and digital signatures
using public keys.
o Clarify the optional ability to provide type information in the
JWS header. Specifically, clarify the intended use of the "typ"
Header Parameter, whether it conveys syntax or semantics, and
indeed, whether this is the right approach. Also clarify the
relationship between these type values and MIME [RFC2045] types.
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o Clarify the semantics of the "kid" (key ID) header parameter.
Open issues include: What happens if a "kid" header is received
with an unrecognized value? Is that an error? Should it be
treated as if it's empty? What happens if the header has a
recognized value but the value doesn't match the key associated
with that value, but it does match another key that is associated
with the issuer? Is that an error?
o Consider whether a key type parameter should also be introduced.
o Since RFC 3447 Section 8 explicitly calls for people NOT to adopt
RSASSA-PKCS1 for new applications and instead requests that people
transition to RSASSA-PSS, we probably need some Security
Considerations text explaining why RSASSA-PKCS1 is being used
(it's what's commonly implemented) and what the potential
consequences are.
o Add Security Considerations text on timing attacks.
o It would be good to have a confirmation method element so it could
be used with holder-of-key.
o Consider whether to add parameters for directly including keys in
the header, either as JWK Key Objects, or X.509 cert values, or
both.
o Consider whether to add version numbers.
o Think about how to best describe the concept currently described
as "the bytes of the UTF-8 representation of". Possible terms to
use instead of "bytes of" include "byte sequence", "octet series",
and "octet sequence". Also consider whether we want to add an
overall clarifying statement somewhere in each spec something like
"every place we say 'the UTF-8 representation of X', we mean 'the
bytes of the UTF-8 representation of X'". That would potentially
allow us to omit the "the bytes of" part everywhere else.
o Finish the Security Considerations section.
o Add an example in which the payload is not a base64url encoded
JSON object.
o Consider having an algorithm that is a MAC using SHA-256 that
provides content integrity but for which there is no associated
secret. This would be like the JWT "alg":"none", in that no
validation of the authenticity content is performed but a checksum
is provided.
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o Consider whether to define "alg":"none" here, rather than in the
JWT spec.
10. References
10.1. Normative References
[FIPS.180-3]
National Institute of Standards and Technology, "Secure
Hash Standard (SHS)", FIPS PUB 180-3, October 2008.
[FIPS.186-3]
National Institute of Standards and Technology, "Digital
Signature Standard (DSS)", FIPS PUB 186-3, June 2009.
[JWK] Jones, M., "JSON Web Key (JWK)", December 2011.
[RFC1421] Linn, J., "Privacy Enhancement for Internet Electronic
Mail: Part I: Message Encryption and Authentication
Procedures", RFC 1421, February 1993.
[RFC1738] Berners-Lee, T., Masinter, L., and M. McCahill, "Uniform
Resource Locators (URL)", RFC 1738, December 1994.
[RFC2045] Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message
Bodies", RFC 2045, November 1996.
[RFC2104] Krawczyk, H., Bellare, M., and R. Canetti, "HMAC: Keyed-
Hashing for Message Authentication", RFC 2104,
February 1997.
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[RFC2818] Rescorla, E., "HTTP Over TLS", RFC 2818, May 2000.
[RFC3339] Klyne, G., Ed. and C. Newman, "Date and Time on the
Internet: Timestamps", RFC 3339, July 2002.
[RFC3447] Jonsson, J. and B. Kaliski, "Public-Key Cryptography
Standards (PKCS) #1: RSA Cryptography Specifications
Version 2.1", RFC 3447, February 2003.
[RFC3629] Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO
10646", STD 63, RFC 3629, November 2003.
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Internet-Draft JSON Web Signature (JWS) December 2011
[RFC3986] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66,
RFC 3986, January 2005.
[RFC4627] Crockford, D., "The application/json Media Type for
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)", RFC 4627, July 2006.
[RFC4648] Josefsson, S., "The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data
Encodings", RFC 4648, October 2006.
[RFC5226] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an
IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226,
May 2008.
[RFC5246] Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, "The Transport Layer Security
(TLS) Protocol Version 1.2", RFC 5246, August 2008.
[RFC5280] Cooper, D., Santesson, S., Farrell, S., Boeyen, S.,
Housley, R., and W. Polk, "Internet X.509 Public Key
Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List
(CRL) Profile", RFC 5280, May 2008.
[RFC6125] Saint-Andre, P. and J. Hodges, "Representation and
Verification of Domain-Based Application Service Identity
within Internet Public Key Infrastructure Using X.509
(PKIX) Certificates in the Context of Transport Layer
Security (TLS)", RFC 6125, March 2011.
[USA15] Davis, M., Whistler, K., and M. Duerst, "Unicode
Normalization Forms", Unicode Standard Annex 15, 09 2009.
10.2. Informative References
[CanvasApp]
Facebook, "Canvas Applications", 2010.
[JCA] Oracle, "Java Cryptography Architecture", 2011.
[JSS] Bradley, J. and N. Sakimura (editor), "JSON Simple Sign",
September 2010.
[JWE] Jones, M., Rescorla, E., and J. Hildebrand, "JSON Web
Encryption (JWE)", December 2011.
[JWT] Jones, M., Balfanz, D., Bradley, J., Goland, Y., Panzer,
J., Sakimura, N., and P. Tarjan, "JSON Web Token (JWT)",
December 2011.
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Internet-Draft JSON Web Signature (JWS) December 2011
[MagicSignatures]
Panzer (editor), J., Laurie, B., and D. Balfanz, "Magic
Signatures", August 2010.
[RFC3275] Eastlake, D., Reagle, J., and D. Solo, "(Extensible Markup
Language) XML-Signature Syntax and Processing", RFC 3275,
March 2002.
Appendix A. JWS Examples
This section provides several examples of JWSs. While these examples
all represent JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) [JWT], the payload can be any
base64url encoded content.
A.1. JWS using HMAC SHA-256
A.1.1. Encoding
The following example JWS Header declares that the data structure is
a JSON Web Token (JWT) [JWT] and the JWS Signing Input is signed
using the HMAC SHA-256 algorithm. Note that white space is
explicitly allowed in JWS Header strings and no canonicalization is
performed before encoding.
{"typ":"JWT",
"alg":"HS256"}
The following byte array contains the UTF-8 characters for the JWS
Header:
[123, 34, 116, 121, 112, 34, 58, 34, 74, 87, 84, 34, 44, 13, 10, 32,
34, 97, 108, 103, 34, 58, 34, 72, 83, 50, 53, 54, 34, 125]
Base64url encoding this UTF-8 representation yields this Encoded JWS
Header value:
eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLA0KICJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9
The JWS Payload used in this example follows. (Note that the payload
can be any base64url encoded content, and need not be a base64url
encoded JSON object.)
{"iss":"joe",
"exp":1300819380,
"http://example.com/is_root":true}
The following byte array contains the UTF-8 characters for the JWS
Payload:
[123, 34, 105, 115, 115, 34, 58, 34, 106, 111, 101, 34, 44, 13, 10,
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32, 34, 101, 120, 112, 34, 58, 49, 51, 48, 48, 56, 49, 57, 51, 56,
48, 44, 13, 10, 32, 34, 104, 116, 116, 112, 58, 47, 47, 101, 120, 97,
109, 112, 108, 101, 46, 99, 111, 109, 47, 105, 115, 95, 114, 111,
111, 116, 34, 58, 116, 114, 117, 101, 125]
Base64url encoding the above yields the Encoded JWS Payload value
(with line breaks for display purposes only):
eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt
cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ
Concatenating the Encoded JWS Header, a period character, and the
Encoded JWS Payload yields this JWS Signing Input value (with line
breaks for display purposes only):
eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLA0KICJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9
.
eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt
cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ
The UTF-8 representation of the JWS Signing Input is the following
byte array:
[101, 121, 74, 48, 101, 88, 65, 105, 79, 105, 74, 75, 86, 49, 81,
105, 76, 65, 48, 75, 73, 67, 74, 104, 98, 71, 99, 105, 79, 105, 74,
73, 85, 122, 73, 49, 78, 105, 74, 57, 46, 101, 121, 74, 112, 99, 51,
77, 105, 79, 105, 74, 113, 98, 50, 85, 105, 76, 65, 48, 75, 73, 67,
74, 108, 101, 72, 65, 105, 79, 106, 69, 122, 77, 68, 65, 52, 77, 84,
107, 122, 79, 68, 65, 115, 68, 81, 111, 103, 73, 109, 104, 48, 100,
72, 65, 54, 76, 121, 57, 108, 101, 71, 70, 116, 99, 71, 120, 108, 76,
109, 78, 118, 98, 83, 57, 112, 99, 49, 57, 121, 98, 50, 57, 48, 73,
106, 112, 48, 99, 110, 86, 108, 102, 81]
HMACs are generated using keys. This example uses the key
represented by the following byte array:
[3, 35, 53, 75, 43, 15, 165, 188, 131, 126, 6, 101, 119, 123, 166,
143, 90, 179, 40, 230, 240, 84, 201, 40, 169, 15, 132, 178, 210, 80,
46, 191, 211, 251, 90, 146, 210, 6, 71, 239, 150, 138, 180, 195, 119,
98, 61, 34, 61, 46, 33, 114, 5, 46, 79, 8, 192, 205, 154, 245, 103,
208, 128, 163]
Running the HMAC SHA-256 algorithm on the UTF-8 representation of the
JWS Signing Input with this key yields the following byte array:
[116, 24, 223, 180, 151, 153, 224, 37, 79, 250, 96, 125, 216, 173,
187, 186, 22, 212, 37, 77, 105, 214, 191, 240, 91, 88, 5, 88, 83,
132, 141, 121]
Base64url encoding the above HMAC output yields the Encoded JWS
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Signature value:
dBjftJeZ4CVP-mB92K27uhbUJU1p1r_wW1gFWFOEjXk
A.1.2. Decoding
Decoding the JWS first requires removing the base64url encoding from
the Encoded JWS Header, the Encoded JWS Payload, and the Encoded JWS
Signature. We base64url decode the inputs and turn them into the
corresponding byte arrays. We translate the header input byte array
containing UTF-8 encoded characters into the JWS Header string.
A.1.3. Validating
Next we validate the decoded results. Since the "alg" parameter in
the header is "HS256", we validate the HMAC SHA-256 signature
contained in the JWS Signature. If any of the validation steps fail,
the signed content MUST be rejected.
First, we validate that the JWS Header string is legal JSON.
To validate the signature, we repeat the previous process of using
the correct key and the UTF-8 representation of the JWS Signing Input
as input to a SHA-256 HMAC function and then taking the output and
determining if it matches the JWS Signature. If it matches exactly,
the signature has been validated.
A.2. JWS using RSA SHA-256
A.2.1. Encoding
The JWS Header in this example is different from the previous example
in two ways: First, because a different algorithm is being used, the
"alg" value is different. Second, for illustration purposes only,
the optional "typ" parameter is not used. (This difference is not
related to the signature algorithm employed.) The JWS Header used
is:
{"alg":"RS256"}
The following byte array contains the UTF-8 characters for the JWS
Header:
[123, 34, 97, 108, 103, 34, 58, 34, 82, 83, 50, 53, 54, 34, 125]
Base64url encoding this UTF-8 representation yields this Encoded JWS
Header value:
eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiJ9
The JWS Payload used in this example, which follows, is the same as
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in the previous example. Since the Encoded JWS Payload will
therefore be the same, its computation is not repeated here.
{"iss":"joe",
"exp":1300819380,
"http://example.com/is_root":true}
Concatenating the Encoded JWS Header, a period character, and the
Encoded JWS Payload yields this JWS Signing Input value (with line
breaks for display purposes only):
eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiJ9
.
eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt
cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ
The UTF-8 representation of the JWS Signing Input is the following
byte array:
[101, 121, 74, 104, 98, 71, 99, 105, 79, 105, 74, 83, 85, 122, 73,
49, 78, 105, 74, 57, 46, 101, 121, 74, 112, 99, 51, 77, 105, 79, 105,
74, 113, 98, 50, 85, 105, 76, 65, 48, 75, 73, 67, 74, 108, 101, 72,
65, 105, 79, 106, 69, 122, 77, 68, 65, 52, 77, 84, 107, 122, 79, 68,
65, 115, 68, 81, 111, 103, 73, 109, 104, 48, 100, 72, 65, 54, 76,
121, 57, 108, 101, 71, 70, 116, 99, 71, 120, 108, 76, 109, 78, 118,
98, 83, 57, 112, 99, 49, 57, 121, 98, 50, 57, 48, 73, 106, 112, 48,
99, 110, 86, 108, 102, 81]
The RSA key consists of a public part (n, e), and a private exponent
d. The values of the RSA key used in this example, presented as the
byte arrays representing big endian integers are:
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+-----------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Parameter | Value |
| Name | |
+-----------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| n | [161, 248, 22, 10, 226, 227, 201, 180, 101, 206, 141, |
| | 45, 101, 98, 99, 54, 43, 146, 125, 190, 41, 225, 240, |
| | 36, 119, 252, 22, 37, 204, 144, 161, 54, 227, 139, |
| | 217, 52, 151, 197, 182, 234, 99, 221, 119, 17, 230, |
| | 124, 116, 41, 249, 86, 176, 251, 138, 143, 8, 154, |
| | 220, 75, 105, 137, 60, 193, 51, 63, 83, 237, 208, 25, |
| | 184, 119, 132, 37, 47, 236, 145, 79, 228, 133, 119, |
| | 105, 89, 75, 234, 66, 128, 211, 44, 15, 85, 191, 98, |
| | 148, 79, 19, 3, 150, 188, 110, 155, 223, 110, 189, |
| | 210, 189, 163, 103, 142, 236, 160, 198, 104, 247, 1, |
| | 179, 141, 191, 251, 56, 200, 52, 44, 226, 254, 109, |
| | 39, 250, 222, 74, 90, 72, 116, 151, 157, 212, 185, |
| | 207, 154, 222, 196, 199, 91, 5, 133, 44, 44, 15, 94, |
| | 248, 165, 193, 117, 3, 146, 249, 68, 232, 237, 100, |
| | 193, 16, 198, 182, 71, 96, 154, 164, 120, 58, 235, |
| | 156, 108, 154, 215, 85, 49, 48, 80, 99, 139, 131, |
| | 102, 92, 111, 111, 122, 130, 163, 150, 112, 42, 31, |
| | 100, 27, 130, 211, 235, 242, 57, 34, 25, 73, 31, 182, |
| | 134, 135, 44, 87, 22, 245, 10, 248, 53, 141, 154, |
| | 139, 157, 23, 195, 64, 114, 143, 127, 135, 216, 154, |
| | 24, 216, 252, 171, 103, 173, 132, 89, 12, 46, 207, |
| | 117, 147, 57, 54, 60, 7, 3, 77, 111, 96, 111, 158, |
| | 33, 224, 84, 86, 202, 229, 233, 161] |
| e | [1, 0, 1] |
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| d | [18, 174, 113, 164, 105, 205, 10, 43, 195, 126, 82, |
| | 108, 69, 0, 87, 31, 29, 97, 117, 29, 100, 233, 73, |
| | 112, 123, 98, 89, 15, 157, 11, 165, 124, 150, 60, 64, |
| | 30, 63, 207, 47, 44, 211, 189, 236, 136, 229, 3, 191, |
| | 198, 67, 155, 11, 40, 200, 47, 125, 55, 151, 103, 31, |
| | 82, 19, 238, 216, 193, 90, 37, 216, 213, 206, 160, 2, |
| | 94, 227, 171, 46, 139, 127, 121, 33, 111, 198, 59, |
| | 234, 86, 39, 83, 180, 6, 68, 198, 161, 81, 39, 217, |
| | 178, 149, 69, 64, 160, 187, 225, 163, 5, 86, 152, 45, |
| | 78, 159, 222, 95, 100, 37, 241, 77, 75, 113, 52, 65, |
| | 181, 93, 199, 59, 155, 74, 237, 204, 146, 172, 227, |
| | 146, 126, 55, 245, 125, 12, 253, 94, 117, 129, 250, |
| | 81, 44, 143, 73, 97, 169, 235, 11, 128, 248, 168, 7, |
| | 70, 114, 138, 85, 255, 70, 71, 31, 52, 37, 6, 59, |
| | 157, 83, 100, 47, 94, 222, 30, 132, 214, 19, 8, 26, |
| | 250, 92, 34, 208, 81, 40, 91, 214, 59, 148, 59, 86, |
| | 93, 137, 138, 5, 104, 84, 19, 229, 60, 60, 108, 101, |
| | 37, 255, 31, 227, 78, 61, 220, 112, 240, 213, 100, |
| | 80, 253, 164, 139, 161, 46, 16, 78, 157, 235, 159, |
| | 184, 24, 129, 225, 196, 189, 242, 93, 146, 71, 244, |
| | 80, 200, 101, 146, 121, 104, 231, 115, 52, 244, 65, |
| | 79, 117, 167, 80, 225, 57, 84, 110, 58, 138, 115, |
| | 157] |
+-----------+-------------------------------------------------------+
The RSA private key (n, d) is then passed to the RSA signing
function, which also takes the hash type, SHA-256, and the UTF-8
representation of the JWS Signing Input as inputs. The result of the
signature is a byte array S, which represents a big endian integer.
In this example, S is:
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+--------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Result | Value |
| Name | |
+--------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| S | [112, 46, 33, 137, 67, 232, 143, 209, 30, 181, 216, 45, |
| | 191, 120, 69, 243, 65, 6, 174, 27, 129, 255, 247, 115, |
| | 17, 22, 173, 209, 113, 125, 131, 101, 109, 66, 10, 253, |
| | 60, 150, 238, 221, 115, 162, 102, 62, 81, 102, 104, 123, |
| | 0, 11, 135, 34, 110, 1, 135, 237, 16, 115, 249, 69, 229, |
| | 130, 173, 252, 239, 22, 216, 90, 121, 142, 232, 198, |
| | 109, 219, 61, 184, 151, 91, 23, 208, 148, 2, 190, 237, |
| | 213, 217, 217, 112, 7, 16, 141, 178, 129, 96, 213, 248, |
| | 4, 12, 167, 68, 87, 98, 184, 31, 190, 127, 249, 217, 46, |
| | 10, 231, 111, 36, 242, 91, 51, 187, 230, 244, 74, 230, |
| | 30, 177, 4, 10, 203, 32, 4, 77, 62, 249, 18, 142, 212, |
| | 1, 48, 121, 91, 212, 189, 59, 65, 238, 202, 208, 102, |
| | 171, 101, 25, 129, 253, 228, 141, 247, 127, 55, 45, 195, |
| | 139, 159, 175, 221, 59, 239, 177, 139, 93, 163, 204, 60, |
| | 46, 176, 47, 158, 58, 65, 214, 18, 202, 173, 21, 145, |
| | 18, 115, 160, 95, 35, 185, 232, 56, 250, 175, 132, 157, |
| | 105, 132, 41, 239, 90, 30, 136, 121, 130, 54, 195, 212, |
| | 14, 96, 69, 34, 165, 68, 200, 242, 122, 122, 45, 184, 6, |
| | 99, 209, 108, 247, 202, 234, 86, 222, 64, 92, 178, 33, |
| | 90, 69, 178, 194, 85, 102, 181, 90, 193, 167, 72, 160, |
| | 112, 223, 200, 163, 42, 70, 149, 67, 208, 25, 238, 251, |
| | 71] |
+--------+----------------------------------------------------------+
Base64url encoding the signature produces this value for the Encoded
JWS Signature (with line breaks for display purposes only):
cC4hiUPoj9Eetdgtv3hF80EGrhuB__dzERat0XF9g2VtQgr9PJbu3XOiZj5RZmh7
AAuHIm4Bh-0Qc_lF5YKt_O8W2Fp5jujGbds9uJdbF9CUAr7t1dnZcAcQjbKBYNX4
BAynRFdiuB--f_nZLgrnbyTyWzO75vRK5h6xBArLIARNPvkSjtQBMHlb1L07Qe7K
0GarZRmB_eSN9383LcOLn6_dO--xi12jzDwusC-eOkHWEsqtFZESc6BfI7noOPqv
hJ1phCnvWh6IeYI2w9QOYEUipUTI8np6LbgGY9Fs98rqVt5AXLIhWkWywlVmtVrB
p0igcN_IoypGlUPQGe77Rw
A.2.2. Decoding
Decoding the JWS from this example requires processing the Encoded
JWS Header and Encoded JWS Payload exactly as done in the first
example.
A.2.3. Validating
Since the "alg" parameter in the header is "RS256", we validate the
RSA SHA-256 signature contained in the JWS Signature. If any of the
validation steps fail, the signed content MUST be rejected.
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First, we validate that the JWS Header string is legal JSON.
Validating the JWS Signature is a little different from the previous
example. First, we base64url decode the Encoded JWS Signature to
produce a signature S to check. We then pass (n, e), S and the UTF-8
representation of the JWS Signing Input to an RSA signature verifier
that has been configured to use the SHA-256 hash function.
A.3. JWS using ECDSA P-256 SHA-256
A.3.1. Encoding
The JWS Header for this example differs from the previous example
because a different algorithm is being used. The JWS Header used is:
{"alg":"ES256"}
The following byte array contains the UTF-8 characters for the JWS
Header:
[123, 34, 97, 108, 103, 34, 58, 34, 69, 83, 50, 53, 54, 34, 125]
Base64url encoding this UTF-8 representation yields this Encoded JWS
Header value:
eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiJ9
The JWS Payload used in this example, which follows, is the same as
in the previous examples. Since the Encoded JWS Payload will
therefore be the same, its computation is not repeated here.
{"iss":"joe",
"exp":1300819380,
"http://example.com/is_root":true}
Concatenating the Encoded JWS Header, a period character, and the
Encoded JWS Payload yields this JWS Signing Input value (with line
breaks for display purposes only):
eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiJ9
.
eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt
cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ
The UTF-8 representation of the JWS Signing Input is the following
byte array:
[101, 121, 74, 104, 98, 71, 99, 105, 79, 105, 74, 70, 85, 122, 73,
49, 78, 105, 74, 57, 46, 101, 121, 74, 112, 99, 51, 77, 105, 79, 105,
74, 113, 98, 50, 85, 105, 76, 65, 48, 75, 73, 67, 74, 108, 101, 72,
65, 105, 79, 106, 69, 122, 77, 68, 65, 52, 77, 84, 107, 122, 79, 68,
65, 115, 68, 81, 111, 103, 73, 109, 104, 48, 100, 72, 65, 54, 76,
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121, 57, 108, 101, 71, 70, 116, 99, 71, 120, 108, 76, 109, 78, 118,
98, 83, 57, 112, 99, 49, 57, 121, 98, 50, 57, 48, 73, 106, 112, 48,
99, 110, 86, 108, 102, 81]
The ECDSA key consists of a public part, the EC point (x, y), and a
private part d. The values of the ECDSA key used in this example,
presented as the byte arrays representing big endian integers are:
+-----------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Parameter | Value |
| Name | |
+-----------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| x | [127, 205, 206, 39, 112, 246, 196, 93, 65, 131, 203, |
| | 238, 111, 219, 75, 123, 88, 7, 51, 53, 123, 233, 239, |
| | 19, 186, 207, 110, 60, 123, 209, 84, 69] |
| y | [199, 241, 68, 205, 27, 189, 155, 126, 135, 44, 223, |
| | 237, 185, 238, 185, 244, 179, 105, 93, 110, 169, 11, |
| | 36, 173, 138, 70, 35, 40, 133, 136, 229, 173] |
| d | [142, 155, 16, 158, 113, 144, 152, 191, 152, 4, 135, |
| | 223, 31, 93, 119, 233, 203, 41, 96, 110, 190, 210, |
| | 38, 59, 95, 87, 194, 19, 223, 132, 244, 178] |
+-----------+-------------------------------------------------------+
The ECDSA private part d is then passed to an ECDSA signing function,
which also takes the curve type, P-256, the hash type, SHA-256, and
the UTF-8 representation of the JWS Signing Input as inputs. The
result of the signature is the EC point (R, S), where R and S are
unsigned integers. In this example, the R and S values, given as
byte arrays representing big endian integers are:
+--------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Result | Value |
| Name | |
+--------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| R | [14, 209, 33, 83, 121, 99, 108, 72, 60, 47, 127, 21, 88, |
| | 7, 212, 2, 163, 178, 40, 3, 58, 249, 124, 126, 23, 129, |
| | 154, 195, 22, 158, 166, 101] |
| S | [197, 10, 7, 211, 140, 60, 112, 229, 216, 241, 45, 175, |
| | 8, 74, 84, 128, 166, 101, 144, 197, 242, 147, 80, 154, |
| | 143, 63, 127, 138, 131, 163, 84, 213] |
+--------+----------------------------------------------------------+
Concatenating the S array to the end of the R array and base64url
encoding the result produces this value for the Encoded JWS Signature
(with line breaks for display purposes only):
DtEhU3ljbEg8L38VWAfUAqOyKAM6-Xx-F4GawxaepmXFCgfTjDxw5djxLa8ISlSA
pmWQxfKTUJqPP3-Kg6NU1Q
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A.3.2. Decoding
Decoding the JWS from this example requires processing the Encoded
JWS Header and Encoded JWS Payload exactly as done in the first
example.
A.3.3. Validating
Since the "alg" parameter in the header is "ES256", we validate the
ECDSA P-256 SHA-256 signature contained in the JWS Signature. If any
of the validation steps fail, the signed content MUST be rejected.
First, we validate that the JWS Header string is legal JSON.
Validating the JWS Signature is a little different from the first
example. First, we base64url decode the Encoded JWS Signature as in
the previous examples but we then need to split the 64 member byte
array that must result into two 32 byte arrays, the first R and the
second S. We then pass (x, y), (R, S) and the UTF-8 representation of
the JWS Signing Input to an ECDSA signature verifier that has been
configured to use the P-256 curve with the SHA-256 hash function.
As explained in Section 6.3, the use of the k value in ECDSA means
that we cannot validate the correctness of the signature in the same
way we validated the correctness of the HMAC. Instead,
implementations MUST use an ECDSA validator to validate the
signature.
Appendix B. Algorithm Identifier Cross-Reference
This appendix contains a table cross-referencing the "alg" values
used in this specification with the equivalent identifiers used by
other standards and software packages. See XML DSIG [RFC3275] and
Java Cryptography Architecture [JCA] for more information about the
names defined by those documents.
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+-------+-----+----------------------------+----------+-------------+
| Algor | JWS | XML DSIG | JCA | OID |
| ithm | | | | |
+-------+-----+----------------------------+----------+-------------+
| HMAC | HS2 | http://www.w3.org/2001/04/ | HmacSHA2 | 1.2.840.113 |
| using | 56 | xmldsig-more#hmac-sha256 | 56 | 549.2.9 |
| SHA-2 | | | | |
| 56 | | | | |
| hash | | | | |
| algo | | | | |
| rithm | | | | |
| HMAC | HS3 | http://www.w3.org/2001/04/ | HmacSHA3 | 1.2.840.113 |
| using | 84 | xmldsig-more#hmac-sha384 | 84 | 549.2.10 |
| SHA-3 | | | | |
| 84 | | | | |
| hash | | | | |
| algo | | | | |
| rithm | | | | |
| HMAC | HS5 | http://www.w3.org/2001/04/ | HmacSHA5 | 1.2.840.113 |
| using | 12 | xmldsig-more#hmac-sha512 | 12 | 549.2.11 |
| SHA-5 | | | | |
| 12 | | | | |
| hash | | | | |
| algo | | | | |
| rithm | | | | |
| RSA | RS2 | http://www.w3.org/2001/04/ | SHA256wi | 1.2.840.113 |
| using | 56 | xmldsig-more#rsa-sha256 | thRSA | 549.1.1.11 |
| SHA-2 | | | | |
| 56 | | | | |
| hash | | | | |
| algo | | | | |
| rithm | | | | |
| RSA | RS3 | http://www.w3.org/2001/04/ | SHA384wi | 1.2.840.113 |
| using | 84 | xmldsig-more#rsa-sha384 | thRSA | 549.1.1.12 |
| SHA-3 | | | | |
| 84 | | | | |
| hash | | | | |
| algo | | | | |
| rithm | | | | |
| RSA | RS5 | http://www.w3.org/2001/04/ | SHA512wi | 1.2.840.113 |
| using | 12 | xmldsig-more#rsa-sha512 | thRSA | 549.1.1.13 |
| SHA-5 | | | | |
| 12 | | | | |
| hash | | | | |
| algo | | | | |
| rithm | | | | |
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| ECDSA | ES2 | http://www.w3.org/2001/04/ | SHA256wi | 1.2.840.100 |
| using | 56 | xmldsig-more#ecdsa-sha256 | thECDSA | 45.4.3.2 |
| P-256 | | | | |
| curve | | | | |
| and | | | | |
| SHA-2 | | | | |
| 56 | | | | |
| hash | | | | |
| algo | | | | |
| rithm | | | | |
| ECDSA | ES3 | http://www.w3.org/2001/04/ | SHA384wi | 1.2.840.100 |
| using | 84 | xmldsig-more#ecdsa-sha384 | thECDSA | 45.4.3.3 |
| P-384 | | | | |
| curve | | | | |
| and | | | | |
| SHA-3 | | | | |
| 84 | | | | |
| hash | | | | |
| algo | | | | |
| rithm | | | | |
| ECDSA | ES5 | http://www.w3.org/2001/04/ | SHA512wi | 1.2.840.100 |
| using | 12 | xmldsig-more#ecdsa-sha512 | thECDSA | 45.4.3.4 |
| P-521 | | | | |
| curve | | | | |
| and | | | | |
| SHA-5 | | | | |
| 12 | | | | |
| hash | | | | |
| algo | | | | |
| rithm | | | | |
+-------+-----+----------------------------+----------+-------------+
Table 4: Algorithm Identifier Cross-Reference
Appendix C. Notes on implementing base64url encoding without padding
This appendix describes how to implement base64url encoding and
decoding functions without padding based upon standard base64
encoding and decoding functions that do use padding.
To be concrete, example C# code implementing these functions is shown
below. Similar code could be used in other languages.
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static string base64urlencode(byte [] arg)
{
string s = Convert.ToBase64String(arg); // Standard base64 encoder
s = s.Split('=')[0]; // Remove any trailing '='s
s = s.Replace('+', '-'); // 62nd char of encoding
s = s.Replace('/', '_'); // 63rd char of encoding
return s;
}
static byte [] base64urldecode(string arg)
{
string s = arg;
s = s.Replace('-', '+'); // 62nd char of encoding
s = s.Replace('_', '/'); // 63rd char of encoding
switch (s.Length % 4) // Pad with trailing '='s
{
case 0: break; // No pad chars in this case
case 2: s += "=="; break; // Two pad chars
case 3: s += "="; break; // One pad char
default: throw new System.Exception(
"Illegal base64url string!");
}
return Convert.FromBase64String(s); // Standard base64 decoder
}
As per the example code above, the number of '=' padding characters
that needs to be added to the end of a base64url encoded string
without padding to turn it into one with padding is a deterministic
function of the length of the encoded string. Specifically, if the
length mod 4 is 0, no padding is added; if the length mod 4 is 2, two
'=' padding characters are added; if the length mod 4 is 3, one '='
padding character is added; if the length mod 4 is 1, the input is
malformed.
An example correspondence between unencoded and encoded values
follows. The byte sequence below encodes into the string below,
which when decoded, reproduces the byte sequence.
3 236 255 224 193
A-z_4ME
Appendix D. Acknowledgements
Solutions for signing JSON content were previously explored by Magic
Signatures [MagicSignatures], JSON Simple Sign [JSS], and Canvas
Applications [CanvasApp], all of which influenced this draft.
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Appendix E. Document History
-04
o Removed "if present" clause from "alg" description.
o Moved "MUST" requirements from the Overview to later in the spec.
o Respect line length restrictions in examples.
o Corrected OID numbers for ECDSA algorithms.
o Applied other editorial improvements.
-03
o Simplified terminology to better match JWE, where the terms "JWS
Header" and "Encoded JWS Header", are now used, for instance,
rather than the previous terms "Decoded JWS Header Input" and "JWS
Header Input". Likewise the terms "JWS Payload" and "JWS
Signature" are now used, rather than "JWS Payload Input" and "JWS
Crypto Output".
o The "jku" and "x5u" URLs are now required to be absolute URLs.
o Removed this unnecessary language from the "kid" description:
"Omitting this parameter is equivalent to setting it to an empty
string".
o Changed StringAndURI to StringOrURI.
-02
o Reference the JSON Web Key (JWK) specification from the "jku"
header parameter.
-01
o Changed RSA SHA-256 from MUST be supported to RECOMMENDED that it
be supported. Rationale: Several people have objected to the
requirement for implementing RSA SHA-256, some because they will
only be using HMACs and symmetric keys, and others because they
only want to use ECDSA when using asymmetric keys, either for
security or key length reasons, or both.
o Clarified that "x5u" is an HTTPS URL referencing a PEM-encoded
certificate or certificate chain.
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o Clarified that the "alg" parameter value is case sensitive.
o Changed "x5t" (x.509 certificate thumbprint) to use a SHA-1 hash,
rather than a SHA-256 hash, for compatibility reasons.
-00
o Created first signature draft using content split from
draft-jones-json-web-token-01. This split introduced no semantic
changes.
Authors' Addresses
Michael B. Jones
Microsoft
Email: mbj@microsoft.com
URI: http://self-issued.info/
Dirk Balfanz
Google
Email: balfanz@google.com
John Bradley
independent
Email: ve7jtb@ve7jtb.com
Yaron Y. Goland
Microsoft
Email: yarong@microsoft.com
John Panzer
Google
Email: jpanzer@google.com
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Nat Sakimura
Nomura Research Institute
Email: n-sakimura@nri.co.jp
Paul Tarjan
Facebook
Email: pt@fb.com
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