There is maybe a need to be more explicit that this alg:none container
just means that security will be provided at a different layer rather
than having no security at all. I would specifically mention the case of
OAuth with the current proof-of-possession work where we are planning to
re-use the alg:none mechanism for key transport between the
authorization server and the client.

Ciao
Hannes



On 04/28/2014 04:11 PM, Kathleen Moriarty wrote:
> Thanks for the responses on this, it is helpful to see them from a
> range of folks.
> 
> 
> On Mon, Apr 28, 2014 at 10:07 AM, Justin Richer <[email protected]> wrote:
>> +1
>>
>> Basically, JOSE defines both crypto processes and container mechanisms for
>> those processes. "alg:none" lets you use the container without the crypto in
>> a way that's compatible with using the same contianer with crypto. Code
>> reuse and parallelism are awesome. But by explicitly calling out that a
>> thing is unsigned, an app can decide whether or not it likes unsigned stuff
>> and act accordingly.
>>
>>  -- Justin
>>
>>
>>
>> On 04/25/2014 06:17 PM, Brian Campbell wrote:
>>
>> Plaintext JWSs haven't been free of controversy but the topic has been
>> discussed many times and the [rough] consensus of the WG is that the "none"
>> JWS alg is useful. It is in use by the finalized versions of OpenID Connect,
>> as Vladimir has alluded to. And it has been fairly wildly deployed in
>> production use.
>>
>> The "Plaintext JWS Security Considerations" in section 8.5 of JWA [1]
>> represents the consensus the WG came to, which keeps the "none" alg but
>> mandates that implementations "MUST NOT accept such objects as valid unless
>> the application specifies that it is acceptable for a specific object."
>>
>> [1]
>> http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-jose-json-web-algorithms-25#section-8.5
>>
>> Vladimir
>> On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 2:51 PM, Kathleen Moriarty
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>> Thanks, Vladimir.
>>>
>>> Is there consensus in the WG that this is the right thing to do?  I'm
>>> expecting some push-back on this one and want to make sure it has
>>> consensus behind it.  I have heard of a couple of objections already.
>>>
>>> On Thu, Apr 17, 2014 at 2:10 PM, Vladimir Dzhuvinov
>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>> Thanks, Vladimir.
>>>>>
>>>>> How would they be secured then?  With the current threat landscape, it
>>>>> seems odd that we would be putting forth a method that is not secured?
>>>>>  Does this rely on transport for security?
>>>>
>>>> Yes, securing the JWS message with TLS for instance, as Mike just
>>>> pointed
>>>> out in the his response.
>>>>
>>>> JWT-encoded ID tokens in OpenID Connect is one such example, but only
>>>> when
>>>> the token is returned from the OAuth 2.0 token endpoint where TLS is
>>>> mandatory, clients can then register to receive plaintext ID tokens:
>>>>
>>>> http://openid.net/specs/openid-connect-core-1_0.html#IDToken
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> There is a section in the JWA spec to instruct developers of the various
>>>> security
>>>> considerations regarding use of "none" alg JWS:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-jose-json-web-algorithms-25#section-8.5
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Vladimir
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Apr 17, 2014 at 12:57 PM, Vladimir Dzhuvinov <
>>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi Kathleen,
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Section 3.6 - Can you explain why would this be included?  If you
>>>>>>> are
>>>>>> not going to sign, I am not sure why one would use JOSE at all.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Perhaps the most popular application of JWS today is to construct
>>>>>> JSON
>>>>>> Web Tokens (JWT), such as the ID tokens in OpenID Connect. The JWT
>>>>>> spec
>>>>>> permits plain tokens that don't have a signature and this is enabled
>>>>>> by
>>>>>> the special case "none" alg in JWS.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Plaintext JWTs are explained here:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-oauth-json-web-token-19#section-6
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Vladimir
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>>
>>>>> Best regards,
>>>>> Kathleen
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>> Kathleen
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
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> 
> 
> 

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