On Oct 3, 2009, at 5:25 PM, beckett wrote:

>
>>> My understading is that I should be able to use PLAINTEXT without
>>> compromising security as long as stick with HTTPS. Is my  
>>> understanding
>>> right?
>
> Depends on what you mean by "compromising security".
>
> Say user wants to move data from Yahoo Contacts! to Plaxo. If you do
> HTTPS on both links, it is true that an eavesdropper listening on
> user's connection to Yahoo Contacts or users connection to Plaxo will
> not be able to see anything.

Yes, with TLS, you get confidentiality (and request integrity).

>
> But if you just use PLAINTEXT you as Yahoo! Contacts have absolutely
> no idea if its REALLY PLAXO at the other end.

How did the consumer get a token for the SP though?

> It is trivial for any
> site to get user to give up data. In which case you might as well not
> use OAUTH and just make your data publicly available period. So I
> would say that in any real situation, OAUTH-PLAINTEXT plus HTTPS
> equals ZERO security.

I think you get confidentiality and integrity from TLS, and you get  
request authorization from OAuth, because a token that you accept  
comes with the request.

Assuming that the SP authenticated the consumer when it asked for a  
token, or if the SP authenticates the consumer in some other way, this  
all seems better than zero security.

Regards,

- johnk

>
> On Oct 2, 10:06 am, Eran Hammer-Lahav <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On  
>>> Behalf
>>> Of prashant kulkarni
>>> Sent: Friday, October 02, 2009 9:35 AM
>>> To: OAuth
>>> Subject: [oauth] Need for timestamp and nonce over HTTPS
>>
>>> I am looking at implementing OAuth Service Provider that only  
>>> supports
>>> communicatiion using HTTPS. The OAuth specification allows me to use
>>> PLAINTEXT signature method. I am thinking it should be good fit  
>>> for my
>>> purposes.
>>
>>> I have 2 questions
>>
>>> (a) My understading is that I should be able to use PLAINTEXT  
>>> without
>>> compromising security as long as stick with HTTPS. Is my  
>>> understanding
>>> right?
>>
>> Yes (assuming HTTPS is done correctly).
>>
>>> (b) I do not see any use of nonce and timestamp since there is no  
>>> real
>>> signing of request or real threat of Man in the middle or replay
>>> attacks. Would I be compromising security if I do not keep track of
>>> nonce and timestamp?
>>
>> No. They are completely useless with PLAINTEXT.
>>
>> EHL
>
> >


--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"OAuth" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/oauth?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

Reply via email to