Hi Rohan,

> On 22 Mar 2022, at 15:24, Rohan Mahy <[email protected]> 
> wrote:
> 
> Here are some comments on draft-ietf-oauth-dpop-06:
> 
> 1) With such a significant attack possible as DPoP proof pre-generation, why 
> isn't using the server nonce a SHOULD? Preventing a significant attack and 
> making lifetime handling sane are two excellent reasons to use a server 
> nonce. If an implementation has a good reason to not use a server nonce, we 
> can give guidance about what additional steps the implementation needs to 
> take. 

I think this is a good question, and I’ve been wondering about it myself.

The argument I see for not more strongly requiring nonces is that it pushes 
additional and non-trivial implementation complexity onto clients (and arguably 
also onto resource servers).

There are situations where I am not sure a nonce adds much value - for example 
in the case of a confidential client, an attacker with access to pre-generate 
DPoP proofs can likely also pre-generate private_key_jwt client authentication 
assertions and likely also has access to any refresh token. I believe this 
would allow them to obtain access tokens bound to a DPoP key of their choosing, 
and a nonce then seems to provide no additional protection.

(There are also cases where the nonce clearly does add a lot of value, 
particularly when considering public clients, and there may well be an argument 
for a ’should’ in those cases. Conversely I think there’s a potential argument 
for saying you should not use nonces in the confidential client situation I 
outlined, as it adds little other than complexity.)

Thanks

Joseph

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