I went back to the Security BCP and combed through the fine details, and there 
is indeed some guidance on CSP. But your initial remark that this is "vague" is 
definitely true, and this section is actually a good illustration of what I was 
trying to say. Let me unpack the details a bit …

In section 4.16, the security BCP talks about how to restrict framing to avoid 
clickjacking/UI redressing attacks. Defending against such attacks cannot be 
done with secure coding, but must be done with specific framing restrictions. 
The best mechanism to achieve this is by setting security headers: the legacy 
X-Frame-Options header or the more modern CSP frame-ancestors directive. Given 
that this security requirement is closely linked to OAuth and is not something 
that “happens naturally”, but must be explicitly added, I totally agree that 
this should be part of the security BCP. 

Now, in paragraph 5 of the section, things get somewhat confusing (included 
below for reference). So far, every mention of "CSP" was used as a synonym for 
the "frame-ancestors" directive to restrict framing. However, all the way at 
the end of that paragraph, the text suddenly recommends using the "script-src" 
directive to restrict sources of JS that can execute on the page. The paragraph 
then points to a sample header, with the configuration of "script-src 'self'". 

Using CSP allows authorization servers to specify multiple origins in a single 
response header field and to constrain these using flexible patterns (see 
[W3C.CSP-2 <https://www.w3.org/TR/CSP2>] for details). Level 2 of this standard 
provides a robust mechanism for protecting against clickjacking by using 
policies that restrict the origin of frames (using frame-ancestors) together 
with those that restrict the sources of scripts allowed to execute on an HTML 
page (by using script-src).

Unfortunately, this advice is too simplistic to be useful, as it prevents the 
loading of JS from any other origin, including CDNs, or third-party services. 
Additionally, it violates modern best practices for CSP, which recommend the 
use of hashes, nonces, and trust propagation (with nonce propagation or 
'strict-dynamic'). If you’re interested in the details, I’ve done a few guest 
blog posts about CSP for Auth0 that cover this: 
https://auth0.com/blog/authors/philippe-de-rick/


What I'm trying to say here is that a detailed CSP config (apart from the 
"frame-ancestors" directive) is not essential for a secure OAuth implementation 
or deployment. It can and should act as a second line of defense against 
content injection attacks, but not having such a CSP config does not 
automatically create a vulnerability. Therefore, my recommendation is to focus 
on the details directly relevant to OAuth security.

For security guidelines for configuring cookies, I believe this would be more 
directly related and more useful, as I mentioned before.

Finally, I can totally see that the community could benefit from more in-depth 
security best practices that go beyond OAuth-specific risks. Apart from CSP, 
there's a whole bunch more response headers that can be configured (as you and 
others have mentioned). On top of that, modern browsers send a lot of metadata 
in a request (e.g., the Sec-Fetch Metadata headers) that could be used by the 
AS to reject illegitimate requests. However, given the rapid development of 
these features and lack of widespread support, I would envision such 
recommendations to live in a more "dynamic" document than an RFC.

Philippe

—
Pragmatic Web Security
Security for developers
https://pragmaticwebsecurity.com

> On 6 Nov 2023, at 18:07, Dick Hardt <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> That's a surprising response Philippe. The BCP already has 
> Content-Security-Policy and Referrer-Policy headers recommendations. The core 
> of my feedback is to add Cookie and Header best practices to Section 2, and 
> point to one or more living documents. 
> 
> On Mon, Nov 6, 2023 at 8:45 AM Philippe De Ryck 
> <[email protected] 
> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> While I understand the idea of pointing to additional security resources, 
>> I’m not sure if it is the role of the security BCP (or other specs) to take 
>> on the responsibility to address these issues. In my point of view, the 
>> security BCP should focus on OAuth aspects, and discuss security topics that 
>> are directly relevant to that purpose. 
>> 
>> Concretely for the security mechanisms discussed here, I can see how cookie 
>> configurations could be relevant (the session with the AS is inherent to 
>> OAuth), but I don’t see defenses such as CSP as relevant in that scope. If 
>> these are in scope, should we then also provide advice or pointers on 
>> avoiding server-side implementation vulnerabilities, such as SQL injection 
>> or SSRF?
>> 
>> Additionally, many of these security mechanisms are quite complex and 
>> non-trivial to deploy. For example, adding a generic pointer stating “you 
>> should add CSP” does not say much, as CSP can control more than a dozen 
>> features. 
>> 
>> To summarize, I would keep the scope of these specs as narrow as possible 
>> and avoid aiming to address security concerns that are beyond the realm of 
>> OAuth.
>> 
>> Philippe
>> 
>> —
>> Pragmatic Web Security
>> Security for developers
>> https://pragmaticwebsecurity.com <https://pragmaticwebsecurity.com/>
>> 
>>> On 6 Nov 2023, at 15:39, Dick Hardt <[email protected] 
>>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> +1 to referring to calling out that cookies / headers should follow best 
>>> security practice, and pointing to living documents
>>> 
>>> On Mon, Nov 6, 2023 at 6:21 AM Giuseppe De Marco <[email protected] 
>>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>> 
>>>> everytime I have implemented SAML2, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, for 
>>>> different projects and orgs, I have included secured web cookie in the 
>>>> recipe.
>>>> For the implementation profile of OpenID4VP I did the same, where the 
>>>> secured and httponly cookie is used an in particular as a basic security 
>>>> requirement for the cross device flow [1].
>>>> 
>>>> Even if I got perfectly Daniel's and Aaron's editorial strategy and I 
>>>> agree, I think that Dick's proposal and your confirmation on that, Neil, 
>>>> is something to take into account to bring developers awareness during the 
>>>> implementation phases.
>>>> A ref to living OWASP specs surrounded by a generic refs to the user agent 
>>>> security, even if out of scope, I think that should be in the specs.
>>>> 
>>>> [1] 
>>>> https://italia.github.io/eudi-wallet-it-docs/versione-corrente/en/relying-party-solution.html#remote-protocol-flow
>>>> 
>>>> Il giorno lun 6 nov 2023 alle ore 15:11 Neil Madden 
>>>> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> ha scritto:
>>>>> Although I think we could add some basic advice, the list of security 
>>>>> headers to use is still evolving. For example, there were several headers 
>>>>> added after Spectre to limit cross-site interactions. And then there’s 
>>>>> things like the “X-XSS-Protection” header, which was best practice to add 
>>>>> to responses not too long ago but has now been universally removed from 
>>>>> browsers as it enabled certain content disclosure attacks.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Cookie security attributes are perhaps a bit more stable, but in general 
>>>>> we probably just want to point people at “living” guidance like OWASP.
>>>>> 
>>>>> — Neil
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On 5 Nov 2023, at 19:28, Dick Hardt <[email protected] 
>>>>>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> The cookie and header recommendations I am thinking of would be for the 
>>>>>> AS as well as the client. 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> A number of XSS attacks can be thwarted by a modern browser and the 
>>>>>> right HTTP headers.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> My question is: Did the authors consider adding cookie and header 
>>>>>> recommendations, and decided it was too general? 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Cookie and header best security practices have been around for years -- 
>>>>>> I'm not suggesting we make anything up -- I'm suggesting we raise 
>>>>>> awareness. 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I consider myself to be fairly security aware, and I was not aware of 
>>>>>> some of the HTTP headers that are best security practice. 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> /Dick
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Sun, Nov 5, 2023 at 11:19 AM Aaron Parecki 
>>>>>> <[email protected] 
>>>>>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>>>>>> I don't think it's necessary to say "do the right things with cookies" 
>>>>>>> in the Security BCP. The Browser Apps BCP has a much deeper discussion 
>>>>>>> of how different browser-based architectures work with cookies so that 
>>>>>>> seems like a better place to actually have a real discussion about it.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Also +1 to what Daniel said about not continuing to add little things. 
>>>>>>> Plus I think it's too late anyway, publication has already been 
>>>>>>> requested for the Security BCP.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Aaron
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> On Sun, Nov 5, 2023 at 11:14 AM Daniel Fett 
>>>>>>> <[email protected] 
>>>>>>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>>>>>>> I agree with Aaron! 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Also we should be very careful about any additions to the Security BCP 
>>>>>>>> at this point. It is very easy to re-start the "one more thing" loop 
>>>>>>>> we've been stuck in for the last years. There may be more useful 
>>>>>>>> things to say, but we should put them on the list for a future second 
>>>>>>>> version of the BCP.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> -Daniel
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Am 05.11.23 um 20:03 schrieb Aaron Parecki:
>>>>>>>>> I don't think the Security BCP should incorporate cookie best 
>>>>>>>>> practices directly in the document. If anything, it sounds like 
>>>>>>>>> possibly a candidate for inclusion in the Browser Apps BCP. 
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> There are already some mentions of these cookie properties mentioned 
>>>>>>>>> in the Browser Apps BCP, though only in reference to specific 
>>>>>>>>> architectures, not as a general best practice. For example:
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-oauth-browser-based-apps-15.html#pattern-bff-cookie-security
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> Aaron
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> On Sun, Nov 5, 2023 at 10:48 AM Dick Hardt <[email protected] 
>>>>>>>>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> Hey
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> I was reviewing security on some sites I managed and checked to see 
>>>>>>>>>> if the recommendations were in the BCP.
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> I don't see anything around cookies such as httpOnly, sameSite, 
>>>>>>>>>> secure. 
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> I saw some HTTP security header suggestions buried in 4.16 
>>>>>>>>>> (X-Frame-Options, CSP), but not for Strict-Transport-Security, 
>>>>>>>>>> Permissions-Policy, or X-Content-Type-Options, and the CSP guidance 
>>>>>>>>>> is rather vague.
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> I understand these are general web security best practices, and 
>>>>>>>>>> perhaps I missed it, but I think it would be useful to call out that 
>>>>>>>>>> best security practices around cookies and headers should also be 
>>>>>>>>>> followed in Section 2, and either have the best practices included, 
>>>>>>>>>> or direct the reader where to find them.
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> /Dick
>>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>>> OAuth mailing list
>>>>>>>>>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>>>>>>>>>> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/oauth
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>> OAuth mailing list
>>>>>>>>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>>>>>>>>> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/oauth
>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> OAuth mailing list
>>>>>>>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>>>>>>>> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/oauth
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> OAuth mailing list
>>>>>>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>>>>>>> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/oauth
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> OAuth mailing list
>>>>>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>>>>>> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/oauth
>>>>> 
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> OAuth mailing list
>>>>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>>>>> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/oauth
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> OAuth mailing list
>>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>>> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/oauth
>> 

_______________________________________________
OAuth mailing list
[email protected]
https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/oauth

Reply via email to