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RE: [OAUTH-WG] Last Call: <draft-ietf-oauth-v2-bearer-15.txt> (The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Protocol: Bearer Tokens) to Proposed Standard

2012-01-24 18:03:45
Per the discussion at 
http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/oauth/current/msg08040.html, the working 
group's rationale for supporting quoted-string but not token syntax for these 
parameters, and for requiring that backslash ('\') quoting not be used when 
producing them is as follows:

"Once again, the current text reflects a consensus decision of the working 
group.  It was viewed that requiring support for multiple ways of doing the 
same thing unnecessarily complicated implementations without any compensating 
benefit; better to support one syntax for each semantic operation and require 
all implementations to use it."

Despite Julian's remarks below, the syntax in the Bearer spec *is* compatible 
with standard parameter parsers, and so no interoperability problems are 
created by restricting the parameter syntax to a subset of the syntax allowed 
by HTTPbis.  No non-standard code is needed to use parameters in the manner 
described in the Bearer spec.

The current text is the result of thorough and informed discussion among the 
working group, and reflects the best consensus available as I understand it in 
my role as editor, attempting to accurately represent the working group's 
decisions and rationale.

                                Best wishes,
                                -- Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: oauth-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org 
[mailto:oauth-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org] On Behalf Of Julian Reschke
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2012 3:24 PM
To: ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Cc: The IESG; oauth(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: [OAUTH-WG] Last Call: <draft-ietf-oauth-v2-bearer-15.txt> (The 
OAuth 2.0 Authorization Protocol: Bearer Tokens) to Proposed Standard

On 2012-01-23 16:58, Julian Reschke wrote:
On 2012-01-23 16:46, The IESG wrote:

The IESG has received a request from the Web Authorization Protocol 
WG
(oauth) to consider the following document:
- 'The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Protocol: Bearer Tokens'
<draft-ietf-oauth-v2-bearer-15.txt> as a Proposed Standard ...

Please see my comments in
<https://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/oauth/current/msg08120.html>
which I think have not been addressed.
...

In an off-list conversation I heard that what I said before may not be as clear 
as it could be.

So...

1) draft-ietf-oauth-v2-bearer-15 defines a new HTTP authentication scheme.

2) In the IANA considerations, it references the registration procedure defined 
in <http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-httpbis-p7-auth-17#section-2.3>
(now -18, but that doesn't matter here).

3) That document recommends in
<http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-httpbis-p7-auth-17#section-2.3.1>:

    o  The parsing of challenges and credentials is defined by this
       specification, and cannot be modified by new authentication
       schemes.  When the auth-param syntax is used, all parameters ought
       to support both token and quoted-string syntax, and syntactical
       constraints ought to be defined on the field value after parsing
       (i.e., quoted-string processing).  This is necessary so that
       recipients can use a generic parser that applies to all
       authentication schemes.

4) draft-ietf-oauth-v2-bearer-15 ignores this recommendation. It has been 
mentioned that it might not have ignored it if it had UPPERCASE requirements, 
but in HTTPbis we try to restrict BCP14 keywords to the actual protocol, not on 
recommendations on other specs.

5) The registration requirement for a new scheme is "IETF review", which RFC 
5226 defines in <http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5226#section-4.1> as:

       IETF Review - (Formerly called "IETF Consensus" in
             [IANA-CONSIDERATIONS]) New values are assigned only through
             RFCs that have been shepherded through the IESG as AD-
             Sponsored or IETF WG Documents [RFC3932] [RFC3978].  The
             intention is that the document and proposed assignment will
             be reviewed by the IESG and appropriate IETF WGs (or
             experts, if suitable working groups no longer exist) to
             ensure that the proposed assignment will not negatively
             impact interoperability or otherwise extend IETF protocols
             in an inappropriate or damaging manner.

In this case the WG exists (it's HTTPbis), and the OAuth got two reviews from 
HTTPbis pointing out the problem  -- from Mark Nottingham, the WG chair, and 
myself, one of the authors.

And yes, I believe the way OAuth defines the syntax *will* impact 
interoperability.

Also, I haven't seen any explanation why OAuth can not follow the 
recommendation from HTTPbis.

Hope this clarifies things,

Julian
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