XEP-0235: OAuth Over XMPP

Abstract:This specification defines an XMPP extension for delegating access to protected resources over XMPP, using the OAuth protocol. In the language of OAuth, a User can authorize a Consumer to access a Protected Resource that is hosted by a Service Provider; this authorization is encapsulated in a token that the User requests from the Service Provider, that the User shares with the Consumer, and that the Consumer then presents to the Service Provider in an access request. This specification assumes that OAuth tokens will be acquired via HTTP as defined in the core OAuth specification, then presented over XMPP to a Service Provider. The Protected Resources accessible over XMPP might include groupchat rooms, data feeds hosted at publish-subscribe nodes, media relays, communication gateways, and other items of interest.
Author:Peter Saint-Andre
Copyright:(c) 1999 - 2009 XMPP Standards Foundation. SEE LEGAL NOTICES.
Status:Experimental
Type:Standards Track
Version:0.6
Last Updated:2008-08-07

WARNING: This Standards-Track document is Experimental. Publication as an XMPP Extension Protocol does not imply approval of this proposal by the XMPP Standards Foundation. Implementation of the protocol described herein is encouraged in exploratory implementations, but production systems should not deploy implementations of this protocol until it advances to a status of Draft.


Table of Contents


1. Introduction
2. Protocol Flow
3. Access Request Format
4. Signature Generation Algorithm
5. Error Handling
6. Determining Support
7. Security Considerations
    7.1. Replay Attacks
    7.2. Encryption
8. IANA Considerations
9. XMPP Registrar Considerations
    9.1. Protocol Namespaces
10. XML Schema
    10.1. Protocol Namespace
    10.2. Error Namespace
11. Acknowledgements

Appendices
    A: Document Information
    B: Author Information
    C: Legal Notices
    D: Relation to XMPP
    E: Discussion Venue
    F: Requirements Conformance
    G: Notes
    H: Revision History


1. Introduction

Although authentication is required in order to access the XMPP network, in some situations it is desirable to require authorization in order for an authenticated entity to access certain resources on the network. For example, authorization may be required to join a Multi-User Chat [1] room, subscribe to a Publish-Subscribe [2] node, or to access other resources of interest (such as a media relay or communications gateway).

Dedicated technologies exist for authorization. One such technology is OAuth [3], as defined at <http://oauth.net/core/1.0/>. In the language of OAuth, a User can authorize a Consumer to access a Protected Resource that is hosted by a Service Provider; this authorization is encapsulated in a token that the User requests from the Service Provider, that the User shares with the Consumer, and that the Consumer then presents to the Service Provider in an access request.

This specification assumes that OAuth Access Tokens will be acquired outside the XMPP (i.e., via HTTP as defined in the core OAuth specification) and merely presented over XMPP when sending a protocol-specific access request.

2. Protocol Flow

The typical scenario is for a Consumer to request the authorization to act as a delegated authority on behalf of the User to access a Protected Resource owned by the User at a Service Provider. For example, the owner of a pubsub node could allow a remote entity to publish to that node (the single lines "---" show protocol flows over HTTP and the double lines "===" show protocol flows over XMPP):

Consumer                  Service Provider
   |                             |
   |  request a Request Token    |
   |---------------------------->|
   |  grant the Request Token    |
   |<----------------------------|
   |                             |
   |  [Consumer redirects User   |
   |   to Service Provider]      |
   |                             |
   |  request an Access Token    |
   |---------------------------->|
   |  grant the Access Token     |
   |<----------------------------|
   |  access Protected Resource  |
   |============================>|
   |                             |
  

Before presenting an access token to a Service Provider in a protocol-specific access request, a Consumer SHOULD verify that the Service Provider supports this protocol, as described under the Determining Support section of this document.

Consider the example of a User (say, <world-traveler@example.com>) who wishes to authorize a Consumer (say, an application called FindMeNow as represented by the JID <travelbot@findemenow.tld>) to access the User's geolocation feed at a Service Provider called WorldGPS (as represented by a publish-subscribe node of <feeds.worldgps.tld/world-traveler>). The order of events might be as follows.

  1. WorldGPS and FindMeNow have agreed upon a certificate and secret for FindMeNow to use when communicating with WorldGPS.
  2. WorldGPS maintains a feed for the User's location data in an XMPP PubSub Node.
  3. The User visits FindMeNow.tld and requests real-time updates from his WorldGPS feed.
  4. FindMeNow, over HTTP, requests a "request token" from WorldGPS's pubsub service, signing it with the agreed-upon certificate and secret.
  5. WorldGPS, if the signature was valid, sends FindMeNow a "request token."
  6. FindMeNow then redirects the user to a WorldGPS webpage.
  7. On the WorldGPS webpage, the User logs in (or is already logged in) and is then asked whether to approve of FindMeNow having read-only access to his geolocation information.
  8. The User approves the request and WorldGPS redirects the User back to FindMeNow.
  9. FindMeNow, over HTTP, requests an "access token" (again signing it) and now using the "request token" approved by the User.
  10. WorldGPS, if the signature is correct and the request token was approved, replies with an access token.
  11. FindMeNow, over XMPP, subscribes to the User's pubsub node using the access token.

As a result, FindMeNow gets updated every time the User publishes items to his geolocation node at WorldGPS.

Steps 1 through 10 occur via HTTP. Step 11 occurs via XMPP.

3. Access Request Format

The access request MUST include the following parameters:

The access MAY also include the "oauth_version" parameter

An example follows.

Example 1. Pubsub subscription request with OAuth access token

<iq from='travelbot@findmenow.tld/bot'
    id='sub1'
    to='feeds.worldgps.tld'
    type='set'>
  <pubsub xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/pubsub'>
    <subscribe node='bard_geoloc'/>
    <oauth xmlns='urn:xmpp:tmp:oauth'>
      <oauth_consumer_key>0685bd9184jfhq22</oauth_consumer_key>
      <oauth_nonce>4572616e48616d6d65724c61686176</oauth_nonce>
      <oauth_signature>wOJIO9A2W5mFwDgiDvZbTSMK%2FPY%3D</oauth_signature>
      <oauth_signature_method>HMAC-SHA1</oauth_signature_method>
      <oauth_timestamp>1218137833</oauth_timestamp>
      <oauth_token>ad180jjd733klru7</oauth_token>
      <oauth_version>1.0</oauth_version>
    </oauth>
  </pubsub>
</iq>
  

4. Signature Generation Algorithm

When sending an OAuth access request over XMPP, the signature method SHOULD be HMAC-SHA1. The Signature Base String SHALL be constructed from the following items:

As an example, consider the following stanza:

<iq from='travelbot@findmenow.tld/bot'
    id='sub1'
    to='feeds.worldgps.tld'
    type='set'>
  <pubsub xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/pubsub'>
    <subscribe node='bard_geoloc'/>
    <oauth xmlns='urn:xmpp:tmp:oauth'>
      <oauth_consumer_key>0685bd9184jfhq22</oauth_consumer_key>
      <oauth_nonce>4572616e48616d6d65724c61686176</oauth_nonce>
      <oauth_signature>wOJIO9A2W5mFwDgiDvZbTSMK%2FPY%3D</oauth_signature>
      <oauth_signature_method>HMAC-SHA1</oauth_signature_method>
      <oauth_timestamp>1218137833</oauth_timestamp>
      <oauth_token>ad180jjd733klru7</oauth_token>
      <oauth_version>1.0</oauth_version>
    </oauth>
  </pubsub>
</iq>
  

The Signature Base String would be as follows (where line endings have been added for readability and are denoted by the "\" character):

iq%26travelbot%40findmenow.tld%2Fbot%26feeds.worldgps.tld%26\
oauth_consumer_key%3D0685bd9184jfhq22%26\
oauth_nonce%3D4572616e48616d6d65724c61686176%26\
oauth_signature_method%3DHMAC-SHA1%26\
oauth_timestamp%3D1218137833%26\
oauth_token%3Dad180jjd733klru7%26\
oauth_version%3D1.0
  

Assuming a consumer secret of 'consumersecret' and a token secret of 'tokensecret', the signature will be:

    Z0F5zmPWwbunk5dc2hNBn1NgBj4=
  

5. Error Handling

If a Service Provider rejects a Consumer's access request, the Service Provider SHOULD return either a <bad-request/> or <not-authorized/> stanza error, with an appropriate OAuth-specific error condition as described in the following table.

Table 1: Application-Specific Error Conditions

OAuth-Specific Condition Generic Condition
<duplicated-parameter/> <bad-request/>
<invalid-consumer-key/> <not-authorized/>
<invalid-nonce/> <not-authorized/>
<invalid-signature/> <not-authorized/>
<invalid-token/> <not-authorized/>
<missing-parameter/> <bad-request/>
<token-required/> <not-authorized/>
<unsupported-parameter/> <bad-request/>
<unsupported-signature-method/> <bad-request/>

An example follows.

Example 2. OAuth-specific error

<iq from='feeds.worldgps.tld'
    id='sub1'
    to='travelbot@findmenow.tld/bot'
    type='error'>
  <error type='modify'>
    <bad-request xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>
    <invalid-nonce xmlns='urn:xmpp:tmp:oauth:errors'/>
  </error>
</iq>
  

6. Determining Support

If an entity supports the protocol specified herein, it MUST advertise that fact by returning a feature of "urn:xmpp:tmp:oauth" in response to Service Discovery [4] information requests (see Protocol Namespaces regarding issuance of one or more permanent namespaces).

Example 3. Service discovery information request

<iq from='travelbot@findmenow.tld/bot'
    id='disco1'
    to='feeds.worldgps.tld'
    type='get'>
  <query xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/disco#info'/>
</iq>
  

Example 4. Service discovery information response

<iq from='feeds.worldgps.tld'
    id='disco1'
    to='travelbot@findmenow.tld/bot'
    type='result'>
  <query xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/disco#info'>
    ...
    <feature var='urn:xmpp:tmp:oauth'/>
    ...
  </query>
</iq>
  

In order for an application to determine whether an entity supports this protocol, where possible it SHOULD use the dynamic, presence-based profile of service discovery defined in Entity Capabilities [5]. However, if an application has not received entity capabilities information from an entity, it SHOULD use explicit service discovery instead.

7. Security Considerations

7.1 Replay Attacks

Signatures generated according to the signature generation algorithm might be subject to replay attacks. However, inclusion of the XMPP "from" and "to" addresses limits these attacks to compromised servers or client-to-server connections. In addition, inclusion of the nonce value also helps to prevent replay attacks.

7.2 Encryption

OAuth tokens SHOULD be sent only over TLS-encrypted client-to-server connections, and all server-to-server connections SHOULD be TLS-enabled. Additional security can be provided using appropriate methods for the end-to-end encryption of XMPP traffic, such as Current Jabber OpenPGP Usage [6], RFC 3923 [7] Encrypted Session Negotiation [8], or End-to-End XML Streams [9].

8. IANA Considerations

This document requires no interaction with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) [10].

9. XMPP Registrar Considerations

9.1 Protocol Namespaces

Until this specification advances to a status of Draft, its associated namespace shall be "urn:xmpp:tmp:oauth"; upon advancement of this specification, the XMPP Registrar [11] shall issue a permanent namespace in accordance with the process defined in Section 4 of XMPP Registrar Function [12]. The permanent namespace "urn:xmpp:oauth" will be requested, which is thought to be unique per the XMPP Registrar's requirements.

10. XML Schema

10.1 Protocol Namespace

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>

<xs:schema
    xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'
    targetNamespace='urn:xmpp:tmp:oauth'
    xmlns='urn:xmpp:tmp:oauth'
    elementFormDefault='qualified'>

  <xs:element name='oauth'>
    <xs:complexType>
      <xs:choice>
        <xs:element name='oauth_consumer_key' type='xs:string'/>
        <xs:element name='oauth_nonce' type='xs:string'/>
        <xs:element name='oauth_signature' type='xs:string'/>
        <xs:element name='oauth_signature_method' type='xs:string'/>
        <xs:element name='oauth_timestamp' type='xs:string'/>
        <xs:element name='oauth_token' type='xs:string'/>
        <xs:element name='oauth_version' type='xs:string'/>
      </xs:choice>
    </xs:complexType>
  </xs:element>

</xs:schema>
    

10.2 Error Namespace

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>

<xs:schema
    xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'
    targetNamespace='urn:xmpp:tmp:oauth:errors'
    xmlns='urn:xmpp:tmp:oauth:errors'
    elementFormDefault='qualified'>

  <xs:element name='duplicated-parameter' type='empty'/>
  <xs:element name='invalid-consumer-key' type='empty'/>
  <xs:element name='invalid-nonce' type='empty'/>
  <xs:element name='invalid-signature' type='empty'/>
  <xs:element name='invalid-token' type='empty'/>
  <xs:element name='missing-parameter' type='empty'/>
  <xs:element name='token-required' type='empty'/>
  <xs:element name='unsupported-parameter' type='empty'/>
  <xs:element name='unsupported-signature-method' type='empty'/>

  <xs:simpleType name='empty'>
    <xs:restriction base='xs:string'>
      <xs:enumeration value=''/>
    </xs:restriction>
  </xs:simpleType>

</xs:schema>
    

11. Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the contributions of Blaine Cook, Leah Culver, Kellan Elliott-McCrea, Seth Fitzsimmons, Nathan Fritz, Evan Henshaw-Plath, Joe Hildebrand, and Ralph Meijer to the content of this specification, as provided during the XMPP Summit held in Portland, Oregon, on July 21 and 22, 2008. Thanks also to Dave Cridland and Pedro Melo for their comments on an early draft.


Appendices


Appendix A: Document Information

Series: XEP
Number: 0235
Publisher: XMPP Standards Foundation
Status: Experimental
Type: Standards Track
Version: 0.6
Last Updated: 2008-08-07
Approving Body: XMPP Council
Dependencies: XMPP Core
Supersedes: None
Superseded By: None
Short Name: NOT_YET_ASSIGNED
Source Control: HTML  RSS


Appendix B: Author Information

Peter Saint-Andre

JabberID: stpeter@jabber.org
URI: https://stpeter.im/


Appendix C: Legal Notices

Copyright

This XMPP Extension Protocol is copyright (c) 1999 - 2009 by the XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF).

Permissions

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this specification (the "Specification"), to make use of the Specification without restriction, including without limitation the rights to implement the Specification in a software program, deploy the Specification in a network service, and copy, modify, merge, publish, translate, distribute, sublicense, or sell copies of the Specification, and to permit persons to whom the Specification is furnished to do so, subject to the condition that the foregoing copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Specification. Unless separate permission is granted, modified works that are redistributed shall not contain misleading information regarding the authors, title, number, or publisher of the Specification, and shall not claim endorsement of the modified works by the authors, any organization or project to which the authors belong, or the XMPP Standards Foundation.

Disclaimer of Warranty

## NOTE WELL: This Specification is provided on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, express or implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. In no event shall the XMPP Standards Foundation or the authors of this Specification be liable for any claim, damages, or other liability, whether in an action of contract, tort, or otherwise, arising from, out of, or in connection with the Specification or the implementation, deployment, or other use of the Specification. ##

Limitation of Liability

In no event and under no legal theory, whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise, unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate and grossly negligent acts) or agreed to in writing, shall the XMPP Standards Foundation or any author of this Specification be liable for damages, including any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising out of the use or inability to use the Specification (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all other commercial damages or losses), even if the XMPP Standards Foundation or such author has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

IPR Conformance

This XMPP Extension Protocol has been contributed in full conformance with the XSF's Intellectual Property Rights Policy (a copy of which may be found at <http://xmpp.org/extensions/ipr-policy.shtml> or obtained by writing to XSF, P.O. Box 1641, Denver, CO 80201 USA).

Appendix D: Relation to XMPP

The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is defined in the XMPP Core (RFC 3920) and XMPP IM (RFC 3921) specifications contributed by the XMPP Standards Foundation to the Internet Standards Process, which is managed by the Internet Engineering Task Force in accordance with RFC 2026. Any protocol defined in this document has been developed outside the Internet Standards Process and is to be understood as an extension to XMPP rather than as an evolution, development, or modification of XMPP itself.


Appendix E: Discussion Venue

The primary venue for discussion of XMPP Extension Protocols is the <standards@xmpp.org> discussion list.

Discussion on other xmpp.org discussion lists might also be appropriate; see <http://xmpp.org/about/discuss.shtml> for a complete list.

Errata may be sent to <editor@xmpp.org>.


Appendix F: Requirements Conformance

The following requirements keywords as used in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119: "MUST", "SHALL", "REQUIRED"; "MUST NOT", "SHALL NOT"; "SHOULD", "RECOMMENDED"; "SHOULD NOT", "NOT RECOMMENDED"; "MAY", "OPTIONAL".


Appendix G: Notes

1. XEP-0045: Multi-User Chat <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0045.html>.

2. XEP-0060: Publish-Subscribe <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0060.html>.

3. OAuth Core 1.0 <http://oauth.net/core/1.0/>.

4. XEP-0030: Service Discovery <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0030.html>.

5. XEP-0115: Entity Capabilities <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0115.html>.

6. XEP-0027: Current Jabber OpenPGP Usage <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0027.html>.

7. RFC 3923: End-to-End Signing and Object Encryption for the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) <http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3923>.

8. XEP-0116: Encrypted Session Negotiation <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0116.html>.

9. XEP-0246: End-to-End XML Streams <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0246.html>.

10. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the central coordinator for the assignment of unique parameter values for Internet protocols, such as port numbers and URI schemes. For further information, see <http://www.iana.org/>.

11. The XMPP Registrar maintains a list of reserved protocol namespaces as well as registries of parameters used in the context of XMPP extension protocols approved by the XMPP Standards Foundation. For further information, see <http://xmpp.org/registrar/>.

12. XEP-0053: XMPP Registrar Function <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0053.html>.


Appendix H: Revision History

Version 0.6 (2008-08-07)

Clarified error handling and service discovery.

(psa)

Version 0.5 (2008-08-07)

More clearly specified access request format; corrected examples to incorporate nonce, timestamp, and version; modified request URL syntax to follow XML canonicalization order; changed HMAC-SHA1 from MUST to SHOULD.

(psa)

Version 0.4 (2008-08-07)

Incorporated consensus reached at XMPP Summit #5: narrowed the scope to cover OAuth only, specified that HTTP is used except for sending the access request via XMPP, corrected signature generation algorithm, specified security considerations, and removed invitation and account registration use cases.

(psa)

Version 0.3 (2008-03-31)

Changed data forms usage to semantic XML format (except for in-band registration).

(psa)

Version 0.2 (2008-03-27)

Generalized to cover authorization tokens; added use cases for pubsub node subscriptions and XMPP account registration.

(psa)

Version 0.1 (2008-03-05)

Initial published version.

(psa)

Version 0.0.1 (2008-02-20)

First draft.

(psa)

END