There are two typical mechanisms to register an account on an XMPP server:
The IBR mechanism is much more convenient for users, but also opens up the server to abuse, e.g. due to the mass-registration of spam bot accounts. Captchas, while heavily impacting well-intentioned users, are not a reliable mechanism to prevent abuse. This specification allows to restrict the IBR mechanism by requiring a registration token, e.g. for giving users access to a private server, without exposing their password to the server administrator.
This specification is part of a series of documents aiming at improving user onboarding:
While this specification is designed to work together with Easy User Onboarding (XEP-0401) [3], it can be used with invitation tokens obtained by any other mechanism. XMPP URIs can then be used out-of-band to deliver the invitation to a new user.
A client that obtains such an XMPP URI should allow the user to register an XMPP account with the server that generated the URI.
A client that implements this specification needs to understand the
XMPP URI Query Components (XEP-0147) [4] specification, to make use of the register query
action and the preauth parameter. Three URI formats
are defined.
An invitation to register an account can contain a specific XMPP address (with a pre-defined user account name) to be registered. A client should populate the address field in the IBR dialog with this address and disallow changing the address.
xmpp:juliet@example.com?register;preauth=TOKEN
An invitation to register an account can contain just the server domain to register on. A client should populate the address field in the IBR dialog with this domain and allow entering the desired account name.
xmpp:example.com?register;preauth=TOKEN
A contact invitation with a registration token (Pre-Authenticated Roster Subscription (XEP-0379) [2]) might
indicate that the token can also be used to register an account on that
server (ibr=y). If the receiving client already has an account
configured, it may skip account registration and simply add the contact
as defined in XEP-0379. The client may also register a new
account on the domain of the proposed contact, allowing the user to
enter the desired account name.
xmpp:romeo@example.com?roster;preauth=TOKEN;ibr=y
While a registration URI is an indication that the respective server supports Pre-Authenticated IBR, a URI might be manipulated and is not guaranteed to be reliable.
Therefore, when performing the account creation, the client needs to ensure that the server supports the Pre-Authenticated IBR protocol, as denoted by the <register xmlns='urn:xmpp:invite'> stream feature:
<stream:features>
<mechanisms xmlns='urn:xmpp:sasl:0'>
<mechanism>EXTERNAL</mechanism>
<mechanism>SCRAM-SHA-1-PLUS</mechanism>
<mechanism>SCRAM-SHA-1</mechanism>
<mechanism>PLAIN</mechanism>
</mechanisms>
<register xmlns='urn:xmpp:invite'/>
<register xmlns='http://jabber.org/features/iq-register'/>
</stream:features>
In order to allow invited users to register on a server, the registration processs as defined in In-Band Registration (XEP-0077) [1] needs to be extended. The invited user's client needs to connect to the server and check that the invitation stream feature (<register xmlns='urn:xmpp:invite'>) is present. After that, the client initiates the registration flow by sending the preauth token to the server:
<iq type='set' to='example.com' id='pa1'> <preauth xmlns='urn:xmpp:pars:0' token='TOKEN' /> </iq>
Upon receiving the preauth request, the server must validate that the token is acceptable for account registration. However, single-use tokens MUST NOT be considered used until the actual registration has succeeded.
In addition, if the token has an expiration time, it MUST only be checked at this point. Subsequent actions performed by the client during the current session that require a valid token MUST NOT be rejected due to token expiry.
If the token is acceptable, the server responds with success, and indicates the client may now proceed with account registration:
<iq type='result' from='example.com' id='pa1' />
If the token provided by the client was unknown, invalid or expired, the server should return an appropriate error to the client:
<iq type="error" from="example.com" id="pa1"> <error type='cancel'> <item-not-found xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/> <text>The provided token is invalid or expired</text> </error> </iq>
In the success case, the client proceeds with registration as defined in In-Band Registration (XEP-0077) [1]. If the token is rejected by the server, the client still MAY attempt to perform IBR if the server allows that.
If a username was specified when creating an invitation token, the server SHOULD NOT create an account on the server until the invitee actually registers it with the corresponding token. The server MUST reserve the username at least until the corresponding token expires.
If the invitee opens an invitation URI with ibr=y and chooses to create a new account, the client SHOULD pre-fill the inviter JID's domain part as the new account's domain. The client MAY provide a mechanism to enter or choose a different server, though.
See security considerations in Pre-Authenticated Roster Subscription (XEP-0379) [2].
This document requires no interaction with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) [5].
This document only makes use of the XMPP URI elements defined in Easy User Onboarding (XEP-0401) [3]
REQUIRED for protocol specifications.
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The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is defined in the XMPP Core (RFC 6120) and XMPP IM (RFC 6121) 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.
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 <https://xmpp.org/community/> for a complete list.
Errata can be sent to <editor@xmpp.org>.
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".
1. XEP-0077: In-Band Registration <https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0077.html>.
2. XEP-0379: Pre-Authenticated Roster Subscription <https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0379.html>.
3. XEP-0401: Easy User Onboarding <https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0401.html>.
4. XEP-0147: XMPP URI Query Components <https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0147.html>.
5. 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/>.
Note: Older versions of this specification might be available at https://xmpp.org/extensions/attic/
@report{lukas2020ibr-token,
title = {Pre-Authenticated In-Band Registration},
author = {Lukas, Georg},
type = {XEP},
number = {xxxx},
version = {0.1.0},
institution = {XMPP Standards Foundation},
url = {https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-xxxx.html},
date = {2020-10-28/2020-10-28},
}END