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|
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html lang="en"><head><title>JSON Web Token (JWT)</title>
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<meta name="description" content="JSON Web Token (JWT)">
<meta name="keywords" content="RFC, Request for Comments, I-D, Internet-Draft, Assertion, Claim, Simple Web Token, Security Token, SWT, JavaScript Object Notation, JSON, JSON Web Token, JWT, JSON Web Signature, JWS, JSON Web Encryption, JWE">
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<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<table summary="layout" width="66%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><table summary="layout" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1">
<tr><td class="header">Network Working Group</td><td class="header">M. Jones</td></tr>
<tr><td class="header">Internet-Draft</td><td class="header">Microsoft</td></tr>
<tr><td class="header">Intended status: Standards Track</td><td class="header">D. Balfanz</td></tr>
<tr><td class="header">Expires: June 15, 2012</td><td class="header">Google</td></tr>
<tr><td class="header"> </td><td class="header">J. Bradley</td></tr>
<tr><td class="header"> </td><td class="header">independent</td></tr>
<tr><td class="header"> </td><td class="header">Y. Goland</td></tr>
<tr><td class="header"> </td><td class="header">Microsoft</td></tr>
<tr><td class="header"> </td><td class="header">J. Panzer</td></tr>
<tr><td class="header"> </td><td class="header">Google</td></tr>
<tr><td class="header"> </td><td class="header">N. Sakimura</td></tr>
<tr><td class="header"> </td><td class="header">Nomura Research Institute</td></tr>
<tr><td class="header"> </td><td class="header">P. Tarjan</td></tr>
<tr><td class="header"> </td><td class="header">Facebook</td></tr>
<tr><td class="header"> </td><td class="header">December 13, 2011</td></tr>
</table></td></tr></table>
<h1><br />JSON Web Token (JWT)<br />draft-jones-json-web-token-07</h1>
<h3>Abstract</h3>
<p>
JSON Web Token (JWT) is a means of representing claims to be
transferred between two parties. The claims in a JWT are
encoded as a JSON object that is digitally signed using JSON
Web Signature (JWS) and/or encrypted using JSON Web Encryption
(JWE).
</p>
<p>
The suggested pronunciation of JWT is the same as the English
word "jot".
</p>
<h3>Requirements Language</h3>
<p>
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL
NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described
in <a class='info' href='#RFC2119'>RFC 2119<span> (</span><span class='info'>Bradner, S., “Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels,” March 1997.</span><span>)</span></a> [RFC2119].
</p>
<h3>Status of this Memo</h3>
<p>
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full
conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.</p>
<p>
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current
Internet-Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.</p>
<p>
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time.
It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite
them other than as “work in progress.”</p>
<p>
This Internet-Draft will expire on June 15, 2012.</p>
<h3>Copyright Notice</h3>
<p>
Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.</p>
<p>
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.</p>
<a name="toc"></a><br /><hr />
<h3>Table of Contents</h3>
<p class="toc">
<a href="#anchor1">1.</a>
Introduction<br />
<a href="#anchor2">2.</a>
Terminology<br />
<a href="#anchor3">3.</a>
JSON Web Token (JWT) Overview<br />
<a href="#ExampleJWT">3.1.</a>
Example JWT<br />
<a href="#anchor4">4.</a>
JWT Claims<br />
<a href="#ReservedClaimName">4.1.</a>
Reserved Claim Names<br />
<a href="#PublicClaimName">4.2.</a>
Public Claim Names<br />
<a href="#PrivateClaimName">4.3.</a>
Private Claim Names<br />
<a href="#anchor5">5.</a>
JWT Header<br />
<a href="#Plaintext">6.</a>
Plaintext JWTs<br />
<a href="#ExamplePlaintextJWT">6.1.</a>
Example Plaintext JWT<br />
<a href="#anchor6">7.</a>
Rules for Creating and Validating a JWT<br />
<a href="#Algorithms">8.</a>
Cryptographic Algorithms<br />
<a href="#IANA">9.</a>
IANA Considerations<br />
<a href="#Security">10.</a>
Security Considerations<br />
<a href="#anchor7">10.1.</a>
Unicode Comparison Security Issues<br />
<a href="#TBD">11.</a>
Open Issues and Things To Be Done (TBD)<br />
<a href="#rfc.references1">12.</a>
References<br />
<a href="#rfc.references1">12.1.</a>
Normative References<br />
<a href="#rfc.references2">12.2.</a>
Informative References<br />
<a href="#anchor10">Appendix A.</a>
Relationship of JWTs to SAML Tokens<br />
<a href="#anchor11">Appendix B.</a>
Relationship of JWTs to Simple Web Tokens (SWTs)<br />
<a href="#Acknowledgements">Appendix C.</a>
Acknowledgements<br />
<a href="#anchor12">Appendix D.</a>
Document History<br />
<a href="#rfc.authors">§</a>
Authors' Addresses<br />
</p>
<br clear="all" />
<a name="anchor1"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.1"></a><h3>1.
Introduction</h3>
<p>
JSON Web Token (JWT) is a compact token format intended for
space constrained environments such as HTTP Authorization
headers and URI query parameters. JWTs encode claims to be
transmitted as a JSON object (as defined in <a class='info' href='#RFC4627'>RFC 4627<span> (</span><span class='info'>Crockford, D., “The application/json Media Type for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON),” July 2006.</span><span>)</span></a> [RFC4627]) that is base64url encoded
and digitally signed and/or encrypted. Signing is
accomplished using JSON Web Signature (JWS) <a class='info' href='#JWS'>[JWS]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Balfanz, D., Bradley, J., Goland, Y., Panzer, J., Sakimura, N., and P. Tarjan, “JSON Web Signature (JWS),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a>. Encryption is accomplished using JSON Web Encryption
(JWE) <a class='info' href='#JWE'>[JWE]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Rescorla, E., and J. Hildebrand, “JSON Web Encryption (JWE),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a>.
</p>
<p>
The suggested pronunciation of JWT is the same as the English
word "jot".
</p>
<a name="anchor2"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.2"></a><h3>2.
Terminology</h3>
<p>
</p>
<blockquote class="text"><dl>
<dt>JSON Web Token (JWT)</dt>
<dd>
A string consisting of three parts: the Encoded JWT Header, the
JWT Second Part, and the JWT Third Part, in that order,
with the parts being separated by period ('.') characters,
and each part containing base64url encoded content.
</dd>
<dt>JWT Header</dt>
<dd>
A string representing a JSON object that
describes the cryptographic operations applied to the JWT.
When the JWT is signed, the JWT Header is the JWS Header.
When the JWT is encrypted, the JWT Header is the JWE Header.
</dd>
<dt>Header Parameter Names</dt>
<dd>
The names of the members within the JWT Header.
</dd>
<dt>Header Parameter Values</dt>
<dd>
The values of the members within the JWT Header.
</dd>
<dt>JWT Second Part</dt>
<dd>
When the JWT is signed, the JWT Second Part is the Encoded JWS Payload.
When the JWT is encrypted, the JWT Second Part is the Encoded JWE Encrypted Key.
</dd>
<dt>JWT Third Part</dt>
<dd>
When the JWT is signed, the JWT Third Part is the Encoded JWS Signature.
When the JWT is encrypted, the JWT Third Part is the Encoded JWE Ciphertext.
</dd>
<dt>JWT Claims Set</dt>
<dd>
A string representing a JSON object that
contains the claims conveyed by the JWT.
When the JWT is signed, the bytes of the UTF-8 representation of the
JWT Claims Set are base64url encoded to create the Encoded JWS Payload.
When the JWT is encrypted, the bytes of the UTF-8 representation of the
JWT Claims Set are used as the JWE Plaintext.
</dd>
<dt>Claim Names</dt>
<dd>
The names of the members of the JSON object represented by
the JWT Claims Set.
</dd>
<dt>Claim Values</dt>
<dd>
The values of the members of the JSON object represented by
the JWT Claims Set.
</dd>
<dt>Encoded JWT Header</dt>
<dd>
Base64url encoding of the bytes of the
UTF-8 <a class='info' href='#RFC3629'>RFC 3629<span> (</span><span class='info'>Yergeau, F., “UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646,” November 2003.</span><span>)</span></a> [RFC3629]
representation of the JWT Header.
</dd>
<dt>Base64url Encoding</dt>
<dd>
For the purposes of this specification, this term always
refers to the URL- and filename-safe Base64 encoding
described in <a class='info' href='#RFC4648'>RFC 4648<span> (</span><span class='info'>Josefsson, S., “The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data Encodings,” October 2006.</span><span>)</span></a> [RFC4648],
Section 5, with the (non URL-safe) '=' padding characters
omitted, as permitted by Section 3.2. (See Appendix C of
<a class='info' href='#JWS'>[JWS]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Balfanz, D., Bradley, J., Goland, Y., Panzer, J., Sakimura, N., and P. Tarjan, “JSON Web Signature (JWS),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a> for notes on implementing base64url
encoding without padding.)
</dd>
</dl></blockquote><p>
</p>
<a name="anchor3"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.3"></a><h3>3.
JSON Web Token (JWT) Overview</h3>
<p>
JWTs represent a set of claims as a JSON object that is
base64url encoded and digitally signed and/or
encrypted. The JWT Claims Set represents this JSON object.
As per <a class='info' href='#RFC4627'>RFC 4627<span> (</span><span class='info'>Crockford, D., “The application/json Media Type for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON),” July 2006.</span><span>)</span></a> [RFC4627]
Section 2.2, the JSON object consists of zero or more
name/value pairs (or members), where the names are strings and
the values are arbitrary JSON values. These members are the
claims represented by the JWT.
</p>
<p>
The member names within the JWT Claims Set are
referred to as Claim Names. The
corresponding values are referred to as Claim Values.
</p>
<p>
The bytes of the UTF-8 representation of the JWT Claims Set
are signed in the manner described in JSON Web Signature (JWS)
<a class='info' href='#JWS'>[JWS]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Balfanz, D., Bradley, J., Goland, Y., Panzer, J., Sakimura, N., and P. Tarjan, “JSON Web Signature (JWS),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a> and/or encrypted in the manner described
in JSON Web Encryption (JWE) <a class='info' href='#JWE'>[JWE]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Rescorla, E., and J. Hildebrand, “JSON Web Encryption (JWE),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a>.
</p>
<p>
The contents of the JWT Header describe the cryptographic
operations applied to the JWT Claims Set.
If the JWT Header is a JWS Header, the claims are signed.
If the JWT Header is a JWE Header, the claims are encrypted.
</p>
<p>
A JWT is represented as the concatenation of the Encoded JWT Header,
the JWT Second Part, and the JWT Third Part, in that order,
with the parts being separated by period ('.') characters.
When signed, the three parts of the JWT are the three parts of
a JWS used to represent the JWT. When encrypted, the three
parts of the JWT are the three parts of a JWE used to
represent the JWT.
</p>
<a name="ExampleJWT"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.3.1"></a><h3>3.1.
Example JWT</h3>
<p>
The following example JWT Header declares that the
encoded object is a JSON Web Token (JWT) and the JWT is
signed using the HMAC SHA-256 algorithm:
</p><div style='display: table; width: 0; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: auto'><pre>{"typ":"JWT",
"alg":"HS256"}</pre></div>
<p>
Base64url encoding the bytes of the UTF-8 representation of
the JWT Header yields this Encoded JWS Header value,
which is used as the Encoded JWT Header:
</p><div style='display: table; width: 0; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: auto'><pre>eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLA0KICJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9</pre></div>
<p>
The following is an example of a JWT Claims Set:
</p><div style='display: table; width: 0; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: auto'><pre>{"iss":"joe",
"exp":1300819380,
"http://example.com/is_root":true}</pre></div>
<p>
Base64url encoding the bytes of the UTF-8 representation of
the JSON Claims Set yields this Encoded JWS Payload,
which is used as the JWT Second Part
(with line breaks for display purposes only):
</p><div style='display: table; width: 0; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: auto'><pre>eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly
9leGFtcGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ</pre></div>
<p>
Signing the Encoded JWS Header and Encoded JWS Payload with
the HMAC SHA-256 algorithm and base64url encoding the
signature in the manner specified in <a class='info' href='#JWS'>[JWS]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Balfanz, D., Bradley, J., Goland, Y., Panzer, J., Sakimura, N., and P. Tarjan, “JSON Web Signature (JWS),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a>,
yields this Encoded JWS Signature, which is used as the JWT
Third Part:
</p><div style='display: table; width: 0; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: auto'><pre>dBjftJeZ4CVP-mB92K27uhbUJU1p1r_wW1gFWFOEjXk</pre></div>
<p>
Concatenating these parts in the order
Header.Second.Third with period characters between the
parts yields this complete JWT (with line breaks for
display purposes only):
</p><div style='display: table; width: 0; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: auto'><pre>eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLA0KICJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9
.
eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt
cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ
.
dBjftJeZ4CVP-mB92K27uhbUJU1p1r_wW1gFWFOEjXk</pre></div>
<p>
This computation is illustrated in more detail in <a class='info' href='#JWS'>[JWS]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Balfanz, D., Bradley, J., Goland, Y., Panzer, J., Sakimura, N., and P. Tarjan, “JSON Web Signature (JWS),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a>, Appendix A.1.
</p>
<a name="anchor4"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.4"></a><h3>4.
JWT Claims</h3>
<p>
The JWT Claims Set represents a JSON object whose members
are the claims conveyed by the JWT.
The Claim Names within this object MUST be unique.
Note however, that the set of claims that a
JWT must contain to be considered valid is context-dependent
and is outside the scope of this specification. When used in
a security-related context, implementations MUST understand
and support all of the claims present; otherwise, the JWT MUST
be rejected for processing.
</p>
<p>
There are three classes of JWT Claim Names: Reserved Claim
Names, Public Claim Names, and Private Claim Names.
</p>
<a name="ReservedClaimName"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.4.1"></a><h3>4.1.
Reserved Claim Names</h3>
<p>
The following claim names are reserved. None of the claims
defined in the table below are intended to be mandatory, but
rather, provide a starting point for a set of useful,
interoperable claims. All the names are short because a
core goal of JWTs is for the tokens to be compact.
</p><br /><hr class="insert" />
<a name="ClaimTable"></a>
<table class="full" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<col align="left"><col align="left"><col align="left"><col align="left">
<tr><th align="left">Claim Name</th><th align="left">JSON Value Type</th><th align="left">Claim Syntax</th><th align="left">Claim Semantics</th></tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">exp</td>
<td align="left">number</td>
<td align="left">IntDate</td>
<td align="left">
The <tt>exp</tt> (expiration time)
claim identifies the expiration time on or after which the
token MUST NOT be accepted for processing. The processing
of the <tt>exp</tt> claim requires that
the current date/time MUST be before the expiration
date/time listed in the <tt>exp</tt>
claim. Implementers MAY provide for some small leeway,
usually no more than a few minutes, to account for clock
skew. This claim is OPTIONAL.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">nbf</td>
<td align="left">number</td>
<td align="left">IntDate</td>
<td align="left">
The <tt>nbf</tt> (not before) claim
identifies the time before which the token MUST NOT be
accepted for processing. The processing of the <tt>nbf</tt> claim requires that the current
date/time MUST be after or equal to the not-before
date/time listed in the <tt>nbf</tt>
claim. Implementers MAY provide for some small leeway,
usually no more than a few minutes, to account for clock
skew. This claim is OPTIONAL.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">iat</td>
<td align="left">number</td>
<td align="left">IntDate</td>
<td align="left">
The <tt>iat</tt> (issued at) claim
identifies the time at which the JWT was issued. This
claim can be used to determine the age of the token.
This claim is OPTIONAL.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">iss</td>
<td align="left">string</td>
<td align="left">StringOrURI</td>
<td align="left">
The <tt>iss</tt> (issuer) claim
identifies the principal that issued the JWT. The
processing of this claim is generally application
specific.
The <tt>iss</tt> value is case sensitive.
This claim is OPTIONAL.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">aud</td>
<td align="left">string</td>
<td align="left">StringOrURI</td>
<td align="left">
The <tt>aud</tt> (audience) claim
identifies the audience that the JWT is intended for. The
principal intended to process the JWT MUST be identified
with the value of the audience claim. If the principal
processing the claim does not identify itself with the
identifier in the <tt>aud</tt> claim
value then the JWT MUST be rejected. The interpretation
of the audience value is generally
application specific.
The <tt>aud</tt> value is case sensitive.
This claim is OPTIONAL.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">prn</td>
<td align="left">string</td>
<td align="left">StringOrURI</td>
<td align="left">
The <tt>prn</tt> (principal) claim
identifies the subject of the JWT. The processing of this
claim is generally application specific.
The <tt>prn</tt> value is case sensitive.
This claim is OPTIONAL.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">jti</td>
<td align="left">string</td>
<td align="left">String</td>
<td align="left">
The <tt>jti</tt> (JWT ID) claim
provides a unique identifier for the JWT. The identifier
value MUST be assigned in a manner that ensures that there
is a negligible probability that the same value will be
accidentally assigned to a different data object. The
<tt>jti</tt> claim can be used to
prevent the JWT from being replayed.
The <tt>jti</tt> value is case sensitive.
This claim is OPTIONAL.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">typ</td>
<td align="left">string</td>
<td align="left">String</td>
<td align="left">
The <tt>typ</tt> (type) claim is used
to declare a type for the contents of this JWT Claims Set.
The <tt>typ</tt> value is case sensitive.
This claim is OPTIONAL.
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<br clear="all" />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" align="center"><tr><td align="center"><font face="monaco, MS Sans Serif" size="1"><b> Table 1: Reserved Claim Definitions </b></font><br /></td></tr></table><hr class="insert" />
<p>
Additional reserved claim names MAY be defined via the IANA
JSON Web Token Claims registry, as per <a class='info' href='#IANA'>Section 9<span> (</span><span class='info'>IANA Considerations</span><span>)</span></a>. The syntax values used above are defined as follows:
</p><br /><hr class="insert" />
<a name="SyntaxDefinitions"></a>
<table class="full" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<col align="left"><col align="left">
<tr><th align="left">Syntax Name</th><th align="left">Syntax Definition</th></tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">IntDate</td>
<td align="left">
The number of seconds from 1970-01-01T0:0:0Z as measured
in UTC until the desired date/time. See <a class='info' href='#RFC3339'>RFC 3339<span> (</span><span class='info'>Klyne, G., Ed. and C. Newman, “Date and Time on the Internet: Timestamps,” July 2002.</span><span>)</span></a> [RFC3339] for details regarding
date/times in general and UTC in particular.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">String</td>
<td align="left">
Any string value MAY be used.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">StringOrURI</td>
<td align="left">
Any string value MAY be used but a value containing a ":"
character MUST be a URI as defined in <a class='info' href='#RFC3986'>RFC 3986<span> (</span><span class='info'>Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, “Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax,” January 2005.</span><span>)</span></a> [RFC3986].
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<br clear="all" />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" align="center"><tr><td align="center"><font face="monaco, MS Sans Serif" size="1"><b> Table 2: Claim Syntax Definitions </b></font><br /></td></tr></table><hr class="insert" />
<a name="PublicClaimName"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.4.2"></a><h3>4.2.
Public Claim Names</h3>
<p>
Claim names can be defined at will by those using
JWTs. However, in order to prevent collisions, any new claim
name SHOULD either be defined in the IANA JSON Web Token
Claims registry or be defined as a URI that contains a
collision resistant namespace. Examples of collision
resistant namespaces include:
</p>
<ul class="text">
<li>
Domain Names,
</li>
<li>
Object Identifiers (OIDs) as defined in the ITU-T X.660
and X.670 Recommendation series, or
</li>
<li>
Universally Unique IDentifier (UUID) as defined in <a class='info' href='#RFC4122'>RFC 4122<span> (</span><span class='info'>Leach, P., Mealling, M., and R. Salz, “A Universally Unique IDentifier (UUID) URN Namespace,” July 2005.</span><span>)</span></a> [RFC4122].
</li>
</ul><p>
In each case, the definer of the name or value needs to take
reasonable precautions to make sure they are in control of
the part of the namespace they use to define the claim
name.
</p>
<a name="PrivateClaimName"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.4.3"></a><h3>4.3.
Private Claim Names</h3>
<p>
A producer and consumer of a JWT may agree to any claim
name that is not a Reserved Name <a class='info' href='#ReservedClaimName'>Section 4.1<span> (</span><span class='info'>Reserved Claim Names</span><span>)</span></a> or a Public Name <a class='info' href='#PublicClaimName'>Section 4.2<span> (</span><span class='info'>Public Claim Names</span><span>)</span></a>. Unlike Public Names,
these private names are subject to collision and should be
used with caution.
</p>
<a name="anchor5"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.5"></a><h3>5.
JWT Header</h3>
<p>
The members of the JSON object represented by the JWT Header
describe the cryptographic operations applied to the JWT and
optionally, additional properties of the JWT.
The member names within the JWT Header are
referred to as Header Parameter Names. These names MUST be
unique. The corresponding values are referred to as Header
Parameter Values.
</p>
<p>
Implementations MUST understand the entire contents of the
header; otherwise, the JWT MUST be rejected for processing.
</p>
<p>
There are two ways of distinguishing whether the JWT is a JWS
or JWE. The first is by examining the <tt>alg</tt> (algorithm) header value. If the
value represents a signature algorithm, the JWT is a JWS; if
it represents an encryption algorithm, the JWT is a JWE. A
second method is determining whether an <tt>enc</tt> (encryption method) member exists.
If the <tt>enc</tt> member exists, the JWT
is a JWE; otherwise, the JWT is a JWS. Both methods will
yield the same result.
</p>
<p>
JWS Header Parameters are defined by <a class='info' href='#JWS'>[JWS]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Balfanz, D., Bradley, J., Goland, Y., Panzer, J., Sakimura, N., and P. Tarjan, “JSON Web Signature (JWS),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a>.
JWE Header Parameters are defined by <a class='info' href='#JWE'>[JWE]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Rescorla, E., and J. Hildebrand, “JSON Web Encryption (JWE),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a>.
This specification further specifies the use of the following
header parameters in both the cases where the JWT is a JWS and
where it is a JWE.
</p><br /><hr class="insert" />
<a name="HeaderParameterTable"></a>
<table class="full" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<col align="left"><col align="left"><col align="left"><col align="left">
<tr><th align="left">Header Parameter Name</th><th align="left">JSON Value Type</th><th align="left">Header Parameter Syntax</th><th align="left">Header Parameter Semantics</th></tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">typ</td>
<td align="left">string</td>
<td align="left">String</td>
<td align="left">
The <tt>typ</tt> (type) header parameter
is used to declare structural information about the JWT.
In the normal case where nested signing or encryption
operations are not employed, the use of this header
parameter is OPTIONAL, and if present, it is RECOMMENDED that
its value be either "JWT" or
"http://openid.net/specs/jwt/1.0".
In the case that nested signing or encryption steps are
employed, the use of this header parameter is REQUIRED; in
this case, the value MUST either be "JWS", to indicate that
a nested signed JWT is carried in this JWT or "JWE", to
indicate that a nested encrypted JWT is carried in this JWT.
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<br clear="all" />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" align="center"><tr><td align="center"><font face="monaco, MS Sans Serif" size="1"><b> Table 3: Reserved Header Parameter Usage </b></font><br /></td></tr></table><hr class="insert" />
<a name="Plaintext"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.6"></a><h3>6.
Plaintext JWTs</h3>
<p>
To support use cases where the JWT content is secured by a
means other than a signature and/or encryption contained
within the token (such as a signature on a data structure
containing the token), JWTs MAY also be created without a
signature or encryption. Plaintext JWTs MUST use the <tt>alg</tt> value <tt>none</tt>, and are formatted identically to a
signed JWT with an empty signature. This means that the
base64url encoding of the bytes representing the UTF-8
encoding of the JWT Claims Set is the JWT Second Part, and
the empty string is the JWT Third Part.
</p>
<a name="ExamplePlaintextJWT"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.6.1"></a><h3>6.1.
Example Plaintext JWT</h3>
<p>
The following example JWT Header declares that the
encoded object is a Plaintext JWT:
</p><div style='display: table; width: 0; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: auto'><pre>{"alg":"none"}</pre></div>
<p>
Base64url encoding the bytes of the UTF-8 representation of
the JWT Header yields this Encoded JWT Header:
</p><div style='display: table; width: 0; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: auto'><pre>eyJhbGciOiJub25lIn0</pre></div>
<p>
The following is an example of a JWT Claims Set:
</p><div style='display: table; width: 0; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: auto'><pre>{"iss":"joe",
"exp":1300819380,
"http://example.com/is_root":true}</pre></div>
<p>
Base64url encoding the bytes of the UTF-8 representation of
the JSON Claims Set yields this Encoded JWS Payload,
which is used as the JWT Second Part
(with line breaks for display purposes only):
</p><div style='display: table; width: 0; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: auto'><pre>eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt
cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ</pre></div>
<p>
The JWT Third Part is the empty string.
</p>
<p>
Concatenating these parts in the order
Header.Second.Third with period characters between the
parts yields this complete JWT (with line breaks for
display purposes only):
</p><div style='display: table; width: 0; margin-left: 3em; margin-right: auto'><pre>eyJhbGciOiJub25lIn0
.
eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt
cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ
.
</pre></div>
<a name="anchor6"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.7"></a><h3>7.
Rules for Creating and Validating a JWT</h3>
<p>
To create a JWT, one MUST perform these steps:
</p>
<ol class="text">
<li>
Create a JWT Claims Set containing the desired claims.
Note that white space is explicitly allowed in the
representation and no canonicalization is performed before
encoding.
</li>
<li>
Let the Message be the bytes of the UTF-8 representation
of the JWT Claims Set.
</li>
<li>
Create a JWT Header containing the desired set of header
parameters. If the JWT is to be signed or encrypted, they
MUST conform to either the <a class='info' href='#JWS'>[JWS]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Balfanz, D., Bradley, J., Goland, Y., Panzer, J., Sakimura, N., and P. Tarjan, “JSON Web Signature (JWS),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a> or <a class='info' href='#JWE'>[JWE]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Rescorla, E., and J. Hildebrand, “JSON Web Encryption (JWE),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a> specifications, respectively. Else, if
the JWT is to be plaintext, the <tt>alg</tt> value <tt>none</tt> MUST be used. Note that white
space is explicitly allowed in the representation and no
canonicalization is performed before encoding.
</li>
<li>
Base64url encode the bytes of the UTF-8 representation of
the JWT Header. Let this be the Encoded JWT Header.
</li>
<li>
Depending upon whether the JWT is to be signed, encrypted,
or plaintext, there are three cases:
<ul class="text">
<li>
If the JWT is to be signed, create a JWS using the JWT
Header as the JWS Header and the Message as the JWS
Payload; all steps specified in <a class='info' href='#JWS'>[JWS]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Balfanz, D., Bradley, J., Goland, Y., Panzer, J., Sakimura, N., and P. Tarjan, “JSON Web Signature (JWS),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a>
for creating a JWS MUST be followed.
Let the JWT Second Part be the Encoded JWS Payload and
let the JWT Third Part be the Encoded JWS Signature.
</li>
<li>
If the JWT is to be encrypted, create a JWE using the
JWT Header as the JWE Header and the Message as the
JWE Plaintext; all steps specified in <a class='info' href='#JWE'>[JWE]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Rescorla, E., and J. Hildebrand, “JSON Web Encryption (JWE),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a> for creating a JWE MUST be followed.
Let the JWT Second Part be the Encoded JWE Encrypted
Key and let the JWT Third Part be the Encoded JWS
Ciphertext.
</li>
<li>
Else, if the JWT is to be plaintext, let the JWT
Second Part be the base64url encoding of the Message
and let the JWT Third Part be the empty string.
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Concatenate the Encoded JWT Header, the JWT Second Part,
and the JWT Third Part in that order, separating each by
period ('.') characters.
</li>
<li>
If a nested signing or encryption operation will be
performed, let the Message be this concatenation, and
return to Step 3, using a <tt>typ</tt>
value of either "JWS" or "JWE" respectively in the
new JWT Header created in that step.
</li>
<li>
Otherwise, let the resulting JWT be this concatenation.
</li>
</ol><p>
</p>
<p>
When validating a JWT the following steps MUST be taken. If
any of the listed steps fails then the token MUST be rejected
for processing.
</p>
<p>
</p>
<ol class="text">
<li>
The JWT MUST contain exactly two period characters.
</li>
<li>
The JWT MUST be split on the two period characters
resulting in three strings. The first string is the
Encoded JWT Header; the second is the JWT Second Part; the
third is the JWT Third Part.
</li>
<li>
The Encoded JWT Header MUST be successfully base64url
decoded following the restriction given in this
specification that no padding characters have been used.
</li>
<li>
The JWT Header MUST be completely valid JSON syntax
conforming to <a class='info' href='#RFC4627'>RFC 4627<span> (</span><span class='info'>Crockford, D., “The application/json Media Type for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON),” July 2006.</span><span>)</span></a> [RFC4627].
</li>
<li>
The JWT Header MUST be validated to only include
parameters and values whose syntax and semantics are both
understood and supported.
</li>
<li>
Determine whether the JWT is signed, encrypted, or
plaintext by examining the <tt>alg</tt>
(algorithm) header value and optionally, the <tt>enc</tt> (encryption method) header value,
if present.
</li>
<li>
Depending upon whether the JWT signed, encrypted,
or plaintext, there are three cases:
<ul class="text">
<li>
If the JWT is signed, all steps specified in <a class='info' href='#JWS'>[JWS]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Balfanz, D., Bradley, J., Goland, Y., Panzer, J., Sakimura, N., and P. Tarjan, “JSON Web Signature (JWS),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a> for validating a JWS MUST be followed.
Let the Message be the result of base64url decoding
the JWS Payload.
</li>
<li>
If the JWT is encrypted, all steps specified in <a class='info' href='#JWE'>[JWE]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Rescorla, E., and J. Hildebrand, “JSON Web Encryption (JWE),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a> for validating a JWE MUST be followed.
Let the Message be the JWE Plaintext.
</li>
<li>
Else, if the JWT is plaintext, let the Message be the
result of base64url decoding the JWE Second Part. The
Third Part MUST be verified to be the empty string.
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
If the JWT Header contains a <tt>typ</tt> value of either "JWS" or "JWE",
then the Message contains a JWT that was the subject of
nested signing or encryption operations, respectively. In
this case, return to Step 1, using the Message as the JWT.
</li>
<li>
Otherwise, let the JWT Claims Set be the Message.
</li>
<li>
The JWT Claims Set MUST be completely valid
JSON syntax conforming to <a class='info' href='#RFC4627'>RFC
4627<span> (</span><span class='info'>Crockford, D., “The application/json Media Type for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON),” July 2006.</span><span>)</span></a> [RFC4627].
</li>
<li>
When used in a security-related context, the
JWT Claims Set MUST be validated to only include claims
whose syntax and semantics are both understood and
supported.
</li>
</ol><p>
</p>
<p>
Processing a JWT inevitably requires comparing known strings
to values in the token. For example, in checking what the
algorithm is, the Unicode string encoding <tt>alg</tt> will be
checked against the member names in the JWT Header
to see if there is a matching header parameter
name. A similar process occurs when determining if the value
of the <tt>alg</tt> header parameter represents a supported
algorithm.
</p>
<p>
Comparisons between JSON strings and other Unicode strings
MUST be performed as specified below:
</p>
<ol class="text">
<li>
Remove any JSON applied escaping to produce an array of
Unicode code points.
</li>
<li>
<a class='info' href='#USA15'>Unicode Normalization<span> (</span><span class='info'>Davis, M., Whistler, K., and M. Dürst, “Unicode Normalization Forms,” 09 2009.</span><span>)</span></a> [USA15] MUST NOT
be applied at any point to either the JSON string or to
the string it is to be compared against.
</li>
<li>
Comparisons between the two strings MUST be performed as a
Unicode code point to code point equality comparison.
</li>
</ol><p>
</p>
<a name="Algorithms"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.8"></a><h3>8.
Cryptographic Algorithms</h3>
<p>
JWTs use JSON Web Signature (JWS) <a class='info' href='#JWS'>[JWS]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Balfanz, D., Bradley, J., Goland, Y., Panzer, J., Sakimura, N., and P. Tarjan, “JSON Web Signature (JWS),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a> and
JSON Web Encryption (JWE) <a class='info' href='#JWE'>[JWE]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Rescorla, E., and J. Hildebrand, “JSON Web Encryption (JWE),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a> to sign and/or
encrypt the contents of the JWT.
</p>
<p>
Of the JWS signing algorithms, only HMAC SHA-256 MUST be
implemented by conforming JWT implementations. It is
RECOMMENDED that implementations also support the RSA SHA-256
and ECDSA P-256 SHA-256 algorithms. Support for other
algorithms and key sizes is OPTIONAL.
</p>
<p>
If an implementation provides encryption capabilities,
of the JWE encryption algorithms, only RSA-PKCS1-1.5 with 2048 bit keys,
AES-128-CBC, and AES-256-CBC MUST be implemented by conforming
implementations. It is RECOMMENDED that implementations also
support ECDH-ES with 256 bit keys, AES-128-GCM, and
AES-256-GCM. Support for other algorithms and key sizes is
OPTIONAL.
</p>
<a name="IANA"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.9"></a><h3>9.
IANA Considerations</h3>
<p>
This specification calls for:
</p>
<ul class="text">
<li>
A new IANA registry entitled "JSON Web Token Claims" for
reserved claim names is defined in <a class='info' href='#ReservedClaimName'>Section 4.1<span> (</span><span class='info'>Reserved Claim Names</span><span>)</span></a>. Inclusion in the
registry is RFC Required in the <a class='info' href='#RFC5226'>RFC
5226<span> (</span><span class='info'>Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, “Guidelines for Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs,” May 2008.</span><span>)</span></a> [RFC5226] sense for reserved JWT claim names that are
intended to be interoperable between implementations. The
registry will just record the reserved claim name and a
pointer to the RFC that defines it. This specification
defines inclusion of the claim names defined in <a class='info' href='#ClaimTable'>Table 1<span> (</span><span class='info'>Reserved Claim Definitions</span><span>)</span></a>.
</li>
</ul><p>
</p>
<a name="Security"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.10"></a><h3>10.
Security Considerations</h3>
<p>
TBD: Lots of work to do here. We need to remember to look into
any issues relating to security and JSON parsing. One wonders
just how secure most JSON parsing libraries are. Were they
ever hardened for security scenarios? If not, what kind of
holes does that open up? Also, we need to walk through the
JSON standard and see what kind of issues we have especially
around comparison of names. For instance, comparisons of
claim names and other parameters must occur after they are
unescaped. Need to also put in text about: Importance of
keeping secrets secret. Rotating keys. Strengths and
weaknesses of the different algorithms.
</p>
<p>
TBD: Need to put in text about why strict JSON validation is
necessary. Basically, that if malformed JSON is received then
the intent of the sender is impossible to reliably discern.
One example of malformed JSON that MUST be rejected is
an object in which the same member name occurs multiple times.
While in non-security contexts it's o.k. to be
generous in what one accepts, in security contexts this can
lead to serious security holes. For example, malformed JSON
might indicate that someone has managed to find a security
hole in the issuer's code and is leveraging it to get the
issuer to issue "bad" tokens whose content the attacker can
control.
</p>
<p>
TBD: Write about the need to secure the token content if a
signature is not contained in the JWT itself.
</p>
<a name="anchor7"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.10.1"></a><h3>10.1.
Unicode Comparison Security Issues</h3>
<p>
Claim names in JWTs are Unicode strings. For security
reasons, the representations of these names must be compared
verbatim after performing any escape processing (as per
<a class='info' href='#RFC4627'>RFC 4627<span> (</span><span class='info'>Crockford, D., “The application/json Media Type for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON),” July 2006.</span><span>)</span></a> [RFC4627], Section 2.5).
</p>
<p>
This means, for instance, that these JSON strings must
compare as being equal ("JWT", "\u004aWT"), whereas these
must all compare as being not equal to the first set or to
each other ("jwt", "Jwt", "JW\u0074").
</p>
<p>
JSON strings MAY contain characters outside the Unicode
Basic Multilingual Plane. For instance, the G clef
character (U+1D11E) may be represented in a JSON string as
"\uD834\uDD1E". Ideally, JWT implementations SHOULD ensure
that characters outside the Basic Multilingual Plane are
preserved and compared correctly; alternatively, if this is
not possible due to these characters exercising limitations
present in the underlying JSON implementation, then input
containing them MUST be rejected.
</p>
<a name="TBD"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.11"></a><h3>11.
Open Issues and Things To Be Done (TBD)</h3>
<p>
The following items remain to be done in this draft:
</p>
<ul class="text">
<li>
Provide an example of an encrypted JWT.
</li>
<li>
Clarify the optional ability to provide type information
for JWTs and/or their parts. Specifically, clarify
whether we need to specify the <tt>typ</tt>
Claim Name in addition to the Header Parameter,
whether it conveys syntax or semantics, and indeed,
whether this is the right approach. Also clarify the
relationship between these type values and <a class='info' href='#RFC2045'>MIME<span> (</span><span class='info'>Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, “Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies,” November 1996.</span><span>)</span></a> [RFC2045] types (if any).
</li>
<li>
Think about how to best describe the concept currently
described as "the bytes of the UTF-8 representation of".
Possible terms to use instead of "bytes of" include "byte
sequence", "octet series", and "octet sequence". Also
consider whether we want to add an overall clarifying
statement somewhere in each spec something like "every
place we say 'the UTF-8 representation of X', we mean 'the
bytes of the UTF-8 representation of X'". That would
potentially allow us to omit the "the bytes of" part
everywhere else.
</li>
<li>
Consider whether a media type should be proposed, such as
"application/jwt".
</li>
<li>
Finish the Security Considerations section.
</li>
<li>
Possibly write a companion specification that contains the former
JWT JSON Serialization.
</li>
</ul><p>
</p>
<a name="rfc.references"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.12"></a><h3>12.
References</h3>
<a name="rfc.references1"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<h3>12.1. Normative References</h3>
<table width="99%" border="0">
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="JWS">[JWS]</a></td>
<td class="author-text"><a href="mailto:mbj@microsoft.com">Jones, M.</a>, <a href="mailto:balfanz@google.com">Balfanz, D.</a>, <a href="mailto:ve7jtb@ve7jtb.com">Bradley, J.</a>, <a href="mailto:yarong@microsoft.com">Goland, Y.</a>, <a href="mailto:jpanzer@google.com">Panzer, J.</a>, <a href="mailto:n-sakimura@nri.co.jp">Sakimura, N.</a>, and <a href="mailto:pt@fb.com">P. Tarjan</a>, “<a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-jones-json-web-signature">JSON Web Signature (JWS)</a>,” December 2011.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="RFC2045">[RFC2045]</a></td>
<td class="author-text"><a href="mailto:ned@innosoft.com">Freed, N.</a> and <a href="mailto:nsb@nsb.fv.com">N. Borenstein</a>, “<a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2045">Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies</a>,” RFC 2045, November 1996 (<a href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2045.txt">TXT</a>).</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="RFC2119">[RFC2119]</a></td>
<td class="author-text"><a href="mailto:sob@harvard.edu">Bradner, S.</a>, “<a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2119">Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels</a>,” BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997 (<a href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt">TXT</a>, <a href="http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/html/rfc2119.html">HTML</a>, <a href="http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/xml/rfc2119.xml">XML</a>).</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="RFC3339">[RFC3339]</a></td>
<td class="author-text"><a href="mailto:GK@ACM.ORG">Klyne, G., Ed.</a> and <a href="mailto:chris.newman@sun.com">C. Newman</a>, “<a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3339">Date and Time on the Internet: Timestamps</a>,” RFC 3339, July 2002 (<a href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3339.txt">TXT</a>, <a href="http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/html/rfc3339.html">HTML</a>, <a href="http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/xml/rfc3339.xml">XML</a>).</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="RFC3629">[RFC3629]</a></td>
<td class="author-text">Yergeau, F., “<a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3629">UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646</a>,” STD 63, RFC 3629, November 2003 (<a href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3629.txt">TXT</a>).</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="RFC3986">[RFC3986]</a></td>
<td class="author-text"><a href="mailto:timbl@w3.org">Berners-Lee, T.</a>, <a href="mailto:fielding@gbiv.com">Fielding, R.</a>, and <a href="mailto:LMM@acm.org">L. Masinter</a>, “<a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986">Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax</a>,” STD 66, RFC 3986, January 2005 (<a href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986.txt">TXT</a>, <a href="http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/html/rfc3986.html">HTML</a>, <a href="http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/xml/rfc3986.xml">XML</a>).</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="RFC4627">[RFC4627]</a></td>
<td class="author-text">Crockford, D., “<a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4627">The application/json Media Type for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)</a>,” RFC 4627, July 2006 (<a href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4627.txt">TXT</a>).</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="RFC4648">[RFC4648]</a></td>
<td class="author-text">Josefsson, S., “<a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4648">The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data Encodings</a>,” RFC 4648, October 2006 (<a href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4648.txt">TXT</a>).</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="RFC5226">[RFC5226]</a></td>
<td class="author-text">Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, “<a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5226">Guidelines for Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs</a>,” BCP 26, RFC 5226, May 2008 (<a href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5226.txt">TXT</a>).</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="USA15">[USA15]</a></td>
<td class="author-text"><a href="mailto:markdavis@google.com">Davis, M.</a>, <a href="mailto:ken@unicode.org">Whistler, K.</a>, and M. Dürst, “Unicode Normalization Forms,” Unicode Standard Annex 15, 09 2009.</td></tr>
</table>
<a name="rfc.references2"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<h3>12.2. Informative References</h3>
<table width="99%" border="0">
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="CanvasApp">[CanvasApp]</a></td>
<td class="author-text">Facebook, “<a href="http://developers.facebook.com/docs/authentication/canvas">Canvas Applications</a>,” 2010.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="JSS">[JSS]</a></td>
<td class="author-text">Bradley, J. and N. Sakimura (editor), “<a href="http://jsonenc.info/jss/1.0/">JSON Simple Sign</a>,” September 2010.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="JWE">[JWE]</a></td>
<td class="author-text"><a href="mailto:mbj@microsoft.com">Jones, M.</a>, <a href="mailto:ekr@rtfm.com">Rescorla, E.</a>, and <a href="mailto:jhildebr@cisco.com">J. Hildebrand</a>, “<a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-jones-json-web-encryption">JSON Web Encryption (JWE)</a>,” December 2011.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="MagicSignatures">[MagicSignatures]</a></td>
<td class="author-text">Panzer (editor), J., Laurie, B., and D. Balfanz, “<a href="http://salmon-protocol.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/draft-panzer-magicsig-experimental-00.html">Magic Signatures</a>,” August 2010.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="OASIS.saml-core-2.0-os">[OASIS.saml-core-2.0-os]</a></td>
<td class="author-text"><a href="mailto:cantor.2@osu.edu">Cantor, S.</a>, <a href="mailto:John.Kemp@nokia.com">Kemp, J.</a>, <a href="mailto:rphilpott@rsasecurity.com">Philpott, R.</a>, and <a href="mailto:eve.maler@sun.com">E. Maler</a>, “<a href="http://docs.oasis-open.org/security/saml/v2.0/saml-core-2.0-os.pdf">Assertions and Protocol for the OASIS Security Assertion Markup Language
(SAML) V2.0</a>,” OASIS Standard saml-core-2.0-os, March 2005.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="RFC3275">[RFC3275]</a></td>
<td class="author-text">Eastlake, D., Reagle, J., and D. Solo, “<a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3275">(Extensible Markup Language) XML-Signature Syntax and Processing</a>,” RFC 3275, March 2002 (<a href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3275.txt">TXT</a>).</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="RFC4122">[RFC4122]</a></td>
<td class="author-text"><a href="mailto:paulle@microsoft.com">Leach, P.</a>, <a href="mailto:michael@refactored-networks.com">Mealling, M.</a>, and <a href="mailto:rsalz@datapower.com">R. Salz</a>, “<a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4122">A Universally Unique IDentifier (UUID) URN Namespace</a>,” RFC 4122, July 2005 (<a href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4122.txt">TXT</a>, <a href="http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/html/rfc4122.html">HTML</a>, <a href="http://xml.resource.org/public/rfc/xml/rfc4122.xml">XML</a>).</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="SWT">[SWT]</a></td>
<td class="author-text">Hardt, D. and Y. Goland, “<a href="http://oauth-wrap-wg.googlegroups.com/web/SWT-v0.9.5.1.pdf?gda=Sn4MsEMAAABFB7PFAFiVedPtjcqT8uuIImHXUksNUKMXLyrSumAs_dF2tzlQ33RhT1wW8BFYO1QytiJ-HdGYYcPi_09pl8N7FWLveOaWjzbYnpnkpmxcWg">Simple Web Token (SWT)</a>,” Version 0.9.5.1, November 2009.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text" valign="top"><a name="W3C.CR-xml11-20021015">[W3C.CR-xml11-20021015]</a></td>
<td class="author-text">Cowan, J., “<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/CR-xml11-20021015">Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.1</a>,” W3C CR CR-xml11-20021015, October 2002.</td></tr>
</table>
<a name="anchor10"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.A"></a><h3>Appendix A.
Relationship of JWTs to SAML Tokens</h3>
<p>
<a class='info' href='#OASIS.saml-core-2.0-os'>SAML 2.0<span> (</span><span class='info'>Cantor, S., Kemp, J., Philpott, R., and E. Maler, “Assertions and Protocol for the OASIS Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) V2.0,” March 2005.</span><span>)</span></a> [OASIS.saml‑core‑2.0‑os] provides
a standard for creating tokens with much greater expressivity
and more security options than supported by JWTs. However, the
cost of this flexibility and expressiveness is both size and
complexity. In addition, SAML's use of <a class='info' href='#W3C.CR-xml11-20021015'>XML<span> (</span><span class='info'>Cowan, J., “Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.1,” October 2002.</span><span>)</span></a> [W3C.CR‑xml11‑20021015] and <a class='info' href='#RFC3275'>XML DSIG<span> (</span><span class='info'>Eastlake, D., Reagle, J., and D. Solo, “(Extensible Markup Language) XML-Signature Syntax and Processing,” March 2002.</span><span>)</span></a> [RFC3275] only contributes to the size
of SAML tokens.
</p>
<p>
JWTs are intended to provide a simple token format that is
small enough to fit into HTTP headers and query arguments in
URIs. It does this by supporting a much simpler token model
than SAML and using the <a class='info' href='#RFC4627'>JSON<span> (</span><span class='info'>Crockford, D., “The application/json Media Type for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON),” July 2006.</span><span>)</span></a> [RFC4627]
object encoding syntax. It also supports securing tokens using
Hash-based Message Authentication Codes (HMACs) and digital
signatures using a smaller (and less flexible) format than XML
DSIG.
</p>
<p>
Therefore, while JWTs can do some of the things SAML tokens
do, JWTs are not intended as a full replacement for SAML
tokens, but rather as a compromise token format to be used
when space is at a premium.
</p>
<a name="anchor11"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.B"></a><h3>Appendix B.
Relationship of JWTs to Simple Web Tokens (SWTs)</h3>
<p>
Both JWTs and Simple Web Tokens <a class='info' href='#SWT'>SWT<span> (</span><span class='info'>Hardt, D. and Y. Goland, “Simple Web Token (SWT),” November 2009.</span><span>)</span></a> [SWT],
at their core, enable sets of claims to be communicated
between applications. For SWTs, both the claim names and
claim values are strings. For JWTs, while claim names are
strings, claim values can be any JSON type. Both token types
offer cryptographic protection of their content: SWTs with
HMAC SHA-256 and JWTs with a choice of algorithms, including
HMAC SHA-256, RSA SHA-256, and ECDSA P-256 SHA-256.
</p>
<a name="Acknowledgements"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<a name="rfc.section.C"></a><h3>Appendix C.
Acknowledgements</h3>
<p>
The authors acknowledge that the design of JWTs was
intentionally influenced by the design and simplicity of <a class='info' href='#SWT'>Simple Web Tokens<span> (</span><span class='info'>Hardt, D. and Y. Goland, “Simple Web Token (SWT),” November 2009.</span><span>)</span></a> [SWT] and ideas for JSON
tokens that Dick Hardt discussed within the OpenID community.
</p>
<p>
Solutions for signing JSON content were previously explored by
<a class='info' href='#MagicSignatures'>Magic Signatures<span> (</span><span class='info'>Panzer (editor), J., Laurie, B., and D. Balfanz, “Magic Signatures,” August 2010.</span><span>)</span></a> [MagicSignatures], <a class='info' href='#JSS'>JSON Simple Sign<span> (</span><span class='info'>Bradley, J. and N. Sakimura (editor), “JSON Simple Sign,” September 2010.</span><span>)</span></a> [JSS], and <a class='info' href='#CanvasApp'>Canvas Applications<span> (</span><span class='info'>Facebook, “Canvas Applications,” 2010.</span><span>)</span></a> [CanvasApp], all of which
influenced this draft.
</p>
<a name="anchor12"></a><br /><hr />
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<a name="rfc.section.D"></a><h3>Appendix D.
Document History</h3>
<p>
-07
</p>
<ul class="text">
<li>
Defined the <tt>prn</tt> (principal)
claim to identify the subject of the JWT.
</li>
<li>
Defined the <tt>jti</tt> (JWT ID)
claim to enable replay protection.
</li>
<li>
Use the term "JWT Claims Set" rather than "JWT Claims Object"
since this is actually a string representing a JSON object
and not the JSON object itself.
</li>
<li>
Moved "MUST" requirements from the Overview to later in
the spec.
</li>
<li>
Respect line length restrictions in examples.
</li>
<li>
Applied other editorial improvements.
</li>
</ul><p>
</p>
<p>
-06
</p>
<ul class="text">
<li>
Reference and use content from <a class='info' href='#JWS'>[JWS]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Balfanz, D., Bradley, J., Goland, Y., Panzer, J., Sakimura, N., and P. Tarjan, “JSON Web Signature (JWS),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a> and
<a class='info' href='#JWE'>[JWE]<span> (</span><span class='info'>Jones, M., Rescorla, E., and J. Hildebrand, “JSON Web Encryption (JWE),” December 2011.</span><span>)</span></a>, rather than repeating it here.
</li>
<li>
Simplified terminology to better match JWE, where the
terms "JWT Header" and "Encoded JWT Header" are now used,
for instance, rather than the previous terms "Decoded JWT
Header Segment" and "JWT Header Segment". Also changed to
"Plaintext JWT" from "Unsigned JWT".
</li>
<li>
Describe how to perform nested encryption and signing
operations.
</li>
<li>
Changed "integer" to "number", since that is the correct
JSON type.
</li>
<li>
Changed StringAndURI to StringOrURI.
</li>
</ul><p>
</p>
<p>
-05
</p>
<ul class="text">
<li>
Added the <tt>nbf</tt> (not before)
claim and clarified the meaning of the <tt>iat</tt> (issued at) claim.
</li>
</ul><p>
</p>
<p>
-04
</p>
<ul class="text">
<li>
Correct typo found by John Bradley: "the JWT Claim Segment
is the empty string" -> "the JWT Crypto Segment is the
empty string".
</li>
</ul><p>
</p>
<p>
-03
</p>
<ul class="text">
<li>
Added "http://openid.net/specs/jwt/1.0" as a token type
identifier URI for JWTs.
</li>
<li>
Added <tt>iat</tt> (issued at) claim.
</li>
<li>
Changed RSA SHA-256 from MUST be supported to RECOMMENDED
that it be supported. Rationale: Several people have
objected to the requirement for implementing RSA SHA-256,
some because they will only be using HMACs and symmetric
keys, and others because they only want to use ECDSA when
using asymmetric keys, either for security or key length
reasons, or both.
</li>
<li>
Defined <tt>alg</tt> value <tt>none</tt> to represent unsigned JWTs.
</li>
</ul><p>
</p>
<p>
-02
</p>
<ul class="text">
<li>
Split signature specification out into separate
draft-jones-json-web-signature-00. This split introduced
no semantic changes.
</li>
<li>
The JWT Compact Serialization is now the only token
serialization format specified in this draft. The JWT
JSON Serialization can continue to be defined in a
companion specification.
</li>
</ul><p>
</p>
<p>
-01
</p>
<ul class="text">
<li>
Draft incorporating consensus decisions reached at IIW.
</li>
</ul><p>
</p>
<p>
-00
</p>
<ul class="text">
<li>
Public draft published before November 2010 IIW based upon
the JSON token convergence proposal incorporating input
from several implementers of related specifications.
</li>
</ul><p>
</p>
<a name="rfc.authors"></a><br /><hr />
<table summary="layout" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" class="TOCbug" align="right"><tr><td class="TOCbug"><a href="#toc"> TOC </a></td></tr></table>
<h3>Authors' Addresses</h3>
<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr><td class="author-text"> </td>
<td class="author-text">Michael B. Jones</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text"> </td>
<td class="author-text">Microsoft</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author" align="right">Email: </td>
<td class="author-text"><a href="mailto:mbj@microsoft.com">mbj@microsoft.com</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="author" align="right">URI: </td>
<td class="author-text"><a href="http://self-issued.info/">http://self-issued.info/</a></td></tr>
<tr cellpadding="3"><td> </td><td> </td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text"> </td>
<td class="author-text">Dirk Balfanz</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text"> </td>
<td class="author-text">Google</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author" align="right">Email: </td>
<td class="author-text"><a href="mailto:balfanz@google.com">balfanz@google.com</a></td></tr>
<tr cellpadding="3"><td> </td><td> </td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text"> </td>
<td class="author-text">John Bradley</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text"> </td>
<td class="author-text">independent</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author" align="right">Email: </td>
<td class="author-text"><a href="mailto:ve7jtb@ve7jtb.com">ve7jtb@ve7jtb.com</a></td></tr>
<tr cellpadding="3"><td> </td><td> </td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text"> </td>
<td class="author-text">Yaron Y. Goland</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text"> </td>
<td class="author-text">Microsoft</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author" align="right">Email: </td>
<td class="author-text"><a href="mailto:yarong@microsoft.com">yarong@microsoft.com</a></td></tr>
<tr cellpadding="3"><td> </td><td> </td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text"> </td>
<td class="author-text">John Panzer</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text"> </td>
<td class="author-text">Google</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author" align="right">Email: </td>
<td class="author-text"><a href="mailto:jpanzer@google.com">jpanzer@google.com</a></td></tr>
<tr cellpadding="3"><td> </td><td> </td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text"> </td>
<td class="author-text">Nat Sakimura</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text"> </td>
<td class="author-text">Nomura Research Institute</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author" align="right">Email: </td>
<td class="author-text"><a href="mailto:n-sakimura@nri.co.jp">n-sakimura@nri.co.jp</a></td></tr>
<tr cellpadding="3"><td> </td><td> </td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text"> </td>
<td class="author-text">Paul Tarjan</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author-text"> </td>
<td class="author-text">Facebook</td></tr>
<tr><td class="author" align="right">Email: </td>
<td class="author-text"><a href="mailto:pt@fb.com">pt@fb.com</a></td></tr>
</table>
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