Re: [secdir] Security review of draft-ietf-oauth-token-exchange-14

[Brian Campbell <[e-mail]>]

Hi Hilarie and thank you for the review.

In looking again at the example in section 4.1 about nested Actor Claims I
agree that the scenario depicted by the example is confusing and rather
unrealistic. I'll endeavor to produce a better example in the next revision
of the draft.  I think perhaps showing a chain of delegation where the
actors are different systems rather than mixing users and systems would be
more straightforward.

So to be totally forthright, the Privacy Considerations section was written
in response to a single but persistent mailing list commenter who was
objecting to this (and other drafts for that matter) on the grounds that
details of services being accessed and personal information may be revealed
to the entities involved. But as you've noted, that's kinda fundamental to
how this stuff works - the token is obtained and sent in order to access
the resource. The Privacy Considerations text was basically just a
compromise noting that the concerns had been heard but so the draft could
move forward. Like many compromises, I don't know that anyone was
particularly happy with this one. I don't think the text really adds any
value - would simply removing it close that can of worms? Or would perhaps
incorporating some text similar to what's in
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7523#section-7 be helpful here? I honestly
don't know that much more concrete can be said about it. But I'm certainly
open to suggestions, should you have them.

Thanks,
Brian





---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: Hilarie Orman <[e-mail]>
> Date: Wed, Aug 8, 2018 at 1:47 AM
> Subject: Security review of draft-ietf-oauth-token-exchange-14
> To: <[e-mail]>, <[e-mail]>
> Cc: <[e-mail]>
>
>
> Security review of draft-ietf-oauth-token-exchange-14
> OAuth 2.0 Token Exchange
>
> I have reviewed this document as part of the security directorate's
> ongoing effort to review all IETF documents being processed by the IESG.
> These comments were written primarily for the benefit of the security area
> directors.  Document editors and WG chairs should treat these comments
> just like any other last call comments.
>
> The abstract states:
>    This specification defines a protocol for an HTTP- and JSON- based
>    Security Token Service (STS) by defining how to request and obtain
>    security tokens from OAuth 2.0 authorization servers, including
>    security tokens employing impersonation and delegation.
>
> [This review is late because I mistook the due date,
> dd-mm-yyyy = 06-08-2018
> for
> mm-dd-yyyy = 06-08-2018
> and ignored the mm because obviously it is August and just focused on
> the day.  Which goes to show that it is important to understand what
> a message means.]
>
> I'm not at all sure I understand what the various fields in the new
> OAuth 2.0 tokens really mean.  For example, section 4.1 about Actor
> Claims says that a web application might receive a token expressing
> that subject "admin" is acting for subject "user".  The web
> application could "exchange" that token for a new one showing itself
> as the actor for "user".  As a "chain of delegation", this is
> confusing.  It would seem that the original token could be used to
> access resources, and the "exchange" of one token for another is not
> necessary.
>
> The complications of delegation and "impersonation" and "may act for"
> aside, section 7 (Privacy) seems to open a can of worms.  Tokens may
> "reveal details of the target services" and thus may give away
> information about what the subject is doing or intends to do.  But the
> subject must send the token in order to access the resource.  What is
> a rational privacy policy for Oauth tokens?  Will clients find it
> expedient to include all their tokens in every request?  How does a
> client know which tokens a server can be trusted with?  The document
> suggests that the tokens should only be communicated according to the
> privacy policies of the "respective organizations".  How do two
> organizations communicate their privacy policies to one another?
> This section needs some amplification.
>
> The document is well-written, but the subject is complex.
>
> Hilarie
>
>

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