One document matched: draft-ietf-oauth-json-web-token-24.xml
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<rfc category="std" ipr="trust200902" docName="draft-ietf-oauth-json-web-token-24">
<front>
<title>JSON Web Token (JWT)</title>
<author fullname="Michael B. Jones" initials="M.B." surname="Jones">
<organization>Microsoft</organization>
<address>
<email>mbj@microsoft.com</email>
<uri>http://self-issued.info/</uri>
</address>
</author>
<author fullname="John Bradley" initials="J." surname="Bradley">
<organization abbrev="Ping Identity">Ping Identity</organization>
<address>
<email>ve7jtb@ve7jtb.com</email>
<uri>http://www.thread-safe.com/</uri>
</address>
</author>
<author fullname="Nat Sakimura" initials="N." surname="Sakimura">
<organization abbrev="NRI">Nomura Research Institute</organization>
<address>
<email>n-sakimura@nri.co.jp</email>
<uri>http://nat.sakimura.org/</uri>
</address>
</author>
<date day="1" month="July" year="2014"/>
<area>Security</area>
<workgroup>OAuth Working Group</workgroup>
<keyword>RFC</keyword>
<keyword>Request for Comments</keyword>
<keyword>I-D</keyword>
<keyword>Internet-Draft</keyword>
<keyword>Assertion</keyword>
<keyword>Claim</keyword>
<keyword>Security Token</keyword>
<keyword>JavaScript Object Notation</keyword>
<keyword>JSON</keyword>
<keyword>JSON Web Token</keyword>
<keyword>JWT</keyword>
<keyword>JSON Object Signing and Encryption</keyword>
<keyword>JOSE</keyword>
<keyword>JSON Web Signature</keyword>
<keyword>JWS</keyword>
<keyword>JSON Web Encryption</keyword>
<keyword>JWE</keyword>
<keyword>JSON Web Key</keyword>
<keyword>JWK</keyword>
<keyword>JSON Web Algorithms</keyword>
<keyword>JWA</keyword>
<abstract>
<t>
JSON Web Token (JWT) is a compact URL-safe means of representing claims to be
transferred between two parties. The claims in a JWT are
encoded as a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) object that is
used as the payload of a JSON Web Signature (JWS) structure
or as the plaintext of a JSON Web Encryption (JWE) structure,
enabling the claims to be digitally signed or MACed and/or encrypted.
</t>
<t>
The suggested pronunciation of JWT is the same as the English
word "jot".
</t>
</abstract>
</front>
<middle>
<section title="Introduction" anchor="Introduction">
<t>
JSON Web Token (JWT) is a compact claims representation format intended for
space constrained environments such as HTTP Authorization headers
and URI query parameters.
JWTs encode claims to be transmitted as a
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) <xref target="RFC7159"/> object that is
used as the payload of a JSON Web Signature (JWS) <xref target="JWS"/> structure
or as the plaintext of a JSON Web Encryption (JWE) <xref target="JWE"/> structure,
enabling the claims to be digitally signed or MACed and/or encrypted.
JWTs are always represented using the JWS Compact Serialization
or the JWE Compact Serialization.
</t>
<t>
The suggested pronunciation of JWT is the same as the English
word "jot".
</t>
<section title="Notational Conventions" anchor="NotationalConventions">
<t>
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL",
"SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY",
and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as
described in
Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels <xref target='RFC2119' />.
If these words are used without being spelled in uppercase then
they are to be interpreted with their normal natural language meanings.
</t>
</section>
</section>
<section title="Terminology" anchor="Terminology">
<t>
These terms defined by the
JSON Web Signature (JWS) <xref target="JWS"/>
specification are incorporated into this specification:
"JSON Web Signature (JWS)",
"Base64url Encoding",
"Header Parameter",
"JOSE Header",
"JWS Compact Serialization",
"JWS Payload",
"JWS Signature",
and "Plaintext JWS".
</t>
<t>
These terms defined by the
JSON Web Encryption (JWE) <xref target="JWE"/>
specification are incorporated into this specification:
"JSON Web Encryption (JWE)",
"Content Encryption Key (CEK)",
"JWE Compact Serialization",
"JWE Encrypted Key",
"JWE Initialization Vector",
"JWE Plaintext".
</t>
<t>
These terms are defined by this specification:
</t>
<t>
<list style="hanging">
<t hangText="JSON Web Token (JWT)">
<vspace/>
A string representing a set of claims as a JSON object that is
encoded in a JWS or JWE,
enabling the claims to be digitally signed or MACed and/or encrypted.
</t>
<t hangText="JWT Claims Set">
<vspace/>
A JSON object that
contains the Claims conveyed by the JWT.
</t>
<t hangText="Claim">
<vspace/>
A piece of information asserted about a subject.
A Claim is represented as a name/value pair
consisting of a Claim Name and a Claim Value.
</t>
<t hangText="Claim Name">
<vspace/>
The name portion of a Claim representation.
A Claim Name is always a string.
</t>
<t hangText="Claim Value">
<vspace/>
The value portion of a Claim representation.
A Claim Value can be any JSON value.
</t>
<t hangText="Encoded JOSE Header">
<vspace/>
Base64url encoding of the JOSE Header.
</t>
<t hangText="Nested JWT">
<vspace/>
A JWT in which nested signing and/or encryption are employed.
In nested JWTs, a JWT is used as the payload or plaintext value
of an enclosing JWS or JWE structure, respectively.
</t>
<t hangText="Plaintext JWT">
<vspace/>
A JWT whose Claims are not integrity protected or encrypted.
</t>
<t hangText="Collision-Resistant Name">
<vspace/>
A name in a namespace that enables names to be allocated in a manner
such that they are highly unlikely to collide with other names.
Examples of collision-resistant namespaces include:
Domain Names,
Object Identifiers (OIDs) as defined in the ITU-T X.660
and X.670 Recommendation series, and
Universally Unique IDentifiers (UUIDs)
<xref target="RFC4122"/>.
When using an administratively delegated namespace,
the definer of a name needs to take
reasonable precautions to ensure they are in control of
the portion of the namespace they use to define the name.
</t>
<t hangText="StringOrURI">
<vspace/>
A JSON string value, with the additional requirement that
while arbitrary string values MAY be used, any value
containing a ":" character MUST be a URI
<xref target="RFC3986"/>.
StringOrURI values are compared as case-sensitive strings
with no transformations or canonicalizations applied.
</t>
<t hangText="IntDate">
<vspace/>
A JSON numeric value representing the number of seconds
from 1970-01-01T0:0:0Z UTC until the specified UTC date/time.
See <xref target="RFC3339">RFC 3339</xref> for details
regarding date/times in general and UTC in particular.
</t>
</list>
</t>
</section>
<section title="JSON Web Token (JWT) Overview" anchor="Overview">
<t>
JWTs represent a set of claims as a JSON object that is
encoded in a JWS and/or JWE structure.
This JSON object is the JWT Claims Set.
As per Section 4 of <xref target="RFC7159">RFC 7159</xref>,
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.
</t>
<t>
The member names within the JWT Claims Set are
referred to as Claim Names. The
corresponding values are referred to as Claim Values.
</t>
<t>
The contents of the JOSE Header describe the cryptographic
operations applied to the JWT Claims Set.
If the JOSE Header is for a JWS object, the JWT is represented as a JWS,
and the claims are digitally signed or MACed,
with the JWT Claims Set being the JWS Payload.
If the JOSE Header is for a JWE object, the JWT is represented as a JWE,
and the claims are encrypted,
with the JWT Claims Set being the JWE Plaintext.
A JWT may be enclosed in another JWE or JWS structure
to create a Nested JWT,
enabling nested signing and encryption to be performed.
</t>
<t>
A JWT is represented as a sequence of URL-safe parts
separated by period ('.') characters.
Each part contains a base64url encoded value.
The number of parts in the JWT is dependent upon
the representation of the resulting JWS or JWE
object using the JWS Compact Serialization
or the JWE Compact Serialization.
</t>
<section title="Example JWT" anchor="ExampleJWT">
<t>
The following example JOSE Header declares that the
encoded object is a JSON Web Token (JWT) and the JWT is
a JWS that is MACed using the HMAC SHA-256 algorithm:
</t>
<figure><artwork><![CDATA[
{"typ":"JWT",
"alg":"HS256"}
]]></artwork></figure>
<t>
To remove potential ambiguities in the representation of the JSON object above,
the octet sequence for the actual UTF-8 representation used in this example
for the JOSE Header above
is also included below.
(Note that ambiguities can arise due to
differing platform representations of line breaks (CRLF versus LF),
differing spacing at the beginning and ends of lines,
whether the last line has a terminating line break or not,
and other causes.
In the representation used in this example,
the first line has no leading or trailing spaces,
a CRLF line break (13, 10) occurs between the first and second lines,
the second line has one leading space (32) and no trailing spaces,
and the last line does not have a terminating line break.)
The octets representing the UTF-8 representation
of the JOSE Header in this example
(using JSON array notation) are:
</t>
<t>
[123, 34, 116, 121, 112, 34, 58, 34, 74, 87, 84, 34, 44, 13, 10, 32, 34, 97, 108, 103, 34, 58, 34, 72, 83, 50, 53, 54, 34, 125]
</t>
<t>
Base64url encoding the octets of the UTF-8 representation of
the JOSE Header yields this Encoded JOSE Header value:
</t>
<figure><artwork><![CDATA[
eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLA0KICJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9
]]></artwork></figure>
<t>
The following is an example of a JWT Claims Set:
</t>
<figure><artwork><![CDATA[
{"iss":"joe",
"exp":1300819380,
"http://example.com/is_root":true}
]]></artwork></figure>
<t>
The following octet sequence, which is the UTF-8 representation
used in this example for the JWT Claims Set above, is the JWS Payload:
</t>
<t>
[123, 34, 105, 115, 115, 34, 58, 34, 106, 111, 101, 34, 44, 13, 10, 32, 34, 101, 120, 112, 34, 58, 49, 51, 48, 48, 56, 49, 57, 51, 56, 48, 44, 13, 10, 32, 34, 104, 116, 116, 112, 58, 47, 47, 101, 120, 97, 109, 112, 108, 101, 46, 99, 111, 109, 47, 105, 115, 95, 114, 111, 111, 116, 34, 58, 116, 114, 117, 101, 125]
</t>
<t>
Base64url encoding the JWS Payload yields this encoded JWS Payload
(with line breaks for display purposes only):
</t>
<figure><artwork><![CDATA[
eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly
9leGFtcGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ
]]></artwork></figure>
<t>
Computing the MAC of the encoded JOSE Header and encoded JWS Payload with
the HMAC SHA-256 algorithm and base64url encoding the
HMAC value in the manner specified in <xref target="JWS" />,
yields this encoded JWS Signature:
</t>
<figure><artwork><![CDATA[
dBjftJeZ4CVP-mB92K27uhbUJU1p1r_wW1gFWFOEjXk
]]></artwork></figure>
<t>
Concatenating these encoded parts in this order
with period ('.') characters between the
parts yields this complete JWT
(with line breaks for display purposes only):
</t>
<figure><artwork><![CDATA[
eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLA0KICJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9
.
eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt
cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ
.
dBjftJeZ4CVP-mB92K27uhbUJU1p1r_wW1gFWFOEjXk
]]></artwork></figure>
<t>
This computation is illustrated in more detail in
Appendix A.1 of <xref target="JWS" />.
See <xref target="EncryptedJWTExample"/> for an example of
an encrypted JWT.
</t>
</section>
</section>
<section title="JWT Claims" anchor="Claims">
<t>
The JWT Claims Set represents a JSON object whose members
are the claims conveyed by the JWT.
The Claim Names within a JWT Claims Set MUST be unique;
recipients MUST either reject JWTs with duplicate Claim Names
or use a JSON parser that returns only the lexically last duplicate member name,
as specified in Section 15.12 (The JSON Object) of
ECMAScript 5.1 <xref target="ECMAScript"/>.
</t>
<t>
The set of claims that a
JWT must contain to be considered valid is context-dependent
and is outside the scope of this specification.
Specific applications of JWTs will require implementations
to understand and process some claims in particular ways.
However, in the absence of such requirements, all claims
that are not understood by implementations MUST be ignored.
</t>
<t>
There are three classes of JWT Claim Names:
Registered Claim Names, Public Claim Names, and Private Claim Names.
</t>
<section title="Registered Claim Names" anchor="RegisteredClaimName">
<t>
The following Claim Names are registered
in the IANA
JSON Web Token Claims registry
defined in
<xref target="JWTClaimsReg"/>.
None of the claims
defined below are intended to be mandatory to use or implement in all cases, but
rather, provide a starting point for a set of useful,
interoperable claims.
Applications using JWTs should define which specific claims they use
and when they are required or optional.
All the names are short because a
core goal of JWTs is for the representation to be compact.
</t>
<section title='"iss" (Issuer) Claim' anchor="issDef">
<t>
The <spanx style="verb">iss</spanx> (issuer) claim
identifies the principal that issued the JWT. The
processing of this claim is generally application
specific.
The <spanx style="verb">iss</spanx> value is a case-sensitive string
containing a StringOrURI value.
Use of this claim is OPTIONAL.
</t>
</section>
<section title='"sub" (Subject) Claim' anchor="subDef">
<t>
The <spanx style="verb">sub</spanx> (subject) claim
identifies the principal that is the subject of the JWT.
The Claims in a JWT are normally statements about the subject.
The subject value MAY be scoped to be locally unique
in the context of the issuer or MAY be globally unique.
The processing of this claim is generally application specific.
The <spanx style="verb">sub</spanx> value is a case-sensitive string
containing a StringOrURI value.
Use of this claim is OPTIONAL.
</t>
</section>
<section title='"aud" (Audience) Claim' anchor="audDef">
<t>
The <spanx style="verb">aud</spanx> (audience) claim
identifies the recipients that the JWT is intended for.
Each principal intended to process the JWT MUST identify itself
with a value in the audience claim. If the principal
processing the claim does not identify itself with a
value in the <spanx style="verb">aud</spanx> claim when this claim is present,
then the JWT MUST be rejected.
In the general case,
the <spanx style="verb">aud</spanx> value is an array of
case-sensitive strings, each containing a StringOrURI value.
In the special case when the JWT has one audience,
the <spanx style="verb">aud</spanx> value MAY be a single
case-sensitive string containing a StringOrURI value.
The interpretation of audience values is generally application specific.
Use of this claim is OPTIONAL.
</t>
</section>
<section title='"exp" (Expiration Time) Claim' anchor="expDef">
<t>
The <spanx style="verb">exp</spanx> (expiration time)
claim identifies the expiration time on or after which the
JWT MUST NOT be accepted for processing. The processing
of the <spanx style="verb">exp</spanx> claim requires that
the current date/time MUST be before the expiration
date/time listed in the <spanx style="verb">exp</spanx>
claim. Implementers MAY provide for some small leeway,
usually no more than a few minutes, to account for clock skew.
Its value MUST be a number containing an IntDate value.
Use of this claim is OPTIONAL.
</t>
</section>
<section title='"nbf" (Not Before) Claim' anchor="nbfDef">
<t>
The <spanx style="verb">nbf</spanx> (not before) claim
identifies the time before which the JWT MUST NOT be
accepted for processing. The processing of the <spanx
style="verb">nbf</spanx> claim requires that the current
date/time MUST be after or equal to the not-before
date/time listed in the <spanx style="verb">nbf</spanx>
claim. Implementers MAY provide for some small leeway,
usually no more than a few minutes, to account for clock skew.
Its value MUST be a number containing an IntDate value.
Use of this claim is OPTIONAL.
</t>
</section>
<section title='"iat" (Issued At) Claim' anchor="iatDef">
<t>
The <spanx style="verb">iat</spanx> (issued at) claim
identifies the time at which the JWT was issued. This
claim can be used to determine the age of the JWT.
Its value MUST be a number containing an IntDate value.
Use of this claim is OPTIONAL.
</t>
</section>
<section title='"jti" (JWT ID) Claim' anchor="jtiDef">
<t>
The <spanx style="verb">jti</spanx> (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
<spanx style="verb">jti</spanx> claim can be used to
prevent the JWT from being replayed.
The <spanx style="verb">jti</spanx> value is a case-sensitive string.
Use of this claim is OPTIONAL.
</t>
</section>
</section>
<section title="Public Claim Names" anchor="PublicClaimName">
<t>
Claim Names can be defined at will by those using
JWTs. However, in order to prevent collisions, any new
Claim Name should either be registered in the IANA
JSON Web Token Claims registry
defined in
<xref target="JWTClaimsReg" />
or be a Public Name:
a value that contains a Collision-Resistant Name.
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.
</t>
</section>
<section title="Private Claim Names" anchor="PrivateClaimName">
<t>
A producer and consumer of a JWT MAY agree to use Claim Names
that are Private Names: names that are
not Registered Claim Names <xref target="RegisteredClaimName"/>
or Public Claim Names <xref target="PublicClaimName"/>.
Unlike Public Claim Names, Private Claim Names are subject to collision and
should be used with caution.
</t>
</section>
</section>
<section title="JOSE Header" anchor="Header">
<t>
For a JWT object,
the members of the JSON object represented by the JOSE Header
describe the cryptographic operations applied to the JWT and
optionally, additional properties of the JWT.
Depending upon whether the JWT is a JWS or JWE,
the corresponding rules for the JOSE Header values apply.
</t>
<t>
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.
</t>
<section title='"typ" (Type) Header Parameter' anchor="typHdrDef">
<t>
The <spanx style="verb">typ</spanx> (type) Header Parameter
defined by <xref target="JWS" /> and <xref target="JWE" />
is used by JWT applications to declare the
MIME Media Type <xref target="IANA.MediaTypes"/>
of this complete JWT.
This is intended for use by the JWT application when
values that are not JWTs could also be present in
an application data structure that can contain a JWT object;
the application can use this value to disambiguate among
the different kinds of objects that might be present.
It will typically not be used by applications when
it is already known that the object is a JWT.
This parameter has no effect upon the JWT processing.
If present, it is RECOMMENDED that its value be
<spanx style="verb">JWT</spanx>
to indicate that this object is a JWT.
While media type names are not case-sensitive,
it is RECOMMENDED that <spanx style="verb">JWT</spanx>
always be spelled using uppercase characters
for compatibility with legacy implementations.
Use of this Header Parameter is OPTIONAL.
</t>
</section>
<section title='"cty" (Content Type) Header Parameter' anchor="ctyHdrDef">
<t>
The <spanx style="verb">cty</spanx> (content type) Header Parameter
defined by <xref target="JWS" /> and <xref target="JWE" />
is used by this specification
to convey structural information about the JWT.
</t>
<t>
In the normal case where nested signing or encryption
operations are not employed, the use of this Header Parameter
is NOT RECOMMENDED.
In the case that nested signing or encryption is
employed, this Header Parameter MUST be present; in
this case, the value MUST be <spanx style="verb">JWT</spanx>, to indicate that
a Nested JWT is carried in this JWT.
While media type names are not case-sensitive,
it is RECOMMENDED that <spanx style="verb">JWT</spanx>
always be spelled using uppercase characters
for compatibility with legacy implementations.
See <xref target="NestedJWTExample"/> for an example of a Nested JWT.
</t>
</section>
<section title="Replicating Claims as Header Parameters" anchor="ClaimsAsHeaders">
<t>
In some applications using encrypted JWTs, it is useful to
have an unencrypted representation of some Claims.
This might be used, for instance, in application processing rules
to determine whether and how to process the JWT before
it is decrypted.
</t>
<t>
This specification allows Claims present in the JWT Claims Set
to be replicated as Header Parameters in a JWT that is a JWE,
as needed by the application.
If such replicated Claims are present, the application receiving them
SHOULD verify that their values are identical,
unless the application defines other specific processing rules for these Claims.
It is the responsibility of the application to ensure that
only claims that are safe to be transmitted in an unencrypted manner
are replicated as Header Parameter values in the JWT.
</t>
<t>
<xref target="HdrContents"/> of this specification registers the
<spanx style="verb">iss</spanx> (issuer),
<spanx style="verb">sub</spanx> (subject), and
<spanx style="verb">aud</spanx> (audience)
Header Parameter names for the purpose of
providing unencrypted replicas of these Claims in encrypted JWTs
for applications that need them.
Other specifications MAY similarly register other names
that are registered Claim Names as Header Parameter names, as needed.
</t>
</section>
</section>
<section title="Plaintext JWTs" anchor="Plaintext">
<t>
To support use cases where the JWT content is secured by a
means other than a signature and/or encryption contained
within the JWT (such as a signature on a data structure
containing the JWT), JWTs MAY also be created without a
signature or encryption. A plaintext JWT is a JWS using the
<spanx style="verb">alg</spanx> Header Parameter value
<spanx style="verb">none</spanx> and
with the empty string for its JWS Signature value,
as defined in JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) <xref target="JWA"/>;
it is a Plaintext JWS with the JWT Claims Set as its JWS Payload.
</t>
<section title="Example Plaintext JWT" anchor="ExamplePlaintextJWT">
<t>
The following example JOSE Header declares that the
encoded object is a Plaintext JWT:
</t>
<figure><artwork><![CDATA[
{"alg":"none"}
]]></artwork></figure>
<t>
Base64url encoding the octets of the UTF-8 representation of
the JOSE Header yields this Encoded JOSE Header:
</t>
<figure><artwork><![CDATA[
eyJhbGciOiJub25lIn0
]]></artwork></figure>
<t>
The following is an example of a JWT Claims Set:
</t>
<figure><artwork><![CDATA[
{"iss":"joe",
"exp":1300819380,
"http://example.com/is_root":true}
]]></artwork></figure>
<t>
Base64url encoding the octets of the UTF-8 representation of
the JWT Claims Set yields this encoded JWS Payload
(with line breaks for display purposes only):
</t>
<figure><artwork><![CDATA[
eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt
cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ
]]></artwork></figure>
<t>
The encoded JWS Signature is the empty string.
</t>
<t>
Concatenating these encoded parts in this order
with period ('.') characters between the
parts yields this complete JWT
(with line breaks for display purposes only):
</t>
<figure><artwork><![CDATA[
eyJhbGciOiJub25lIn0
.
eyJpc3MiOiJqb2UiLA0KICJleHAiOjEzMDA4MTkzODAsDQogImh0dHA6Ly9leGFt
cGxlLmNvbS9pc19yb290Ijp0cnVlfQ
.
]]></artwork></figure>
</section>
</section>
<section title="Rules for Creating and Validating a JWT" anchor="Validating">
<t>
To create a JWT, the following steps MUST be taken. The order of
the steps is not significant in cases where there are no
dependencies between the inputs and outputs of the steps.
<list style="numbers">
<t>
Create a JWT Claims Set containing the desired claims.
Note that white space is explicitly allowed in the
representation and no canonicalization need be performed before
encoding.
</t>
<t>
Let the Message be the octets of the UTF-8 representation
of the JWT Claims Set.
</t>
<t>
Create a JOSE Header containing the desired set of Header Parameters.
The JWT
MUST conform to either the <xref target="JWS" /> or <xref
target="JWE" /> specifications.
Note that white
space is explicitly allowed in the representation and no
canonicalization need be performed before encoding.
</t>
<t>
Depending upon whether the JWT is a JWS or JWE,
there are two cases:
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
If the JWT is a JWS, create a JWS using
the Message as the JWS Payload;
all steps specified in <xref target="JWS" />
for creating a JWS MUST be followed.
</t>
<t>
Else, if the JWT is a JWE, create a JWE using
the Message as the JWE Plaintext;
all steps specified in <xref target="JWE" />
for creating a JWE MUST be followed.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
If a nested signing or encryption operation will be
performed, let the Message be the JWS or JWE, and
return to Step 3, using a <spanx style="verb">cty</spanx> (content type)
value of <spanx style="verb">JWT</spanx>
in the new JOSE Header created in that step.
</t>
<t>
Otherwise, let the resulting JWT be the JWS or JWE.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
When validating a JWT, the following steps MUST be taken. The
order of the steps is not significant in cases where there are
no dependencies between the inputs and outputs of the steps.
If any of the listed steps fails then the JWT MUST be
rejected for processing.
</t>
<t>
<list style="numbers">
<t>
The JWT MUST contain at least one period ('.') character.
</t>
<t>
Let the Encoded JOSE Header be the portion of the JWT
before the first period ('.') character.
</t>
<t>
The Encoded JOSE Header MUST be successfully base64url
decoded following the restriction given in this
specification that no padding characters have been used.
</t>
<t>
The resulting JOSE Header MUST be completely valid JSON syntax
conforming to <xref target="RFC7159">RFC 7159</xref>.
</t>
<t>
The resulting JOSE Header MUST be validated to only include
parameters and values whose syntax and semantics are both
understood and supported
or that are specified as being ignored when not understood.
</t>
<t>
Determine whether the JWT is a JWS or a JWE
using any of the methods described in
Section 9 of <xref target="JWE"/>.
</t>
<t>
Depending upon whether the JWT is a JWS or JWE,
there are two cases:
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
If the JWT is a JWS, all steps specified in <xref
target="JWS" /> for validating a JWS MUST be followed.
Let the Message be the result of base64url decoding
the JWS Payload.
</t>
<t>
Else, if the JWT is a JWE, all steps specified in <xref
target="JWE" /> for validating a JWE MUST be followed.
Let the Message be the JWE Plaintext.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
If the JOSE Header contains a <spanx style="verb">cty</spanx> (content type)
value of <spanx style="verb">JWT</spanx>,
then the Message is a JWT that was the subject of
nested signing or encryption operations. In
this case, return to Step 1, using the Message as the JWT.
</t>
<t>
Otherwise, let the JWT Claims Set be the Message.
</t>
<t>
The JWT Claims Set MUST be completely valid
JSON syntax conforming to <xref target="RFC7159">RFC 7159</xref>.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<section title="String Comparison Rules" anchor="StringComparison">
<t>
Processing a JWT inevitably requires comparing known strings
to values in JSON objects. For example, in checking what the
algorithm is, the Unicode string encoding
<spanx style="verb">alg</spanx> will be
checked against the member names in the JOSE Header
to see if there is a matching Header Parameter name.
</t>
<t>
Comparisons between JSON strings and other Unicode strings
MUST be performed by comparing Unicode code points without normalization,
as specified in the String Comparison Rules in Section 5.3 of <xref target="JWS" />.
</t>
</section>
</section>
<section title="Implementation Requirements" anchor="ImplementationRequirements">
<t>
This section defines which algorithms and features of this specification
are mandatory to implement.
Applications using this specification can impose additional requirements
upon implementations that they use.
For instance, an application might require support for encrypted JWTs and Nested JWTs;
another might require support for signing JWTs with
ECDSA using the P-256 curve and the SHA-256 hash algorithm
(<spanx style="verb">ES256</spanx>).
</t>
<t>
Of the signature and MAC algorithms specified in
JSON Web Algorithms (JWA) <xref target="JWA"/>, only
HMAC SHA-256
(<spanx style="verb">HS256</spanx>) and
<spanx style="verb">none</spanx>
MUST be implemented by conforming JWT implementations.
It is RECOMMENDED that implementations also support
RSASSA-PKCS1-V1_5 with the SHA-256 hash algorithm
(<spanx style="verb">RS256</spanx>) and
ECDSA using the P-256 curve and the SHA-256 hash algorithm
(<spanx style="verb">ES256</spanx>).
Support for other algorithms and key sizes is OPTIONAL.
</t>
<t>
Support for encrypted JWTs is OPTIONAL.
If an implementation provides encryption capabilities,
of the encryption algorithms specified in
<xref target="JWA"/>, only
RSAES-PKCS1-V1_5 with 2048 bit keys
(<spanx style="verb">RSA1_5</spanx>),
AES Key Wrap with 128 and 256 bit keys
(<spanx style="verb">A128KW</spanx> and <spanx style="verb">A256KW</spanx>), and
the composite authenticated encryption algorithm using AES CBC and HMAC SHA-2
(<spanx style="verb">A128CBC-HS256</spanx> and <spanx style="verb">A256CBC-HS512</spanx>)
MUST be implemented by conforming implementations.
It is RECOMMENDED that implementations also support using
ECDH-ES to agree upon a key used to wrap the Content Encryption Key
(<spanx style="verb">ECDH-ES+A128KW</spanx> and <spanx style="verb">ECDH-ES+A256KW</spanx>)
and
AES in Galois/Counter Mode (GCM) with 128 bit and 256 bit keys
(<spanx style="verb">A128GCM</spanx> and <spanx style="verb">A256GCM</spanx>).
Support for other algorithms and key sizes is OPTIONAL.
</t>
<t>
Support for Nested JWTs is OPTIONAL.
</t>
</section>
<section title="URI for Declaring that Content is a JWT" anchor="JWTURI">
<t>
This specification registers the URN
<spanx style='verb'>urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:jwt</spanx>
for use by applications that declare content types using URIs
(rather than, for instance, MIME Media Types)
to indicate that the content referred to is a JWT.
</t>
</section>
<section title="IANA Considerations" anchor="IANA">
<section title="JSON Web Token Claims Registry" anchor="JWTClaimsReg">
<t>
This specification establishes the
IANA JSON Web Token Claims registry
for JWT Claim Names.
The registry records the Claim Name
and a reference to the specification that defines it.
This specification registers the Claim Names
defined in <xref target="RegisteredClaimName"/>.
</t>
<t>
Values are registered on a Specification Required
<xref target="RFC5226"/> basis after a two-week review period on the [TBD]@ietf.org mailing
list, on the advice of one or more Designated Experts. However, to allow for the
allocation of values prior to publication, the Designated Expert(s) may approve
registration once they are satisfied that such a specification will be published.
</t>
<t>
Registration requests must be sent to the [TBD]@ietf.org mailing list for review and
comment, with an appropriate subject (e.g., "Request for access token type: example").
[[ Note to the RFC Editor:
The name of the mailing list should be determined in consultation
with the IESG and IANA. Suggested name: jwt-reg-review. ]]
</t>
<t>
Within the review period, the Designated Expert(s) will either approve or
deny the registration request, communicating this decision to the review list and IANA.
Denials should include an explanation and, if applicable, suggestions as to how to make
the request successful.
Registration requests that are undetermined for
a period longer than 21 days can be brought to the IESG's attention
(using the iesg@iesg.org mailing list) for resolution.
</t>
<t>
Criteria that should be applied by the Designated Expert(s) includes
determining whether the proposed registration duplicates existing functionality,
determining whether it is likely to be of general applicability
or whether it is useful only for a single application,
and whether the registration makes sense.
</t>
<t>
IANA must only accept registry updates from the Designated Expert(s) and should direct
all requests for registration to the review mailing list.
</t>
<t>
It is suggested that multiple Designated Experts be appointed who are able to
represent the perspectives of different applications using this specification,
in order to enable broadly-informed review of registration decisions.
In cases where a registration decision could be perceived as
creating a conflict of interest for a particular Expert,
that Expert should defer to the judgment of the other Expert(s).
</t>
<section title="Registration Template" anchor="ClaimsTemplate">
<t>
<list style='hanging'>
<t hangText='Claim Name:'>
<vspace/>
The name requested (e.g., "example").
Because a core goal of this specification is for the resulting
representations to be compact, it is RECOMMENDED that the name be short
-- not to exceed 8 characters without a compelling reason to do so.
This name is case-sensitive.
Names may not match other registered names in a case-insensitive manner
unless the Designated Expert(s) state that there is a compelling reason
to allow an exception in this particular case.
</t>
<t hangText='Claim Description:'>
<vspace/>
Brief description of the Claim (e.g., "Example description").
</t>
<t hangText='Change Controller:'>
<vspace/>
For Standards Track RFCs, state "IESG". For others, give the name of the
responsible party. Other details (e.g., postal address, email address, home page
URI) may also be included.
</t>
<t hangText='Specification Document(s):'>
<vspace/>
Reference to the document(s) that specify the parameter, preferably including URI(s) that
can be used to retrieve copies of the document(s). An indication of the relevant
sections may also be included but is not required.
</t>
</list>
</t>
</section>
<section title="Initial Registry Contents" anchor="ClaimsContents">
<t> <?rfc subcompact="yes"?>
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Claim Name: <spanx style="verb">iss</spanx>
</t>
<t>
Claim Description: Issuer
</t>
<t>
Change Controller: IESG
</t>
<t>
Specification Document(s): <xref target="issDef"/> of [[ this document ]]
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Claim Name: <spanx style="verb">sub</spanx>
</t>
<t>
Claim Description: Subject
</t>
<t>
Change Controller: IESG
</t>
<t>
Specification Document(s): <xref target="subDef"/> of [[ this document ]]
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Claim Name: <spanx style="verb">aud</spanx>
</t>
<t>
Claim Description: Audience
</t>
<t>
Change Controller: IESG
</t>
<t>
Specification Document(s): <xref target="audDef"/> of [[ this document ]]
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Claim Name: <spanx style="verb">exp</spanx>
</t>
<t>
Claim Description: Expiration Time
</t>
<t>
Change Controller: IESG
</t>
<t>
Specification Document(s): <xref target="expDef"/> of [[ this document ]]
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Claim Name: <spanx style="verb">nbf</spanx>
</t>
<t>
Claim Description: Not Before
</t>
<t>
Change Controller: IESG
</t>
<t>
Specification Document(s): <xref target="nbfDef"/> of [[ this document ]]
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Claim Name: <spanx style="verb">iat</spanx>
</t>
<t>
Claim Description: Issued At
</t>
<t>
Change Controller: IESG
</t>
<t>
Specification Document(s): <xref target="iatDef"/> of [[ this document ]]
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Claim Name: <spanx style="verb">jti</spanx>
</t>
<t>
Claim Description: JWT ID
</t>
<t>
Change Controller: IESG
</t>
<t>
Specification Document(s): <xref target="jtiDef"/> of [[ this document ]]
</t>
</list>
</t>
</section>
<?rfc subcompact="no"?>
</section>
<section title="Sub-Namespace Registration of urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:jwt" anchor="URNReg">
<section title="Registry Contents" anchor="URNContents">
<t>
This specification registers the value
<spanx style='verb'>token-type:jwt</spanx> in the
IANA urn:ietf:params:oauth registry established in
<xref target="RFC6755">An IETF URN Sub-Namespace for OAuth</xref>,
which can be used to indicate that the content is a JWT.
</t>
<t> <?rfc subcompact="yes"?>
<list style='symbols'>
<t>URN: urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:jwt</t>
<t>Common Name: JSON Web Token (JWT) Token Type</t>
<t>Change Controller: IESG</t>
<t>Specification Document(s): [[this document]]</t>
</list>
</t>
</section>
<?rfc subcompact="no"?>
</section>
<section title="Media Type Registration" anchor="MediaReg">
<section title="Registry Contents" anchor="MediaContents">
<t>
This specification registers the <spanx
style="verb">application/jwt</spanx> Media Type <xref target="RFC2046"/>
in the MIME Media Types registry <xref target="IANA.MediaTypes"/>,
which can be used to indicate that the content is a JWT.
</t>
<t> <?rfc subcompact="yes"?>
<list style="symbols">
<t>
Type Name: application
</t>
<t>
Subtype Name: jwt
</t>
<t>
Required Parameters: n/a
</t>
<t>
Optional Parameters: n/a
</t>
<t>
Encoding considerations: 8bit;
JWT values are encoded as a
series of base64url encoded values (some of which may be the
empty string) separated by period ('.') characters.
</t>
<t>
Security Considerations: See the Security Considerations section of [[ this document ]]
</t>
<t>
Interoperability Considerations: n/a
</t>
<t>
Published Specification: [[ this document ]]
</t>
<t>
Applications that use this media type:
OpenID Connect, Mozilla Persona, Salesforce, Google, numerous others
</t>
<t>
Additional Information:
Magic number(s): n/a,
File extension(s): n/a,
Macintosh file type code(s): n/a
</t>
<t>
Person & email address to contact for further information:
Michael B. Jones, mbj@microsoft.com
</t>
<t>
Intended Usage: COMMON
</t>
<t>
Restrictions on Usage: none
</t>
<t>
Author: Michael B. Jones, mbj@microsoft.com
</t>
<t>
Change Controller: IESG
</t>
</list>
</t>
</section>
<?rfc subcompact="no"?>
</section>
<section title="Header Parameter Names Registration" anchor="HdrReg">
<t>
This specification registers specific Claim Names defined in
<xref target="RegisteredClaimName"/> in the IANA
JSON Web Signature and Encryption Header Parameters registry
defined in
<xref target="JWS" />
for use by Claims replicated as Header Parameters in JWE objects,
per <xref target="ClaimsAsHeaders"/>.
</t>
<section title="Registry Contents" anchor="HdrContents">
<t> <?rfc subcompact="yes"?>
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Header Parameter Name: <spanx style="verb">iss</spanx>
</t>
<t>
Header Parameter Description: Issuer
</t>
<t>
Header Parameter Usage Location(s): JWE
</t>
<t>
Change Controller: IESG
</t>
<t>
Specification Document(s): <xref target="issDef"/> of [[ this document ]]
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Header Parameter Name: <spanx style="verb">sub</spanx>
</t>
<t>
Header Parameter Description: Subject
</t>
<t>
Header Parameter Usage Location(s): JWE
</t>
<t>
Change Controller: IESG
</t>
<t>
Specification Document(s): <xref target="subDef"/> of [[ this document ]]
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Header Parameter Name: <spanx style="verb">aud</spanx>
</t>
<t>
Header Parameter Description: Audience
</t>
<t>
Header Parameter Usage Location(s): JWE
</t>
<t>
Change Controller: IESG
</t>
<t>
Specification Document(s): <xref target="audDef"/> of [[ this document ]]
</t>
</list>
</t>
</section>
<?rfc subcompact="no"?>
</section>
</section>
<section title="Security Considerations" anchor="Security">
<t>
All of the security issues that are pertinent to any cryptographic application
must be addressed by JWT/JWS/JWE/JWK agents. Among these issues are protecting
the user's asymmetric private and symmetric secret keys,
preventing various attacks,
and helping avoid mistakes such as inadvertently encrypting a message to
the wrong recipient. The entire list of security considerations is
beyond the scope of this document, but some significant considerations are
listed here.
</t>
<t>
All the security considerations in the JWS specification also
apply to JWT, as do the JWE security considerations when
encryption is employed. In particular, the JWS
JSON Security Considerations and Unicode Comparison Security Considerations
apply equally to the JWT Claims Set in the same manner that
they do to the JOSE Header.
</t>
<section title="Trust Decisions" anchor="TrustDecisions">
<t>
The contents of a JWT cannot be relied upon in a trust decision
unless its contents have been cryptographically secured and
bound to the context necessary for the trust decision.
In particular, the key(s) used to sign and/or encrypt the JWT
will typically need to verifiably be under the control
of the party identified as the issuer of the JWT.
</t>
</section>
<section title="Signing and Encryption Order" anchor="SigEncOrder">
<t>
While syntactically, the signing and encryption operations for
Nested JWTs may be applied in any order,
normally senders should sign the message and then encrypt the
result (thus encrypting the signature). This prevents attacks
in which the signature is stripped, leaving just an encrypted
message, as well as providing privacy for the signer.
Furthermore, signatures over encrypted text are not considered
valid in many jurisdictions.
</t>
<t>
Note that potential concerns about security issues related to
the order of signing and encryption operations are already
addressed by the underlying JWS and JWE specifications;
in particular, because JWE only supports the use of
authenticated encryption algorithms, cryptographic concerns
about the potential need to sign after encryption that apply
in many contexts do not apply to this specification.
</t>
</section>
</section>
</middle>
<back>
<references title="Normative References">
<?rfc include='http://xml2rfc.tools.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.2119.xml' ?>
<?rfc include='http://xml2rfc.tools.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.2046.xml' ?>
<?rfc include='http://xml2rfc.tools.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.3986.xml' ?>
<?rfc include='http://xml2rfc.tools.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.4648.xml' ?>
<?rfc include='http://xml2rfc.tools.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.6755.xml' ?>
<?rfc include='http://xml2rfc.tools.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.7159.xml' ?>
<reference anchor="JWS">
<front>
<title>JSON Web Signature (JWS)</title>
<author fullname="Michael B. Jones" initials="M.B." surname="Jones">
<organization>Microsoft</organization>
<address>
<email>mbj@microsoft.com</email>
<uri>http://self-issued.info/</uri>
</address>
</author>
<author fullname="John Bradley" initials="J." surname="Bradley">
<organization abbrev="Ping Identity">Ping Identity</organization>
<address>
<email>ve7jtb@ve7jtb.com</email>
</address>
</author>
<author fullname="Nat Sakimura" initials="N." surname="Sakimura">
<organization abbrev="NRI">Nomura Research Institute</organization>
<address>
<email>n-sakimura@nri.co.jp</email>
</address>
</author>
<date day="1" month="July" year="2014"/>
</front>
<seriesInfo value="draft-ietf-jose-json-web-signature" name="Internet-Draft"/>
<format target="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-jose-json-web-signature" type="HTML" />
</reference>
<reference anchor="JWE">
<front>
<title>JSON Web Encryption (JWE)</title>
<author fullname="Michael B. Jones" initials="M.B." surname="Jones">
<organization>Microsoft</organization>
<address>
<email>mbj@microsoft.com</email>
<uri>http://self-issued.info/</uri>
</address>
</author>
<author fullname="Joe Hildebrand" initials="J." surname="Hildebrand">
<organization abbrev="Cisco">Cisco Systems, Inc.</organization>
<address>
<email>jhildebr@cisco.com</email>
</address>
</author>
<date day="1" month="July" year="2014"/>
</front>
<seriesInfo value="draft-ietf-jose-json-web-encryption" name="Internet-Draft"/>
<format target="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-jose-json-web-encryption" type="HTML" />
</reference>
<reference anchor="JWA">
<front>
<title>JSON Web Algorithms (JWA)</title>
<author fullname="Michael B. Jones" initials="M.B." surname="Jones">
<organization>Microsoft</organization>
<address>
<email>mbj@microsoft.com</email>
<uri>http://self-issued.info/</uri>
</address>
</author>
<date day="1" month="July" year="2014"/>
</front>
<seriesInfo value="draft-ietf-jose-json-web-algorithms" name="Internet-Draft"/>
<format target="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-jose-json-web-algorithms" type="HTML" />
</reference>
<reference anchor="ECMAScript">
<front>
<title>ECMAScript Language Specification, 5.1 Edition</title>
<author>
<organization>Ecma International</organization>
</author>
<date month="June" year="2011"/>
</front>
<seriesInfo name="ECMA" value="262"/>
<format target="http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/5.1/" type="HTML" />
<format target="http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/5.1/ECMA-262.pdf" type="PDF" />
</reference>
<reference anchor="IANA.MediaTypes">
<front>
<title>MIME Media Types</title>
<author>
<organization>Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)</organization>
</author>
<date year="2005"/>
</front>
<format target="http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types"
type="HTML" />
</reference>
</references>
<references title="Informative References">
<?rfc include='http://xml2rfc.tools.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.3275.xml' ?>
<?rfc include='http://xml2rfc.tools.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.3339.xml' ?>
<?rfc include='http://xml2rfc.tools.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.4122.xml' ?>
<?rfc include='http://xml2rfc.tools.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml/reference.RFC.5226.xml' ?>
<?rfc include='http://xml2rfc.tools.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml2/reference.OASIS.saml-core-2.0-os.xml' ?>
<?rfc include='http://xml2rfc.tools.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml4/reference.W3C.CR-xml11-20021015.xml' ?>
<?rfc include='http://xml2rfc.tools.ietf.org/public/rfc/bibxml4/reference.W3C.REC-xml-c14n-20010315.xml' ?>
<reference anchor="SWT">
<front>
<title>Simple Web Token (SWT)</title>
<author fullname="Dick Hardt" initials="D." surname="Hardt"></author>
<author fullname="Yaron Y. Goland" initials="Y.Y." surname="Goland"></author>
<date day="4" month="November" year="2009" />
</front>
<seriesInfo name="Version" value="0.9.5.1" />
<format target="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh781551.aspx" type="HTML" />
</reference>
<reference anchor="MagicSignatures">
<front>
<title>Magic Signatures</title>
<author fullname="John Panzer (editor)" initials="J." surname="Panzer (editor)"></author>
<author fullname="Ben Laurie" initials="B." surname="Laurie"></author>
<author fullname="Dirk Balfanz" initials="D." surname="Balfanz"></author>
<date day="7" month="January" year="2011" />
</front>
<format target="http://salmon-protocol.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/draft-panzer-magicsig-01.html" type="HTML" />
</reference>
<reference anchor="JSS">
<front>
<title>JSON Simple Sign</title>
<author fullname="John Bradley" initials="J." surname="Bradley">
<organization>independent</organization>
</author>
<author fullname="Nat Sakimura (editor)" initials="N. " surname="Sakimura (editor)">
<organization abbrev="NRI">Nomura Research Institute</organization>
</author>
<date month="September" year="2010" />
</front>
<format target="http://jsonenc.info/jss/1.0/" type="HTML" />
</reference>
<reference anchor="CanvasApp">
<front>
<title>Canvas Applications</title>
<author fullname="Facebook" surname="Facebook"></author>
<date year="2010" />
</front>
<format target="http://developers.facebook.com/docs/authentication/canvas" type="HTML" />
</reference>
</references>
<section title="JWT Examples" anchor="JWTExamples">
<t>
This section contains examples of JWTs.
For other example JWTs, see <xref target="ExamplePlaintextJWT"/> and
Appendices A.1, A.2, and A.3 of <xref target="JWS"/>.
</t>
<section title="Example Encrypted JWT" anchor="EncryptedJWTExample">
<t>
This example encrypts the same claims as used in <xref target="ExampleJWT"/>
to the recipient using RSAES-PKCS1-V1_5 and AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256.
</t>
<t>
The following example JOSE Header declares that:
<list style="symbols">
<t>
the Content Encryption Key is encrypted to the recipient
using the RSAES-PKCS1-V1_5 algorithm to produce
the JWE Encrypted Key and
</t>
<t>
the Plaintext is encrypted using the AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256
algorithm to produce the JWE Ciphertext.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<figure><artwork><![CDATA[
{"alg":"RSA1_5","enc":"A128CBC-HS256"}
]]></artwork></figure>
<t>
Other than using the octets of the UTF-8 representation of
the JWT Claims Set from <xref target="ExampleJWT"/>
as the plaintext value, the computation of this JWT is
identical to the computation of the JWE in
Appendix A.2 of <xref target="JWE"/>,
including the keys used.
</t>
<t>
The final result in this example
(with line breaks for display purposes only) is:
</t>
<figure><artwork><![CDATA[
eyJhbGciOiJSU0ExXzUiLCJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2In0.
QR1Owv2ug2WyPBnbQrRARTeEk9kDO2w8qDcjiHnSJflSdv1iNqhWXaKH4MqAkQtM
oNfABIPJaZm0HaA415sv3aeuBWnD8J-Ui7Ah6cWafs3ZwwFKDFUUsWHSK-IPKxLG
TkND09XyjORj_CHAgOPJ-Sd8ONQRnJvWn_hXV1BNMHzUjPyYwEsRhDhzjAD26ima
sOTsgruobpYGoQcXUwFDn7moXPRfDE8-NoQX7N7ZYMmpUDkR-Cx9obNGwJQ3nM52
YCitxoQVPzjbl7WBuB7AohdBoZOdZ24WlN1lVIeh8v1K4krB8xgKvRU8kgFrEn_a
1rZgN5TiysnmzTROF869lQ.
AxY8DCtDaGlsbGljb3RoZQ.
MKOle7UQrG6nSxTLX6Mqwt0orbHvAKeWnDYvpIAeZ72deHxz3roJDXQyhxx0wKaM
HDjUEOKIwrtkHthpqEanSBNYHZgmNOV7sln1Eu9g3J8.
fiK51VwhsxJ-siBMR-YFiA
]]></artwork></figure>
</section>
<section title="Example Nested JWT" anchor="NestedJWTExample">
<t>
This example shows how a JWT can be used as the payload
of a JWE or JWS to create a Nested JWT.
In this case, the JWT Claims Set is first signed, and then encrypted.
</t>
<t>
The inner signed JWT is identical to the example in
Appendix A.2 of <xref target="JWS"/>.
Therefore, its computation is not repeated here.
This example then encrypts this inner JWT
to the recipient using RSAES-PKCS1-V1_5 and AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256.
</t>
<t>
The following example JOSE Header declares that:
<list style="symbols">
<t>
the Content Encryption Key is encrypted to the recipient
using the RSAES-PKCS1-V1_5 algorithm to produce
the JWE Encrypted Key,
</t>
<t>
the Plaintext is encrypted using the AES_128_CBC_HMAC_SHA_256
algorithm to produce the JWE Ciphertext, and
</t>
<t>
the Plaintext is itself a JWT.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<figure><artwork><![CDATA[
{"alg":"RSA1_5","enc":"A128CBC-HS256","cty":"JWT"}
]]></artwork></figure>
<t>
Base64url encoding the octets of the UTF-8 representation of
the JOSE Header yields this encoded JOSE Header value:
</t>
<figure><artwork><![CDATA[
eyJhbGciOiJSU0ExXzUiLCJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2IiwiY3R5IjoiSldUIn0
]]></artwork></figure>
<t>
The computation of this JWT is
identical to the computation of the JWE in
Appendix A.2 of <xref target="JWE"/>,
other than that different
JOSE Header,
Plaintext,
JWE Initialization Vector, and
Content Encryption Key
values are used.
(The RSA key used is the same.)
</t>
<t>
The Payload used is the octets of the ASCII representation of
the JWT at the end of Appendix A.2.1 of <xref target="JWS"/>
(with all whitespace and line breaks removed),
which is a sequence of 458 octets.
</t>
<t>
The JWE Initialization Vector value used (using JSON array notation) is:
</t>
<t>
[82, 101, 100, 109, 111, 110, 100, 32, 87, 65, 32, 57, 56, 48, 53, 50]
</t>
<t>
This example uses the Content Encryption Key
represented by the base64url encoded value below:
</t>
<figure><artwork><![CDATA[
GawgguFyGrWKav7AX4VKUg
]]></artwork></figure>
<t>
The final result for this Nested JWT
(with line breaks for display purposes only) is:
</t>
<figure><artwork><![CDATA[
eyJhbGciOiJSU0ExXzUiLCJlbmMiOiJBMTI4Q0JDLUhTMjU2IiwiY3R5IjoiSldU
In0.
g_hEwksO1Ax8Qn7HoN-BVeBoa8FXe0kpyk_XdcSmxvcM5_P296JXXtoHISr_DD_M
qewaQSH4dZOQHoUgKLeFly-9RI11TG-_Ge1bZFazBPwKC5lJ6OLANLMd0QSL4fYE
b9ERe-epKYE3xb2jfY1AltHqBO-PM6j23Guj2yDKnFv6WO72tteVzm_2n17SBFvh
DuR9a2nHTE67pe0XGBUS_TK7ecA-iVq5COeVdJR4U4VZGGlxRGPLRHvolVLEHx6D
YyLpw30Ay9R6d68YCLi9FYTq3hIXPK_-dmPlOUlKvPr1GgJzRoeC9G5qCvdcHWsq
JGTO_z3Wfo5zsqwkxruxwA.
UmVkbW9uZCBXQSA5ODA1Mg.
VwHERHPvCNcHHpTjkoigx3_ExK0Qc71RMEParpatm0X_qpg-w8kozSjfNIPPXiTB
BLXR65CIPkFqz4l1Ae9w_uowKiwyi9acgVztAi-pSL8GQSXnaamh9kX1mdh3M_TT
-FZGQFQsFhu0Z72gJKGdfGE-OE7hS1zuBD5oEUfk0Dmb0VzWEzpxxiSSBbBAzP10
l56pPfAtrjEYw-7ygeMkwBl6Z_mLS6w6xUgKlvW6ULmkV-uLC4FUiyKECK4e3WZY
Kw1bpgIqGYsw2v_grHjszJZ-_I5uM-9RA8ycX9KqPRp9gc6pXmoU_-27ATs9XCvr
ZXUtK2902AUzqpeEUJYjWWxSNsS-r1TJ1I-FMJ4XyAiGrfmo9hQPcNBYxPz3GQb2
8Y5CLSQfNgKSGt0A4isp1hBUXBHAndgtcslt7ZoQJaKe_nNJgNliWtWpJ_ebuOpE
l8jdhehdccnRMIwAmU1n7SPkmhIl1HlSOpvcvDfhUN5wuqU955vOBvfkBOh5A11U
zBuo2WlgZ6hYi9-e3w29bR0C2-pp3jbqxEDw3iWaf2dc5b-LnR0FEYXvI_tYk5rd
_J9N0mg0tQ6RbpxNEMNoA9QWk5lgdPvbh9BaO195abQ.
AVO9iT5AV4CzvDJCdhSFlQ
]]></artwork></figure>
</section>
</section>
<section title="Relationship of JWTs to SAML Assertions" anchor="SAMLRelationship">
<t>
<xref target="OASIS.saml-core-2.0-os">SAML 2.0</xref> provides
a standard for creating security tokens with greater expressivity
and more security options than supported by JWTs. However, the
cost of this flexibility and expressiveness is both size and complexity.
SAML's use of XML <xref target="W3C.CR-xml11-20021015"/> and
XML DSIG <xref target="RFC3275"/> contributes to the size
of SAML assertions; its use of XML and especially
XML Canonicalization <xref target="W3C.REC-xml-c14n-20010315"/>
contributes to their complexity.
</t>
<t>
JWTs are intended to provide a simple security 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 JSON <xref target="RFC7159"/>
object encoding syntax. It also supports securing tokens using
Message Authentication Codes (MACs) and digital
signatures using a smaller (and less flexible) format than XML
DSIG.
</t>
<t>
Therefore, while JWTs can do some of the things SAML assertions
do, JWTs are not intended as a full replacement for SAML
assertions, but rather as a token format to be used
when ease of implementation or compactness are considerations.
</t>
<t>
SAML Assertions are always statements made by an entity about a subject.
JWTs are often used in the same manner, with the entity making the
statements being represented by the <spanx style="verb">iss</spanx> (issuer) claim, and
the subject being represented by the <spanx style="verb">sub</spanx> (subject) claim.
However, with these claims being optional, other uses of the JWT format are also permitted.
</t>
</section>
<section title="Relationship of JWTs to Simple Web Tokens (SWTs)" anchor="SWTRelationship">
<t>
Both JWTs and Simple Web Tokens <xref target="SWT">SWT</xref>,
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
signature, MAC, and encryption algorithms.
</t>
</section>
<section title="Acknowledgements" anchor="Acknowledgements">
<t>
The authors acknowledge that the design of JWTs was
intentionally influenced by the design and simplicity of <xref
target="SWT">Simple Web Tokens</xref> and ideas for JSON
tokens that Dick Hardt discussed within the OpenID community.
</t>
<t>
Solutions for signing JSON content were previously explored by
<xref target="MagicSignatures">Magic Signatures</xref>, <xref
target="JSS">JSON Simple Sign</xref>, and <xref
target="CanvasApp">Canvas Applications</xref>, all of which
influenced this draft.
</t>
<t>
This specification is the work of the OAuth Working Group,
which includes dozens of active and dedicated participants.
In particular, the following individuals contributed ideas,
feedback, and wording that influenced this specification:
</t>
<t>
Dirk Balfanz,
Richard Barnes,
Brian Campbell,
Breno de Medeiros,
Dick Hardt,
Joe Hildebrand,
Jeff Hodges,
Edmund Jay,
Yaron Y. Goland,
Ben Laurie,
James Manger,
Prateek Mishra,
Kathleen Moriarty,
Tony Nadalin,
Axel Nennker,
John Panzer,
Emmanuel Raviart,
David Recordon,
Eric Rescorla,
Jim Schaad,
Paul Tarjan,
Hannes Tschofenig,
and Sean Turner.
</t>
<t>
Hannes Tschofenig and Derek Atkins chaired the OAuth working group and
Sean Turner, Stephen Farrell, and Kathleen Moriarty served as Security area directors
during the creation of this specification.
</t>
</section>
<section title="Document History" anchor="History">
<t>
[[ to be removed by the RFC Editor before publication as an RFC ]]
</t>
<t>
-24
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Cleaned up the reference syntax in a few places.
</t>
<t>
Applied minor wording changes to the Security Considerations section.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-23
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Replaced the terms JWS Header, JWE Header, and JWT Header
with a single JOSE Header term defined in the JWS specification.
This also enabled a single Header Parameter definition to be used
and reduced other areas of duplication between specifications.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-22
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Revised the introduction to the Security Considerations section.
Also introduced subsection headings for security considerations items.
</t>
<t>
Added text about when applications typically would and would not use
the <spanx style="verb">typ</spanx> header parameter.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-21
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Removed unnecessary informative JWK spec reference.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-20
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Changed the RFC 6755 reference to be normative.
</t>
<t>
Changed the JWK reference to be informative.
</t>
<t>
Described potential sources of ambiguity in representing
the JSON objects used in the examples.
The octets of the actual UTF-8 representations of the JSON objects
used in the examples are included to remove these ambiguities.
</t>
<t>
Noted that octet sequences are depicted using JSON array notation.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-19
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Specified that support for Nested JWTs is optional and that
applications using this specification can impose additional requirements
upon implementations that they use.
</t>
<t>
Updated the JSON reference to RFC 7159.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-18
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Clarified that the base64url encoding includes no
line breaks, white space, or other additional characters.
</t>
<t>
Removed circularity in the audience claim definition.
</t>
<t>
Clarified that it is entirely up to applications which claims to use.
</t>
<t>
Changed "SHOULD" to "MUST" in
"in the absence of such requirements, all claims
that are not understood by implementations MUST be ignored".
</t>
<t>
Clarified that applications can define their own processing rules
for claims replicated in header parameters, rather than
always requiring that they be identical in the JWT Header and JWT Claims Set.
</t>
<t>
Removed a JWT creation step that duplicated a step
in the underlying JWS or JWE creation.
</t>
<t>
Added security considerations about using JWTs in trust decisions.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-17
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Corrected RFC 2119 terminology usage.
</t>
<t>
Replaced references to draft-ietf-json-rfc4627bis with RFC 7158.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-16
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Changed some references from being normative to informative,
per JOSE issue #90.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-15
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Replaced references to RFC 4627 with draft-ietf-json-rfc4627bis.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-14
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Referenced the JWE section on
Distinguishing between JWS and JWE Objects.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-13
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Added Claim Description registry field.
</t>
<t>
Used Header Parameter Description registry field.
</t>
<t>
Removed the phrases "JWA signing algorithms" and "JWA encryption algorithms".
</t>
<t>
Removed the term JSON Text Object.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-12
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Tracked the JOSE change
refining the <spanx style="verb">typ</spanx> and
<spanx style="verb">cty</spanx> definitions to always be
MIME Media Types, with the omission of "application/"
prefixes recommended for brevity.
For compatibility with legacy implementations,
it is RECOMMENDED that <spanx style="verb">JWT</spanx>
always be spelled using uppercase characters
when used as a <spanx style="verb">typ</spanx> or
<spanx style="verb">cty</spanx> value.
As side effects, this change removed the
<spanx style="verb">typ</spanx> Claim definition
and narrowed the uses of the URI
<spanx style="verb">urn:ietf:params:oauth:token-type:jwt</spanx>.
</t>
<t>
Updated base64url definition to match JOSE definition.
</t>
<t>
Changed terminology from "Reserved Claim Name" to "Registered Claim Name"
to match JOSE terminology change.
</t>
<t>
Applied other editorial changes to track parallel JOSE changes.
</t>
<t>
Clarified that the subject value may be scoped to be locally unique
in the context of the issuer or may be globally unique.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-11
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Added a Nested JWT example.
</t>
<t>
Added <spanx style="verb">sub</spanx> to the list of Claims
registered for use as Header Parameter values when
an unencrypted representation is required in an encrypted JWT.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-10
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Allowed Claims to be replicated as Header Parameters in
encrypted JWTs as needed by applications that require
an unencrypted representation of specific Claims.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-09
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Clarified that the
<spanx style="verb">typ</spanx> header parameter is used
in an application-specific manner
and has no effect upon the JWT processing.
</t>
<t>
Stated that recipients MUST either reject JWTs with
duplicate Header Parameter Names
or with duplicate Claim Names
or use a JSON parser that returns only
the lexically last duplicate member name.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-08
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Tracked a change to how JWEs are computed
(which only affected the example encrypted JWT value).
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-07
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Defined that the default action for claims that are not understood
is to ignore them unless otherwise specified by applications.
</t>
<t>
Changed from using the term "byte" to "octet" when referring to 8 bit values.
</t>
<t>
Tracked encryption computation changes in the JWE specification.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-06
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Changed the name of the <spanx style="verb">prn</spanx> claim
to <spanx style="verb">sub</spanx> (subject)
both to more closely align with SAML name usage
and to use a more intuitive name.
</t>
<t>
Allow JWTs to have multiple audiences.
</t>
<t>
Applied editorial improvements suggested by
Jeff Hodges, Prateek Mishra, and Hannes Tschofenig.
Many of these simplified the terminology used.
</t>
<t>
Explained why Nested JWTs should be signed and then encrypted.
</t>
<t>
Clarified statements of the form "This claim is OPTIONAL"
to "Use of this claim is OPTIONAL".
</t>
<t>
Referenced String Comparison Rules in JWS.
</t>
<t>
Added seriesInfo information to Internet Draft references.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-05
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Updated values for example AES CBC calculations.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-04
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Promoted Initialization Vector from being a header parameter to being a top-level JWE element.
This saves approximately 16 bytes in the compact serialization,
which is a significant savings for some use cases.
Promoting the Initialization Vector out of the header also avoids repeating
this shared value in the JSON serialization.
</t>
<t>
Applied changes made by the RFC Editor to RFC 6749's registry language
to this specification.
</t>
<t>
Reference RFC 6755 -- An IETF URN Sub-Namespace for OAuth.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-03
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Added statement that
"StringOrURI values are compared as case-sensitive strings
with no transformations or canonicalizations applied".
</t>
<t>
Indented artwork elements to better distinguish them from the body text.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-02
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Added an example of an encrypted JWT.
</t>
<t>
Added this language to Registration Templates:
"This name is case sensitive. Names that match other registered names
in a case insensitive manner SHOULD NOT be accepted."
</t>
<t>
Applied editorial suggestions.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-01
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Added the <spanx style="verb">cty</spanx> (content type) header parameter
for declaring type information about the secured content,
as opposed to the <spanx style="verb">typ</spanx> (type) header parameter,
which declares type information about this object.
This significantly simplified nested JWTs.
</t>
<t>
Moved description of how to determine whether a header is
for a JWS or a JWE from the JWT spec to the JWE spec.
</t>
<t>
Changed registration requirements from RFC Required to
Specification Required with Expert Review.
</t>
<t>
Added Registration Template sections for defined registries.
</t>
<t>
Added Registry Contents sections to populate registry values.
</t>
<t>
Added "Collision Resistant Namespace" to the terminology section.
</t>
<t>
Numerous editorial improvements.
</t>
</list>
</t>
<t>
-00
<list style='symbols'>
<t>
Created the initial IETF draft based upon
draft-jones-json-web-token-10 with no normative
changes.
</t>
</list>
</t>
</section>
</back>
</rfc>
| PAFTECH AB 2003-2026 | 2026-04-23 04:33:28 |