Re: Question: WebAuthn announcement -- relation to DIDs?

On 13/04/2018 18:10, Steven Rowat wrote:
> On 2018-04-13 9:44 AM, David Chadwick wrote:
>> Hi Steven
>>
>> the IETF work on Token binding allows a token to be shared between two
>> sites (e.g. issuer and verifier) via the user. This token can span
>> multiple sessions, and therefore, if this token is bound into a
>> verifiable credential that is issued specifically by the issuer for this
>> verifier (whose identity is unknown to issuer), the user can present it
>> to the verifier whenever he/she wants to, and the verifier can be
>> assured that the VC was meant for itself, whilst the issuer does not
>> know who the user is presenting the VC to, or when it is presented. This
>> does not break the Web Auth model, as the user will use different public
>> keys to talk to the issuer and the verifier. The only downside is that
>> the user will need the VC to be duplicated for each verifier he/she
>> visits, with each VC containing a different token value. But this is
>> good privacy protection because it does not allow verifiers to collude
>> and compare VCs (unless they contain a globally unique property such as
>> email address, in which case privacy is lost).
>>
> 
> Thank you, that's very interesting.
> 
> What I'm still fuzzy on is how these Tokens relate to DIDs.

I don't believe they do. They are created by the verifier. It is so that
the verifier, when it receives a signed message from an issuer, knows
that the issuer created the signed message specifically for it, since it
contains the token. If you want your VC to contain a DID or public key,
then this would need to be requested by the user to the issuer.

regards

David

> 
> Is a DID Document, and/or perhaps private/public keys that it specifies,
> usable as such a Token? Or am I misunderstanding, and Tokens are used at
> a different level?
> 
> Steven Rowat
> 
>> Regards
>>
>> David
>>
>> On 13/04/2018 17:10, Steven Rowat wrote:
>>> On 2018-04-12 11:17 PM, Adam Powers wrote:
>>>> Great point, here are the links from my presentation (there were a
>>>> couple other presentations as well):
>>>> https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LyYp_SZpqboIPfUa1lo9zKtNv9SIv-5I?usp=sharing
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I think the only real problem we encountered was that (by design)
>>>> WebAuthn uses "origin" to bind authentication to a specific service.
>>>> It's a solvable problem, it will just take some conversation to figure
>>>> out the pros and cons of some of the solutions that were mentioned. At
>>>> the very least, it's implementable / demo-able now but the same DID
>>>> can't be used across multiple sites until the origin issue gets solved.
>>>
>>> Interesting. This "can't be used across multiple sites", as I understand
>>> it, was a major reason why Verifiable Credentials and then DID have been
>>> developed -- to give the user/owner the control over their own identity
>>> data, so they can move from site to site and their data isn't locked in
>>> by a single vendor system.
>>>
>>> So, this is still a major problem; and one which, perhaps, many vendors
>>> in the FIDO alliance would rather wasn't solved? Because I think it's
>>> fair to say that at least some of the large corporations involved have a
>>> business model that depends on having that data all to themselves.
>>>
>>> And it seems, based on the presentation linked above, that this is
>>> relatively easy to solve, technically; or if not easy, at least doable.
>>>
>>> Yet will it be done? Because it doesn't seem easy to predict how it will
>>> all play out politically.
>>>
>>> IMO that may depend on there being sufficient demand for DID that the
>>> WebAuthn can't ignore it, even if some of those supporting WebAuthn
>>> would actually rather DID just failed. ;-)
>>>
>>>
>>> Steven Rowat
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> On April 12, 2018 at 10:19:06 AM, Andrew Hughes
>>>> (andrewhughes3000@gmail.com <mailto:andrewhughes3000@gmail.com>) wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> At the Internet Identity Workshop (IIW) last week in Mountain View,
>>>>> there were some sessions discussing exactly this topic - how should
>>>>> WebAuthn and Verifiable Credentials and Credentials Community Group
>>>>> work together - leaders from each of the efforts were in attendance.
>>>>>
>>>>> andrew.
>>>>>
>>>>> *Andrew Hughes *CISM CISSP
>>>>> *In Turn Information Management Consulting*
>>>>>
>>>>> o  +1 650.209.7542
>>>>> m +1 250.888.9474
>>>>> 1249 Palmer Road, Victoria, BC V8P 2H8
>>>>> AndrewHughes3000@gmail.com <mailto:AndrewHughes3000@gmail.com>
>>>>> ca.linkedin.com/pub/andrew-hughes/a/58/682/
>>>>> <http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/andrew-hughes/a/58/682/>
>>>>> *Identity Management | IT Governance | Information Security *
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Apr 12, 2018 at 10:08 AM, Adam Powers <adam@fidoalliance.org
>>>>> <mailto:adam@fidoalliance.org>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>      The quickest summary: WebAuthn is a way of generating public key
>>>>>      pairs, storing a public key on a server and the private key in
>>>>>      an "authenticator", and later using that key pair for
>>>>>      authentication to a service.
>>>>>
>>>>>      Insofar as DID is storing a public key in a DID document, that
>>>>>      public key can be generated by WebAuthn and stored by DID. The
>>>>>      most obvious overlap between DID and WebAuthn would be using
>>>>>      WebAuthn as the mechanism for DIDAuth -- although there is still
>>>>>      some work that needs to happen there to define and align the
>>>>>      specs. In my perspective, they should be complimentary and not
>>>>>      competitive.
>>>>>
>>>>>      I hope that helps.
>>>>>
>>>>>      Adam Powers,
>>>>>      Technical Director, FIDO Alliance
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>      On April 12, 2018 at 9:24:03 AM, Steven Rowat
>>>>>      (steven_rowat@sunshine.net <mailto:steven_rowat@sunshine.net>)
>>>>>      wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>      Greetings,
>>>>>>
>>>>>>      The Guardian yesterday had a story of what appears to be a major
>>>>>>      announcement about how WebAuthn will replace passwords:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>    
>>>>>> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/11/passwords-webauthn-new-web-standard-designed-replace-login-method
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>    
>>>>>> <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/11/passwords-webauthn-new-web-standard-designed-replace-login-method>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>      This included a quote showing that this is a W3C project:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>      “WebAuthn will change the way that people access the Web,” said
>>>>>>      Jeff
>>>>>>      Jaffe, chief executive of the World Wide Web Consortium
>>>>>> (W3C), the
>>>>>>      body that controls web standards."
>>>>>>
>>>>>>      And after looking at the recent API spec itself, I see that
>>>>>> it's a
>>>>>>      FIDO project, and so supported by Google, Microsoft, Paypal,
>>>>>>      and also
>>>>>>      Mozilla:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>      http://www.w3.org/TR/2018/CR-webauthn-20180320/
>>>>>>      <http://www.w3.org/TR/2018/CR-webauthn-20180320/>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>      My Question:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>      Is there any expected or known relationship between WebAuthn
>>>>>>      and the
>>>>>>      use of DIDs? ie., Can WebAuthn be used with DIDs? Will the
>>>>>>      uptake of
>>>>>>      WebAuthn preclude or inhibit the use of DIDs?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>      ie., Are DID Docs and WebAuthn in competition, or are they
>>>>>>      complementary?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>      Steven
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
> 

Received on Friday, 13 April 2018 19:09:21 UTC