Re: Httpdir telechat review of draft-ietf-oauth-step-up-authn-challenge-13

And that PR is here
https://github.com/oauth-wg/oauth-step-up-authn-challenge/pull/3/files

On Wed, Apr 5, 2023 at 10:59 AM Brian Campbell <bcampbell@pingidentity.com>
wrote:

> Thank you for the review Mark. I've replied inline below with some context
> or explanation as best I can. And I'll put together a PR with corresponding
> changes/clarifications.
>
> On Tue, Apr 4, 2023 at 11:18 PM Mark Nottingham via Datatracker <
> noreply@ietf.org> wrote:
>
>> Reviewer: Mark Nottingham
>> Review result: Not Ready
>>
>> # HTTPDIR review of drat-ietf-oauth-step-up-authn-challenge-13
>>
>> I am an assigned HTTP directorate reviewer for
>> draft-ietf-masque-connect-ip.
>> These comments were written primarily for the benefit of the ART Area
>> Directors. Document editors and shepherd(s) should treat these comments
>> just
>> like they would treat comments from any other IETF contributors and
>> resolve
>> them along with any other Last Call comments that have been received. For
>> more
>> details on the HTTP Directorate, see
>> https://datatracker.ietf.org/group/intdir/about/.
>>
>> I've entered a 'not ready' position because of the first issue below; the
>> remaining are relatively easy to address.
>>
>> ## Comments
>>
>> ### Global HTTP Authentication Parameters
>>
>> This draft seems to modify the HTTP authentication mechanism globally,
>> regardless of the scheme in use. For example:
>>
>> "This specification introduces a new error code value for the error
>> parameter
>> of [RFC6750] or authentication schemes, such as [I-D.ietf-oauth-dpop],
>> which
>> use the error parameter"
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> "Furthermore, this specification defines additional WWW-Authenticate
>> auth-param
>> values to convey the authentication requirements back to the client."
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> "A client receiving an authorization error from the resource server
>> carrying
>> the error code insufficient_user_authentication SHOULD parse the
>> WWW-Authenticate header for acr_values and max_age and use them, if
>> present, in
>> constructing an authorization request"
>>
>> If that is the intent, you need to update RFC9110 (which is likely to be
>> contentious); otherwise, you need to scope it in such a way that
>> authentication
>> schemes 'opt into' their use.
>>
>
> The intent is definitely not to globally modify the HTTP authentication
> mechanism. Rather the intent is to provide a new error code and two new
> parameters for the "Bearer" authentication scheme challenge from RFC6750
> (and other OAuth schemes like "DPoP" that use the RFC6750 challenge params).
>
>
>
>
>>
>> ### Header Definition
>>
>> "This document also introduces acr_values and max_age parameters for the
>> WWW-Authenticate response header defined by [RFC6750]"
>>
>> RFC6750 does not define WWW-Authenticate; RFC9110 does.
>>
>
> Yeah, that was sloppy language. Apologies. The parameters are introduced
> for the Bearer authentication scheme challenge defined by [RFC6750] not the
> WWW-Authenticate response header in general.
>
>
>
> ## Nits
>>
>> I found the terminology in this draft confused, and confusing. E.g.,
>>
>> * Use of the term 'resource server' throughout is very jarring -- on the
>> Web,
>> it's just a 'resource'. The 'server' is responsible for the resource; if
>> you
>> mean the server, say 'server'; if you mean the resource, say 'resource'.
>> Don't
>> combine them.
>>
>> * Likewise, 'resource request' is redundant; every request is for a
>> resource.
>> Just say 'request'.
>>
>> * Similarly, the diagram on page 4 shows a 'resource server' returning a
>> 'protected resource'. Resources are never transferred over the network;
>> they
>> send representations in responses -- one of those terms should be used.
>>
>
> As Aaron mentioned in his reply to this thread - these terms are defined
> in RFC6749 and used throughout the OAuth family of specs providing useful
> context and disambiguation for OAuth roles and functionality etc. I agree
> with Aaron about adding a terminology paragraph to the draft to make it
> more explicit.
>
>

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