PR#48 Update Nomenclature (was: 3/23/2016 W3C Web Authentication Agenda

On 3/22/16, 5:56 PM, "J.C. Jones" <jjones@mozilla.com<mailto:jjones@mozilla.com>> wrote:

As promised, a PR for the more-generic naming is posted. It has some whitespace changes in it as well, so I recommend reviewing using this URL that sets w=1:

https://github.com/w3c/webauthn/pull/48/files?w=1

great, thanks for doing this, it's a good start.


Generally, the following substitutions were made:

  *   Extensions were renamed from "fido." to "webauth."

given the ambiguity of "auth" wrt authentication or authorization, I suggest we use "webauthn" here and in the items below that contain the (sub)string "webauth".

  *   CredentialType "FIDO" was renamed to "ScopedUserCredential"

given the below "FIDO Credential" => "Scoped Credential", I'd make the above string "ScopedCredential" (or even "ScopedCred")


  *   "FIDO Authenticators" are now "WebAuth Authenticators"
  *   "FIDO Credential" and similar are now "Scoped Credential"
  *   "FIDO method" and similar are now "WebAuth method"
  *   "FIDO Relying Party" and similar are now just "Relying Party"

arguably the greatest point of misunderstanding between webauthn (nee FIDO) and the web federation / Web SSO worlds is using the unadorned term "Relying Party"  -- thus I suggest we do further qualify the term and try to faithfully use it. How about "WebAuthn Relying Party" ?

I've made a similar suggestion to the federation community that they(we) use the term "Federation Relying Party" in the fed context, or at least when one is discussing both webauthn and federation at the same time, eg where they interstect.

[ a webauthn RP is typically the IDP in a fed setting, while a Fed RP is likely not, but may be, a webauthn RP ]


  *   The WebIDL DOM interface is now type "WebAuthentication" and named "webauth"

HTH,

=JeffH