[OpenID] Replacing email verification with RSS 'push' feeds and OAuth

[Peter Williams]

Once there is a direct channel between user and RP (that is not mediated by an OP), one can build on the tokens to create secure messaging - in much the same way that WS-SX builds on Security Token exchange to create a layer7-layer SSL-like handshake and two simplex associations in the WCF world.

Once one has associations, the user as OP or vanity site becomes more viable - as we now know that openid can leverage such an OOB association to share its master keying.


From: general-bounces at openid.net [mailto:general-bounces at openid.net] On Behalf Of Andrew Arnott
Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 11:04 AM
To: general; oauth at googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [OpenID] Replacing email verification with RSS 'push' feeds and OAuth

One more benefit of this system:
The RP has no idea who you are (unless you tell it by other means).  It can push messages to the user by POSTing to an SP's URL that is the same for all users, and the SP only knows which user is the recipient by the OAuth token.  Thus, the RP cannot correlate users, and can only ensure that message goes to the right user.  Privacy is built up this way.

It also provides an account recovery mechanism because the RP can push a message to the user with some secret passphrase the user can use later on in case the OP goes belly-up or cancels the user's account.
--
Andrew Arnott
"I [may] not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire

On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 8:45 AM, Andrew Arnott <andrewarnott at gmail.com<mailto:andrewarnott at gmail.com>> wrote:
Deep in another OpeNID thread I suggested part of this idea, but I've expanded on that idea in my head and think it deserves its own thread besides to get some feedback from you.

First the problems:

 *   Email verification is a step many web sites have to take the user through in order to make sure they can reach the user, to allow an account recovery step later on, and as a sort-of attempt to make sure they're not a bot, although that's not so reliable.
 *   Email verification does not prove to the web site that the email address is frequently checked by the user, or even owned by the user (it could be an anonymous email service).
 *   Email verification is a blocker to account registration for many would-be users.
 *   RPs can't generally rely on OPs' assertions of a user's email address because the OP could be controlled by the user.
 *   Users giving their personal or work email addresses to web sites, especially ones they are not planning on a long-term relationship with, contributes to the spam problem.
 *   The paradigm of using email to carry on a two-way communication doesn't fit very well as many web sites are only interested in pushing messages to you from a "noreply" email address.
 *   Web sites have a difficult time knowing when their emails are going to your spam folder, or when the email address has been deactivated or abandoned.
 *   Configuring web sites to send email can be difficult, particularly when their service provider disallows SMTP.
Proposed solution:

 1.  When a user logs into an RP using an OpenID, the RP performs discovery on the user's XRDS document and discovers a service element for push notifications that includes the URI to receive the messages the RP wishes to send to the user.  This element also includes information the RP needs to use OAuth for authorization to send to this message queue.
 2.  During authentication (if the OP is also providing the message queue service for the user) or immediately following authentication (if the user is using a separate message queuing service), the RP sends an OAuth message to the queuing SP requesting authorization to post messages to this user.  The user is directed to a web page explaining the RP wants to send messages and clicks "Accept".
 3.  The user is now logged into the RP.
When the RP wants to send messages to the user, it POSTs to the queuing SP using its OAuth token.
The user receives these messages in a manner previously configured with his queuing SP, which will typically be via email forwarding to his inbox.
If the user ever wants to terminate all messages from this RP, he can force this by revoking the OAuth token issued to the RP by visiting his queuing SP.
The RP realizes its messaging push permission has been revoked by the 401 Unauthorized HTTP response it receives the next time it tries to post a message and can then deactivate that account to save bandwidth and processing power.

Open issues / questions:

 1.  The RP will need a consumer key to send the OAuth request, but it often won't have one since any user with any queuing SP may log in.
 2.  A standardized message push POST format will have to be spec'd out.

--
Andrew Arnott
"I [may] not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openid.net/pipermail/openid-general/attachments/20090407/efebe681/attachment.htm>