To close the loop on this, I believe you need to add “historical” in per 
Aaron’s suggested text to reflect the agreed upon state. 

I suggest we close this consensus question. Neil can you publish the final 
version so we can move to WGLC. 

Thanks for everyone’s contributions. 

Regards,
Karen

> On Feb 24, 2026, at 10:39 AM, Neil Madden <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> So, I think the deadline for this consensus call has passed.
> 
> I can live with Mike/Aaron's suggested text. It drops the word "legitimate" 
> that was the main cause of contention, I think. For reference the proposed 
> text is:
> 
> Although there are some use-cases for Unsecured JWS that are not security 
> vulnerabilities, these are relatively few in number and can easily be 
> satisfied by alternative means. For example, two of these are in OpenID 
> Connect [OpenID.Core]: (1) securing unsigned ID Tokens via transmission over 
> TLS in Section 3.1.3.7 and (2) the use of unsigned request objects in Section 
> 6.1.  The small risk of breaking some of these use-cases is far outweighed by 
> the improvement in security for the majority of JWS users who may be impacted 
> by accidental acceptance of the "none" algorithm.
> 
> Brian - can you live with that?
> 
> -- Neil
> 
>> On 4 Feb 2026, at 01:25, Michael Jones <[email protected]> wrote:
>> 
>> I’m good with Aaron’s suggestions.  And yes, 3.1.3.7 
>> <https://openid.net/specs/openid-connect-core-1_0.html#IDTokenValidation> 
>> (item 6) is a better reference.
>>  
>>                                                                 -- Mike
>>  
>> From: Aaron Parecki <[email protected]>
>> Sent: Tuesday, February 3, 2026 5:11 PM
>> To: JOSE WG <[email protected]>
>> Cc: Karen ODonoghue <[email protected]>
>> Subject: [jose] Re: Consensus question on text for "none" in 
>> draft-madden-jose-deprecate-none-rsa15
>>  
>> Arguably it was a mistake for OpenID Connect to use alg: none in the first 
>> place, and would have been better solved by returning the properties in the 
>> ID token directly in the token endpoint response like I describe here: 
>> https://drafts.aaronpk.com/openid-simplified-userinfo-response/draft-openid-simplified-userinfo-response.html
>>  But that ship sailed long ago and here we are.
>>  
>> I like the direction of the text Mike proposes. Can we add "historical" in 
>> there as well?
>>  
>> Although there are some historical use cases for Unsecured JWS that are not 
>> security vulnerabilities, these are relatively few in number and can easily 
>> be satisfied by alternative means. For example...
>>  
>> Also, wouldn't Section 3.1.3.7 be a better reference than Section 2 though? 
>> That is where it is explained that the RP can skip the JWT signature 
>> validation step even if the ID token is signed. So basically saying the RP 
>> can treat the JWT as an alg:none JWT even if it was signed.
>>  
>> Aaron
>>  
>>  
>> On Tue, Feb 3, 2026 at 4:42 PM Michael Jones <[email protected] 
>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> Thanks for this discussion and for the attempts to find a consensus position 
>> that all can live with to move the drafts forwards.
>>  
>> For context, in this message 
>> https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/jose/UJux4NgsC7tOVst0Qo0vkvvAcEM/ on 
>> July 24, 2025, I had suggested inclusion of the following wording so as to 
>> provide a balanced treatment of the subject:
>>  
>> 1.1.  
>> <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-jose-deprecate-none-rsa15-02.html#section-1.1>The
>>  'none' algorithm 
>> <https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-jose-deprecate-none-rsa15-02.html#name-the-none-algorithm>:
>>  After the sentence beginning “Although there are some legitimate use-cases 
>> for Unsecured JWS”, I suggest adding this text:
>> One of the legitimate use cases for Unsecured JWSs is OpenID Connect ID 
>> Tokens secured by sending them over a TLS connection, as described in 
>> Section 2 of [OpenID.Core].  Another legitimate use is unsigned request 
>> objects, as described in Section 6.1 of [OpenID.Core].
>>  
>> That way both known unsafe and known safe uses of “alg”: “none” would be 
>> described in the document – which is my core ask.  (Currently only misuses 
>> of it are referenced.)
>>  
>> I believe that Brian’s suggestion to possibly use a different description 
>> than “legitimate” may provide us a way forward towards a consensus position. 
>>  Let me take a crack at alternative language I could live with.  The draft 
>> currently says:
>>  
>> Although there are some legitimate use-cases for Unsecured JWS, these are 
>> relatively few in number and can easily be satisfied by alternative means. 
>> The small risk of breaking some of these use-cases is far outweighed by the 
>> improvement in security for the majority of JWS users who may be impacted by 
>> accidental acceptance of the "none" algorithm.
>>  
>> I could live with this treatment of my suggestion, by instead changing that 
>> paragraph to:
>>  
>> Although there are some use-cases for Unsecured JWS that are not security 
>> vulnerabilities, these are relatively few in number and can easily be 
>> satisfied by alternative means. For example, two of these are in OpenID 
>> Connect [OpenID.Core]: (1) securing unsigned ID Tokens via transmission over 
>> TLS in Section 2 and (2) the use of unsigned request objects in Section 6.1. 
>>  The small risk of breaking some of these use-cases is far outweighed by the 
>> improvement in security for the majority of JWS users who may be impacted by 
>> accidental acceptance of the "none" algorithm.
>>  
>> If people want to further improve the wording, great.  As long as a factual 
>> treatment of the safe uses of “alg”: “none” by OpenID Connect is included, 
>> I’ll probably be good with it.
>>  
>>                                                                 Thanks all,
>>                                                                 -- Mike
>>  
>> From: Filip Skokan <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
>> Sent: Tuesday, February 3, 2026 3:06 PM
>> To: Karen ODonoghue <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
>> Cc: JOSE WG <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
>> Subject: [jose] Re: Consensus question on text for "none" in 
>> draft-madden-jose-deprecate-none-rsa15
>>  
>> I prefer Option 2 both with or without the slight wording changes suggested 
>> by Neil and Brian in this thread.
>>  
>> S pozdravem,
>> Filip Skokan
>>  
>>  
>> On Tue, 3 Feb 2026 at 06:41, Karen ODonoghue <[email protected] 
>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> JOSE Working Group Members,
>> 
>> We are following up on discussions at IETF 124 on 
>> draft-madden-jose-deprecate-none-rsa15.
>> 
>> Firstly, thank you to Neil for your work on this draft and to those who have 
>> provided review thus far.
>> 
>> The one remaining outstanding item for this draft is whether to add text to 
>> capture legitimate use cases of "none" as suggested by Mike in his review 
>> https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/jose/Z4IJGxKubk81LK8ZKYjY3prPmis/
>> 
>> This was discussed in Montreal, with views both for and against this 
>> addition, and we agreed to follow up with discussion on list. With that in 
>> mind, we’d like to ask for a rough consensus on which of the following two 
>> choices you prefer: 
>> 
>> Option 1) Change the text in Section 1.1 to include the following suggested 
>> text: 
>> "One of the legitimate use cases for Unsecured JWSs is OpenID Connect ID 
>> Tokens secured by sending them over a TLS connection, as described in 
>> Section 2 of [OpenID.Core].  Another legitimate use is unsigned request 
>> objects, as described in Section 6.1 of [OpenID.Core].”
>> 
>> Option 2) Leave the text in Section 1.1 as it currently is: 
>> "Although there are some legitimate use-cases for Unsecured JWS, these are 
>> relatively few in number and can easily be satisfied by alternative means.”
>> 
>> In the absence of a compromise on some alternative text that is agreed to by 
>> rough consensus, we will need to make a choice between the two above 
>> approaches.
>> 
>> Please respond to this email with your preference for Option 1 or Option 2. 
>> Please provide a short rationale. so we can capture the view of the Working 
>> Group and move this draft forward.
>>  
>> This consensus call will last for two weeks ending on Tuesday, 17 February 
>> 2026. 
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> JOSE Chairs
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