-1 to including a signature mechanism in OAuth2 core

+1 to OAuth2 being clear about how it can deliver a secret key (and algorithm 
id etc) that can be used by a signature mechanism

Firstly -- a mechanism to sign HTTP requests would be great, but should not be 
dependent on methods for users to delegate authority to apps, or on methods for 
apps to get temporary, less-privileged credentials. That is, don't make it 
OAuth-specific.
Defining a request signing mechanism in OAuth2 core will cripple it with 
OAuth-specific quirks. The OAuth1 signing mechanism, for instance: uses names 
with "oauth_" prefixes; uses 2 keys (an apps long-term key, and the 
delegation-specific token key) whereas generic signing mechanisms invariable 
work with a single signing key; and overloads a single HTTP authentication 
scheme name with multiple purposes (indicating a server supports delegation, 
and conveying a request signature).

Secondly -- there isn't just one sensible signing mechanism, so how do we pick 
which one is specified in OAuth2 core. An enveloping-style signature (eg magic 
signatures?); an OAuth1-style signature using 2 keys; a signature covering HTTP 
method/URI/body but not other headers; a signature covering any HTTP headers; a 
signature that can be encoded in a URI; a signature that also works on non-HTTP 
systems; a signature scheme that is efficient when the client app already has 
its own long-term public/private key pair...


--
James Manger
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