What are OpenID Specifications

OpenID specifications are developed by working groups in three phases: Drafts, Implementer’s Drafts, and Final Specifications. Implementer’s Drafts and Final Specifications provide intellectual property protections to implementers. Final Specifications are OpenID Foundation standards.

Final Specifications

  • Authorization API 1.0 Final Specification – the Authorization API enables Policy Decision Points (PDPs) and Policy Enforcement Points (PEPs) to communicate authorization requests and decisions to each other without requiring knowledge of each other’s inner workings

 

  • EAP ACR Values – Enables OpenID Connect RPs to request that specific authentication context classes be applied to authentications performed and for OPs to inform RPs whether these requests were satisfied
  • OpenID Identity Assurance Schema Definition 1.0 – defines a payload schema that can be used to describe a wide variety of identity assurance metadata about a number of claims that have been assessed as meeting a given assurance level
  • OpenID Connect for Identity Assurance Claims Registration 1.0 – specification defines an extension of OpenID Connect that registers new JWT claims about end-users. This extension defines new claims relating to the identity of a natural person that were originally defined within earlier drafts of OpenID Connect for Identity Assurance. 
  • OpenID Connect for Identity Assurance 1.0 – defines an extension of OpenID Connect protocol for providing relying parties with claims about end-users that have a certain level of verification and/or additional metadata about the claim or the process of verification for access control, entitlement decisions or input to further verification processes
  • OpenID Connect Client Initiated Backchannel Authentication Flow – Core (replacing OpenID Connect Backchannel Authentication) –

    OpenID Connect Client Initiated Backchannel Authentication Flow is an authentication flow like OpenID Connect. However, unlike OpenID Connect, there is direct Relying Party to OpenID Provider communication without redirects through the user’s browser. This specification has the concept of a Consumption Device (on which the user interacts with the Relying Party) and an Authentication Device (on which the user authenticates with the OpenID Provider and grants consent). This specification allows a Relying Party that has an identifier for a user to obtain tokens from the OpenID Provider. The user starts the flow with the Relying Party at the Consumption Device, but authenticates and grants consent on the Authentication Device.

Implementer's Drafts

  • AuthZEN 1.0 – Defines the API for a Policy Enforcement Point requesting an authorization decision from a Policy Decision Point
  • FastFed Core 1.0 – FastFed simplifies the administrative effort to configure identity federation between an identity provider and a hosted application. The specification defines metadata documents, APIs, and flows to enable an administrator to quickly connect two providers that support common standards such as OpenID Connect, SAML, and SCIM, and allows configuration changes to be communicated directly between the identity provider and hosted application on a recurring basis.
    – Most recent Implementer’s Draft 
  • FastFed 1.0 SAML Profile – This specification defines the requirements to implement the FastFed Enterprise SAML Profile.
    – Most recent Implementer’s Draft 
  • FastFed 1.0 SCIM Profile – This specification defines the requirements to implement the FastFed Profile for SCIM 2.0 Enterprise provisioning. This profile supports continual provisioning, update, and deprovisioning of end-users between the Identity Provider and Application Provider.
    – Most recent Implementer’s Draft 
  • OpenID Connect MODRNA Authentication Profile – RPs are keen to use high quality authentication methods, which can be provided by Mobile Network Operators (MNO). However a RP must be able to describe its demands for an authentication request and it must be able to do this in an interoperable way. The MODRNA Authentication Profile will specify how RP’s request a certain level of assurance for the authentication. In addition, the profile will specify an encrypted login hint token to allow for the transport of user identifiers to the OP in a privacy preserving fashion. Lastly, the profile will specify an additional message parameter intended to serve as an interlock between the user’s consumption device and authentication device.
    – Most recent Implementer’s Draft 
  • OpenID Connect Account Porting – This specification defines mechanisms to support a user porting from one OpenID Connect Provider to another, such that relying parties can automatically recognize and verify the change.
    – Most recent Implementer’s Draft 
  • OpenID Connect User Questioning API – This specification defines an API offered by an OpenID Provider (OP) that can be used by an application to send a question to a user of the OP. The user does not need to be interacting with the application when the question is asked. The user’s answer is returned asynchronously, digitally-signed by the OP.

        – Most recent Implementer’s Draft

Errata Corrections

  • OpenID Connect Core 1.0 Second Errata – defines the core OpenID Connect functionality: authentication built on top of OAuth 2.0 and the use of Claims to communicate information about the End-User. It also describes the security and privacy considerations for using OpenID Connect.
  • OpenID Connect Discovery 1.0 Second Errata – specification defines a mechanism for an OpenID Connect Relying Party to discover the End-User’s OpenID Provider and obtain information needed to interact with it, including its OAuth 2.0 endpoint locations
  • OpenID Connect Dynamic Client Registration 1.0 Second Errata – defines how an OpenID Connect Relying Party can dynamically register with the End-User’s OpenID Provider, providing information about itself to the OpenID Provider, and obtaining information needed to use it, including the OAuth 2.0 Client ID for this Relying Party
  • OpenID Connect Back-Channel Logout 1.0 Second Errata – defines a logout mechanism that uses direct back-channel communication between the OP and RPs being logged out; this differs from front-channel logout mechanisms, which communicate logout requests from the OP to RPs via the User Agent
  • Errata Corrections to JWT Secured Authorization Response Mode for OAuth 2.0 (JARM) – defines a new JWT-based mode to encode OAuth authorization responses. Clients are enabled to request the transmission of the authorization response parameters along with additional data in JWT format. This mechanism enhances the security of the standard authorization response with support for signing and optional encryption of the response. A signed response provides message integrity, sender authentication, audience restriction, and protection from mix-up attacks. Encrypting the response provides confidentiality of the response parameter values. The JWT authorization response mode can be used in conjunction with any response type.