Thanks Bill,

It would be useful to know where it is deployed and how it is being used.

If an existing deployment already uses the header to authenticate (via 
Authorization request header field), the resource server should continue to 
accept such request alongside the new name until it can get all clients to 
migrate. This is trivial to support.

The usage with the WWW-Authenticate header is being debated on another thread.

That's everywhere OAuth2 is used.

This is no different from the work Facebook has done to support parameter names 
we changed during the process to a live (and heavily used) production system. 
Probably the largest OAuth 2.0 deployment to date.

EHL

From: oauth-boun...@ietf.org [mailto:oauth-boun...@ietf.org] On Behalf Of 
William Mills
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 8:42 AM
To: OAuth WG
Subject: Re: [OAUTH-WG] Bearer token type and scheme name (deadline: 2/10)

I'm coming around to #1, I'll put my vote there.    I do agree that we have 
usage out there of the OAuth2 scheme and we need not to break that, how do we 
solve that?

From: oauth-boun...@ietf.org [mailto:oauth-boun...@ietf.org] On Behalf Of Eran 
Hammer-Lahav
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 12:34 AM
To: OAuth WG
Subject: [OAUTH-WG] Bearer token type and scheme name (deadline: 2/10)

After a long back-and-forth, I think it is time to present a few options and 
have people express their preferences.

These are the options mentioned so far and their +/-:

1. Descriptive, non-OAuth-specific scheme names (Bearer, MAC)

Each token type gets its own name (which does not include the word 'oauth' in 
it), as well as a matching HTTP authentication scheme if a new one is being 
defined.

Benefits:

- works cleanly with the HTTP authentication framework by simply defining new 
methods or reusing existing ones.
- schemes can be used outside the OAuth authorization flow (e.g. 2-legged OAuth 
1.0 use cases).
- all schemes are presented equally without giving any a preferred treatment.
- built-in discovery using 401 challenge header for which schemes are supported 
(with their respective information).

Downsides:

- potential creation of many new HTTP authentication schemes which has been 
stable for a long time.

2. Single OAuth2 scheme with sub-schemes

Define a single authentication scheme for all token types with some attribute 
used to detect which scheme is actually being used.

Benefits:

- single scheme, reuse of the 1.0 pattern.

Downsides:

- requires a new registry for authentication header parameters.
- schemes are not easily reusable outside OAuth.
- existing frameworks usually switch on scheme name, not on sub scheme, which 
will cause difficulty in some deployments.
- potential to produce a very complicated scheme once many sub schemes are 
added.
- requires its own discovery method for which schemes are supported.

3. Name prefix (e.g. oauth2_bearer)

Benefits:

- makes the protocol a bit easier to newbies since it will look all inclusive 
(authorization and authentication).

Downsides:

- makes reuse outside OAuth awkward without any technical benefit.

4. OAuth2 for bearer, MAC for mac

Name the bearer token 'OAuth2' and everything else gets a different name (with 
or without OAuth in it).

Benefits:

- Matches current draft.

Downsides:

- Elevates bearer token to the preferred token type, instead of promoting 
comparison of the various token types available.
- Creates a very odd usage where the authorization server issues an access 
token of type 'OAuth2' which is non-descriptive and very confusing (since there 
are other token types).
- Uses the name OAuth2 which stands for authorization in an authentication 
flow, continuing the confusion about what OAuth is (an authorization protocol).

---

Please reply with your preference by 2/10. As always, please provide feedback 
on the options and analysis.

EHL


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