Cedar Profile for OAuth 2.0 Rich Authorization Requests

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

The original Auth 2.0 Rich Authorization Requests specification does not mandate any specific format for an authorization_detail parameter. This specification aims to provide a standardized and interoperable profile as an alternative to proprietary authorization_detail formats.¶

The purpose of a Cedar policy response format is to enable an authorization server to provide a client with a set of permissions in the format of Cedar policies which enable the client and the resource server to have a shared understanding, signed by the authorization server, of what actions are permissable in what contexts.¶

For example, an authorization request for a credit transfer (designated as "payment initiation" in several open banking initiatives) can be represented using a Cedar policy within a JSON object with double quote marks escaped like this:¶

{
"type": "payment_initiation"
"rarFormat": "cedar",
"policySet": "
  permit (
        principal == BankA::User::\"696d28c8-8912-41d2-b182-aa7087323318\",
        action == BankA::Action::\"initiate\",
    resource == Creditor::\"https://example.com/payments\"
        )
        when { context.instructedAmount.currency == \"EUR\" &&
    context.instructedAmount.amount == decimal(\"123.50\") &&
    resource.creditorName == \"Merchant A\" &&
    resource.creditorAccount.bic == \"ABCIDEFFXXX\" &&
    resource.creditorAccount.iban == \"DE02100100109307118603\" &&
    context.remittanceInformationUnstructured == \"Ref Number Merchant\"
        };
"
}

Finally, this specification provides security and privacy considerations meant to prevent common mistakes and anti patterns that are likely to occur.¶

2. Request in Cedar Policy Format

The authorization_details parameter in a Rich Authorization Request token request MAY contain the field "rarFormat" and in order to be compliant with this profile that field MUST equal the value "cedar".¶

An authorization_details array MAY contain multiple entries of the same type.¶

Figure 2 shows an authorization_details of type payment_initiation using the example data shown above:¶

[
        {
        "type": "payment_initiation"
        "rarFormat": "cedar",
        "policySet": "
                        permit (
                        principal == BankA::User::\"696d28c8-8912-41d2-b182-aa7087323318\",
                        action in [BankA::Action::\"initiate\", BankA::Action::\"status\", BankA::Action::\"cancel\"],
                        resource == Creditor::\"https://example.com/payments\"
                                )
                                when { context.instructedAmount.currency == \"EUR\" &&
                        context.instructedAmount.amount == decimal(\"123.50\") &&
                        resource.creditorName == \"Merchant A\" &&
                        resource.creditorAccount.iban == \"DE02100100109307118603\" &&
                                context.remittanceInformationUnstructured == \"Ref Number Merchant\"
                                };
                        "
        }
]

Figure 3 shows a combined request asking for access to account information and permission to initiate a payment:¶

[
 {
   "type": "account_information"
   "rarFormat": "cedar",
   "policySet": "
                permit (
                principal == BankA::User::\"696d28c8-8912-41d2-b182-aa7087323318\",
                action in [BankA::Action::\"list_accounts\", BankA::Action::\"read_balances\", BankA::Action::\"read_transactions\"],
                resource == BankA::\"https://example.com/accounts\"
                        );
                "
        },
        {
        "type": "payment_initiation"
        "rarFormat": "cedar",
        "policySet": "
                        permit (
                        principal == BankA::User::\"696d28c8-8912-41d2-b182-aa7087323318\",
                        action in [BankA::Action::\"initiate\", BankA::Action::\"status\", BankA::Action::\"cancel\"],
                        resource == Creditor::\"https://example.com/payments\"
                                )
                                when { context.instructedAmount.currency == \"EUR\" &&
                        context.instructedAmount.amount == decimal(\"123.50\") &&
                        resource.creditorName == \"Merchant A\" &&
                        resource.creditorAccount.iban == \"DE02100100109307118603\" &&
                                context.remittanceInformationUnstructured == \"Ref Number Merchant\"
                                };
                        "
        }
]

7. Token Response

The authorization_details parameter in a Rich Authorization Request token response MAY contain the field "rarFormat" and that field MUST equal the value "cedar".¶

The AS MAY respond with policies in the authorization_details to the client which are less permissive than the policies requested.¶

For our running example, it would look like this:¶

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Cache-Control: no-store

{
   "access_token": "2YotnFZFEjr1zCsicMWpAA",
   "token_type": "example",
   "expires_in": 3600,
   "refresh_token": "tGzv3JOkF0XG5Qx2TlKWIA",
   "authorization_details": [
      {
                        "type": "payment_initiation"
                        "rarFormat": "cedar",
                        "policySet": "
                                permit (
                                        principal == BankA::User::\"696d28c8-8912-41d2-b182-aa7087323318\",
                                action in [BankA::Action::\"initiate\", BankA::Action::\"status\", BankA::Action::\"cancel\"],
                                resource == Creditor::\"https://example.com/payments\"
                                )
                                        when { context.instructedAmount.currency == \"EUR\" &&
                                        context.instructedAmount.amount == decimal(\"123.50\") &&
                                        resource.creditorName == \"Merchant A\" &&
                                        resource.creditorAccount.iban == \"DE02100100109307118603\" &&
                                                context.remittanceInformationUnstructured == \"Ref Number Merchant\"
                                        };
                        "
                }
   ]
}

4. Security Considerations

[[todo]]¶

5. Privacy Considerations

[[todo]]¶

6. IANA Considerations

[[todo]]¶

Appendix A. Acknowledgements

[[todo]]¶

Appendix B. Document History

Author's Address