Public Client Authorization Scope Verification
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Solution Overview
Problem
The OAuth protocol's implicit grant mechanism for public clients poses a security threat as it allows malicious clients to expand authorization scopes without user permission, leading to potential permission elevation and access token leakage.
Innovation Solution
An authorization processing method and system that compares the requested authorization scope with the stored authorization credential scope for a public client, obtaining authorization notification from the resource owner if the scope exceeds the stored credential scope, and generates an access token only after explicit user authorization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the implicit grant mechanism is used for public clients, then the ease of operation is improved, but the security is worsened due to permission elevation attacks
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary verification by checking whether the requested authorization scope exceeds the stored authorization credential scope before generating an access token. This preliminary action prevents malicious permission elevation by validating the scope boundaries in advance, while still allowing legitimate public clients to operate seamlessly.
2Reliability
If the authorization scope verification is performed, then the security is improved, but the device complexity is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The authorization device performs self-service by automatically verifying the requested authorization scope against the stored authorization credential scope using the client identifier. This self-service mechanism eliminates the need for manual security checks or additional authentication steps, maintaining simple device operation while ensuring security through automated scope validation.
Data Source
AI summary
An authorization processing method, a device, and a system, where the method includes receiving an authorization request from a public client, where the authorization request includes a client identifier of the public client, a requested redirect uniform resource identifier (URI), and a requested authorization scope, obtaining authorization information of the public client according to the client identifier, obtaining an authorization scope corresponding to an authorization credential stored in the authorization information, obtaining authorization notification information of an owner of a resource according to the requested authorization scope when the requested authorization scope exceeds the authorization scope corresponding to the authorization credential, generating a first access token whose authorization scope corresponds to the requested authorization scope, and sending the first access token to the public client according to the requested redirect URI. Hence, the method effectively resolves a security threat problem in a process of authorizing the public client.