path: root/spec/HTTPSignatures/Home.md



### Encrypted HTTP Signatures

draft-cavage-http-signatures-09 describes a method for providing public key signatures and authentication for HTTP requests. 

A fundamental limitation (flaw) of HTTP signatures is the fact that they often leak metadata of the originator of a communication via the 'keyId'. 

Encrypted HTTP signatures corrects this by encrypting the signature header. 

Encryption uses the public key of the receiving site. The content of the Signature or Authorization header after creating an HTTP signature is passed through an encryption function f(header,key,algorithm) with the public key of the remote site and a mutually agreed encryption algorithm which returns an encrypted structure containing

key: a "random" string encrypted with the RSA public key of the remote site and base64_url encoded
iv: a "random" string encrypted with the RSA public key of the remote site and base64_url encoded (optional)
alg: the encryption algorithm used
data: the encrypted data, base64_url encoded
hmac: base64_url encoded hmac (optional) 

The header is generated by applying each field name followed by '=' followed by the double-quoted field value and fields separated by commas (the same as draft-cavage-http-signatures) 

The encryption is performed by encrypting the header string with the chosen algorithm using key and iv. Key and iv **may** be of a greater length than the specified algorithm permits. These strings are truncated to the desired key length and initialisation vector length prior to encryption, but transmitted in their entirety. Typically the random string is of length 256 octets and the key and iv are generally restricted to 16 or 32 octets (depending on the encryption algorithm used). There are no restrictions on the characters of the "random" octet string. 

Resulting header:

````
Signature: iv="d-uqkRoeXCoL1T5DU74ywizSM2RgsI9ZXWREKVg3_Qjd-mUWTJVGLq2hOQi3XKaa9Q7R6uB6UzlRmLfxBMZhVIxHjdNgfSRQ_oXafiSv8bZzMVKLZCjw6PfxBcljFs5gaQ7vEGuOVZ5nUaNEU7QX7WFr7BQKlev_6GFruv7HOsehGCokpyHHkKwrQ_4WJxUZp7o1ZhS1masPqMrEtUxDGfKwHfiHILuMdWDBvv2Xk4iHzlCi9fRVUEvzzFvv1rXsanjbaypZMIfSNj31kvsGfs6IyHpIaKbFqRs_iCxfujKDYh-2Dsg02bJTF1qx9BHJqLKNpfc0iReVe_xV2Qom3-SrJe1K8mRzYQJuOyyDuQk04GBlw7ken698JcwuS0G0OMfvGh5okq_0wM_O09iYumnJlEZT2a5nJ8ifc-kZfu8zdIPyAjJvS3a3KGEsytLxuUekFPVIpEoV2rmgOWz0TzDg-mIgwFffcx3kDa_WWhPGCFwVOzGU9um0KKStThKNXrbjYEAHVxD0gYXPgwmL8KayCo2A2s4bE2W8FfSURGu4Noqr9VsZ69Bcygzitv3aWCeIAk0y7kjJ0yQDfuIOjK1GP4HECq5NJIf8L3LJKw8QIBKm_0nx4gV9rLSAKCe3S63-D1tp9hafeiKQvGSwR0ybhxTJrhkcxd2nieVAyoA",key="Ca14lvjZua-ED8kXbedNLmrk6mRMHZm9NugcphyBMKEBo8MXLLnTsZchkAP-auWa0iJFKRwtdYUW_IGO-WX_qKZ8VNOslViveTYY-ybLTjQUj--YCFuURLYUWYTEmDcOImPWc8cQYGjTL_PN5X7vo7t3cm6rdV2W4tio2Rrmg3-cjhXBBRElr3GQKQ7i9ljBPs2YffoRsJ7f8DycKeyTv1T9xwr5lDklWOcOMTD4_39cZN2BI-b3AcGhBG4oYabUavW3BLGX7-SnezUcbTP3RyCVGI0ylVS8FmHSBZmW0oWfrVmz0oc0UcZYQMk8rb2WL_2ZdnzV_yZsjbBTFHG1ytIYyMeJsUU-pv4b4TodZmuDKT5UGtXPhm8Lsh-JpFo8xj5Yl15T9H6yLVHMR7Wzx_r2SvlJUsyqzBpaZE8DMd0zzrNZwgHQZ08wVHieKKO-TIqdypZHkxGGM68u2NPPW8-mXHgd_w9fUNM5fZRKPL9GxoVqoe9hx2f6CXPD95GAwjer9hbJcOmvxA1veXpIQzlkd-kEc8EuECaC50aUZJZbUIghYFo9NAA-UgNb26TyuY1OwE55MstPA6OO1sFki2u1G1T5JGWWgIOAziCcZbDYl1NPFWD2I1sV__rYeZ6XaaW4GXIVqD3wyBpmBRIoFx43gVDTISyUjhjUjjVHbZE",alg="aes256ctr",data="CLBNNE-tR1lRm0QL5gS86HyfwMs_16xKSSHTBP7MUEmRhGR00s0cdOfLC-PCZKlpG3ZRvc_lxnd53GGycNiTskisAb1mTbTrUBvk7hpDGNciUEB_7-hehjRiztmfi_oR-H0sCsVK9qDJdYepr4BYIgznVcB0uEN-POm97H4cTTVD8xCxLeEX0ArgDzgv_-Bq-nMcyht2LdGFl4Ej3bhEOhzvd-Xs1m6Z3E55dw0Bx7QDtkorvoetgMJrhgPKjYkIUWGoyVqa8MssvYIT8w9mpPDm4_QuVSNiPLIrKwQ3vob_hxcvENY-l0vXihdnpMzg81Sdk0E4FS4uQ9HtYSWsjOaFDSWRlxc-C5RhIvnHST4uEy3tjI--OHYQo2mFG2fWM3h8bYPq6r41W79qxsfmdSydmV1G5rFIqaz7gOa2JGOtW19WPJ8FTNFLVDehrFD6FJUy185gYyXosonp2EF3qlC8k_fzmazrzUrx0YmQ941870LJAwtEC7P-XiHV3dj-tZRYPgiSp7m8cMm7Z8WGgN8lLb61t5di5XS8zAv3FU1EAvvyL7PQhDi1U-s2cQXk3hXTNhOIymUYRhSV8NZrk80EsOrbPevSNQyYKXWCeUbnyhUznZQ3Lwq-UWAufcwrVY5uIJKeNu2lZ42xzSHWW3hn0ymcXzBOz7_wip9pSPY1nsTwApqTaIjURMEHhPvgaKRzNmuKbWP-d5Ihjeqw6JGXoAw0beWPJ4rqOlpQtn63deyBR5ylcRe4Ok2n03fZBnzJAobfZuHkiW93Yvc_byF-rpMJ3C8BSFYhGNDzYeRea3d9BEsqz_sr2HNpJyLhPssiZlZdjGRfqQ5UvCIJgT_NY57FoRCx4RHRpSxkjyF5XaKXW0_uNK7Oxk30qOCbIsLkQJqB2JIVrFFDBPITZIQVq2OamcBVk09OPuIMvsNBUTt2sxcZ7LVAA61ubv0jU39TcYO_OCs2eL7WaH7zDs9wHmxlwvzrPclduY5Gx2pwkrI_nb42j4Nc5imUkvzkIAhbYOB-XBClNVjFdEqYH35lziqEl9I6_w"
````

Decrypting the header reverses this process. 

- base64url_decode the key and iv and data fields and if used, the hmac field. 
- use the site private key to decrypt key and iv 
- apply decryption algorithm 'alg' to 'data' using 'key' and 'iv', truncating 'key' and 'iv' if necessary for the chosen algorithm.
- The end result is an HTTP Signature as sepcified in draft-cavage-http-signatures, process according to that document. 
 
Discovery of site public keys and algorithm negotiation is outside the scope of this document.
### Encrypted HTTP Signatures

draft-cavage-http-signatures-09 describes a method for providing public key signatures and authentication for HTTP requests. 

A fundamental limitation (flaw) of HTTP signatures is the fact that they often leak metadata of the originator of a communication via the 'keyId'. 

Encrypted HTTP signatures corrects this by encrypting the signature header. 

Encryption uses the public key of the receiving site. The content of the Signature or Authorization header after creating an HTTP signature is passed through an encryption function f(header,key,algorithm) with the public key of the remote site and a mutually agreed encryption algorithm which returns an encrypted structure containing

key: a "random" string encrypted with the RSA public key of the remote site and base64_url encoded
iv: a "random" string encrypted with the RSA public key of the remote site and base64_url encoded (optional)
alg: the encryption algorithm used
data: the encrypted data, base64_url encoded
hmac: base64_url encoded hmac (optional) 

The header is generated by applying each field name followed by '=' followed by the double-quoted field value and fields separated by commas (the same as draft-cavage-http-signatures) 

The encryption is performed by encrypting the header string with the chosen algorithm using key and iv. Key and iv **may** be of a greater length than the specified algorithm permits. These strings are truncated to the desired key length and initialisation vector length prior to encryption, but transmitted in their entirety. Typically the random string is of length 256 octets and the key and iv are generally restricted to 16 or 32 octets (depending on the encryption algorithm used). There are no restrictions on the characters of the "random" octet string. 

Resulting header:

````
Signature: iv="d-uqkRoeXCoL1T5DU74ywizSM2RgsI9ZXWREKVg3_Qjd-mUWTJVGLq2hOQi3XKaa9Q7R6uB6UzlRmLfxBMZhVIxHjdNgfSRQ_oXafiSv8bZzMVKLZCjw6PfxBcljFs5gaQ7vEGuOVZ5nUaNEU7QX7WFr7BQKlev_6GFruv7HOsehGCokpyHHkKwrQ_4WJxUZp7o1ZhS1masPqMrEtUxDGfKwHfiHILuMdWDBvv2Xk4iHzlCi9fRVUEvzzFvv1rXsanjbaypZMIfSNj31kvsGfs6IyHpIaKbFqRs_iCxfujKDYh-2Dsg02bJTF1qx9BHJqLKNpfc0iReVe_xV2Qom3-SrJe1K8mRzYQJuOyyDuQk04GBlw7ken698JcwuS0G0OMfvGh5okq_0wM_O09iYumnJlEZT2a5nJ8ifc-kZfu8zdIPyAjJvS3a3KGEsytLxuUekFPVIpEoV2rmgOWz0TzDg-mIgwFffcx3kDa_WWhPGCFwVOzGU9um0KKStThKNXrbjYEAHVxD0gYXPgwmL8KayCo2A2s4bE2W8FfSURGu4Noqr9VsZ69Bcygzitv3aWCeIAk0y7kjJ0yQDfuIOjK1GP4HECq5NJIf8L3LJKw8QIBKm_0nx4gV9rLSAKCe3S63-D1tp9hafeiKQvGSwR0ybhxTJrhkcxd2nieVAyoA",key="Ca14lvjZua-ED8kXbedNLmrk6mRMHZm9NugcphyBMKEBo8MXLLnTsZchkAP-auWa0iJFKRwtdYUW_IGO-WX_qKZ8VNOslViveTYY-ybLTjQUj--YCFuURLYUWYTEmDcOImPWc8cQYGjTL_PN5X7vo7t3cm6rdV2W4tio2Rrmg3-cjhXBBRElr3GQKQ7i9ljBPs2YffoRsJ7f8DycKeyTv1T9xwr5lDklWOcOMTD4_39cZN2BI-b3AcGhBG4oYabUavW3BLGX7-SnezUcbTP3RyCVGI0ylVS8FmHSBZmW0oWfrVmz0oc0UcZYQMk8rb2WL_2ZdnzV_yZsjbBTFHG1ytIYyMeJsUU-pv4b4TodZmuDKT5UGtXPhm8Lsh-JpFo8xj5Yl15T9H6yLVHMR7Wzx_r2SvlJUsyqzBpaZE8DMd0zzrNZwgHQZ08wVHieKKO-TIqdypZHkxGGM68u2NPPW8-mXHgd_w9fUNM5fZRKPL9GxoVqoe9hx2f6CXPD95GAwjer9hbJcOmvxA1veXpIQzlkd-kEc8EuECaC50aUZJZbUIghYFo9NAA-UgNb26TyuY1OwE55MstPA6OO1sFki2u1G1T5JGWWgIOAziCcZbDYl1NPFWD2I1sV__rYeZ6XaaW4GXIVqD3wyBpmBRIoFx43gVDTISyUjhjUjjVHbZE",alg="aes256ctr",data="CLBNNE-tR1lRm0QL5gS86HyfwMs_16xKSSHTBP7MUEmRhGR00s0cdOfLC-PCZKlpG3ZRvc_lxnd53GGycNiTskisAb1mTbTrUBvk7hpDGNciUEB_7-hehjRiztmfi_oR-H0sCsVK9qDJdYepr4BYIgznVcB0uEN-POm97H4cTTVD8xCxLeEX0ArgDzgv_-Bq-nMcyht2LdGFl4Ej3bhEOhzvd-Xs1m6Z3E55dw0Bx7QDtkorvoetgMJrhgPKjYkIUWGoyVqa8MssvYIT8w9mpPDm4_QuVSNiPLIrKwQ3vob_hxcvENY-l0vXihdnpMzg81Sdk0E4FS4uQ9HtYSWsjOaFDSWRlxc-C5RhIvnHST4uEy3tjI--OHYQo2mFG2fWM3h8bYPq6r41W79qxsfmdSydmV1G5rFIqaz7gOa2JGOtW19WPJ8FTNFLVDehrFD6FJUy185gYyXosonp2EF3qlC8k_fzmazrzUrx0YmQ941870LJAwtEC7P-XiHV3dj-tZRYPgiSp7m8cMm7Z8WGgN8lLb61t5di5XS8zAv3FU1EAvvyL7PQhDi1U-s2cQXk3hXTNhOIymUYRhSV8NZrk80EsOrbPevSNQyYKXWCeUbnyhUznZQ3Lwq-UWAufcwrVY5uIJKeNu2lZ42xzSHWW3hn0ymcXzBOz7_wip9pSPY1nsTwApqTaIjURMEHhPvgaKRzNmuKbWP-d5Ihjeqw6JGXoAw0beWPJ4rqOlpQtn63deyBR5ylcRe4Ok2n03fZBnzJAobfZuHkiW93Yvc_byF-rpMJ3C8BSFYhGNDzYeRea3d9BEsqz_sr2HNpJyLhPssiZlZdjGRfqQ5UvCIJgT_NY57FoRCx4RHRpSxkjyF5XaKXW0_uNK7Oxk30qOCbIsLkQJqB2JIVrFFDBPITZIQVq2OamcBVk09OPuIMvsNBUTt2sxcZ7LVAA61ubv0jU39TcYO_OCs2eL7WaH7zDs9wHmxlwvzrPclduY5Gx2pwkrI_nb42j4Nc5imUkvzkIAhbYOB-XBClNVjFdEqYH35lziqEl9I6_w"
````

Decrypting the header reverses this process. 

- base64url_decode the key and iv and data fields and if used, the hmac field. 
- use the site private key to decrypt key and iv 
- apply decryption algorithm 'alg' to 'data' using 'key' and 'iv', truncating 'key' and 'iv' if necessary for the chosen algorithm.
- The end result is an HTTP Signature as sepcified in draft-cavage-http-signatures, process according to that document. 
 
Discovery of site public keys and algorithm negotiation is outside the scope of this document.