A Truckload of OAuth Issues That Would Make Any Author Quit

New submitter DeFender1031 writes "Several months ago, when Eran Hammer ragequit the OAuth project, many people thought he was simply being overly dramatic, given that he gave only vague indications of what went wrong. Since then, and despite that, many companies have been switching to OAuth, citing it as a 'superior form of secure authentication.' But a fresh and objective look at the protocol highlights the significant design flaws in the system and sheds some light on what might have led to its creator's departure."

Comments

Auth belongs in the browser

[jeremylichtman]

I've implemented sites that use a variety of third party authentication schemes. Its a nuisance for users (multiplicity of accounts, more insecure passwords to remember etc) and a nuisance for developers. Why are we still doing this? Authentication (and user profiles for that matter) belong in the user's browser. I'm not talking about Chrome's password wallet. I'm talking about a certificate-based system that allows the user to control from their end which sites are authenticated, and what data they should have access to. Sites would then implement a simple API (possibly combined with meta data on the front end to let the browser know details) that would allow for login, signing up, or changing particulars. The process could be made completely transparent for users. I have this partially implemented as an insecure proof of concept browser plugin. It wouldn't take too much work to get it running, although it really should be core browser functionality instead.

Re:WTF was that?

[Anonymous Coward]

The authors biggest complaint about OAuth is that it doesn't do what it was never designed to do....and this is a problem because....?

Because people are, with great gusto, actually using it for what it was never designed to do.