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+# Docker Registry v2 authentication via central service
+
+Today a Docker Registry can run in standalone mode in which there are no
+authorization checks. While adding your own HTTP authorization requirements in
+a proxy placed between the client and the registry can give you greater access
+control, we'd like a native authorization mechanism that's public key based
+with access control lists managed separately with the ability to have fine
+granularity in access control on a by-key, by-user, by-namespace, and
+by-repository basis. In v1 this can be configured by specifying an
+`index_endpoint` in the registry's config. Clients present tokens generated by
+the index and tokens are validated on-line by the registry with every request.
+This results in a complex authentication and authorization loop that occurs
+with every registry operation. Some people are very familiar with this image:
+
+![index auth](https://docs.docker.com/static_files/docker_pull_chart.png)
+
+The above image outlines the 6-step process in accessing the Official Docker
+Registry.
+
+1. Contact the Docker Hub to know where I should download “samalba/busybox”
+2. Docker Hub replies:
+ a. samalba/busybox is on Registry A
+ b. here are the checksums for samalba/busybox (for all layers)
+ c. token
+3. Contact Registry A to receive the layers for samalba/busybox (all of them to
+ the base image). Registry A is authoritative for “samalba/busybox” but keeps
+ a copy of all inherited layers and serve them all from the same location.
+4. Registry contacts Docker Hub to verify if token/user is allowed to download
+ images.
+5. Docker Hub returns true/false lettings registry know if it should proceed or
+ error out.
+6. Get the payload for all layers.
+
+The goal of this document is to outline a way to eliminate steps 4 and 5 from
+the above process by using cryptographically signed tokens and no longer
+require the client to authenticate each request with a username and password
+stored locally in plain text.
+
+The new registry workflow is more like this:
+
+![v2 registry auth](https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1EHZU9uBLmcH0kytDClBv6jv6WR4xZjE8RKEUw1mARJA/pub?w=480&h=360)
+
+1. Attempt to begin a push/pull operation with the registry.
+2. If the registry requires authorization it will return a `401 Unauthorized`
+ HTTP response with information on how to authenticate.
+3. The registry client makes a request to the authorization service for a
+ signed JSON Web Token.
+4. The authorization service returns a token.
+5. The client retries the original request with the token embedded in the
+ request header.
+6. The Registry authorizes the client and begins the push/pull session as
+ usual.
+
+## Requirements
+
+- Registry Clients capable of generating key pairs which can be used to
+ authenticate to an authorization server.
+- An authorization server capable of managing user accounts, their public keys,
+ and access controls to their resources hosted by any given service (such as
+ repositories in a Docker Registry).
+- A Docker Registry capable of trusting the authorization server to sign tokens
+ which clients can use for authorization and the ability to verify these
+ tokens for single use or for use during a sufficiently short period of time.
+
+## Authorization Server Endpoint Descriptions
+
+This document borrows heavily from the [JSON Web Token Draft Spec](https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-oauth-json-web-token-32)
+
+The described server is meant to serve as a user account and key manager and a
+centralized access control list for resources hosted by other services which
+wish to authenticate and manage authorizations using this services accounts and
+their public keys.
+
+Such a service could be used by the official docker registry to authenticate
+clients and verify their authorization to docker image repositories.
+
+Docker will need to be updated to interact with an authorization server to get
+an authorization token.
+
+## How to authenticate
+
+Today, registry clients first contact the index to initiate a push or pull.
+For v2, clients should contact the registry first. If the registry server
+requires authentication it will return a `401 Unauthorized` response with a
+`WWW-Authenticate` header detailing how to authenticate to this registry.
+
+For example, say I (username `jlhawn`) am attempting to push an image to the
+repository `samalba/my-app`. For the registry to authorize this, I either need
+`push` access to the `samalba/my-app` repository or `push` access to the whole
+`samalba` namespace in general. The registry will first return this response:
+
+```
+HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
+WWW-Authenticate: Bearer realm="https://auth.docker.com/v2/token/",service="registry.docker.com",scope="repository:samalba/my-app:push"
+```
+
+This format is documented in [Section 3 of RFC 6750: The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework: Bearer Token Usage](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6750#section-3)
+
+The client will then know to make a `GET` request to the URL
+`https://auth.docker.com/v2/token/` using the `service` and `scope` values from
+the `WWW-Authenticate` header.
+
+## Requesting a Token
+
+#### Query Parameters
+
+
+ -
+
service
+
+ -
+ The name of the service which hosts the resource.
+
+ -
+
scope
+
+ -
+ The resource in question, formatted as one of the space-delimited
+ entries from the
scope
parameters from the WWW-Authenticate
header
+ shown above. This query parameter should be specified multiple times if
+ there is more than one scope
entry from the WWW-Authenticate
+ header. The above example would be specified as:
+ scope=repository:samalba/my-app:push
.
+
+ -
+
account
+
+ -
+ The name of the account which the client is acting as. Optional if it
+ can be inferred from client authentication.
+
+
+
+#### Description
+
+Requests an authorization token for access to a specific resource hosted by a
+specific service provider. Requires the client to authenticate either using a
+TLS client certificate or using basic authentication (or any other kind of
+digest/challenge/response authentication scheme if the client doesn't support
+TLS client certs). If the key in the client certificate is linked to an account
+then the token is issued for that account key. If the key in the certificate is
+linked to multiple accounts then the client must specify the `account` query
+parameter. The returned token is in JWT (JSON Web Token) format, signed using
+the authorization server's private key.
+
+#### Example
+
+For this example, the client makes an HTTP request to the following endpoint
+over TLS using a client certificate with the server being configured to allow a
+non-verified issuer during the handshake (i.e., a self-signed client cert is
+okay).
+
+```
+GET /v2/token/?service=registry.docker.com&scope=repository:samalba/my-app:push&account=jlhawn HTTP/1.1
+Host: auth.docker.com
+```
+
+The server first inspects the client certificate to extract the subject key and
+lookup which account it is associated with. The client is now authenticated
+using that account.
+
+The server next searches its access control list for the account's access to
+the repository `samalba/my-app` hosted by the service `registry.docker.com`.
+
+The server will now construct a JSON Web Token to sign and return. A JSON Web
+Token has 3 main parts:
+
+1. Headers
+
+ The header of a JSON Web Token is a standard JOSE header. The "typ" field
+ will be "JWT" and it will also contain the "alg" which identifies the
+ signing algorithm used to produce the signature. It will also usually have
+ a "kid" field, the ID of the key which was used to sign the token.
+
+ Here is an example JOSE Header for a JSON Web Token (formatted with
+ whitespace for readability):
+
+ ```
+ {
+ "typ": "JWT",
+ "alg": "ES256",
+ "kid": "PYYO:TEWU:V7JH:26JV:AQTZ:LJC3:SXVJ:XGHA:34F2:2LAQ:ZRMK:Z7Q6"
+ }
+ ```
+
+ It specifies that this object is going to be a JSON Web token signed using
+ the key with the given ID using the Elliptic Curve signature algorithm
+ using a SHA256 hash.
+
+2. Claim Set
+
+ The Claim Set is a JSON struct containing these standard registered claim
+ name fields:
+
+
+ -
+
iss
(Issuer)
+
+ -
+ The issuer of the token, typically the fqdn of the authorization
+ server.
+
+ -
+
sub
(Subject)
+
+ -
+ The subject of the token; the id of the client which requested it.
+
+ -
+
aud
(Audience)
+
+ -
+ The intended audience of the token; the id of the service which
+ will verify the token to authorize the client/subject.
+
+ -
+
exp
(Expiration)
+
+ -
+ The token should only be considered valid up to this specified date
+ and time.
+
+ -
+
nbf
(Not Before)
+
+ -
+ The token should not be considered valid before this specified date
+ and time.
+
+ -
+
iat
(Issued At)
+
+ -
+ Specifies the date and time which the Authorization server
+ generated this token.
+
+ -
+
jti
(JWT ID)
+
+ -
+ A unique identifier for this token. Can be used by the intended
+ audience to prevent replays of the token.
+
+
+
+ The Claim Set will also contain a private claim name unique to this
+ authorization server specification:
+
+
+ -
+
access
+
+ -
+ An array of access entry objects with the following fields:
+
+
+ -
+
type
+
+ -
+ The type of resource hosted by the service.
+
+ -
+
name
+
+ -
+ The name of the recource of the given type hosted by the
+ service.
+
+ -
+
actions
+
+ -
+ An array of strings which give the actions authorized on
+ this resource.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Here is an example of such a JWT Claim Set (formatted with whitespace for
+ readability):
+
+ ```
+ {
+ "iss": "auth.docker.com",
+ "sub": "jlhawn",
+ "aud": "registry.docker.com",
+ "exp": 1415387315,
+ "nbf": 1415387015,
+ "iat": 1415387015,
+ "jti": "tYJCO1c6cnyy7kAn0c7rKPgbV1H1bFws",
+ "access": [
+ {
+ "type": "repository",
+ "name": "samalba/my-app",
+ "actions": [
+ "push"
+ ]
+ }
+ ]
+ }
+ ```
+
+3. Signature
+
+ The authorization server will produce a JOSE header and Claim Set with no
+ extraneous whitespace, i.e., the JOSE Header from above would be
+
+ ```
+ {"typ":"JWT","alg":"ES256","kid":"PYYO:TEWU:V7JH:26JV:AQTZ:LJC3:SXVJ:XGHA:34F2:2LAQ:ZRMK:Z7Q6"}
+ ```
+
+ and the Claim Set from above would be
+
+ ```
+ {"iss":"auth.docker.com","sub":"jlhawn","aud":"registry.docker.com","exp":1415387315,"nbf":1415387015,"iat":1415387015,"jti":"tYJCO1c6cnyy7kAn0c7rKPgbV1H1bFws","access":[{"type":"repository","name":"samalba/my-app","actions":["push"]}]}
+ ```
+
+ The utf-8 representation of this JOSE header and Claim Set are then
+ url-safe base64 encoded (sans trailing '=' buffer), producing:
+
+ ```
+ eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6IlBZWU86VEVXVTpWN0pIOjI2SlY6QVFUWjpMSkMzOlNYVko6WEdIQTozNEYyOjJMQVE6WlJNSzpaN1E2In0
+ ```
+
+ for the JOSE Header and
+
+ ```
+ eyJpc3MiOiJhdXRoLmRvY2tlci5jb20iLCJzdWIiOiJqbGhhd24iLCJhdWQiOiJyZWdpc3RyeS5kb2NrZXIuY29tIiwiZXhwIjoxNDE1Mzg3MzE1LCJuYmYiOjE0MTUzODcwMTUsImlhdCI6MTQxNTM4NzAxNSwianRpIjoidFlKQ08xYzZjbnl5N2tBbjBjN3JLUGdiVjFIMWJGd3MiLCJhY2Nlc3MiOlt7InR5cGUiOiJyZXBvc2l0b3J5IiwibmFtZSI6InNhbWFsYmEvbXktYXBwIiwiYWN0aW9ucyI6WyJwdXNoIl19XX0
+ ```
+
+ for the Claim Set. These two are concatenated using a '.' character,
+ yielding the string:
+
+ ```
+ eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6IlBZWU86VEVXVTpWN0pIOjI2SlY6QVFUWjpMSkMzOlNYVko6WEdIQTozNEYyOjJMQVE6WlJNSzpaN1E2In0.eyJpc3MiOiJhdXRoLmRvY2tlci5jb20iLCJzdWIiOiJqbGhhd24iLCJhdWQiOiJyZWdpc3RyeS5kb2NrZXIuY29tIiwiZXhwIjoxNDE1Mzg3MzE1LCJuYmYiOjE0MTUzODcwMTUsImlhdCI6MTQxNTM4NzAxNSwianRpIjoidFlKQ08xYzZjbnl5N2tBbjBjN3JLUGdiVjFIMWJGd3MiLCJhY2Nlc3MiOlt7InR5cGUiOiJyZXBvc2l0b3J5IiwibmFtZSI6InNhbWFsYmEvbXktYXBwIiwiYWN0aW9ucyI6WyJwdXNoIl19XX0
+ ```
+
+ This is then used as the payload to a the `ES256` signature algorithm
+ specified in the JOSE header and specified fully in [Section 3.4 of the JSON Web Algorithms (JWA)
+ draft specification](https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-jose-json-web-algorithms-38#section-3.4)
+
+ This example signature will use the following ECDSA key for the server:
+
+ ```
+ {
+ "kty": "EC",
+ "crv": "P-256",
+ "kid": "PYYO:TEWU:V7JH:26JV:AQTZ:LJC3:SXVJ:XGHA:34F2:2LAQ:ZRMK:Z7Q6",
+ "d": "R7OnbfMaD5J2jl7GeE8ESo7CnHSBm_1N2k9IXYFrKJA",
+ "x": "m7zUpx3b-zmVE5cymSs64POG9QcyEpJaYCD82-549_Q",
+ "y": "dU3biz8sZ_8GPB-odm8Wxz3lNDr1xcAQQPQaOcr1fmc"
+ }
+ ```
+
+ A resulting signature of the above payload using this key is:
+
+ ```
+ QhflHPfbd6eVF4lM9bwYpFZIV0PfikbyXuLx959ykRTBpe3CYnzs6YBK8FToVb5R47920PVLrh8zuLzdCr9t3w
+ ```
+
+ Concatenating all of these together with a `.` character gives the
+ resulting JWT:
+
+ ```
+ eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6IlBZWU86VEVXVTpWN0pIOjI2SlY6QVFUWjpMSkMzOlNYVko6WEdIQTozNEYyOjJMQVE6WlJNSzpaN1E2In0.eyJpc3MiOiJhdXRoLmRvY2tlci5jb20iLCJzdWIiOiJqbGhhd24iLCJhdWQiOiJyZWdpc3RyeS5kb2NrZXIuY29tIiwiZXhwIjoxNDE1Mzg3MzE1LCJuYmYiOjE0MTUzODcwMTUsImlhdCI6MTQxNTM4NzAxNSwianRpIjoidFlKQ08xYzZjbnl5N2tBbjBjN3JLUGdiVjFIMWJGd3MiLCJhY2Nlc3MiOlt7InR5cGUiOiJyZXBvc2l0b3J5IiwibmFtZSI6InNhbWFsYmEvbXktYXBwIiwiYWN0aW9ucyI6WyJwdXNoIl19XX0.QhflHPfbd6eVF4lM9bwYpFZIV0PfikbyXuLx959ykRTBpe3CYnzs6YBK8FToVb5R47920PVLrh8zuLzdCr9t3w
+ ```
+
+This can now be placed in an HTTP response and returned to the client to use to
+authenticate to the audience service:
+
+
+```
+HTTP/1.1 200 OK
+Content-Type: application/json
+
+{"token": "eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6IlBZWU86VEVXVTpWN0pIOjI2SlY6QVFUWjpMSkMzOlNYVko6WEdIQTozNEYyOjJMQVE6WlJNSzpaN1E2In0.eyJpc3MiOiJhdXRoLmRvY2tlci5jb20iLCJzdWIiOiJqbGhhd24iLCJhdWQiOiJyZWdpc3RyeS5kb2NrZXIuY29tIiwiZXhwIjoxNDE1Mzg3MzE1LCJuYmYiOjE0MTUzODcwMTUsImlhdCI6MTQxNTM4NzAxNSwianRpIjoidFlKQ08xYzZjbnl5N2tBbjBjN3JLUGdiVjFIMWJGd3MiLCJhY2Nlc3MiOlt7InR5cGUiOiJyZXBvc2l0b3J5IiwibmFtZSI6InNhbWFsYmEvbXktYXBwIiwiYWN0aW9ucyI6WyJwdXNoIl19XX0.QhflHPfbd6eVF4lM9bwYpFZIV0PfikbyXuLx959ykRTBpe3CYnzs6YBK8FToVb5R47920PVLrh8zuLzdCr9t3w"}
+```
+
+## Using the signed token
+
+Once the client has a token, it will try the registry request again with the
+token placed in the HTTP `Authorization` header like so:
+
+```
+Authorization: Bearer eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6IkJWM0Q6MkFWWjpVQjVaOktJQVA6SU5QTDo1RU42Ok40SjQ6Nk1XTzpEUktFOkJWUUs6M0ZKTDpQT1RMIn0.eyJpc3MiOiJhdXRoLmRvY2tlci5jb20iLCJzdWIiOiJCQ0NZOk9VNlo6UUVKNTpXTjJDOjJBVkM6WTdZRDpBM0xZOjQ1VVc6NE9HRDpLQUxMOkNOSjU6NUlVTCIsImF1ZCI6InJlZ2lzdHJ5LmRvY2tlci5jb20iLCJleHAiOjE0MTUzODczMTUsIm5iZiI6MTQxNTM4NzAxNSwiaWF0IjoxNDE1Mzg3MDE1LCJqdGkiOiJ0WUpDTzFjNmNueXk3a0FuMGM3cktQZ2JWMUgxYkZ3cyIsInNjb3BlIjoiamxoYXduOnJlcG9zaXRvcnk6c2FtYWxiYS9teS1hcHA6cHVzaCxwdWxsIGpsaGF3bjpuYW1lc3BhY2U6c2FtYWxiYTpwdWxsIn0.Y3zZSwaZPqy4y9oRBVRImZyv3m_S9XDHF1tWwN7mL52C_IiA73SJkWVNsvNqpJIn5h7A2F8biv_S2ppQ1lgkbw
+```
+
+This is also described in [Section 2.1 of RFC 6750: The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework: Bearer Token Usage](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6750#section-2.1)
+
+## Verifying the token
+
+The registry must now verify the token presented by the user by inspecting the
+claim set within. The registry will:
+
+- Ensure that the issuer (`iss` claim) is an authority it trusts.
+- Ensure that the registry identifies as the audience (`aud` claim).
+- Check that the current time is between the `nbf` and `exp` claim times.
+- If enforcing single-use tokens, check that the JWT ID (`jti` claim) value has
+ not been seen before.
+ - To enforce this, the registry may keep a record of `jti`s it has seen for
+ up to the `exp` time of the token to prevent token replays.
+- Check the `access` claim value and use the identified resources and the list
+ of actions authorized to determine whether the token grants the required
+ level of access for the operation the client is attempting to perform.
+- Verify that the signature of the token is valid.
+
+At no point in this process should the registry need to call back to
+the authorization server. If anything, it would only need to update a list of
+trusted public keys for verifying token signatures or use a separate API
+(still to be spec'd) to add/update resource records on the authorization
+server.