MSC3231: Token authenticated registration (#3231)
* Proposal for token authenticated registration Signed-off-by: Callum Brown <callum@calcuode.com> * Hard-wrap lines Signed-off-by: Callum Brown <callum@calcuode.com> * Link to released version of spec Signed-off-by: Callum Brown <callum@calcuode.com> * Fix unstable prefix wording Signed-off-by: Callum Brown <callum@calcuode.com> * Tokens should only be invalidated after registration Signed-off-by: Callum Brown <callum@calcuode.com> * Change auth type to m.login.registration_token This is consistent with the other UIAA auth types, and does not suggest that other `m.login.*` types cannot be used for registration. Signed-off-by: Callum Brown <callum@calcuode.com> * Add proposal for checking the validity of a token Signed-off-by: Callum Brown <callum@calcuode.com> * Fix validity checking endpoint Signed-off-by: Callum Brown <callum@calcuode.com> * Limit allowed characters and length of token This allows tokens to be used easily in query parameters Signed-off-by: Callum Brown <callum@calcuode.com> * Give reason for limiting token length and chars Signed-off-by: Callum Brown <callum@calcuode.com> * Note all stages must be complete for registration Co-authored-by: Andrew Morgan <1342360+anoadragon453@users.noreply.github.com> * Fix mistake in MSC number Signed-off-by: Callum Brown <callum@calcuode.com> * Validity checking should be rate limited Signed-off-by: Callum Brown <callum@calcuode.com> * Change v1 to r0 Signed-off-by: Callum Brown <callum@calcuode.com> * Include `.` and `~` in allowed characters for registration tokens For consistency with the unreserved URL characters in RFC3986 https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3986.html#section-2.3 Co-authored-by: Richard van der Hoff <1389908+richvdh@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: Andrew Morgan <1342360+anoadragon453@users.noreply.github.com> Co-authored-by: Richard van der Hoff <1389908+richvdh@users.noreply.github.com>pull/977/head
parent
b7e6104713
commit
0c3b488805
@ -0,0 +1,138 @@
|
|||||||
|
# MSC3231: Token Authenticated Registration
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Currently, homeserver administrators must choose between allowing anyone to
|
||||||
|
register and completely disabling registrations. This is a problem for
|
||||||
|
administrators who want to let certain people have an account on their server,
|
||||||
|
but do not want to register the accounts manually (possibly because the
|
||||||
|
initial password may not be changed by the user).
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
There are some existing external solutions (see the **Alternatives** section),
|
||||||
|
but these require additional effort from administrators and are disconnected
|
||||||
|
from Matrix clients. It would be useful for administrators to have a convenient
|
||||||
|
method of limiting registrations to certain people which requires minimal setup
|
||||||
|
and is integrated with existing clients.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Proposal
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The [/\_matrix/client/r0/register](https://matrix.org/docs/spec/client_server/r0.6.1#post-matrix-client-r0-register)
|
||||||
|
endpoint uses the [User-Interactive Authentication API](https://matrix.org/docs/spec/client_server/r0.6.1#user-interactive-authentication-api).
|
||||||
|
A new authentication type `m.login.registration_token` will be defined which requires
|
||||||
|
a `token` key to be present in the submitted `auth` dict. The token will be a
|
||||||
|
string of no more than 64 characters, and contain only characters matched by the
|
||||||
|
regex `[A-Za-z0-9._~-]`.
|
||||||
|
This will avoid URL encoding issues with the validity checking endpoint, and
|
||||||
|
prevent DoS attacks from extremely long tokens.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
For example, when a client attempts registration with no `auth` dict, a server
|
||||||
|
may respond with:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
{
|
||||||
|
"flows": [
|
||||||
|
{
|
||||||
|
"stages": [ "m.login.registration_token" ]
|
||||||
|
}
|
||||||
|
],
|
||||||
|
"params": {},
|
||||||
|
"session": "xxxxx"
|
||||||
|
}
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The client would then prompt the user to enter a token and send a new request
|
||||||
|
with an `auth` dict:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
POST /_matrix/client/r0/register
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
{
|
||||||
|
"auth": {
|
||||||
|
"type": "m.login.registration_token",
|
||||||
|
"token": "fBVFdqVE",
|
||||||
|
"session": "xxxxx"
|
||||||
|
}
|
||||||
|
"device_id": "ABC",
|
||||||
|
"initial_device_display_name": "Some Client",
|
||||||
|
"password": "badpassword",
|
||||||
|
"username": "bob"
|
||||||
|
}
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
If the server verifies that `fBVFdqVE` is a valid token then the account is
|
||||||
|
registered as normal assuming all other required auth stages have been completed, otherwise a `401` status is returned. Once registration of
|
||||||
|
the user has completed, the server may alter the validity of the token.
|
||||||
|
For example, the token may be completely invalidated, or its number of permitted
|
||||||
|
uses reduced. Management of the tokens is left to the server implementation.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Using the User-Interactive Authentication API means clients' existing
|
||||||
|
registration logic will be unaffected, with a fallback available for clients
|
||||||
|
without native support for the new authentication type.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
### Checking the validity of a token
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
A Client may wish to present username and password inputs only after it has
|
||||||
|
checked the token is valid.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Clients would be able to check the validity of a token in advance of
|
||||||
|
registration with a `GET` request to
|
||||||
|
`/_matrix/client/r0/register/m.login.registration_token/validity`.
|
||||||
|
This endpoint would take a required `token` query parameter, and validity would be
|
||||||
|
indicated by the boolean `valid` key in the response.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
For example, a client would send:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
GET /_matrix/client/r0/register/m.login.registration_token/validity?token=abcd
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
If `abcd` is a valid token, the server would respond with:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
{
|
||||||
|
"valid": true
|
||||||
|
}
|
||||||
|
```
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
This does not perform any actual authentication, and the validity of the token
|
||||||
|
may change between the check and the User-Interactive Authentication.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
This endpoint should be rate limited in order to prevent dictionary attacks.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Potential issues
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The new authentication type would only apply to the
|
||||||
|
`/_matrix/client/r0/register` endpoint. This should not cause problems, but it
|
||||||
|
would be worth noting in any change to the specification.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Alternatives
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
[matrix-registration](https://github.com/ZerataX/matrix-registration/) is an
|
||||||
|
application which provides token management and a standalone web interface.
|
||||||
|
It uses Synapse's admin API to do registrations.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
[Midnight](https://github.com/KombuchaPrivacy/midnight) sits in front of a
|
||||||
|
homeserver and handles the `/_matrix/client/r0/register` endpoint. It provides
|
||||||
|
token management and does additional checks on the requested username.
|
||||||
|
Registration requests are forwarded to the homeserver once authenticated.
|
||||||
|
It uses the User-Interactive Authentication API in a very similar way to this
|
||||||
|
MSC, which could allow existing Matrix clients to be used.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
[matrix-register-bot](https://github.com/krombel/matrix-register-bot) is a
|
||||||
|
Matrix bot which allows registrations done through the provided web interface
|
||||||
|
to be accepted or denied by users in a certain room. When a registration is
|
||||||
|
approved temporary credentials are sent to the user's verified email address.
|
||||||
|
It can use Synapse's admin API or [matrix-synapse-rest-auth](https://github.com/kamax-matrix/matrix-synapse-rest-password-provider#integrate)
|
||||||
|
to do the registration.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
## Unstable prefix
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Implementations should use `org.matrix.msc3231.login.registration_token` as the
|
||||||
|
authentication type until this MSC has passed FCP and been merged.
|
||||||
|
Similarly, `/_matrix/client/unstable/org.matrix.msc3231/register/org.matrix.msc3231.login.registration_token/validity`
|
||||||
|
should be used as the endpoint for checking the validity of a token in advance.
|
Loading…
Reference in New Issue