Internet-Draft | SCITT Reference APIs Draft-ietf-scitt-sc | January 2025 |
Birkholz & Geater | Expires 12 July 2025 | [Page] |
This document describes a REST API that supports the normative requirements of the SCITT Architecture. Optional key discovery and query interfaces are provided to support interoperability with X.509 Certificates, alternative methods commonly used to support public key discovery and Artifact Repositories.¶
This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.¶
Status information for this document may be found at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-scitt-scrapi/.¶
Discussion of this document takes place on the SCITT Working Group mailing list (mailto:scitt@ietf.org), which is archived at https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/scitt/. Subscribe at https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/scitt/.¶
Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at https://github.com/ietf-wg-scitt/draft-ietf-scitt-scrapi.¶
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.¶
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.¶
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."¶
This Internet-Draft will expire on 12 July 2025.¶
Copyright (c) 2025 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.¶
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.¶
The SCITT Architecture [I-D.ietf-scitt-architecture] defines the core objects, identifiers and workflows necessary to interact with a SCITT Transparency Service:¶
SCRAPI defines the operations necessary to support supply chain transparency using COSE [RFC9052]:¶
Issuances of Signed Statements¶
Registration of Signed Statements¶
Verification of Signed Statements¶
Issuance of Receipts¶
Verification of Receipts¶
Production of Transparent Statements¶
Verification of Transparent Statements¶
In addition to these operational HTTP endpoints, this specification defines supporting endpoints:¶
Resolving Verification Keys for Issuers¶
Retrieving Receipts Asynchronously¶
Retrieving Signed Statements from an Artifact Repository¶
Retrieving Statements from an Artifact Repository¶
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.¶
This specification uses the terms "Signed Statement", "Receipt", "Transparent Statement", "Artifact Repositories", "Transparency Service", "Append-Only Log" and "Registration Policy" as defined in [I-D.ietf-scitt-architecture].¶
Authentication is out of scope for this document. Implementations MAY authenticate clients, for example authorization or preventing denial of service attacks. If Authentication is not implemented, rate limiting or other denial of service mitigation MUST be implemented.¶
All messages are sent as HTTP GET or POST requests.¶
If the Transparency Service cannot process a client's request, it MUST return an HTTP 4xx or 5xx status code, and the body SHOULD be a Concise Problem Details object [RFC9290] containing:¶
title: A human-readable string identifying the error that prevented the Transparency Service from processing the request, ideally short and suitable for inclusion in log messages.¶
detail: A human-readable string describing the error in more depth, ideally with sufficient detail enabling the error to be rectified.¶
instance: A URN reference identifying the problem. To facilitate automated response to errors, this document defines a set of standard tokens for use in the type field within the URN namespace of: "urn:ietf:params:scitt:error:".¶
response-code: The HTTP error response code relating to this error.¶
TODO: RESOLVE this dangling media-type¶
application/concise-problem-details+cbor¶
NOTE: SCRAPI is not a CoAP API. Nonetheless Constrained Problem Details objects [RFC9290] provide a useful CBOR encoding for problem details and avoids the need for mixing CBOR and JSON in endpoint implementations.¶
NOTE: Examples use '\' line wrapping per [RFC8792]¶
Examples of errors may include:¶
{ / title / -1: \ "Bad Signature Algorithm", / detail / -2: \ "Signing algorithm 'WalnutDSA' not supported", / instance / -3: \ "urn:ietf:params:scitt:error:badSignatureAlgorithm", / response-code / -4: 400, }¶
Most error types are specific to the type of request and are defined in the respective subsections below. The one exception is the "malformed" error type, which indicates that the Transparency Service could not parse the client's request because it did not comply with this document:¶
Error code: `malformed` (The request could not be parsed)¶
Clients SHOULD treat 500 and 503 HTTP status code responses as transient failures and MAY retry the same request without modification at a later date.¶
Note that in the case of any error response, the Transparency Service MAY include a Retry-After header field per [RFC9110] in order to request a minimum time for the client to wait before retrying the request. In the absence of this header field, this document does not specify a minimum.¶
The following HTTP endpoints are mandatory to implement to enable conformance to this specification.¶
This endpoint is used to discover the capabilities and current configuration of a transparency service implementing this specification.¶
The Transparency Service responds with a CBOR map of configuration elements. These elements are Transparency-Service specific.¶
Contents of bodies are informative examples only.¶
Request:¶
GET /.well-known/transparency-configuration HTTP/1.1 Host: transparency.example Accept: application/cose Response: HTTP/1.1 200 Ok Content-Type: application/cose Payload (in CBOR diagnostic notation) 18([ ; COSE_Sign1 structure with tag 18 h'44A123BEEFFACE', ; Protected header (example bytes) {}, ; Unprotected header { ; Payload - CBOR map "issuer": "https://transparency.example", "base_url": "https://transparency.example/v1/scrapi", "oidc_auth_endpoint": "https://transparency.example/auth", "registration_policy": "https://transparency.example/statements/\ urn:ietf:params:scitt:statement:sha-256:base64url:5i6UeRzg1...qnGmr1o" }, h'ABCDEF1234567890ABCDEF1234567890' ; Signature ])¶
Responses to this message are vendor-specific. Fields that are not understood MUST be ignored.¶
See notes on detached payloads below.¶
This endpoint instructs a Transparency Service to register a Signed Statement on its log. Since log implementations may take many seconds or longer to reach finality, this API provides an asynchronous mode that returns a locator that can be used to check the registration's status asynchronously.¶
The following is a non-normative example of an HTTP request to register a Signed Statement:¶
Request:¶
POST /entries HTTP/1.1 Host: transparency.example Accept: application/cbor Accept: application/cose Content-Type: application/cose Payload (in CBOR diagnostic notation) 18([ / COSE Sign1 / h'a1013822', / Protected Header / {}, / Unprotected Header / null, / Detached Payload / h'269cd68f4211dffc...0dcb29c' / Signature / ])¶
If the payload is detached, the Transparency Service depends on the client's authentication context in the Registration Policy. If the payload is attached, the Transparency Service depends on both the client's authentication context (if present) and the verification of the Signed Statement in the Registration Policy.¶
The Registration Policy for the Transparency Service MUST be applied before any additional processing. The details of Registration Policies are out of scope for this document.¶
Response:¶
One of the following:¶
If the Transparency Service is able to mint receipts within a reasonable time, it may return the receipt directly.¶
Along with the receipt the Transparency Service MAY return a locator in the HTTP response Location header, provided the locator is a valid URL.¶
HTTP/1.1 201 Created¶
Location: https://transparency.example/entries\ /67ed41f1de6a...cfc158694ed0befe¶
Content-Type: application/cose¶
Payload (in CBOR diagnostic notation)¶
18([ / COSE Sign1 / h'a1013822', / Protected Header / {}, / Unprotected Header / null, / Detached Payload / h'269cd68f4211dffc...0dcb29c' / Signature / ])¶
The response contains the Receipt for the Signed Statement. Fresh Receipts may be requested through the resource identified in the Location header.¶
In cases where the registration request is accepted but the Transparency Service is not able to mint Receipts in a reasonable time, it returns a locator for the registration operation and a status code indicating the status of the operation, as in this non- normative example:¶
{ / locator / "OperationID": "67f89d5f0042e3ad42...35a1f190", / status / "Status": "running", } Status must be one of the following:¶
"running" - the operation is still in progress¶
"succeeded" - the operation succeeded and the Receipt is ready¶
OperationID is Transparency Service-specific and MUST not be used for querying status in any Transparency Service other than the one that returned it.¶
If the OperationID is a valid URL, it MAY be included as a Location header in the HTTP response.¶
Transparency Services do not guarantee the retention of operation IDs for the entirety of their lifecycle. A Transparency MAY delete operation records, and some operation ID lookups MAY return error 404, even though they were valid in the past. The length of validity of the OperationID is Transparency Service specific. Still, the Transparency Service MUST maintain a record of every running or successful operation until at least one client has fetched the completed Receipt.¶
The Transparency Service MAY include a Retry-After header in the HTTP response to help with polling.¶
HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted¶
Location: https://transparency.example/operations/67f8...f190¶
Content-Type: application/cbor Retry-After: <seconds> { / locator / "OperationID": "67f89d5f0042e3ad42...35a1f190", / status / "Status": "running", }¶
The response contains an ID referencing the running operation for Signed Statement Registration.¶
If 202 is returned, then clients should wait until Registration succeeded or failed by polling the Check Operation endpoint using the OperationID returned in the response.¶
The following expected errors are defined. Implementations MAY return other errors, so long as they are valid [RFC9290] objects.¶
HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request application/concise-problem-details+cbor { / title / -1: \ "Bad Signature Algorithm", / detail / -2: \ "Signed Statement contained a non supported algorithm", / instance / -3: \ "urn:ietf:params:scitt:error:badSignatureAlgorithm", / response-code / -4: 400, } HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request application/concise-problem-details+cbor { / title / -1: "\ Confirmation Missing", / detail / -2: \ "Signed Statement did not contain proof of possession", / instance / -3: \ "urn:ietf:params:scitt:error:signed-statement:\ confirmation-missing", / response-code / -4: 400, } HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request application/concise-problem-details+cbor { / title / -1: \ "Payload Missing", / detail / -2: \ "Signed Statement payload must be attached \ (must be present)", / instance / -3: \ "urn:ietf:params:scitt:error:signed-statement:\ payload-missing", / response-code / -4: 400, } HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request application/concise-problem-details+cbor { / title / -1: \ "Payload Forbidden", / detail / -2: \ "Signed Statement payload must be detached \ (must not be present)", / instance / -3: \ "urn:ietf:params:scitt:error:signed-statement:\ payload-forbidden", / response-code / -4: 400, } HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request application/concise-problem-details+cbor { / title / -1: \ "Rejected", / detail / -2: \ "Signed Statement not accepted by the current\ Registration Policy", / instance / -3: \ "urn:ietf:params:scitt:error:signed-statement:\ rejected-by-registration-policy", / response-code / -4: 400, }¶
Authentication MAY be implemented for this endpoint.¶
This endpoint is used to check the progress of a long-running registration.¶
The following is a non-normative example of an HTTP request for the status of a running registration:¶
Request:¶
GET /operations/67f89d5f0042e3ad42...35a1f190, HTTP/1.1 Host: transparency.example Accept: application/cbor Response: One of the following:¶
_Success case_¶
If the operation is complete and it _succeeded_, the Transparency Service returns a status of "succeeded" along with a locator that can fetch the Receipt.¶
EntryID is Transparency Service specific and MUST not be used for fetching Receipts in any Transparency Service other than the one that returned it.¶
If the EntryID is a valid URL, it MAY be included as a Location header in the HTTP response.¶
HTTP/1.1 200 Ok¶
Location: https://transparency.example/entries/67ed...befe¶
Content-Type: application/cbor¶
{ / locator / "EntryID": "67f89d5f0042e3ad42...35a1f190", / status / "Status": "succeeded", } _Failure case_¶
If the operation is complete and it _failed_, the Transparency Service returns a status of "failed" and an optional [RFC9290] Concise Problem Details object to explain the failure.¶
HTTP/1.1 200 Ok¶
Content-Type: application/cbor¶
{ / status / "Status": "failed", / error / "Error": { / title / -1: \ "Bad Signature Algorithm", / detail / -2: \ "Signed Statement contained a non supported algorithm", / instance / -3: \ "urn:ietf:params:scitt:error:badSignatureAlgorithm", } }¶
HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted¶
Location: https://transparency.example/operations/67f8...f190¶
Retry-After: <seconds>¶
If 202 is returned, then clients should continue polling the Check Operation endpoint using the operation identifier.¶
The following expected errors are defined. Implementations MAY return other errors, so long as they are valid [RFC9290] objects.¶
HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request application/concise-problem-details+cbor { / title / -1: "Invalid locator", / detail / -2: "Operation locator is not in a valid form", / instance / -3: "urn:ietf:params:scitt:error:invalidRequest", / response-code / -4: 400, }¶
If no record of the specified running operation is found, the Transparency Service returns a 404 response.¶
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found application/concise-problem-details+cbor { / title / -1: \ "Operation Not Found", / detail / -2: \ "No running operation was found matching the requested ID", / instance / -3: \ "urn:ietf:params:scitt:error:notFound", / response-code / -4: 404, }¶
If a client is polling for an in-progress registration too frequently then the Transparency Service MAY, in addition to implementing rate limiting, return a 429 response:¶
HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests Content-Type: application/concise-problem-details+cbor Retry-After: <seconds> { / title / -1: \ "Too Many Requests", / detail / -2: \ "Only <number> requests per <period> are allowed.", / instance / -3: \ "urn:ietf:params:scitt:error:tooManyRequests", / response-code / -4: 429, }¶
Authentication SHOULD be implemented for this endpoint.¶
Request:¶
GET entries/67ed41f1de6a...cfc158694ed0befe HTTP/1.1 Host: transparency.example Accept: application/cose Response:¶
If the Receipt is found:¶
HTTP/1.1 200 Ok Location: https://transparency.example/entries/67ed...befe Content-Type: application/cose Payload (in CBOR diagnostic notation) 18([ / COSE Sign1 / h'a1013822', / Protected Header / {}, / Unprotected Header / null, / Detached Payload / h'269cd68f4211dffc...0dcb29c' / Signature / ])¶
If there is no Receipt found for the specified EntryID the Transparency Service returns a 404 response:¶
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found application/concise-problem-details+cbor { / title / -1: \ "Not Found", / detail / -2: \ "Receipt with entry ID <id> not known \ to this Transparency Service", / instance / -3: \ "urn:ietf:params:scitt:error:receipt:not-found", / response-code / -4: 404, }¶
The following HTTP endpoints are optional to implement.¶
This endpoint enables Transparency Service APIs to act like Artifact Repositories, and serve Signed Statements directly, instead of indirectly through Receipts.¶
Request:¶
GET /signed-statements/9e4f...688a HTTP/1.1 Host: transparency.example Accept: application/cose Response: One of the following:¶
HTTP/1.1 200 Ok Content-Type: application/cose Payload (in CBOR diagnostic notation) 18([ / COSE Sign1 / h'a1013822', / Protected Header / {}, / Unprotected Header / null, / Detached Payload / h'269cd68f4211dffc...0dcb29c' / Signature / ])¶
The following expected errors are defined. Implementations MAY return other errors, so long as they are valid [RFC9290] objects.¶
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found application/concise-problem-details+cbor { / title / -1: \ "Not Found", / detail / -2: \ "No Signed Statement found with the specified ID", / instance / -3: \ "urn:ietf:params:scitt:error:notFound", / response-code / -4: 404,¶
For all responses additional eventually consistent operation details MAY be present. Support for eventually consistent Receipts is implementation specific, and out of scope for this specification.¶
This endpoint is used to exchange old or expiring Receipts for fresh ones.¶
The iat, exp and kid claims can change each time a Receipt is exchanged.¶
This means that fresh Receipts can have more recent issued at times, further in the future expiration times, and be signed with new signature algorithms.¶
Request:¶
POST /exchange/receipt HTTP/1.1 Host: transparency.example Accept: application/cose Content-Type: application/cose Payload (in CBOR diagnostic notation) 18([ / COSE Sign1 / h'a1013822', / Protected Header / {}, / Unprotected Header / null, / Detached Payload / h'269cd68f4211dffc...0dcb29c' / Signature / ])¶
A new Receipt:¶
HTTP/1.1 200 Ok Location: https://transparency.example/entries/67ed...befe¶
Content-Type: application/cose¶
Payload (in CBOR diagnostic notation)¶
18([ / COSE Sign1 / h'a1013822', / Protected Header / {}, / Unprotected Header / null, / Detached Payload / h'269cd68f4211dffc...0dcb29c' / Signature / ])¶
This endpoint is inspired by [I-D.ietf-oauth-sd-jwt-vc].¶
The following is a non-normative example of a HTTP request for the Issuer Metadata configuration when iss is set to https://transparency.example/tenant/1234:¶
Request:¶
GET /.well-known/issuer/tenant/1234 HTTP/1.1 Host: transparency.example Accept: application/json Response: HTTP/1.1 200 Ok Content-Type: application/json { "issuer": "https://transparency.example/tenant/1234", "jwks": { "keys": [ { "kid": "urn:ietf:params:oauth\ :jwk-thumbprint:sha-256:Dgyo...agRo", "alg": "ES256", "use": "sig", "kty": "EC", "crv": "P-256", "x": "p-kZ4uOASt9IjQRTrWikGnlbGb-z3LU1ltwRjZaOS9w", "y": "ymXE1yltJPXgjQSRe9NweN3TLlSUALYZTzy83NVfdg0" }, { "kid": "urn:ietf:params:oauth\ :jwk-thumbprint:sha-256:4Fzx...0ClE", "alg": "HPKE-Base-P256-SHA256-AES128GCM", "use": "enc", "kty": "EC", "crv": "P-256", "x": "Vreuil95vzR6ixutgBBf2ota-rj97MvKfuJWB4qqp5w", "y": "NkUTeaoNlLRRsVRxHGDA-RsA0ex2tSpcd3G-4SmKXbs" } ] } }¶
This endpoint in inspired by [I-D.draft-demarco-oauth-nonce-endpoint].¶
Authentication SHOULD NOT be implemented for this endpoint. This endpoint is used to demonstrate proof of possession, which is the reason that authentication is not required. Client holding signed statements that require demonstrating proof of possession MUST use this endpoint to obtain a nonce.¶
Request:¶
GET /nonce HTTP/1.1 Host: transparency.example Accept: application/json Response: HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: application/json { "nonce": "d2JhY2NhbG91cmVqdWFuZGFt" }¶
This document describes the interoperable API for client calls to, and implementations of, a Transparency Service as specified in [I-D.ietf-scitt-architecture]. As such the security considerations in this section are concerned only with security considerations that are relevant at that implementation layer. All questions of security of the related COSE formats, algorithm choices, cryptographic envelopes,verifiable data structures and the like are handled elsewhere and out of scope of this document.¶
SCITT is concerned with issues of cross-boundary supply-chain-wide data integrity and as such must assume a very wide range of deployment environments. Thus, no assumptions can be made about the security of the computing environment in which any client implementation of this specification runs.¶
[I-D.ietf-scitt-architecture] defines 2 distinct roles that require authentication: Issuers who sign Statements, and clients that submit API calls on behalf of Issuers. While Issuer authentication and signing of Statements is very important for the trustworthiness of systems implementing the SCITT building blocks, it is out of scope of this document. This document is only concerned with authentication of API clients.¶
For those endpoints that require client authentication, Transparency Services MUST support at least one of the following options:¶
Where authentication methods rely on long term secrets, both clients and Transparency Services implementing this specification SHOULD allow for the revocation and rolling of authentication secrets.¶
The most serious threats to implementations on Transparency Services are ones that would cause the failure of their main promises, to wit:¶
Threats to strong identification, for example representing the Statements from one issuer as those of another¶
Threats to payload integrity, for example changing the contents of a Signed Statement before making it transparent¶
Threats to non-equivocation, for example attacks that would enable the presentation or verification of divergent proofs for the same Statement payload¶
While denial of service attacks are very hard to defend against completely, and Transparency Services are unlikely to be in the critical path of any safety-liable operation, any attack which could cause the _silent_ failure of Signed Statement registration, for example, should be considered in scope.¶
In principle DoS attacks are easily mitigated by the client checking that the Transparency Service has registered any submitted Signed Statement and returned a Receipt. Since verification of Receipts does not require the involvement of the Transparency Service DoS attacks are not a major issue.¶
Clients to Transparency Services SHOULD ensure that Receipts are available for their registered Statements, either on a periodic or needs-must basis, depending on the use case.¶
Beyond this, implementers of Transparency Services SHOULD implement general good practice around network attacks, flooding, rate limiting etc.¶
Since the purpose of this API is to ultimately put the message payloads on a Transparency Log there is limited risk to eavesdropping. Nonetheless transparency may mean 'within a limited community' rather than 'in full public', so implementers MUST add protections against man-in-the-middle and network eavesdropping, such as TLS.¶
Modification attacks are mitigated by the use of the Issuer signature on the Signed Statement.¶
Insertion attacks are mitigated by the use of the Issuer signature on the Signed Statement, therefore care must be taken in the protection of Issuer keys and credentials to avoid theft Issuer and impersonation.¶
Transparency Services MAY also implement additional protections such as anomaly detection or rate limiting in order to mitigate the impact of any breach.¶
Replay attacks are not particularly concerning for SCITT or SCRAPI: Once a statement is made, it is intended to be immutable and non- repudiable, so making it twice should not lead to any particular issues. There could be issues at the payload level (for instance, the statement "it is raining" may true when first submitted but not when replayed), but being payload-agnostic implementations of SCITT services cannot be required to worry about that.¶
If the semantic content of the payload are time dependent and susceptible to replay attacks in this way then timestamps MAY be added to the protected header signed by the Issuer.¶
Once registered with a Transparency Service, Registered Signed Statements cannot be deleted. Thus, any message deletion attack must occur prior to registration else it is indistinguishable from a man- in-the-middle or denial-of-service attack on this interface.¶
TODO: Consider negotiation for Receipt as "JSON" or "YAML". TODO: Consider impact of media type on "Data URIs" and QR Codes.¶
IANA is requested to register the URN sub-namespace urn:ietf:params:scitt in the "IETF URN Sub-namespace for Registered Protocol Parameter Identifiers" Registry [IANA.params], following the template in [RFC3553]:¶
scitt¶
Specification: [RFCthis] Repository: http://www.iana.org/assignments/scitt Index value: No transformation needed.¶
The following value is requested to be registered in the "Well-Known URIs" registry (using the template from [RFC8615]):¶
URI suffix: issuer Change controller: IETF Specification document(s): RFCthis. Related information: N/A¶
The following value is requested to be registered in the "Well-Known URIs" registry (using the template from [RFC8615]):¶
URI suffix: transparency-configuration Change controller: IETF Specification document(s): RFCthis. Related information: N/A¶
TODO: Register them from here.¶
This section requests registration of the "application/scitt.receipt+cose" media type [RFC2046] in the "Media Types" registry in the manner described in [RFC6838].¶
To indicate that the content is a SCITT Receipt:¶
Type name: application¶
Subtype name: scitt.receipt+cose¶
Required parameters: n/a¶
Optional parameters: n/a¶
Encoding considerations: TODO¶
Security considerations: TODO¶
Interoperability considerations: n/a¶
Published specification: this specification¶
Applications that use this media type: TBD¶
Fragment identifier considerations: n/a¶
Additional information:¶
Person & email address to contact for further information: TODO¶
Intended usage: COMMON¶
Restrictions on usage: none¶
Author: TODO¶
Change Controller: IESG¶
Provisional registration? No¶
Orie Steele Transmute United States Email: orie@transmute.industries¶
Orie contributed examples, text, and URN structure to early version of this draft.¶