Subject: [OAUTH-WG] Refresh tokens

From: "Bart Wiegmans" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:12:46 +0100

Hello everybody,

This is my first post on this mailing list, so I will introduce myself.
My name is Bart Wiegmans, I work in Groningen, the Netherlands. I am
involved with OAuth2 because I am implementing an authorization server
for my employer, all4students / studenten.net.

I have few remarks about refresh tokens.

1. The way I understand it, they are a way to limit the impact of access
token exposure. Which I find desirable.
2. However, they can also be seen as credentials for an access token
request. In which case, refresh token exposure is a more serious risk
than access token exposure.
3. Are there, or will there ever be, multiple refresh token types as
there are access token types?
4. Can a public client use refresh tokens at all, or is this
meaningless? If not, are public clients that are installed on a users'
computer or smartphone required to re-authorise every time an access
token expires? (This would be undesirable). Should they request
long-lived access tokens? 

About MAC tokens, I wonder about the practicality of public (javascript)
clients using them as a token type. 

With kind regards,
Bart Wiegmans | Developer