Subject: [OAUTH-WG] draft-ietf-oauth-security-topics: Migration strategies for deprecated password grant

From: Jorge Bernal <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2019 15:53:32 +0100

Hi all,

We are currently discussing[1] an implementation of oAuth for WordPress and
what this would mean for our mobile apps[2].

It was noted that the new recommendation will completely discourage the use of
the password grant. While I agree in principle that this is a good thing
overall, we will have to find a migration path. 

Going through meeting minutes[3] I noticed this was already in your radar, but
I haven’t been able to find any further mention:

> Need to provide alternatives to lots of folks using this grant

As I mention on our discussion, our reality is that we have thousands of
existing users for whom we only have passwords, and we would need a migration
path to obtain tokens for those users. Without the password grant, I don’t see
a clear way to do that without asking users to log in again.

Besides that, I expect a transitional period where we will also need to keep
the user’s password to be able to interact with legacy APIs that don’t support
the use of a token yet. Again, I don't see a way forward that doesn't involve
asking users to log in twice.

I would appreciate any further insights or guidelines about migrating existing
credentials and supporting legacy APIs while we transition.

Thanks,
  Koke

[1] https://github.com/WP-API/authentication/issues/1
[2] https://apps.wordpress.com/mobile/
[3] https://tools.ietf.org/wg/oauth/minutes?item=minutes-104-oauth-00.html

--
Jorge Bernal | [email-masked] | [email-masked]
Mobile Engineer @ Automattic | http://automattic.com/

http://koke.me/ | http://twitter.com/koke

--
Jorge Bernal | [email-masked] | [email-masked]
Mobile Engineer @ Automattic | http://automattic.com/

http://koke.me/ | http://twitter.com/koke