Re: mbsync with XOAUTH2 SASL mechanism

[Felix Lechner via <help-guix@gnu.org>]

Hi Peter,

On Sun, Nov 13, 2022 at 11:05 AM Peter Polidoro <peter@polidoro.io> wrote:
>
> I do not know if OAuth2 refers to something proprietary

While I cannot help much with your issue, the "Open Authentication"
standard is open--although too complex even for some insiders:

Eran Hammer resigned from his role of lead author for the OAuth 2.0
project, withdrew from the IETF working group, and removed his name
from the specification in July 2012. Hammer cited a conflict between
web and enterprise cultures as his reason for leaving, noting that
IETF is a community that is "all about enterprise use cases" and "not
capable of simple". "What is now offered is a blueprint for an
authorization protocol", he noted, "that is the enterprise way",
providing a "whole new frontier to sell consulting services and
integration solutions". In comparing OAuth 2.0 with OAuth 1.0,
Hammer points out that it has become "more complex, less
interoperable, less useful, more incomplete, and most importantly,
less secure". He explains how architectural changes for 2.0 unbound
tokens from clients, removed all signatures and cryptography at a
protocol level and added expiring tokens (because tokens could not be
revoked) while complicating the processing of authorization. Numerous
items were left unspecified or unlimited in the specification because
"as has been the nature of this working group, no issue is too small
to get stuck on or leave open for each implementation to decide."
(internal quotes removed) [1]

Kind regards
Felix Lechner

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OAuth