OAuth 2.0 Authorization Header

98
votes

I want to develop a SDK that encapsules the OAuth 2.0 functions. I have checked the differences between OAuth 1.0 & 2.0, and I have some confusion on Authorization Header (1.0 and 2.0), OAuth 1.0 protocol parameters can be transmitted using the HTTP "Authorization" header, but I can't find this described in current OAuth 2.0 draft.

Does OAuth 2.0 supports authorization headers?

In OAuth 1.0 your header would look like:

Authorization: OAuth realm="Example",
    oauth_consumer_key="0685bd9184jfhq22",
    oauth_token="ad180jjd733klru7",
    oauth_signature_method="HMAC-SHA1",
    oauth_signature="wOJIO9A2W5mFwDgiDvZbTSMK%2FPY%3D",
    oauth_timestamp="137131200",
    oauth_nonce="4572616e48616d6d65724c61686176",
    oauth_version="1.0"
2
httpoauth-2.0
Not answering your question but there are already a number of OpenId and OAuth libraries out there, are you sure you want to re-invent the wheel? – Kane
Hi Kane, I am not developing SDK for OAuth, I just need some OAuth function in my SDK, so I don't want to introduce third part library. – JKhuang

2 Answers

216
votes

For those looking for an example of how to pass the OAuth2 authorization (access token) in the header (as opposed to using a request or body parameter), here is how it's done:

Authorization: Bearer 0b79bab50daca910b000d4f1a2b675d604257e42
37
votes

You can still use the Authorization header with OAuth 2.0. There is a Bearer type specified in the Authorization header for use with OAuth bearer tokens (meaning the client app simply has to present ("bear") the token). The value of the header is the access token the client received from the Authorization Server.

It's documented in this spec: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6750#section-2.1

E.g.:

   GET /resource HTTP/1.1
   Host: server.example.com
   Authorization: Bearer mF_9.B5f-4.1JqM

Where mF_9.B5f-4.1JqM is your OAuth access token.