Net::OAuth(3)

NAME
Net::OAuth - OAuth 1.0 for Perl

SYNOPSIS
  use Net::OAuth::Client;

  # client_id is the Consumer Key, client_secret the Consumer Secret.
  # Framework-agnostic: supply your own redirect and session handling.

  my $client = Net::OAuth::Client->new(
      $client_id,
      $client_secret,
      site               => 'https://provider.example/',
      request_token_path => '/oauth/request_token',
      authorize_path     => '/oauth/authorize',
      access_token_path  => '/oauth/access_token',
      callback           => 'https://you.example/auth/callback',
      session            => \&session,
  );

  # 1. Send the user to the provider to authorize.
  $client->authorize_url;

  # 2. They return to your callback with oauth_token and oauth_verifier.
  my $access_token = $client->get_access_token($token, $verifier);

  # 3. Use the access token to fetch a protected resource.
  my $response = $access_token->get('/profile');
  die $response->status_line unless $response->is_success;
  print $response->decoded_content;

IMPORTANT
Net::OAuth provides a low-level API for reading and writing OAuth messages.

You probably should start with Net::OAuth::Client.

ABSTRACT
OAuth is

"An open protocol to allow secure API authentication in a simple and standard method from desktop and web applications."

In practical terms, OAuth is a mechanism for a Consumer to request protected resources from a Service Provider on behalf of a user.

Please refer to the OAuth spec: <http://oauth.net/documentation/spec>

Net::OAuth provides:

•   classes that encapsulate OAuth messages (requests and responses).

•   message signing

•   message serialization and parsing.

•   2-legged requests (aka. tokenless requests, aka. consumer requests), see "CONSUMER REQUESTS"

Net::OAuth does not provide:

•   Consumer or Service Provider encapsulation

•   token/nonce/key storage/management

DESCRIPTION

  OAUTH MESSAGES
An OAuth message is a set of key-value pairs. The following message types are supported:

Requests

•   Request Token (Net::OAuth::RequestTokenRequest)

•   Access Token (Net::OAuth::AccessTokenRequest)

•   User Authentication (Net::OAuth::UserAuthRequest)

•   Protected Resource (Net::OAuth::ProtectedResourceRequest)

•   Consumer Request (Net::OAuth::ConsumerRequest) (2-legged / token-less request)

Responses

•   Request Token (Net::OAuth::RequestTokenResponse)

•   Access Token (Net::OAuth:AccessTokenResponse)

•   User Authentication (Net::OAuth::UserAuthResponse)

Each OAuth message type has one or more required parameters, zero or more optional parameters, and most allow arbitrary parameters.

All OAuth requests must be signed by the Consumer. Responses from the Service Provider, however, are not signed.

To create a message, the easiest way is to use the factory methods (Net::OAuth->request, Net::OAuth->response, Net::OAuth->message). The following method invocations are all equivalent:

 $request = Net::OAuth->request('user authentication')->new(%params);
 $request = Net::OAuth->request('user_auth')->new(%params);
 $request = Net::OAuth->request('UserAuth')->new(%params);
 $request = Net::OAuth->message('UserAuthRequest')->new(%params);

The more verbose way is to use the class directly:

 use Net::OAuth::UserAuthRequest;
 $request = Net::OAuth::UserAuthRequest->new(%params);

You can also create a message by deserializing it from a Authorization header, URL, query hash, or POST body

 $request = Net::OAuth->request('protected resource')->from_authorization_header($ENV{HTTP_AUTHORIZATION}, %api_params);
 $request = Net::OAuth->request('protected resource')->from_url($url, %api_params);
 $request = Net::OAuth->request('protected resource')->from_hash({$q->Vars}, %api_params); # CGI
 $request = Net::OAuth->request('protected resource')->from_hash($c->request->params, %api_params); # Catalyst
 $response = Net::OAuth->response('request token')->from_post_body($response_content, %api_params);

Note that the deserialization methods (as opposed to new()) expect OAuth protocol parameters to be prefixed with 'oauth_', as you would expect in a valid OAuth message.

Before sending a request, the Consumer must first sign it:

 $request->sign;

When receiving a request, the Service Provider should first verify the signature, and should say which signature methods it is willing to accept:

 $request = Net::OAuth->request('protected resource')->from_authorization_header(
     $ENV{HTTP_AUTHORIZATION},
     %api_params,
     allowed_signature_methods => [qw/HMAC-SHA1 HMAC-SHA256/],
 );
 die "Signature verification failed" unless $request->verify;

See "VERIFYING MESSAGES" for why the second part matters.

  VERIFYING MESSAGES
"oauth_signature_method" is a message parameter: it is chosen by whoever sent the message, and on the receiving side it arrives from the network along with the signature it describes. "verify" dispatches on it, so without an "allowed_signature_methods" list the sender is choosing which algorithm - and therefore which key - the receiver checks their signature with.

That is a real problem for a Service Provider deployed with RSA-SHA1, because it holds only the Consumer's public key. An attacker who sends "oauth_signature_method=HMAC-SHA1" instead moves verification onto the symmetric path, whose key "signature_key" in Net::OAuth::Request derives from "consumer_secret" and "token_secret" - fields RSA-SHA1 does not use and which such a deployment has no reason to keep secret. The equivalent downgrade between two symmetric methods (HMAC-SHA256 to HMAC-SHA1, or to PLAINTEXT) is weaker but is the same mechanism.

Pass "allowed_signature_methods" as an API parameter to any message you are going to "verify":

 allowed_signature_methods => [qw/RSA-SHA1/]

"verify" croaks if the message names anything else. Deployments that cannot reach every call site - because verification happens inside a framework or a wrapper module - can set the process-wide default instead:

 @Net::OAuth::ALLOWED_SIGNATURE_METHODS = qw/RSA-SHA1/;

An "allowed_signature_methods" on the message overrides that default.

If neither is set, "verify" croaks. There is no method it could safely assume on your behalf: only you know which one your Consumers registered with, and taking the answer from the message is the problem this list exists to solve.

Signing is not affected: a Consumer choosing the method for a message it is about to send is choosing for itself, not on someone else's behalf.

Upgrading

This is a breaking change. Before this release "verify" took the algorithm from the message; every existing caller is therefore unpinned, and will croak until it says what it accepts. The migration is one parameter per verifying call site, or one package variable per process, naming the method your Consumers already use - for the great majority of deployments:

 @Net::OAuth::ALLOWED_SIGNATURE_METHODS = qw/HMAC-SHA1/;

The break is deliberate: a warning would have left every deployment that does not read release notes verifying with an attacker-chosen algorithm.

When sending a message the last step is to serialize it and send it to wherever it needs to go. The following serialization methods are available:

 $response->to_post_body # a application/x-www-form-urlencoded POST body

 $request->to_url # the query string of a URL

 $request->to_authorization_header # the value of an HTTP Authorization header

 $request->to_hash # a hash that could be used for some other serialization

  API PARAMETERS vs MESSAGE PARAMETERS
Net::OAuth defines 'message parameters' as parameters that are part of the transmitted OAuth message. These include any protocol parameter (prefixed with 'oauth_' in the message), and any additional message parameters (the extra_params hash).

'API parameters' are parameters required to build a message object that are not transmitted with the message, e.g. consumer_secret, token_secret, request_url, request_method.

There are various methods to inspect a message class to see what parameters are defined:

 $request->required_message_params;
 $request->optional_message_params;
 $request->all_message_params;
 $request->required_api_params;
 $request->optional_api_params;
 $request->all_api_params;
 $request->all_params;

E.g.

 use Net::OAuth;
 use Data::Dumper;
 print Dumper(Net::OAuth->request("protected resource")->required_message_params);

 $VAR1 = [
          'consumer_key',
          'signature_method',
          'timestamp',
          'nonce',
          'token'
        ];

  ACCESSING PARAMETERS
All parameters can be get/set using accessor methods. E.g.

 my $consumer_key = $request->consumer_key;
 $request->request_method('POST');

  THE REQUEST_URL PARAMETER
Any query parameters in the request_url are removed and added to the extra_params hash when generating the signature.

E.g. the following requests are pretty much equivalent:

 my $request = Net::OAuth->request('Request Token')->new(
  %params,
  request_url => 'https://photos.example.net/request_token',
  extra_params => {
   foo => 'bar'
  },
);

 my $request = Net::OAuth->request('Request Token')->new(
  %params,
  request_url => 'https://photos.example.net/request_token?foo=bar',
 );

Calling $request->request_url will still return whatever you set it to originally. If you want to get the request_url with the query parameters removed, you can do:

    my $url = $request->normalized_request_url;

  SIGNATURE METHODS
The following signature methods are supported:

•   PLAINTEXT

•   HMAC-SHA1

•   HMAC-SHA256

•   RSA-SHA1

The signature method is determined by the value of the signature_method parameter that is passed to the message constructor.

If an unknown signature method is specified, the signing/verification will throw an exception.

PLAINTEXT SIGNATURES

This method is a trivial signature which adds no security. Not recommended.

HMAC-SHA1 SIGNATURES

This method is available if you have Digest::SHA installed. This is by far the most commonly used method.

HMAC-SHA256 SIGNATURES

This method is available if you have Digest::SHA installed.

RSA-SHA1 SIGNATURES

To use RSA-SHA1 signatures, pass in a Crypt::OpenSSL::RSA object (or any object that can do $o->sign($str) and/or $o->verify($str, $sig))

E.g.

Consumer:

 use Crypt::OpenSSL::RSA;
 use File::Slurp;
 $keystring = read_file('private_key.pem');
 $private_key = Crypt::OpenSSL::RSA->new_private_key($keystring);
 $request = Net::OAuth->request('request token')->new(%params);
 $request->sign($private_key);

Service Provider:

 use Crypt::OpenSSL::RSA;
 use File::Slurp;
 $keystring = read_file('public_key.pem');
 $public_key = Crypt::OpenSSL::RSA->new_public_key($keystring);
 $request = Net::OAuth->request('request token')->new(
     %params,
     allowed_signature_methods => ['RSA-SHA1'],
 );
 if (!$request->verify($public_key)) {
        die "Signature verification failed";
 }

A Service Provider deployed this way holds only the Consumer's public key, so it is the deployment with the most to lose from letting the message choose the algorithm: without "allowed_signature_methods" a request naming HMAC-SHA1 would be checked against "consumer_secret", which RSA-SHA1 does not use and such a deployment has no reason to keep secret. See "VERIFYING MESSAGES".

Note that you can pass the key in as a parameter called 'signature_key' to the message constructor, rather than passing it to the sign/verify method, if you like.

  CONSUMER REQUESTS
To send a request without including a token, use a Consumer Request:

    my $request = Net::OAuth->request('consumer')->new(
            consumer_key => 'dpf43f3p2l4k3l03',
            consumer_secret => 'kd94hf93k423kf44',
            request_url => 'http://provider.example.net/profile',
            request_method => 'GET',
            signature_method => 'HMAC-SHA1',
            timestamp => '1191242096',
            nonce => 'kllo9940pd9333jh',
    );

    $request->sign;

See Net::OAuth::ConsumerRequest

  I18N
Per the OAuth spec, when making the signature Net::OAuth first encodes parameters to UTF-8. This means that any parameters you pass to Net::OAuth, if they might be outside of ASCII character set, should be run through Encode::decode() (or an equivalent PerlIO layer) first to decode them to Perl's internal character structure.

  OAUTH 1.0A
Background:

<http://mojodna.net/2009/05/20/an-idiots-guide-to-oauth-10a.html>

<http://oauth.googlecode.com/svn/spec/core/1.0a/drafts/3/oauth-core-1_0a.html>

Net::OAuth defaults to OAuth 1.0 spec compliance, and supports OAuth 1.0 Rev A with an optional switch:

 use Net::OAuth
 $Net::OAuth::PROTOCOL_VERSION = Net::OAuth::PROTOCOL_VERSION_1_0A;

It is recommended that any new projects use this switch if possible, and existing projects move to supporting this switch as soon as possible. Probably the easiest way for existing projects to do this is to turn on the switch and run your test suite. The Net::OAuth constructor will throw an exception where the new protocol parameters (callback, callback_confirmed, verifier) are missing.

Internally, the Net::OAuth::Message constructor checks $Net::OAuth::PROTOCOL_VERSION and attempts to load the equivalent subclass in the Net::OAuth::V1_0A:: namespace. So if you instantiate a Net::OAuth::RequestTokenRequest object, you will end up with a Net::OAuth::V1_0A::RequestTokenRequest (a subclass of Net::OAuth::RequestTokenRequest) if the protocol version is set to PROTOCOL_VERSION_1_0A. You can also select a 1.0a subclass on a per-message basis by passing

    protocol_version => Net::OAuth::PROTOCOL_VERSION_1_0A

in the API parameters hash.

If you are not sure whether the entity you are communicating with is 1.0A compliant, you can try instantiating a 1.0A message first and then fall back to 1.0 if that fails:

    use Net::OAuth
    $Net::OAuth::PROTOCOL_VERSION = Net::OAuth::PROTOCOL_VERSION_1_0A;
    my $is_oauth_1_0 = 0;
    my $response = eval{Net::OAuth->response('request token')->from_post_body($res->content)};
    if ($@) {
        if ($@ =~ /Missing required parameter 'callback_confirmed'/) {
            # fall back to OAuth 1.0
            $response = Net::OAuth->response('request token')->from_post_body(
                $res->content,
                protocol_version => Net::OAuth::PROTOCOL_VERSION_1_0
            );
            $is_oauth_1_0 = 1; # from now on treat the server as OAuth 1.0 compliant
        }
        else {
            die $@;
        }
    }

At some point in the future, Net::OAuth will default to Net::OAuth::PROTOCOL_VERSION_1_0A.

SEE ALSO
<http://oauth.net>

Check out Net::OAuth::Simple - it has a simpler API that may be more to your liking

Check out Net::Twitter::OAuth for a Twitter-specific OAuth API

Check out WWW::Netflix::API for a Netflix-specific OAuth API

TODO

•   Support for repeating/multivalued parameters

•   Add convenience methods for SPs

    Something like:

        # direct from CGI.pm object
        $request = Net::OAuth->request('Request Token')->from_cgi_query($cgi, %api_params);

        # direct from Catalyst::Request object
        $request = Net::OAuth->request('Request Token')->from_catalyst_request($c->req, %api_params);

        # from Auth header and GET and POST params in one
        local $/;
        my $post_body = <STDIN>;
        $request = Net::OAuth->request('Request Token')->from_auth_get_and_post(
            $ENV{HTTP_AUTHORIZATION},
            $ENV{QUERY_STRING},
            $post_body,
            %api_params
        );

AUTHOR
Originally by Keith Grennan <foss@nearlyfree.org>

Currently maintained by Robert Rothenberg <perl@rhizomnic.com>

CONTRIBUTORS
Adam Taylor

Brad Whitaker

Cosimo Streppone <cosimo@cpan.org>

Daisuke Maki

Gregor Herrmann

James Raspass <jraspass@gmail.com>

Jeff Dairiki

Jens Rehsack

Katou Akira

Masayoshi Sekimura

Marc Mims

Mike Schleif

Nobuo Danjou

Pattawan Gerlings-Kaewduangdee (oiami)

Sergey Romanov <sromanov-dev@yandex.ru>

Shawn Moore <cpan@sartak.org>

Simon Wistow

Tomaž Šolc <avian@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
Copyright 2007-2012, 2024-2026 Keith Grennan

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.