1. Introduction
This section and its sub-sections are non-normative.
This specification defines an API that enables the use of strong authentication methods in payment flows on the web. It aims to provide the same authentication benefits and user privacy focus as [webauthn-3] with enhancements to meet the needs of payment processing.
Similarly to [webauthn-3] , this specification defines two related processes involving a user. The first is § 3 Registration (formerly "enrollment"), where a relationship is created between the user and the Relying Party . The second is § 4 Authentication , where the user responds to a challenge from the Relying Party (possibly via an intermediary payment service provider) to consent to a specific payment.
It is a goal of this specification to reduce authentication friction during checkout, and one aspect of that is to maximize the number of authentications that the user can perform for a given registration. That is, with consent from the Relying Party , ideally the user could "register once" and authenticate on any merchant origin (and via payment service provider), not just the merchant origin where the user first registered.
To that end, an important feature of Secure Payment Confirmation is that the merchant (or another entity) may initiate the authentication ceremony on the Relying Party’s behalf. The Relying Party must opt-in to allowing this behavior during credential creation.
Functionally,
this
specification
defines
a
new
payment
method
for
the
PaymentRequest
API,
and
adds
a
WebAuthn
Extension
to
extend
[webauthn-3]
with
payment-specific
datastructures
and
to
relax
assumptions
to
allow
the
API
to
be
called
in
payment
contexts.
1.1. Use Cases
Although [webauthn-3] provides general authentication capabilities for the Web, the following use cases illustrate the value of the payment-specific extension defined in this specification.
We presume that the general use case of cryptographic-based authentication for online transactions is well established.
1.1.1. Cryptographic evidence of transaction confirmation
In many online payment systems, it is common for the entity (e.g., bank) that issues a payment instrument to seek to reduce fraud through authentication. [webauthn-3] and this specification make it possible to use authenticators to cryptographically sign important payment-specific information such as the origin of the merchant and the transaction amount and currency. The bank, as the Relying Party , can then verify the signed payment-specific information as part of the decision to authorize the payment.
If
the
bank
uses
plain
[webauthn-3]
,
the
payment-specific
information
to
be
verified
must
be
stored
in
the
WebAuthn
challenge
.
This
raises
several
issues:
-
It is a misuse of the
challenge
field (which is intended to defeat replay attacks). -
There is no specification for this, so each bank is likely to have to devise its own format for how payment-specific information should be formatted and encoded in the challenge, complicating deployment and increasing fragmentation.
-
Regulations may require evidence that the user was shown and agreed to the payment-specific information. Plain [webauthn-3] does not provide for this display: there is no specified UX associated with information stored in the
challenge
field.
These limitations motivate the following Secure Payment Confirmation behaviors:
-
The
challenge
field is only used to defeat replay attacks, as with plain [webauthn-3] . -
SPC specifies a format for payment-specific information. This will enable development of generic verification code and test suites.
-
SPC guarantees that the user agent has presented the payment-specific information to the user in a way that a malicious website (or maliciously introduced JavaScript code on a trusted website) cannot bypass.
-
The payment-specific information is included in the
CollectedClientData
dictionary, which cannot be tampered with via JavaScript.
NOTE: Banks and other stakeholders in the payments ecosystem trust payments via browsers sufficiently today using TLS, iframes, and other Web features. The current specification is designed to increase the security and usability of Web payments.
-
1.1.2. Registration in a third-party iframe
If a bank wishes to use [webauthn-3] as the Relying Party , that specification requires the bank to register the user in a first party context. Registration can happen outside of a transaction while the user is visiting the bank’s site. It is also useful to be able to register the user during a transaction, but any registration that interrupts the payment journey creates a risk of transaction abandonment.
This limitation motivates the following Secure Payment Confirmation behavior:
-
SPC supports cross-origin registration from an iframe in a third-party context. For instance, this registration might take place following some other identity and verification ( ID&V ) flow (e.g., SMS OTP).
1.1.3. Merchant control of authentication
Merchants seek to avoid user drop-off during checkout, in particular by reducing authentication friction. A Relying Party (e.g., a bank) that wishes to use [webauthn-3] to authenticate the user typically does so from an iframe. However, merchants would prefer to manage the user experience of authenticating the user while still enabling the Relying Party to verify the results of authentication.
This limitation motivates the following Secure Payment Confirmation behavior:
-
With SPC, other parties than the Relying Party can use authentication credentials on behalf of the Relying Party. The Relying Party can then verify the authentication results.
An additional benefit of this feature to Relying Parties is that they no longer need to build their own front-end experiences for authentication. Instead, payment service providers are likely to build them on behalf of merchants.
NOTE: Relying Parties that wish to provide the authentication user experience may still do so using SPC from an iframe.
1.2. Sample API Usage Scenarios
In this section, we walk through some scenarios for Secure Payment Confirmation and the corresponding sample code for using this API. Note that these are example flows and do not limit the scope of how the API can be used.
1.2.1. Registration during a checkout
This is a first-time flow, in which a new credential is created and stored by an issuing bank during a checkout by the user on some merchant.
-
The user visits
merchant.com
, selects an item to purchase, and proceeds to the checkout flow. They enter their payment instrument details, and indicate that they wish to pay (e.g., by pressing a "Pay" button). -
The merchant communicates out-of-band (e.g., using another protocol) with the bank that issued the payment instrument. The issuing bank requests verification of the user, and provides a bank-controlled URL for the merchant to open in an iframe.
-
The merchant opens an iframe to
bank.com
, with theallow
attribute set to " payment ". -
In the iframe, the issuing bank confirms the user’s identity via a traditional means (e.g., SMS OTP). After confirmation, the bank invites the user to register in SPC authentication for future payments.
-
The user consents (e.g., by clicking an "Register" button in the bank UX), and the bank runs code in the iframe (see example below).
-
The user goes through a WebAuthn registration flow. A new credential is created and returned to the issuing bank who stores it in their server-side database associated with the user and payment instrument(s).
-
The verification completes; the bank iframe closes and the merchant finishes the checkout process for the user.
Sample
code
for
registering
the
user
in
this
way
follows:
follows.
Note
that
the
example
code
presumes
access
to
async/await,
for
easier
to
read
promise
handling.
if ( ! window. PublicKeyCredential) { /* Client not capable. Handle error. */ } const publicKey= { // The challenge should be created by the bank server and sent to the iframe. challenge: new Uint8Array([ 21 , 31 , 105 /* 29 more random bytes generated by the server */ ]), // Relying Party: rp: { name: "Fancy Bank" , }, // User: user: { // Part of WebAuthn. This information is not required by SPC // but may be used by the bank server to identify this user in // future transactions. Inconsistent values for the same user // can result in the creation of multiple credentials for the user // and thus potential UX friction due to credential selection. id: Uint8Array. from ( window. atob( "MIIBkzCCATigAwIBAjCCAZMwggE4oAMCAQIwggGTMII=" ), c=> c. charCodeAt( 0 )), name: "jane.doe@example.com" , displayName: "Jane Doe" , }, // In this example the Relying Party accepts either an ES256 or RS256 // credential, but prefers an ES256 credential. pubKeyCredParams: [ { type: "public-key" , alg: - 7 // "ES256" }, { type: "public-key" , alg: - 257 // "RS256" } ], authenticatorSelection: { userVerification: "required" , residentKey: "required" , authenticatorAttachment: "platform" , }, timeout: 360000 , // 6 minutes // Indicate that this is an SPC credential. This is currently required so // that the browser knows this credential relates to SPC. It also enables // credential creation in a cross-origin iframe, which is required for this // example. // // A future version of the spec may remove the need for this extension. extensions: { "payment" : { isPayment: true , } } }; // Note: The following call will cause the authenticator to display UI. navigatortry { const newCredentialInfo= await navigator. credentials. create({ publicKey}); // Send new credential info to server for verification and registration. } catch ( err) { // No acceptable authenticator or user refused consent. Handle appropriately. }
1.2.2. Authentication on merchant site
This is the flow when a user with an already registered credential is performing a transaction and the issuing bank and merchant wish to use Secure Payment Confirmation.
-
The user visits
merchant.com
, selects an item to purchase, and proceeds to the checkout flow. They enter their payment instrument details, and indicate that they wish to pay (e.g., by pressing a "Pay" button). -
The merchant communicates out-of-band with the issuing bank of the payment instrument (e.g., using another protocol). The issuing bank requests verification of the user, and at the same time informs the merchant that it accepts SPC by providing the information necessary to use the API. This information includes a challenge and any credential IDs associated with this user and payment instrument(s).
-
The merchant runs the example code shown below.
-
The user agrees to the payment-specific information displayed in the SPC UX, and performs a subsequent WebAuthn authentication ceremony. The signed cryptogram is returned to the merchant.
-
The merchant communicates the signed cryptogram to the issuing bank out-of-band. The issuing bank verifies the cryptogram, and knows that the user is valid, what payment-specific information has been displayed, and that the user has consented to the transaction. The issuing bank authorizes the transaction and the merchant finishes the checkout process for the user.
The
sample
code
for
authenticating
the
user
follows.
Note
that
the
example
code
presumes
access
to
await/async,
async/await,
for
easier
to
read
promise
handling.
/* isSecurePaymentConfirmationAvailable indicates whether the browser */ /* supports SPC. It does not indicate whether the user has a credential */ /* ready to go on this device. */ const spcAvailable= PaymentRequest PaymentRequestawait PaymentRequest? . isSecurePaymentConfirmationAvailable(); if ( ! spcAvailable) { /* Browser does not support SPC; merchant should fallback to traditional flows. */ } const request= new PaymentRequest([{ supportedMethods: "secure-payment-confirmation" , data: { // List of credential IDs obtained from the bank. credentialIds, rpId: "fancybank.com" , // The challenge is also obtained from the bank. challenge: new Uint8Array([ 21 , 31 , 105 /* 29 more random bytes generated by the bank */ ]), instrument: { displayName: "Fancy Card ****1234" , icon: "https://fancybank.com/card-art.png" , }, payeeName: "Merchant Shop" , payeeOrigin: "https://merchant.com" , // Caller’s requested localized experience locale: [ "en" ], timeout: 360000 , // 6 minutes }], { total: { label: "Total" , amount: { currency: "USD" , value: "5.00" , }, }, }); try { const response= await request. show(); await response. complete( 'success' ); // response.data is a PublicKeyCredential, with a clientDataJSON that // contains the transaction data for verification by the issuing bank. /* send response.data to the issuing bank for verification */ } catch ( err) { /* SPC cannot be used; merchant should fallback to traditional flows */ }
2. Terminology
- SPC Credential
-
A WebAuthn credential that can be used for the behaviors defined in this specification. When an SPC Credential is to be used by a party other than the Relying Party , the Relying Party must explicitly opt in by declaring the credential for SPC at creation time.
This specification does not intend to limit how SPC credentials may (or may not) be used by a Relying Party for other authentication flows (e.g., login).
Note: The current version of this specification requires the Relying Party to explicitly opt in for a credential to be used in either a first-party or third-party context. Longer-term, our intention is that all WebAuthn credentials will be usable for SPC in a first-party context (e.g., on the Relying Party’s domain) and opt-in will only be required to allow a credential to be used by a third-party.
- Steps to silently determine if a credential is SPC-enabled
-
An as-yet undefined process by which a user agent can, given a Relying Party Identifier and a credential ID , silently (i.e., without user interaction) determine if the credential represented by that ID is an SPC Credential .
NOTE: See WebAuthn issue 1667 .
- Steps to silently determine if a credential is available for the current device
-
An as-yet undefined process by which a user agent can, given a Relying Party Identifier and a credential ID , silently (i.e., without user interaction) determine if the credential represented by that credential ID is available for the current device (i.e., could be successfully used as part of a WebAuthn Get call).
This allows the user agent to only conditionally display the transaction UX to the user if there is some chance that they can successfully complete the transaction.
NOTE: This property will likely require that SPC Credentials be discoverable ; as such this specification currently encodes that as a requirement.
NOTE: This property is very similar to that which is required for the WebAuthn Conditional UI Proposal . It is likely that both it and SPC could be supported by the same underlying API.
3. Registration
To
register
a
user
for
Secure
Payment
Confirmation,
relying
parties
should
call
navigator.credentials.create()
,
with
the
payment
WebAuthn
Extension
specified.
Tests
Note: In this specification we define an extension in order to allow (1) credential creation in a cross-origin iframe (which WebAuthn Levels 1 and 2 do not allow, but Level 3 is expected to allow ) and (2) the browser to cache SPC credential IDs in the absence of Conditional UI . If these capabilities are available in future versions of WebAuthn, we may remove the requirement for the extension from SPC. Note that SPC credentials (with the extension) are otherwise full-fledged WebAuthn credentials.
Note:
At
registration
time,
Web
Authentication
requires
both
name
and
displayName
,
although
per
the
definition
of
the
user
member
,
implementations
are
not
required
to
display
either
of
them
in
subsequent
authentication
ceremonies.
Of
the
two,
as
of
October
2023
name
is
shown
more
consistently.
Developers
should
continue
to
monitor
implementations.
4. Authentication
To authenticate a payment via Secure Payment Confirmation, this specification defines a new payment method , " secure-payment-confirmation ". This payment method confirms the transaction with the user and then performs an authentication ceremony to authenticate the user and create a signed blob representing the authentication ceremony.
At a high level, authentication for Secure Payment Confirmation is similar to [webauthn-3] , with one major conceptual shift. Secure Payment Confirmation allows a third-party (e.g., the merchant) to trigger an authentication ceremony on behalf of the Relying Party , passing in credentials that it has obtained from the Relying Party on some other unspecified channel. See § 1.1.3 Merchant control of authentication .
4.1. Payment Method: Secure Payment Confirmation
This specification defines a new payment handler , the Secure Payment Confirmation payment handler , which handles requests to authenticate a given payment.
NOTE: To quickly support an initial SPC experiment, this API was designed atop existing implementations of the Payment Request and Payment Handler APIs. There is now general agreement to explore a design of SPC independent of Payment Request. We therefore expect (without a concrete timeline) that SPC will move away from its Payment Request origins. For developers, this should improve feature detection, invocation, and other aspects of the API.
4.1.1. Payment Method Identifier
The standardized payment method identifier for the Secure Payment Confirmation payment handler is " secure-payment-confirmation ".
4.1.2. Registration in [payment-method-id]
Add the following to the registry of standardized payment methods in [payment-method-id] :
- " secure-payment-confirmation "
-
The Secure Payment Confirmation specification.
4.1.3. Modification of Payment Request constructor
In
the
steps
for
the
PaymentRequest
object’s
constructor
,
add
a
new
step
after
step
4.3:
-
Process payment methods: [substeps 1-3 elided]
-
If seenPMIs contains " secure-payment-confirmation " and the size of seenPMIs is greater than 1, throw a
RangeError
.
-
4.1.4. Modification of user activation requirement
In
the
steps
for
the
PaymentRequest.show()
method,
modify
steps
2
and
3:
-
If the relevant global object of request does not have transient activation , the user agent MAY:
-
Return a promise rejected with with a
"SecurityError"
DOMException
.
-
-
Otherwise, consume user activation of the relevant global object .
NOTE: This allows the user agent to not require user activation, for example to support redirect authentication flows where a user activation may not be present upon redirect. See § 10.3 Lack of user activation requirement for security considerations.
4.1.5.
SecurePaymentConfirmationRequest
Dictionary
dictionary SecurePaymentConfirmationRequest {required BufferSource challenge ;required USVString rpId ;required sequence <BufferSource >credentialIds ;required PaymentCredentialInstrument instrument ;unsigned long timeout ;USVString payeeName ;USVString payeeOrigin ;AuthenticationExtensionsClientInputs extensions ;sequence <USVString >locale ;boolean showOptOut ; };
The
SecurePaymentConfirmationRequest
dictionary
contains
the
following
members:
-
challenge
member, of type BufferSource -
A random challenge that the relying party generates on the server side to prevent replay attacks.
-
rpId
member, of type USVString -
The Relying Party Identifier of the credentials.
-
credentialIds
member, of type sequence< BufferSource > -
The list of credential identifiers for the given instrument.
-
instrument
member, of type PaymentCredentialInstrument -
The description of the instrument name and icon to display during registration and to be signed along with the transaction details.
-
timeout
member, of type unsigned long -
The number of milliseconds before the request to sign the transaction details times out. At most 1 hour.
-
payeeName
member, of type USVString -
The display name of the payee that this SPC call is for (e.g., the merchant). Optional, may be provided alongside or instead of
payeeOrigin
. -
payeeOrigin
member, of type USVString -
The origin of the payee that this SPC call is for (e.g., the merchant). Optional, may be provided alongside or instead of
payeeName
. -
extensions
member, of type AuthenticationExtensionsClientInputs -
Any WebAuthn extensions that should be used for the passed credential(s). The caller does not need to specify the payment extension ; it is added automatically.
-
locale
member, of type sequence< USVString > -
An optional list of well-formed [BCP47] language tags, in descending order of priority, that identify the locale preferences of the website, i.e. a language priority list [RFC4647] , which the user agent can use to perform language negotiation and locale-affected formatting with the caller.
NOTE: The
locale
is distinct from language or direction metadata associated with specific input members, in that it represents the caller’s requested localized experience rather than assertion about a specific string value. See § 13 Internationalization Considerations for more discussion. -
showOptOut
member, of type boolean -
Whether the user should be given a chance to opt-out during the transaction confirmation UX . Optional, default false.
4.1.6. Payment Method additional data type
The
payment
method
additional
data
type
for
this
payment
method
is
SecurePaymentConfirmationRequest
.
4.1.7. Checking if Secure Payment Confirmation is available
A
static
API
is
added
to
PaymentRequest
in
order
to
provide
developers
a
simplified
method
of
checking
whether
Secure
Payment
Confirmation
is
available.
partial interface PaymentRequest {static Promise <boolean >(); };
isSecurePaymentConfirmationAvailable
-
isSecurePaymentConfirmationAvailable()
-
Upon invocation, a promise is returned that resolves with a value of
true
if the Secure Payment Confirmation feature is available, orfalse
otherwise.
This allows a developer to perform the following check when deciding whether to initiate a SPC flow:
const spcAvailable= PaymentRequest&& PaymentRequest. isSecurePaymentConfirmationAvailable&& await PaymentRequest. isSecurePaymentConfirmationAvailable();
NOTE:
The
use
of
the
static
isSecurePaymentConfirmationAvailable
method
is
recommended
for
SPC
feature
detection,
instead
of
calling
canMakePayment
on
an
already-constructed
PaymentRequest
object.
4.1.8. Steps to validate payment method data
The
steps
to
validate
payment
method
data
for
this
payment
method,
for
an
input
SecurePaymentConfirmationRequest
data
,
are:
Tests
-
If data ["
credentialIds
"] is empty, throw aRangeError
. -
For each id in data ["
credentialIds
"]:-
If id is empty, throw a
RangeError
.
-
-
If data ["
challenge
"] is null or empty, throw aTypeError
. -
If data ["
instrument
"]["displayName
"] is empty, throw aTypeError
. -
If data ["
instrument
"]["icon
"] is empty, throw aTypeError
. -
Run the URL parser on data["
instrument
"] ["icon
"]. If this returns failure, throw aTypeError
. -
If data ["
rpId
"] is not a valid domain , throw aTypeError
. -
If both data ["
payeeName
"] and data ["payeeOrigin
"] are omitted, throw aTypeError
. -
If either of data ["
payeeName
"] or data ["payeeOrigin
"] is present and empty, throw aTypeError
. -
If data ["
payeeOrigin
"] is present:-
Let parsedURL be the result of running the URL parser on data ["
payeeOrigin
"]. -
If parsedURL is failure, then throw a
TypeError
. -
If parsedURL ’s scheme is not "
https
", then throw aTypeError
.
-
4.1.9. Steps to check if a payment can be made
The
steps
to
check
if
a
payment
can
be
made
for
this
payment
method,
for
an
input
SecurePaymentConfirmationRequest
data
,
are:
Tests
-
If data ["
payeeOrigin
"] is present:-
Let parsedURL be the result of running the URL parser on data ["
payeeOrigin
"]. -
Assert that parsedURL is not failure.
-
Assert that parsedURL ’s scheme is "
https
".
NOTE: These pre-conditions were previously checked in the steps to validate payment method data .
-
Set data ["
payeeOrigin
"] to the serialization of parsedURL ’s origin .
-
-
Fetch the image resource for the icon, passing «["
src
" → data ["instrument
"]["icon
"]]» for image . If this fails:-
If data ["
instrument
"]["iconMustBeShown
"] istrue
, then returnfalse
. -
Otherwise, set data ["
instrument
"]["icon
"] to an empty string.Note: This lets the RP know that the specified icon was not shown, as the output
instrument
will have an empty icon string.
Note: The image resource must be fetched whether or not any credential matches, to defeat attempts to probe for credential existence .
-
-
For each id in data ["
credentialIds
"]:-
Run the steps to silently determine if a credential is available for the current device and the steps to silently determine if a credential is SPC-enabled , passing in data ["
rpId
"] and id . If the result of either of these isfalse
, remove id from data ["credentialIds
"].
-
-
If data ["
credentialIds
"] is now empty, returnfalse
. The user agent must maintain authentication ceremony privacy and not leak this lack of matching credentials to the caller, by:-
Not allowing the caller to perform a timing attack on this outcome versus the user declining to authenticate on the transaction confirmation UX , e.g., by presenting an alternative interstitial that the user must interact with.
-
Rejecting the
show()
promise with a "NotAllowedError
"DOMException
.
-
-
Return
true
.
4.1.10. Displaying a transaction confirmation UX
To
avoid
restricting
User
Agent
implementation
choice,
this
specification
does
not
require
a
User
Agent
to
display
a
particular
user
interface
when
PaymentRequest.show()
is
called
and
the
Secure
Payment
Confirmation
payment
handler
is
selected.
However,
so
that
a
Relying
Party
can
trust
the
information
included
in
CollectedClientPaymentData
,
the
User
Agent
MUST
ensure
that
the
following
is
communicated
to
the
user
and
that
the
user’s
consent
is
collected
for
the
authentication:
-
The
payeeName
if it is present. -
The
payeeOrigin
if it is present. -
The
total
, that is thecurrency
andvalue
of the transaction. -
The
instrument
details, that is the payment instrumentdisplayName
andicon
. If an image resource could not be fetched or decoded from the inputicon
, then the User Agent may show no icon or a generic payment instrument icon in its place.NOTE: If the specified icon could not be fetched or decoded, then
iconMustBeShown
must befalse
here as otherwise the the steps to check if a payment can be made would have failed previously.
The
user
agent
MAY
utilize
the
information
in
locale
,
if
any,
to
display
a
UX
localized
into
a
language
and
using
locale-based
formatting
consistent
with
that
of
the
website.
If
showOptOut
is
true
,
the
user
agent
MUST
give
the
user
the
opportunity
to
indicate
that
they
want
to
opt
out
of
the
process
for
the
given
relying
party
.
If
the
user
indicates
that
they
wish
to
opt-out,
then
the
user
agent
must
reject
the
show()
promise
with
an
"
OptOutError
"
DOMException
.
See
§ 11.5
User
opt
out
.
If
the
current
transaction
automation
mode
is
not
"
none
",
the
user
agent
should
first
verify
that
it
is
in
an
automation
context
(see
WebDriver’s
Security
considerations
).
The
user
agent
should
then
bypass
the
above
communication
of
information
and
gathering
of
user
consent,
and
instead
do
the
following
based
on
the
value
of
the
current
transaction
automation
mode
:
-
"
autoAccept
" -
Act as if the user has seen the transaction details and accepted the authentication.
-
"
autoReject
" -
Act as if the user has seen the transaction details and rejected the authentication.
-
"
autoOptOut
" -
Act as if the user has seen the transaction details and indicated they want to opt out.
4.1.11. Steps to respond to a payment request
The
steps
to
respond
to
a
payment
request
for
this
payment
method,
for
a
given
PaymentRequest
request
and
SecurePaymentConfirmationRequest
data
,
are:
-
Let topOrigin be the top-level origin of the relevant settings object of request .
-
Let payment be a new a
AuthenticationExtensionsPaymentInputs
dictionary, whose fields are:-
isPayment
-
The boolean value
true
. -
rpId
-
data ["
rpId
"] -
topOrigin
-
topOrigin
-
payeeName
-
data ["
payeeName
"] if it is present, otherwise omitted. -
payeeOrigin
-
data ["
payeeOrigin
"] if it is present, otherwise omitted. -
total
-
request . [[details]] ["
total
"] -
instrument
-
data ["
instrument
"]
-
-
Let extensions be a new
AuthenticationExtensionsClientInputs
dictionary whosepayment
member is set to payment , and whose other members are set from data ["extensions
"]. -
Let publicKeyOpts be a new
PublicKeyCredentialRequestOptions
dictionary, whose fields are:-
challenge
-
data ["
challenge
"] -
timeout
-
data ["
timeout
"] -
rpId
-
data ["
rpId
"] -
userVerification
-
extensions
-
extensions
Note: This algorithm hard-codes "required" as the value for
userVerification
, because that is what Chrome’s initial implementation supports. The current limitations may change. The Working Group invites implementers to share use cases that would benefit from support for other values (e.g., "preferred" or "discouraged"). -
-
For each id in data ["
credentialIds
"]:-
Let descriptor be a new
PublicKeyCredentialDescriptor
dictionary, whose fields are:-
type
-
id
-
id
-
transports
-
A sequence of length 1 whose only member is
internal
.
-
-
Append descriptor to publicKeyOpts ["
allowCredentials
"].
-
-
Let outputCredential be the result of running the algorithm to Request a Credential , passing «["
publicKey
" → publicKeyOpts ]».Note: Chrome’s initial implementation does not pass the full
data.credentialIds
list to Request a Credential . Instead, it chooses one credential in the list that matches the current device and passes only that in.Note: This triggers [webauthn-3] 's Get behavior
-
Return outputCredential .
5.
WebAuthn
Extension
-
"
payment
"
This client registration extension and authentication extension indicates that a credential is either being created for or used for Secure Payment Confirmation, respectively.
For registration, this extension relaxes the WebAuthn requirements to allow credential creation in a cross-origin iframe, and also allows the browser to identify and cache Secure Payment Confirmation credential IDs. For authentication, this extension allows a third-party to perform an authentication ceremony on behalf of the Relying Party , and also adds transaction information to the signed cryptogram.
Notably,
a
website
should
not
call
navigator.credentials.get()
with
this
extension
directly;
for
authentication
the
extension
can
only
be
accessed
via
PaymentRequest
with
a
"
secure-payment-confirmation
"
payment
method.
Tests
This test does not directly correspond to a spec line, but instead tests that authentication can be triggered from inside a cross-origin iframe. That behavior is specified by the lack of any line forbidding it.
- Extension identifier
-
payment
- Operation applicability
- Client extension input
-
partial dictionary AuthenticationExtensionsClientInputs {AuthenticationExtensionsPaymentInputs
; };payment dictionary
{AuthenticationExtensionsPaymentInputs boolean isPayment ; // Only used for authentication.USVString rpId ;USVString topOrigin ;USVString payeeName ;USVString payeeOrigin ;PaymentCurrencyAmount total ;PaymentCredentialInstrument instrument ; };-
isPayment
member, of type boolean -
Indicates that the extension is active.
-
rpId
member, of type USVString -
The Relying Party id of the credential(s) being used. Only used at authentication time; not registration.
-
topOrigin
member, of type USVString -
The origin of the top-level frame. Only used at authentication time; not registration.
-
payeeName
member, of type USVString -
The payee name, if present, that was displayed to the user. Only used at authentication time; not registration.
-
payeeOrigin
member, of type USVString -
The payee origin, if present, that was displayed to the user. Only used at authentication time; not registration.
-
total
member, of type PaymentCurrencyAmount -
The transaction amount that was displayed to the user. Only used at authentication time; not registration.
-
instrument
member, of type PaymentCredentialInstrument -
The instrument details that were displayed to the user. Only used at authentication time; not registration.
-
- Client extension processing ( registration )
-
When creating a new credential :
-
Modify step 2 (the check for sameOriginWithAncestors ) as follows:
-
If sameOriginWithAncestors is
false
:-
If the relevant global object , as determined by the calling
create()
implementation, does not have transient activation :-
Return a
DOMException
whose name is "SecurityError
", and terminate this algorithm.
-
-
Note: This allows for creating SPC credentials in a cross-origin iframe, as long as the correct permission policy is set (see § 7 Permissions Policy integration ). A transient activation is also required in this case to mitigate privacy risks; see § 11.1 Registration in a Cross-Origin iframe .
-
-
After step 3, insert the following step:
-
If any of the following are true:
-
options ["
authenticatorSelection
"]["authenticatorAttachment
"] is not "platform
". -
options ["
authenticatorSelection
"]["residentKey
"] is not "required
" or "preferred
". -
options ["
authenticatorSelection
"]["userVerification
"] is not "required
".
then return a
TypeError
.Note: These values are hard-coded as that is what Chrome’s initial implementation supports. The current limitations may change. The Working Group invites implementers to share use cases that would benefit from support for other values.
-
-
-
- Client extension processing ( authentication )
-
When making an assertion with a
AuthenticationExtensionsPaymentInputs
extension_inputs :-
If not in a " secure-payment-confirmation " payment handler, return a "
NotAllowedError
"DOMException
.Note: This guards against websites trying to access the extended powers of SPC without going through the transaction UX .
-
During
[[DiscoverFromExternalSource]](origin, options, sameOriginWithAncestors)
:-
Skip step 6.1, which compares options.rpId to effectiveDomain
Note: This enables cross-domain authentication ceremonies; see § 1.1.3 Merchant control of authentication .
-
In step 9, instead of creating a
CollectedClientData
, instead create aCollectedClientPaymentData
with:-
type
set to "payment.get
" -
payment
set to a newCollectedClientAdditionalPaymentData
whose fields are:-
rpId
-
extension_inputs ["
rpId
"] -
topOrigin
-
extension_inputs ["
topOrigin
"] -
payeeName
-
extension_inputs ["
payeeName
"] if it is present, otherwise omitted. -
payeeOrigin
-
extension_inputs ["
payeeOrigin
"] if it is present, otherwise omitted. -
total
-
extension_inputs ["
total
"] -
instrument
-
extension_inputs ["
instrument
"]
-
-
All other fields set as per the original step 9.
-
-
-
- Client extension output
-
None
- Authenticator extension processing
-
None
5.1.
CollectedClientPaymentData
Dictionary
dictionary CollectedClientPaymentData :CollectedClientData {required CollectedClientAdditionalPaymentData payment ; };
The
CollectedClientPaymentData
dictionary
inherits
from
CollectedClientData
.
It
contains
the
following
additional
field:
-
payment
member, of type CollectedClientAdditionalPaymentData -
The additional payment information to sign.
5.2.
CollectedClientAdditionalPaymentData
Dictionary
dictionary CollectedClientAdditionalPaymentData {required USVString rpId ;required USVString topOrigin ;USVString payeeName ;USVString payeeOrigin ;required PaymentCurrencyAmount total ;required PaymentCredentialInstrument instrument ; };
The
CollectedClientAdditionalPaymentData
dictionary
contains
the
following
fields:
-
rpId
member, of type USVString -
The id of the Relying Party that created the credential.
NOTE: For historical reasons, some implementations may additionally include this parameter with the name
rp
. The values ofrp
andrpId
must be the same if both are present. -
topOrigin
member, of type USVString -
The origin of the top level context that requested to sign the transaction details.
-
payeeName
member, of type USVString -
The name of the payee, if present, that was displayed to the user.
-
payeeOrigin
member, of type USVString -
The origin of the payee, if present, that was displayed to the user.
-
total
member, of type PaymentCurrencyAmount -
The
PaymentCurrencyAmount
of the [payment-request]total
field. -
instrument
member, of type PaymentCredentialInstrument -
The instrument information that was displayed to the user.
Note
that
there
is
no
paymentRequestOrigin
field
in
CollectedClientAdditionalPaymentData
,
because
the
origin
of
the
calling
frame
is
already
included
in
CollectedClientData
of
[webauthn-3]
.
6. Common Data Structures
The following data structures are shared between registration and authentication.
6.1.
PaymentCredentialInstrument
Dictionary
dictionary PaymentCredentialInstrument {required USVString displayName ;required USVString icon ;boolean iconMustBeShown =true ; };
The
PaymentCredentialInstrument
dictionary
contains
the
information
to
be
displayed
to
the
user
and
signed
together
with
the
transaction
details.
It
contains
the
following
members:
-
displayName
member, of type USVString -
The name of the payment instrument to be displayed to the user.
NOTE: See § 13 Internationalization Considerations for discussion about internationalization of the
displayName
. -
icon
member, of type USVString -
The URL of the icon of the payment instrument.
NOTE: The
icon
URL may either identify an image on an internet-accessible server (e.g.,https://bank.com/card.png
), or directly encode the icon data via a Data URL [RFC2397] . Between the two types of URLs, Data URLs offer several benefits to the Relying Party . They can improve reliability (e.g., in the case that the icon hosting server may be unavailable). They can also enhance validation because the Relying Party has cryptographic evidence of what the browser displayed to the user: the icon URL is signed as part of theCollectedClientAdditionalPaymentData
structure.NOTE: See related accessibility considerations .
-
iconMustBeShown
member, of type boolean , defaulting totrue
-
Indicates whether the specified icon must be successfully fetched and shown for the request to succeed.
7. Permissions Policy integration
This specification uses the " payment " policy-identifier string from [payment-request] to control access to both registration and authentication. This extends the WebAuthn Permission Policy .
Note:
Algorithms
specified
in
[CREDENTIAL-MANAGEMENT-1]
perform
the
actual
permissions
policy
evaluation.
This
is
because
such
policy
evaluation
needs
to
occur
when
there
is
access
to
the
current
settings
object
.
The
[[Create]](origin,
options,
sameOriginWithAncestors)
and
[[DiscoverFromExternalSource]](origin,
options,
sameOriginWithAncestors)
internal
methods
do
not
have
such
access
since
they
are
invoked
in
parallel
(by
algorithms
specified
in
[CREDENTIAL-MANAGEMENT-1]
).
8. SPC Relying Party Operations
8.1. Verifying an Authentication Assertion
In order to perform an authentication ceremony for Secure Payment Confirmation, the Relying Party MUST proceed as follows:
-
Let credential be a
PublicKeyCredential
returned from a successful invocation of the Secure Payment Confirmation payment handler by the SPC caller .Note: As SPC is designed to enable merchant control of authentication , the entity that invokes SPC may not be the Relying Party . This first step presumes that the SPC caller has returned a credential obtained via SPC to the Relying Party .
-
Perform steps 3-21 as specified in WebAuthn , with the following changes:
-
In step 5, verify that credential .
id
identifies one of the public key credentials provided to the SPC caller by the Relying Party . -
In step 11, verify that the value of C ["
type
"] is the stringpayment.get
. -
In step 12, verify that the value of C ["
challenge
"] equals the base64url encoding of the challenge provided to the SPC caller by the Relying Party . -
In step 13, verify that the value of C ["
origin
"] matches the origin that the Relying Party expects SPC to have been called from. -
After step 13, insert the following steps:
-
Verify that the value of C ["
payment
"]["rpId
"] matches the Relying Party 's origin. -
Verify that the value of C ["
payment
"]["topOrigin
"] matches the top-level origin that the Relying Party expects. -
Verify that the value of C ["
payment
"]["payeeName
"] matches the name of the payee that should have been displayed to the user, if any. -
Verify that the value of C ["
payment
"]["payeeOrigin
"] matches the origin of the payee that should have been displayed to the user, if any. -
Verify that the value of C ["
payment
"]["total
"] matches the transaction amount that should have been displayed to the user. -
Verify that the value of C ["
payment
"]["instrument
"] matches the payment instrument details that should have been displayed to the user.
-
-
9. User Agent Automation
For the purposes of user agent automation and website testing, this document defines the below [WebDriver2] extension commands . Interested parties should also consult the equivalent automation section in [webauthn-3] .
9.1. Set SPC Transaction Mode
The Set SPC Transaction Mode WebDriver extension command instructs the user agent to place Secure Payment Confirmation into a mode where it will automatically simulate a user either accepting or rejecting the transaction confirmation UX .
The
current
transaction
automation
mode
tracks
what
automation
mode
is
currently
active
for
SPC.
It
defaults
to
"
none
".
HTTP Method | URI Template |
---|---|
POST |
/session/{session
id}/secure-payment-confirmation/set-mode
|
The remote end steps are:
-
If parameters is not a JSON Object , return a WebDriver error with WebDriver error code invalid argument .
-
Let mode be the result of getting a property named
"mode"
from parameters . -
If mode is undefined or is not one of "
autoAccept
", "autoReject
", or "autoOptOut
", return a WebDriver error with WebDriver error code invalid argument . -
Set the current transaction automation mode to mode .
-
Return success with data
null
.
10. Security Considerations
As this specification builds on top of WebAuthn, the WebAuthn Security Considerations are applicable. The below subsections comprise the current Secure Payment Confirmation-specific security considerations, where this specification diverges from WebAuthn.
10.1. Cross-origin authentication ceremony
A significant departure that Secure Payment Confirmation makes from WebAuthn is in allowing a third-party to initiate an authentication ceremony using credentials for a different Relying Party , and returning the assertion to the third party. This feature can expose Relying Parties to both login and payment attacks, which are discussed here.
10.1.1. Login Attack
As credentials created for Secure Payment Confirmation are valid WebAuthn credentials, it is possible that a Relying Party may wish to use the same credential for a given user for both login and payment. This allows a potential attack on the Relying Party’s login system, if they do not carefully verify the assertion they receive.
The attack is as follows:
-
The user visits
attacker.com
, which is or pretends to be a merchant site. -
attacker.com
obtains credentials for the user fromrelyingparty.com
, either legitimately or by stealing them fromrelyingparty.com
or another party with whomrelyingparty.com
had shared the credentials. -
attacker.com
initiates SPC authentication, and the user agrees to the transaction (which may or may not be legitimate). -
attacker.com
takes the payment assertion that they received from the API call, and sends it to the login endpoint forrelyingparty.com
, e.g. by sending a POST tohttps://relyingparty.com/login
. -
relyingparty.com
is employing faulty assertion validation code, which checks the signature but fails to validate the necessary fields (see below), and believes the login attempt to be legitimate. -
relyingparty.com
returns e.g. a login cookie toattacker.com
. The user’s account atrelyingparty.com
has now been compromised.
Relying Parties can guard against this attack in two ways.
Firstly, a Relying Party must always follow the correct assertion validation steps either for WebAuthn login or SPC payment as appropriate. In particular, the following fields can all be used to detect an inappropriate use of a credential:
-
CollectedClientData
["type
"]- "webauthn.get" for login, "payment.get" for SPC. -
CollectedClientData
["challenge
"] - this value should be provided by the Relying Party server to the site ahead of any call to either WebAuthn or SPC, and should be verified as matching an expected, appropriate, previously-provided value. -
CollectedClientData
["origin
"] - if SPC is being performed cross-origin, this value will contain the origin of the caller (e.g.attacker.com
in the above example).
Secondly,
a
Relying
Party
can
consider
keeping
their
payment
and
login
credentials
separate.
If
doing
this,
the
Relying
Party
should
only
register
credentials
for
Secure
Payment
Confirmation
on
a
subdomain
(e.g.
https//payment.relyingparty.com
),
and
should
keep
payment
credentials
and
login
credentials
separate
in
their
database.
payment
extension
specified
to
participate
in
SPC
authentication,
and
the
specification
may
be
updated
to
reflect
that
in
the
future.
In
both
implementation
and
specification
today,
a
credential
created
with
the
payment
can
be
used
for
login,
if
the
Relying
Party
wishes.
This
is
not
expected
to
change.
10.1.2. Payment Attack
A Secure Payment Confirmation assertion is essentially useless unless it is part of an ongoing online transaction.
A variety of mechanisms protect against an attack where a malicious third-party, instead of attempting to hijack a user account, initiates an unauthorized payment using Secure Payment Confirmation credentials (obtained either legitimately or otherwise):
-
When the attacker initiates SPC, the user will be shown UI by the User Agent that clearly states the transaction details (including the payee and amount). The user is very likely to "cancel" in this scenario.
-
If the user does agree to the transaction, and completes the subsequent WebAuthn authentication ceremony, the attacker now has a signed SPC assertion for the Relying Party .
-
If the Relying Party is not expecting a transaction, it will reject the assertion.
-
If the Relying Party is expecting a transaction, it will detect at least one of the following and reject the assertion:
-
An incorrect
CollectedClientData
["challenge
"], if an attacker attempts to race against a valid ongoing payment. -
An incorrect
CollectedClientData
["origin
"], if an attacker attempts to sit between the user and a valid merchant site and forward the assertion.
-
10.2. Merchant-supplied authentication data
The bank can and should protect against spoofing by verifying the authentication assertion they receive to ensure it aligns with the transaction details provided by the merchant.
That is because a consequence of this specification’s third-party authentication ceremony is that even in a valid transaction (i.e. one that the Relying Party is expecting), a third-party provides the transaction details that are shown to the user:
-
Transaction amount and currency
-
Payment instrument name and icon
-
Payee name and origin
This could lead to a spoofing attack, in which a merchant presents incorrect data to the user. For example, the merchant could tell the bank (in the backend) that it is initiating a purchase of $100, but then pass $1 to the SPC API (and thus show the user a $1 transaction to verify). Or the merchant could provide the correct transaction details but pass Secure Payment Confirmation credentials that don’t match what the Relying Party expects.
Secure Payment Confirmation actually makes defeating this kind of attack easier than it currently is on the web. In online payments today, the bank has to trust that the merchant showed the user the correct amount in their checkout flow (and any fraud discoveries are post-payment, when the user checks their account statement).
10.3. Lack of user activation requirement
If the user agent does not require user activation, as outlined in § 4.1.4 Modification of user activation requirement , some additional security mitigations should be considered. Not requiring user activation increases the risk of spam and click-jacking attacks, by allowing a Secure Payment Confirmation flow to be initiated without the user interacting with the page immediately beforehand.
In order to mitigate spam, the user agent may decide to enforce a user activation requirement after some threshold, for example after the user has already been shown a Secure Payment Confirmation flow without a user activation on the current page. In order to mitigate click-jacking attacks, the user agent may implement a time threshold in which clicks are ignored immediately after a dialog is shown.
Another
relevant
mitigation
exists
in
PaymentRequest.show()
:
the
Payment
Request
API
requires
the
document
to
be
visible,
and
thus
SPC
cannot
be
triggered
from
a
background
tab,
minimized
window,
or
other
similar
hidden
situations.
11. Privacy Considerations
As this specification builds on top of WebAuthn, the WebAuthn Privacy Considerations are applicable. The below subsections comprise the current Secure Payment Confirmation-specific privacy considerations, where this specification diverges from WebAuthn.
11.1. Registration in a Cross-Origin iframe
Unlike WebAuthn, this specification allows the creation of credentials in a cross-origin iframe (as long as the appropriate Permission Policy is set on the iframe). That is, if site A embeds an iframe from site B, with the " payment " policy set, then site B may initiate a credential creation for site B within that iframe.
NOTE: Allowing credential creation in cross-origin iframes is currently under discussion in the WebAuthn Working Group, and thus may move from this specification to WebAuthn in the future.
Allowing
credential
creation
in
a
cross-origin
iframe
presents
a
risk
that
an
iframe
may
attempt
to
trick
a
user
into
registering
a
credential.
That
credential
could
then
be
used
for
tracking
(see
WebAuthn
issue
1656
).
To
mitigate
such
an
attack,
this
specification
requires
that
a
call
to
navigator.credentials.create()
inside
a
cross-origin
iframe
may
only
be
invoked
when
the
iframe
has
transient
activation
(e.g.,
via
a
click
or
press
from
the
user).
NOTE: Requiring user activation for WebAuthn APIs in general is under discussion in the WebAuthn WG too; see issue #1293 .
11.2. Probing for credential ids
As per WebAuthn’s section on Authentication Ceremony Privacy , implementors of Secure Payment Confirmation must make sure not to enable malicious callers (who now may not even be the Relying Party ) to distinguish between these cases:
-
A credential is not available.
-
A credential is available, but the user does not consent to use it.
If the above cases are distinguishable, information is leaked by which a malicious Relying Party could identify the user by probing for which credentials are available.
Section § 4.1.9 Steps to check if a payment can be made gives normative steps to mitigate this risk.
11.3. Joining different payment instruments
If a Relying Party uses the same credentials for a given user across multiple payment instruments, this might allow a merchant to join information about payment instruments that might otherwise not be linked. That is, across two different transactions that a user U performs with payment instruments P1 and P2 (either on the same merchant M, or two colluding merchants M1 and M2), the merchant(s) may now be able to learn that P1 and P2 are for the same user.
For many current online payment flows this may not be a significant risk, as the user often provides sufficient information to do this joining anyway (e.g., name, email address, shipping address).
However, if payment methods that involve less identifying information (e.g., tokenization) become commonplace, it is important that ecosystem stakeholders take steps to preserve user privacy. For example:
-
Payment systems might establish rules that place limits on storage of credential ID(s) by third parties.
-
When a Relying Party assigns multiple instruments to a single SPC credential, it might choose not to share that credential ID with other parties. In this case, the Relying Party could still use the SPC credential itself (in either a first-party or third-party context) to authenticate the user.
-
A Relying Party (e.g., a bank) might enable the user to register a distinct SPC credential per payment instrument. This would not prevent the Relying Party from joining those accounts internally.
11.4. Credential ID(s) as a tracking vector
Even for a single payment instrument, the credential ID(s) returned by the Relying Party could be used by a malicious entity as a tracking vector, as they are strong, cross-site identifiers. However in order to obtain them from the Relying Party , the merchant already needs an as-strong identifier to give to the Relying Party (e.g., the credit card number).
11.5. User opt out
The
API
option
showOptOut
tells
the
user
agent
to
provide
a
way
for
the
user
to
indicate
they
wish
to
opt
out
of
the
relying
party’s
storage
of
information.
When
the
user
invokes
this
opt
out,
an
OptOutError
is
returned
to
the
caller
to
indicate
the
user’s
intent
to
opt
out.
It
is
then
up
to
the
caller
to
act
on
the
opt
out,
e.g.
by
clearing
payment
information
stored
for
the
user.
Implementors
must
make
sure
that
the
return
of
an
OptOutError
does
not
reveal
that
the
user
has
credentials
but
did
not
complete
an
authentication.
This
can
be
mitigated
by
similar
means
as
§ 11.2
Probing
for
credential
ids
,
e.g.
by
also
providing
the
user
an
opportunity
to
opt
out
on
the
interstitial
UX
in
the
case
where
a
credential
match
is
not
found.
This is not intended to be a mechanism to delete browser data or credentials - it is for the developer to prompt for opt out via the user agent. The user agent should make this clear to the user, for example with some clarifying text: "This provider may have stored information about your payment method, which you can request to be deleted."
12. Accessibility Considerations
User
agents
render
the
icon
and
displayName
together.
Relying
parties
ensure
the
accessibility
of
the
icon
presentation
by
providing
sufficient
information
via
the
displayName
(e.g.,
if
the
icon
represents
a
bank,
by
including
the
bank
name
in
the
displayName
).
User Agents implementing this specification should follow both WebAuthn’s Accessibility Considerations and PaymentRequest’s Accessibility Considerations .
13. Internationalization Considerations
Callers
of
the
API
should
express
the
desired
locale
of
the
transaction
dialog
as
well
as
the
localization
of
any
displayable
strings
via
the
locale
member.
In
general
this
member
should
match
the
localization
of
the
page
where
the
request
originates
(such
as
by
querying
the
lang
attribute
of
the
button
triggering
the
request).
This
specification
does
not
(yet)
include
mechanisms
for
callers
to
associate
language
or
direction
metadata
with
the
displayable
strings
they
provide
as
input
to
the
API
(e.g.,
displayName
).
In the meantime, callers of the API should:
-
Aim for consistency between values of
locale
(when provided) and the language of displayable strings. -
Ensure that direction changes within a string will be correctly rendered when the string is displayed (see How to use Unicode controls for bidi text and Inline changes to base direction for more information).
Implementations (and other processes attempting to display values) should apply bidi isolation around displayable string values when inserting them into the user interface. They should set the direction when it is known, or default to first-strong ("auto") when it is not.
14. IANA Considerations
This section adds the below-listed extension identifier to the IANA "WebAuthn Extension Identifiers" registry [IANA-WebAuthn-Registries] established by [RFC8809] .
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WebAuthn Extension Identifier: payment
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Description: This extension supports the following functionality defined by the Secure Payment Confirmation API: (1) it allows credential creation in a cross-origin iframe (2) it allows a party other than the Relying Party to use the credential to perform an authentication ceremony on behalf of the Relying Party, and (3) it allows the browser to identify and cache Secure Payment Confirmation credentials. For discussion of important ways in which SPC differs from Web Authentication, see in particular § 10 Security Considerations and § 11 Privacy Considerations
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Specification Document: Section § 5 WebAuthn Extension - "payment" of this specification
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Change Controller: W3C Web Payments Working Group
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Notes: Registration follows 3 May 2023 discussion with the Web Authentication Working Group.