WebID is a method for internet services and members to know who they are communicating with. The WebID specifications define a set o

to prepare the process of standardization for identity, identification and

authentication Authentication (from ''authentikos'', "real, genuine", from αὐθέντης ''authentes'', "author") is the act of proving an assertion, such as the identity of a computer system user. In contrast with identification, the act of indicat ...

HTTP The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, ...

-based networks. WebID-based protocols ( Solid OIDC, WebID-TLS, WebID-TLS+Delegation) offer a new way to log into internet services. Instead of using a password, for example, the member refers to another web address which can vouch for it. WebID is not a specific service or product. Technically speaking, a WebID is an

URI that denotes ("refers to" or "names") an agent on an HTTP based network such as the Web or an enterprise intranet. In line with

linked data In computing, linked data (often capitalized as Linked Data) is structured data which is interlinked with other data so it becomes more useful through semantic queries. It builds upon standard Web technologies such as HTTP, RDF and URIs, but ...

principles, when a WebID is de-referenced ("looked up"), it resolves to a ''profile document'' (a WebID-Profile) that describes its referent (what it denotes). This profile document consists of RDF model based structured data, originally constructed primarily using terms from the FOAF vocabulary, but now often including terms from other vocabularies. Profile documents can be stored on the agent's own Web server, and access thereto may be partially or wholly constrained to specific agent identities via the use of access controls, to preserve the privacy of the profile document's subject.

Protocols

WebID-TLS

Th
WebID-TLS
protocol (formerly known as FOAF+SSL) is a decentralized and secure authentication protocol built upon the profile information as well as the Transport Layer Security (TLS) client certificates available in virtually all modern web browsers. It was first presented for the W3C Workshop on the Future of Social Networking in 2009. Unlike the usual SSL usage patterns, WebID-TLS does not require a dedicated

Certificate Authority In cryptography, a certificate authority or certification authority (CA) is an entity that stores, signs, and issues digital certificates. A digital certificate certifies the ownership of a public key by the named subject of the certificate. Th ...

to perform the user authorization. Users can easily mint useful identities for themselves using any TLS certificate (even self-signed ones). Using TLS client certificates for Web site user authentication doesn't usually require that the user input a password, unlike many other single sign-on mechanisms, which can make WebID-TLS quite convenient. However, the client certificate selection dialogues in popular Web browsers are not yet as user-friendly as they might be, negating some of this convenience. A

web of trust In cryptography, a web of trust is a concept used in PGP, GnuPG, and other OpenPGP-compatible systems to establish the authenticity of the binding between a public key and its owner. Its decentralized trust model is an alternative to the ...

based on WebID-TLS could be gradually constructed, connecting users and their activities on the World Wide Web, without formal

key signing parties In public-key cryptography, a key signing party is an event at which people present their public keys to others in person, who, if they are confident the key actually belongs to the person who claims it, digitally sign the certificate containing ...

, making the identification harder for anyone (even the original issuing authority) to falsify.

WebID-OIDC

WebID-OIDC was an authentication delegation protocol used by

Solid Solid is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being liquid, gas, and plasma). The molecules in a solid are closely packed together and contain the least amount of kinetic energy. A solid is characterized by structura ...

. It is based on decentralized OAuth2/OpenID Connect. It has been superseded by Solid OIDC

Solid OIDC

Solid OIDC is an authentication delegation protocol used by

. It is based on OAuth2/OpenID Connect.

WebID-TLS+Delegation

WebID-TLS+Delegation extends WebID-TLS through "On Behalf Of" headers and relationships, enabling one Agent to act with all permissions/privileges of another Agent.

References

External links

* {{official website
use.id, one of the first WebID providers
Social networking services Semantic Web Identity management initiative