The Infrastructure of Trust¶

The EUDI Wallet Architecture Reference Framework (EIDAS-ARF) describes the Trust Model as a "collection of rules that ensure the legitimacy of the components and the entities involved in the EUDI Wallet ecosystem".

This section outlines the implementation of the Trust Model in an infrastructure that complies with OpenID Federation 1.0 OID-FED. This infrastructure involves a RESTful API for distributing metadata, metadata policies, trust marks, public keys, X.509 certificates, and the revocation status of the participants, also called Federation Entities.

The Infrastructure of trust facilitates the application of a trust assessment mechanism among the parties defined in the EIDAS-ARF.

federation portrait — Fig. 1 The roles within the Federation, where the Trust Anchor oversees its subordinates, which include one or more Intermediates and Leaves. In this representation, both the Trust Anchor and the Intermediates assume the role of Registration Authority.¶

Federation Roles¶

All the participants are Federation Entities that MUST be registered by an Registration Body, except for Wallet Instances which are End-User's personal devices certified by their Wallet Provider.

Note

The Wallet Instance, as a personal device, is certified as reliable through a verifiable attestation issued and signed by a trusted third party.

This is called Wallet Attestation and is documented in the dedicated section.

Below the table with the summary of the Federation Entity roles, mapped on the corresponding EUDI Wallet roles, as defined in the EIDAS-ARF.

EUDI Role	Federation Role	Notes
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)	Trust Anchor	The Federation has PKI capabilities. The Entity that configures the entire infrastructure is the Trust Anchor.
Qualified Trust Service Provider (QTSP)	Leaf
Person Identification Data Provider	Leaf
Qualified Electronic Attestations of Attributes Provider	Leaf
Electronic Attestations of Attributes Provider	Leaf
Relying Party	Leaf
Trust Service Provider (TSP)	Leaf
Trusted List	Trust Anchor	The listing endpoint, the trust mark status endpoint, and the fetch endpoint must be exposed by both Trust Anchors and Intermediates, making the Trusted List distributed over multiple Federation Entities, where each of these is responsible for their registered subordinates.
Wallet Provider	Leaf

General Properties¶

The architecture of the trust infrastructure based on OpenID Federation is built upon several core principles:

Identifier	Property	Description
P1	Security	Incorporates mechanisms to ensure the integrity, confidentiality, and authenticity of the trust relationships and interactions within the federation.
P2	Privacy	Designed to respect and protect the privacy of the entities and individuals involved, minimal disclosure is part of this.
P3	Interoperability	Supports seamless interaction and trust establishment between diverse systems and entities within the federation.
P4	Transitive Trust	Trust established indirectly through a chain of trusted relationships, enabling entities to trust each other based on common authorities and trusted intermediaries.
P5	Delegation	Technical ability/feature to delegate authority or responsibilities to other entities, allowing for a distributed trust mechanism.
P6	Scalability	Designed to efficiently manage an increasing number of entities or interactions without a significant increase in trust management complexity.
P7	Flexibility	Adaptable to various operational and organizational needs, allowing entities to define and adjust their trust relationships and policies.
P8	Autonomy	While part of a federated ecosystem, each entity retains control over its own definitions and configurations.
P9	Decentralization	Unlike traditional centralized systems, the OpenID Federation model promotes a decentralized approach. This ensures that no single entity has control over the entire system, enhancing privacy and security for all participants.

Trust Infrastructure Functional Requirements¶

This section includes the requirements necessary for the successful implementation and operation of the infrastructure of trust.

Table 1 Functional Requirements¶
ID	Description
FR1	Federation Trust Establishment: the system must be able to establish trust between different entities (Credential Issuers, Relying Parties, etc.) within a federation, using cryptographic signatures for secure information exchange about the participants in the ecosystem.
FR2	Entity Authentication: the system must implement mechanisms for authenticating entities within the federation, ensuring compliance with the shared rules.
FR3	Signature Validation: the system must support the creation, verification, and validation of electronic signatures and provide standard and secure mechanisms to obtain the public keys required for the signature validation.
FR4	Time Stamping: the signed artifacts must contain time stamps to ensure the integrity and non-repudiation of transactions over time, thanks to the interfaces, services, storage model and approaches defined within the federation.
FR5	Certificate Validation: the system requires confidential transmission, secured via TLS over HTTP, and validation of certificates for website authentication, ensuring they meet eIDAS criteria.
FR6	Interoperability and Standards Compliance: ensure interoperability between federation members by adhering to technical standards, facilitating cross-border electronic transactions.
FR7	Data Protection and Privacy: implement data protection measures in compliance with GDPR and eIDAS regulations, ensuring the privacy and security of personal data processed within the federation.
FR8	User Consent and Control: design mechanisms for obtaining and managing user consent, empowering users with control over their personal information.
FR9	Audit and Logging: the system must minimize data, anonymize if possible, define retention periods, secure access, and storage encryption. This protects privacy while enabling security and accountability.
FR10	Dispute Resolution and Liability: establish clear procedures for dispute resolution and define liability among federation members, in accordance with eIDAS provisions.
FR11	Accessibility: ensure that the system is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities, aligning with eIDAS and local accessibility standards.
FR12	Emergency and Revocation Services: implement mechanisms for the immediate revocation of electronic identification means and participants in case of security breaches or other emergencies.
FR13	Scalable Trust Infrastructure: the system must support scalable trust establishment mechanisms, leveraging approaches and technical solutions that complement delegation transitive approaches to efficiently manage trust relationships as the federation grows, removing central registries that might technically or administratively fail.
FR14	Efficient Storage Scalability: implement a storage solution that scales horizontally to accommodate increasing data volumes while minimizing central storage and administrative costs. The system should enable members to independently store and present historical trust attestations and signed artifacts during dispute resolutions, with the federation infrastructure maintaining only a registry of historical keys to validate the historical data, stored and provided by the participants.
FR15	Verifiable Attestation (Trust Mark): incorporate a mechanism for issuing and verifying verifiable attestations that serve as proof of compliance with specific profiles or standards. This allows entities within the federation to demonstrate adherence to agreed-upon security, privacy, and operational standards.
FR16	Dynamic Policy Language: develop and implement a dynamic, extensible policy language that allows for the creation and modification of federation policies in response to evolving requirements, technological advancements, and regulatory changes. This policy language should support the specification of rules governing entity behavior, metadata handling, and trust validation within the federation.
FR17	Automated Policy Enforcement: the system must automatically enforce federation policies as defined by policy language and verifiable attestations, ensuring that all operations and transactions comply with current rules and standards.
FR18	Decentralized Dispute Resolution Mechanism: design a decentralized mechanism for dispute resolution that allows federation members to independently verify historical trust establishment and signed artifacts, reducing reliance on central authorities and streamlining the resolution process.
FR19	Adaptive Load Management: implement adaptive load management strategies to ensure the system remains responsive and efficient under varying loads, particularly during peak usage times or when processing complex tasks.
FR20	Cross-Federation Interoperability: ensure the system is capable of interoperating with other federations or trust frameworks, facilitating cross-federation transactions and trust establishment without compromising security or compliance.
FR21	Future-Proof Cryptography: the system should employ a flexible cryptographic framework that can be updated in response to new threats or advancements in cryptographic research, ensuring long-term security and integrity of federation operations.
FR22	Autonomous Registration Bodies: the system must facilitate the integration of autonomous registration bodies that operate in compliance with federation rules. These bodies are tasked with evaluating and registering entities within the federation, according to the pre-established rules and their compliance that must be periodically asserted.
FR23	Compliance Evaluation for Federation Entity Candidates: registration bodies must evaluate the compliance of candidate entities against federation standards before their registration in the federation.
FR24	Periodic Auditing of Registration Bodies and Entities: implement mechanisms for the periodic auditing and monitoring of the compliance status of both registration bodies and their registered entities. This ensures ongoing adherence to federation standards and policies.
FR25	Certification of Compliance for Personal Devices: trusted bodies, in the form of federation entities, should issue certifications of compliance and provide signed proof of such compliance for the hardware of personal devices used within the federation. These certifications should be attested and periodically renewed to ensure the devices meet current security standards.
FR26	Certification of Compliance for Cryptographic Devices: similar to personal devices, personal cryptographic devices used within the federation must also receive certifications of compliance and signed proof thereof from trusted bodies. These certifications should be subject to periodic renewal to reflect the latest security and compliance standards.
FR27	Transparent Compliance Reporting: develop a system for transparent reporting and publication of compliance statuses, audit results, and certification renewals for all federation entities. This transparency fosters trust within the federation and with external stakeholders.
FR28	Automated Compliance Monitoring: the system should include automated tools for monitoring the compliance of entities with federation standards. This automation aids in the early detection of potential compliance issues.
FR29	Secure Protocol Capabilities Binding: the secure protocol must enable the exchange of protocol-specific capabilities data as cryptographically-bound metadata attached to a specific identity. This metadata should define the technical capabilities associated with the identity, ensuring verifiable proof and tamper-proof association for robust trust establishment and access control.
FR30	Historical Capability: The system should enable members to present historical trust attestations and signed artifacts, with the federation infrastructure capable of maintaining registry of historical keys to validate the historical data.

Federation API endpoints¶

OpenID Federation 1.0 uses RESTful Web Services secured over HTTPs. OpenID Federation 1.0 defines which are the web endpoints that the participants MUST make publicly available. The table below summarises the endpoints and their scopes.

All the endpoints listed below are defined in the OID-FED specs.

endpoint name	http request	scope	required for
federation metadata	GET .well-known/openid-federation	Metadata that an Entity publishes about itself, verifiable with a trusted third party (Superior Entity). It's called Entity Configuration.	Trust Anchor, Intermediate, Wallet Provider, Relying Party, Credential Issuer
subordinate list endpoint	GET /list	Lists the Subordinates.	Trust Anchor, Intermediate
fetch endpoint	GET /fetch?sub=https://rp.example.org	Returns a signed JWT about a specific subject, its Subordinate. It's called Subordinate Statement.	Trust Anchor, Intermediate
trust mark status	POST /status?sub=...&trust_mark_id=...	Returns the status of the issuance (validity) of a Trust Mark related to a specific subject.	Trust Anchor, Intermediate
historical keys	GET /historical-jwks	Lists the expired and revoked keys, with the motivation of the revocation.	Trust Anchor, Intermediate

All the responses of the federation endpoints are in the form of signed JWT, with the exception of the Subordinate Listing endpoint and the Trust Mark Status endpoint that are served as plain JSON by default.

Configuration of the Federation¶

The configuration of the federation is published by the Trust Anchor within its Entity Configuration, it is available at the well-known web path corresponding to .well-known/openid-federation.

All the participants in the federation MUST obtain the federation configuration before entering the operational phase, and they MUST keep it up-to-date. The federation configuration is the Trust Anchor's Entity Configuration, it contains the public keys for signature operations and the maximum number of Intermediates allowed between a Leaf and the Trust Anchor (max_path_length).

Below is a non-normative example of a Trust Anchor Entity Configuration, where each parameter is documented in the OpenID Federation specification:

{
    "alg": "ES256",
    "kid": "FifYx03bnosD8m6gYQIfNHNP9cM_Sam9Tc5nLloIIrc",
    "typ": "entity-statement+jwt"
}
.
{
    "exp": 1649375259,
    "iat": 1649373279,
    "iss": "https://registry.eidas.trust-anchor.example.eu",
    "sub": "https://registry.eidas.trust-anchor.example.eu",
    "jwks": {
        "keys": [
            {

                "kty": "EC",
                "kid": "X2ZOMHNGSDc4ZlBrcXhMT3MzRmRZOG9Jd3o2QjZDam51cUhhUFRuOWd0WQ",
                "crv": "P-256",
                "x": "1kNR9Ar3MzMokYTY8BRvRIue85NIXrYX4XD3K4JW7vI",
                "y": "slT14644zbYXYF-xmw7aPdlbMuw3T1URwI4nafMtKrY"
            }
        ]
    },
    "metadata": {
        "federation_entity": {
            "organization_name": "example TA",
            "contacts":[
                "tech@eidas.trust-anchor.example.eu"
            ],
            "homepage_uri": "https://registry.eidas.trust-anchor.example.eu",
            "logo_uri":"https://registry.eidas.trust-anchor.example.eu/static/svg/logo.svg",
            "federation_fetch_endpoint": "https://registry.eidas.trust-anchor.example.eu/fetch",
            "federation_resolve_endpoint": "https://registry.eidas.trust-anchor.example.eu/resolve",
            "federation_list_endpoint": "https://registry.eidas.trust-anchor.example.eu/list",
            "federation_trust_mark_status_endpoint": "https://registry.eidas.trust-anchor.example.eu/trust_mark_status"
        }
    },
    "trust_mark_issuers": {
        "https://registry.eidas.trust-anchor.example.eu/openid_relying_party/public": [
            "https://registry.spid.eidas.trust-anchor.example.eu",
            "https://public.intermediary.spid.org"
        ],
        "https://registry.eidas.trust-anchor.example.eu/openid_relying_party/private": [
            "https://registry.spid.eidas.trust-anchor.example.eu",
            "https://private.other.intermediary.org"
        ]
    }
}

Entity Configuration¶

The Entity Configuration is the verifiable document that each Federation Entity MUST publish on its own behalf, in the .well-known/openid-federation endpoint.

The Entity Configuration HTTP Response MUST set the media type to application/entity-statement+jwt.

The Entity Configuration MUST be cryptographically signed. The public part of this key MUST be provided in the Entity Configuration and within the Entity Statement issued by a immediate superior and related to its subordinate Federation Entity.

The Entity Configuration MAY also contain one or more Trust Marks.

Note

Entity Configuration Signature

All the signature-check operations regarding the Entity Configurations, Entity Statements and Trust Marks, are carried out with the Federation public keys. For the supported algorithms refer to Section Cryptografic Algorithm.

Entity Configurations Common Parameters¶

The Entity Configurations of all the participants in the federation MUST have in common the parameters listed below.

Claim	Description
iss	String. Identifier of the issuing Entity.
sub	String. Identifier of the Entity to which it is referred. It MUST be equal to `iss`.
iat	UNIX Timestamp with the time of generation of the JWT, coded as NumericDate as indicated at RFC 7519.
exp	UNIX Timestamp with the expiry time of the JWT, coded as NumericDate as indicated at RFC 7519.
jwks	A JSON Web Key Set (JWKS) RFC 7517 that represents the public part of the signing keys of the Entity at issue. Each JWK in the JWK set MUST have a key ID (claim kid) and MAY have a x5c parameter, as defined in RFC 7517. It contains the Federation Entity Keys required for the operations of trust evaluation.
metadata	JSON Object. Each key of the JSON Object represents a metadata type identifier containing JSON Object representing the metadata, according to the metadata schema of that type. An Entity Configuration MAY contain more metadata statements, but only one for each type of metadata (<entity_type>). the metadata types are defined in the section Metadata Types.

Entity Configuration Trust Anchor¶

The Trust Anchor Entity Configuration, in addition to the common parameters listed above, uses the following parameters:

Claim	Description	Required
constraints	JSON Object that describes the trust evaluation mechanisms bounds. It MUST contain the attribute max_path_length that defines the maximum number of Intermediates between a Leaf and the Trust Anchor.
trust_mark_issuers	JSON Array that defines which Federation authorities are considered trustworthy for issuing specific Trust Marks, assigned with their unique identifiers.
trust_mark_owners	JSON Array that lists which entities are considered to be the owners of specific Trust Marks.

Entity Configuration Leaves and Intermediates¶

In addition to the previously defined claims, the Entity Configuration of the Leaves and of the Intermediate Entities uses the following parameters:

Claim	Description	Required
authority_hints	Array of URLs (String). It contains a list of URLs of the immediate superior entities, such as the Trust Anchor or an Intermediate, that issues an Entity Statement related to this subject.
trust_marks	A JSON Array containing the Trust Marks.

Metadata Types¶

In this section are defined the main metadata types mapped to the roles of the ecosystem, giving the references of the metadata protocol for each of these.

Note

The entries that don't have any reference to a known draft or standard are intended to be defined in this technical reference.

OpenID Entity	EUDI Entity	Metadata Type	References
Trust Anchor	Trust Anchor	`federation_entity`	OID-FED
Intermediate	Intermediate	`federation_entity`	OID-FED
Wallet Provider	Wallet Provider	`federation_entity`, `wallet_provider`	--
Authorization Server		`federation_entity`, `oauth_authorization_server`	OPENID4VCI
Credential Issuer	PID Provider, (Q)EAA Provider	`federation_entity`, `openid_credential_issuer`, [`oauth_authorization_server`]	OPENID4VCI
Relying Party	Relying Party	`federation_entity`, `wallet_relying_party`	OID-FED, OpenID4VP

Note

Wallet Provider metadata is defined in the section below.

Wallet Solution section.

Note

In instances where a PID/EAA Provider implements both the Credential Issuer and the Authorization Server, it MUST incorporate both oauth_authorization_server and openid_credential_issuer within its metadata types. Other implementations may divide the Credential Issuer from the Authorization Server, when this happens the Credential Issuer metadata MUST contain the authorization_servers parameters, including the Authorization Server unique identifier. Furthermore, should there be a necessity for User Authentication by the Credential Issuer, it could be necessary to include the relevant metadata type, either openid_relying_party or wallet_relying_party.

Metadata of federation_entity Leaves¶

The federation_entity metadata for Leaves MUST contain the following claims.

Claim	Description
organization_name	See OID-FED Draft 36 Section 5.2.2
homepage_uri	See OID-FED Draft 36 Section 5.2.2
policy_uri	See OID-FED Draft 36 Section 5.2.2
logo_uri	URL of the entity's logo; it MUST be in SVG format. See OID-FED Draft 36 Section 5.2.2
contacts	Institutional certified email address (PEC) of the entity. See OID-FED Draft 36 Section 5.2.2
federation_resolve_endpoint	See OID-FED Draft 36 Section 5.1.1

Entity Statements¶

Trust Anchors and Intermediates publish Entity Statements related to their immediate Subordinates. The Entity Statement MAY contain a metadata policy and the Trust Marks related to a Subordinate.

The metadata policy, when applied, makes one or more changes to the final metadata of the Leaf. The final metadata of a Leaf is derived from the Trust Chain that contains all the statements, starting from the Entity Configuration up to the Entity Statement issued by the Trust Anchor.

Trust Anchors and Intermediates MUST expose the Federation Fetch endpoint, where the Entity Statements are requested to validate the Leaf's Entity Configuration signature.

Note

The Federation Fetch endpoint MAY also publish X.509 certificates for each of the public keys of the Subordinate. Making the distribution of the issued X.509 certificates via a RESTful service.

Below there is a non-normative example of an Entity Statement issued by an Registration Body (such as the Trust Anchor or its Intermediate) in relation to one of its Subordinates.

{
    "alg": "ES256",
    "kid": "em3cmnZgHIYFsQ090N6B3Op7LAAqj8rghMhxGmJstqg",
    "typ": "entity-statement+jwt"
}
.
{
    "exp": 1649623546,
    "iat": 1649450746,
    "iss": "https://intermediate.eidas.example.org",
    "sub": "https://rp.example.it",
    "jwks": {
        "keys": [
            {
                "kty": "EC",
                "kid": "2HnoFS3YnC9tjiCaivhWLVUJ3AxwGGz_98uRFaqMEEs",
                "crv": "P-256",
                "x": "1kNR9Ar3MzMokYTY8BRvRIue85NIXrYX4XD3K4JW7vI",
                "y": "slT14644zbYXYF-xmw7aPdlbMuw3T1URwI4nafMtKrY",
                "x5c": [ <X.509 certificate> ]
            }
        ]
    },
    "metadata_policy": {
        "wallet_relying_party": {
            "scope": {
                "subset_of": [
                     "eu.europa.ec.eudiw.pid.1",
                     "given_name",
                     "family_name",
                     "email"
                  ]
            },
            "vp_formats": {
                "vc+sd-jwt": {
                    "sd-jwt_alg_values": [
                        "ES256",
                        "ES384"
                    ],
                    "kb-jwt_alg_values": [
                        "ES256",
                        "ES384"
                    ]
                }
            }
        }
     }
}

Note

Entity Statement Signature

The same considerations and requirements made for the Entity Configuration and in relation to the signature mechanisms MUST be applied for the Entity Statements.

Entity Statement¶

The Entity Statement issued by Trust Anchors and Intermediates contains the following attributes:

Claim	Description	Required
iss	See OID-FED Section 3.1 for further details.
sub	See OID-FED Section 3.1 for further details.
iat	See OID-FED Section 3.1 for further details.
exp	See OID-FED Section 3.1 for further details.
jwks	Federation JWKS of the sub entity. See OID-FED Section 3.1 for further details.
metadata_policy	JSON Object that describes the Metadata policy. Each key of the JSON Object represents an identifier of the metadata type and each value MUST be a JSON Object that represents the metadata policy according to that metadata type. Please refer to the OID-FED specifications, Section-5.1, for the implementation details.
trust_marks	JSON Array containing the Trust Marks issued by itself for the subordinate subject.
constraints	It MAY contain the allowed_leaf_entity_types, that restricts what types of metadata the subject is allowed to publish.

Trust Evaluation Mechanism¶

Trust Anchors MUST distribute their Federation Public Keys through secure out-of-band mechanisms, such as publishing them on a verified web page or storing them in a remote repository as part of a trust list. The rationale behind this requirement is that relying solely on the data provided within the Trust Anchor's Entity Configuration does not adequately mitigate risks associated with DNS and TLS manipulation attacks. To ensure security, all participants MUST obtain the Trust Anchor's public keys using these out-of-band methods. They should then compare these keys with those obtained from the Trust Anchor's Entity Configuration, discarding any keys that do not match. This process helps to ensure the integrity and authenticity of the Trust Anchor's public keys and the overall security of the federation.

The Trust Anchor publishes the list of its Subordinates (Federation Subordinate Listing endpoint) and the attestations of their metadata and public keys (Entity Statements).

Each participant, including Trust Anchor, Intermediate, Credential Issuer, Wallet Provider, and Relying Party, publishes its own metadata and public keys (Entity Configuration endpoint) in the well-known web resource .well-known/openid-federation.

Each of these can be verified using the Entity Statement issued by a superior, such as the Trust Anchor or an Intermediate.

Each Entity Statement is verifiable over time and MUST have an expiration date. The revocation of each statement is verifiable in real time and online (only for remote flows) through the federation endpoints.

Note

The revocation of an Entity is made with the unavailability of the Entity Statement related to it. If the Trust Anchor or its Intermediate doesn't publish a valid Entity Statement, or if it publishes an expired/invalid Entity Statement, the subject of the Entity Statement MUST be intended as not valid or revoked.

The concatenation of the statements, through the combination of these signing mechanisms and the binding of claims and public keys, forms the Trust Chain.

The Trust Chains can also be verified offline, using one of the Trust Anchor's public keys.

Note

Since the Wallet Instance is not a Federation Entity, the Trust Evaluation Mechanism related to it requires the presentation of the Wallet Attestation during the credential issuance and presentation phases.

The Wallet Attestation conveys all the required information pertaining to the instance, such as its public key and any other technical or administrative information, without any User's personal data.

Establishing Trust with Credential Issuers¶

In the issuance process, trust evaluation ensures the integrity and authenticity of the Credentials being issued and the realiability of their Issuers. This section delineates the trust evaluation mechanisms distinct from the protocol flows, implemented by Wallet Instances and Relying Parties, as described in the dedicated section.

Trust evaluations implement different ways, as defined below:

Federation Entity Discovery: Wallet Instances and Relying Parties MUST verify the identity of the Issuer through a Federation Entity Discovery process. This involves querying a trusted list or directory to confirm the Issuer's validity status and compliance with the Trust Framework.
Trust Chains: Wallet Instances and Relying Parties evaluate Issuer's Trust Chains, be provided statically or build though a Federation Entity Discovery process, to ensure that the entity requesting the Credential is part of a recognized and trusted federation. This involves checking the Trust Chain from the root authority to the Issuer.
Trust Marks Evaluation: Trust Marks are assessed to ensure ongoing compliance with federation policies. These marks indicate adherence to specific standards and practices required by the federation.
Policy Evaluation: Wallet Instances and Relying Parties MUST check that the Credential Issuer is allowed in the issuance of the Credential of their interest. Metadata, metadata policies and Trust Marks are used for the implementation of these checks.

In the process represented in the sequence diagram below, the Wallet Instance uses the Federation API to discover and collect all the Credential Issuers enabled within the federation. The discovery process produces the Trust Chain. When the Trust Chain is provided statically within a signed request or Credential, it only REQUIRES to be refreshed when the internet connection is available, while it MUST be refreshed when the statically provided Trust Chain results as expired.

Note

As shown in the figure, the trust evaluation process is entirely separate and distinct from the protocol-specific flow. It operates in a different flow and utilizes specialized protocols designed specifically for this purpose.

Establishing Trust with Relying Party¶

In the context of evaluating Relying Parties, the responsibility for trust evaluation lies solely with the Wallet Instance. The trust evaluation mechanisms are distinct from protocol flows and are implemented by the Wallet Instance, as detailed in the dedicated section.

Trust evaluations are conducted as follows:

Federation Entity Discovery: When the Wallet Instance receives a signed request issued by a Relying Party, the Wallet Instance MUST verify the identity of the Relying Party through a Federation Entity Discovery process. This involves querying a trusted list or directory to confirm the Relying Party's validity status and compliance with the Trust Framework and the evaluation of the request signature using the cryptographic material obtained from the Trust Chain.
Trust Chains: The Wallet Instance evaluates the Relying Party's Trust Chains, which may be provided statically or built through a Federation Entity Discovery process, to ensure that the Relying Party is part of a recognized and trusted federation. This involves checking the Trust Chain from the root authority (Trust Anchor) to the Relying Party.
Trust Marks Evaluation: Trust Marks are assessed to ensure ongoing compliance with federation policies. These marks indicate adherence to specific standards and practices required by the federation. Relying Parties MAY include Trust Marks in their Entity Configuration to signal administrative properties and compliance to specific profiles, such as the grants in interacting with under-age users.
Policy Evaluation: The Wallet Instance MUST verify that the Relying Party is authorized to request the Credential of interest. Metadata, metadata policies, and Trust Marks are used to implement these checks.

In the process depicted in the sequence diagram below, the Wallet Instance uses the Federation API to discover and collect all the Relying Parties enabled within the federation. The discovery process produces the Trust Chain. When the Trust Chain is provided statically within a signed request, it only needs to be refreshed when an internet connection is available, but it MUST be refreshed if the statically provided Trust Chain is expired.

Note

As shown in the figure, internet connection is required to update the Trust Chain about an RP and check its revocation status.

Wallet Attestation¶

The Wallet Provider issues the Wallet Attestation, certifying the operational status of its Wallet Instances and including one of their public keys.

The Wallet Attestation MAY contain the Trust Chain that attests the reliability for its issuer (Wallet Provider) at the time of issuance.

The Wallet Instance provides its Wallet Attestation within the signed request during the PID issuance phase. The Credential Issuer MUST evaluate the Trust Chain about the Wallet Attestation issuer (formally, the Wallet Provider).

Trust Chain¶

The Trust Chain is a sequence of verified statements that validates a participant's compliance with the Federation. It has an expiration date time, beyond which it MUST be renewed to obtain the fresh and updated metadata. The expiration date of the Trust Chain is determined by the earliest expiration timestamp among all the expiration timestamp contained in the statements. No Entity can force the expiration date of the Trust Chain to be higher than the one configured by the Trust Anchor.

Below is an abstract representation of a Trust Chain.

[
    "EntityConfiguration-as-SignedJWT-selfissued-byLeaf",
    "EntityStatement-as-SignedJWT-issued-byTrustAnchor"
]

Below is a non-normative example of a Trust Chain, composed by a JSON Array containing JWTs, with an Intermediate involved.

[
  "eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6Ik5GTTFXVVZpVWxZelVXcExhbWxmY0VwUFJWWTJWWFpJUmpCblFYWm1SSGhLWVVWWVVsZFRRbkEyTkEiLCJ0eXAiOiJhcHBsaWNhdGlvbi9lbnRpdHktc3RhdGVtZW50K2p3dCJ9.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.Un315HdckvhYA-iRregZAmL7pnfjQH2APz82blQO5S0sl1JR0TEFp5E1T913g8GnuwgGtMQUqHPZwV6BvTLA8g",
  "eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6IlNURkRXV2hKY0dWWFgzQjNSVmRaYWtsQ0xUTnVNa000WTNGNlFUTk9kRXRyZFhGWVlYWjJjWGN0UVEiLCJ0eXAiOiJhcHBsaWNhdGlvbi9lbnRpdHktc3RhdGVtZW50K2p3dCJ9.eyJleHAiOjE2NDk2MjM1NDYsImlhdCI6MTY0OTQ1MDc0NiwiaXNzIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9pbnRlcm1lZGlhdGUuZWlkYXMuZXhhbXBsZS5vcmciLCJzdWIiOiJodHRwczovL3JwLmV4YW1wbGUub3JnIiwiandrcyI6eyJrZXlzIjpbeyJrdHkiOiJFQyIsImtpZCI6Ik5GTTFXVVZpVWxZelVXcExhbWxmY0VwUFJWWTJWWFpJUmpCblFYWm1SSGhLWVVWWVVsZFRRbkEyTkEiLCJjcnYiOiJQLTI1NiIsIngiOiJ1c2xDM3dkLXBYM3d6NGJSWW53eTNsenBiR1pGaE45NmhMMkFIQTNNUTZZIiwieSI6IlZMQ0JYRldsZE5TTkl6OGtIMjl2TFI0TjE4Qmt3R09YMjZ6UW9ydVExTTQifV19LCJtZXRhZGF0YV9wb2xpY3kiOnsib3BlbmlkX3JlbHlpbmdfcGFydHkiOnsic2NvcGUiOnsic3Vic2V0X29mIjpbImV1LmV1cm9wYS5lYy5ldWRpdy5waWQuMSwgIGV1LmV1cm9wYS5lYy5ldWRpdy5waWQuaXQuMSJdfSwicmVxdWVzdF9hdXRoZW50aWNhdGlvbl9tZXRob2RzX3N1cHBvcnRlZCI6eyJvbmVfb2YiOlsicmVxdWVzdF9vYmplY3QiXX0sInJlcXVlc3RfYXV0aGVudGljYXRpb25fc2lnbmluZ19hbGdfdmFsdWVzX3N1cHBvcnRlZCI6eyJzdWJzZXRfb2YiOlsiUlMyNTYiLCJSUzUxMiIsIkVTMjU2IiwiRVM1MTIiLCJQUzI1NiIsIlBTNTEyIl19fX0sInRydXN0X21hcmtzIjpbeyJpZCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vdHJ1c3QtYW5jaG9yLmV4YW1wbGUuZXUvb3BlbmlkX3JlbHlpbmdfcGFydHkvcHVibGljLyIsInRydXN0X21hcmsiOiJleUpoYiBcdTIwMjYifV19._qt5-T6DahP3TuWa_27klE8I9Z_sPK2FtQlKY6pGMPchbSI2aHXY3aAXDUrObPo4CHtqgg3J2XcrghDFUCFGEQ",
  "eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6ImVXa3pUbWt0WW5kblZHMWxhMjU1ZDJkQ2RVZERSazQwUWt0WVlVMWFhRFZYT1RobFpHdFdXSGQ1WnciLCJ0eXAiOiJhcHBsaWNhdGlvbi9lbnRpdHktc3RhdGVtZW50K2p3dCJ9.eyJleHAiOjE2NDk2MjM1NDYsImlhdCI6MTY0OTQ1MDc0NiwiaXNzIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly90cnVzdC1hbmNob3IuZXhhbXBsZS5ldSIsInN1YiI6Imh0dHBzOi8vaW50ZXJtZWRpYXRlLmVpZGFzLmV4YW1wbGUub3JnIiwiandrcyI6eyJrZXlzIjpbeyJrdHkiOiJFQyIsImtpZCI6IlNURkRXV2hKY0dWWFgzQjNSVmRaYWtsQ0xUTnVNa000WTNGNlFUTk9kRXRyZFhGWVlYWjJjWGN0UVEiLCJjcnYiOiJQLTI1NiIsIngiOiJyQl9BOGdCUnh5NjhVTkxZRkZLR0ZMR2VmWU5XYmgtSzh1OS1GYlQyZkZJIiwieSI6IlNuWVk2Y3NjZnkxcjBISFhLTGJuVFZsamFndzhOZzNRUEs2WFVoc2UzdkUifV19LCJ0cnVzdF9tYXJrcyI6W3siaWQiOiJodHRwczovL3RydXN0LWFuY2hvci5leGFtcGxlLmV1L2ZlZGVyYXRpb25fZW50aXR5L3RoYXQtcHJvZmlsZSIsInRydXN0X21hcmsiOiJleUpoYiBcdTIwMjYifV19.r3uoi-U0tx0gDFlnDdITbcwZNUpy7M2tnh08jlD-Ej9vMzWMCXOCCuwIn0ZT0jS4M_sHneiG6tLxRqj-htI70g"
]

Note

The entire Trust Chain is verifiable by only possessing the Trust Anchor's public keys.

Offline Trust Attestation Mechanisms¶

The offline flows do not allow for real-time evaluation of an Entity's status, such as its revocation. At the same time, using short-lived Trust Chains enables the attainment of trust attestations compatible with the required revocation administrative protocols (e.g., a revocation must be propagated in less than 24 hours, thus the Trust Chain must not be valid for more than that period).

Offline Wallet Trust Attestation¶

Given that the Wallet Instance cannot publish its metadata online at the .well-known/openid-federation endpoint, it MUST obtain a Wallet Attestation issued by its Wallet Provider. The Wallet Attestation MUST contain all the relevant information regarding the security capabilities of the Wallet Instance and its protocol related configuration. It SHOULD contain the Trust Chain related to its issuer (Wallet Provider).

Offline Relying Party Metadata¶

Since the Federation Entity Discovery is only applicable in online scenarios, it is possible to include the Trust Chain in the presentation requests that the Relying Party may issue for a Wallet Instance.

The Relying Party MUST sign the presentation request, the request SHOULD include the trust_chain claim in its JWT header parameters, containing the Federation Trust Chain related to itself.

The Wallet Instance that verifies the request issued by the Relying Party MUST use the Trust Anchor's public keys to validate the entire Trust Chain related to the Relying Party before attesting its reliability.

Furthermore, the Wallet Instance applies the metadata policy, if any.

Trust Chain Fast Renewal¶

The Trust Chain fast renewal method offers a streamlined way to maintain the validity of a trust chain without undergoing the full discovery process again. It's particularly useful for quickly updating trust relationships when minor changes occur or when the Trust Chain is close to expiration but the overall structure of the federation hasn't changed significantly.

The Trust Chain fast renewal process is initiated by fetching the leaf's Entity Configuration anew. However, unlike the federation discovery process that may involve fetching Entity Configurations starting from the authority hints, the fast renewal focuses on directly obtaining the Subordinate Statements. These statements are requested using the source_endpoint provided within them, which points to the location where the statements can be fetched.

Non-repudiability of the Long Lived Attestations¶

The Trust Anchor and its Intermediate MUST expose the Federation Historical Keys endpoint, where are published all the public part of the Federation Entity Keys that are no longer used, whether expired or revoked.

The details of this endpoint are defined in the OID-FED Section 7.6.

Each JWT containing a Trust Chain in the JWT headers can be verified over time, since the entire Trust Chain is verifiable using the Trust Anchor's public key.

Even if the Trust Anchor has changed its cryptographic keys for digital signature, the Federation Historical Keys endpoint always makes the keys no longer used available for historical signature verifications.

Privacy Remarks¶

Wallet Instances MUST NOT publish their metadata through an online service.
The trust infrastructure MUST be public, with all endpoints publicly accessible without any client credentials that may disclose who is requesting access.
When a Wallet Instance requests the Entity Statements to build the Trust Chain for a specific Relying Party or validates a Trust Mark online, issued for a specific Relying Party, the Trust Anchor or its Intermediate do not know that a particular Wallet Instance is inquiring about a specific Relying Party; instead, they only serve the statements related to that Relying Party as a public resource.
The Wallet Instance metadata MUST not contain information that may disclose technical information about the hardware used.
Leaf entity, Intermediate, and Trust Anchor metadata may include the necessary amount of data as part of administrative, technical, and security contact information. It is generally not recommended to use personal contact details in such cases. From a legal perspective, the publication of such information is needed for operational support concerning technical and security matters and the GDPR regulation.

Considerations about Decentralization¶

There may be more than a single Trust Anchor.
In some cases, a trust verifier may trust an Intermediate, especially when the Intermediate acts as a Trust Anchor within a specific perimeter, such as cases where the Leafs are both in the same perimeter like a Member State jurisdiction (eg: an Italian Relying Party with an Italian Wallet Instance may consider the Italian Intermediate as a Trust Anchor for the scopes of their interactions).
Trust attestations (Trust Chain) should be included in the JWT issued by Credential Issuers, and the Presentation Requests of RPs should contain the Trust Chain related to them (issuers of the presentation requests).
Since the credential presentation must be signed, storing the signed presentation requests and responses, which include the Trust Chain, the Wallet Instance may have the snapshot of the federation configuration (Trust Anchor Entity Configuration in the Trust Chain) and the verifiable reliability of the Relying Party it has interacted with.
Each signed attestation is long-lived since it can be cryptographically validated even when the federation configuration changes or the keys of its issuers are renewed.
Each participant should be able to update its Entity Configuration without notifying the changes to any third party. The metadata policy contained within a Trust Chain must be applied to overload any information related to protocol specific metadata.