Identity/Firefox Accounts

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Last updated: 2014/01/29

What Is Firefox Accounts?

Firefox Accounts is a consumer account system which provides access to services run by Mozilla, such as Firefox Marketplace and the next version of Firefox Sync. A user can sign in with a Firefox Account to all her "Foxes": Firefox on Desktop, Firefox for Android, and Firefox OS. Signing into a Firefox browser or device gives the user access to integrated Mozilla Services on that browser or device that requires authentication (e.g., Firefox Sync). Longer term we envision that non-Mozilla services and applications will be able to delegate authentication to Firefox Accounts.

Firefox Accounts from a literal, technical perspective is not much to look at. It's a thin service that does only a few things, e.g.,

  • It allows users to create a Firefox Account.
  • It allows existing account holders to authenticate themselves, and perform related operations (reset password, change password, etc.)
  • It provides a delegated authentication API to relying Mozilla services (possibly third services in the future). Just like how Google Drive delegates authentication to Google Accounts, Firefox Marketplace will delegate authentication to Firefox Accounts.

Firefox Accounts itself doesn't store much about users, and we intend to keep it that way:

  • Email address
  • Password verifier
  • User id
  • Sync encryption keys
  • Whether the user has accepted the ToS and PP
  • A log of security events about the user (from where and when logins, passwords resets, etc. happen), and from what devices the user is currently logged in.

Firefox Accounts on it's own is boring and useless. Firefox Accounts is only interesting and valuable when you start attaching services to it, like Firefox Marketplace, Where's My Fox, and Firefox Sync. These services will manage their own data, but rely on Firefox Accounts for single sign-on and related authentication services.

FAQ

Will I be required to create a Firefox Account to use Firefox?

No, of course not! Firefox Accounts will only be required for Mozilla Services that require authentication, such as Firefox Sync and Firefox Marketplace.

How does a user create and sign in to a Firefox Account?

Firefox Accounts will work much like authentication works just about everywhere else. You create a Firefox Account with a verified email and password. You sign in to Firefox Accounts with your email and password. We are currently evaluating creating and logging in to a Firefox Account with a mobile number.

Why does Firefox Accounts require me to choose a password?

The first relying service we're targeting with Firefox Accounts is Firefox Sync. Current Firefox Sync encrypts all your data in our servers, and we will continue to do so in the Firefox Accounts backed version of Sync. However, in the FxA backed version of Firefox Sync, we will encrypt your Sync data with a key derived from your Firefox Account password, instead a random key managed by the J-PAKE pairing protocol. This technique of using a password derived sync key is similar to how data protection in Chrome Sync works.

What is the UX for signing in to a Firefox Account?

NOTE: This is a work in progress!

Here are some Lucidchart flow diagrams for FxA: https://www.lucidchart.com/documents/edit/4f34-ef24-52695ddf-8057-72580a00d543

Web

We anticipate the majority of Firefox Account sign ins and account creations will be driven by flows from Mozilla relying services, such as Firefox Marketplace. We propose relying Mozilla services present account controls and signal the FxA logged in state in the upper right corner of their Web properties:

Sign-in.png

If a user clicks on the "Sign Up" or "Log In" button, it will take her to to a FxA page that will allow her to sign in or create an account. After completing sign in or account creation, she will be redirected back to the relying Mozilla service.

FxOS

TODO

How do relying Mozilla services authenticate an FxA user?

Great question. We're still working out the details. We're first going to figure out the product requirements of SSO with FxA and go from there.

How does a user reset her Firefox Account password?

Password reset works by responding to an email challenge.

What's the difference between Persona and Firefox Accounts?

Persona is not intended to provide you with a new account, and it's not a new account system. Persona is a federated login protocol. You use Persona to log in to relying sites, and it's not intended that you need to "sign up" for Persona before you can use it. If you would need to sign up for anything, you would need to create an account at an IdP that supports Persona.

One *huge* confusing point about Persona today is a service called the "Persona Fallback", which serves as a proxy IdP if your actual IdP doesn't support Persona (or isn't bridged), which just about every IdP except for Google and Yahoo. In this case, you currently have to sign up for a "Persona Fallback Account" (i.e. choose a password and verify your email) to use Persona.

But a Persona Fallback Account is not a Persona Account, it's not the long term vision of Persona, and that's not supposed to be the happy path of the Persona login experience.

More importantly, for the purposes of this question, a Persona Fallback Account is definitely not a Firefox Account.

So why Firefox Accounts and what will one do?

Mozilla needs an account database to deliver a fantastic, integrated experience across all its products. Unfortunately, delivering awesome services involves some less exciting, but still important aspects, like making sure users have had a chance to inspect our terms of service and privacy policies. We must also comply with local laws and regulations, e.g., COPPA. It would be inconvenient for users to have to verify a terms of service, a privacy policy, and COPPA at each individual Mozilla service. We believe that users should only have to inspect our terms of service, privacy policy, and go through COPPA verification once for all our services. Firefox Accounts enables us to do that. One we get the basics down and enable single sign-on for relying Mozilla Services with your Firefox Account, we hope integrate Firefox Accounts with Persona on the Web and Firefox user agents to make logging in everywhere as painless as it should be.

What information does Firefox Accounts store about the user? Can I use it to store user data for my application or service?

Firefox Accounts stores limited user information, and only stores information that will deliver significant user value across applications or is tightly related to the user's identity. It will not store user data for relying services. Relying Mozilla services can use Firefox Accounts for authentication, but application data storage is the responsibility of the individual applications.

Currently, Firefox Accounts stores the user's email address, a unique identifier, sync encryption key material, and whether you user has read and accepted the terms of service, privacy policy, etc. The existence of a Firefox Account also indicates the user has passed COPPA verification.

Possible future plans:

  • "screen name"
  • avatar
  • mobile number

Can I use Persona to log in to my Firefox Account?

Not initially, but it's something we're investigating to add in the future.

Can I use my Firefox Account to log in to non-Mozilla services?

Not initially, but it's something we're investigating to support in the future.

Does Firefox Accounts provide email?

No.

What services will use Firefox Accounts?

Here's a (probably incomplete) list of services we anticipate you'll be able to log into with your Firefox Account:

What do these terms mean?

  • FTU, FTE: First Time Experience on Firefox OS
  • FxA : Firefox Accounts. It may also refer to a user's particular Firefox Account.
  • Jelly: A confusing term that refers to a hosted web page that is injected into more native-looking browser UI. An example of this is about:healthreport.
  • Doughnut: The browser code that wraps the "Jelly" and enables it to interact with chrome code in the browser.
  • RP : Relying Party. Services that use Firefox Accounts for authentication and identity. Currently these are limited to services run by Mozilla.
  • PiCL : Profile in the Cloud. This is a deprecated term that was used to refer to Firefox Accounts + attached services (i.e., relying parties).

Where is the schedule for FxA?

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Identity/Roadmap

Where is the FxA for Web addition to the Arch section below?

What are the similarities/differences between FxA for Web and the Dev work already being done for desktop and android?

Have a question not covered here? Add it in this section and we'll answer it!

Architecture

Firefox Accounts Architecture.png

Firefox Accounts and Sync Architecture.png

https://mana.mozilla.org/wiki/display/services/Firefox+Accounts+Architecture


Cloud Services

Firefox Accounts Cloud Services is composed of several sub-services, an auth server, a content server, and a crypto helper.

Auth Server

The Auth Server provides an HTTP API that:

  • authenticates the user
  • enables the user to authenticate to other services via BrowserID assertions
  • enables change and reset password operations

Links:

Content Server

The Content Server hosts static assets (HTML, Javascript, CSS, etc.) that support user interactions with the Firefox Accounts. The responsibilities of the Content Server include:

  • hosting Gherkin, a Javascript library that supports interactions with the Auth Server
  • hosting login and create account pages
  • hosting password reset pages
  • hosting landing pages for email verification links

Links:

JS Client Library

Firefox Accounts provides a Javascript client library for the Web that supports operations with Firefox Accounts. In addition to communicating with the Auth Server, it also performs local key stretching (PBKDF2 and scrypt) on the user's password before it's used in the API. It is hosted by the Content Server. This library was at one time called "Gherkin".

Links:

scrypt Helper

A portion of the key stretching process uses scrypt, a password-based key derivation function that uses significant amounts of memory. On memory constrained devices, Firefox Accounts provides a helper service for this portion of the key stretching process.

Links:

Verifier

FxA will host its own BID verifier for relying Mozilla service to verify the assertions FxA generates. The reason is that the principal will be { email: <user's real email>, uid: <FxA user id> }, which is not BID-kosher.

Update (11/14/13): A separate verifier is currently off the table. The proposal is to use the current verifier, with some changes. Update (11/15/13): it sure seems like it is back on the table. Can someone confirm?

Discussion:

Desktop

Firefox Accounts integration on Firefox for Desktop is happening in the "elm" project branch. We are also working out of a github repo for "pre-elm" experimentation.

Tracking bug:

Android

Firefox Accounts integration on Firefox for Android is happening in the "elm" project branch.

Tracking bug:

Firefox OS

Implementation of Firefox Accounts in FirefoxOS is committed for b2g v1.4. This is a collaborative effort working closely with TEF and Telenor engineers.

Demo:

Tracking bug:

Our current line of thought is below and a work-in-progress:

Tracking

No results.

0 Total; 0 Open (0%); 0 Resolved (0%); 0 Verified (0%);


Operations

For now, here are some useful links about Firefox Accounts Operations:

Deployments

Metrics

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Identity/Firefox_Accounts/Minimum_Viable_Metrics

Fraud and Abuse

https://id.etherpad.mozilla.org/fxacct-metrics-fraud-detection

Resources

Mailing Lists

Team

  • Leads: Chris Karlof, Ryan Kelly
  • IRC: #fxa
  • List: dev-fxacct@mozilla.org
  • Engineering: Danny Coates, Shane Tomlinson, Sean McArthur, Vlad Filippov, Phil Booth, Vijay Budhram
  • UX: Ryan Feeley
  • Metrics: Katie Parlante
  • QA: John Morrison, Peter deHaan, Karl Thiessen
  • DevOps: Chris Kolosiwsky

Related

Demos

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