

OAuth signature methods - and why HMAC-SHA1 signing sucks. - pilif
http://www.gnegg.ch/2008/08/oauth-signature-methods/

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NateLawson
You are correct in preferring a public-key signature scheme to a shared-secret
scheme. While a correct implementation of HMAC-SHA1 should resist forgery as
well as RSA-SHA1, there are numerous drawbacks to shared-secret schemes in
general that you noticed.

Another weakness in OAuth with RSA-SHA1 in the section you cite is that you
have to implement your own PKI or other scheme for validating the source of
RSA public keys. Like so many other specs, it punts on this hard issue.

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z8000
If you are lucky enough to control both the server and client then this isn't
a big deal. You can just distribute the public key along with your client SDK.
Granted, this is a specific case.

