RESTful Java Web Services - Third Edition

Understanding the OAuth 1.0 protocol

The OAuth protocol specifies a process for resource owners to authorize third-party applications to access their server resources without sharing their credentials.

Consider a scenario where Jane (the user of an application) wants to let an application access her private data, which is stored in a third-party service provider. Before OAuth 1.0 or other similar open source protocols, such as Google AuthSub and FlickrAuth, if Jane wanted to let a consumer service use her data stored on some third-party service provider, she would need to give her user credentials to the consumer service to access data from the third-party service via appropriate service calls. Instead of Jane passing her login information ...