README

Selective Disclosure for JWTs (RFC 9901) in pure PHP: issue SD-JWTs with selectively disclosable claims, build Holder presentations with optional Key Binding, and verify both. This is the credential format at the core of OpenID4VC/HAIP and the EU Digital Identity Wallet.

The test suite is driven by the worked examples embedded in RFC 9901 itself (Sections 4.2 and 5, Appendix A.5 key), verified byte for byte.

Fail-closed by design: every MUST-level rule of the RFC's verification algorithm — duplicate digests, unreferenced Disclosures, reserved claim names, claim collisions, alg: none, Key Binding mismatches — throws; nothing is silently accepted.

Install

composer require k2gl/sd-jwt

Requires PHP 8.1+. Crypto is provided by k2gl/dsse signers and verifiers over ext-openssl (ES256/ES384/ES512, RS256) and ext-sodium (EdDSA).

Usage

Issue an SD-JWT

Wrap everything selectively disclosable in Sd::hide() — object properties, array elements, or whole subtrees (nesting produces recursive Disclosures per Section 4.2.6). Sd::decoy() inserts decoy digests.

use K2gl\SdJwt\Jws\JwsSigner;
use K2gl\SdJwt\Sd;
use K2gl\SdJwt\SdJwtIssuer;

$issuer = new SdJwtIssuer(JwsSigner::es256FromPem($issuerPrivatePem));

$sdJwt = $issuer->issue(
    claims: [
        'iss' => 'https://issuer.example.com',
        'iat' => time(),
        'sub' => 'user_42',
        'cnf' => ['jwk' => $holderPublicJwk],       // enables Key Binding
        'given_name' => Sd::hide('John'),
        'address' => Sd::hide([
            'street_address' => Sd::hide('123 Main St'), // recursive
            'country' => 'US',
        ]),
        'nationalities' => [Sd::hide('US'), Sd::hide('DE'), Sd::decoy()],
    ],
    header: ['typ' => 'example+sd-jwt'],
);

$compact = $sdJwt->toCompact(); // <JWT>~<Disclosure>~...~

Present selected claims (Holder)

Selection uses JSON Pointers into the fully disclosed payload; parent Disclosures that a nested claim depends on are included automatically.

use K2gl\SdJwt\Presentation;

$presentation = Presentation::of($compact);
$presentation->disclosablePaths();  // ['/given_name', '/address', '/address/street_address', ...]

// Without Key Binding:
$toVerifier = $presentation->disclose('/given_name', '/nationalities/0')->toCompact();

// With Key Binding (RFC 9901 Section 4.3):
$toVerifier = $presentation
    ->disclose('/given_name')
    ->withKeyBinding(
        JwsSigner::es256FromPem($holderPrivatePem),
        audience: 'https://verifier.example.org',
        nonce: $nonceFromVerifier,
    );

Verify a presentation (Verifier)

use K2gl\Dsse\PublicKey;
use K2gl\SdJwt\Exception\SdJwtException;
use K2gl\SdJwt\KeyBinding;
use K2gl\SdJwt\SdJwtVerifier;

$verifier = new SdJwtVerifier;

try {
    $verified = $verifier->verifyPresentation(
        $toVerifier,
        PublicKey::fromJwk($issuerPublicJwk),   // or PublicKey::fromPem(...)
        KeyBinding::required(
            audience: 'https://verifier.example.org',
            nonce: $nonceFromVerifier,
        ),
    );

    $claims = $verified->claims();  // the Processed SD-JWT Payload, digests resolved
} catch (SdJwtException $e) {
    // not verified — bad signature, tampered Disclosure, replayed or missing Key Binding, ...
}

Use KeyBinding::notRequired() for presentations without Holder binding, and $verifier->verify($sdJwt, $issuerKey) on the Holder side after receiving an SD-JWT from an Issuer.

The verified result also says which claims came through Disclosures and which array elements were withheld, as JSON Pointers with array positions as issued — the coordinates SD-JWT VC Type Metadata uses to say what may or must be selectively disclosed:

$verified->claims()['nationalities'];  // ['US', 'FR'] — the middle one was not disclosed
$verified->disclosedPaths();           // ['/nationalities/0', '/nationalities/2', '/address/street']
$verified->undisclosedPaths();         // ['/nationalities/1'] — a decoy digest looks the same

JWS JSON serialization

RFC 9901 Section 8 defines an alternative to the ~-separated compact form: a JWS JSON object (RFC 7515 Section 7.2) whose unprotected header carries the Disclosures and, for a presentation, the Key Binding JWT. Everything above accepts it wherever a compact string is accepted — SdJwt::parse() tells the two apart by the leading { — and every SD-JWT can be emitted in it:

$json = SdJwt::parse($compact)->toJson();               // Flattened (Section 8.2)
$json = SdJwt::parse($compact)->toJson(general: true);  // General (Section 8.3)
$json = $presentation->disclose('/given_name')->toJson();

$verified = $verifier->verifyPresentation($json, $issuerKey, KeyBinding::required(...));

A General serialization may carry several signatures; the Disclosures and kb_jwt belong to the first one, and that is the signature verified. The others are kept so that toJson() re-emits the document unchanged — toCompact(), which has no room for them, drops them. The sd_hash of a Key Binding JWT is always computed over the compact form rebuilt from the JSON parts, as Section 8.1 requires.

Scope

Compact serialization (<JWT>~<Disclosure>~...~[<KB-JWT>]) and the JWS JSON serialization (Section 8, Flattened and General) — issue, present, verify.
Object-property, array-element, and recursive Disclosures; decoy digests.
Key Binding JWTs: creation and full Section 7.3 validation (typ, algorithm-to-cnf match, iat window, aud, nonce, sd_hash).
_sd_alg: sha-256 (default), sha-384, sha-512.
JOSE algorithms: ES256, ES384, ES512, EdDSA, RS256 (signing); verification takes any k2gl/dsse Verifier.

Design

The encoded Disclosure is authoritative: digests are computed over the base64url string exactly as received, never over re-serialized JSON, so foreign encodings survive verification untouched.
Processing keeps the JSON object/array distinction (stdClass vs list) end to end; ->payload() returns the lossless view, ->claims() the convenient array one.
The verifier is policy-explicit: allowed JOSE algorithms, allowed hash algorithms, clock, and leeway are constructor parameters with safe defaults; Key Binding is decided by the Verifier's policy, never by what the Holder sent.

k2gl / sd-jwt

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