User Authentication using REST

Question

I apologize if my questions seems to be repetitive but I couldn't find a answer for this yet.

I am building a REST based application using Spring 3.0 and plan to deploy to Google App Engine eventually. Now my clients could be Native Android, iPhone, or a Web Based Client.

My users need to login using username and password stored in server inside a persistence layer. Now say my Android client opens the app and login screen is shown is user. Now user types in username and password.

I know it would be a post and say my service endpoint is registration. So it would be something like

POST /registration

Now I plan to put username and password in body of message in Json or XML format. My question is "is this the right way to do it?" I am planning to make it SSL but how should I really send this sensitive info like this in body . I plan to return an OAUth token on successful authentication and use that to validate the user in all future services calls.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Sounds like you have the right idea. SSL should ensure whichever method you choose to send it in is secure.

Remember to salt + hash the passwords before storing them: web cryptography - salted hash and other tasty dishes

Answer 2

Use the authorization header for sending the username and password information. That's what it is there for.