Preliminary findings and recommendations from the Token Trust and Traceability Working Group

¹ Lancaster University
² STFC
³ CERN
⁴ NIKHEF
⁵ KIT

^* e-mail: m.doidge@lancaster.ac.uk

Published online: 7 October 2025

Abstract

Created in 2023, the Token Trust and Traceability Working Group (TTT) was formed in order to answer questions of policy and best practice with the ongoing move from X.509 and VOMS proxy certificates to token-based solutions as the primary authorisation and authentication method in distributed computing environments. With a remit to act in an investigatory and advisory capacity alongside other working groups in the token space, the TTT is composed of a broad variety of stakeholders to provide a breadth of experience and viewpoints. While the requirements of grid sites, users, identity providers and virtual organisations to be able to trace workflows have remained largely the same in a token paradigm as to one using X.509 certificates, tokens provide a new set of challenges, requiring a rethink and restructure of the policies and processes that were defined with just X.509 and VOMS in mind, in order to meet these requirements in the new context. After providing an overview of the current status of the token trust landscape we will detail the initial findings, future plans and recommendations to be made by the TTT. This will include best practice for sites and identity providers, suggestions for token development, and methodologies for tracing token usage by system administrators within common grid middleware stacks.