How to validate an OAuth 2.0 access token for a resource server?

Question

When a client asks a resource server to get a protected resource with an OAuth 2.0 access token, how does this server validate the token? The OAuth 2.0 refresh token protocol?

Answer 1

Google way

Google Oauth2 Token Validation

Request:

https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/tokeninfo?access_token=1/fFBGRNJru1FQd44AzqT3Zg

Respond:

{
  "audience":"8819981768.apps.googleusercontent.com",
  "user_id":"123456789",
  "scope":"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.profile https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email",
  "expires_in":436
} 

Microsoft way

Microsoft - Oauth2 check an authorization

Github way

Github - Oauth2 check an authorization

Request:

GET /applications/:client_id/tokens/:access_token

Respond:

{
  "id": 1,
  "url": "https://api.github.com/authorizations/1",
  "scopes": [
    "public_repo"
  ],
  "token": "abc123",
  "app": {
    "url": "http://my-github-app.com",
    "name": "my github app",
    "client_id": "abcde12345fghij67890"
  },
  "note": "optional note",
  "note_url": "http://optional/note/url",
  "updated_at": "2011-09-06T20:39:23Z",
  "created_at": "2011-09-06T17:26:27Z",
  "user": {
    "login": "octocat",
    "id": 1,
    "avatar_url": "https://github.com/images/error/octocat_happy.gif",
    "gravatar_id": "somehexcode",
    "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat"
  }
}

Amazon way

Login With Amazon - Developer Guide (Dec. 2015, page 21)

Request :

https://api.amazon.com/auth/O2/tokeninfo?access_token=Atza|IQEBLjAsAhRmHjNgHpi0U-Dme37rR6CuUpSR...

Response :

HTTP/l.l 200 OK
Date: Fri, 3l May 20l3 23:22:l0 GMT 
x-amzn-RequestId: eb5be423-ca48-lle2-84ad-5775f45l4b09 
Content-Type: application/json 
Content-Length: 247 

{ 
  "iss":"https://www.amazon.com", 
  "user_id": "amznl.account.K2LI23KL2LK2", 
  "aud": "amznl.oa2-client.ASFWDFBRN", 
  "app_id": "amznl.application.436457DFHDH", 
  "exp": 3597, 
  "iat": l3ll280970
}