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[TLS] Request for review: Next Protocol Negotiation Extension

Adam Barth <ietf@adambarth.com> Mon, 16 August 2010 17:07 UTC

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From: Adam Barth <ietf@adambarth.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:07:49 -0700
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Subject: [TLS] Request for review: Next Protocol Negotiation Extension
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TLS experts,

As some of you may be aware, the HyBi working group is considering use
a TLS extension has part of the WebSockets protocol [1].  I believe
the extension has been mentioned on this list before, but as there is
now renewed interested in its use, now might be a good time for this
working group to look over the extension and provide feedback.

The extension, called Next Protocol Negotiation, adds information to
the TLS handshake to let the client and server agree on which protocol
they will speak over the encrypted tunnel once the handshake
completes.  In some sense, this extension is to TLS what ports are to
TCP: it allows multiplexing a number of protocols over a single
listening endpoint (in the case of TLS, a TCP port, in the case of
TCP, an IP address).

The HyBi working group is interested in Next Protocol Negotiation
because it has two properties:

1) It allows servers to multiplex HTTPS and WebSockets over the same
listening port (typically 443).
2) After completing the TLS handshake (with the extension) both
parties are guaranteed that the other party intends to speak
WebSockets over the encrypted tunnel.  (This property is important to
avoid cross-protocol vulnerabilities, which I can elaborate on if
you're not familiar with that class of vulnerability.)

The current Internet-Draft is located here:

http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-agl-tls-nextprotoneg

I look forward to receiving your feedback.

Kind regards,
Adam

[1] http://trac.tools.ietf.org/wg/hybi/trac/ticket/14

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