Network Working Group E. Rescorla
Requests for Comments: 2659 RTFM, Inc.
Category: Experimental A. Schiffman
Terisa Systems, Inc.
August 1999
Security Extensions For HTML
Status of this Memo
This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.
Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This memo describes a syntax for embedding S-HTTP negotiation
parameters in HTML documents. S-HTTP, as described by RFC 2660,
contains the concept of negotiation headers which reflect the
potential receiver of a message's preferences as to which crypto-
graphic enhancements should be applied to the message. This document
describes a syntax for binding these negotiation parameters to HTML
anchors.
1. Introduction
2. Anchor Attributes
We define the following new anchor (and form submission) attributes:
DN -- The distinguished name of the principal for whom the
request should be encrypted when dereferencing the anchor's url.
This need not be specified, but failure to do so runs the risk
that the client will be unable to determine the DN and therefore
will be unable to encrypt. This should be specified in the form
of RFC1485, using SGML quoting conventions as needed.
NONCE -- A free-format string (appropriately SGML quoted) which
is to be included in a SHTTP-Nonce: header (after SGML quoting
is removed) when the anchor is dereferenced.
CRYPTOPTS -- Cryptographic option information as described in
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RFC 2659 Security Extensions For HTML August 1999
[SHTTP]. Specifically, the <cryptopt-list> production.
A new CERTS HTML element is defined, which carries a (not necessarily
related) group of certificates provided as advisory data. The element
contents are not intended to be displayed to the user. Certificate
groups may be provided appropriate for either PEM or PKCS-7
implementations. Such certificates are supplied in the HTML document
for the convenience of the recipient, who might otherwise be unable
to retrieve the certificate (chain) corresponding to a DN specified
in an anchor.
The format should be the same as that of the 'Certificate-Info'
header line, of [SHTTP] except that the <Cert-Fmt> specifier should
be provided as the FMT attribute in the tag.
Multiple CERTS elements are permitted; it is suggested that CERTS
elements themselves be included in the HTML document's HEAD element
(in the hope that the data will not be displayed by S-HTTP oblivious
but HTML compliant browsers.)
Cryptopts may also be broken out into an element and referred to in
anchors by name. The NAME attribute specifies the name by which this
element may be referred to in a CRYPTOPTS attribute in an anchor.
Names must have a # as the leading character.
Eric Rescorla
RTFM, Inc.
30 Newell Road, #16
East Palo Alto, CA 94303
Phone: (650) 328-8631
EMail: ekr@rtfm.com
Allan M. Schiffman
SPYRUS/Terisa
5303 Betsy Ross Drive
Santa Clara, CA 95054
Phone: (408) 327-1901
EMail: ams@terisa.com
[SHTTP] Rescorla, E. and A. Schiffman, "The Secure HyperText Transfer
Protocol", RFC 2660, August 1999.
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RFC 2659 Security Extensions For HTML August 1999
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999). All Rights Reserved.
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Acknowledgement
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Internet Society.
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