Re: Moving forward on improving HTTP's security

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 11:34 AM, Patrick McManus <pmcmanus@mozilla.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 12:13 PM, Zhong Yu <zhong.j.yu@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> If that's the case, WebSocket is also "undeployable" since it tunnels
>> though port 80 as well.
>>
>
> that's right. The failure rate of cleartext websockets is much higher than
> SSL wss:// websockets. (the failure rate is almost twice as large in
> firefox). That's a significant part of the driver here. Websockets made a
> mistake by even specifying cleartext. I was there and I've learned that
> lesson.

Would it have been a bigger mistake if WebSocket only works on secure
channel? Would that encourage or discourage the deployment of
WebSocket? I think it would definitely have been a deterrent.

In the current scheme, the service provide can try ws:// first. It
might work very satisfactorily (e.g. if most users connect from home
computers). If it does not, the service provider can upgrade to wss://
without too much hassle.

>
> cleartext just doesn't work as, roberto keeps saying.

Aren't websocket frames masked with random bits?

>
> The only question in my mind is whether or not to require a real
> PKI-as-we-know-it authenticated cert. That has tradeoffs - but at least we
> expect it would operate.
>

Received on Thursday, 14 November 2013 17:47:05 UTC