Re: Eric Rescorla's Discuss on draft-ietf-httpbis-cdn-loop-01: (with DISCUSS and COMMENT)

On Fri, Dec 21, 2018 at 01:40:11PM +1100, Mark Nottingham wrote:
> 
> 
> > On 21 Dec 2018, at 12:13 pm, Mark Nottingham <mnot@mnot.net> wrote:
> > 
> >> We have a situation with two alternate topologies:
> >> 
> >> 1.  A -> B -> Origin
> >> 2.  A ->  Origin
> >> 
> >> The original HTTP client (i.e., an external attacker on the Internet) sends a request with a CDN-Loop header containing B. In topology (1) this causes some kind of failure and in topology (2) it does not, thus leaking the topology.
> > 
> > Ah - so you're saying that 'A' is also a CDN, not the user-agent?
> > 
> > If the answer is 'yes', I understand; will add some text.
> 
> I've added:
> 
> """
> A CDN's use of the CDN-Loop header field might expose its presence. For example, if CDN A is configured to forward its requests to CDN B for a given origin, CDN B's presence can be revealed if it behaves differently based upon the presence of the CDN-Loop header field.
> """

Sorry for being slow to catch up.

It's not entirely clear to me that you actually need A to be a CDN for this
to work -- if I want to know if CDN B is used to serve a given origin,
can't I just tell my browser to add B's CDN-Loop header field to the
request?  (With the idea being that if that change causes me to not get
content, then I know CDN B is in use.)

-Benjamin

Received on Friday, 21 December 2018 02:44:52 UTC