Re: Extension HTTP methods

On 6/12/06, Hallvord R. M. Steen <hallvord@opera.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 09 Jun 2006 13:21:00 +0200, Hallvord R. M. Steen
> <hallvord@opera.com> wrote:
>
> >>>> Blindly standardising what one vendor does doesn't make sense;
> >>>  We can certainly assume they have thought long and hard about a
> >>> change that WILL break existing content.
> >>
> >> It would be really great if we could work based on facts instead of
> >> hearsay.
> >
> > Yes, but I can't quote people verbatim on a public mailing list without
> > their permission.
> > I will ask the MS developer and our senior HTTPS/networking dev if they
> > can give me an explanation I can pass on, or even respond in this thread.
>
>
> Here is the response:
>
>
> The problem is that there's no way we can guarantee correct behavior for
> new HTTP verbs whose semantics are not yet defined.  For instance, should
> a given method be idempotent?  Are its results eligible to be cached?  Etc.
>
> One of the security issues from allowing arbitrary verbs was reported a
> few years ago.  The "TRACE" verb can be used to circumvent the HTTPONLY
> cookie directive.
> http://www.cgisecurity.com/whitehat-mirror/WhitePaper_screen.pdf.  While
> the threat was overhyped (and can be fixed by disabling TRACE on the
> server) the concern about permitting verbs with unknown
> side-effects/combinatorial-effects remains.

The method is immaterial in the single domain case, because the server
can always deploy a resource which echos the input message via GET (or
POST or ...), giving the script the cookies it wants.

Mark.

Received on Monday, 12 June 2006 12:11:29 UTC