Re: [cors] Review

One other thing - as I understand the current design, if a preflight  
request is redirected, the redirect is required to have a Access- 
Control-Allow-Origin header. This is implied in the client redirect  
steps, but should be spelled out in the server requirements as well.

Cheers,


On 29/05/2009, at 5:27 PM, Mark Nottingham wrote:

>
> *** Substantial issues
>
> * POST as a "simple" method - POST is listed as a simple method  
> (i.e., one not requiring pre-flight) because there are already  
> security issues that allow an HTML browser to send cross-site POST  
> requests. However, other contexts of use may not have this problem,  
> and future developments may close that hole. Requiring a pre-flight  
> for POST because it is unsafe is the right thing to do for both of  
> these reasons.
>
> * Field-name verbosity - The defined header field-names are quite  
> long, and contain misleading (this isn't really access-control  
> information, at least on requests) and redundant (e.g., "request- 
> method"). Suggest using:  CORS-Allow-Origin, CORS-Maxage, CORS-Allow- 
> Cred, CORS-Allow-Methods, CORS-Allow-Headers, CORS-Method, CORS- 
> Headers.
>
> * Unnecessary request headers - removing the Access-Control-Request- 
> Method and Access-Control-Request-Headers fields would substantially  
> simplify the design; it would necessitate that the server list all  
> methods and headers that are to be sent cross-origin in the  
> preflight response, but this is not an onerous requirement.
>
> * Preflight cache - As specified, the preflight cache is very  
> complex and hard to understand. Removing the request headers above  
> will help, and would enable a switch from OPTIONS to HEAD for pre- 
> flights, again simplifying the design and allowing the use of a  
> standard HTTP cache, instead of a purpose-built one. Failing that,  
> the material related to the cache desperately needs a rewrite for  
> clarity.
>
> * Access-Control-Allow-Credentials - Has the WG considered making  
> this header more fine-grained (e.g., allowing the authentication  
> realm to be carried)? What about including the challenge on the pre- 
> flight response?
>
> * Request header deletion - The model of giving the server control  
> over any and all additional request headers tightly couples the  
> origin to the format of requests. It may be desirable in some cases  
> to add local request headers (e.g., targeted at firewalls or  
> proxies) programmatically, but this would not be possible using this  
> design without coordination with the origin. Instead of a whitelist  
> of "simple" headers, why not have a blacklist of headers that have  
> to be explicitly allowed by the server (e.g., Cookie, Authorization)?
>
> * Response header deletion - Again, deleting all but a pre-defined  
> list of response headers is too draconian, and seriously limits  
> extensibility on the Web. Again, why not just a blacklist? What's  
> the attack vector here?
>
> * Chattiness - The protocol set out here requires a pre-flight  
> request every time a new URL is used; this will force Web sites to  
> tunnel requests for different resources over the same URL for  
> performance/efficiency reasons, and as such is not in tune with the  
> Web architecture. A much more scalable approach would be to define a  
> "map" of the Web site/origin to define what cross-site requests are  
> allowed where (in the style of robots.txt et al; see also the work  
> being done on host-meta, XRDS and similar). I made this comment on  
> an older draft a long time ago, and have still not received a  
> satisfactory response.
>
> * Procedural definition - This specification is defined as a set of  
> procedural instructions for implementations. The advice that "User  
> agents MAY employ any algorithm to implement this specification, so  
> long as the end result is indistinguishable from the result that  
> would be obtained by the specification's algorithms" is at best  
> fallacious (besides leaving out servers); it sidesteps the question  
> of what's meaningful in determining what is "indistinguishable."  
> Specifications in this style unnecessarily constrain  
> implementations, are more difficult to understand (e.g., it's  
> difficult to understand the operation of a protocol mechanism such  
> as a header without stepping through every single algorithm in the  
> spec), and often preclude their reuse for unforeseen purposes.
>
>
> *** Minor and Editorial issues
>
> * Abstract - the use of "API" is a bit confusing.... suggest  
> "Specifications that enable an API to make cross-origin requests to  
> resources can..."
>
> * Introduction - What does "limit the amount of unsafe HTTP  
> requests" mean -- I may just not be getting the metric for 'amount.'
>
> * Introduction - "Web application technologies" is stilted; while  
> the WG has a good concept of what a webapp is, in the greater world  
> this phrase means a server-side app.
>
> * Introduction - "A resource can include..." --> "A response can  
> include..."
>
> * Introduction - "User-agents are enabled to discover..." --> "User- 
> agents can discover..."
>
> * Introduction - "This specification is a building block for other  
> specifications, so-called hosting specifications."  This is an  
> unfortunate term. How about "Cross-Origin Application  
> Specification", "API Specification" or similar? (here and elsewhere)
>
> * Introduction - There's a large section at the end that's indented;  
> what's the significance of this?
>
> * Introduction - "If a server author has a..."  This phrase  
> naturally applies to the authors of servers; e.g., Apache, lighttpd,  
> etc. It would be more clear and correct to say 'resource  
> author." (here and elsewhere)
>
> * Introduction - "...the resource combined with a header..." -->  
> "the response"
>
> * Introduction - "Using XMLHttpRequest a resource on http://hello-world.example 
>  can access the document as follows:" --> "A client-side web  
> application whose origin is http://hello-world.example can access  
> the resource using XMLHttpRequest as follows:"
>
> * Conformance Criteria - "A conformant server is one that..." --> "A  
> conformant resource is one that..."
>
> * Terminology - "simple method" is misleading and too generic.  
> Suggest just using the term 'safe' in the RFC2616 sense (see  
> substantial comment about POST).
>
> * Syntax - Have the authors considered using ABNF, since HTTPbis is  
> already using it?
>
> * Syntax - If the 2616 BNF is retained, you need to explicitly point  
> out that LWS is allowed.
>
> * Syntax - all of these headers need to be registered with IANA; see  
> RFC3864. Note that publication as a W3C Rec is enough, but the  
> registration template needs to be in the document.
>
> * Origin Request Header - will this refer to the Origin spec if/when  
> it is published?
>
> * Server Processing Model - This section repeatedly uses the term  
> "URL" where "resource" is appropriate; a URL is an identifier for a  
> thing, not the thing itself.
>
> * Server Processing Model - shouldn't the list of origins include  
> the same origin, or is that considered completely external to this  
> process? A note about this would be helpful in either case.
>
> * Simple Cross-Origin Request and Actual Request - What should the  
> outcome be if the origin header is missing?
>
> * Simple Cross-Origin Request and Actual Request - "Note: by failing  
> this request servers..." What does "failing this request" mean in  
> this context?
>
> * Preflight Request - "... or if parsing failed, do not set any  
> additional headers and terminate this set of steps."  Does this mean  
> that the server should continue processing as if CORS were not in  
> effect, or should a specific status code, etc. be returned? If it's  
> the former, this should be explicitly specified.
>
> * Preflight Request - "If any of the headers is not..." --> "If any  
> of the header field-names is not..."
>
> * Preflight Result Cache - it's not clear whether user-agents are  
> required to implement a cache or not; I'm assuming it's optional.
>
> * Generic Cross-Origin Request Algorithms - for clarity, can this be  
> split up into separate subsections?
>
> * Generic Cross-Origin Request Algorithms - "new URL" --> "the URL  
> conveyed by the Location header in the redirect response"
>
> * Resource Sharing Check - "...and the resource contains zero or  
> more than one Access-Control-Allow-Credentials headers..." should  
> end in "header values" because a HTTP header can contain multiple  
> values.
>
> --
> Mark Nottingham     http://www.mnot.net/
>


--
Mark Nottingham     http://www.mnot.net/

Received on Tuesday, 2 June 2009 12:56:14 UTC