Re: Upgrade mixed content URLs through HTTP header

On the topic of using HSTS to blocked mixed content, it seems like
IE10 has just done that:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2015/02/16/http-strict-transport-security-comes-to-internet-explorer.aspx

I haven't tested it though, so I'm not sure if it's active, passive, or both.

-tom

On 9 February 2015 at 02:37, Mike West <mkwst@google.com> wrote:
> Hey Tanvi!
>
> On Fri, Feb 6, 2015 at 8:27 PM, Tanvi Vyas <tanvi@mozilla.com> wrote:
>>
>> * Option 1 - Fallback and try the HTTP version; the mixed content blocker
>> will be invoked and the content will be blocked if it is blockable with an
>> option for the user to override the blocking (shield shows up in Firefox and
>> Chrome) or loaded if it is optionally blockable with a degraded security UI.
>> * Option 2 - No attempt to access the HTTP version and no mixed content
>> UI.
>>
>> Option 2 will result in a user experience that is worse than the current
>> experience with mixed content blocking.  Also, with Option 2, sites may be
>> less likely to set the CSP directive because it could potentially break
>> their site. Hence, I like Option 1 where we fallback to the HTTP version.
>> But this could cause performance issues since in the fallback case we are
>> doing two resource loads instead of one.
>
>
> The strawman I posted is option #2; resources are upgraded, and if the
> upgrade fails to target a viable resource, you'll end up with a network
> error, just as you would if you typed the upgraded URL manually.
>
> The intention is that only sites for which this behavior provides a net gain
> will opt-into it. So, while I agree that there's some risk, it can be a
> calculated one which sites can choose to opt-into.
>
>>
>> We could also have Option 3 - only fallback for optionally blockable
>> subresources, since many users don't click the shield and override
>> protection anyway and hence end up with a similar user experience.
>
>
> This is probably worth experimenting with today, especially in combination
> with HSTS. I worry that it's likely to have negative performance impact on
> sites, as it would no longer be opt-in, meaning that sites that wouldn't
> support upgrade for particular resources would be generating unexpected
> requests that they weren't prepared to handle.
>
> -mike
>
> --
> Mike West <mkwst@google.com>, @mikewest
>
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Received on Tuesday, 17 February 2015 20:50:16 UTC