Meeting record: WSC WG weekly 2008-01-09

Minutes from our meeting on 2008-01-09 were approved and are
available online here:

   http://www.w3.org/2008/01/09-wsc-minutes.html

A text version is included below the .signature.

-- 
Thomas Roessler, W3C  <tlr@w3.org>




   [1]W3C

               Web Security Context Working Group Teleconference
                                   9 Jan 2008

   [2]Agenda

   See also: [3]IRC log

Attendees

   Present
          MaryEllen_Zurko, PHB, Thomas, serge, Tyler, ifette, billeburn,
          yngve, asaldhan, jvkrey, Bill_Doyle, johnath, rachna, dans

   Regrets
          Luis_B, Maritza_J, Stephen, F

   Chair
          MaryEllen_Zurko

   Scribe
          AnilSaldhana

Contents

     * [4]Topics
         1. [5]next face-to-face
     * [6]Summary of Action Items
     __________________________________________________________________



   <trackbot-ng> Date: 09 January 2008

   <tlr> Scribe: AnilSaldhana

   <Mez> I presume there have been no offers to host in San Jose on the
   original dates

   <tlr> there hasn't been much of anything

   <tlr> *sigh*

   <tlr> Coffee: FreshlyGround

   <tlr> irc client crash. yay

   <Mez> eek!

   <tlr> as long as it restarts fast enough...

   <tlr> So, I presume the big agendum today is sorting out the f2f...

   <Mez> there's a lot of other stuff on the agenda

   <Mez> but if you need the time and it has to be done in a meeting, then
   it has to be done in the meeting

   <tlr> I know... Looked at all the issues and the text again.

   <tlr> Well, whatever the resolution is, we need to get to one quickly.
   And if people don't react to e-mail, I'd rather do it in a meeting than
   call up everybody one by one.

   <tlr> who was regretted again?

   <tlr> Luis and?

   <tlr> btw, have you had a look at Al G's latest?

   <Mez> yes

   <Mez> some editorial, some not quite

   <Mez> nothing we can't resolve, just need to grind through the process

   <tlr> ScribeNick: asaldhan

   <tlr> zakimm, ??P12 is billeburn

   <PHB2>
   [7]http://www.amazon.com/dotCrime-Manifesto-Stop-Internet-Crime/dp/0321
   503589

   <tlr> anil, please join the call....

   <PHB2> I wrote a first draft and the PR folk rewqrote it

   xakim, number?

   <PHB2> Had to take out the claim that I invented the computer and such

   <ifette> 867-5309....

   <PHB2> They somewhat over stated some of it

   <PHB2> To say the least, I really want to meet that guy

   Mez: agenda is
   ... first item, scribe - anil

   <ifette> Can we get links?

   <ifette> before approving?

   <Mez> [8]http://www.w3.org/2007/12/19-wsc-minutes.html

   Mez: agenda item ???

   <tlr>
   [9]http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wsc-wg/2008Jan/0064.html

   <Mez>
   [10]http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wsc-wg/2008Jan/0038.html

   Mez: open action items
   ... 5) [CLOSED] ACTION-340
   ... Agenda Bashing
   ... ISSUE-123 - Safe Form Bar: HTTP assumptions in "no TLS" section
   ... ISSUE-124 - Safe Form Bar: reliable text
   ... ISSUE-125 - Safe Form Bar: on screen masking phrased in terms of
   visual agents

   <johnath> (sorry I'm late)

   Mez: Issues will linger unless you want them sooner
   ... All participants must have reviewed the rec doc by now
   ... anything on agenda bashing?

next face-to-face

   Mez: discussion on next f2f

   <ifette> nonrefundable, but with what sort of a change fee?

   tlr: 5/6 feb at google, Mountain view. Ian unfortunately says there is
   an issue with hosting. No one has come forward to host. Change of dates
   is not a problem for many except 1 (costly air ticket)
   ... usual 8 week notification period should be followed. If anyone in
   the silicon valley can help out in the hosting, please come fwd

   PHB2: how many people?

   tlr: 15-20

   tyler: saw tlr's email yest. HP has issues with placing all folks in 1
   room - NDA issue exists - if no NDA issues exist - HP can host

   ifette: tlr has specified "no NDA"

   <PHB2> [hey what happens if someone acks someone not on the queue?]

   tlr: NDA is a serious issue. W3C policy.
   ... non-negotiable

   tyler: there is still a possibility,. Still looking for a room with no
   NDA

   PHB2: Can provide a room. Not sure about food.
   ... meeting at Verisign and food outside.
   ... went through a reorg. Hence got to figure out who the manager is.
   ... 20 people can be held in the room.

   tlr: potentially at HP. Alternative at Verisign (no food). We will
   still hold the meeting at the old dates.

   Mez: we need to keep everybody appraised.

   tlr: tyler, mountain view?

   tyler: cupertino

   <ifette> yes

   <ifette> 10mi

   tlr: should be able to drive.
   ... (Message to list) we will stick to old dates. The nearest airport
   is SJC. TBD - HP or Verisign. Please register asap

   <ifette> TLR, can you post a registration link?

   tyler: rachna, any chance we can hold at commercenet

   rachna: we can do it

   <Mez> network?

   <Mez> food?

   rachna: tons of places to eat at University Avenue.

   <Mez> network is more important :-)

   <ifette> sjc

   <ifette> but not by much

   rachna: airport can be either
   ... SJC or SFO

   tlr: we can decide at the end of the call (tyler, rachna) to decide on
   the place.

   <tlr> RESOLUTION: Stick to dates of 5/6 Feb, CommerceNet, HP or VSGN to
   host, sort out details after call.

   Mez: rest of the agenda

   <ifette> link?

   <Mez> [11]http://www.w3.org/2006/WSC/track/issues/123

   <tlr>
   [12]http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wsc-wg/2007Dec/0106.html

   Mez: reads the description of issue-123 aloud

   <Mez> idempotent

   ifette: tlr's comments about safe/unsafe. Google search and many alike
   use GET
   ... passwords etc are always POST and generally considered unsafe. Do
   not recreate the POST without a notification to user.

   yngve: agree with ifette. Resubmitting POST makes 2 automobile
   purchases ????

   <Mez> can someone remind me what section?

   <Mez> 7.something no doubt

   <yngve> s/Resubmitting POST makes 2 calls/Resubmitting POST can result
   in two purchases, e.g. two cars/

   tyler: do not understand what people are having issues about

   <tlr> [13]http://www.w3.org/TR/wsc-xit/#safebar-must-have-tls

   <Mez>
   [14]http://www.w3.org/2006/WSC/drafts/rec/rewrite.html#safebar-must-hav
   e-tls in the very current draft

   tlr: what gave me the impression that there is a https request involved
   is the following text:

   <Mez> The user agent MUST offer an interaction to attempt navigating to
   a secure version of the current page. Exercising that interaction MUST
   navigate the browser to a URL constructed by changing the current
   page's URL scheme to a corresponding one that uses TLS. For example, an
   http: URL is converted to an https: URL.

   tlr: "Exercising that interaction MUST navigate the browser to a URL
   constructed by changing the current page's URL scheme to a
   corresponding one that uses TLS. For example, an http: URL is converted
   to an https: URL."
   ... we do not know how we came to the current page as we may have
   arrived from a POST operation

   <Mez> all the normative text in 7.2 is:

   <Mez> The editor bar supports safe entry of text strings by the user
   into a web site with which a continuous relationship has been
   established. The user can expect this continuity to be securely
   enforced and the transmissions protected from eavesdropping and
   tampering. Currently, these properties can only be supported on the web
   through the use of TLS. The editor bar MUST NOT be enabled for
   exchanges that are not protected by TLS. If the user hits the editor
   bar attention key

   tyler: to give a context in section 7, there is a set of unspoken
   expectations that user may do to use web securely
   ... how users view certificates. we can try automate.

   <Mez> on phone

   <Mez> he's in irc?

   <tlr> tyler: can we build some of the user's know-how in terms of uri
   fiddling into code?

   <ifette> tyler: there are unspoken expectations, many people try to
   substitute https for http

   <ifette> ... so why can't we automate that

   <tlr> ... something useful to do along the lines of what people
   currently do ...

   <johnath> scribe's back

   <Mez> I tink dan needs to be muted

   ifette: it is unclear replacing http with https may work. sometime,
   misconfiguration in apache server may give a page
   ... what is the expectation: how do u handle the case YYY

   <yngve> Error case: try [15]https://www.spv.no/

   ifette: a person may try to click on a page that is secure and hits a
   dead end

   tyler: the person used the safe web form editor to enter the data

   ifette: will it say: do u want to find a secure version of this page?

   tyler: it will not be a dialog box. But some messaging that will say

   johnath: not the case. can be tampered with.

   <Zakim> johnath, you wanted to agree that this often works, but isn't
   reliable

   johnath: without going into specific examples that ifette mentioned.
   Agree that it is useful technique. Lazy way of getting to secure way is
   to enter https. Since we are standardizing, I agree with ifette's
   concerns that this is not a foolproof method
   ... I do not think we go in a productive way, advanced users will go
   back and try something new.

   <ifette> q+

   tyler: particular scenario user is in, this is the best thing to do

   johnath: I am not sure about that. Failure mode: we refuse to submit
   this non-secure way.

   <tlr> johnath, you're having voip trouble

   <johnath> I'll type - alas

   <johnath> My message was that, basically, this trick is often useful,
   but not sufficiently so to *mandate* in a w3c spec

   tyler: users took time to locate the place where they enter info. If u
   say, try again, they will not be happy

   <johnath> That if we didn't do this, and instead left it to sites to
   expose secure logins, and wrote the safe form filler to just refuse to
   participate in insecure logins, forcing the users back to the site UI

   tlr: one hand I agree moving folks to a secure page is objectively
   better. If we had TLS for HTTP, it would have been better

   tyler: http proxies do not support http-tls upgrade
   ... technology does not exist

   tlr: it is not deployed at all. we have two distinct url schemes. Same
   domain name, diff scheme
   ... means that path space might be unrelated

   <Mez> MUSTs should probably work all the time

   tyler: it is strange that u say that it works only in few cases

   <Mez> MAYs might be able to work some of the time

   <yngve> Error case: try [16]https://www.spv.no/

   yngve: I pasted url above.
   ... in this case, it is my bank's home page. loading that page gives
   the expired certificate.

   <tlr> good point, secure servicese on different domain isn't that
   rarely seen...

   yngve: also I pasted a link to europe car rental yesterday. the Credit
   Card information is on a unsecure page.
   ... getting to this page came via a POST

   ifette: basically, 2 things

   1. often the case, especially with shared web hosts - mom&pop setup

   scribe: first host has ssl setup. they click on the first link . they
   are sent to a different site. which is the same server but virtual host

   2. we are creating a requirement for a multi-home web sites

   scribe: best thing to do. most people is to do submit the form anyway.
   Probability of risk is low. Can call Credit Card company that I got
   screwed.

   tyler: I use this on google
   ... logging into mail account.

   <Mez> I personally have actually had problems with fraudulant
   transactions and my credit card company

   tyler: banks many offer http

   <Mez> I'm wondering how much more it's happening to people

   tyler: there are many circumstances that this proposal will fail. IN a
   situation that a user is in, the best thing to do is browser try to
   find a secure version of the page.

   <Mez> could even extract and show all the https: urls displayed, not?

   <Mez> no?

   ifette: going "BACK" may mean you are going to a POST page

   <tlr> tlr: so, the good idea here is that *if* this happens, user MUST
   be able to get back

   <tlr> ... that can be back button or not; reversibility is key point
   ...

   tlr: whatever u did to the user, it should be an "reversible" state

   dan: I type a url, it can be showing content (text, images) etc
   ... we are usability org. Should not try to fix all evil.
   ... we need to make recommendations about things that needs fix. But
   mainly from usability view.
   ... we need to make recommendations that work more often than others.

   tlr: I said already

   ifette: one other Q. What happens once they are on secure website. we
   are on the secure editor.
   ... try for secure version
   ... they get to a site. they have no history with this page. they need
   to fill some fields that are commonly used. Is safe form editor the
   answer?

   tyler: yes. the safe form editor can be used
   ... will take fewer keystrokes
   ... than manual

   tlr: another Q.
   ... lets assume we come with interaction paradigm. User should go to
   previous state rather than submit.
   ... user is presented "try to take me to safer place" or "take me back"
   ... what to expect? what is the other path to move on when users do not
   get to secure TLS form

   tyler: in that case johnath's advice is best
   ... johnath suggested we skip this whole business of finding a secure
   page and leave it on the user to do the task of finding a secure
   navigation
   ... this website is badly designed and the user goes scouting for the
   safe form

   tlr: Q: is the interaction a MUST?

   tyler: why do u want to change MUST to SHOULD?

   tlr: consensus from the group

   tyler: SHOULD is fine

   ifette: we are recommending that is not guaranteed to work
   ... we are creating standard that users have to follow

   tyler: there is a really high bar to be set

   <ifette> but a spec is a high bar too

   tyler: poorly designed website interaction

   <tlr> nope

   <Mez> want to put in the pointer to defs?

   tyler: offering an alternative

   <Mez> [17]http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt

   tlr: describes scenarios of usage of MAY

   <Mez> 5. MAY This word, or the adjective "OPTIONAL", mean that an item
   is

   <Mez> truly optional. One vendor may choose to include the item because
   a

   <Mez> particular marketplace requires it or because the vendor feels
   that

   <Mez> it enhances the product while another vendor may omit the same
   item.

   <Mez> An implementation which does not include a particular option MUST
   be

   <Mez> prepared to interoperate with another implementation which does

   <Mez> include the option, though perhaps with reduced functionality. In
   the

   <Mez> same vein an implementation which does include a particular
   option

   <Mez> MUST be prepared to interoperate with another implementation
   which

   <Mez> does not include the option (except, of course, for the feature
   the

   <Mez> option provides.)

   <Mez> . SHOULD This word, or the adjective "RECOMMENDED", mean that
   there

   <Mez> may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances to ignore a

   <Mez> particular item, but the full implications must be understood and

   <Mez> carefully weighed before choosing a different course.

   Mez: encourage everyone to peruse the normative words

   <ifette> next steps on issue?

   Mez: discussion has been on the normative word (MAY, SHOULD etc) to be
   used and reversibility of user interaction

   tlr: we need to add discussion between ifette and tyler about
   reverisbility

   <Zakim> ifette, you wanted to say we could also drop that section

   ifette: I definitely agree with tlr about going back to good state.
   Firefox is bloated with memory usage. It is not easy to throw this
   constraint. MUST is difficult. SHOULD is probably ok

   tyler: responding to reversibility. Open the url in new tab and check
   it out

   <tlr> I'd like to keep that point consistent with 6.4, where it's
   currently a SHOULD; open to discussing that point, though.

   tyler: and then close it

   <tlr> "it" meaning reversibility

   tyler: we need to get feedback from usability studies

   <serge> yeah, sure

   <serge> it just all takes a lot more time than people realize

   ifette: usability studies will be great. But scares me that we fallback
   on usability studies
   ... they suck at educating at internet compatibility

   <serge> of course Ian is saying this having never conducted a usability
   test before

   ifette: usability is necessary but not sufficient for features used by
   millions of users

   serge: all usabilty testing is critically important.

   <ifette> and serge, that would not be accurate

   <ifette> and I said it's necessary, but not sufficient

   serge: people underestimate the effort at usability studies
   ... very difficult to conduct usability tests for everything

   ifette: I said necessary but not sufficient. Concerns about priorities
   and limited time is valid.
   ... I am not saying usability studies is bad but am saying that it is
   not sufficient

   <tlr> consensus + CR exit criteria fulfilled...

   tyler: rachna and serge bear with me on my hypothesis about usability

   <Mez> which are?

   <Mez> review, comment, respond,

   <Mez> and coding

   tyler: if we constructed a web page with a web form asking user CC
   number

   <Mez> anything else?

   <ifette> tyler you were breaking up for a second there

   <ifette> ok now

   <tlr> mez, effectively, what the group negotiates them to be, within
   constraints in process doc.

   tyler: what % of users will choose either of the options presented

   serge: depends on how u present to the user

   <Mez> tlr, I don't think we can negotiate away review, response, and
   coding. Or can we?

   tyler: I have a webpage with a login form.

   <tlr> we can negotiate additional requirements ;)

   <Mez> no kidding

   tyler: browser shows them a message do not enter information and says
   go to the home page again and look for the secure page
   ... study whether the user will follow the browser advice or they going
   to enter the form information

   <rachna> instead of asking a yes or no question, you should observe
   behavior (they will say "yes" always, but won

   tyler: that is a simple screen shot, one boolean question to deal with

   <ifette> erm +1 to what serge is saying

   tyler: should we create a bundle of tests
   ... and study how users will interact

   serge: we have many proposals that need testing

   PHB2: what we need to try and do. how we going to interface with
   usability world. More work than rachna and serge can handle. Most of us
   are engineers and not scientists (difference of temperament etc)
   ... engineers are not good at working with other people's thought
   processes
   ... traditional security - feature completion
   ... usabiility - will the user use the system securely
   ... my concern with PII bar - will the user use it securely
   ... if we need to succeed. we need to make usability influence software
   engineer in the positive.

   <Zakim> ifette, you wanted to say that what tyler described might test
   the form editor a bit, but doesn't test the internet breaking and
   comaptibility with all the random sites on the web,

   PHB2: there is a difference b/w engg practice and science. We
   (engineers) cannot solve this by becoming scientists

   ifette: we need to agree well in advance as to what we are going to
   test
   ... we can create a PII bar and test it. But we can never test it in
   the open world with millions of users.

   <serge> So we're abandoning science in favor of faith?

   ifette: and guarantee its safe usage

   <serge> hey, I just repeated what was said.

   <ifette> ack

   <ifette> zakim is whispering

   ifette: propose a strawman poll to change it to MAY

   tyler: this was the concern I had before (worrying about the text of
   the recommendation without testing)

   <serge> but aren't others here arguing for not using objective data?

   tyler: I am working on prototyping the user seeking the secure resource

   <tlr> serge, no. The argument is to have others do that work, instead
   of the group doing the research.

   tyler: personally, I am not affected with the strawman poll

   <serge> okay, sure, but if no one steps up, nothing gets done.

   tlr: I would like to see the reversibility text

   yngve: one concern about tabs

   <Mez> if no one steps up, I choose the next step

   yngve: user may not be prepared that it will happen

   <tlr> I'd recommend against tabs, rather say "should be reversible,
   instructions available" or some such.

   <tlr> ACTION: tyler to draft reversibility text for 7.2.4 [recorded in
   [18]http://www.w3.org/2008/01/09-wsc-minutes.html#action01]

   <trackbot-ng> Created ACTION-368 - Draft reversibility text for 7.2.4
   [on Tyler Close - due 2008-01-16].

   Mez: tyler is willing to take action item on reversibility text

   <tlr> tyler, action ok like that?

   ifette: strawman poll?

   Mez: issue and the minutes of the meeting
   ... next step ?

   <serge> as I've said from the start, EVERY proposal should have to go
   through prototyping and testing for us to consider it

   tyler: next step - prototype - change language after testing

   ifette: understand that tyler is prototype - usability testing. But my
   concerns will not be addressed

   tlr: then the Q is what is our expectation.....

   Mez: something u want to propose

   tlr: I can drop a note into the tracker. I do not want to lose track of
   a concern of a member that this should be "MAY"

   Mez: am flexible about it

   ifette: am happy to open an issue

   tyler: when you open the issue, please add information about your
   concerns that you want it to be a "MAY"

   tlr: I will take an action to draft words about interaction with url
   schemes

   <tlr> ACTION: thomas to draft some language about webarch interactions
   for ISSUE-123 [recorded in
   [19]http://www.w3.org/2008/01/09-wsc-minutes.html#action02]

   <trackbot-ng> Created ACTION-369 - Draft some language about webarch
   interactions for ISSUE-123 [on Thomas Roessler - due 2008-01-16].

   tyler: when you have hit the sand, trying to save the user
   ... what is the scenario

Summary of Action Items

   [NEW] ACTION: thomas to draft some language about webarch interactions
   for ISSUE-123 [recorded in
   [20]http://www.w3.org/2008/01/09-wsc-minutes.html#action02]
   [NEW] ACTION: tyler to draft reversibility text for 7.2.4 [recorded in
   [21]http://www.w3.org/2008/01/09-wsc-minutes.html#action01]

   [End of minutes]
     __________________________________________________________________


    Minutes formatted by David Booth's [22]scribe.perl version 1.128
    ([23]CVS log)
    $Date: 2008/01/16 16:07:30 $

References

   1. http://www.w3.org/
   2. http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wsc-wg/2008Jan/0064.html
   3. http://www.w3.org/2008/01/09-wsc-irc
   4. http://www.w3.org/2008/01/09-wsc-minutes.html#agenda
   5. http://www.w3.org/2008/01/09-wsc-minutes.html#item01
   6. http://www.w3.org/2008/01/09-wsc-minutes.html#ActionSummary
   7. http://www.amazon.com/dotCrime-Manifesto-Stop-Internet-Crime/dp/0321503589
   8. http://www.w3.org/2007/12/19-wsc-minutes.html
   9. http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wsc-wg/2008Jan/0064.html
  10. http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wsc-wg/2008Jan/0038.html
  11. http://www.w3.org/2006/WSC/track/issues/123
  12. http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wsc-wg/2007Dec/0106.html
  13. http://www.w3.org/TR/wsc-xit/#safebar-must-have-tls
  14. http://www.w3.org/2006/WSC/drafts/rec/rewrite.html#safebar-must-have-tls
  15. https://www.spv.no/
  16. https://www.spv.no/
  17. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt
  18. http://www.w3.org/2008/01/09-wsc-minutes.html#action01
  19. http://www.w3.org/2008/01/09-wsc-minutes.html#action02
  20. http://www.w3.org/2008/01/09-wsc-minutes.html#action02
  21. http://www.w3.org/2008/01/09-wsc-minutes.html#action01
  22. http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/~checkout~/2002/scribe/scribedoc.htm
  23. http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/2002/scribe/

-- 
Thomas Roessler, W3C  <tlr@w3.org>

Received on Wednesday, 16 January 2008 16:08:09 UTC