Re: Draft TAG finding available: Client handling of MIME headers

Ian,

	Following Julian Reschke comment, I would like to suggest that
the document explicitly states that MIME headers are emitted by both
clients and servers. Alternatively, the document can explicitly define
"server" as "content provider", but that is probably an overkill in
this case.

	We have seen many cases where HTTP implementations assume
unidirectional nature of content flow (the server sends content at
client's request but not the other way around). The result is a loss
of interoperability and even security vulnerabilities when the content
starts flowing in the other direction. A prime example is handling of
chunked requests by HTTP servers; many implementations forget about
their existence or mishandle them (while generating valid chunked
responses).

	The "mime-respect" document is probably the wrong place to
document the general problem, but it can emphasize the MIME-specific
aspect of it, perhaps while answering Julian's questions.

HTH,

Alex.

-- 
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On Tue, 6 May 2003, Ian B. Jacobs wrote to ietf-http-wg@w3.org:

>
> Hello,
>
> The first public draft of a new TAG finding "Client handling
> of MIME headers" [1] is now available. Larry Masinter suggested
> that I write to this list to request review. There may be
> some text in the finding that is helpful in clarifying the HTTP
> specification. That was not my intent when writing this draft,
> but if there is useful text for an update of RFC2616, that's great.
>
> This is an early draft, however, and doesn't represent the
> consensus of the TAG.
>
> The TAG invites comments on this finding on www-tag.
> More information on TAG findings is available at [2].
>
> Thank you,
>
>  _ Ian
>
>
> [1] http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/mime-respect-20030505.html
> [2] http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/findings
>
> http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/mime-respect-20030505.html
> --
> Ian Jacobs (ij@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
> Tel:                     +1 718 260-9447
>
>

Received on Tuesday, 6 May 2003 15:52:52 UTC