



Network Working Group                                      M. Nottingham
Internet-Draft                                        September 22, 2017
Obsoletes: 3205 (if approved)
Intended status: Best Current Practice
Expires: March 26, 2018


                   On the use of HTTP as a Substrate
                      draft-nottingham-bcp56bis-01

Abstract

   HTTP is often used as a substrate for other application protocols.
   This document specifies best practices for these protocols' use of
   HTTP.

Note to Readers

   The issues list for this draft can be found at
   https://github.com/mnot/I-D/labels/bcp56bis.

   The most recent (often, unpublished) draft is at
   https://mnot.github.io/I-D/bcp56bis/.

   Recent changes are listed at https://github.com/mnot/I-D/commits/gh-
   pages/bcp56bis.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on March 26, 2018.








Nottingham               Expires March 26, 2018                 [Page 1]

Internet-Draft      On the use of HTTP as a Substrate     September 2017


Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2017 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.1.  Notational Conventions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   2.  Is HTTP Being Used? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  What's Important About HTTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.1.  Generic Semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.2.  Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     3.3.  Getting Value from HTTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   4.  Best Practices for Using HTTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.1.  Specifying the Use of HTTP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.2.  Defining HTTP Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     4.3.  HTTP URLs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       4.3.1.  Initial URL Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       4.3.2.  URL Schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       4.3.3.  Transport Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     4.4.  HTTP Methods  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     4.5.  HTTP Status Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     4.6.  HTTP Header Fields  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     4.7.  Defining Message Payloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     4.8.  Ensuring Browser Interoperability . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
     4.9.  Access Control  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
       4.9.1.  Authentication and Application State  . . . . . . . .  13
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     7.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     7.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   Appendix A.  Changes from RFC3205 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17






Nottingham               Expires March 26, 2018                 [Page 2]

Internet-Draft      On the use of HTTP as a Substrate     September 2017


1.  Introduction

   HTTP [RFC7230] is often used as a substrate for other application
   protocols.  This is done for a variety of reasons, including:

   o  familiarity by implementers, specifiers, administrators,
      developers and users,

   o  availability of a variety of client, server and proxy
      implementations,

   o  ease of use,

   o  ubiquity of Web browsers,

   o  reuse of existing mechanisms like authentication and encryption,

   o  presence of HTTP servers and clients in target deployments, and

   o  its ability to traverse firewalls.

   The Internet community has a long tradition of protocol reuse, dating
   back to the use of Telnet [RFC0854] as a substrate for FTP [RFC0959]
   and SMTP [RFC2821].  However, layering new protocols over HTTP brings
   its own set of issues:

   o  Should an application using HTTP define a new URL scheme?  Use new
      ports?

   o  Should it use standard HTTP methods and status codes, or define
      new ones?

   o  How can the maximum value be extracted from the use of HTTP?

   o  How does it coexist with other uses of HTTP - especially Web
      browsing?

   o  How can interoperability problems and "protocol dead ends" be
      avoided?

   This document contains best current practices regarding the use of
   HTTP by applications other than Web browsing.  Section 2 defines what
   applications it applies to; Section 3 surveys the properties of HTTP
   that are important to preserve, and Section 4 conveys best practices
   for those applications that do use HTTP.

   It is written primarily to guide IETF efforts to define application
   protocols using HTTP for deployment on the Internet, but might be



Nottingham               Expires March 26, 2018                 [Page 3]

Internet-Draft      On the use of HTTP as a Substrate     September 2017


   applicable in other situations.  Note that the requirements herein do
   not necessarily apply to the development of generic HTTP extensions.

1.1.  Notational Conventions

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

2.  Is HTTP Being Used?

   Different applications have different goals when using HTTP.  In this
   document, we say an application is _using HTTP_ when any of the
   following conditions are true:

   o  The transport port in use is 80 or 443,

   o  The URL scheme "http" or "https" is used,

   o  The ALPN protocol ID [RFC7301] "http/1.1", "h2" or "h2c" is used,
      or

   o  The message formats described in [RFC7230] and/or [RFC7540] are
      used in conjunction with the IANA registries defined for HTTP.

   When an application is using HTTP, all of the requirements of the
   HTTP protocol suite (including but not limited to [RFC7230],
   [RFC7231], [RFC7232], [RFC7233], [RFC7234], [RFC7235] and [RFC7540])
   are in force.

   An application might not be _using HTTP_ according to this
   definition, but still relying upon the HTTP specifications in some
   manner.  For example, an application might wish to avoid re-
   specifying parts of the message format, but change others; or, it
   might want to use a different set of methods.

   Such applications are referred to as _protocols based upon HTTP_ in
   this document.  These have more freedom to modify protocol operation,
   but are also likely to lose at least a portion of the benefits
   outlined above, as most HTTP implementations won't be easily
   adaptable to these changes, and as the protocol diverges from HTTP,
   the benefit of mindshare will be lost.

   Protocols that are based upon HTTP MUST NOT reuse HTTP's URL schemes,
   transport ports, ALPN protocol IDs or IANA registries; rather, they
   are encouraged to establish their own.





Nottingham               Expires March 26, 2018                 [Page 4]

Internet-Draft      On the use of HTTP as a Substrate     September 2017


3.  What's Important About HTTP

   There are many ways that HTTP applications are defined and deployed,
   and sometimes they are brought to the IETF for standardisation.  In
   that process, what might be workable for deployment in a limited
   fashion isn't appropriate for standardisation and the corresponding
   broader deployment.

   This section examines the facets of the protocol that are important
   to preserve in these situations.

3.1.  Generic Semantics

   When writing an application's specification, it's often tempting to
   specify exactly how HTTP is to be implemented, supported and used.

   However, this can easily lead to an unintended profile of HTTP's
   behaviour.  For example, it's common to see specifications with
   language like this:

A `200 OK` response means that the widget has successfully been updated.

   This sort of specification is bad practice, because it is adding new
   semantics to HTTP's status codes and methods, respectively; a
   recipient - whether it's an origin server, client library,
   intermediary or cache - now has to know these extra semantics to
   understand the message.

   Some applications even require specific behaviours, such as:

   A `POST` request MUST result in a `201 Created` response.

   This forms an expectation in the client that the response will always
   be "201 Created", when in fact there are a number of reasons why the
   status code might differ in a real deployment.  If the client does
   not anticipate this, the application's deployment is brittle.

   Much of the value of HTTP is in its _generic semantics_ - that is,
   the protocol elements defined by HTTP are potentially applicable to
   every resource, not specific to a particular context.  Application-
   specific semantics are expressed in the payload; mostly, in the body,
   but also in header fields.

   This allows a HTTP message to be examined by generic HTTP software
   (e.g., HTTP servers, intermediaries, client implementatiions), and
   its handling to be correctly determined.  It also allows people to
   leverage their knowledge of HTTP semantics without special-casing
   them for a particular application.



Nottingham               Expires March 26, 2018                 [Page 5]

Internet-Draft      On the use of HTTP as a Substrate     September 2017


   Therefore, applications that use HTTP MUST NOT re-define, refine or
   overlay the semantics of defined protocol elements.  Instead, they
   SHOULD focus their specifications on protocol elements that are
   specific to them; namely their HTTP resources.

   See Section 4.2 for details.

3.2.  Links

   Another common practice is assuming that the HTTP server's name space
   (or a portion thereof) is exclusively for the use of a single
   application.  This effectively overlays special, application-specific
   semantics onto that space, precludes other applications from using
   it.

   As explained in [RFC7320], such "squatting" on a part of the URL
   space by a standard usurps the server's authority over its own
   resources, can cause deployment issues, and is therefore bad practice
   in standards.

   Instead of statically defining URL paths, it is RECOMMENDED that
   applications using HTTP define links in payloads, to allow
   flexibility in deployment.

   Using runtime links in this fashion has a number of other benefits.
   For example, navigating with a link allows a request to be routed to
   a different server without the overhead of a redirection, thereby
   supporting deployment across machines well.  It becomes possible to
   "mix" different applications on the same server, and offers a natural
   path for extensibility, versioning and capability management.

3.3.  Getting Value from HTTP

   The simplest possible use of HTTP is to POST data to a single URL,
   thereby effectively tunnelling through the protocol.

   This "RPC" style of communication does get some benefit from using
   HTTP - namely, message framing and the availability of
   implementations - but fails to realise many others:

   o  Caching for server scalability, latency and bandwidth reduction,
      and reliability;

   o  Authentication and access control;

   o  Automatic redirection;

   o  Partial content to selectively request part of a response;



Nottingham               Expires March 26, 2018                 [Page 6]

Internet-Draft      On the use of HTTP as a Substrate     September 2017


   o  Natural support for extensions and versioning through protocol
      extension; and

   o  The ability to interact with the application easily using a Web
      browser.

   Using such a high-level protocol to tunnel simple semantics has
   downsides too; because of its more advanced capabilities, breadth of
   deployment and age, HTTP's complexity can cause interoperability
   problems that could be avoided by using a simpler substrate (e.g.,
   WebSockets [RFC6455], if browser support is necessary, or TCP
   [RFC0793] if not), or making the application be _based upon HTTP_,
   instead of using it (as defined in Section 2).

   Applications that use HTTP are encouraged to accommodate the various
   features that the protocol offers, so that their users receive the
   maximum benefit from it.  This document does not require specific
   features to be used, since the appropriate design tradeoffs are
   highly specific to a given situation.  However, following the
   practices in Section 4 will help make them available.

4.  Best Practices for Using HTTP

   This section contains best practices regarding the use of HTTP by
   applications, including practices for specific HTTP protocol
   elements.

4.1.  Specifying the Use of HTTP

   When specifying the use of HTTP, an application SHOULD use [RFC7230]
   as the primary reference; it is not necessary to reference all of the
   specifications in the HTTP suite unless there are specific reasons to
   do so (e.g., a particular feature is called out).

   Applications using HTTP MAY specify a minimum version to be supported
   (HTTP/1.1 is suggested), and MUST NOT specify a maximum version.

   Likewise, applications need not specify what HTTP mechanisms - such
   as redirection, caching, authentication, proxy authentication, and so
   on - are to be supported.  Full featured support for HTTP SHOULD be
   taken for granted in servers and clients, and the application's
   function SHOULD degrade gracefully if they are not (although this
   might be achieved by informing the user that their task cannot be
   completed).

   For example, an application can specify that it uses HTTP like this:





Nottingham               Expires March 26, 2018                 [Page 7]

Internet-Draft      On the use of HTTP as a Substrate     September 2017


   Foo Application uses HTTP {{RFC7230}}. Implementations MUST support
   HTTP/1.1, and MAY support later versions. Support for common HTTP
   mechanisms such as redirection and caching are assumed.

4.2.  Defining HTTP Resources

   HTTP Applications SHOULD focus on defining the following application-
   specific protocol elements:

   o  Media types [RFC6838], often based upon a format convention such
      as JSON [RFC7159],

   o  HTTP header fields, as per Section 4.6, and

   o  The behaviour of resources, as identified by link relations
      [RFC5988].

   By composing these protocol elements, an application can define a set
   of resources, identified by link relations, that implement specified
   behaviours, including:

   o  Retrieval of their state using GET, in one or more formats
      identified by media type;

   o  Resource creation or update using POST or PUT, with an
      appropriately identified request body format;

   o  Data processing using POST and identified request and response
      body format(s); and

   o  Resource deletion using DELETE.

   For example, an application might specify:

   Resources linked to with the "example-widget" link relation type are
   Widgets. The state of a Widget can be fetched in the
   "application/example-widget+json" format, and can be updated by PUT
   to the same link. Widget resources can be deleted.

   The "Example-Count" response header field on Widget representations
   indicates how many Widgets are held by the sender.

   The "application/example-widget+json" format is a JSON {{RFC7159}}
   format representing the state of a Widget. It contains links to
   related information in the link indicated by the Link header field
   value with the "example-other-info" link relation type.





Nottingham               Expires March 26, 2018                 [Page 8]

Internet-Draft      On the use of HTTP as a Substrate     September 2017


4.3.  HTTP URLs

   In HTTP, URLs are opaque identifiers under the control of the server.
   As outlined in [RFC7320], standards cannot usurp this space, since it
   might conflict with existing resources, and constrain implementation
   and deployment.

   In other words, applications that use HTTP MUST NOT associate
   application semantics with specific URL paths on arbitrary servers.
   Doing so inappropriately conflates the identity of the resource (its
   URL) with te capabilities that resource supports, bringing about many
   of the same interoperability problems that [RFC4367] warns of.

   For example, specifying that a "GET to the URL /foo retrieves a bar
   document" is bad practice.  Likewise, specifying "The widget API is
   at the path /bar" violates [RFC7320].

   Instead, applications that use HTTP are encouraged to ensure that
   URLs are discovered at runtime, allowing HTTP-based services to
   describe their own capabilities.  One way to do this is to use typed
   links [RFC5988] to convey the URIs that are in use, as well as the
   semantics of the resources that they identify.  See Section 4.2 for
   details.

4.3.1.  Initial URL Discovery

   Generally, a client with begin interacting with a given application
   server by requesting an initial document that contains information
   about that particular deployment, potentially including links to
   other relevant resources.

   Applications that use HTTP SHOULD allow an arbitrary URL to be used
   as that entry point.  For example, rather than specifying "the
   initial document is at "/foo/v1", they should allow a deployment to
   use any URL as the entry point for the application.

   In cases where doing so is impractical (e.g., it is not possible to
   convey a whole URL, but only a hostname) applications that use HTTP
   MAY define a well-known URL [RFC5785] as an entry point.

4.3.2.  URL Schemes

   Applications that use HTTP will typically use the "http" and/or
   "https" URL schemes. "https" is preferred to mitigate pervasive
   monitoring attacks [RFC7258].

   However, application-specific schemes can be defined as well.




Nottingham               Expires March 26, 2018                 [Page 9]

Internet-Draft      On the use of HTTP as a Substrate     September 2017


   When defining an URL scheme for an application using HTTP, there are
   a number of tradeoffs and caveats to keep in mind:

   o  Unmodified Web browsers will not support the new scheme.  While it
      is possible to register new URL schemes with Web browsers (e.g.
      registerProtocolHandler() in [HTML5] Section 8.7.1.3, as well as
      several proprietary approaches), support for these mechanisms is
      not shared by all browsers, and their capabilities can vary.

   o  Likewise, existing non-browser clients, intermediaries, servers
      and associated software will not recognise the new scheme, and
      might fail to operate.  For example, a client library might fail
      to dispatch the request; a cache might refuse to store the
      response, and a proxy might fail to forward the request.

   o  Because URLs occur in and are generated in HTTP artefacts
      commonly, often without human intervention (e.g., in the
      "Location" header), it can be difficult to assure that the new
      scheme is used consistently.

   o  The resources identified by the new scheme will still be available
      with "http" and/or "https" URLs to clients.  While it is possible
      to define the relationship between these resources in new new
      scheme's specification, existing HTTP software (such as clients,
      caches, intermediaries and servers) will not be available, so
      there is a danger of confusion when the "wrong" URL is used.

   o  Features that rely upon the URL's origin [RFC6454], such as the
      Web's same-origin policy, will be impacted by a change of scheme.

   o  HTTP-specific features such as cookies [RFC6265], authentication
      [RFC7235], caching [RFC7234], and CORS [FETCH] might or might not
      work correctly, depending on how they are defined and implemented.
      Generally, they are designed and implemented with an assumption
      that the URL will always be "http" or "https".

   o  Web features that require a secure context
      [W3C.CR-secure-contexts-20160915] will likely treat a new scheme
      as insecure.

   See [RFC7595] for more information about minting new URL schemes.

4.3.3.  Transport Ports

   Applications that use HTTP SHOULD use the default port for the URL
   scheme in use.  If it is felt that networks might need to distinguish
   the application's traffic for operational reasons, it MAY register a
   separate port, but be aware that this has privacy implications for



Nottingham               Expires March 26, 2018                [Page 10]

Internet-Draft      On the use of HTTP as a Substrate     September 2017


   that protocol's users.  The impact of doing so MUST be documented in
   Security Considerations.

   See [RFC7605] for further guidance.

4.4.  HTTP Methods

   Applications that use HTTP MUST confine themselves to using
   registered HTTP methods such as GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, and PATCH.

   New HTTP methods are rare; they are required to be registered with
   IETF Review (see [RFC7232]), and are also required to be _generic_.
   That means that they need to be potentially applicable to all
   resources, not just those of one application.

   While historically some applications (e.g., [RFC4791]) has defined
   non-generic methods, [RFC7231] now forbids this.

   When it is believed that a new method is required, authors are
   encouraged to engage with the HTTP community early, and document
   their proposal as a separate HTTP extension, rather than as part of
   an application's specification.

4.5.  HTTP Status Codes

   Applications that use HTTP MUST only use registered HTTP status
   codes.

   As with methods, new HTTP status codes are rare, and required (by
   [RFC7231]) to be registered with IETF review.  Similarly, HTTP status
   codes are generic; they are required (by [RFC7231]) to be potentially
   applicable to all resources, not just to those of one application.

   When it is believed that a new status code is required, authors are
   encouraged to engage with the HTTP community early, and document
   their proposal as a separate HTTP extension, rather than as part of
   an application's specification.

   Status codes' primary function is to convey HTTP semantics for the
   benefit of generic HTTP software, not application-specific semantics.
   Therefore, applications MUST NOT specify additional semantics or
   refine existing semantics for status codes.

   In particular, specifying that a particular status code has a
   specific meaning in the context of an application is harmful, as
   these are not generic semantics, since the consumer needs to be in
   the context of the application to understand them.




Nottingham               Expires March 26, 2018                [Page 11]

Internet-Draft      On the use of HTTP as a Substrate     September 2017


   Furthermore, applications using HTTP MUST NOT re-specify the
   semantics of HTTP status codes, even if it is only by copying their
   definition.  They MUST NOT require specific status phrases to be
   used; the status phrase has no function in HTTP, and is not
   guaranteed to be preserved by implementations.

   Typically, applications using HTTP will convey application-specific
   information in the message body and/or HTTP header fields, not the
   status code.

   Specifications sometimes also create a "laundry list" of potential
   status codes, in an effort to be helpful.  The problem with doing so
   is that such a list is never complete; for example, if a network
   proxy is interposed, the client might encounter a "407 Proxy
   Authentication Required" response; or, if the server is rate limiting
   the client, it might receive a "429 Too Many Requests" response.

   Since the list of HTTP status codes can be added to, it's safer to
   refer to it directly, and point out that clients SHOULD be able to
   handle all applicable protocol elements gracefully (i.e., falling
   back to the generic "n00" semantics of a given status code; e.g.,
   "499" can be safely handled as "400" by clients that don't recognise
   it).

4.6.  HTTP Header Fields

   Applications that use HTTP MAY define new HTTP header fields,
   following the advice in [RFC7231], Section 8.3.1.

   Typically, using HTTP header fields is appropriate in a few different
   situations:

   o  Their content is useful to intermediaries (who often wish to avoid
      parsing the body), and/or

   o  Their content is useful to generic HTTP software (e.g., clients,
      servers), and/or

   o  It is not possible to include their content in the message body
      (usually because a format does not allow it).

   If none of these motivations apply, using a header field is NOT
   RECOMMENDED.

   New header fields MUST be registered, as per [RFC7231] and [RFC3864].

   It is RECOMMENDED that header field names be short (even when HTTP/2
   header compression is in effect, there is an overhead) but



Nottingham               Expires March 26, 2018                [Page 12]

Internet-Draft      On the use of HTTP as a Substrate     September 2017


   appropriately specific.  In particular, if a header field is specific
   to an application, an identifier for that application SHOULD form a
   prefix to the header field name, separated by a "-".

   The semantics of existing HTTP header fields MUST NOT be re-defined
   without updating their registration or defining an extension to them
   (if allowed).  For example, an application using HTTP cannot specify
   that the "Location" header has a special meaning in a certain
   context.

   See Section 4.9.1 for requirements regarding header fields that carry
   application state (e.g,. Cookie).

4.7.  Defining Message Payloads

4.8.  Ensuring Browser Interoperability

4.9.  Access Control

   Modern Web browsers constrain the ability of content from one origin
   (as defined by [RFC6454]) to access resources from another, to avoid
   the "confused deputy" problem.  As a result, applications that wish
   to expose cross-origin data to browsers will need to implement
   [W3C.REC-cors-20140116].

4.9.1.  Authentication and Application State

   Applications that use HTTP MAY use stateful cookies [RFC6265] to
   identify a client and/or store client-specific data to contextualise
   requests.

   If it is only necessary to identify clients, applications that use
   HTTP MAY use HTTP authentication [RFC7235]; if the Basic
   authentication scheme [RFC7617] is used, it MUST NOT be used with the
   'http' URL scheme.

   In either case, it is important to carefully specify the scoping and
   use of these mechanisms; if they expose sensitive data or
   capabilities (e.g., by acting as an ambient authority), exploits are
   possible.  Mitigations include using a request-specific token to
   assure the intent of the client.

5.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no requirements for IANA.






Nottingham               Expires March 26, 2018                [Page 13]

Internet-Draft      On the use of HTTP as a Substrate     September 2017


6.  Security Considerations

   Section 4.9.1 discusses the impact of using stateful mechanisms in
   the protocol as ambient authority, and suggests a mitigation.

   Section 4.3.2 requires support for 'https' URLs, and discourages the
   use of 'http' URLs, to mitigate pervasive monitoring attacks.

   Applications that use HTTP in a manner that involves modification of
   implementations - for example, requiring support for a new URL
   scheme, or a non-standard method - risk having those implementations
   "fork" from their parent HTTP implementations, with the possible
   result that they do not benefit from patches and other security
   improvements incorporated upstream.

7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC3864]  Klyne, G., Nottingham, M., and J. Mogul, "Registration
              Procedures for Message Header Fields", BCP 90, RFC 3864,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC3864, September 2004, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc3864>.

   [RFC5988]  Nottingham, M., "Web Linking", RFC 5988,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5988, October 2010, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc5988>.

   [RFC6838]  Freed, N., Klensin, J., and T. Hansen, "Media Type
              Specifications and Registration Procedures", BCP 13,
              RFC 6838, DOI 10.17487/RFC6838, January 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6838>.

   [RFC7230]  Fielding, R., Ed. and J. Reschke, Ed., "Hypertext Transfer
              Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Message Syntax and Routing",
              RFC 7230, DOI 10.17487/RFC7230, June 2014,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7230>.

   [RFC7231]  Fielding, R., Ed. and J. Reschke, Ed., "Hypertext Transfer
              Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Semantics and Content", RFC 7231,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7231, June 2014, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc7231>.




Nottingham               Expires March 26, 2018                [Page 14]

Internet-Draft      On the use of HTTP as a Substrate     September 2017


   [RFC7232]  Fielding, R., Ed. and J. Reschke, Ed., "Hypertext Transfer
              Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Conditional Requests", RFC 7232,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7232, June 2014, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc7232>.

   [RFC7233]  Fielding, R., Ed., Lafon, Y., Ed., and J. Reschke, Ed.,
              "Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Range Requests",
              RFC 7233, DOI 10.17487/RFC7233, June 2014,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7233>.

   [RFC7234]  Fielding, R., Ed., Nottingham, M., Ed., and J. Reschke,
              Ed., "Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Caching",
              RFC 7234, DOI 10.17487/RFC7234, June 2014,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7234>.

   [RFC7235]  Fielding, R., Ed. and J. Reschke, Ed., "Hypertext Transfer
              Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Authentication", RFC 7235,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7235, June 2014, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc7235>.

   [RFC7301]  Friedl, S., Popov, A., Langley, A., and E. Stephan,
              "Transport Layer Security (TLS) Application-Layer Protocol
              Negotiation Extension", RFC 7301, DOI 10.17487/RFC7301,
              July 2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7301>.

   [RFC7320]  Nottingham, M., "URI Design and Ownership", BCP 190,
              RFC 7320, DOI 10.17487/RFC7320, July 2014,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7320>.

   [RFC7540]  Belshe, M., Peon, R., and M. Thomson, Ed., "Hypertext
              Transfer Protocol Version 2 (HTTP/2)", RFC 7540,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7540, May 2015, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc7540>.

   [W3C.REC-cors-20140116]
              Kesteren, A., "Cross-Origin Resource Sharing", World Wide
              Web Consortium Recommendation REC-cors-20140116, January
              2014, <http://www.w3.org/TR/2014/REC-cors-20140116>.

7.2.  Informative References

   [FETCH]    various, ., "Fetch - Living Standard", September 2017,
              <https://fetch.spec.whatwg.org>.

   [HTML5]    various, ., "HTML - Living Standard", September 2017,
              <https://html.spec.whatwg.org>.





Nottingham               Expires March 26, 2018                [Page 15]

Internet-Draft      On the use of HTTP as a Substrate     September 2017


   [RFC0793]  Postel, J., "Transmission Control Protocol", STD 7,
              RFC 793, DOI 10.17487/RFC0793, September 1981,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc793>.

   [RFC0854]  Postel, J. and J. Reynolds, "Telnet Protocol
              Specification", STD 8, RFC 854, DOI 10.17487/RFC0854, May
              1983, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc854>.

   [RFC0959]  Postel, J. and J. Reynolds, "File Transfer Protocol",
              STD 9, RFC 959, DOI 10.17487/RFC0959, October 1985,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc959>.

   [RFC2821]  Klensin, J., Ed., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol",
              RFC 2821, DOI 10.17487/RFC2821, April 2001,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2821>.

   [RFC4367]  Rosenberg, J., Ed. and IAB, "What's in a Name: False
              Assumptions about DNS Names", RFC 4367,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4367, February 2006, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc4367>.

   [RFC4791]  Daboo, C., Desruisseaux, B., and L. Dusseault,
              "Calendaring Extensions to WebDAV (CalDAV)", RFC 4791,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4791, March 2007, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc4791>.

   [RFC5785]  Nottingham, M. and E. Hammer-Lahav, "Defining Well-Known
              Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs)", RFC 5785,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5785, April 2010, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc5785>.

   [RFC6265]  Barth, A., "HTTP State Management Mechanism", RFC 6265,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6265, April 2011, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc6265>.

   [RFC6454]  Barth, A., "The Web Origin Concept", RFC 6454,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6454, December 2011, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc6454>.

   [RFC6455]  Fette, I. and A. Melnikov, "The WebSocket Protocol",
              RFC 6455, DOI 10.17487/RFC6455, December 2011,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6455>.

   [RFC7159]  Bray, T., Ed., "The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data
              Interchange Format", RFC 7159, DOI 10.17487/RFC7159, March
              2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7159>.





Nottingham               Expires March 26, 2018                [Page 16]

Internet-Draft      On the use of HTTP as a Substrate     September 2017


   [RFC7258]  Farrell, S. and H. Tschofenig, "Pervasive Monitoring Is an
              Attack", BCP 188, RFC 7258, DOI 10.17487/RFC7258, May
              2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7258>.

   [RFC7595]  Thaler, D., Ed., Hansen, T., and T. Hardie, "Guidelines
              and Registration Procedures for URI Schemes", BCP 35,
              RFC 7595, DOI 10.17487/RFC7595, June 2015,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7595>.

   [RFC7605]  Touch, J., "Recommendations on Using Assigned Transport
              Port Numbers", BCP 165, RFC 7605, DOI 10.17487/RFC7605,
              August 2015, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7605>.

   [RFC7617]  Reschke, J., "The 'Basic' HTTP Authentication Scheme",
              RFC 7617, DOI 10.17487/RFC7617, September 2015,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7617>.

   [W3C.CR-secure-contexts-20160915]
              West, M., "Secure Contexts", World Wide Web Consortium CR
              CR-secure-contexts-20160915, September 2016,
              <https://www.w3.org/TR/2016/CR-secure-contexts-20160915>.

Appendix A.  Changes from RFC3205

   RFC3205 captured the Best Current Practice in the early 2000's, based
   on the concerns facing protocol designers at the time.  Use of HTTP
   has changed considerably since then, and as a result this document is
   substantially different.  As a result, the changes are too numerous
   to list individually.

Author's Address

   Mark Nottingham

   Email: mnot@mnot.net
   URI:   https://www.mnot.net/















Nottingham               Expires March 26, 2018                [Page 17]
