



Network Working Group                                             K. Oku
Internet-Draft                                             DeNA Co, Ltd.
Intended status: Informational                             M. Nottingham
Expires: December 10, 2016                                  June 8, 2016


                        Cache Digests for HTTP/2
                    draft-kazuho-h2-cache-digest-00

Abstract

   This specification defines a HTTP/2 frame type to allow clients to
   inform the server of their cache's contents.  Servers can then use
   this to inform their choices of what to push to clients.

Note to Readers

   The issues list for this draft can be found at
   https://github.com/mnot/I-D/labels/h2-cache-digest .

   The most recent (often, unpublished) draft is at
   https://mnot.github.io/I-D/h2-cache-digest/ .

   Recent changes are listed at https://github.com/mnot/I-D/commits/gh-
   pages/h2-cache-digest .

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 December 10, 2016.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2016 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.




Oku & Nottingham        Expires December 10, 2016               [Page 1]

Internet-Draft          Cache Digests for HTTP/2               June 2016


   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  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Notational Conventions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  The CACHE_DIGEST Frame  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  Client Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
       2.1.1.  Computing the Digest-Value  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
       2.1.2.  Computing a Hash Value  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     2.2.  Server Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
       2.2.1.  Querying the Digest for a Value . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   3.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   5.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     5.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     5.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   Appendix A.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10

1.  Introduction

   HTTP/2 [RFC7540] allows a server to "push" synthetic request/response
   pairs into a client's cache optimistically.  While there is strong
   interest in using this facility to improve perceived Web browsing
   performance, it is sometimes counterproductive because the client
   might already have cached the "pushed" response.

   When this is the case, the bandwidth used to "push" the response is
   effectively wasted, and represents opportunity cost, because it could
   be used by other, more relevant responses.  HTTP/2 allows a stream to
   be cancelled by a client using a RST_STREAM frame in this situation,
   but there is still at least one round trip of potentially wasted
   capacity even then.

   This specification defines a HTTP/2 frame type to allow clients to
   inform the server of their cache's contents using a Golumb-Rice Coded
   Set. Servers can then use this to inform their choices of what to
   push to clients.




Oku & Nottingham        Expires December 10, 2016               [Page 2]

Internet-Draft          Cache Digests for HTTP/2               June 2016


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.  The CACHE_DIGEST Frame

   The CACHE_DIGEST frame type is 0xf1.  NOTE: This is an experimental
   value; if standardised, a permanent value will be assigned.

   +-----------------------------------------------+
   |              Digest-Value? (\*)              ...
   +-----------------------------------------------+

   The CACHE_DIGEST frame payload has the following fields:

   o  *Digest-Value*: A sequence of octets containing the digest as
      computed in Section 2.1.1.

   The CACHE_DIGEST frame defines the following flags:

   o  *RESET* (0x1): When set, indicates that any and all cache digests
      for the applicable origin held by the recipient MUST be considered
      invalid.

   o  *COMPLETE* (0x2): When set, indicates that the currently valid set
      of cache digests held by the server constitutes a complete
      representation of the cache's state regarding that origin, for the
      type of cached response indicated by the "STALE" flag.

   o  *VALIDATORS* (0x4): When set, indicates that the "validators"
      boolean in Section 2.1.1 is true.

   o  *STALE* (0x8): When set, indicates that all cached responses
      represented in the digest-value are stale [RFC7234] at the point
      in them that the digest was generated; otherwise, all are fresh.

2.1.  Client Behavior

   A CACHE_DIGEST frame can be sent from a client to a server on any
   stream in the "open" state, and conveys a digest of the contents of
   the client's cache for associated stream.

   In typical use, a client will send one or more CACHE_DIGESTs
   immediately after the first request on a connection for a given
   origin, on the same stream, because there is usually a short period
   of inactivity then, and servers can benefit most when they understand



Oku & Nottingham        Expires December 10, 2016               [Page 3]

Internet-Draft          Cache Digests for HTTP/2               June 2016


   the state of the cache before they begin pushing associated assets
   (e.g., CSS, JavaScript and images).  Clients MAY send CACHE_DIGEST at
   other times.

   If the cache's state is cleared, lost, or the client otherwise wishes
   the server to stop using previously sent CACHE_DIGESTs, it can send a
   CACHE_DIGEST with the RESET flag set.

   When generating CACHE_DIGEST, a client MUST NOT include cached
   responses whose URLs do not share origins [RFC6454] with the request
   of the stream that the frame is sent upon.

   CACHE_DIGEST allows the client to indicate whether the set of URLs
   used to compute the digest represent fresh or stale stored responses,
   using the STALE flag.  Clients MAY decide whether to only sent
   CACHE_DIGEST frames representing their fresh stored responses, their
   stale stored responses, or both.

   Clients can choose to only send a subset of the suitable stored
   responses of each type (fresh or stale).  However, when the
   CACHE_DIGEST frames sent represent the complete set of stored
   responses of a given type, the last such frame SHOULD have a COMPLETE
   flag set, to indicate to the server that it has all relevant state of
   that type.  Note that for the purposes of COMPLETE, responses cached
   since the beginning of the connection or the last RESET flag on a
   CACHE_DIGEST frame need not be included.

   CACHE_DIGEST can be computed to include cached responses' ETags, as
   indicated by the VALIDATORS flag.  This information can be used by
   servers to decide what kinds of responses to push to clients; for
   example, a stale response that hasn't changed could be refreshed with
   a 304 (Not Modified) response; one that has changed can be replaced
   with a 200 (OK) response, whether the cached response was fresh or
   stale.

   CACHE_DIGEST has no defined meaning when sent from servers, and
   SHOULD be ignored by clients.

2.1.1.  Computing the Digest-Value

   Given the following inputs:

   o  "validators", a boolean indicating whether validators ([RFC7232])
      are to be included in the digest;

   o  "URLs'", an array of (string "URL", string "ETag") tuples, each
      corresponding to the Effective Request URI ([RFC7230],
      Section 5.5) of a cached response [RFC7234] and its entity-tag



Oku & Nottingham        Expires December 10, 2016               [Page 4]

Internet-Draft          Cache Digests for HTTP/2               June 2016


      [RFC7232] (if "validators" is true and if the ETag is available;
      otherwise, null);

   o  "P", an integer that MUST be a power of 2 smaller than 2**32, that
      indicates the probability of a false positive that is acceptable,
      expressed as "1/P".

   "digest-value" can be computed using the following algorithm:

   1.   Let N be the count of "URLs"' members, rounded to the nearest
        power of 2 smaller than 2**32.

   2.   Let "hash-values" be an empty array of integers.

   3.   Append 0 to "hash-values".

   4.   For each ("URL", "ETag") in "URLs", compute a hash value
        (Section 2.1.2) and append the result to "hash-values".

   5.   Sort "hash-values" in ascending order.

   6.   Let "digest-value" be an empty array of bits.

   7.   Write log base 2 of "N" to "digest-value" using 5 bits.

   8.   Write log base 2 of "P" to "digest-value" using 5 bits.

   9.   For each "V" in "hash-values":

        1.  Let "W" be the value following "V" in "hash-values".

        2.  If "W" and "V" are equal, continue to the next "V".

        3.  Let "D" be the result of "W - V - 1".

        4.  Let "Q" be the integer result of "D / P".

        5.  Let "R" be the result of "D modulo P".

        6.  Write "Q" '0' bits to "digest-value".

        7.  Write 1 '1' bit to "digest-value".

        8.  Write "R" to "digest-value" as binary, using log2("P"5)
            bits.






Oku & Nottingham        Expires December 10, 2016               [Page 5]

Internet-Draft          Cache Digests for HTTP/2               June 2016


        9.  If "V" is the second-to-last member of "hash-values", stop
            iterating through "hash-values" and continue to the next
            step.

   10.  If the length of "digest-value" is not a multiple of 8, pad it
        with 0s until it is.

2.1.2.  Computing a Hash Value

   Given:

   o  "URL", an array of characters

   o  "ETag", an array of characters

   o  "validators", a boolean

   o  "N", an integer

   o  "P", an integer

   "hash-value" can be computed using the following algorithm:

   1.  Let "key" be "URL" converted to an ASCII string by percent-
       encoding as appropriate [RFC3986].

   2.  If "validators" is true and "ETag" is not null:

       1.  Append "ETag" to "key" as an ASCII string, including both the
           "weak" indicator (if present) and double quotes, as per
           [RFC7232] Section 2.3.

   3.  Let "hash-value" be the SHA-256 message digest [RFC6234] of
       "key", expressed as an integer.

   4.  Truncate "hash-value" to log2( "N" * "P" ) bits.

2.2.  Server Behavior

   In typical use, a server will query (as per Section 2.2.1) the
   CACHE_DIGESTs received on a given connection to inform what it pushes
   to that client;

   o  If a given URL has a match in a current CACHE_DIGEST with the
      STALE flag unset, it need not be pushed, because it is fresh in
      cache;





Oku & Nottingham        Expires December 10, 2016               [Page 6]

Internet-Draft          Cache Digests for HTTP/2               June 2016


   o  If a given URL and ETag combination has a match in a current
      CACHE_DIGEST with the STALE flag set, the client has a stale copy
      in cache, and a validating response can be pushed;

   o  If a given URL has no match in any current CACHE_DIGEST, the
      client does not have a cached copy, and a complete response can be
      pushed.

   Servers MAY use all CACHE_DIGESTs received for a given origin as
   current, as long as they do not have the RESET flag set; a
   CACHE_DIGEST frame with the RESET flag set MUST clear any previously
   stored CACHE_DIGESTs for its origin.  Servers MUST treat an empty
   Digest-Value with a RESET flag set as effectively clearing all stored
   digests for that origin.

   Clients are not likely to send updates to CACHE_DIGEST over the
   lifetime of a connection; it is expected that servers will separately
   track what cacheable responses have been sent previously on the same
   connection, using that knowledge in conjunction with that provided by
   CACHE_DIGEST.

2.2.1.  Querying the Digest for a Value

   Given:

   o  "digest-value", an array of bits

   o  "URL", an array of characters

   o  "ETag", an array of characters

   o  "validators", a boolean

   we can determine whether there is a match in the digest using the
   following algorithm:

   1.   Read the first 5 bits of "digest-value" as an integer; let "N"
        be two raised to the power of that value.

   2.   Read the next 5 bits of "digest-value" as an integer; let "P" be
        two raised to the power of that value.

   3.   Let "hash-value" be the result of computing a hash value
        (Section 2.1.2).

   4.   Let "C" be -1.





Oku & Nottingham        Expires December 10, 2016               [Page 7]

Internet-Draft          Cache Digests for HTTP/2               June 2016


   5.   Read '0' bits from "digest-value" until a '1' bit is found; let
        "Q" bit the number of '0' bits.  Discard the '1'.

   6.   Read log2("P") bits from "digest-value" after the '1' as an
        integer; let "R" be its value.

   7.   Let "D" be "Q" * "P" + "R".

   8.   Increment "C" by "D" + 1.

   9.   If "C" is equal to "hash-value", return 'true'.

   10.  Otherwise, return to step 5 and continue processing; if no match
        is found before "digest-value" is exhausted, return 'false'.

3.  IANA Considerations

   This draft currently has no requirements for IANA.  If the
   CACHE_DIGEST frame is standardised, it will need to be assigned a
   frame type.

4.  Security Considerations

   The contents of a User Agent's cache can be used to re-identify or
   "fingerprint" the user over time, even when other identifiers (e.g.,
   Cookies [RFC6265]) are cleared.

   CACHE_DIGEST allows such cache-based fingerprinting to become
   passive, since it allows the server to discover the state of the
   client's cache without any visible change in server behaviour.

   As a result, clients MUST mitigate for this threat when the user
   attempts to remove identifiers (e.g., "clearing cookies").  This
   could be achieved in a number of ways; for example: by clearing the
   cache, by changing one or both of N and P, or by adding new,
   synthetic entries to the digest to change its contents.

   TODO: discuss how effective the suggested mitigations actually would
   be.

   Additionally, User Agents SHOULD NOT send CACHE_DIGEST when in
   "privacy mode."

5.  References







Oku & Nottingham        Expires December 10, 2016               [Page 8]

Internet-Draft          Cache Digests for HTTP/2               June 2016


5.1.  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,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC3986]  Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
              Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66,
              RFC 3986, DOI 10.17487/RFC3986, January 2005,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3986>.

   [RFC6234]  Eastlake 3rd, D. and T. Hansen, "US Secure Hash Algorithms
              (SHA and SHA-based HMAC and HKDF)", RFC 6234,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6234, May 2011,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6234>.

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

   [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,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7230>.

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

   [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,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7234>.

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

5.2.  Informative References

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





Oku & Nottingham        Expires December 10, 2016               [Page 9]

Internet-Draft          Cache Digests for HTTP/2               June 2016


Appendix A.  Acknowledgements

   Thanks to Adam Langley and Giovanni Bajo for their explorations of
   Golumb-coded sets.  In particular, see
   http://giovanni.bajo.it/post/47119962313/golomb-coded-sets-smaller-
   than-bloom-filters , which refers to sample code.

   Thanks to Stefan Eissing for his suggestions.

Authors' Addresses

   Kazuho Oku
   DeNA Co, Ltd.

   Email: kazuhooku@gmail.com


   Mark Nottingham

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






























Oku & Nottingham        Expires December 10, 2016              [Page 10]
