



Network Working Group                                      M. Nottingham
Internet-Draft                                                 E. Nygren
Intended status: Standards Track                                  Akamai
Expires: August 3, 2016                                 January 31, 2016


                        The ORIGIN HTTP/2 Frame
                draft-nottingham-httpbis-origin-frame-01

Abstract

   This document specifies the ORIGIN frame for HTTP/2, to indicate what
   origins are available on a given connection.

Status of This Memo

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

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on August 3, 2016.

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   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Notational Conventions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.2.  The ORIGIN HTTP/2 Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4

1.  Introduction

   HTTP/2 [RFC7540] allows clients to coalesce different origins
   [RFC6454] onto the same connection when certain conditions are met.
   In some cases, the server is not authoritative for a coalesced
   origin, so the 421 (Misdirected Request) status code was defined.

   Using a status code in this manner allows clients to recover from
   misdirected requests, but at the penalty of adding latency.  To
   address that, this specification defines a new HTTP/2 frame type,
   "ORIGIN", to allow servers to indicate what origins a connection is
   authoritative for.

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].

1.2.  The ORIGIN HTTP/2 Frame

   The ORIGIN HTTP/2 frame ([RFC7540], Section 4) indicates what
   origin(s) [RFC6454] the sender considers this connection
   authoritative for (in the sense of [RFC7540], Section 10.1).

   The ORIGIN frame is a non-critical extension to HTTP/2.  Endpoints
   that do not support this frame can safely ignore it.

   It MUST occur on stream 0; an ORIGIN frame on any other stream is
   invalid and MUST be ignored.

   When received by a client, it can be used to inform HTTP/2 connection
   coalescing (see [RFC7540], Section 9.1.1), but does not relax the
   requirement there that the server is authoritative.

   If multiple ORIGIN frames are received on the same connection, only
   the most recent is to be considered current.





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   Once an ORIGIN frame has been received and processed, clients that
   implement this specification SHOULD NOT use that connection for a
   given origin if it did not appear within the current ORIGIN frame.

   The ORIGIN frame type is 0xb (decimal 11).

   +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+
   |         Origin-Len (16)       | Origin? (*)                 ...
   +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+

   The ORIGIN frame contains the following fields, sets of which may be
   repeated within the frame to indicate multiple origins:

   Origin-Len: An unsigned, 16-bit integer indicating the length, in
   octets, of the Origin field.  Origin: An optional sequence of
   characters containing the ASCII serialization of an origin
   ([RFC6454], Section 6.2) that the sender believes this connection is
   authoritative for.

   The ORIGIN frame does not define any flags.  It can contain one or
   more Origin-Len/Origin pairs.

   The ORIGIN frame is processed hop-by-hop.  An intermediary must not
   forward ORIGIN frames.

   Clients configured to use a proxy MUST ignore any ORIGIN frames
   received from it.

2.  Security Considerations

   Clients that blindly trust the ORIGIN frame's contents will be
   vulnerable to a large number of attacks; hence the reinforcement that
   this specification does not relax the requirement for server
   authority in [RFC7540], Section 10.1.

3.  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>.

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






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   [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>.

Authors' Addresses

   Mark Nottingham
   Akamai

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


   Erik Nygren
   Akamai

   Email: nygren@akamai.com

































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