Internet DRAFT - draft-sahib-451-new-protocol-elements
draft-sahib-451-new-protocol-elements
Network Working Group S. Sahib
Internet-Draft August 01, 2018
Intended status: Informational
Expires: February 2, 2019
New protocol elements for HTTP Status Code 451
draft-sahib-451-new-protocol-elements-03
Abstract
This document recommends additional protocol elements to Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP) status code 451 (defined by RFC7725).
Discussion of this document was conducted on the Human Rights
Protocol Considerations Research Group mailing list
https://www.irtf.org/mailman/listinfo/hrpc [1], briefly on the
HTTPBIS Working Group mailing list ietf-http-wg@w3.org [2] and on
https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/statuscode451 [3].
Status of This Memo
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This Internet-Draft will expire on February 2, 2019.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2018 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
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This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. New Protocol Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.1. Blocking Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2. Geographical Scope of Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.3. URIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1. Introduction
[RFC7725] was standardized by the IETF in February 2016. It defined
HTTP status code 451 - to be used when "a server operator has
received a legal demand to deny access to a resource or to a set of
resources".
This document attempts to outline protocol recommendations that would
help make the status code more useful to users.
2. New Protocol Elements
2.1. Blocking Authority
An HTTP response with status code 451 should include a "Link" HTTP
header field [RFC8288] which has a "rel" parameter whose value is
"blocking-authority", in addition to the "blocked-by" header
specified in [RFC7725]. It's important to distinguish between the
implementer of the block, and the authority that mandated the block
in the first place [ERRATA_ID-5181]. This is because these two
organizations might not be the same - a government (the blocking
authority) could force an Internet Service Provider (the implementer
of the block) to deny access to a certain resource. Both provide
essential information about the legal block.
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2.2. Geographical Scope of Block
HTTP status code 451 is increasingly being used to deny access to
resources based on geographical location. The response should
contain a provisional header named "geo-scope-block" that specifies
the countries in which a resource is blocked. This scope should
correspond to a comma-separated list of alpha-2 country codes defined
in [ISO.3166-1]. The rationale for keeping the geographical scope to
country-level granularity is that most blocks are mandated by
national governments [IMPL_REPORT], [AUTOMATTIC_COUNTRY_BLOCK_LIST].
3. Security Considerations
This document does not add additional security considerations to
[RFC7725].
4. IANA Considerations
The Link Relation Type Registry should be updated with the following
entry:
- Relation Name: blocking-authority
- Description: Identifies the authority that has issued the block.
- Reference: this document
In addition, IANA should be updated with the following provisional
header:
- Header field name: geo-scope-block
- Applicable protocol: http
- Status: provisional
- Specification document(s): this document
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Alp Toker, Niels ten Oever, Stephane Bortzmeyer, Corinne
Cath, Christine Runnegar, and many others on the HRPC mailing list
(linked above) for reviewing and brainstorming.
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6. References
6.1. Normative References
[ERRATA_ID-5181]
Bortzmeyer, S., "[Technical Errata Reported] RFC7725
(5181)", 2017,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/errata/eid5181>.
[ISO.3166-1]
International Organization for Standardization, "Codes for
the representation of names of countries and their
subdivisions - Part 1: Country code", ISO Standard 3166-
1:1997 , 1997.
[RFC7725] Bray, T., "An HTTP Status Code to Report Legal Obstacles",
RFC 7725, DOI 10.17487/RFC7725, February 2016,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7725>.
[RFC8288] Nottingham, M., "Web Linking", RFC 8288,
DOI 10.17487/RFC8288, October 2017,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8288>.
6.2. Informative References
[AUTOMATTIC_COUNTRY_BLOCK_LIST]
"Automattic - Country Block List", 2018,
<https://transparency.automattic.com/country-block-list/>.
[IMPL_REPORT]
Abraham, S., Canales, MP., Hall, J., Khrustaleva, O., ten
Oever, N., Runnegar, C., and S. Sahib, "Implementation
Report for HTTP Status Code 451", 2017,
<https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-451-imp-report-00>.
6.3. URIs
[1] https://www.irtf.org/mailman/listinfo/hrpc
[2] mailto:ietf-http-wg@w3.org
[3] https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/statuscode451
Author's Address
Shivan Kaul Sahib
EMail: shivankaulsahib@gmail.com
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