Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) C. Bormann
Request for Comments: 8307 Universitaet Bremen TZI
Updates: 6455 January 2018
Category: Standards Track
ISSN: 2070-1721
Well-Known URIs for the WebSocket Protocol
Abstract
RFC 5785 defines a path prefix, "/.well-known/", that can be used by
well-known URIs. It was specifically defined for the "http" and
"https" URI schemes. The present memo formally updates RFC 6455,
which defines the URI schemes defined for the WebSocket Protocol, to
extend the use of these well-known URIs to those URI schemes.
Status of This Memo
This is an Internet Standards Track document.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on
Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 7841.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8307.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2018 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1. Introduction
[RFC5785] defines a path prefix, "/.well-known", that can be used by
well-known URIs. It also contains an IANA registry for URI suffixes
to be used with this path prefix for forming well-known URIs.
In [RFC5785], this mechanism is specifically defined for the "http"
and "https" URI schemes (now defined in [RFC7230]). Other URI
schemes such as "coap" and "coaps" [RFC7252] have since picked up
this mechanism, sharing the registry of URI suffixes with that for
HTTP(S).
[RFC6455], which defines the URI schemes defined for the WebSocket
Protocol, "ws" and "wss", does not define the use of well-known URIs
for these URI schemes.
The present memo formally updates [RFC6455] to extend the use of
[RFC5785] well-known URIs to the URI schemes "ws" and "wss".
Well-known URIs for "ws" and "wss" share the registry for URI
suffixes established by [RFC5785]; no change is necessitated by the
present memo in the registry or its IANA considerations.
2. IANA Considerations
This document does not require any IANA actions.
3. Security Considerations
The Security Considerations of [RFC5785] apply and need to be
considered for all well-known URIs.
It has always been possible to form "ws" and "wss" URIs in such a way
that they map to well-known HTTP(S) URIs when using the procedure in
Section 4 of [RFC6455]; no new security considerations are created by
now formally making the well-known URI mechanism available for "ws"
and "wss".
However, with well-known URIs becoming available for the WebSocket
Protocol, applications that want to define well-known URI suffixes
specifically for WebSocket use also need to consider whether the
resources becoming available under the equivalent HTTP(S) URI formed
by Section 4 of [RFC6455] pose any information disclosure or other
security considerations.
4. References
4.1. Normative References
[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>.
[RFC6455] Fette, I. and A. Melnikov, "The WebSocket Protocol",
RFC 6455, DOI 10.17487/RFC6455, December 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6455>.
4.2. Informative References
[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>.
[RFC7252] Shelby, Z., Hartke, K., and C. Bormann, "The Constrained
Application Protocol (CoAP)", RFC 7252,
DOI 10.17487/RFC7252, June 2014,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7252>.
Author's Address
Carsten Bormann
Universitaet Bremen TZI
Postfach 330440
Bremen D-28359
Germany
Phone: +49-421-218-63921
Email: cabo@tzi.org