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An XMPP Sub-protocol for WebSocket
draft-ietf-xmpp-websocket-01

The information below is for an old version of the document.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 7395.
Authors Lance Stout, Jack Moffitt , Eric Cestari
Last updated 2014-02-14
Replaces draft-moffitt-xmpp-over-websocket
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draft-ietf-xmpp-websocket-01
XMPP Working Group                                         L. Stout, Ed.
Internet-Draft                                                      &yet
Intended status: Standards Track                              J. Moffitt
Expires: August 18, 2014                                         Mozilla
                                                              E. Cestari
                                                        cstar industries
                                                       February 14, 2014

                   An XMPP Sub-protocol for WebSocket
                      draft-ietf-xmpp-websocket-01

Abstract

   This document defines a binding for the XMPP protocol over a
   WebSocket transport layer.  A WebSocket binding for XMPP provides
   higher performance than the current HTTP binding for XMPP.

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 August 18, 2014.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2014 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

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   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  XMPP Sub-Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     3.1.  Handshake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     3.2.  Messages  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.3.  XMPP Stream Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.4.  Stream Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.5.  Closing the Connection  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
       3.5.1.  see-other-uri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     3.6.  Stanzas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     3.7.  Stream Restarts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     3.8.  Pings and Keepalives  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     3.9.  Use of TLS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     3.10. Stream Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   4.  Discovering Connection Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     5.1.  WebSocket Subprotocol Name  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     5.2.  URN Sub-Namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     7.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     7.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   Appendix A.  XML Schema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12

1.  Introduction

   Applications using XMPP (see [RFC6120] and [RFC6121]) on the Web
   currently make use of BOSH (see [XEP-0124] and [XEP-0206]), an XMPP
   binding to HTTP.  BOSH is based on the HTTP long polling technique,
   and it suffers from high transport overhead compared to XMPP's native
   binding to TCP.  In addition, there are a number of other known
   issues with long polling [RFC6202], which have an impact on BOSH-
   based systems.

   It would be much better in most circumstances to avoid tunneling XMPP
   over HTTP long polled connections and instead use the XMPP protocol
   directly.  However, the APIs and sandbox that browsers have provided
   do not allow this.  The WebSocket protocol [RFC6455] now exists to
   solve these kinds of problems.  The WebSocket protocol is a bi-
   directional protocol that provides a simple message-based framing
   layer over raw sockets and allows for more robust and efficient
   communication in web applications.

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   The WebSocket protocol enables two-way communication between a client
   and a server, effectively emulating TCP at the application layer and
   therefore overcoming many of the problems with existing long-polling
   techniques for bidirectional HTTP.  This document defines a WebSocket
   sub-protocol for the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol
   (XMPP).

2.  Terminology

   The basic unit of framing in the WebSocket protocol is called a
   message.  In XMPP, the basic unit is the stanza, which is a subset of
   the first-level children of each document in an XMPP stream (see
   Section 9 of [RFC6120]).  XMPP also has a concept of messages, which
   are stanzas whose top-level element name is message.  In this
   document, the word "message" will mean a WebSocket message, not an
   XMPP message stanza (see Section 3.2).

   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].

3.  XMPP Sub-Protocol

3.1.  Handshake

   The XMPP sub-protocol is used to transport XMPP over a WebSocket
   connection.  The client and server agree to this protocol during the
   WebSocket handshake (see Section 1.3 of [RFC6455]).

   During the WebSocket handshake, the client MUST include the |Sec-
   WebSocket-Protocol| header in its handshake, and the value |xmpp|
   MUST be included in the list of protocols.  The reply from the server
   MUST also contain |xmpp| in its own |Sec-WebSocket-Protocol| header
   in order for an XMPP sub-protocol connection to be established.

   Once the handshake is complete, WebSocket messages sent or received
   will conform to the protocol defined in the rest of this document.

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   C:  GET /xmpp-websocket HTTP/1.1
       Host: example.com
       Upgrade: websocket
       Connection: Upgrade
       Sec-WebSocket-Key: dGhlIHNhbXBsZSBub25jZQ==
       Origin: http://example.com
       ...
       Sec-WebSocket-Protocol: xmpp
       Sec-WebSocket-Version: 13

   S:  HTTP/1.1 101 Switching Protocols
       Upgrade: websocket
       Connection: Upgrade
       ...
       Sec-WebSocket-Accept: s3pPLMBiTxaQ9kYGzzhZRbK+xOo=
       Sec-WebSocket-Protocol: xmpp

   [WebSocket connection established]

   C:  <open xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-framing"
             to="example.com"
             version="1.0" />

3.2.  Messages

   Data frame messages in the XMPP sub-protocol MUST be of the text type
   and contain UTF-8 encoded data.  The close control frame's contents
   are specified in Section 3.5.  Control frames other than close are
   not restricted.

   Unless noted in text, the word "message" will mean a WebSocket
   message composed of text data frames.

3.3.  XMPP Stream Setup

   The first message sent after the handshake is complete MUST be an
   <open /> element using the "urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-framing"
   namespace, whose 'from', 'id', 'to' and 'version' attributes
   mirror those in the XMPP opening stream tag as defined for the
   'http://etherx.jabber.org/streams' namespace in XMPP [RFC6120]. The
   '<' character of the open tag MUST be the first character of the text
   payload.

   The server MUST respond with an <open /> element, or a <close />
   element (see Section 3.5.1).

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   Clients MUST NOT attempt to multiplex XMPP streams for multiple JIDs
   over the same WebSocket.

3.4.  Stream Errors

   Stream level errors in XMPP are terminal.  Should such an error
   occur, the server MUST send the stream error as a complete element in
   a message to the client.

   If the error occurs during the opening of a stream, the server MUST
   send the initial open element response, followed by the stream level
   error in a second WebSocket message frame.  The server MUST then
   close the connection as specified in Section 3.5.

3.5.  Closing the Connection

   Either the server or the client may close the connection at any time.
   Before closing the connection, the closing party SHOULD close the
   XMPP stream, if it has been established, by sending a message with
   the <close /> element, qualified by the "urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-
   framing" namespace.  The stream is considered closed when a
   corresponding <close/> element is received from the other party.

   To initiate closing the WebSocket connection, the closing party MUST
   send a normal WebSocket close message with an empty body.  The
   connection is considered closed when a matching close message is
   received (see Section 1.4 of [RFC6455]).

   An example of ending an XMPP over WebSocket session by first closing
   the XMPP stream layer and then the WebSocket connection layer:

   Client                         (XMPP WSS)                      Server
   |  |                                                             |  |
   |  | <close xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-framing />        |  |
   |  |------------------------------------------------------------>|  |
   |  |       <close xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-framing" /> |  |
   |  |<------------------------------------------------------------|  |
   |  |                                                             |  |
   |  |                      (XMPP Stream Closed)                   |  |
   |  +-------------------------------------------------------------+  |
   |                                                                   |
   | WS CLOSE FRAME                                                    |
   |------------------------------------------------------------------>|
   |                                                    WS CLOSE FRAME |
   |<------------------------------------------------------------------|
   |                                                                   |
   |                         (Connection Closed)                       |
   +-------------------------------------------------------------------+

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   If a client closes the WebSocket connection without closing the XMPP
   stream after having enabled stream management (see Section 3.10), the
   server SHOULD keep the XMPP session alive for a period of time based
   on server policy, as specified in [XEP-0198].  If the client has not
   negotiated the use of [XEP-0198], there is no distinction between a
   stream that was closed as described above and a simple disconnection;
   the stream is then considered implicitly closed and the XMPP session
   ended.

3.5.1.  see-other-uri

   If the server (or a connection mananger intermediary) wishes to
   instruct the client to move to a different WebSocket endpoint (e.g.
   for load balancing purposes), the server MAY send a <close /> element
   and set the "see-other-uri" attribute to the URI of the new WebSocket
   endpoint.

   Clients MUST NOT accept suggested endpoints with a lower security
   context (e.g. moving from a "wss://" endpoint to a "ws://" endpoint).

   An example of the server closing a stream and instructing the client
   to connect at a different WebSocket endpoint:

   S: <close xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-framing"
             see-other-uri="wss://otherendpoint.example/xmpp-bind" />

3.6.  Stanzas

   Every XMPP stanza or other XML element sent directly over the XMPP
   stream (e.g. <features xmlns="http://etherx.jabber.org/streams" />)
   MUST be sent in its own message.  As such, every WebSocket text
   message that is received MUST be a complete and parsable XML
   fragment, with all relevant xmlns and xml:lang declarations
   specified.

   As it is already mandated that the content of each message is UTF-8
   encoded, XML text declarations SHOULD NOT be included in messsages.

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   Examples of WebSocket messages that contain independently parsable
   XML fragments (note that for stream features and errors, there is no
   parent context element providing the "stream" namespace prefix as in
   [RFC6120], and thus the stream namespace MUST be declared):

   <features xmlns="http://etherx.jabber.org/streams">
     <bind xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind" />
   </features>

   <error xmlns="http://etherx.jabber.org/streams">
     <host-unknown xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>
   </error>

   <message xmlns="jabber:client" xml:lang="en">
     <body>Every WebSocket message is parsable by itself.</body>
   </message>

3.7.  Stream Restarts

   After successful SASL authentication, an XMPP stream needs to be
   restarted.  In these cases, as soon as the message is sent (or
   received) containing the success indication, both the server and
   client streams are implicitly closed, and new streams need to be
   opened.  The client MUST open a new stream as in Section 3.3 and MUST
   NOT send a closing <close /> element.

   S: <success xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl" />

   [Streams implicitly closed]

   C: <open xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-framing"
            to="example.com"
            version="1.0" />

3.8.  Pings and Keepalives

   XMPP servers send whitespace pings as keepalives between stanzas, and
   XMPP clients can do the same as these extra whitespace characters are
   not significant in the protocol.  Servers and clients SHOULD use
   WebSocket ping control frames instead for this purpose.

   In some cases, the WebSocket connection might be served by an
   intermediary connection manager and not the XMPP server.  In these
   situations, the use of WebSocket ping messages are insufficient to
   test that the XMPP stream is still alive.  Both the XMPP Ping
   extension [XEP-0199] and the XMPP Stream Management extension
   [XEP-0198] provide mechanisms to ping the XMPP server, and either

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   extension (or both) MAY be used to determine the state of the
   connection.

3.9.  Use of TLS

   TLS cannot be used at the XMPP sub-protocol layer because the sub-
   protocol does not allow for raw binary data to be sent.  Instead,
   enabling TLS SHOULD be done at the WebSocket layer using secure
   WebSocket connections via the |wss| URI scheme.  (See Section 10.6 of
   [RFC6455]).

   Because TLS is to be provided outside of the XMPP sub-protocol layer,
   a server MUST NOT advertise TLS as a stream feature (see Section 4.6
   of [RFC6120]), and a client MUST ignore any advertised TLS stream
   feature, when using the XMPP sub-protocol.

3.10.  Stream Management

   In order to alleviate the problems of temporary disconnections, the
   XMPP Stream Management extension [XEP-0198] MAY be used to confirm
   when stanzas have been received by the server.

   In particular, the use of session resumption in [XEP-0198] MAY be
   used to allow for recreating the same stream session state after a
   temporary network unavailability or after navigating to a new URL in
   a browser.

4.  Discovering Connection Method

   The XMPP extension Discovering Alternate XMPP Connection Methods
   [XEP-0156] provides mechanisms to discover the additional information
   needed to connect to an XMPP server outside of the procedure defined
   in in Section 3 of [RFC6120].

   Servers MAY expose such discovery information, and clients MAY use
   such information to determine the WebSocket endpoint for a server.

   Use of the HTTP lookup method in [XEP-0156] MAY be used to establish
   trust between the XMPP server domain and the WebSocket endpoint,
   particularly in multi-tenant situations where the same WebSocket
   endpoint is serving multiple XMPP domains.

5.  IANA Considerations

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5.1.  WebSocket Subprotocol Name

   This specification requests IANA to register the WebSocket XMPP sub-
   protocol under the "WebSocket Subprotocol Name" Registry with the
   following data:

   Subprotocol Identifier:  xmpp

   Subprotocol Common Name:  WebSocket Transport for the Extensible
      Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)

   Subprotocol Definition:  RFC XXXX

   [[ NOTE TO RFC EDITOR: Please replace "XXXX" with the number assigned
   to this document upon publication as an RFC. ]]

5.2.  URN Sub-Namespace

   A URN sub-namespace for framing of Extensible Messaging and Presence
   Protocol (XMPP) streams is defined as follows.

   URI:  urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-framing

   Specification:  RFC XXXX

   Description:  This is the XML namespace name for framing of
      Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) streams as
      defined by RFC XXXX.

   Registrant Contact:  IESG <iesg@ietf.org>

   [[ NOTE TO RFC EDITOR: Please replace "XXXX" with the number assigned
   to this document upon publication as an RFC. ]]

6.  Security Considerations

   Since application level TLS cannot be used (see Section 3.9),
   applications which need to protect the privacy of the XMPP traffic
   need to do so at the WebSocket or other appropriate layer.

   Browser based applications are not able to inspect and verify at the
   application layer the certificate used for the WebSocket connection
   to ensure that it corresponds to the domain specified as the "to"
   address of the XMPP stream.  For hosts whose domain matches the
   origin for the WebSocket connection, that check is already performed
   by the browser.  However, in situations where the domain of the XMPP
   server might not match the origin for the WebSocket endpoint
   (especially multi-tenant hosting situations), the HTTP discovery

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   method in [XEP-0156] MAY be used to delegate trust from the XMPP
   server domain to the WebSocket origin.

   When presented with a new WebSocket endpoint via the "see-other-uri"
   attribute of a <close/> element, clients MUST NOT accept the
   suggestion if the security context of the new endpoint is lower than
   the current one in order to prevent downgrade attacks from a "wss://"
   endpoint to "ws://".

   The Security Considerations for both WebSocket (see Section 10 of
   [RFC6455] and XMPP (see Section 13 of [RFC6120]) apply to the
   WebSocket XMPP sub-protocol.

7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC6120]  Saint-Andre, P., "Extensible Messaging and Presence
              Protocol (XMPP): Core", RFC 6120, March 2011.

   [XEP-0156]
              Hildebrand, J., Saint-Andre, P., and L. Stout,
              "Discovering Alternative XMPP Connection Methods", XSF XEP
              0156, January 2014.

7.2.  Informative References

   [RFC6121]  Saint-Andre, P., "Extensible Messaging and Presence
              Protocol (XMPP): Instant Messaging and Presence", RFC
              6121, March 2011.

   [RFC6202]  Loreto, S., Saint-Andre, P., Salsano, S., and G. Wilkins,
              "Known Issues and Best Practices for the Use of Long
              Polling and Streaming in Bidirectional HTTP", RFC 6202,
              April 2011.

   [RFC6455]  Fette, I. and A. Melnikov, "The WebSocket Protocol", RFC
              6455, December 2011.

   [XEP-0124]
              Paterson, I., Smith, D., Saint-Andre, P., Moffitt, J., and
              L. Stout, "Bidirectional-streams Over Synchronous HTTP
              (BOSH)", XSF XEP 0124, November 2013.

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   [XEP-0198]
              Karneges, J., Saint-Andre, P., Hildebrand, J., Forno, F.,
              Cridland, D., and M. Wild, "Stream Management", XSF XEP
              0198, June 2011.

   [XEP-0199]
              Saint-Andre, P., "XMPP Ping", XSF XEP 0199, June 2009.

   [XEP-0206]
              Paterson, I., Saint-Andre, P., and L. Stout, "XMPP Over
              BOSH", XSF XEP 0206, November 2013.

   [XML-SCHEMA]
              Thompson, H., Maloney, M., Mendelsohn, N., and D. Beech,
              "XML Schema Part 1: Structures Second Edition", World Wide
              Web Consortium Recommendation REC-xmlschema-1-20041028,
              October 2004,
              <http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xmlschema-1-20041028>.

Appendix A.  XML Schema

   The following schema formally defines the 'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns
   :xmpp-framing' namespace used in this document, in conformance with
   W3C XML Schema [XML-SCHEMA].  Because validation of XML streams and
   stanzas is optional, this schema is not normative and is provided for
   descriptive purposes only.

   <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>

   <xs:schema
       xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'
       targetNamespace='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-framing'
       xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-framing'
       elementFormDefault='unqualified'>

     <xs:element name='open'>
       <xs:complexType>
         <xs:simpleContent>
           <xs:extension base='empty'>
             <xs:attribute name='from' type='xs:string'
                           use='optional'/>
             <xs:attribute name='id' type='xs:string'
                           use='optional'/>
             <xs:attribute name='see-other-uri' type='xs:anyURI'
                           use='optional'/>
             <xs:attribute name='to' type='xs:string'
                           use='optional'/>
             <xs:attribute name='version' type='xs:decimal'

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                           use='optional'/>
             <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang'
                           use='optional'/>
           </xs:extension>
         </xs:simpleContent>
       </xs:complexType>
     </xs:element>

     <xs:element name='close'>
       <xs:complexType>
         <xs:simpleContent>
           <xs:extension base='empty'>
             <xs:attribute name='from' type='xs:string'
                           use='optional'/>
             <xs:attribute name='id' type='xs:string'
                           use='optional'/>
             <xs:attribute name='see-other-uri' type='xs:anyURI'
                           use='optional'/>
             <xs:attribute name='to' type='xs:string'
                           use='optional'/>
             <xs:attribute name='version' type='xs:decimal'
                           use='optional'/>
             <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang'
                           use='optional'/>
           </xs:extension>
         </xs:simpleContent>
       </xs:complexType>
     </xs:element>

     <xs:simpleType name='empty'>
       <xs:restriction base='xs:string'>
         <xs:enumeration value=''/>
       </xs:restriction>
     </xs:simpleType>

   </xs:schema>

Authors' Addresses

   Lance Stout (editor)
   &yet

   Email: lance@andyet.net

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   Jack Moffitt
   Mozilla

   Email: jack@metajack.im

   Eric Cestari
   cstar industries

   Email: eric@cestari.info

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