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Cryptographic Hyperlinks
draft-sporny-hashlink-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Author Manu Sporny
Last updated 2018-12-30
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draft-sporny-hashlink-00
Network Working Group                                          M. Sporny
Internet-Draft                                            Digital Bazaar
Intended status: Standards Track                       December 30, 2018
Expires: July 3, 2019

                        Cryptographic Hyperlinks
                        draft-sporny-hashlink-00

Abstract

   When using a hyperlink to fetch a resource from the Internet, it is
   often useful to know if the resource has changed since the data was
   published.  Cryptographic hashes, such as SHA-256, are often used to
   determine if published data has changed in unexpected ways.  Due to
   the nature of most hyperlinks, the cryptographic hash is often
   published separately from the link itself.  This specification
   describes a data model and serialization formats for expressing
   cryptographically protected hyperlinks.  The mechanisms described in
   the document enables a system to publish a hyperlink in a way that
   empowers a consuming application to determine if the resource
   associated with the hyperlink has changed in unexpected ways.

Feedback

   This specification is a work product of the W3C Digital Verification
   Community Group [1] and the W3C Credentials Community Group [2].
   Feedback related to this specification should be logged in the issue
   tracker [3] or be sent to public-credentials@w3.org [4].

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 https://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 July 3, 2019.

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2018 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
   (https://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.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Multiple Encodings  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  Hashlink Data Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.1.  The Resource Hash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.2.  The Optional Metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
       2.2.1.  URLs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
       2.2.2.  Content Type  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  Hashlink Serialization  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.1.  Hashlink URL  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
       3.1.1.  Serializing the Resource Hash . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
       3.1.2.  Serializing the Metadata  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
       3.1.3.  A Simple Hashlink Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.2.  Hashlink as a Parameterized URL . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
       3.2.1.  Hashlink as a Parameterized URL Example . . . . . . .   6
   4.  Hashlink Encoders and Decoders  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   5.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     5.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     5.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     5.3.  URIs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Appendix A.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   Appendix B.  Test Values  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     B.1.  Simple Hashlink URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     B.2.  Multi-sourced Hashlink URL  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   Appendix C.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1.  Introduction

   Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) enable software developers to build
   distributed systems that are able to publish information using
   hyperlinks.  When a client fetches a resource at the given hyperlink,
   the result is typically a stream of data that the client may further
   process.  Due to the design of most hyperlinks, the data associated

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   with a hyperlink may change over time.  This design feature is often
   not an issue for systems that do not depend on static data.

   Some software systems expect data published at a specific URL to not
   change.  For example, firmware files, operating system releases,
   security upgrades, and other high-risk files are often distributed
   with associated manifest files.  These manifest files typically
   utilize a cryptographic hash per URL to ensure that an attack to
   modify the files themselves will be detected:

   b1a653e5...de5d3e8f3  https://example.com/operating-system.iso
   7b23bf52...557a0902c  https://example.com/firmware-v4.35.bin

   An unfortunate downside of the manifest file approach is that a
   separate system from the URL itself must be utilized to add this
   level of content integrity protection.  In addition, the
   cryptographic hash format for the files are often application
   specific and are not easily upgradeable once newer and more advanced
   cryptographic hash formats are standardized.

   New types of distributed file storage networks have been deployed
   over the past several decades.  Examples include HTTP file mirrors
   for the Debian Operating System, peer-to-peer file networks such as
   BitTorrent, and content-addressed networks, such as the Inter
   Planetary File System (IPFS).  While each one of these systems have
   their own URL format, it is currently not possible to express a
   content-addressed URL that associates the content address to a file
   published on each one of these networks.

   This specification provides a simple data model and serialization
   formats for cryptographic hyperlinks that:

   o  Enable existing URLs to add content integrity protection.

   o  Provide a URL format for multi-sourced content integrity protected
      data.

   o  Enable URL metadata to be discarded without having to re-encode
      the URL.

   o  Enable algorithm agility for all data model components

1.1.  Multiple Encodings

   A hashlink can be encoded in two different ways, the RECOMMENDED way
   to express a hashlink is:

   hl:<resource-hash>:<optional-metadata>

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   To enable existing applications utilizing historical URL schemes to
   provide content integrity protection, hashlinks may also be encoded
   using URL parameters:

   <url>?hl=<resource-hash>

   Implementers should take note that the URL parameter-based encoding
   mechanism is application specific and SHOULD NOT be used unless the
   URL resolver for the application cannot be upgraded to support the
   RECOMMENDED encoding.

2.  Hashlink Data Model

   The hashlink data model is a simple expression of a cryptographic
   hash of the resource, one or more URLs, and a content type.

2.1.  The Resource Hash

   The resource hash is the the mechanism that enables content integrity
   protection for the associated data stream.  The resource hash value
   MUST be provided in a hashlink.

2.2.  The Optional Metadata

   All metadata associated with the hashlink is optional and is provided
   to enable a client to more easily discover data that matches the
   provided resource hash.

2.2.1.  URLs

   A hashlink may be associated with a set of one or more URLs that,
   when dereferenced, result in data that matches the resource hash.

2.2.2.  Content Type

   A hashlink may be associated with exactly one Content Type that may
   be used in protocols that support content types, such as HTTP's
   Accept header.

3.  Hashlink Serialization

   A hashlink may be serialized in one or two ways.  The first is the
   RECOMMENDED method, called a "Hashlink URL", which is a compact URL
   representation of the Hashlink data model.  The second is called a
   "Hashlink as a Parameterized URL", which MUST NOT be used unless
   there is no mechanism available to upgrade the application's URL
   resolver.

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3.1.  Hashlink URL

   The beginning of a Hashlink URL always starts with the following
   three characters:

   The remainder of the URL is a concatenation of the resource hash and,
   optionally, the Hashlink URL metadata.

3.1.1.  Serializing the Resource Hash

   The value of the resource hash can be generated by utilizing the
   following algorithm:

   The example below demonstrates the output of the algorithm above for
   a hashlink that expresses the data "Hello World!" processed using the
   SHA-2, 256 bit, 32 byte cryptographic algorithm which is then
   expressed using the base-58 Bitcoin base-encoding format:

   zQmWvQxTqbG2Z9HPJgG57jjwR154cKhbtJenbyYTWkjgF3e

3.1.2.  Serializing the Metadata

   To generate the value for the metadata, the metadata values are
   encoded in the CBOR data format using the following algorithm:

   The example below demonstrates the output of the algorithm above for
   metadata containing a single URL ("http://example.org/hw.txt") with a
   content type of "text/plain" expressed using the base-58 Bitcoin
   base-encoding format:

   zuh8iaLobXC8g9tfma1CSTtYBakXeSTkHrYA5hmD4F7dCLw8XYwZ1GWyJ3zwF

3.1.3.  A Simple Hashlink Example

   The example below demonstrates a simple hashlink that provides
   content integrity protection for the "http://example.org/hw.txt"
   file, which has a content type of "text/plain" (line breaks added for
   readability purposes):

   hl:
   zQmWvQxTqbG2Z9HPJgG57jjwR154cKhbtJenbyYTWkjgF3e:
   zuh8iaLobXC8g9tfma1CSTtYBakXeSTkHrYA5hmD4F7dCLw8XYwZ1GWyJ3zwF

3.2.  Hashlink as a Parameterized URL

   An algorithm resulting in the same output as the one below MUST be
   used when encoding the hashlink data model as a set of parameters in
   a URL:

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3.2.1.  Hashlink as a Parameterized URL Example

   The example below demonstrates a simple hashlink that provides
   content integrity protection for the "http://example.org/hw.txt"
   file, which has a content type of "text/plain":

http://example.org/hw.txt?hl=zQmWvQxTqbG2Z9HPJgG57jjwR154cKhbtJenbyYTWkjgF3e

4.  Hashlink Encoders and Decoders

   Hashlink encoders and decoders MUST support the following core
   algorithms:

   Implementations MAY support algorithms and data formats in addition
   to the ones listed above.

5.  References

5.1.  Normative References

   [multibase]
              Benet, J. and M. Sporny, "The Multihash Data Format",
              December 2018, <https://tools.ietf.org/id/
              draft-multiformats-multibase-00.html>.

   [multihash]
              Benet, J. and M. Sporny, "The Multihash Data Format",
              August 2018, <https://tools.ietf.org/id/
              draft-multiformats-multihash-00.html>.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC7049]  Bormann, C. and P. Hoffman, "Concise Binary Object
              Representation (CBOR)", RFC 7049, DOI 10.17487/RFC7049,
              October 2013, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7049>.

5.2.  Informative References

5.3.  URIs

   [1] https://w3c-dvcg.github.io/

   [2] https://w3c-ccg.github.io/

   [3] https://github.com/w3c-dvcg/multibase/issues

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   [4] mailto:public-credentials@w3.org

Appendix A.  Security Considerations

   There are a number of security considerations to take into account
   when implementing or utilizing this specification: TBD

Appendix B.  Test Values

   The following test values may be used to verify the conformance of
   Hashlink encoders and decoders.

B.1.  Simple Hashlink URL

   The following Hashlink URL encodes the data "Hello World!" served
   from the "http://example.org/hw.txt" URL with a content type of
   "text/plain".  The resource hash is generated using the SHA-2, 256
   bit, 32 byte cryptographic algorithm which is then encoded using the
   base-58 Bitcoin base-encoding format.  The metadata options are
   encoded using the base-58 Bitcoin base-encoding format.  The final
   Hashlink URL is (new lines added for readability purposes):

B.2.  Multi-sourced Hashlink URL

   The following Hashlink URL encodes the data "Hello World!" served
   from three different networks.  The first is a standard Web-based URL
   ("http://example.org/hw.txt"), the second is an IPFS-based URL
   ("ipfs:/ipfs/QmXfrS3pHerg44zzK6QKQj6JDk8H6cMtQS7pdXbohwNQfK/hello"),
   and the third is a Tor-based URL ("http://c4m3g2upq6pkufl4.onion/
   hworld.txt").  The resource hash is generated using the SHA-2, 256
   bit, 32 byte cryptographic algorithm which is then encoded using the
   base-58 Bitcoin base-encoding format.  The metadata options are
   encoded using the base-58 Bitcoin base-encoding format.  The final
   Hashlink URL is (new lines added for readability purposes):

Appendix C.  Acknowledgements

   The editors would like to thank the following individuals for
   feedback on and implementations of the specification (in alphabetical
   order):

Author's Address

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   Manu Sporny
   Digital Bazaar
   203 Roanoke Street W.
   Blacksburg, VA  24060
   US

   Phone: +1 540 961 4469
   Email: msporny@digitalbazaar.com
   URI:   http://manu.sporny.org/

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