The ALPN HTTP Header Field
RFC 7639
Document | Type | RFC - Proposed Standard (August 2015; No errata) | |
---|---|---|---|
Authors | Andrew Hutton , Justin Uberti , Martin Thomson | ||
Last updated | 2015-10-14 | ||
Replaces | draft-hutton-httpbis-connect-protocol | ||
Stream | Internent Engineering Task Force (IETF) | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized (tools) htmlized bibtex | ||
Reviews | |||
Stream | WG state | Submitted to IESG for Publication | |
Document shepherd | Mark Nottingham | ||
Shepherd write-up | Show (last changed 2015-04-29) | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 7639 (Proposed Standard) | |
Action Holders |
(None)
|
||
Consensus Boilerplate | Yes | ||
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | Barry Leiba | ||
Send notices to | (None) | ||
IANA | IANA review state | Version Changed - Review Needed | |
IANA action state | RFC-Ed-Ack |
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) A. Hutton Request for Comments: 7639 Unify Category: Standards Track J. Uberti ISSN: 2070-1721 Google M. Thomson Mozilla August 2015 The ALPN HTTP Header Field Abstract This specification allows HTTP CONNECT requests to indicate what protocol is intended to be used within the tunnel once established, using the ALPN header field. 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 5741. Information about the current status of this document, any errata, and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7639. Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2015 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 the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License. Hutton, et al. Standards Track [Page 1] RFC 7639 The ALPN Header August 2015 Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.1. Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. The ALPN HTTP Header Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.1. Header Field Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.2. Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.3. Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 5. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 5.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 5.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1. Introduction The HTTP CONNECT method (Section 4.3.6 of [RFC7231]) requests that the recipient establish a tunnel to the identified origin server and thereafter forward packets, in both directions, until the tunnel is closed. Such tunnels are commonly used to create end-to-end virtual connections through one or more proxies. The ALPN HTTP header field identifies the protocol or protocols that the client intends to use within a tunnel that is established using CONNECT. This uses the Application-Layer Protocol Negotiation (ALPN) identifier [RFC7301]. For a tunnel that is then secured using Transport Layer Security (TLS) [RFC5246], the header field carries the same application protocol label as will be carried within the TLS handshake [RFC7301]. If there are multiple possible application protocols, all of those application protocols are indicated. The ALPN header field carries an indication of client intent only. An ALPN identifier is used here only to identify the application protocol or suite of protocols that the client intends to use in the tunnel. No negotiation takes place using this header field. In TLS, the final choice of application protocol is made by the server from the set of choices presented by the client. Other substrates could negotiate the application protocol differently. Proxies do not implement the tunneled protocol, though they might choose to make policy decisions based on the value of the header field. For example, a proxy could use the application protocol to select appropriate traffic prioritization. Hutton, et al. Standards Track [Page 2] RFC 7639 The ALPN Header August 2015 1.1. Requirements Language The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in thisShow full document text