Subject: [websec] Stephen Farrell's Yes on draft-ietf-websec-key-pinning-21: (with COMMENT)

From: "Stephen Farrell" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 05:42:36 -0700

Stephen Farrell has entered the following ballot position for
draft-ietf-websec-key-pinning-21: Yes

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COMMENT:
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Thanks for clearing up my discuss points. One possible
remaining nit though:

- In 2.2 you say: "(1) the processing rules for HTTP
   request messages received over a secure transport (e.g.
   authenticated, non-anonymous TLS); "

Should the "e.g." be an "i.e." ? It's probably fine either
way but just wondered.

-- OLD comments below, didn't check 'em

abstract and elswhere: SubjectPublicKeyInfo doesn't usually
have spaces between the terms. No big deal. After the abstract
would a ref to 5280 be right for SPKI as well?

general: I think emphasising the backup pin requirement in the
intro would be good. It's a little hidden now and would be a
surprise to some I bet.

2.1 - pin-directive has the literal "pin-" but later you say
(in bullet #3) that directive names are case insensitive.  Does
that apply to "pin-" as well or not? 

2.1 - has some typos: reistry and hahs

2.1 - "Known Pinned Host" would be a fine term to define in a
section 1.1 that was renamed via s/Requirements
Language/Terminology/

2.1.1 - max-age is really defined against the time of reception
and not (in principle) from when its emitted?  I know that
makes no difference now, but with a sufficient latency (e.g.
Earth->Mars, min 4 mins, max 20 mins, and yes my DTN heritage
is showing:-) it could, just about. I think to be pedantically
correct, max-age ought be defined versus the time of emission
and not receipt.

2.1.2 - uses the term "Pinned Host" which is not the same as
the previously used "Known Pinned Host" - is the distinction
meant to be significant or is that a typo?

2.1.3/section 4 - shouldn't the potential DoS issues be
discussed for cases where report-uri != same-origin? E.g.  if
busy-site.example.net (is hacked and) sets report-uri to
victim.example.com (maybe with some HTML/JS that generates
loads of queries to the victimj) that'd be like getting /.'d I
think that's maybe worth noting in the security considerations
or in 2.1.3 where you (quite properly) say to rate-limit
reporting. If you'd rather not say why though, that's ok too.

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From: Barry Leiba <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2014 08:58:13 -0400

Just on the new point:

> Should the "e.g." be an "i.e." ? It's probably fine either

It seems to me that "for example" is right, allowing for other possible
secure transports (perhaps IPSec, perhaps something that comes later).  The
concept is that it needs to be secured, and the example is apt.

Barry