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 © 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. 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.

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