Re: [http-state] Ticket 11: Character encoding for non-ASCII cookies values

"Roy T. Fielding" <fielding@gbiv.com> Wed, 03 March 2010 01:08 UTC

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From: "Roy T. Fielding" <fielding@gbiv.com>
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Date: Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:08:24 -0800
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To: Adam Barth <ietf@adambarth.com>
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Subject: Re: [http-state] Ticket 11: Character encoding for non-ASCII cookies values
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On Mar 2, 2010, at 4:24 PM, Adam Barth wrote:

> The draft treats the cookie values as opaque octets throughout for use
> on the wire.  I've added a SHOULD-level requirement to use a UTF8 when
> converting the octets to characters (e.g., for use in the user agent's
> user interface).
> 
> Given that the encoding issue doesn't appear to affect
> interoperability on the wire, I think a SHOULD-level recommendation is
> appropriate here.  If specific APIs (e.g., document.cookie) have more
> specific needs, they can add additional requirements.
> 
> Thoughts?

I think that is fine if it is made clear that UTF-8 is only applicable
after the field value is extracted from the rest of the message.  I.e.,
the HTTP parser must be ASCII-based and thus not vulnerable to
invalid Unicode byte sequences.

....Roy