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Re: [http-auth] Last Call: <draft-ietf-httpauth-basicauth-update-05.txt> (The 'Basic' HTTP Authentication Scheme) to Proposed Standard

Julian Reschke <julian.reschke@gmx.de> Tue, 10 February 2015 21:18 UTC

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Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2015 22:18:46 +0100
From: Julian Reschke <julian.reschke@gmx.de>
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To: Tony Hansen <tony@att.com>, ietf@ietf.org
Subject: Re: [http-auth] Last Call: <draft-ietf-httpauth-basicauth-update-05.txt> (The 'Basic' HTTP Authentication Scheme) to Proposed Standard
References: <20150205161049.4222.88369.idtracker@ietfa.amsl.com> <kdr7da51k6t581cdppljqvdnf6401cjb4o@hive.bjoern.hoehrmann.de> <54D462A6.1030709@gmx.de> <54DA628E.6030702@att.com>
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On 2015-02-10 20:57, Tony Hansen wrote:
>
> On 2/6/15 1:43 AM, Julian Reschke wrote:
>> On 2015-02-05 23:49, Bjoern Hoehrmann wrote:
>>> * The IESG wrote:
>>>> Abstract
>>>>
>>>>    This document defines the "Basic" Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
>>>>    Authentication Scheme, which transmits credentials as
>>>> userid/password
>>>>    pairs, obfuscated by the use of Base64 encoding.
>>>
>>> I do not think the use of Base64 is intended as obfuscation and it seems
>>> misleading to me to describe it as such. (The Introduction has the same
>>> problem).
>>
>> I think it was.
>
> I thought the primary reason was so that the credentials would be able
> to contain arbitrary characters, potentially not otherwise representable
> within the surrounding protocol. It's an encoding scheme, not an
> obfuscation scheme.

How is the intent actually relevant here?

Best regards, Julian

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