Re: [precis] [Fwd: [pkix] IDNA2008 and PKIX certificates]

[=JeffH <[e-mail]>]

On Wed, 23 Nov 2016 10:51:57 -0500  John C Klensin <john-ietf at
jck.com> wrote:
 >
 > ... the evidence I've seen suggests that ... most browsers are still
 > using IDNA2003 or some hybrid involving IDNA2003, UTR46, and,
 > sometimes, unofficial (and inconsistent) versions of Stringprep
 > modified to reflect some or all Unicode versions since 3.2.

Yes, AFAIK. The WHATWG URL [sic] spec (which obsoletes RFCs 3986 & 3987 
as far as (most?) web browser developers are concerned [0]) references 
(indirectly) only IDNA2003.

It does this by normatively referencing these algorithms in UNICODE TR46 
-- see:
   <http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr46/#ToASCII> and
   <http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr46/#ToUnicode>

Also, back when I was researching IDNA (for what became RFC6125 and 
RFC6797), I exchanged notes with a developer at Opera. This was Fall 
2011 and they were working on Opera 12. He indicated it implemented 
IDNA2008 + RFC5895 "but with a few differences" (though, I do not know 
what the current Opera browser implements IDNA).


 > That makes many situations, not just HTTPS, quite confusing.

Indeed. See also:

   wrt IDNA2003->IDNA2008 transitionn (was: IDN processing-related,
   security considerations for draft-ietf-websec-strict-transport-sec)
   <http://www.alvestrand.no/pipermail/idna-update/2011-October/007170.html>

HTH,

=JeffH

[0] https://url.spec.whatwg.org/#goals