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Re: [TLS] TLS ALPN (rfc7301), no reserved seperator char and why is 0 no banned

mrex@sap.com (Martin Rex) Mon, 13 April 2015 21:44 UTC

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To: Andrei Popov <Andrei.Popov@microsoft.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2015 23:44:53 +0200
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From: mrex@sap.com
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Subject: Re: [TLS] TLS ALPN (rfc7301), no reserved seperator char and why is 0 no banned
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Andrei Popov wrote:
> 
> Although the currently defined ALPN IDs consist of printable characters
> (which admittedly helps when looking at network traces), generally
> speaking ALPN IDs are octet strings and could contain arbitrary bytes.

I do understand what the current specification (rfc7301) says.

But I just fail to see a rationale why it needs to be that artificially
awkward with no pressing need.

Being able to handle (rather than being allowed to reject upfront)
arbitrary octet string blobs here makes it extremely painful to
implement APIs for this.  You can not allow the pretty common
0-terminated strings API semantics if embedded 0 characters are
permitted, and might get registered in the future.

I'm wondering what specific rationale (other than calling for trouble)
justifies making this extension extra painful to implement and use?


-Martin

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