Re: [wpkops] Taxonomy of Browser Behaviors - "Hard Fail", "Soft Fail" and "Reload Request"

[Gervase Markham <[e-mail]>]

On 29/04/14 23:02, Wayne Thayer wrote:
> In the context of revocation, I have a different concept of the terms
> “soft fail” and “hard fail” than what you describe below. I think of
> soft fail as a scenario where a browser checks OCSP, does not receive a
> response, and proceeds as if it had received a “good” response without
> any indication to the user.
> 
> Also, I think of revocation “hard fail” as the scenario you describe
> below as “soft fail” where the browser presents a blocking error that
> the user can then choose to bypass.

...or does not allow a bypass. Both are "hard fail" - the term does not
distinguish.

As Wayne says, certainly in discussions of revocation, hard-vs-soft fail
is a very limited question of the behaviour of the browser when it does
not receive a response of any kind from the OCSP server. In soft fail,
it shows the site anyway. In hard fail, it does not.

I would advise not carrying this terminology over to other areas. It's
not very precise in other contexts.

Gerv