Re: GET and referer security considerations
Scott Lawrence (lawrence@agranat.com)
Tue, 01 Jul 1997 15:39:42 -0400
>>>>> "KH" == Koen Holtman <koen@win.tue.nl> writes:
KH> - Web servers SHOULD NOT use GET based forms for the submission
KH> of sensitive data, because this will cause this data to be encoded in
KH> the request URI, and many existing servers, proxies, and user agents
KH> will log the request URI in some place where it may be visible to
KH> third parties. Servers can use POST based form submission instead.
This is just the latest of a number of suggestions lately that are
based on the idea that a 'server' can protect users from various
insecure or otherwise inadvisable practices. The _server_ cannot
know whether or not a form contains 'sensitive' data; only the
application designer (the one who wrote the form) and perhaps the
user know that.
The world may need a Best Current Practices RFC to advise
application designers on how to avoid problems like the one Koen
cites, but no HTTP server can stop them, and the specification
should not be muddied with requirements which can neither be
implemented nor tested.
--
Scott Lawrence EmWeb Embedded Server <lawrence@agranat.com>
Agranat Systems, Inc. Engineering http://www.agranat.com/