Re: Netscape the Big Win

[Enzo Michelangeli <enzo@ima.net>]

On Thu, 20 Jul 1995, Hal wrote:

> Note though that neither SSL or SHTTP requires that the certificates come
> from RSA.  However the current versions of Netscape's browser do require this.
> This has been the source of much complaint and Netscape has promised that
> they will have some mechanism in the future to allow the user to
> choose his certificate signers.  I am not sure how far RSA will let them
> off the leash, though.

We may bypass them altogether (see below).

> Back to Perry:
> 
> >Netscape is a closed system. You can't write code for it unless you
> >work for Netscape.
> 
> That is why I am working on the proxy approach.  Any browser should be
> able to use enhancements supplied in this way.  Netscape is the big name
> this year, who knows who it will be next year.  As long as IP
> connectivity is available a proxy can get into the stream and apply
> enhancements.

I still maintain that an approach based on SOCKS would be more flexible, 
adaptable to any TCP-based application. Here's what I'm thinking about:

1. Windows apps: a general purpose socksifier, intercepting Winsock API
calls by *unmodified* applications and opening a single TCP connection to 
the port 1080 of a sockd server. The good news is: some good folks at NEC 
are already working at this project, and are looking for beta-testers.

2. A "SOCKS en/decrypting relay": a sockd server that, on a 
per-site/per-port basis depending on a configuration file, may either 
 a) open TCP connections on behalf of its clients; 
 b) relay a plain SOCKS connection to a remote peer;
 c) open a SSL connection to a remote peer on, say, a port 1180 reserved
    for "SSL-ized SOCKS" connections)
Of course, that beast should also listen at the ports 1080 and 1180 and 
take the same actions a) b) or c) as appropriate.

The SOCKS en/decrypting relay could be written both as MS-Windows DLL and as 
UNIX daemon. The chain would be:

- From a Windows client machine:

 Standard app -> Socksifier DLL by NEC -> encrypting relay -----> 
  ---> Internet -----> decrypting relay -> server

- From a Unix client machine:

 Socksified (recompiled) app -> encrypting relay ------>
  ---> Internet -----> decrypting relay -> server

I'm assuming here that the encrypting relay should live close to machine
(the same, or, at least on the same network) as the client app, and the
decrypting relay close to the server. A single daemon could do both jobs, 
allowing chaining "a` la remailer", but I'm using here two different 
names for sake of clarity. Besides, the Windows version probably wouldn't 
need decrypting ability.

Great advantage over Netscape: we could use EAY's free SSL implementation,
and all the server administrators could generate and sign their own
certificates. The present trouble with Netscape is that NS-Navigator
refuses to accept certificates not signed as "Netscape compatible". Our
en/decrypting relay could be more forgiving :-) As the SSL stuff built in
Netscape would be unused, we could also improve the protocol (plugging
security holes) ignoring compatibility issues. The administrators of
secure servers should just advise the users to configure their local
encrypting relays to pass through their decrypting relay (that would boil
down to a line added to the encrypting relay configuration). 

It would all be beautifully modular, relatively simple to code (as someone
else has done, or is doing, most of the hard work) and independent from
big-brother certifying authorities. 

Comments?