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https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/COUCHDB-431?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=13107450#comment-13107450
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Jason Smith commented on COUCHDB-431:
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Hi, Benoit.
WRT #4: Randall explained his idea in IRC. The idea happens if and only if
couch is handling a cross-origin query with credentials.
1. Browser provides credentials in the HTTP query, e.g. #httpd{}=Req
2. During authentication, Couch fetches the _user doc
2. In the _user doc, check for "_cors_auth":true or maybe "_never_cors":true --
it could be opt-in or opt-out
3. If _never_cors == true, then Req2 = Req#httpd{user_ctx =
#user_ctx{name=null, roles=[]}}
4. Process Req2
Thoughts:
1. This is not non-standard but perhaps non-expected. w3c has no opinion about
whether Couch should honor good X-O creds
2. One problem: developers set _never_cors=true and then assume their users are
safe over open WiFi. In fact valid credentials are sent over the wire.
So the question is, what is the net change to the security? My feeling is, the
risk of TCP sniffing at a cafe is small, whereas the risk of XSRF attacks is
greater. Also, to what degree is it nonstandard?
> Support cross domain XMLHttpRequest (XHR) calls by implementing Access
> Control spec
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Key: COUCHDB-431
> URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/COUCHDB-431
> Project: CouchDB
> Issue Type: New Feature
> Components: HTTP Interface
> Affects Versions: 0.9
> Reporter: James Burke
> Assignee: Benoit Chesneau
> Priority: Minor
> Fix For: 1.2
>
> Attachments: 0001-cors-support.-should-fix-COUCHDB-431-2.patch,
> 0001-cors-support.-should-fix-COUCHDB-431.patch,
> 0001-cors-support.-should-fix-COUCHDB-431.patch,
> 0001-cors-support.-should-fix-COUCHDB-431.patch,
> 0001-cors-support.-should-fix-COUCHDB-431.patch,
> A_0001-Generalize-computing-the-appropriate-headers-for-any.patch,
> A_0002-Send-server-headers-for-externals-responses.patch,
> A_0003-Usably-correct-w3c-CORS-headers-for-valid-requests.patch,
> A_0004-Respond-to-CORS-preflight-checks-HTTP-OPTIONS.patch, cors.html,
> cors_test.html, test_cors2-1.tgz, test_cors2.tgz
>
>
> Historically, browsers have been restricted to making XMLHttpRequests (XHRs)
> to the same origin (domain) as the web page making the request. However, the
> latest browsers now support cross-domain requests by implementing the Access
> Control spec from the W3C:
> http://dev.w3.org/2006/waf/access-control/
> In order to keep older servers safe that assume browsers only do same-domain
> requests, the Access Control spec requires the server to opt-in to allow
> cross domain requests by the use of special HTTP headers and supporting some
> "pre-flight" HTTP calls.
> Why should CouchDB support this: in larger, high traffic site, it is common
> to serve the static UI files from a separate, differently scaled server
> complex than the data access/API server layer. Also, there are some API
> services that are meant to be centrally hosted, but allow API consumers to
> use the API from different domains. In these cases, the UI in the browser
> would need to do cross domain requests to access CouchDB servers that act as
> the API/data access server layer.
> JSONP is not enough in these cases since it is limited to GET requests, so no
> POSTing or PUTing of documents.
> Some information from Firefox's perspective (functionality available as of
> Firefox 3.5):
> https://developer.mozilla.org/en/HTTP_access_control
> And information on Safari/Webkit (functionality in latest WebKit and Safari
> 4):
> http://developer.apple.com/safari/library/documentation/AppleApplications/Conceptual/SafariJSProgTopics/Articles/XHR.html
> IE 8 also uses the Access Control spec, but the requests have to go through
> their XDomainRequest object (XDR):
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288060%28VS.85%29.aspx
> and I thought IE8 only allowed GET or POST requests through their XDR.
> But as far as CouchDB is concerned, implementing the Access Control headers
> should be enough, and hopefully IE 9 will allow normal xdomain requests via
> XHR.
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