On Wed, 27 Nov 2002, Mark Crispin wrote: >On Wed, 27 Nov 2002 10:26:12 -0600, Don Moore wrote: >The question is whether or not it is safe to exempt localhost connections. >Since localhost does not go out over the wire and hence is internal to the >local system, it arguably is not within the IETF domain to declare compliance. >I am comfortable with that argument; I am not completely sure whether we can >assume that localhost connections are a secure path.
I'd rather turn the ball(?) around, and ask - why can't the localhost client use TLS or SSL like everyone else? I guess the obvious argument is that it wastes cycles and does not provide more security. But is it worth the effort to make an exception in the protocol here? For all I know, localhost (loop-back) connections are safe in today's Unices, but are we willing to make that assumption for the future, and for any platforms? My opinion is that it's a network service, and the protocol is secure. A non-TLS client is not a compliant client. So I'd hate to throw in a bunch of heuristics to check wether or not to require SSL/TLS. Andy -- Andreas Aardal Hanssen
