Re: [idn] universal typability

[Mark.Andrews@nominum.com]

> > 	This does not mean that UTF8 may not be a good long term
> > 	target, but before we can use UTF8 we need to have upgraded
> > 	most of the net.  It also means we need a intermediate
> > 	target that can be used today so that those that care to
> > 	upgrade will get the benefits now rather than in 10 years
> > 	time.
> 
> So why would a fall-back scheme, such as I've sketched
> before, not work?  (*With* suitable security measures.)

	Because it does not work when there is not protocol to 
	fall back with.

	Whatever is choosen has to work with only knowing the IP
	address of the incoming connection.

	Mark
> 
> 	One would then use only ASCII names (or IP number
> 'names') when 'talking' to instances of servers which didn't
> (in some suitable way) declare that they can handle UTF-8
> names.  The UTF-8 name may be substituted with the ASCII
> fallback along the way if not all steps can handle UTF-8
> names.  That would mean that sometimes the UTF-8 name is
> kept, hopefully more and more often, as servers get upgraded,
> sometimes not. But any fallback would be a name selected by
> some person, not a more or less cryptic encoding, which WILL
> sometimes FAIL to be decoded properly in principle AND in
> practice forever.  (A security point is also that any 
> cryptically encoded name, like in CIDNUC, that wasn't
> decoded properly might not be considered secure by the
> person that might use it, since the 'real' name is not
> apparent.)
> 
> 		Kind regards
> 		/kent k
> 
--
Mark Andrews, Nominum Inc. / Internet Software Consortium
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: Mark.Andrews@nominum.com