Independent Submission M. Fabbrini Internet-Draft February 8, 2020 Intended status: Informational Expires: August 11, 2020 A Web Model where Content Is Stored in a File's Source: The Unentangled Network draft-fabbrini-web-model-unentangled-network-00 Abstract This document describes an experimental model of web whose main characteristic is that the content is stored in a file's source and accessed through a common text browser from the command line under Linux Os. This work also aims to evaluate the implications of such a network in relation, among other aspects, to security and tracking. Status of This Memo This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." This Internet-Draft will expire on August 11, 2020. Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2020 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of Fabbrini Expires August 11, 2020 [Page 1] Internet-Draft The Unentangled Network February 2020 publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License. Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.1. Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2. The Core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4. Content Retrieving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 5. Ineffectiveness of Malicious Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 6. Fingerprinting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 7. Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 8. Separation of Content and Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 9. Enhanced Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 10. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 11. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 12. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1. Introduction Nowadays getting text content is not a risk-free task and also involves some drawbacks that often discourage the intensive use of the internet by some users who are particularly sensitive to privacy issues. Rendering a web page in a browser poses first of all security risks deriving mostly from the execution of malicious script code. Secondly, the tracking of every user action carried out by the advertising machine, which was once mainly represented by cookies, is now enriched by tools that are permanently installed on local storages, such as for example service workers and IndexedDB. The particular web model proposed in this document mitigates both the security risks and the intrusiveness of tracking tools. 1.1. Requirements Language The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this Fabbrini Expires August 11, 2020 [Page 2] Internet-Draft The Unentangled Network February 2020 document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119]. 2. The Core The peculiar characteristic of this model is that the text content is inserted in the source of a file. The carrier document can be of two types: i. a text file saved as an image or binary format. ii. a file in which the textual content follows the correct hex signature such as for instance "42 4D" relating to the BMP format. 3. System Requirements The model was imagined for the Linux Os environment with Lynx as text browser. Lynx, one of the most popular web browsers for command-line interfaces, was originally designed to display plain ASCII text on simple terminals of UNIX, without including any multimedia content. Although Lynx is preferable for some specific features, any other text web browser can be used. 4. Content Retrieving To start Lynx, at the command line prompt, enter 'lynx' followed by the '-source' option and append a carrier document's url. Example: 'lynx -source https://example.com/.../foo.png' The result of executing this command is that the unrendered source of the document is displayed. 5. Ineffectiveness of Malicious Scripts Since the unrendered source is retrieved, no event can be triggered by a script. In particular, attacks launched via JavaScript will be impossible to perform. Fabbrini Expires August 11, 2020 [Page 3] Internet-Draft The Unentangled Network February 2020 6. Fingerprinting Browser fingerprinting involves gathering information about an internet user's browser and associated software and hardware, such as the browser type, the operating system, various network request headers, cookies, extensions, screen resolution and so on. These properties can be collected using JavaScript. Since in this environment no script can be run, fingerprinting methodologies based on JavaScript are ineffective. 7. Ads In a text-only environment, with scripting languages out of the game, the invasive banner and video ads that often make the content de facto impossible to read, will not find space. 8. Separation of Content and Form This web model allows the separation of content and form. In fact, it is up to the user to choose the font, size, color, acting on the terminal settings of the installed Linux version. 9. Enhanced Trust As a consequence of what is discussed in paragraphs 5, 6 and 7, the information system resulting from the implementation of such a network model will be probably trusted by the users. 10. IANA Considerations This memo includes no request to IANA. 11. Security Considerations In addition to what is examined in paragraph 5, it is worth noting that although in any browser it is possible to disable JavaScript, in the Unentangled Network security is in a certain sense "by design". In fact, it is the model itself that prevent scripts from running and no user intervention is required. Fabbrini Expires August 11, 2020 [Page 4] Internet-Draft The Unentangled Network February 2020 12. Informative References [I-D.wood-pearg-website-fingerprinting] I. Goldberg, T. Wang, C. Wood, "Network-Based Website Fingerprinting", draft-wood-pearg-website -fingerprinting-00, (work in progress). [SW] F. Copes "Service Workers explained" [Lynx] Thomas E. Dickey [JSTAttacks] Michael Schwarz, Florian Lackner, Daniel Gruss Graz University of Technology "JavaScript Template Attacks: Automatically Inferring Host Information for Targeted Exploits [JSFingerprinting] T.Claburn "JavaScript tells all, which turns out not to be so great for privacy: Side-channel leaks can be exploited to follow you around the interweb Author's Address Michele Fabbrini Email: unentangled.net@protonmail.com 335 Via Statale Abetone I-56017 San Giuliano Terme Pisa, Tuscany Country: Italy Fabbrini Expires August 11, 2020 [Page 5] Internet-Draft The Unentangled Network February 2020