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Principles for the Involvement of Intermediaries in Internet Protocols
draft-thomson-tmi-01

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Author Martin Thomson
Last updated 2021-01-03
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draft-thomson-tmi-01
Network Working Group                                         M. Thomson
Internet-Draft                                                   Mozilla
Intended status: Informational                            4 January 2021
Expires: 8 July 2021

 Principles for the Involvement of Intermediaries in Internet Protocols
                          draft-thomson-tmi-01

Abstract

   This document proposes a set of principles for designing protocols
   with rules for intermediaries.  The goal of these principles is to
   limit the ways in which intermediaries can produce undesirable
   effects and to protect the useful functions that intermediaries
   legitimately provide.

Discussion Venues

   This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.

   Discussion of this document takes place on the IAB Model-T list
   (modelt@iab.org), which is archived at
   https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/model-t/.

   Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at
   https://github.com/martinthomson/tmi.

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 8 July 2021.

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2021 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 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
   2.  What is Meant by Intermediary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Intermediation Is Essential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Intermediation Is Useful  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Intermediation Enables Scaling Of Control . . . . . . . . . .   5
   6.  Incentive Misalignment at Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   7.  Forced and Unwanted Intermediation  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   8.  Contention over Intermediation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   9.  Proposed Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     9.1.  Prefer Services to Intermediaries . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     9.2.  Deliberately Select Protocol Participants . . . . . . . .   9
     9.3.  Limit Capabilities of Intermediaries  . . . . . . . . . .  10
       9.3.1.  Limit Information Exposure  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
       9.3.2.  Limit Permitted Interactions  . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
       9.3.3.  Costs of Technical Constraints  . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   10. Applying Non-Technical Constraints  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   11. The Effect on Existing Practices  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   12. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   13. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   14. Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   Appendix A.  Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17

1.  Introduction

   The Internet owes much of its success to its application of the end-
   to-end principle [E2E].  The realization that efficiency is best
   served by moving higher-level functions to endpoints is a key insight
   in system design, but also a key element of the success of the
   Internet.

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   This does not mean that the Internet avoids a relying on functions
   provided by entities in the network.  While the principle establishes
   that some functions are best provided by endsystems, this does not
   exclude all intermediary functions.  Some level of function in the
   network is necessary, or else there would be no network.  The ways in
   which intermediaries can assist protocol endpoints are numerous and
   constantly evolving.

   This document explores some of the ways in which intermediaries make
   both essential and valuable contributions to the function of the
   system.  Problems arise when the interests of intermediaries are
   poorly aligned with those of endpoints.  This can result in systemic
   costs and tension.  Addressing those issues can be difficult.

   This document proposes the following design principles for the
   protocols that might involve the participation of intermediaries:

   *  Avoid intermediation (Section 9.1)

   *  Limit the entities that can intermediate (Section 9.2)

   *  Limit what intermediaries can do (Section 9.3)

   These principles aim to provide clarity about the roles and
   responsibilities of protocol participants.  These principles produce
   more robust protocols with better privacy and security properties.
   These also limit the secondary costs associated with intermediation.

2.  What is Meant by Intermediary

   A protocol intermediary is an element that participates in
   communications.  An intermediary is not the primary initiator or
   recipient of communications, but instead acts to facilitate
   communications.

   An intermediary need not be explicitly present at the request of a
   participant.

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   Intermediaries exist at all layers of the stack.  A router is an
   intermediary that acts at the network layer to forward packets.  A
   TURN relay [RFC8155] provides similar forwarding capability for UDP
   in the presence of a network address translator (NAT) - a different
   type of intermediary that provides the ability to share a limited
   supply of addresses.  At higher layers of the stack, group messaging
   servers intermediate the exchange of messages within groups of
   people; a conference focus aids the sending of media group real-time
   communications; and a social network intermediates communication and
   information sharing through the exchange of messages and formation of
   groups.

   It is possible to facilitate communication without being an
   intermediary.  The DNS provides information that is critical to
   locating and communicating with other Internet hosts, but it does so
   without intermediating those communications.  Thus, this definition
   of intermediary does not include services like the DNS.  That said,
   though the DNS as a service does not result in intermediation of
   other activities, there are roles for intermediaries within the DNS
   that fit this definition, such as recursive resolvers.

3.  Intermediation Is Essential

   Intermediaries are essential to scalable communications.  The service
   an intermediary provides usually involves access to resources that
   would not otherwise be available.  For instance, the Internet does
   not function without routers that enable packets to reach other
   networks.

   Thus, there is some level of intermediation that is essential for the
   proper functioning of the Internet.

   Scalable solutions to the introduction problem often depend on
   services that provide access to information and capabilities.  As it
   is with the network layer of the Internet, the use of an intermediary
   can be absolutely essential.  For example, a social networking
   application acts as an intermediary that provides a communications
   medium, content discovery and publication, and related services.
   Video conferencing applications often depend on an intermediary that
   mixes audio and selectively forwards video so that bandwidth
   requirements don't increase beyond what is available for participants
   as conferences grow in size.

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4.  Intermediation Is Useful

   That intermediaries provide access to valuable resources does not
   imply that all intermediaries have exclusive control over access to
   resources.  A router might provide access to other networks, but
   similar access might be obtained via a different route.  The same web
   content might be provided by multiple CDNs.  Multiple DNS resolvers
   can provide answers to the same queries.  The ability to access the
   same capabilities from multiple entities contributes greatly to the
   robustness of a system.

   Intermediaries often provide capabilities that benefit from economies
   of scale by providing a service that aggregates demand from multiple
   individuals.  For instance, individuals are unlikely to be in a
   position to negotiate connections to multiple networks, but an ISP
   can.  Similarly, an individual might find it difficult to acquire the
   capacity necessary to withstand a DDoS attack, but the scale at which
   a CDN operates means that this capacity is likely available to it.
   Or the value of a social network is in part due to the existing
   participation of other people.

   Aggregation also provides other potential benefits.  For instance,
   caching of shared information can allow for performance advantages.
   From an efficiency perspective, the use of shared resources might
   allow load to be more evenly distributed over time.  For privacy,
   individual activity might be mixed with the activity of many others,
   thereby making it difficult to isolate that activity.

   The ability of an intermediary to operate at scale can therefore
   provide a number of different benefits to performance, scalability,
   privacy, and other areas.

5.  Intermediation Enables Scaling Of Control

   An action by an intermediary can affect all who communicate using
   that intermediary.  For an intermediary that operates at scale, this
   means it can be seen as an effective control point.

   The goal of some intermediary deployments is to effect a policy,
   relying on the ability of a well-placed intermediary to affect
   multiple protocol interactions and participants.

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   The ability of an intermediary to affect a large number of network
   users can be an advantage or vulnerability, depending on perspective.
   For instance, network intermediaries have been used to distribute
   warnings of impending natural disasters like fire, flood, or
   earthquake, which save lives and property.  In contrast, control over
   large-scale communications can enable censorship [RFC7754],
   misinformation, or pervasive monitoring [RFC7258].

   Intermediaries that can affect many people can therefore be powerful
   agents for control.  Though it is clear that the morality of actions
   taken can be subjective, network users have to consider the potential
   for the power they vest in intermediaries to be abused or subverted.

6.  Incentive Misalignment at Scale

   A dependency on an intermediary can represent a risk to those that
   take the dependency.  The incentives and motives of intermediaries
   can be important to consider.

   For instance, the information necessary for an intermediary to
   performs its function can often be used (or abused) for other
   purposes.  Even the simple function of forwarding necessarily
   involves information about who was communicating, when, and the size
   of messages.  This can reveal more than is obvious [CLINIC].

   As uses of networks become more diverse, the extent that incentives
   for intermediaries and network users align reduce.  In particular,
   acceptance of the costs and risks associated with intermediation by a
   majority of network users does not mean that all users have the same
   expectations and requirements.  This can be a significant problem if
   it becomes difficult to avoid or refuse participation by a particular
   intermediary; see (TODO CHOKEPOINTS=I-D.iab-chokepoints).

7.  Forced and Unwanted Intermediation

   The ability to act as intermediary can offer more options than a
   service that is called upon to provide information.  Sometimes those
   advantages are enough to justify the use of intermediation over
   alternative designs.  However, the use of an intermediary also
   introduces costs.

   The use of transparent or interception proxies in HTTP [HTTP] is an
   example of a practice that has fallen out of common usage due to
   increased use of HTTPS.  Use of transparent proxies was once
   widespread with a wide variety of reasons for their deployment.
   However, transparent proxies were involved in many abuses, such as
   unwanted transcoding of content and insertion of identifiers to the
   detriment of individual privacy.

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   Introducing intermediaries is often done with the intent of avoiding
   disruption to protocols that operate a higher layer of the stack.
   However, network layering abstractions often leak, meaning that the
   effects of the intermediation can be observed.  Where those effects
   cause problems, it can be difficult to detect and fix those problems.

   The insertion of an intermediary in a protocol imposes other costs on
   other protocol participants; see [EROSION] or [MIDDLEBOX].  In
   particular, poor implementations of intermediaries can adversely
   affect protocol operation.

   As an intermediary is another participant in a protocol, they can
   make interactions less robust.  Intermediaries can also be
   responsible for ossification, or the inability to deploy new protocol
   mechanisms; see Section 2.3 of [USE-IT].  For example, measurement of
   TCP showed that the protocol has poor prospects for extensibility due
   to widespread use - and poor implementation - of intermediaries
   [TCP-EXTEND].

8.  Contention over Intermediation

   The IETF has a long history of dealing with different forms of
   intermediation poorly.

   Early use of NAT was loudly decried by some in the IETF community.
   Indeed, the use of NAT was regarded as an unwanted intrusion by
   intermediaries.  The eventual recognition - not endorsement - of the
   existence of NAT ([MIDDLEBOX], [NAT-ARCH]) allowed the community to
   engage in the design protocols that properly handled NAT devices
   ([UNSAF], [STUN]) and to make recommendations for best practices
   [BEHAVE].

   Like HTTP, SIP [RFC3261] defines a role for a proxy, which is a form
   of intermediary with limited ability to interact with the session
   that it facilitates.  In practice, many deployments instead choose to
   deploy some form of Back-to-Back UA (B2BUA; [RFC7092]) for reasons
   that effectively reduce to greater ability to implement control
   functions.

   There are several ongoing debates in the IETF that are rooted in
   disagreement about the rule of intermediaries.  The interests of
   network-based devices - which are sometimes intermediaries - is
   fiercely debated in the context of TLS 1.3 [TLS], where the design
   renders certain practices obsolete.  Proposed uses of IPv6 header
   extensions in [SRv6NP] called into question the extent to which
   header extensions are the exclusive domain of endpoints as opposed to
   being available to intermediaries.

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   It could be that the circumstances in each of these debates is
   different enough that there is no singular outcome.  The
   complications resulting from large-scale deployments of great
   diversity might render a single clear outcome impossible for an
   established protocol.

9.  Proposed Principles

   Many problems caused by intermediation are the result of
   intermediaries that are introduced without the involvement of
   protocol endpoints.  Limiting the extent to which protocol designs
   depend on intermediaries makes the resulting system more robust.

   These principles are set out in three stages:

   1.  Prefer designs without intermediaries (Section 9.1);

   2.  Failing that, control which entities can intermediate the
       protocol (Section 9.2); and

   3.  Limit actions and information that are available to
       intermediaries (Section 9.3).

   The use of technical mechanisms to ensure that these principles are
   enforced is necessary.  It is expected that protocols will need to
   use cryptography for this.

   New protocol designs therefore need to identify what intermediation
   is possible and what is desired.  Technical mechanisms to guarantee
   conformance, where possible, are highly recommended.

   Modifying existing protocols to follow these principles could be
   difficult, but worthwhile.

9.1.  Prefer Services to Intermediaries

   Protocols should prefer designs that do not involve additional
   participants, such as intermediaries.

   Designing protocols to use services rather than intermediaries
   ensures that responsibilities of protocol participants are clearly
   defined.  Where functions can provided by means other than
   intermediation, the design should prefer that alternative.

   If there is a need for information, defining a means for querying a
   service for that information is preferable to adding an intermediary.
   Similarly, direct invocation of service to perform an action is
   better than involving that service as a participant in the protocol.

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   Involving an entity as an intermediary can greatly increase the
   degree to which that entity becomes a dependency.  For example, it
   might be necessary to negotiate the use of new capabilities with all
   protocol participants, including the intermediary, even when the
   functions for which the intermediary was added are not affected.  It
   is also more difficult to limit the extent to which a protocol
   participant can be involved than a service that is invoked for a
   specific task.

   Using discrete services is not always the most performant
   architecture as additional network interactions can add to overheads.
   The cost of these overheads need to be weighed against the recurrent
   costs from involving intermediaries.

   The contribution of an intermediary to performance and efficiency can
   involve trade-offs, such as those discussed in Section 2.3 of [E2E].
   One consideration is the potential need for critical functions to be
   replicated in both intermediaries and endpoints, reducing efficiency.
   Another is the possibility that an intermediary optimized for one
   application could degrade performance in other applications.

   Preferring services is analogous to the software design principle
   that recommends a preference for composition over inheritance
   [PATTERNS].

9.2.  Deliberately Select Protocol Participants

   Protocol participants should know what other participants they might
   be interacting with, including intermediaries.

   Protocols that permit the involvement of an intermediary need to do
   so intentionally and provide measures that prevent the addition of
   unwanted intermediaries.  Ideally, all protocol participants are
   identified and known to other protocol participants.

   The addition of an unwanted protocol participant is an attack on the
   protocol.

   This is an extension of the conclusion of [PATH-SIGNALS], which:

      recommends that implicit signals should be avoided and that an
      implicit signal should be replaced with an explicit signal only
      when the signal's originator intends that it be used by the
      network elements on the path.

   Applying this principle likely requires the use of authentication and
   encryption.

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9.3.  Limit Capabilities of Intermediaries

   Protocol participants should be able to limit the capabilities
   conferred to other protocol participants.

   Where the potential for intermediation already exists, or
   intermediaries provide essential functions, protocol designs should
   limit the capabilities and information that protocol participants are
   required to grant others.

   Limiting the information that participants are required to provide to
   other participants has benefits for privacy or to limit the potential
   for misuse of information; see Section 9.3.1.  Where confidentiality
   is impossible or impractical, integrity protection can be used to
   ensure that data origin authentication is preserved; see
   Section 9.3.2.

9.3.1.  Limit Information Exposure

   Protocol participants should only have access to the information they
   need to perform their designated function.

   Protocol designs based on a principle of providing the minimum
   information necessary have several benefits.  In addition to
   requiring smaller messages, or fewer exchanges, reducing information
   provides greater control over exposure of information.  This has
   privacy benefits.

   Where an intermediary needs to carry information that it has no need
   to access, protocols should use encryption to ensure that the
   intermediary cannot access that information.

   Providing information for intermediaries using signals that are
   separate from other protocol signaling is preferable [PATH-SIGNALS].
   In addition, integrity protection should be applied to these signals
   to prevent modification.

9.3.2.  Limit Permitted Interactions

   An action should only be taken based on signals from protocol
   participants that are authorized to request that action.

   Where an intermediary needs to communicate with other protocol
   participants, ensure that these signals are attributed to an
   intermediary.  Authentication is the best means of ensuring signals
   generated by protocol participants are correctly attributed.
   Authentication informs decisions protocol participants make about
   actions they take.

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   In some cases, particularly protocols that are primarily two-party
   protocols, it might be sufficient to allow the signal to be
   attributed to any intermediary.  This is the case in QUIC [QUIC] for
   ECN [ECN] and ICMP [ICMP], both of which are assumed to be provided
   by elements on the network path.  Limited mechanisms exist to
   authenticate these as signals that originate from path elements,
   informing actions taken by endpoints.  Consequently, the actions
   taken in response to these signals is limited.

9.3.3.  Costs of Technical Constraints

   Moving from a protocol in which there are two participants (such as
   [TLS]) to more than two participants can be more complex and
   expensive to implement and deploy.

   More generally, the application of technical measures to control how
   intermediaries participate in a protocol incur costs that manifest in
   several ways.  Protocols are more difficult to design;
   implementations are larger and more complex; and deployments might
   suffer from added operational costs, higher computation loads, and
   more bandwidth consumption.  These costs are reflective of the true
   cost of involving additional entities in protocols.  In protocols
   without technical measures to limit participation, these costs have
   historically been borne by other protocol participants.

   In general however, most protocols are able to reuse existing
   mechanisms for cryptographic protection, such as TLS [TLS].  Adopting
   something like TLS provides security properties that are well
   understood and analyzed.  Using a standardized solution enables use
   of well-tested implementations that include optimizations and other
   mitigations for these costs.

10.  Applying Non-Technical Constraints

   Not all intermediary functions can be tightly constrained.  For
   instance, as described in Section 6, some functions involve granting
   intermediaries access to information that can be used for more than
   its intended purpose.  Applying strong technical constraints on how
   that information is used might be infeasible or impossible.

   The use of authentication allows for other forms of control on
   intermediaries.  Auditing systems or other mechanisms for ensuring
   accountability can use authentication information.  Authentication
   can also enable the use of legal, social, or other types of control
   that might cover any shortfall in technical measures.

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11.  The Effect on Existing Practices

   The application of these principles can have an effect on existing
   operational practices, particularly where they rely on protocols not
   limiting intermediary access.  Several documents have explored
   aspects of this in detail:

   *  [RFC8404] describes effects of encryption on practices performed
      by intermediaries;

   *  [RFC8517] describes a broader set of practices;

   *  [TSV-ENC] explores the effect on transport-layer intermediaries in
      more detail; and

   *  [NS-IMPACT] examines the effect of TLS on operational network
      security practices.

   In all these documents, the defining characteristic is the move from
   a system that lacked controls on participation to one in which
   technical controls are deployed.  In each case the protocols in
   question provided no technical controls or only limited technical
   controls that prevent the addition of intermediaries.  This allowed
   the deployment of techniques that involved the insertion of
   intermediaries into sessions without permission or knowledge of other
   protocol participants.  By adding controls like encryption, these
   practices are disrupted.  Overall, the advantages derived from having
   greater control and knowledge of other protocol participants
   outweighs these costs.

   The process of identifying critical functions for intermediaries is
   ongoing.  There are three potential classes of outcome of these
   discussion:

   *  Practices might be deemed valuable and methods that allow limited
      participation by intermediaries will be added to protocols.

   *  The use case supported by the practice might be deemed valuable,
      but alternative methods that address the use case without the use
      of an intermediary will be sought.

   *  Practices might be deemed harmful and no replacement mechanism
      will be sought.

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   Many factors could influence the outcome of this analysis.  For
   instance, deployment of alternative methods or limited roles for
   intermediaries could be relatively simple for new protocol
   deployments; whereas it might be challenging to retrofit controls on
   existing protocol deployments.

12.  Security Considerations

   Controlling the level of participation and access intermediaries have
   is a security question.  The principles in Section 9 are
   fundamentally an application of a security principle: namely the
   principle of least privilege [LEAST-PRIVILEGE].

   Lack of proper controls on intermediaries protocols has been the
   source of significant security problems.

13.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA actions.

14.  Informative References

   [BEHAVE]   Audet, F., Ed. and C. Jennings, "Network Address
              Translation (NAT) Behavioral Requirements for Unicast
              UDP", BCP 127, RFC 4787, DOI 10.17487/RFC4787, January
              2007, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4787>.

   [CLINIC]   Miller, B., Huang, L., Joseph, A., and J. Tygar, "I Know
              Why You Went to the Clinic: Risks and Realization of HTTPS
              Traffic Analysis", Privacy Enhancing Technologies pp.
              143-163, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-08506-7_8, 2014,
              <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08506-7_8>.

   [E2E]      Saltzer, J., Reed, D., and D. Clark, "End-to-end arguments
              in system design", ACM Transactions on Computer
              Systems Vol. 2, pp. 277-288, DOI 10.1145/357401.357402,
              November 1984, <https://doi.org/10.1145/357401.357402>.

   [ECN]      Ramakrishnan, K., Floyd, S., and D. Black, "The Addition
              of Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) to IP",
              RFC 3168, DOI 10.17487/RFC3168, September 2001,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3168>.

   [EROSION]  Hildebrand, J. and P. McManus, "Erosion of the moral
              authority of transparent middleboxes", Work in Progress,
              Internet-Draft, draft-hildebrand-middlebox-erosion-01, 10
              November 2014, <http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-
              hildebrand-middlebox-erosion-01.txt>.

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   [HTTP]     Fielding, R., Nottingham, M., and J. Reschke, "HTTP
              Semantics", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-
              httpbis-semantics-13, 14 December 2020,
              <http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-httpbis-
              semantics-13.txt>.

   [ICMP]     Postel, J., "Internet Control Message Protocol", STD 5,
              RFC 792, DOI 10.17487/RFC0792, September 1981,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc792>.

   [LEAST-PRIVILEGE]
              Saltzer, J., "Protection and the control of information
              sharing in multics", Communications of the ACM Vol. 17,
              pp. 388-402, DOI 10.1145/361011.361067, July 1974,
              <https://doi.org/10.1145/361011.361067>.

   [MIDDLEBOX]
              Carpenter, B. and S. Brim, "Middleboxes: Taxonomy and
              Issues", RFC 3234, DOI 10.17487/RFC3234, February 2002,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3234>.

   [NAT-ARCH] Hain, T., "Architectural Implications of NAT", RFC 2993,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2993, November 2000,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2993>.

   [NS-IMPACT]
              Cam-Winget, N., Wang, E., Danyliw, R., and R. DuToit,
              "Impact of TLS 1.3 to Operational Network Security
              Practices", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-
              opsec-ns-impact-03, 25 October 2020, <http://www.ietf.org/
              internet-drafts/draft-ietf-opsec-ns-impact-03.txt>.

   [PATH-SIGNALS]
              Hardie, T., Ed., "Transport Protocol Path Signals",
              RFC 8558, DOI 10.17487/RFC8558, April 2019,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8558>.

   [PATTERNS] Gamma, E., Helm, R., Johnson, R., and J. Vlissides,
              "Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented
              Software", 1994.

   [QUIC]     Iyengar, J. and M. Thomson, "QUIC: A UDP-Based Multiplexed
              and Secure Transport", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft,
              draft-ietf-quic-transport-33, 13 December 2020,
              <http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-quic-
              transport-33.txt>.

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   [RFC3261]  Rosenberg, J., Schulzrinne, H., Camarillo, G., Johnston,
              A., Peterson, J., Sparks, R., Handley, M., and E.
              Schooler, "SIP: Session Initiation Protocol", RFC 3261,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC3261, June 2002,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3261>.

   [RFC3552]  Rescorla, E. and B. Korver, "Guidelines for Writing RFC
              Text on Security Considerations", BCP 72, RFC 3552,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC3552, July 2003,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3552>.

   [RFC3724]  Kempf, J., Ed., Austein, R., Ed., and IAB, "The Rise of
              the Middle and the Future of End-to-End: Reflections on
              the Evolution of the Internet Architecture", RFC 3724,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC3724, March 2004,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3724>.

   [RFC7092]  Kaplan, H. and V. Pascual, "A Taxonomy of Session
              Initiation Protocol (SIP) Back-to-Back User Agents",
              RFC 7092, DOI 10.17487/RFC7092, December 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7092>.

   [RFC7258]  Farrell, S. and H. Tschofenig, "Pervasive Monitoring Is an
              Attack", BCP 188, RFC 7258, DOI 10.17487/RFC7258, May
              2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7258>.

   [RFC7754]  Barnes, R., Cooper, A., Kolkman, O., Thaler, D., and E.
              Nordmark, "Technical Considerations for Internet Service
              Blocking and Filtering", RFC 7754, DOI 10.17487/RFC7754,
              March 2016, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7754>.

   [RFC8155]  Patil, P., Reddy, T., and D. Wing, "Traversal Using Relays
              around NAT (TURN) Server Auto Discovery", RFC 8155,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8155, April 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8155>.

   [RFC8404]  Moriarty, K., Ed. and A. Morton, Ed., "Effects of
              Pervasive Encryption on Operators", RFC 8404,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8404, July 2018,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8404>.

   [RFC8517]  Dolson, D., Ed., Snellman, J., Boucadair, M., Ed., and C.
              Jacquenet, "An Inventory of Transport-Centric Functions
              Provided by Middleboxes: An Operator Perspective",
              RFC 8517, DOI 10.17487/RFC8517, February 2019,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8517>.

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   [SRv6NP]   Filsfils, C., Camarillo, P., Leddy, J., Voyer, D.,
              Matsushima, S., and Z. Li, "SRv6 Network Programming",
              Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-spring-srv6-
              network-programming-28, 29 December 2020,
              <http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-spring-
              srv6-network-programming-28.txt>.

   [STUN]     Petit-Huguenin, M., Salgueiro, G., Rosenberg, J., Wing,
              D., Mahy, R., and P. Matthews, "Session Traversal
              Utilities for NAT (STUN)", Work in Progress, Internet-
              Draft, draft-ietf-tram-stunbis-21, 22 March 2019,
              <http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-tram-
              stunbis-21.txt>.

   [TCP-EXTEND]
              Honda, M., Nishida, Y., Raiciu, C., Greenhalgh, A.,
              Handley, M., and H. Tokuda, "Is it still possible to
              extend TCP?", Proceedings of the 2011 ACM SIGCOMM
              conference on Internet measurement conference - IMC '11,
              DOI 10.1145/2068816.2068834, 2011,
              <https://doi.org/10.1145/2068816.2068834>.

   [TLS]      Rescorla, E., "The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol
              Version 1.3", RFC 8446, DOI 10.17487/RFC8446, August 2018,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8446>.

   [TSV-ENC]  Fairhurst, G. and C. Perkins, "Considerations around
              Transport Header Confidentiality, Network Operations, and
              the Evolution of Internet Transport Protocols", Work in
              Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-tsvwg-transport-
              encrypt-18, 2 November 2020, <http://www.ietf.org/
              internet-drafts/draft-ietf-tsvwg-transport-encrypt-
              18.txt>.

   [UNSAF]    Daigle, L., Ed. and IAB, "IAB Considerations for
              UNilateral Self-Address Fixing (UNSAF) Across Network
              Address Translation", RFC 3424, DOI 10.17487/RFC3424,
              November 2002, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3424>.

   [USE-IT]   Thomson, M., "Long-term Viability of Protocol Extension
              Mechanisms", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-iab-
              use-it-or-lose-it-00, 7 August 2019, <http://www.ietf.org/
              internet-drafts/draft-iab-use-it-or-lose-it-00.txt>.

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Appendix A.  Acknowledgments

   This document is merely an attempt to codify existing practice.
   Practice that is inspired, at least in part, by prior work, including
   [RFC3552] and [RFC3724] which both advocate for clearer articulation
   of trust boundaries.

   Jari Arkko, Eric Rescorla, and David Schinazi are acknowledged for
   their contributions of thought, review, and text.

Author's Address

   Martin Thomson
   Mozilla

   Email: mt@lowentropy.net

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