INTERNET-DRAFT Adam M. Costello draft-ietf-idn-punycode-00.txt 2002-Jan-06 Expires 2002-Jul-06 Punycode version 0.3.3 Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. 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." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html Distribution of this document is unlimited. Please send comments to the author at amc@cs.berkeley.edu, or to the idn working group at idn@ops.ietf.org. A non-paginated (and possibly newer) version of this specification may be available at http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~amc/idn/ Abstract Punycode is a simple and efficient encoding designed for use with Internationalized Domain Names [IDN] [IDNA]. It uniquely and reversibly transforms a Unicode string [UNICODE] into an ASCII string. ASCII characters in the Unicode string are represented literally, and non-ASCII characters are represented by ASCII characters that are allowed in hostname labels (letters, digits, and hyphens). Bootstring is a general algorithm that allows a string of basic code points to uniquely represent any string of code points drawn from a larger set. Punycode is an instance Bootstring that uses particular parameter values appropriate for IDNA. This document specifies Bootstring and the parameter values for Punycode. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Terminology 3. Bootstring description 3.1 Basic code point segregation 3.2 Insertion unsort coding 3.3 Generalized variable-length integers 3.4 Bias adaptation 4. Bootstring parameters 5. Parameter values for Punycode 6. Bootstring algorithms 6.1 Bias adaptation function 6.2 Decoding procedure 6.3 Encoding procedure 6.4 Alternative methods for handling overflow 7. Punycode example strings 8. Security considerations 9. References A. Author contact information B. Mixed-case annotation C. Disclaimer and License D. Punycode sample implementation 1. Introduction The IDNA draft [IDNA] describes an architecture for supporting internationalized domain names. Labels containing non-ASCII characters can be represented by ACE labels, which begin with a special prefix and contain only ASCII characters. The remainder of the label after the prefix is a Punycode encoding of a Unicode string satisfying certain constraints. For the details of the prefix and constraints, see [IDNA] and [NAMEPREP]. Bootstring has been designed to have the following features: * Completeness: Every extended string (sequence of arbitrary code points) can be represented by a basic string (sequence of basic code points). Restrictions on what strings are allowed, and on length, may be imposed by higher layers. * Uniqueness: There is at most one basic string that represents a given extended string. * Reversibility: Any extended string mapped to a basic string can be recovered from that basic string. * Efficient encoding: The ratio of extended string length to basic string length is small. This is important in the context of domain names because RFC 1034 [RFC1034] restricts the length of a domain label to 63 characters. * Simplicity: The encoding and decoding algorithms are reasonably simple to implement. The goals of efficiency and simplicity are at odds; Bootstring aims at a good balance between them. * Readability: Basic code points appearing in the extended string are represented as themselves in the basic string. This comes for free because it makes the encoding more efficient on average. In addition, Punycode can support an optional feature described in appendix B "Mixed-case annotation". 2. Terminology The key words "must", "shall", "required", "should", "recommended", and "may" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119]. A code point is an integral value associated with a character in a coded character set. As in the Unicode Standard [UNICODE], Unicode code points are denoted by "U+" followed by four to six hexadecimal digits, while a range of code points is denoted by two hexadecimal numbers separated by "..", with no prefixes. The operators div and mod perform integer division; (x div y) is the quotient of x divided by y, discarding the remainder, and (x mod y) is the remainder, so (x div y) * y + (x mod y) == x. Bootstring uses these operators only with nonnegative operands, so the quotient and remainder are always nonnegative. The break statement jumps out of the innermost loop (as in C). An overflow is an attempt to compute a value that exceeds the maximum value of an integer variable. 3. Bootstring description Bootstring represents an arbitrary sequence of code points (the "extended string") as a sequence of basic code points (the "basic string"). This section describes the representation. Section 6 "Bootstring algorithms" presents the algorithms as pseudocode. 3.1 Basic code point segregation All basic code points appearing in the extended string are represented literally at the beginning of the basic string, in their original order, followed by a delimiter if (and only if) the number of basic code points is nonzero. The delimiter is a particular basic code point, which never appears in the remainder of the basic string. The decoder can therefore find the end of the literal portion (if there is one) by scanning for the last delimiter. 3.2 Insertion unsort coding The remainder of the basic string (after the last delimiter if there is one) represents a sequence of nonnegative integral deltas as generalized variable-length integers, described in section 3.3. The meaning of the deltas is best understood in terms of the decoder. The decoder builds the extended string incrementally. Initially, the extended string is a copy of the literal portion of the basic string (excluding the last delimiter). Each delta causes the decoder to insert a code point into the extended string according to the following procedure. There are two state variables: a code point n, and an index i that ranges from zero (which is the first position of the extended string) to the current length of the extended string (which refers to a potential position beyond the current end). The decoder advances the state monotonically (never returning to an earlier state) by taking steps only upward. Each step increments i, except when i already equals the length of the extended string, in which case a step resets i to zero and increments n. For each delta (in order), the decoder takes delta steps upward, then inserts the value n into the extended string at position i, then increments i (to skip over the code point just inserted). (An implementation should not take each step individually, but should insead use division and remainder calculations to advance by delta steps all at once.) It is an error if the inserted code point is a basic code point (because basic code points must be segregated as described in section 3.1). The encoder's main task is to derive the sequence of deltas that will cause the decoder to construct the desired string. It can do this by repeatedly scanning the extended string for the next code point that the decoder would need to insert, and counting the number of steps the decoder would need to take, mindful of the fact that the decoder will be stepping over only those code points that have already been inserted. Section 6.3 "Encoding procedure" gives a precise algorithm. 3.3 Generalized variable-length integers In a conventional integer representation the base is the number of distinct symbols for digits, whose values are 0 through base-1. Let digit_0 denote the least significant digit, digit_1 the next least significant, and so on. The value represented is the sum over j of digit_j * w(j), where w(j) = base^j is the weight (scale factor) for position j. For example, in the base 8 integer 437, the digits are 7, 3, and 4, and the weights are 1, 8, and 64, so the value is 7 + 3*8 + 4*64 = 287. This representation has two disadvantages: First, there are multiple encodings of each value (because there can be extra zeros in the most significant positions), which is inconvenient when unique encodings are required. Second, the integer is not self-delimiting, so if multiple integers are concatenated the boundaries between them are lost. The generalized variable-length representation solves these two problems. The digit values are still 0 through base-1, but now the integer is self-delimiting by means of thresholds t(j), each of which is in the range 0 through base-1. Exactly one digit, the most significant, satisfies digit_j < t(j). Therefore, if several integers are concatenated, it is easy to separate them, starting with the first if they are little-endian (least significant digit first), or starting with the last if they are big-endian (most significant digit first). As before, the value is the sum over j of digit_j * w(j), but the weights are different: w(0) = 1 w(j) = w(j-1) * (base - t(j-1)) for j > 0 For example, consider the little-endian sequence of base 8 digits 734251... Suppose the thresholds are 2, 3, 5, 5, 5, 5... This implies that the weights are 1, 1*(8-2) = 6, 6*(8-3) = 30, 30*(8-5) = 90, 90*(8-5) = 270, and so on. 7 is not less than 2, and 3 is not less than 3, but 4 is less than 5, so 4 must be the last digit. The value of 734 is 7*1 + 3*6 + 4*30 = 145. The next integer is 251, with value 2*1 + 5*6 + 1*30 = 62. Decoding this representation is very similar to decoding a conventional integer: Start with a current value of N = 0 and a weight w = 1. Fetch the next digit d and increase N by d * w. If d is less than the current threshold (t) then stop, otherwise increase w by a factor of (base - t), update t for the next position, and repeat. Encoding this representation is similar to encoding a conventional integer: If N < t then output one digit for N and stop, otherwise output the digit for t + ((N - t) mod (base - t)), then replace N with (N - t) div (base - t), update t for the next position, and repeat. For any particular set of values of t(j), there is exactly one generalized variable-length representation of each nonnegative integral value. Bootstring uses little-endian ordering so that the deltas can be separated starting with the first. The t(j) values are defined in terms of the constants base, tmin, and tmax, and a state variable called bias: t(j) = base * (j + 1) - bias, clamped to the range tmin through tmax The clamping means that if the formula yields a value less than tmin or greater than tmax, then t(j) = tmin or tmax, respectively. (In the pseudocode in section 6 "Bootstring algorithms", the expression base * (j + 1) is denoted by k for performance reasons.) These t(j) values cause the representation to favor integers within a particular range determined by the bias. 3.4 Bias adaptation After each delta is encoded or decoded, bias is set for the next delta as follows: 1. Delta is scaled in order to avoid overflow in the next step: let delta = delta div 2 But when this is the very first delta, the divisor is not 2, but instead a constant called damp. This compensates for the fact that the second delta is usually much smaller than the first. 2. Delta is increased to compensate for the fact that the next delta will be inserting into a longer string: let delta = delta + (delta div numpoints) numpoints is the total number of code points encoded/decoded so far (including the one corresponding to this delta itself, and including the basic code points). 3. Delta is repeatedly divided until it falls within a threshold, to predict the minimum number of digits needed to represent the next delta: while delta > ((base - tmin) * tmax) div 2 do let delta = delta div (base - tmin) 4. The bias is set: let bias = (base * the number of divisions performed in step 3) + (((base - tmin + 1) * delta) div (delta + skew)) The motivation for this procedure is that the current delta provides a hint about the likely size of the next delta, and so t(j) is set to tmax for the more significant digits starting with the one expected to be last, tmin for the less significant digits up through the one expected to be third-last, and somewhere between tmin and tmax for the digit expected to be second-last (balancing the hope of the expected-last digit being unnecessary against the danger of it being insufficient). 4. Bootstring parameters Given a set of basic code points, one must be designated as the delimiter. The base can be no greater than the number of distinguishable basic code points remaining. The digit-values in the range 0 through base-1 must be associated with distinct non-delimiter basic code points. In some cases multiple code points must have the same digit-value; for example, uppercase and lowercase versions of the same letter must be equivalent if basic strings are case-insensitive. The initial value of n must be no greater than the minimum non-basic code point that could appear in extended strings. The remaining five parameters (tmin, tmax, skew, damp, and the initial value of bias) must satisfy the following constraints: 0 <= tmin <= tmax <= base-1 skew >= 1 damp >= 2 initial_bias mod base <= base - tmin Provided the constraints are satisfied, these five parameters affect efficiency but not correctness. They should be chosen empirically. If support for mixed-case annotation is desired (see appendix B), make sure that the code points corresponding to 0 through tmax-1 all have both uppercase and lowercase forms. 5. Parameter values for Punycode Punycode uses the following Bootstring parameter values: base = 36 tmin = 1 tmax = 26 skew = 38 damp = 700 initial_bias = 72 initial_n = 0x80 In Punycode, code points are Unicode code points [UNICODE], that is, integers in the range 0..10FFFF, but not D800..DFFF, which are reserved for use by UTF-16. The basic code points are the ASCII code points (0..7F), of which U+002D (-) is the delimiter, and some of the others have digit-values as follows: code points digit-values ------------ ---------------------- 41..5A (A-Z) = 0 to 25, respectively 61..7A (a-z) = 0 to 25, respectively 30..39 (0-9) = 26 to 35, respectively Using hyphen-minus as the delimiter implies that the encoded string can end with a hyphen-minus only if the Unicode string consists entirely of basic code points, but IDNA forbids such strings from being encoded. The encoded string can begin with a hyphen-minus, but IDNA prepends a prefix. Therefore IDNA using Punycode conforms to the RFC 952 recommendation that hostname labels neither begin nor end with a hyphen-minus [RFC952]. A decoder must recognize the letters in both uppercase and lowercase forms (including mixtures of both forms). An encoder should output only uppercase forms or only lowercase forms, unless it uses mixed-case annotation (see appendix B). Presumably most users will not manually write or type encoded strings (as opposed to cutting and pasting them), but those who do will need to be alert to the potential visual ambiguity between the following sets of characters: G 6 I l 1 O 0 S 5 U V Z 2 Such ambiguities are usually resolved by context, but in a Punycode encoded string there is no context apparent to humans. 6. Bootstring algorithms Some parts of the pseudocode can be omitted if the parameters satisfy certain conditions (for which Punycode qualifies). These parts are enclosed in {braces}, and notes immediately following the pseudocode explain the conditions under which they may be omitted. Formally, code points are integers, and hence the pseudocode assumes that arithmetic operations can be performed directly on code points. Some actual programming languages might require explicit conversion between code points and integers. 6.1 Bias adaptation function function adapt(delta,numpoints,firsttime): if firsttime then let delta = delta div damp else let delta = delta div 2 let delta = delta + (delta div numpoints) let k = 0 while delta > ((base - tmin) * tmax) div 2 do begin let delta = delta div (base - tmin) let k = k + base end return k + (((base - tmin + 1) * delta) div (delta + skew)) It does not matter whether the modifications to delta and k inside adapt() affect variables of the same name inside the encoding/decoding procedures, because after calling adapt() the caller does not read those variables before overwriting them. 6.2 Decoding procedure let n = initial_n let i = 0 let bias = initial_bias let output = an empty string indexed from 0 consume all code points before the last delimiter (if there is one) and copy them to output, fail on any non-basic code point if more than zero code points were consumed then consume one more (which will be the last delimiter) while the input is not exhausted do begin let oldi = i let w = 1 for k = base to infinity in steps of base do begin consume a code point, or fail if there was none to consume let digit = the code point's digit-value, fail if it has none let i = i + digit * w, fail on overflow let t = tmin if k <= bias, tmax if k >= bias + tmax, or k - bias otherwise if digit < t then break let w = w * (base - t), fail on overflow end let bias = adapt(i - oldi, length(output) + 1, test oldi is 0?) let n = n + i div (length(output) + 1), fail on overflow let i = i mod (length(output) + 1) {if n is a basic code point then fail} insert n into output at position i increment i end The statement enclosed in braces (checking whether n is a basic code point) may be omitted if initial_n exceeds all basic code points (which is true for Punycode), because n is never less than initial_n. Because the decoder state can only advance monotonically, and there is only one representation of any delta, there is therefore only one encoded string that can represent a given sequence of integers. The only error conditions are invalid code points, unexpected end-of-input, overflow, and basic code points encoded using deltas instead of appearing literally. If the decoder fails on these errors as shown above, then it cannot produce the same output for two distinct inputs, and hence it need not re-encode its output to verify that it matches the input. The assignment of t, where t is clamped to the range tmin through tmax, does not handle the case where bias < k < bias + tmin, but that is impossible because of the way bias is computed and because of the constraints on the parameters. If the programming language does not provide overflow detection, the following technique can be used. Suppose A, B, and C are representable nonnegative integers and C is nonzero. Then A + B overflows if and only if B > maxint - A, and A + (B * C) overflows if and only if B > (maxint - A) div C, where maxint is the greatest integer for which maxint + 1 cannot be represented. Refer to appendix D "Punycode sample implementation" for demonstrations of this technique in the C language. See also section 6.4 "Alternative methods for handling overflow". 6.3 Encoding procedure let n = initial_n let delta = 0 let bias = initial_bias let h = b = the number of basic code points in the input copy them to the output in order, followed by a delimiter if b > 0 {if the input contains a non-basic code point < n then fail} while h < length(input) do begin let m = the minimum {non-basic} code point >= n in the input let delta = delta + (m - n) * (h + 1), fail on overflow let n = m for each code point c in the input (in order) do begin if c < n {or c is basic} then increment delta, fail on overflow if c == n then begin let q = delta for k = base to infinity in steps of base do begin let t = tmin if k <= bias, tmax if k >= bias + tmax, or k - bias otherwise if q < t then break output the code point for digit t + ((q - t) mod (base - t)) let q = (q - t) div (base - t) end output the code point for digit q let bias = adapt(delta, h + 1, test h equals b?) let delta = 0 increment h end end increment delta and n end The full statement enclosed in braces (checking whether the input contains a non-basic code point less than n) can be omitted if all code points less than initial_n are basic code points (which is true for Punycode if code points are unsigned). The brace-enclosed conditions "non-basic" and "or m is basic" can be omitted if initial_n exceeds all basic code points (which is true for Punycode), because the code point being tested is never less than initial_n. The checks for overflow are necessary to avoid producing invalid output when the input contains very large values or is very long. Wider integer variables can handle more extreme inputs. For IDNA, 26-bit unsigned integers are sufficient, because any string that required a 27-bit delta would have to exceed either the code point limit (0..10FFFF) or the label length limit (63 characters). The increment of delta at the bottom of the outer loop cannot overflow because delta < length(input) before the increment, and length(input) is already assumed to be representable. The increment of n could overflow, but only if h == length(input), in which case the procedure is finished anyway. 6.4 Alternative methods for handling overflow The encoding and decoding algorithms handle overflow by detecting it whenever it happens. Another approach is to enforce limits on the inputs that prevent overflow from happening. For example, if the encoder were to verify that no input code points exceed M and that the input length does not exceed L, then no delta could ever exceed (M - initial_n) * (L + 1), and hence no overflow could occur if integer variables were capable of representing values that large. This prevention approach would impose more restrictions on the input than the detection approach does, but might be considered simpler in some programming languages. In theory, the decoder could use an analogous approach, limiting the number of digits in a variable-length integer (that is, limiting the number of iterations in the innermost loop). However, the number of digits that suffice to represent a given delta can sometimes represent much larger deltas (because of the adaptation), and hence this approach would probably require integers wider than 32 bits. Yet another approach for the decoder is to allow overflow to occur, but to check the final output string by re-encoding it and comparing to the decoder input. If and only if they do not match (using a case-insensitive ASCII comparison) overflow has occurred. This delayed-detection approach would not impose any more restrictions on the input than the immediate-detection approach does, and might be considered simpler in some programming languages. In fact, if the decoder is used only inside the IDNA ToUnicode operation [IDNA], then it need not check for overflow at all, because ToUnicode performs a higher level re-encoding and comparison, and a mismatch has the same consequence as if the Punycode decoder had failed. 7. Punycode example strings In the Punycode encodings below, the IDNA signature prefix is not shown. Backslashes show where line breaks have been inserted in strings too long for one line. The first several examples are all translations of the sentence "Why can't they just speak in <language>?" (courtesy of Michael Kaplan's "provincial" page [PROVINCIAL]). Word breaks and punctuation have been removed, as is often done in domain names. (A) Arabic (Egyptian): u+0644 u+064A u+0647 u+0645 u+0627 u+0628 u+062A u+0643 u+0644 u+0645 u+0648 u+0634 u+0639 u+0631 u+0628 u+064A u+061F Punycode: egbpdaj6bu4bxfgehfvwxn (B) Chinese (simplified): u+4ED6 u+4EEC u+4E3A u+4EC0 u+4E48 u+4E0D u+8BF4 u+4E2D u+6587 Punycode: ihqwcrb4cv8a8dqg056pqjye (C) Czech: Pro<ccaron>prost<ecaron>nemluv<iacute><ccaron>esky U+0050 u+0072 u+006F u+010D u+0070 u+0072 u+006F u+0073 u+0074 u+011B u+006E u+0065 u+006D u+006C u+0075 u+0076 u+00ED u+010D u+0065 u+0073 u+006B u+0079 Punycode: Proprostnemluvesky-uyb24dma41a (D) Hebrew: u+05DC u+05DE u+05D4 u+05D4 u+05DD u+05E4 u+05E9 u+05D5 u+05D8 u+05DC u+05D0 u+05DE u+05D3 u+05D1 u+05E8 u+05D9 u+05DD u+05E2 u+05D1 u+05E8 u+05D9 u+05EA Punycode: 4dbcagdahymbxekheh6e0a7fei0b (E) Hindi (Devanagari): u+092F u+0939 u+0932 u+094B u+0917 u+0939 u+093F u+0928 u+094D u+0926 u+0940 u+0915 u+094D u+092F u+094B u+0902 u+0928 u+0939 u+0940 u+0902 u+092C u+094B u+0932 u+0938 u+0915 u+0924 u+0947 u+0939 u+0948 u+0902 Punycode: i1baa7eci9glrd9b2ae1bj0hfcgg6iyaf8o0a1dig0cd (F) Japanese (kanji and hiragana): u+306A u+305C u+307F u+3093 u+306A u+65E5 u+672C u+8A9E u+3092 u+8A71 u+3057 u+3066 u+304F u+308C u+306A u+3044 u+306E u+304B Punycode: n8jok5ay5dzabd5bym9f0cm5685rrjetr6pdxa (G) Korean (Hangul syllables): u+C138 u+ACC4 u+C758 u+BAA8 u+B4E0 u+C0AC u+B78C u+B4E4 u+C774 u+D55C u+AD6D u+C5B4 u+B97C u+C774 u+D574 u+D55C u+B2E4 u+BA74 u+C5BC u+B9C8 u+B098 u+C88B u+C744 u+AE4C Punycode: 989aomsvi5e83db1d2a355cv1e0vak1dwrv93d5xbh15a0dt30a5j\ psd879ccm6fea98c (H) Russian (Cyrillic): U+043F u+043E u+0447 u+0435 u+043C u+0443 u+0436 u+0435 u+043E u+043D u+0438 u+043D u+0435 u+0433 u+043E u+0432 u+043E u+0440 u+044F u+0442 u+043F u+043E u+0440 u+0443 u+0441 u+0441 u+043A u+0438 Punycode: b1abfaaepdrnnbgefbaDotcwatmq2g4l (I) Spanish: Porqu<eacute>nopuedensimplementehablarenEspa<ntilde>ol U+0050 u+006F u+0072 u+0071 u+0075 u+00E9 u+006E u+006F u+0070 u+0075 u+0065 u+0064 u+0065 u+006E u+0073 u+0069 u+006D u+0070 u+006C u+0065 u+006D u+0065 u+006E u+0074 u+0065 u+0068 u+0061 u+0062 u+006C u+0061 u+0072 u+0065 u+006E U+0045 u+0073 u+0070 u+0061 u+00F1 u+006F u+006C Punycode: PorqunopuedensimplementehablarenEspaol-fmd56a (J) Taiwanese: u+4ED6 u+5011 u+7232 u+4EC0 u+9EBD u+4E0D u+8AAA u+4E2D u+6587 Punycode: ihqwctvzc91f659drss3x8bo0yb (K) Vietnamese: T<adotbelow>isaoh<odotbelow>kh<ocirc>ngth<ecirchookabove>ch\ <ihookabove>n<oacute>iti<ecircacute>ngVi<ecircdotbelow>t U+0054 u+1EA1 u+0069 u+0073 u+0061 u+006F u+0068 u+1ECD u+006B u+0068 u+00F4 u+006E u+0067 u+0074 u+0068 u+1EC3 u+0063 u+0068 u+1EC9 u+006E u+00F3 u+0069 u+0074 u+0069 u+1EBF u+006E u+0067 U+0056 u+0069 u+1EC7 u+0074 Punycode: TisaohkhngthchnitingVit-kjcr8268qyxafd2f1b9g The next several examples are all names of Japanese music artists, song titles, and TV programs, just because the author happens to have them handy (but Japanese is useful for providing examples of single-row text, two-row text, ideographic text, and various mixtures thereof). (L) 3<nen>B<gumi><kinpachi><sensei> u+0033 u+5E74 U+0042 u+7D44 u+91D1 u+516B u+5148 u+751F Punycode: 3B-ww4c5e180e575a65lsy2b (M) <amuro><namie>-with-SUPER-MONKEYS u+5B89 u+5BA4 u+5948 u+7F8E u+6075 u+002D u+0077 u+0069 u+0074 u+0068 u+002D U+0053 U+0055 U+0050 U+0045 U+0052 u+002D U+004D U+004F U+004E U+004B U+0045 U+0059 U+0053 Punycode: -with-SUPER-MONKEYS-pc58ag80a8qai00g7n9n (N) Hello-Another-Way-<sorezore><no><basho> U+0048 u+0065 u+006C u+006C u+006F u+002D U+0041 u+006E u+006F u+0074 u+0068 u+0065 u+0072 u+002D U+0057 u+0061 u+0079 u+002D u+305D u+308C u+305E u+308C u+306E u+5834 u+6240 Punycode: Hello-Another-Way--fc4qua05auwb3674vfr0b (O) <hitotsu><yane><no><shita>2 u+3072 u+3068 u+3064 u+5C4B u+6839 u+306E u+4E0B u+0032 Punycode: 2-u9tlzr9756bt3uc0v (P) Maji<de>Koi<suru>5<byou><mae> U+004D u+0061 u+006A u+0069 u+3067 U+004B u+006F u+0069 u+3059 u+308B u+0035 u+79D2 u+524D Punycode: MajiKoi5-783gue6qz075azm5e (Q) <pafii>de<runba> u+30D1 u+30D5 u+30A3 u+30FC u+0064 u+0065 u+30EB u+30F3 u+30D0 Punycode: de-jg4avhby1noc0d (R) <sono><supiido><de> u+305D u+306E u+30B9 u+30D4 u+30FC u+30C9 u+3067 Punycode: d9juau41awczczp The last example is an ASCII string that breaks not only the existing rules for host name labels but also the rules proposed in [NAMEPREP] for internationalized domain names. (S) -> $1.00 <- u+002D u+003E u+0020 u+0024 u+0031 u+002E u+0030 u+0030 u+0020 u+003C u+002D Punycode: -> $1.00 <-- 8. Security considerations Users expect each domain name in DNS to be controlled by a single authority. If a Unicode string intended for use as a domain label could map to multiple ACE labels, then an internationalized domain name could map to multiple ASCII domain names, each controlled by a different authority, some of which could be spoofs that hijack service requests intended for another. Therefore Punycode is designed so that each Unicode string has a unique encoding. However, there can still be multiple Unicode representations of the "same" text, for various definitions of "same". This problem is addressed to some extent by the Unicode standard under the topic of canonicalization, and this work is leveraged for domain names by "nameprep" [NAMEPREP]. 9. References [IDN] Internationalized Domain Names (IETF working group), http://www.i-d-n.net/, idn@ops.ietf.org. [IDNA] Patrik Faltstrom, Paul Hoffman, Adam M. Costello, "Internationalizing Host Names In Applications (IDNA)", 2001-Nov-19, draft-ietf-idn-idna-05. [NAMEPREP] Paul Hoffman, Marc Blanchet, "Stringprep Profile for Internationalized Host Names", 2001-Sep-27, draft-ietf-idn-nameprep-06. [PROVINCIAL] Michael Kaplan, "The 'anyone can be provincial!' page", http://www.trigeminal.com/samples/provincial.html. [RFC952] K. Harrenstien, M. Stahl, E. Feinler, "DOD Internet Host Table Specification", 1985-Oct, RFC 952. [RFC1034] P. Mockapetris, "Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities", 1987-Nov, RFC 1034. [UNICODE] The Unicode Consortium, "The Unicode Standard", http://www.unicode.org/unicode/standard/standard.html. A. Author contact information Adam M. Costello University of California, Berkeley http://www.nicemice.net/amc/ B. Mixed-case annotation In order to use Punycode to represent case-insensitive strings, higher layers need to case-fold the strings prior to Punycode encoding. The encoded string can, however, use mixed case as an annotation telling how to convert the original folded string into a mixed-case string for display purposes. Basic code points can use mixed case directly, because the decoder copies them verbatim, leaving lowercase code points lowercase, and leaving uppercase code points uppercase. Each non-basic code point is represented by a delta, which is represented by a sequence of basic code points, the last of which provides the annotation. If it is uppercase, it is a suggestion to map the non-basic code point to uppercase (if possible); if it is lowercase, it is a suggestion to map the non-basic code point to lowercase (if possible). Punycode encoders and decoders are not required to support these annotations, and higher layers need not use them. C. Disclaimer and License Regarding this entire document or any portion of it (including the pseudocode and C code), the author makes no guarantees and is not responsible for any damage resulting from its use. The author grants irrevocable permission to anyone to use, modify, and distribute it in any way that does not diminish the rights of anyone else to use, modify, and distribute it, provided that redistributed derivative works do not contain misleading author or version information. Derivative works need not be licensed under similar terms. D. Punycode sample implementation /* punycode.c 0.4.0 (2001-Nov-17-Sat) http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~amc/idn/ Adam M. Costello http://www.nicemice.net/amc/ */ /* This is ANSI C code (C89) implementing Punycode version 0.3.x. */ /************************************************************/ /* Public interface (would normally go in its own .h file): */ #include <limits.h> enum punycode_status { punycode_success, punycode_bad_input, /* Input is invalid. */ punycode_big_output, /* Output would exceed the space provided. */ punycode_overflow /* Input requires wider integers to process. */ }; #if UINT_MAX >= (1 << 26) - 1 typedef unsigned int punycode_uint; #else typedef unsigned long punycode_uint; #endif enum punycode_status punycode_encode( punycode_uint input_length, const punycode_uint input[], const unsigned char case_flags[], punycode_uint *output_length, char output[] ); /* punycode_encode() converts Unicode to Punycode. The input */ /* must be represented as an array of Unicode code points (not */ /* code units; surrogate pairs are not allowed), and the output */ /* will be represented as an array of ASCII code points. The */ /* output string is *not* null-terminated; it will contain */ /* zeros if and only if the input contains zeros. (Of course */ /* the caller can leave room for a terminator and add one if */ /* needed.) The input_length is the number of code points in the */ /* input. The output_length is an in/out argument: the caller */ /* must pass in the maximum number of code points that may be */ /* output, and on successful return it will contain the number */ /* of code points actually output. The case_flags array must */ /* hold input_length boolean values, where nonzero means the */ /* corresponding Unicode character should be forced to uppercase */ /* after being decoded (if possible), and zero means it should */ /* be forced to lowercase (if possible). ASCII code points */ /* are encoded literally, except that ASCII letters are forced */ /* to uppercase or lowercase according to the corresponding */ /* uppercase flags. If case_flags is a null pointer then ASCII */ /* letters are left as they are, and other code points are */ /* treated as if their uppercase flags were zero. The return */ /* value may be any of the punycode_status values defined above */ /* except punycode_bad_input; if not punycode_success, then */ /* output_size and output may contain garbage. */ enum punycode_status punycode_decode( punycode_uint input_length, const char input[], punycode_uint *output_length, punycode_uint output[], unsigned char case_flags[] ); /* punycode_decode() converts Punycode to Unicode. The input */ /* must be represented as an array of ASCII code points, and */ /* the output will be represented as an array of Unicode code */ /* points. The input_length is the number of code points in */ /* the input. The output_length is an in/out argument: the */ /* caller must pass in the maximum number of code points that */ /* may be output, and on successful return it will contain the */ /* actual number of code points output. The case_flags array */ /* must have room for at least output_length values, or it may */ /* be a null pointer if the case information is not needed. */ /* A nonzero flag indicates that the corresponding Unicode */ /* character should be forced to uppercase by the caller (if */ /* possible), while zero means it should be forced to lowercase */ /* (if possible). ASCII code points are output already in the */ /* proper case, but their flags will be set appropriately so that */ /* applying the flags would be harmless. The return value may */ /* be any of the punycode_status values defined above; if not */ /* punycode_success, then output_length, output, and case_flags */ /* may contain garbage. On success, the decoder will never need */ /* to write an output_length greater than input_length, because */ /* of how the encoding is defined. */ /**********************************************************/ /* Implementation (would normally go in its own .c file): */ #include <string.h> /*** Bootstring parameters for Punycode ***/ enum { base = 36, tmin = 1, tmax = 26, skew = 38, damp = 700, initial_bias = 72, initial_n = 0x80, delimiter = 0x2D }; /* basic(cp) tests whether cp is a basic code point: */ #define basic(cp) ((punycode_uint)(cp) < 0x80) /* delim(cp) tests whether cp is a delimiter: */ #define delim(cp) ((cp) == delimiter) /* decode_digit(cp) returns the numeric value of a basic code */ /* point (for use in representing integers) in the range 0 to */ /* base-1, or base if cp is does not represent a value. */ static punycode_uint decode_digit(punycode_uint cp) { return cp - 48 < 10 ? cp - 22 : cp - 65 < 26 ? cp - 65 : cp - 97 < 26 ? cp - 97 : base; } /* encode_digit(d,flag) returns the basic code point whose value */ /* (when used for representing integers) is d, which must be in the */ /* range 0 to base-1. The lowercase form is used unless flag is */ /* nonzero, in which case the uppercase form is used. The behavior */ /* is undefined if flag is nonzero and digit d has no uppercase form. */ static char encode_digit(punycode_uint d, int flag) { return d + 22 + 75 * (d < 26) - ((flag != 0) << 5); /* 0..25 map to ASCII a..z or A..Z */ /* 26..35 map to ASCII 0..9 */ } /* flagged(bcp) tests whether a basic code point is flagged */ /* (uppercase). The behavior is undefined if bcp is not a */ /* basic code point. */ #define flagged(bcp) ((punycode_uint)(bcp) - 65 < 26) /* encode_basic(bcp,flag) forces a basic code point to lowercase */ /* if flag is zero, uppercase if flag is nonzero, and returns */ /* the resulting code point. The code point is unchanged if it */ /* is caseless. The behavior is undefined if bcp is not a basic */ /* code point. */ static char encode_basic(punycode_uint bcp, int flag) { bcp -= (bcp - 97 < 26) << 5; return bcp + ((!flag && (bcp - 65 < 26)) << 5); } /*** Platform-specific constants ***/ /* maxint is the maximum value of a punycode_uint variable: */ static const punycode_uint maxint = -1; /* Because maxint is unsigned, -1 becomes the maximum value. */ /*** Bias adaptation function ***/ static punycode_uint adapt( punycode_uint delta, punycode_uint numpoints, int firsttime ) { punycode_uint k; delta = firsttime ? delta / damp : delta >> 1; /* delta >> 1 is a faster way of doing delta / 2 */ delta += delta / numpoints; for (k = 0; delta > ((base - tmin) * tmax) / 2; k += base) { delta /= base - tmin; } return k + (base - tmin + 1) * delta / (delta + skew); } /*** Main encode function ***/ enum punycode_status punycode_encode( punycode_uint input_length, const punycode_uint input[], const unsigned char case_flags[], punycode_uint *output_length, char output[] ) { punycode_uint n, delta, h, b, out, max_out, bias, j, m, q, k, t; /* Initialize the state: */ n = initial_n; delta = out = 0; max_out = *output_length; bias = initial_bias; /* Handle the basic code points: */ for (j = 0; j < input_length; ++j) { if (basic(input[j])) { if (max_out - out < 2) return punycode_big_output; output[out++] = case_flags ? encode_basic(input[j], case_flags[j]) : input[j]; } /* else if (input[j] < n) return punycode_bad_input; */ /* (not needed for Punycode with unsigned code points) */ } h = b = out; /* h is the number of code points that have been handled, b is the */ /* number of basic code points, and out is the number of characters */ /* that have been output. */ if (b > 0) output[out++] = delimiter; /* Main encoding loop: */ while (h < input_length) { /* All non-basic code points < n have been */ /* handled already. Find the next larger one: */ for (m = maxint, j = 0; j < input_length; ++j) { /* if (basic(input[j])) continue; */ /* (not needed for Punycode) */ if (input[j] >= n && input[j] < m) m = input[j]; } /* Increase delta enough to advance the decoder's */ /* <n,i> state to <m,0>, but guard against overflow: */ if (m - n > (maxint - delta) / (h + 1)) return punycode_overflow; delta += (m - n) * (h + 1); n = m; for (j = 0; j < input_length; ++j) { /* Punycode does not need to check whether input[j] is basic: */ if (input[j] < n /* || basic(input[j]) */ ) { if (++delta == 0) return punycode_overflow; } if (input[j] == n) { /* Represent delta as a generalized variable-length integer: */ for (q = delta, k = base; ; k += base) { if (out >= max_out) return punycode_big_output; t = k <= bias ? tmin : k - bias >= tmax ? tmax : k - bias; if (q < t) break; output[out++] = encode_digit(t + (q - t) % (base - t), 0); q = (q - t) / (base - t); } output[out++] = encode_digit(q, case_flags && case_flags[j]); bias = adapt(delta, h + 1, h == b); delta = 0; ++h; } } ++delta, ++n; } *output_length = out; return punycode_success; } /*** Main decode function ***/ enum punycode_status punycode_decode( punycode_uint input_length, const char input[], punycode_uint *output_length, punycode_uint output[], unsigned char case_flags[] ) { punycode_uint n, out, i, max_out, bias, b, j, in, oldi, w, k, digit, t; /* Initialize the state: */ n = initial_n; out = i = 0; max_out = *output_length; bias = initial_bias; /* Handle the basic code points: Let b be the number of input code */ /* points before the last delimiter, or 0 if there is none, then */ /* copy the first b code points to the output. */ for (b = j = 0; j < input_length; ++j) if (delim(input[j])) b = j; if (b > max_out) return punycode_big_output; for (j = 0; j < b; ++j) { if (case_flags) case_flags[out] = flagged(input[j]); if (!basic(input[j])) return punycode_bad_input; output[out++] = input[j]; } /* Main decoding loop: Start just after the last delimiter if any */ /* basic code points were copied; start at the beginning otherwise. */ for (in = b > 0 ? b + 1 : 0; in < input_length; ++out) { /* in is the index of the next character to be consumed, and */ /* out is the number of code points in the output array. */ /* Decode a generalized variable-length integer into delta, */ /* which gets added to i. The overflow checking is easier */ /* if we increase i as we go, then subtract off its starting */ /* value at the end to obtain delta. */ for (oldi = i, w = 1, k = base; ; k += base) { if (in >= input_length) return punycode_bad_input; digit = decode_digit(input[in++]); if (digit >= base) return punycode_bad_input; if (digit > (maxint - i) / w) return punycode_overflow; i += digit * w; t = k <= bias ? tmin : k - bias >= tmax ? tmax : k - bias; if (digit < t) break; if (w > maxint / (base - t)) return punycode_overflow; w *= (base - t); } bias = adapt(i - oldi, out + 1, oldi == 0); /* i was supposed to wrap around from out+1 to 0, */ /* incrementing n each time, so we'll fix that now: */ if (i / (out + 1) > maxint - n) return punycode_overflow; n += i / (out + 1); i %= (out + 1); /* Insert n at position i of the output: */ /* not needed for Punycode: */ /* if (decode_digit(n) <= base) return punycode_invalid_input; */ if (out >= max_out) return punycode_big_output; if (case_flags) { memmove(case_flags + i + 1, case_flags + i, out - i); /* Case of last character determines uppercase flag: */ case_flags[i] = flagged(input[in - 1]); } memmove(output + i + 1, output + i, (out - i) * sizeof *output); output[i++] = n; } *output_length = out; return punycode_success; } /******************************************************************/ /* Wrapper for testing (would normally go in a separate .c file): */ #include <assert.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <string.h> /* For testing, we'll just set some compile-time limits rather than */ /* use malloc(), and set a compile-time option rather than using a */ /* command-line option. */ enum { unicode_max_length = 256, ace_max_length = 256 }; static void usage(char **argv) { fprintf(stderr, "\n" "%s -e reads code points and writes a Punycode string.\n" "%s -d reads a Punycode string and writes code points.\n" "\n" "Input and output are plain text in the native character set.\n" "Code points are in the form u+hex separated by whitespace.\n" "Although the specification allows Punycode strings to contain\n" "any characters from the ASCII repertoire, this test code\n" "supports only the printable characters, and requires the\n" "Punycode string to be followed by a newline.\n" "The case of the u in u+hex is the force-to-uppercase flag.\n" , argv[0], argv[0]); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } static void fail(const char *msg) { fputs(msg,stderr); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } static const char too_big[] = "input or output is too large, recompile with larger limits\n"; static const char invalid_input[] = "invalid input\n"; static const char overflow[] = "arithmetic overflow\n"; static const char io_error[] = "I/O error\n"; /* The following string is used to convert printable */ /* characters between ASCII and the native charset: */ static const char print_ascii[] = "\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n" "\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n" " !\"#$%&'()*+,-./" "0123456789:;<=>?" "@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO" "PQRSTUVWXYZ[\\]^_" "`abcdefghijklmno" "pqrstuvwxyz{|}~\n"; int main(int argc, char **argv) { enum punycode_status status; int r; unsigned int input_length, output_length, j; unsigned char case_flags[unicode_max_length]; if (argc != 2) usage(argv); if (argv[1][0] != '-') usage(argv); if (argv[1][2] != 0) usage(argv); if (argv[1][1] == 'e') { punycode_uint input[unicode_max_length]; unsigned long codept; char output[ace_max_length+1], uplus[3]; int c; /* Read the input code points: */ input_length = 0; for (;;) { r = scanf("%2s%lx", uplus, &codept); if (ferror(stdin)) fail(io_error); if (r == EOF || r == 0) break; if (r != 2 || uplus[1] != '+' || codept > (punycode_uint)-1) { fail(invalid_input); } if (input_length == unicode_max_length) fail(too_big); if (uplus[0] == 'u') case_flags[input_length] = 0; else if (uplus[0] == 'U') case_flags[input_length] = 1; else fail(invalid_input); input[input_length++] = codept; } /* Encode: */ output_length = ace_max_length; status = punycode_encode(input_length, input, case_flags, &output_length, output); if (status == punycode_bad_input) fail(invalid_input); if (status == punycode_big_output) fail(too_big); if (status == punycode_overflow) fail(overflow); assert(status == punycode_success); /* Convert to native charset and output: */ for (j = 0; j < output_length; ++j) { c = output[j]; assert(c >= 0 && c <= 127); if (print_ascii[c] == 0) fail(invalid_input); output[j] = print_ascii[c]; } output[j] = 0; r = puts(output); if (r == EOF) fail(io_error); return EXIT_SUCCESS; } if (argv[1][1] == 'd') { char input[ace_max_length+2], *p, *pp; punycode_uint output[unicode_max_length]; /* Read the Punycode input string and convert to ASCII: */ fgets(input, ace_max_length+2, stdin); if (ferror(stdin)) fail(io_error); if (feof(stdin)) fail(invalid_input); input_length = strlen(input) - 1; if (input[input_length] != '\n') fail(too_big); input[input_length] = 0; for (p = input; *p != 0; ++p) { pp = strchr(print_ascii, *p); if (pp == 0) fail(invalid_input); *p = pp - print_ascii; } /* Decode: */ output_length = unicode_max_length; status = punycode_decode(input_length, input, &output_length, output, case_flags); if (status == punycode_bad_input) fail(invalid_input); if (status == punycode_big_output) fail(too_big); if (status == punycode_overflow) fail(overflow); assert(status == punycode_success); /* Output the result: */ for (j = 0; j < output_length; ++j) { r = printf("%s+%04lX\n", case_flags[j] ? "U" : "u", (unsigned long) output[j] ); if (r < 0) fail(io_error); } return EXIT_SUCCESS; } usage(argv); return EXIT_SUCCESS; /* not reached, but quiets compiler warning */ } INTERNET-DRAFT expires 2002-Jul-06
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