Re: LYNX-DEV Update on SSL and Lynx

[Tom Zerucha]

On Mon, 9 Dec 1996, Al Gilman wrote:

> Tom/Fote: Would you somehow keep Subir apprised when the
> .announce file needs to change?  The .announce doesn't have any
> distribution problems, does it?

I will try.  Announcements don't seem to, nor do I think descriptions.  I
could explain how to write the proxy in simple terms here, but someone
would have to write it.  I think I can even include the parse routine.

[My proxy is listening at the given port (5010) for a connection.  It
does an accept when one comes in, and grabs the header (everything up
to the crlfcrlf.  For https it examines the header which starts as
GET https://actual.dest.dns:port/path ...  
It extracts the dns:port stuff and opens an SSL connection there.  It
deletes the https://.../ section replacing it with a single /, i.e.
GET /path ...
and SSL_ writes it to the destination.  Then it just forwards packets,
SSL_read from remote to write on local, and read on local to SSL_write on
remote, using select(). snews urls are similar, but no editing of the
header occurs, it just establishes the connection and forwards packets].

Cert handling gets more complicated, but the above is basically it.  My
current version of the minimal is less than 100 lines!  Anyone outside the
US care to make an attempt at writing one?

I noticed that there are lots of "export control" pages around.  Some like
RSAref and PGP from MIT use a rotating hidden directory.  I don't have the
abililty to easily do this on my ISP.  Some even check the DNS as far as
they can to verify US or Canadian addresses. 

Others simply use a dummy form (e.g. premail) so you have to read the
license and click on submit which is labeled as "I agree", and do little
to no further checking.

The problem is I don't know what would be considered adequate.  I may
experiment.  Those interested should stay tuned, and maybe check out my
web page occasionally.  I might decide to put one of these type of pages
up, but it may also disappear.

address@hidden
finger address@hidden for PGP key

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