Trouble with base64-encoded OpenID claimed_id paths

[Dick Hardt]

Perhaps you need to sink to a lower level in a .Net implementation so that
you can work around the issue. Changing a spec to deal with a bug in an
implementation does not seem like the right path. .Net should be able to
parse URIs properly, and when it does not, the module needs to work around
this.

I recall having to do this often in Perl on Windows where the MS library did
not work per standards. A real pain in the ass, but the reality of the
situation.

On Thu, Mar 25, 2010 at 3:56 PM, Andrew Arnott <andrewarnott at gmail.com>wrote:

> It turns out that .NET apparently makes it *impossible* to perform
> identifier discovery when the claimed_id includes periods at the end of any
> segment of the URI path.  Some pseudonymous identifiers include base64
> encoded parts in their paths (Yahoo is one such OP) which will at times end
> with a period, making discovery on this identifier impossible from a .NET
> RP.
>
> While .NET limitations are not Yahoo's problem or any other OP, I wonder if
> a future version of the OpenID spec might suggest that OPs avoid ending path
> segments of their issued claimed_id's with periods, perhaps by tacking on a
> hyphen or something at the end of all base64 encoded strings that appear in
> URI paths.  Obviously being retroactive is problematic, but perhaps newly
> issued OpenIDs can do this to help OP's customers to log into .NET clients.
> Another fix would be to use base64url as outlined in RFC 4648<http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4648.txt>instead of a base64 that uses periods.
>
> .NET 4.0, which has not yet released, includes an undesirable (but at least
> possible) workaround for this limitation, but since it opens up other
> security concerns to activate this workaround and since the .NET 4.0 install
> base is close to 0% and will remain low for some time through the near
> future, so accounting for this limitation would be most helpful to promote
> interoperability.
>
> (I hate saying .NET is insufficient to fit the bill, but it's the sad truth
> in this instance).
> --
> Andrew Arnott
> "I [may] not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death
> your right to say it." - S. G. Tallentyre
>
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