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Kegan Dougal 2014-09-09 15:00:48 -07:00
parent d5704cf2a3
commit 56a358481e
1 changed files with 7 additions and 7 deletions

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@ -7,23 +7,23 @@ such, Matrix requires that all strings MUST be encoded as UTF-8. However,
using Unicode as the character set for human-readable IDs is troublesome. There
are many different characters which appear identical to each other, but would
identify different users. In addition, there are non-printable characters which
cannot be rendered the the end-user. This opens up a security vulnerability with
cannot be rendered by the end-user. This opens up a security vulnerability with
phishing/spoofing of IDs, commonly known as a homograph attack.
Web browers encountered this problem when International Domain Names were
introduced. A variety of checks were put in place in order to protect users. If
an address failed the check, the raw punycode would be displayed to disambiguate
the address. Similar checks are performed by home servers in Matrix, which will
then warn the client about the potentially misleading ID. However, Matrix does
not use punycode, and so does not show raw punycode on a failed check. Instead,
home servers must outright reject these misleading IDs.
the address. Similar checks are performed by home servers in Matrix. However,
Matrix does not use punycode representations, and so does not show raw punycode
on a failed check. Instead, home servers must outright reject these misleading
IDs.
Types of human-readable IDs
---------------------------
There are two main human-readable IDs in question:
- Room aliases
- User IDs
- Room aliases
- User IDs
Room aliases look like ``#localpart:domain``. These aliases point to opaque
non human-readable room IDs. These pointers can change, so there is already an