Authentication *before* GET?

"Peter Lister, Cranfield Computer Centre" <P.Lister@cranfield.ac.uk>
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Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 14:16:20 --100
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From: "Peter Lister, Cranfield Computer Centre" <P.Lister@cranfield.ac.uk>
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Subject: Authentication *before* GET?
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Sorry, pressed the send button a touch early.

One thing which could be misinterpreted

              Key-info: KerberosIV-session-key

This is intended to convey that the server is telling the client to use the 
Kerberos session key for encryption; *not* that either party should actually 
quote the key over HTTP. This would be very, very silly. Actually, thinking 
about my later comments, I really want a method for preceding each 
request/reply with a header which says that the following text is encrypted 
(or not) and the mechanism used.

Also, while I said that a Can-authenticate header should not default to "None" 
(so that a very secure server can clearly insist on authentication), browsers 
should treat the *absence* of Can-authenticate as "None", to cope with older 
servers.

Flame away. :-)

Peter Lister                             Email: p.lister@cranfield.ac.uk
Computer Centre, Cranfield University    Voice: +44 234 754200 ext 2828
Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL UK        Fax: +44 234 750875
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