Intent to Extend Deprecation Trial: Restrict "private network requests" for subresources from public websites to secure contexts.

[Yifan Luo]

Contact emails

tit...@chromium.org, cl...@chromium.org, mk...@chromium.org, va...@chromium.org, l...@chromium.org

Explainer

https://github.com/WICG/private-network-access/blob/master/explainer.md

Specification

https://wicg.github.io/private-network-access

Design docs

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x1a1fQLOrcWogK3tpFBgQZQ5ZjcONTvD0IqqXkgrg5I/edit#heading=h.7nki9mck5t64

Summary

Requires that private network requests for subresources from public websites may only be initiated from a secure context. Examples include internet to intranet requests and internet to loopback requests. This is a first step towards fully implementing Private Network Access: https://wicg.github.io/private-network-access/

Blink component

Blink>SecurityFeature>CORS>PrivateNetworkAccess

TAG review

https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/572

TAG review status

Issues addressed

Link to origin trial feedback summary

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z5ZdCslNCnSVR7TNlUTHjSvunMFmT_9G9NOx8-O78-I/edit?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-DITlG8tDuFDWHiBUHnlSoQ

Risks

Interoperability and Compatibility

No interoperability risks. Compatibility risk is small but non-negligible. UseCounters show ~0.1% of page visit making use of this feature. Direct outreach to the largest users per UKM data revealed no objections to this launch. Rolling this deprecation out to beta per the previous I2S resulted in more feedback about the compatibility risk and the need for a time extension. See the following doc for an extensive discussion: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bpis0QwaA9ZrRFmpPW6LiaPmdwT0UhhUMNsEnU0zfLk/edit

Gecko: Positive (https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/143) Tentatively positive, but no formal position yet.

WebKit: Positive (https://lists.webkit.org/pipermail/webkit-dev/2021-May/031837.html)

Web developers: Mixed signals (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bpis0QwaA9ZrRFmpPW6LiaPmdwT0UhhUMNsEnU0zfLk/edit) In our recent survey, most of websites are able to migrate if our new permission prompt can be landed as a way for them to relax mixed content checks. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z5ZdCslNCnSVR7TNlUTHjSvunMFmT_9G9NOx8-O78-I/edit?resourcekey=0-DITlG8tDuFDWHiBUHnlSoQ#gid=309953809 ------------ Some websites, broadly falling in the category of controller webapps for IoT devices, find this change incompatible with their use cases. While many use cases can be solved with specific workarounds, some still require further engagement.

Other signals:

Activation

Developers of non-secure sites that rely upon local servers will need to upgrade to HTTPS. This might cause some complications, as mixed-content checks will begin to apply. Chrome carves out HTTP access to loopback (as perhttps://w3c.github.io/webappsec-secure-contexts/#localhost), which is a release valve for folks who don't want to go through the effort of securely-distributing certs for local servers. The initial launch in M92 was delayed due to compatibility risks surfaced during the rollout to beta. See this doc for a lot more details: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bpis0QwaA9ZrRFmpPW6LiaPmdwT0UhhUMNsEnU0zfLk/edit

Security

This change should be security-positive.

WebView application risks

Does this intent deprecate or change behavior of existing APIs, such that it has potentially high risk for Android WebView-based applications?

Debuggability

When a request is made that violates this restriction and the feature is not enabled, three things happen: 1. A warning message is logged to the DevTools console. 2. A depreciation report is filed against the initiator website's Reporting API, if so configured. 3. An issue surfaced in the DevTools Issues panel. Likewise, when the feature is enabled and a request is blocked, the same happens except that the message logged to the DevTools console is an error and its text is slightly different. The devtools network panel shows information about the source and remote address spaces at play.

Experiment Extension Reason:We planned a prototyped permission prompt to relax mixed-content for requests from HTTPS public websites to HTTP local devices. However, we've missed the M116 branch point and now have a prototype on M117 for users to play around. See demo: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pnyQfIsXdtJnZoCBVSt4xim0yXjZ0Aqc/view?usp=sharing
We request for an extension for this deprecation trial to let users be able to try the new permission prototype in M117 and the OT possibly start from M117/M118.
------
We have collected 20+ developers' feedback since the last milestone. 85.7% developers said that they are still migrating to HTTPS, 50% said they need more time and 50% said they are not able to migrate local devices for various reasons and need future help.

In the meanwhile, we are also collecting developers' feedback on our future plan for websites that cannot migrate their private devices to HTTPS but would like to migrate their public websites. 11.1% websites answered probably yes to our new feature and 72.2% responded might or might not. The major considers are they also need the allowance on frames/iframes (Q8 64.7%), want to use IP address as ids in permission (Q12 82.3%), too many permission prompt might be a spam (2 answers) and need to wait for other browsers supporting Private Network Access. In this case, we are also actively changing our further plan and collaborating with other browsers at the same time.

Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests?

Yes

Flag name

BlockInsecurePrivateNetworkRequests

Requires code in //chrome?

False

Tracking bug

https://crbug.com/986744

Launch bug

https://crbug.com/1129801

Estimated milestones

OriginTrial desktop last	119
OriginTrial desktop first	94
DevTrial on desktop	86

OriginTrial Android last	119
OriginTrial Android first	94
DevTrial on Android	86

Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status

https://chromestatus.com/feature/5436853517811712

Links to previous Intent discussions

Ready for Trial: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/blink-dev/c/EeGg7TxW6U4/m/7ZvqAqHLAwAJ
Intent to Experiment: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/blink-dev/c/vlDZXlPb00k/m/1421ACiuAAAJ
Intent to Extend Experiment: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/blink-dev/c/JPD001kqeck
Intent to Ship: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/blink-dev/c/JPD001kqeck

This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status.

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Yifan

[Yifan Luo]

Hey all,

I would like to clarify that the current deprecation trial ends on M116 so that I would like to extend it to M119.

best,

Yifan

[Yoav Weiss]

LGTM to extend the deprecation trail M117-M119

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