(another) WebKit port of Browse

Bobby Powers bobbypowers at gmail.com
Mon Jul 7 18:56:51 EDT 2008


2008/7/7 Carol Lerche <cafl at msbit.com>:
> Client certs can be used for authentication with no changes to a Firefox
> browser or an Apache server.  GTK based as well as web based software to
> create certs also already exists.   What sort of patch are you looking for?
> I could certainly provide a page running in an apache server to validate a
> request for and implant a client cert in a Firefox browser.   The issue of
> certificate creation needs a little more discussion, not because it is
> difficult or requires a lot of new software to execute, but because it is
> important to be clear about the requirements.  When you describe the
> overhead, do you mean the overhead of creating the certs?  Examining them
> when someone first logs on?
>
> I raised this alternative because you said that a bespoke browser was a
> requirement to have automatic authentication with the school server.  To me,
> the benefits of running a standard browser are so substantial that this
> trade off should be considered.

Can you explain these benefits?  Both Gecko and WebKit are standard
browser engines.  I don't see much to be gained from a UI perspective
(which presumably is what you're taking about?) by switching to FF3.
Performance is the only compelling reason I see.

Bobby

> On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 3:39 PM, Martin Langhoff <martin.langhoff at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 7:20 PM, Carol Lerche <cafl at msbit.com> wrote:
>> > Why does automatic authentication require a custom browser?  Client
>> > certificates work well for this function in ordinary web applications
>> > (assuming a properly configured server).
>>
>> I haven't delved into this deeply yet, but I suspect that, while I am
>> fond of client certs, they won't work - SSL network and CPU overhead
>> and sidestepping PKI madness for server certs. More on this when I get
>> to implement it.
>>
>> Now, anyone who wants to have a strong say on how I am developing this
>> is free to start implementing it ahead of me, and showing me some
>> fantastic patches :-)
>>
>> cheers,
>>
>>
>>
>> m
>> --
>>  martin.langhoff at gmail.com
>>  martin at laptop.org -- School Server Architect
>>  - ask interesting questions
>>  - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first
>>  - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff
>
>
>
> --
> Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the
> roof and gets stuck -- George Carlin
> _______________________________________________
> Devel mailing list
> Devel at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
>
>



More information about the Devel mailing list