IPP Mail Archive: Re: IPP> MOD - ISSUE 32: Is Digest REQUIRED for an IPP Client and an IPP

Re: IPP> MOD - ISSUE 32: Is Digest REQUIRED for an IPP Client and an IPP

Michael Sweet (mike@easysw.com)
Thu, 03 Jun 1999 12:06:45 -0400

Ira McDonald wrote:
> ...
> implementation MUST support Client Authentication. A printer
> implementation SHOULD support Client Authentication. The
> only way they interoperate is WITHOUT Client Authentication,
> ...

I don't think that is what the proposed text is saying; a client
MUST *support* authentication (Digest at a minimum), so that if a
server requires authentication it can interoperate (the client does
not use authentication if the server doesn't ask for it).

Conversely, if a server supports authentication (only a SHOULD for
the server side), it MUST support Digest (at a minimum) to
interoperate with compliant clients.

Remember, most authentication systems (including HTTP Digest) require
a challenge or handshake from the server, so a client can't do any
authentication until the server says so.

-- 
______________________________________________________________________
Michael Sweet, Easy Software Products                  mike@easysw.com
Printing Software for UNIX                       http://www.easysw.com