Capability URLs: We Need Your Feedback

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The battle for web security and privacy is fought at many levels. Sometimes common practice in web application design can lead to data leakage with untended consequences for users. A good example of this came up recently where confidential files shared through common web-based document sharing services were being exposed unintentionaly to third parties because the private URLs used to share them had been unintentionally leaked.

https://twitter.com/torgo/status/464109686242164736

URLs that allow a user to access an otherwise privileged resource or information are called Capability URLs, and while they can be powerful, they can also cause potential problems when used improperly.

TAG member Jeni Tennison has been working on a draft defining the space of capability URLs and outlining some good practices for usage. We think this document should be useful for web builders who are thinking about incorporating this pattern into their applications. We think it's pretty good, but we need your feedback before we finalize it and release it as a TAG finding.

The draft may be found here: http://www.w3.org/TR/capability-urls/ and if you have feedback you are encouraged to raise an issue on github or e-mail us on the TAG public mailing list. Thanks!

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