Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) P. Saint-Andre

Request for Comments: 6120 Cisco

Obsoletes: 3920 March 2011

Category: Standards Track

ISSN: 2070-1721

    Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core

Abstract

The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is an

application profile of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) that

enables the near-real-time exchange of structured yet extensible data

between any two or more network entities. This document defines

XMPP's core protocol methods: setup and teardown of XML streams,

channel encryption, authentication, error handling, and communication

primitives for messaging, network availability ("presence"), and

request-response interactions. This document obsoletes RFC 3920.

Status of This Memo

This is an Internet Standards Track document.

This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force

(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has

received public review and has been approved for publication by the

Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on

Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.

Information about the current status of this document, any errata,

and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at

http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6120.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the

document authors. All rights reserved.

This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal

Provisions Relating to IETF Documents

(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of

publication of this document. Please review these documents

carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect

to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must

include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of

the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as

described in the Simplified BSD License.

Saint-Andre Standards Track [Page 1]

RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

 1.1.   Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8

 1.2.   History  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8

 1.3.   Functional Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9

 1.4.   Terminology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11

  1. Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

 2.1.   Global Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13

 2.2.   Presence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14

 2.3.   Persistent Streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14

 2.4.   Structured Data  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14

 2.5.   Distributed Network of Clients and Servers . . . . . . .  14

  1. TCP Binding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

 3.1.   Scope  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16

 3.2.   Resolution of Fully Qualified Domain Names . . . . . . .  17

   3.2.1.   Preferred Process: SRV Lookup  . . . . . . . . . . .  17

   3.2.2.   Fallback Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18

   3.2.3.   When Not to Use SRV  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18

   3.2.4.   Use of SRV Records with Add-On Services  . . . . . .  19

 3.3.   Reconnection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19

 3.4.   Reliability  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20

  1. XML Streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

 4.1.   Stream Fundamentals  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20

 4.2.   Opening a Stream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  23

 4.3.   Stream Negotiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24

   4.3.1.   Basic Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24

   4.3.2.   Stream Features Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25

   4.3.3.   Restarts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27

   4.3.4.   Resending Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27

   4.3.5.   Completion of Stream Negotiation . . . . . . . . . .  27

   4.3.6.   Determination of Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28

   4.3.7.   Flow Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29

 4.4.   Closing a Stream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31

 4.5.   Directionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  32

 4.6.   Handling of Silent Peers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  33

   4.6.1.   Dead Connection  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  34

   4.6.2.   Broken Stream  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  34

   4.6.3.   Idle Peer  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  34

   4.6.4.   Use of Checking Methods  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  35

 4.7.   Stream Attributes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  35

   4.7.1.   from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  35

   4.7.2.   to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  37

   4.7.3.   id . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  38

   4.7.4.   xml:lang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  39

   4.7.5.   version  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  41

   4.7.6.   Summary of Stream Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . .  43

 4.8.   XML Namespaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  43

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   4.8.1.   Stream Namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  43

   4.8.2.   Content Namespace  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  43

   4.8.3.   XMPP Content Namespaces  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  44

   4.8.4.   Other Namespaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  46

   4.8.5.   Namespace Declarations and Prefixes  . . . . . . . .  47

 4.9.   Stream Errors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  48

   4.9.1.   Rules  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  48

     4.9.1.1.  Stream Errors Are Unrecoverable . . . . . . . . .  48

     4.9.1.2.  Stream Errors Can Occur During Setup  . . . . . .  49

     4.9.1.3.  Stream Errors When the Host Is Unspecified or

               Unknown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  50

     4.9.1.4.  Where Stream Errors Are Sent  . . . . . . . . . .  50

   4.9.2.   Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  51

   4.9.3.   Defined Stream Error Conditions  . . . . . . . . . .  52

     4.9.3.1.  bad-format  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  52

     4.9.3.2.  bad-namespace-prefix  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  52

     4.9.3.3.  conflict  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  53

     4.9.3.4.  connection-timeout  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  54

     4.9.3.5.  host-gone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  54

     4.9.3.6.  host-unknown  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  55

     4.9.3.7.  improper-addressing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  56

     4.9.3.8.  internal-server-error . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  56

     4.9.3.9.  invalid-from  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  56

     4.9.3.10. invalid-namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  57

     4.9.3.11. invalid-xml . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  57

     4.9.3.12. not-authorized  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  58

     4.9.3.13. not-well-formed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  59

     4.9.3.14. policy-violation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  59

     4.9.3.15. remote-connection-failed  . . . . . . . . . . . .  60

     4.9.3.16. reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  60

     4.9.3.17. resource-constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  61

     4.9.3.18. restricted-xml  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  61

     4.9.3.19. see-other-host  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  62

     4.9.3.20. system-shutdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  64

     4.9.3.21. undefined-condition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  64

     4.9.3.22. unsupported-encoding  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  64

     4.9.3.23. unsupported-feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  65

     4.9.3.24. unsupported-stanza-type . . . . . . . . . . . . .  65

     4.9.3.25. unsupported-version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  66

   4.9.4.   Application-Specific Conditions  . . . . . . . . . .  67

 4.10.  Simplified Stream Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  68

  1. STARTTLS Negotiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

 5.1.   Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  69

 5.2.   Support  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  70

 5.3.   Stream Negotiation Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  70

   5.3.1.   Mandatory-to-Negotiate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  70

   5.3.2.   Restart  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  70

   5.3.3.   Data Formatting  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  70

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   5.3.4.   Order of TLS and SASL Negotiations . . . . . . . . .  71

   5.3.5.   TLS Renegotiation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  71

   5.3.6.   TLS Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  72

 5.4.   Process  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  72

   5.4.1.   Exchange of Stream Headers and Stream Features . . .  72

   5.4.2.   Initiation of STARTTLS Negotiation . . . . . . . . .  73

     5.4.2.1.  STARTTLS Command  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  73

     5.4.2.2.  Failure Case  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  73

     5.4.2.3.  Proceed Case  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  74

   5.4.3.   TLS Negotiation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  74

     5.4.3.1.  Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  74

     5.4.3.2.  TLS Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  75

     5.4.3.3.  TLS Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  76

  1. SASL Negotiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

 6.1.   Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  77

 6.2.   Support  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  77

 6.3.   Stream Negotiation Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  77

   6.3.1.   Mandatory-to-Negotiate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  77

   6.3.2.   Restart  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  78

   6.3.3.   Mechanism Preferences  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  78

   6.3.4.   Mechanism Offers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  78

   6.3.5.   Data Formatting  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  79

   6.3.6.   Security Layers  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  80

   6.3.7.   Simple User Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  80

   6.3.8.   Authorization Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  80

   6.3.9.   Realms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  81

   6.3.10.  Round Trips  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  81

 6.4.   Process  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  82

   6.4.1.   Exchange of Stream Headers and Stream Features . . .  82

   6.4.2.   Initiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  83

   6.4.3.   Challenge-Response Sequence  . . . . . . . . . . . .  84

   6.4.4.   Abort  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  84

   6.4.5.   SASL Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  85

   6.4.6.   SASL Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  86

 6.5.   SASL Errors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  87

   6.5.1.   aborted  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  88

   6.5.2.   account-disabled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  88

   6.5.3.   credentials-expired  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  88

   6.5.4.   encryption-required  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  89

   6.5.5.   incorrect-encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  89

   6.5.6.   invalid-authzid  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  89

   6.5.7.   invalid-mechanism  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  90

   6.5.8.   malformed-request  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  90

   6.5.9.   mechanism-too-weak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  90

   6.5.10.  not-authorized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  91

   6.5.11.  temporary-auth-failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  91

 6.6.   SASL Definition  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  91

  1. Resource Binding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

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 7.1.   Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  92

 7.2.   Support  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  93

 7.3.   Stream Negotiation Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  93

   7.3.1.   Mandatory-to-Negotiate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  93

   7.3.2.   Restart  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  93

 7.4.   Advertising Support  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  93

 7.5.   Generation of Resource Identifiers . . . . . . . . . . .  94

 7.6.   Server-Generated Resource Identifier . . . . . . . . . .  94

   7.6.1.   Success Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  94

   7.6.2.   Error Cases  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  95

     7.6.2.1.  Resource Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  95

     7.6.2.2.  Not Allowed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  96

 7.7.   Client-Submitted Resource Identifier . . . . . . . . . .  96

   7.7.1.   Success Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  96

   7.7.2.   Error Cases  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  97

     7.7.2.1.  Bad Request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  97

     7.7.2.2.  Conflict  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  97

   7.7.3.   Retries  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  99

  1. XML Stanzas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

 8.1.   Common Attributes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

   8.1.1.   to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

     8.1.1.1.  Client-to-Server Streams  . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

     8.1.1.2.  Server-to-Server Streams  . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

   8.1.2.   from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

     8.1.2.1.  Client-to-Server Streams  . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

     8.1.2.2.  Server-to-Server Streams  . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

   8.1.3.   id . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

   8.1.4.   type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

   8.1.5.   xml:lang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

 8.2.   Basic Semantics  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

   8.2.1.   Message Semantics  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

   8.2.2.   Presence Semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

   8.2.3.   IQ Semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

 8.3.   Stanza Errors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

   8.3.1.   Rules  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

   8.3.2.   Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

   8.3.3.   Defined Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

     8.3.3.1.  bad-request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

     8.3.3.2.  conflict  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

     8.3.3.3.  feature-not-implemented . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

     8.3.3.4.  forbidden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

     8.3.3.5.  gone  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

     8.3.3.6.  internal-server-error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

     8.3.3.7.  item-not-found  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

     8.3.3.8.  jid-malformed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

     8.3.3.9.  not-acceptable  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

     8.3.3.10. not-allowed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

     8.3.3.11. not-authorized  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

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     8.3.3.12. policy-violation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

     8.3.3.13. recipient-unavailable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

     8.3.3.14. redirect  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

     8.3.3.15. registration-required . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

     8.3.3.16. remote-server-not-found . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

     8.3.3.17. remote-server-timeout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

     8.3.3.18. resource-constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

     8.3.3.19. service-unavailable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

     8.3.3.20. subscription-required . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

     8.3.3.21. undefined-condition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

     8.3.3.22. unexpected-request  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

   8.3.4.   Application-Specific Conditions  . . . . . . . . . . 124

 8.4.   Extended Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

  1. Detailed Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

 9.1.   Client-to-Server Examples  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

   9.1.1.   TLS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

   9.1.2.   SASL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

   9.1.3.   Resource Binding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

   9.1.4.   Stanza Exchange  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

   9.1.5.   Close  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

 9.2.   Server-to-Server Examples  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

   9.2.1.   TLS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

   9.2.2.   SASL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

   9.2.3.   Stanza Exchange  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

   9.2.4.   Close  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

  1. Server Rules for Processing XML Stanzas . . . . . . . . . . . 138

 10.1.  In-Order Processing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

 10.2.  General Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

 10.3.  No 'to' Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

   10.3.1.  Message  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

   10.3.2.  Presence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

   10.3.3.  IQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

 10.4.  Remote Domain  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

   10.4.1.  Existing Stream  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

   10.4.2.  No Existing Stream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

   10.4.3.  Error Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

 10.5.  Local Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

   10.5.1.  domainpart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

   10.5.2.  domainpart/resourcepart  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

   10.5.3.  localpart@domainpart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

     10.5.3.1. No Such User  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

     10.5.3.2. User Exists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

   10.5.4.  localpart@domainpart/resourcepart  . . . . . . . . . 144

  1. XML Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

 11.1.  XML Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

 11.2.  XML Namespace Names and Prefixes . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

 11.3.  Well-Formedness  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

 11.4.  Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

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 11.5.  Inclusion of XML Declaration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

 11.6.  Character Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

 11.7.  Whitespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

 11.8.  XML Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

  1. Internationalization Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

  1. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

 13.1.  Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

 13.2.  Threat Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

 13.3.  Order of Layers  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

 13.4.  Confidentiality and Integrity  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

 13.5.  Peer Entity Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

 13.6.  Strong Security  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

 13.7.  Certificates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

   13.7.1.  Certificate Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

     13.7.1.1. General Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

     13.7.1.2. Server Certificates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

     13.7.1.3. Client Certificates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

     13.7.1.4. XmppAddr Identifier Type  . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

   13.7.2.  Certificate Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

     13.7.2.1. Server Certificates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

     13.7.2.2. Client Certificates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

     13.7.2.3. Checking of Certificates in Long-Lived Streams  . 160

     13.7.2.4. Use of Certificates in XMPP Extensions  . . . . . 160

 13.8.  Mandatory-to-Implement TLS and SASL Technologies . . . . 160

   13.8.1.  For Authentication Only  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

   13.8.2.  For Confidentiality Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

   13.8.3.  For Confidentiality and Authentication with

            Passwords  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

   13.8.4.  For Confidentiality and Authentication without

            Passwords  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

 13.9.  Technology Reuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

   13.9.1.  Use of Base 64 in SASL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

   13.9.2.  Use of DNS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

   13.9.3.  Use of Hash Functions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

   13.9.4.  Use of SASL  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

   13.9.5.  Use of TLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

   13.9.6.  Use of UTF-8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

   13.9.7.  Use of XML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

 13.10. Information Leaks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

   13.10.1. IP Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

   13.10.2. Presence Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

 13.11. Directory Harvesting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

 13.12. Denial of Service  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

 13.13. Firewalls  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

 13.14. Interdomain Federation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

 13.15. Non-Repudiation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

  1. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

 14.1.  XML Namespace Name for TLS Data  . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

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 14.2.  XML Namespace Name for SASL Data . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

 14.3.  XML Namespace Name for Stream Errors . . . . . . . . . . 170

 14.4.  XML Namespace Name for Resource Binding  . . . . . . . . 171

 14.5.  XML Namespace Name for Stanza Errors . . . . . . . . . . 171

 14.6.  GSSAPI Service Name  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

 14.7.  Port Numbers and Service Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

  1. Conformance Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

  1. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

 16.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

 16.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Appendix A. XML Schemas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

 A.1.   Stream Namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

 A.2.   Stream Error Namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

 A.3.   STARTTLS Namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

 A.4.   SASL Namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

 A.5.   Client Namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

 A.6.   Server Namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

 A.7.   Resource Binding Namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

 A.8.   Stanza Error Namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Appendix B. Contact Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Appendix C. Account Provisioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Appendix D. Differences from RFC 3920 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Appendix E. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

  1. Introduction

1.1. Overview

The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is an

application profile of the Extensible Markup Language [XML] that

enables the near-real-time exchange of structured yet extensible data

between any two or more network entities. This document defines

XMPP's core protocol methods: setup and teardown of XML streams,

channel encryption, authentication, error handling, and communication

primitives for messaging, network availability ("presence"), and

request-response interactions.

1.2. History

The basic syntax and semantics of XMPP were developed originally

within the Jabber open-source community, mainly in 1999. In late

2002, the XMPP Working Group was chartered with developing an

adaptation of the base Jabber protocol that would be suitable as an

IETF instant messaging (IM) and presence technology in accordance

with [IMP-REQS]. In October 2004, [RFC3920] and [RFC3921] were

published, representing the most complete definition of XMPP at that

time.

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Since 2004 the Internet community has gained extensive implementation

and deployment experience with XMPP, including formal

interoperability testing carried out under the auspices of the XMPP

Standards Foundation (XSF). This document incorporates comprehensive

feedback from software developers and XMPP service providers,

including a number of backward-compatible modifications summarized

under Appendix D. As a result, this document reflects the rough

consensus of the Internet community regarding the core features of

XMPP 1.0, thus obsoleting RFC 3920.

1.3. Functional Summary

This non-normative section provides a developer-friendly, functional

summary of XMPP; refer to the sections that follow for a normative

definition of XMPP.

The purpose of XMPP is to enable the exchange of relatively small

pieces of structured data (called "XML stanzas") over a network

between any two (or more) entities. XMPP is typically implemented

using a distributed client-server architecture, wherein a client

needs to connect to a server in order to gain access to the network

and thus be allowed to exchange XML stanzas with other entities

(which can be associated with other servers). The process whereby a

client connects to a server, exchanges XML stanzas, and ends the

connection is:

  1. Determine the IP address and port at which to connect, typically

   based on resolution of a fully qualified domain name

   (Section 3.2)

  1. Open a Transmission Control Protocol [TCP] connection

  1. Open an XML stream over TCP (Section 4.2)

  1. Preferably negotiate Transport Layer Security [TLS] for channel

   encryption (Section 5)

  1. Authenticate using a Simple Authentication and Security Layer

   [SASL] mechanism (Section 6)

  1. Bind a resource to the stream (Section 7)

  1. Exchange an unbounded number of XML stanzas with other entities

   on the network (Section 8)

  1. Close the XML stream (Section 4.4)

  1. Close the TCP connection

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Within XMPP, one server can optionally connect to another server to

enable inter-domain or inter-server communication. For this to

happen, the two servers need to negotiate a connection between

themselves and then exchange XML stanzas; the process for doing so

is:

  1. Determine the IP address and port at which to connect, typically

   based on resolution of a fully qualified domain name

   (Section 3.2)

  1. Open a TCP connection

  1. Open an XML stream (Section 4.2)

  1. Preferably negotiate TLS for channel encryption (Section 5)

  1. Authenticate using a Simple Authentication and Security Layer

   [SASL] mechanism (Section 6) *

  1. Exchange an unbounded number of XML stanzas both directly for the

   servers and indirectly on behalf of entities associated with each

   server, such as connected clients (Section 8)

  1. Close the XML stream (Section 4.4)

  1. Close the TCP connection

  * Interoperability Note: At the time of writing, most deployed

  servers still use the Server Dialback protocol [XEP-0220] to

  provide weak identity verification instead of using SASL with PKIX

  certificates to provide strong authentication, especially in cases

  where SASL negotiation would not result in strong authentication

  anyway (e.g., because TLS negotiation was not mandated by the peer

  server, or because the PKIX certificate presented by the peer

  server during TLS negotiation is self-signed and has not been

  previously accepted); for details, see [XEP-0220].  The solutions

  specified in this document offer a significantly stronger level of

  security (see also Section 13.6).

This document specifies how clients connect to servers and specifies

the basic semantics of XML stanzas. However, this document does not

define the "payloads" of the XML stanzas that might be exchanged once

a connection is successfully established; instead, those payloads are

defined by various XMPP extensions. For example, [XMPP-IM] defines

extensions for basic instant messaging and presence functionality.

In addition, various specifications produced in the XSF's XEP series

[XEP-0001] define extensions for a wide range of applications.

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1.4. Terminology

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",

"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and

"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC

2119 [KEYWORDS].

Certain security-related terms are to be understood in the sense

defined in [SEC-TERMS]; such terms include, but are not limited to,

"assurance", "attack", "authentication", "authorization",

"certificate", "certification authority", "certification path",

"confidentiality", "credential", "downgrade", "encryption", "hash

value", "identity", "integrity", "signature", "self-signed

certificate", "sign", "spoof", "tamper", "trust", "trust anchor",

"validate", and "verify".

Certain terms related to certificates, domains, and application

service identity are to be understood in the sense defined in

[TLS-CERTS]; these include, but are not limited to, "PKIX

certificate", "source domain", "derived domain", and the identifier

types "CN-ID", "DNS-ID", and "SRV-ID".

Other security-related terms are to be understood in the sense

defined in the referenced specifications (for example, "denial of

service" as described in [DOS] or "end entity certificate" as

described in [PKIX]).

The term "whitespace" is used to refer to any character or characters

matching the "S" production from [XML], i.e., one or more instances

of the SP, HTAB, CR, or LF rules defined in [ABNF].

The terms "localpart", "domainpart", and "resourcepart" are defined

in [XMPP-ADDR].

The term "bare JID" refers to an XMPP address of the form

localpart@domainpart (for an account at a server) or of the form

(for a server).

The term "full JID" refers to an XMPP address of the form

<localpart@domainpart/resourcepart> (for a particular authorized

client or device associated with an account) or of the form

<domainpart/resourcepart> (for a particular resource or script

associated with a server).

The term "XML stream" (also "stream") is defined under Section 4.1.

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The term "XML stanza" (also "stanza") is defined under Section 4.1.

There are three kinds of stanzas: message, presence, and IQ (short

for "Info/Query"). These communication primitives are defined under

Sections 8.2.1, 8.2.2, and 8.2.3, respectively.

The term "originating entity" refers to the entity that first

generates a stanza that is sent over an XMPP network (e.g., a

connected client, an add-on service, or a server). The term

"generated stanza" refers to the stanza so generated.

The term "input stream" designates an XML stream over which a server

receives data from a connected client or remote server, and the term

"output stream" designates an XML stream over which a server sends

data to a connected client or remote server. The following terms

designate some of the actions that a server can perform when

processing data received over an input stream:

  route:  pass the data to a remote server for direct processing by

     the remote server or eventual delivery to a client associated

     with the remote server

  deliver:  pass the data to a connected client

  ignore:  discard the data without acting upon it or returning an

     error to the sender

When the term "ignore" is used with regard to client processing of

data it receives, the phrase "without acting upon it" explicitly

includes not presenting the data to a human user.

Following the "XML Notation" used in [IRI] to represent characters

that cannot be rendered in ASCII-only documents, some examples in

this document use the form "&#x...." as a notational device to

represent [UNICODE] characters (e.g., the string "ř" stands

for the Unicode character LATIN SMALL LETTER R WITH CARON); this form

is definitely not to be sent over the wire in XMPP systems.

Consistent with the convention used in [URI] to represent Uniform

Resource Identifiers, XMPP addresses in running text are enclosed

between '<' and '>' (although natively they are not URIs).

In examples, lines have been wrapped for improved readability,

"[...]" means elision, and the following prepended strings are used

(these prepended strings are not to be sent over the wire):

o C: = a client

o E: = any XMPP entity

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o I: = an initiating entity

o P: = a peer server

o R: = a receiving entity

o S: = a server

o S1: = server1

o S2: = server2

Readers need to be aware that the examples are not exhaustive and

that, in examples for some protocol flows, the alternate steps shown

would not necessarily be triggered by the exact data sent in the

previous step; in all cases the protocol definitions specified in

this document or in normatively referenced documents rule over any

examples provided here. All examples are fictional and the

information exchanged (e.g., usernames and passwords) does not

represent any existing users or servers.

  1. Architecture

XMPP provides a technology for the asynchronous, end-to-end exchange

of structured data by means of direct, persistent XML streams among a

distributed network of globally addressable, presence-aware clients

and servers. Because this architectural style involves ubiquitous

knowledge of network availability and a conceptually unlimited number

of concurrent information transactions in the context of a given

client-to-server or server-to-server session, we label it

"Availability for Concurrent Transactions" (ACT) to distinguish it

from the "Representational State Transfer" [REST] architectural style

familiar from the World Wide Web. Although the architecture of XMPP

is similar in important ways to that of email (see [EMAIL-ARCH]), it

introduces several modifications to facilitate communication in close

to real time. The salient features of this ACTive architectural

style are as follows.

2.1. Global Addresses

As with email, XMPP uses globally unique addresses (based on the

Domain Name System) in order to route and deliver messages over the

network. All XMPP entities are addressable on the network, most

particularly clients and servers but also various additional services

that can be accessed by clients and servers. In general, server

addresses are of the form (e.g., <im.example.com>),

accounts hosted at a server are of the form localpart@domainpart

(e.g., juliet@im.example.com, called a "bare JID"), and a

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particular connected device or resource that is currently authorized

for interaction on behalf of an account is of the form

<localpart@domainpart/resourcepart> (e.g.,

<juliet@im.example.com/balcony>, called a "full JID"). For

historical reasons, XMPP addresses are often called Jabber IDs or

JIDs. Because the formal specification of the XMPP address format

depends on internationalization technologies that are in flux at the

time of writing, the format is defined in [XMPP-ADDR] instead of this

document. The terms "localpart", "domainpart", and "resourcepart"

are defined more formally in [XMPP-ADDR].

2.2. Presence

XMPP includes the ability for an entity to advertise its network

availability or "presence" to other entities. In XMPP, this

availability for communication is signaled end-to-end by means of a

dedicated communication primitive: the stanza. Although

knowledge of network availability is not strictly necessary for the

exchange of XMPP messages, it facilitates real-time interaction

because the originator of a message can know before initiating

communication that the intended recipient is online and available.

End-to-end presence is defined in [XMPP-IM].

2.3. Persistent Streams

Availability for communication is also built into each point-to-point

"hop" through the use of persistent XML streams over long-lived TCP

connections. These "always-on" client-to-server and server-to-server

streams enable each party to push data to the other party at any time

for immediate routing or delivery. XML streams are defined under

Section 4.

2.4. Structured Data

The basic protocol data unit in XMPP is not an XML stream (which

simply provides the transport for point-to-point communication) but

an XML "stanza", which is essentially a fragment of XML that is sent

over a stream. The root element of a stanza includes routing

attributes (such as "from" and "to" addresses), and the child

elements of the stanza contain a payload for delivery to the intended

recipient. XML stanzas are defined under Section 8.

2.5. Distributed Network of Clients and Servers

In practice, XMPP consists of a network of clients and servers that

inter-communicate (however, communication between any two given

deployed servers is strictly discretionary and a matter of local

service policy). Thus, for example, the user juliet@im.example.com

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associated with the server <im.example.com> might be able to exchange

messages, presence, and other structured data with the user

romeo@example.net associated with the server <example.net>. This

pattern is familiar from messaging protocols that make use of global

addresses, such as the email network (see [SMTP] and [EMAIL-ARCH]).

As a result, end-to-end communication in XMPP is logically peer-to-

peer but physically client-to-server-to-server-to-client, as

illustrated in the following diagram.

 example.net <--------------> im.example.com

    ^                                ^

    |                                |

    v                                v

romeo@example.net juliet@im.example.com

         Figure 1: Distributed Client-Server Architecture

  Informational Note: Architectures that employ XML streams

  (Section 4) and XML stanzas (Section 8) but that establish peer-

  to-peer connections directly between clients using technologies

  based on [LINKLOCAL] have been deployed, but such architectures

  are not defined in this specification and are best described as

  "XMPP-like"; for details, see [XEP-0174].  In addition, XML

  streams can be established end-to-end over any reliable transport,

  including extensions to XMPP itself; however, such methods are out

  of scope for this specification.

The following paragraphs describe the responsibilities of clients and

servers on the network.

A client is an entity that establishes an XML stream with a server by

authenticating using the credentials of a registered account (via

SASL negotiation (Section 6)) and that then completes resource

binding (Section 7) in order to enable delivery of XML stanzas

between the server and the client over the negotiated stream. The

client then uses XMPP to communicate with its server, other clients,

and any other entities on the network, where the server is

responsible for delivering stanzas to other connected clients at the

same server or routing them to remote servers. Multiple clients can

connect simultaneously to a server on behalf of the same registered

account, where each client is differentiated by the resourcepart of

an XMPP address (e.g., <juliet@im.example.com/balcony> vs.

<juliet@im.example.com/chamber>), as defined under [XMPP-ADDR] and

Section 7.

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A server is an entity whose primary responsibilities are to:

o Manage XML streams (Section 4) with connected clients and deliver

  XML stanzas (Section 8) to those clients over the negotiated

  streams; this includes responsibility for ensuring that a client

  authenticates with the server before being granted access to the

  XMPP network.

o Subject to local service policies on server-to-server

  communication, manage XML streams (Section 4) with remote servers

  and route XML stanzas (Section 8) to those servers over the

  negotiated streams.

Depending on the application, the secondary responsibilities of an

XMPP server can include:

o Storing data that is used by clients (e.g., contact lists for

  users of XMPP-based instant messaging and presence applications as

  defined in [XMPP-IM]); in this case, the relevant XML stanza is

  handled directly by the server itself on behalf of the client and

  is not routed to a remote server or delivered to a connected

  client.

o Hosting add-on services that also use XMPP as the basis for

  communication but that provide additional functionality beyond

  that defined in this document or in [XMPP-IM]; examples include

  multi-user conferencing services as specified in [XEP-0045] and

  publish-subscribe services as specified in [XEP-0060].

  1. TCP Binding

3.1. Scope

As XMPP is defined in this specification, an initiating entity

(client or server) MUST open a Transmission Control Protocol [TCP]

connection to the receiving entity (server) before it negotiates XML

streams with the receiving entity. The parties then maintain that

TCP connection for as long as the XML streams are in use. The rules

specified in the following sections apply to the TCP binding.

  Informational Note: There is no necessary coupling of XML streams

  to TCP, and other transports are possible.  For example, two

  entities could connect to each other by means of [HTTP] as

  specified in [XEP-0124] and [XEP-0206].  However, this

  specification defines only a binding of XMPP to TCP.

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3.2. Resolution of Fully Qualified Domain Names

Because XML streams are sent over TCP, the initiating entity needs to

determine the IPv4 or IPv6 address (and port) of the receiving entity

before it can attempt to open an XML stream. Typically this is done

by resolving the receiving entity's fully qualified domain name or

FQDN (see [DNS-CONCEPTS]).

3.2.1. Preferred Process: SRV Lookup

The preferred process for FQDN resolution is to use [DNS-SRV] records

as follows:

  1. The initiating entity constructs a DNS SRV query whose inputs

   are:

   *  a Service of "xmpp-client" (for client-to-server connections)

      or "xmpp-server" (for server-to-server connections)

   *  a Proto of "tcp"

   *  a Name corresponding to the "origin domain" [TLS-CERTS] of the

      XMPP service to which the initiating entity wishes to connect

      (e.g., "example.net" or "im.example.com")

  1. The result is a query such as "_xmpp-client._tcp.example.net." or

   "_xmpp-server._tcp.im.example.com.".

  1. If a response is received, it will contain one or more

   combinations of a port and FDQN, each of which is weighted and

   prioritized as described in [DNS-SRV].  (However, if the result

   of the SRV lookup is a single resource record with a Target of

   ".", i.e., the root domain, then the initiating entity MUST abort

   SRV processing at this point because according to [DNS-SRV] such

   a Target "means that the service is decidedly not available at

   this domain".)

  1. The initiating entity chooses at least one of the returned FQDNs

   to resolve (following the rules in [DNS-SRV]), which it does by

   performing DNS "A" or "AAAA" lookups on the FDQN; this will

   result in an IPv4 or IPv6 address.

  1. The initiating entity uses the IP address(es) from the

   successfully resolved FDQN (with the corresponding port number

   returned by the SRV lookup) as the connection address for the

   receiving entity.

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  1. If the initiating entity fails to connect using that IP address

   but the "A" or "AAAA" lookups returned more than one IP address,

   then the initiating entity uses the next resolved IP address for

   that FDQN as the connection address.

  1. If the initiating entity fails to connect using all resolved IP

   addresses for a given FDQN, then it repeats the process of

   resolution and connection for the next FQDN returned by the SRV

   lookup based on the priority and weight as defined in [DNS-SRV].

  1. If the initiating entity receives a response to its SRV query but

   it is not able to establish an XMPP connection using the data

   received in the response, it SHOULD NOT attempt the fallback

   process described in the next section (this helps to prevent a

   state mismatch between inbound and outbound connections).

  1. If the initiating entity does not receive a response to its SRV

   query, it SHOULD attempt the fallback process described in the

   next section.

3.2.2. Fallback Processes

The fallback process SHOULD be a normal "A" or "AAAA" address record

resolution to determine the IPv4 or IPv6 address of the origin

domain, where the port used is the "xmpp-client" port of 5222 for

client-to-server connections or the "xmpp-server" port of 5269 for

server-to-server connections (these are the default ports as

registered with the IANA as described under Section 14.7).

If connections via TCP are unsuccessful, the initiating entity might

attempt to find and use alternative connection methods such as the

HTTP binding (see [XEP-0124] and [XEP-0206]), which might be

discovered using [DNS-TXT] records as described in [XEP-0156].

3.2.3. When Not to Use SRV

If the initiating entity has been explicitly configured to associate

a particular FQDN (and potentially port) with the origin domain of

the receiving entity (say, to "hardcode" an association from an

origin domain of example.net to a configured FQDN of

apps.example.com), the initiating entity is encouraged to use the

configured name instead of performing the preferred SRV resolution

process on the origin domain.

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3.2.4. Use of SRV Records with Add-On Services

Many XMPP servers are implemented in such a way that they can host

add-on services (beyond those defined in this specification and

[XMPP-IM]) at DNS domain names that typically are "subdomains" of the

main XMPP service (e.g., conference.example.net for a [XEP-0045]

service associated with the example.net XMPP service) or "subdomains"

of the first-level domain of the underlying service (e.g.,

muc.example.com for a [XEP-0045] service associated with the

im.example.com XMPP service). If an entity associated with a remote

XMPP server wishes to communicate with such an add-on service, it

would generate an appropriate XML stanza and the remote server would

attempt to resolve the add-on service's DNS domain name via an SRV

lookup on resource records such as "_xmpp-

server._tcp.conference.example.net." or "_xmpp-

server._tcp.muc.example.com.". Therefore, if the administrators of

an XMPP service wish to enable entities associated with remote

servers to access such add-on services, they need to advertise the

appropriate "_xmpp-server" SRV records in addition to the "_xmpp-

server" record for their main XMPP service. In case SRV records are

not available, the fallback methods described under Section 3.2.2 can

be used to resolve the DNS domain names of add-on services.

3.3. Reconnection

It can happen that an XMPP server goes offline unexpectedly while

servicing TCP connections from connected clients and remote servers.

Because the number of such connections can be quite large, the

reconnection algorithm employed by entities that seek to reconnect

can have a significant impact on software performance and network

congestion. If an entity chooses to reconnect, it:

o SHOULD set the number of seconds that expire before reconnecting

  to an unpredictable number between 0 and 60 (this helps to ensure

  that not all entities attempt to reconnect at exactly the same

  number of seconds after being disconnected).

o SHOULD back off increasingly on the time between subsequent

  reconnection attempts (e.g., in accordance with "truncated binary

  exponential backoff" as described in [ETHERNET]) if the first

  reconnection attempt does not succeed.

It is RECOMMENDED to make use of TLS session resumption [TLS-RESUME]

when reconnecting. A future version of this document, or a separate

specification, might provide more detailed guidelines regarding

methods for speeding the reconnection process.

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3.4. Reliability

The use of long-lived TCP connections in XMPP implies that the

sending of XML stanzas over XML streams can be unreliable, since the

parties to a long-lived TCP connection might not discover a

connectivity disruption in a timely manner. At the XMPP application

layer, long connectivity disruptions can result in undelivered

stanzas. Although the core XMPP technology defined in this

specification does not contain features to overcome this lack of

reliability, there exist XMPP extensions for doing so (e.g.,

[XEP-0198]).

  1. XML Streams

4.1. Stream Fundamentals

Two fundamental concepts make possible the rapid, asynchronous

exchange of relatively small payloads of structured information

between XMPP entities: XML streams and XML stanzas. These terms are

defined as follows.

Definition of XML Stream: An XML stream is a container for the

  exchange of XML elements between any two entities over a network.

  The start of an XML stream is denoted unambiguously by an opening

  "stream header" (i.e., an XML <stream> tag with appropriate

  attributes and namespace declarations), while the end of the XML

  stream is denoted unambiguously by a closing XML </stream> tag.

  During the life of the stream, the entity that initiated it can

  send an unbounded number of XML elements over the stream, either

  elements used to negotiate the stream (e.g., to complete TLS

  negotiation (Section 5) or SASL negotiation (Section 6)) or XML

  stanzas.  The "initial stream" is negotiated from the initiating

  entity (typically a client or server) to the receiving entity

  (typically a server), and can be seen as corresponding to the

  initiating entity's "connection to" or "session with" the

  receiving entity.  The initial stream enables unidirectional

  communication from the initiating entity to the receiving entity;

  in order to enable exchange of stanzas from the receiving entity

  to the initiating entity, the receiving entity MUST negotiate a

  stream in the opposite direction (the "response stream").

Definition of XML Stanza: An XML stanza is the basic unit of meaning

  in XMPP.  A stanza is a first-level element (at depth=1 of the

  stream) whose element name is "message", "presence", or "iq" and

  whose qualifying namespace is 'jabber:client' or 'jabber:server'.

  By contrast, a first-level element qualified by any other

  namespace is not an XML stanza (stream errors, stream features,

  TLS-related elements, SASL-related elements, etc.), nor is a

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  <message/>, <presence/>, or <iq/> element that is qualified by the

  'jabber:client' or 'jabber:server' namespace but that occurs at a

  depth other than one (e.g., a <message/> element contained within

  an extension element (Section 8.4) for reporting purposes), nor is

  a <message/>, <presence/>, or <iq/> element that is qualified by a

  namespace other than 'jabber:client' or 'jabber:server'.  An XML

  stanza typically contains one or more child elements (with

  accompanying attributes, elements, and XML character data) as

  necessary in order to convey the desired information, which MAY be

  qualified by any XML namespace (see [XML-NAMES] as well as

  Section 8.4 in this specification).

There are three kinds of stanzas: message, presence, and IQ (short

for "Info/Query"). These stanza types provide three different

communication primitives: a "push" mechanism for generalized

messaging, a specialized "publish-subscribe" mechanism for

broadcasting information about network availability, and a "request-

response" mechanism for more structured exchanges of data (similar to

[HTTP]). Further explanations are provided under Section 8.2.1,

Section 8.2.2, and Section 8.2.3, respectively.

Consider the example of a client's connection to a server. The

client initiates an XML stream by sending a stream header to the

server, preferably preceded by an XML declaration specifying the XML

version and the character encoding supported (see Section 11.5 and

Section 11.6). Subject to local policies and service provisioning,

the server then replies with a second XML stream back to the client,

again preferably preceded by an XML declaration. Once the client has

completed SASL negotiation (Section 6) and resource binding

(Section 7), the client can send an unbounded number of XML stanzas

over the stream. When the client desires to close the stream, it

simply sends a closing tag to the server as further

described under Section 4.4.

In essence, then, one XML stream functions as an envelope for the XML

stanzas sent during a session and another XML stream functions as an

envelope for the XML stanzas received during a session. We can

represent this in a simplistic fashion as follows.

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+--------------------+--------------------+

| INITIAL STREAM | RESPONSE STREAM |

+--------------------+--------------------+

| | |

|--------------------|--------------------|

| | |

|--------------------|--------------------|

| | |

| | |

| | |

|--------------------|--------------------|

| | |

| | |

| | |

|--------------------|--------------------|

| <iq to='bar' | |

| type='get'> | |

| | |

| | |

|--------------------|--------------------|

| | <iq from='bar' |

| | type='result'> |

| | |

| | |

|--------------------|--------------------|

| [ ... ] | |

|--------------------|--------------------|

| | [ ... ] |

|--------------------|--------------------|

| | |

|--------------------|--------------------|

| | |

+--------------------+--------------------+

            Figure 2: A Simplistic View of Two Streams

Those who are accustomed to thinking of XML in a document-centric

manner might find the following analogies useful:

o The two XML streams are like two "documents" (matching the

  "document" production from [XML]) that are built up through the

  accumulation of XML stanzas.

o The root element is like the "document entity" for each

  "document" (as described in Section 4.8 of [XML]).

o The XML stanzas sent over the streams are like "fragments" of the

  "documents" (as described in [XML-FRAG]).

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However, these descriptions are merely analogies, because XMPP does

not deal in documents and fragments but in streams and stanzas.

The remainder of this section defines the following aspects of XML

streams (along with related topics):

o How to open a stream (Section 4.2)

o The stream negotiation process (Section 4.3)

o How to close a stream (Section 4.4)

o The directionality of XML streams (Section 4.5)

o How to handle peers that are silent (Section 4.6)

o The XML attributes of a stream (Section 4.7)

o The XML namespaces of a stream (Section 4.8)

o Error handling related to XML streams (Section 4.9)

4.2. Opening a Stream

After connecting to the appropriate IP address and port of the

receiving entity, the initiating entity opens a stream by sending a

stream header (the "initial stream header") to the receiving entity.

I:

  <stream:stream

      from='juliet@im.example.com'

      to='im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

The receiving entity then replies by sending a stream header of its

own (the "response stream header") to the initiating entity.

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R:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

The entities can then proceed with the remainder of the stream

negotiation process.

4.3. Stream Negotiation

4.3.1. Basic Concepts

Because the receiving entity for a stream acts as a gatekeeper to the

domains it services, it imposes certain conditions for connecting as

a client or as a peer server. At a minimum, the initiating entity

needs to authenticate with the receiving entity before it is allowed

to send stanzas to the receiving entity (for client-to-server streams

this means using SASL as described under Section 6). However, the

receiving entity can consider conditions other than authentication to

be mandatory-to-negotiate, such as encryption using TLS as described

under Section 5. The receiving entity informs the initiating entity

about such conditions by communicating "stream features": the set of

particular protocol interactions that the initiating entity needs to

complete before the receiving entity will accept XML stanzas from the

initiating entity, as well as any protocol interactions that are

voluntary-to-negotiate but that might improve the handling of an XML

stream (e.g., establishment of application-layer compression as

described in [XEP-0138]).

The existence of conditions for connecting implies that streams need

to be negotiated. The order of layers (TCP, then TLS, then SASL,

then XMPP as described under Section 13.3) implies that stream

negotiation is a multi-stage process. Further structure is imposed

by two factors: (1) a given stream feature might be offered only to

certain entities or only after certain other features have been

negotiated (e.g., resource binding is offered only after SASL

authentication), and (2) stream features can be either mandatory-to-

negotiate or voluntary-to-negotiate. Finally, for security reasons

the parties to a stream need to discard knowledge that they gained

during the negotiation process after successfully completing the

protocol interactions defined for certain features (e.g., TLS in all

cases and SASL in the case when a security layer might be

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established, as defined in the specification for the relevant SASL

mechanism). This is done by flushing the old stream context and

exchanging new stream headers over the existing TCP connection.

4.3.2. Stream Features Format

If the initiating entity includes in the initial stream header the

'version' attribute set to a value of at least "1.0" (see

Section 4.7.5), after sending the response stream header the

receiving entity MUST send a child element (typically

prefixed by the stream namespace prefix as described under

Section 4.8.5) to the initiating entity in order to announce any

conditions for continuation of the stream negotiation process. Each

condition takes the form of a child element of the

element, qualified by a namespace that is different from the stream

namespace and the content namespace. The element can

contain one child, contain multiple children, or be empty.

  Implementation Note: The order of child elements contained in any

  given <features/> element is not significant.

If a particular stream feature is or can be mandatory-to-negotiate,

the definition of that feature needs to do one of the following:

  1. Declare that the feature is always mandatory-to-negotiate (e.g.,

   this is true of resource binding for XMPP clients); or

  1. Specify a way for the receiving entity to flag the feature as

   mandatory-to-negotiate for this interaction (e.g., for STARTTLS,

   this is done by including an empty <required/> element in the

   advertisement for that stream feature, but that is not a generic

   format for all stream features); it is RECOMMENDED that stream

   feature definitions for new mandatory-to-negotiate features do so

   by including an empty <required/> element as is done for

   STARTTLS.

  Informational Note: Because there is no generic format for

  indicating that a feature is mandatory-to-negotiate, it is

  possible that a feature that is not understood by the initiating

  entity might be considered mandatory-to-negotiate by the receiving

  entity, resulting in failure of the stream negotiation process.

  Although such an outcome would be undesirable, the working group

  deemed it rare enough that a generic format was not needed.

For security reasons, certain stream features necessitate the

initiating entity to send a new initial stream header upon successful

negotiation of the feature (e.g., TLS in all cases and SASL in the

case when a security layer might be established). If this is true of

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a given stream feature, the definition of that feature needs to

specify that a stream restart is expected after negotiation of the

feature.

A element that contains at least one mandatory-to-

negotiate feature indicates that the stream negotiation is not

complete and that the initiating entity MUST negotiate further

features.

R: stream:features

    <starttls xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-tls'>

      <required/>

    </starttls>

  </stream:features>

A element MAY contain more than one mandatory-to-

negotiate feature. This means that the initiating entity can choose

among the mandatory-to-negotiate features at this stage of the stream

negotiation process. As an example, perhaps a future technology will

perform roughly the same function as TLS, so the receiving entity

might advertise support for both TLS and the future technology at the

same stage of the stream negotiation process. However, this applies

only at a given stage of the stream negotiation process and does not

apply to features that are mandatory-to-negotiate at different stages

(e.g., the receiving entity would not advertise both STARTTLS and

SASL as mandatory-to-negotiate, or both SASL and resource binding as

mandatory-to-negotiate, because TLS would need to be negotiated

before SASL and because SASL would need to be negotiated before

resource binding).

A element that contains both mandatory-to-negotiate and

voluntary-to-negotiate features indicates that the negotiation is not

complete but that the initiating entity MAY complete the voluntary-

to-negotiate feature(s) before it attempts to negotiate the

mandatory-to-negotiate feature(s).

R: stream:features

    <bind xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'/>

    <compression xmlns='http://jabber.org/features/compress'>

      <method>zlib</method>

      <method>lzw</method>

    </compression>

  </stream:features>

A element that contains only voluntary-to-negotiate

features indicates that the stream negotiation is complete and that

the initiating entity is cleared to send XML stanzas, but that the

initiating entity MAY negotiate further features if desired.

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R: stream:features

    <compression xmlns='http://jabber.org/features/compress'>

      <method>zlib</method>

      <method>lzw</method>

    </compression>

  </stream:features>

An empty element indicates that the stream negotiation is

complete and that the initiating entity is cleared to send XML

stanzas.

R: stream:features/

4.3.3. Restarts

On successful negotiation of a feature that necessitates a stream

restart, both parties MUST consider the previous stream to be

replaced but MUST NOT send a closing tag and MUST NOT

terminate the underlying TCP connection; instead, the parties MUST

reuse the existing connection, which might be in a new state (e.g.,

encrypted as a result of TLS negotiation). The initiating entity

then MUST send a new initial stream header, which SHOULD be preceded

by an XML declaration as described under Section 11.5. When the

receiving entity receives the new initial stream header, it MUST

generate a new stream ID (instead of reusing the old stream ID)

before sending a new response stream header (which SHOULD be preceded

by an XML declaration as described under Section 11.5).

4.3.4. Resending Features

The receiving entity MUST send an updated list of stream features to

the initiating entity after a stream restart. The list of updated

features MAY be empty if there are no further features to be

advertised or MAY include any combination of features.

4.3.5. Completion of Stream Negotiation

The receiving entity indicates completion of the stream negotiation

process by sending to the initiating entity either an empty

element or a element that contains only

voluntary-to-negotiate features. After doing so, the receiving

entity MAY send an empty element (e.g., after negotiation

of such voluntary-to-negotiate features) but MUST NOT send additional

stream features to the initiating entity (if the receiving entity has

new features to offer, preferably limited to mandatory-to-negotiate

or security-critical features, it can simply close the stream with a

stream error (Section 4.9.3.16) and then advertise the new

features when the initiating entity reconnects, preferably closing

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existing streams in a staggered way so that not all of the initiating

entities reconnect at once). Once stream negotiation is complete,

the initiating entity is cleared to send XML stanzas over the stream

for as long as the stream is maintained by both parties.

  Informational Note: Resource binding as specified under Section 7

  is an historical exception to the foregoing rule, since it is

  mandatory-to-negotiate for clients but uses XML stanzas for

  negotiation purposes.

The initiating entity MUST NOT attempt to send XML stanzas

(Section 8) to entities other than itself (i.e., the client's

connected resource or any other authenticated resource of the

client's account) or the server to which it is connected until stream

negotiation has been completed. Even if the initiating entity does

attempt to do so, the receiving entity MUST NOT accept such stanzas

and MUST close the stream with a stream error

(Section 4.9.3.12). This rule applies to XML stanzas only (i.e.,

, , and elements qualified by the content

namespace) and not to XML elements used for stream negotiation (e.g.,

elements used to complete TLS negotiation (Section 5) or SASL

negotiation (Section 6)).

4.3.6. Determination of Addresses

After the parties to an XML stream have completed the appropriate

aspects of stream negotiation, the receiving entity for a stream MUST

determine the initiating entity's JID.

For client-to-server communication, both SASL negotiation (Section 6)

and resource binding (Section 7) MUST be completed before the server

can determine the client's address. The client's bare JID

(localpart@domainpart) MUST be the authorization identity (as

defined by [SASL]), either (1) as directly communicated by the client

during SASL negotiation (Section 6) or (2) as derived by the server

from the authentication identity if no authorization identity was

specified during SASL negotiation. The resourcepart of the full JID

(<localpart@domainpart/resourcepart>) MUST be the resource negotiated

by the client and server during resource binding (Section 7). A

client MUST NOT attempt to guess at its JID but instead MUST consider

its JID to be whatever the server returns to it during resource

binding. The server MUST ensure that the resulting JID (including

localpart, domainpart, resourcepart, and separator characters)

conforms to the canonical format for XMPP addresses defined in

[XMPP-ADDR]; to meet this restriction, the server MAY replace the JID

sent by the client with the canonicalized JID as determined by the

server and communicate that JID to the client during resource

binding.

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For server-to-server communication, the initiating server's bare JID

() MUST be the authorization identity (as defined by

[SASL]), either (1) as directly communicated by the initiating server

during SASL negotiation (Section 6) or (2) as derived by the

receiving server from the authentication identity if no authorization

identity was specified during SASL negotiation. In the absence of

SASL negotiation, the receiving server MAY consider the authorization

identity to be an identity negotiated within the relevant

verification protocol (e.g., the 'from' attribute of the

element in Server Dialback [XEP-0220]).

  Security Warning: Because it is possible for a third party to

  tamper with information that is sent over the stream before a

  security layer such as TLS is successfully negotiated, it is

  advisable for the receiving server to treat any such unprotected

  information with caution; this applies especially to the 'from'

  and 'to' addresses on the first initial stream header sent by the

  initiating entity.

4.3.7. Flow Chart

We summarize the foregoing rules in the following non-normative flow

chart for the stream negotiation process, presented from the

perspective of the initiating entity.

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               +---------------------+

               | open TCP connection |

               +---------------------+

                          |

                          v

                   +---------------+

                   | send initial  |<-------------------------+

                   | stream header |                          ^

                   +---------------+                          |

                          |                                   |

                          v                                   |

                  +------------------+                        |

                  | receive response |                        |

                  | stream header    |                        |

                  +------------------+                        |

                          |                                   |

                          v                                   |

                   +----------------+                         |

                   | receive stream |                         |

+------------------>| features | |

^ {OPTIONAL} +----------------+ |

| | |

| v |

| +<-----------------+ |

| | |

| {empty?} ----> {all voluntary?} ----> {some mandatory?} |

| | no | no | |

| | yes | yes | yes |

| | v v |

| | +---------------+ +----------------+ |

| | | MAY negotiate | | MUST negotiate | |

| | | any or none | | one feature | |

| | +---------------+ +----------------+ |

| v | | |

| +---------+ v | |

| | DONE |<----- {negotiate?} | |

| +---------+ no | | |

| yes | | |

| v v |

| +--------->+<---------+ |

| | |

| v |

+<-------------------------- {restart mandatory?} ------------>+

              no                                     yes

              Figure 3: Stream Negotiation Flow Chart

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4.4. Closing a Stream

An XML stream from one entity to another can be closed at any time,

either because a specific stream error (Section 4.9) has occurred or

in the absence of an error (e.g., when a client simply ends its

session).

A stream is closed by sending a closing tag.

E: </stream:stream>

If the parties are using either two streams over a single TCP

connection or two streams over two TCP connections, the entity that

sends the closing stream tag MUST behave as follows:

  1. Wait for the other party to also close its outbound stream before

   terminating the underlying TCP connection(s); this gives the

   other party an opportunity to finish transmitting any outbound

   data to the closing entity before the termination of the TCP

   connection(s).

  1. Refrain from sending any further data over its outbound stream to

   the other entity, but continue to process data received from the

   other entity (and, if necessary, process such data).

  1. Consider both streams to be void if the other party does not send

   its closing stream tag within a reasonable amount of time (where

   the definition of "reasonable" is a matter of implementation or

   deployment).

  1. After receiving a reciprocal closing stream tag from the other

   party or waiting a reasonable amount of time with no response,

   terminate the underlying TCP connection(s).

  Security Warning: In accordance with Section 7.2.1 of [TLS], to

  help prevent a truncation attack the party that is closing the

  stream MUST send a TLS close_notify alert and MUST receive a

  responding close_notify alert from the other party before

  terminating the underlying TCP connection(s).

If the parties are using multiple streams over multiple TCP

connections, there is no defined pairing of streams and therefore the

behavior is a matter for implementation.

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4.5. Directionality

An XML stream is always unidirectional, by which is meant that XML

stanzas can be sent in only one direction over the stream (either

from the initiating entity to the receiving entity or from the

receiving entity to the initiating entity).

Depending on the type of session that has been negotiated and the

nature of the entities involved, the entities might use:

o Two streams over a single TCP connection, where the security

  context negotiated for the first stream is applied to the second

  stream.  This is typical for client-to-server sessions, and a

  server MUST allow a client to use the same TCP connection for both

  streams.

o Two streams over two TCP connections, where each stream is

  separately secured.  In this approach, one TCP connection is used

  for the stream in which stanzas are sent from the initiating

  entity to the receiving entity, and the other TCP connection is

  used for the stream in which stanzas are sent from the receiving

  entity to the initiating entity.  This is typical for server-to-

  server sessions.

o Multiple streams over two or more TCP connections, where each

  stream is separately secured.  This approach is sometimes used for

  server-to-server communication between two large XMPP service

  providers; however, this can make it difficult to maintain

  coherence of data received over multiple streams in situations

  described under Section 10.1, which is why a server MAY close the

  stream with a <conflict/> stream error (Section 4.9.3.3) if a

  remote server attempts to negotiate more than one stream (as

  described under Section 4.9.3.3).

This concept of directionality applies only to stanzas and explicitly

does not apply to first-level children of the stream root that are

used to bootstrap or manage the stream (e.g., first-level elements

used for TLS negotiation, SASL negotiation, Server Dialback

[XEP-0220], and Stream Management [XEP-0198]).

The foregoing considerations imply that while completing STARTTLS

negotiation (Section 5) and SASL negotiation (Section 6) two servers

would use one TCP connection, but after the stream negotiation

process is done that original TCP connection would be used only for

the initiating server to send XML stanzas to the receiving server.

In order for the receiving server to send XML stanzas to the

initiating server, the receiving server would need to reverse the

roles and negotiate an XML stream from the receiving server to the

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

initiating server over a separate TCP connection. This separate TCP

connection is then secured using a new round of TLS and/or SASL

negotiation.

  Implementation Note: For historical reasons, a server-to-server

  session always uses two TCP connections.  While that approach

  remains the standard behavior described in this document,

  extensions such as [XEP-0288] enable servers to negotiate the use

  of a single TCP connection for bidirectional stanza exchange.

  Informational Note: Although XMPP developers sometimes apply the

  terms "unidirectional" and "bidirectional" to the underlying TCP

  connection (e.g., calling the TCP connection for a client-to-

  server session "bidirectional" and the TCP connection for a

  server-to-server session "unidirectional"), strictly speaking a

  stream is always unidirectional (because the initiating entity and

  receiving entity always have a minimum of two streams, one in each

  direction) and a TCP connection is always bidirectional (because

  TCP traffic can be sent in both directions).  Directionality

  applies to the application-layer traffic sent over the TCP

  connection, not to the transport-layer traffic sent over the TCP

  connection itself.

4.6. Handling of Silent Peers

When an entity that is a party to a stream has not received any XMPP

traffic from its stream peer for some period of time, the peer might

appear to be silent. There are several reasons why this might

happen:

  1. The underlying TCP connection is dead.

  1. The XML stream is broken despite the fact that the underlying TCP

   connection is alive.

  1. The peer is idle and simply has not sent any XMPP traffic over

   its XML stream to the entity.

These three conditions are best handled separately, as described in

the following sections.

  Implementation Note: For the purpose of handling silent peers, we

  treat a two unidirectional TCP connections as conceptually

  equivalent to a single bidirectional TCP connection (see

  Section 4.5); however, implementers need to be aware that, in the

  case of two unidirectional TCP connections, responses to traffic

  at the XMPP application layer will come back from the peer on the

  second TCP connection.  In addition, the use of multiple streams

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

  in each direction (which is a somewhat frequent deployment choice

  for server-to-server connectivity among large XMPP service

  providers) further complicates application-level checking of XMPP

  streams and their underlying TCP connections, because there is no

  necessary correlation between any given initial stream and any

  given response stream.

4.6.1. Dead Connection

If the underlying TCP connection is dead, stream-level checks (e.g.,

[XEP-0199] and [XEP-0198]) are ineffective. Therefore, it is

unnecessary to close the stream with or without an error, and it is

appropriate instead to simply terminate the TCP connection.

One common method for checking the TCP connection is to send a space

character (U+0020) between XML stanzas, which is allowed for XML

streams as described under Section 11.7; the sending of such a space

character is properly called a "whitespace keepalive" (the term

"whitespace ping" is often used, despite the fact that it is not a

ping since no "pong" is possible). However, this is not allowed

during TLS negotiation or SASL negotiation, as described under

Section 5.3.3 and Section 6.3.5.

4.6.2. Broken Stream

Even if the underlying TCP connection is alive, the peer might never

respond to XMPP traffic that the entity sends, whether normal stanzas

or specialized stream-checking traffic such as the application-level

pings defined in [XEP-0199] or the more comprehensive Stream

Management protocol defined in [XEP-0198]. In this case, it is

appropriate for the entity to close a broken stream with a

stream error (Section 4.9.3.4).

4.6.3. Idle Peer

Even if the underlying TCP connection is alive and the stream is not

broken, the peer might have sent no stanzas for a certain period of

time. In this case, the peer itself MAY close the stream (as

described under Section 4.4) rather than leaving an unused stream

open. If the idle peer does not close the stream, the other party

MAY either close the stream using the handshake described under

Section 4.4 or close the stream with a stream error (e.g., <resource-

constraint/> (Section 4.9.3.17) if the entity has reached a limit on

the number of open TCP connections or

(Section 4.9.3.14) if the connection has exceeded a local timeout

policy). However, consistent with the order of layers (specified

under Section 13.3), the other party is advised to verify that the

underlying TCP connection is alive and the stream is unbroken (as

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described above) before concluding that the peer is idle.

Furthermore, it is preferable to be liberal in accepting idle peers,

since experience has shown that doing so improves the reliability of

communication over XMPP networks and that it is typically more

efficient to maintain a stream between two servers than to

aggressively time out such a stream.

4.6.4. Use of Checking Methods

Implementers are advised to support whichever stream-checking and

connection-checking methods they deem appropriate, but to carefully

weigh the network impact of such methods against the benefits of

discovering broken streams and dead TCP connections in a timely

manner. The length of time between the use of any particular check

is very much a matter of local service policy and depends strongly on

the network environment and usage scenarios of a given deployment and

connection type. At the time of writing, it is RECOMMENDED that any

such check be performed not more than once every 5 minutes and that,

ideally, such checks will be initiated by clients rather than

servers. Those who implement XMPP software and deploy XMPP services

are encouraged to seek additional advice regarding appropriate timing

of stream-checking and connection-checking methods, particularly when

power-constrained devices are being used (e.g., in mobile

environments).

4.7. Stream Attributes

The attributes of the root element are defined in the

following sections.

  Security Warning: Until and unless the confidentiality and

  integrity of the stream are protected via TLS as described under

  Section 5 or an equivalent security layer (such as the SASL GSSAPI

  mechanism), the attributes provided in a stream header could be

  tampered with by an attacker.

  Implementation Note: The attributes of the root <stream/> element

  are not prepended by a namespace prefix because, as explained in

  [XML-NAMES], "[d]efault namespace declarations do not apply

  directly to attribute names; the interpretation of unprefixed

  attributes is determined by the element on which they appear."

4.7.1. from

The 'from' attribute specifies an XMPP identity of the entity sending

the stream element.

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For initial stream headers in client-to-server communication, the

'from' attribute is the XMPP identity of the principal controlling

the client, i.e., a JID of the form localpart@domainpart. The

client might not know the XMPP identity, e.g., because the XMPP

identity is assigned at a level other than the XMPP application layer

(as in the Generic Security Service Application Program Interface

[GSS-API]) or is derived by the server from information provided by

the client (as in some deployments of end-user certificates with the

SASL EXTERNAL mechanism). Furthermore, if the client considers the

XMPP identity to be private information then it is advised not to

include a 'from' attribute before the confidentiality and integrity

of the stream are protected via TLS or an equivalent security layer.

However, if the client knows the XMPP identity then it SHOULD include

the 'from' attribute after the confidentiality and integrity of the

stream are protected via TLS or an equivalent security layer.

I:

  <stream:stream

      from='juliet@im.example.com'

      to='im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

For initial stream headers in server-to-server communication, the

'from' attribute is one of the configured FQDNs of the server, i.e.,

a JID of the form . The initiating server might have

more than one XMPP identity, e.g., in the case of a server that

provides virtual hosting, so it will need to choose an identity that

is associated with this output stream (e.g., based on the 'to'

attribute of the stanza that triggered the stream negotiation

attempt). Because a server is a "public entity" on the XMPP network,

it MUST include the 'from' attribute after the confidentiality and

integrity of the stream are protected via TLS or an equivalent

security layer.

I:

  <stream:stream

      from='example.net'

      to='im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:server'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

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For response stream headers in both client-to-server and server-to-

server communication, the receiving entity MUST include the 'from'

attribute and MUST set its value to one of the receiving entity's

FQDNs (which MAY be an FQDN other than that specified in the 'to'

attribute of the initial stream header, as described under

Section 4.9.1.3 and Section 4.9.3.6).

R:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

Whether or not the 'from' attribute is included, each entity MUST

verify the identity of the other entity before exchanging XML stanzas

with it, as described under Section 13.5.

  Interoperability Note: It is possible that implementations based

  on [RFC3920] will not include the 'from' address on any stream

  headers (even ones whose confidentiality and integrity are

  protected); an entity SHOULD be liberal in accepting such stream

  headers.

4.7.2. to

For initial stream headers in both client-to-server and server-to-

server communication, the initiating entity MUST include the 'to'

attribute and MUST set its value to a domainpart that the initiating

entity knows or expects the receiving entity to service. (The same

information can be provided in other ways, such as a Server Name

Indication during TLS negotiation as described in [TLS-EXT].)

I:

  <stream:stream

      from='juliet@im.example.com'

      to='im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

For response stream headers in client-to-server communication, if the

client included a 'from' attribute in the initial stream header then

the server MUST include a 'to' attribute in the response stream

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

header and MUST set its value to the bare JID specified in the 'from'

attribute of the initial stream header. If the client did not

include a 'from' attribute in the initial stream header then the

server MUST NOT include a 'to' attribute in the response stream

header.

R:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

For response stream headers in server-to-server communication, the

receiving entity MUST include a 'to' attribute in the response stream

header and MUST set its value to the domainpart specified in the

'from' attribute of the initial stream header.

R:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='g4qSvGvBxJ+xeAd7QKezOQJFFlw='

      to='example.net'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:server'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

Whether or not the 'to' attribute is included, each entity MUST

verify the identity of the other entity before exchanging XML stanzas

with it, as described under Section 13.5.

  Interoperability Note: It is possible that implementations based

  on [RFC3920] will not include the 'to' address on stream headers;

  an entity SHOULD be liberal in accepting such stream headers.

4.7.3. id

The 'id' attribute specifies a unique identifier for the stream,

called a "stream ID". The stream ID MUST be generated by the

receiving entity when it sends a response stream header and MUST BE

unique within the receiving application (normally a server).

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

  Security Warning: The stream ID MUST be both unpredictable and

  non-repeating because it can be security-critical when reused by

  an authentication mechanisms, as is the case for Server Dialback

  [XEP-0220] and the "XMPP 0.9" authentication mechanism used before

  RFC 3920 defined the use of SASL in XMPP; for recommendations

  regarding randomness for security purposes, see [RANDOM].

For initial stream headers, the initiating entity MUST NOT include

the 'id' attribute; however, if the 'id' attribute is included, the

receiving entity MUST ignore it.

For response stream headers, the receiving entity MUST include the

'id' attribute.

R:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

  Interoperability Note: In RFC 3920, the text regarding inclusion

  of the 'id' attribute was ambiguous, leading some implementations

  to leave the attribute off the response stream header.

4.7.4. xml:lang

The 'xml:lang' attribute specifies an entity's preferred or default

language for any human-readable XML character data to be sent over

the stream (an XML stanza can also possess an 'xml:lang' attribute,

as discussed under Section 8.1.5). The syntax of this attribute is

defined in Section 2.12 of [XML]; in particular, the value of the

'xml:lang' attribute MUST conform to the NMTOKEN datatype (as defined

in Section 2.3 of [XML]) and MUST conform to the language identifier

format defined in [LANGTAGS].

For initial stream headers, the initiating entity SHOULD include the

'xml:lang' attribute.

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

I:

  <stream:stream

      from='juliet@im.example.com'

      to='im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

For response stream headers, the receiving entity MUST include the

'xml:lang' attribute. The following rules apply:

o If the initiating entity included an 'xml:lang' attribute in its

  initial stream header and the receiving entity supports that

  language in the human-readable XML character data that it

  generates and sends to the initiating entity (e.g., in the <text/>

  element for stream and stanza errors), the value of the 'xml:lang'

  attribute MUST be the identifier for the initiating entity's

  preferred language (e.g., "de-CH").

o If the receiving entity supports a language that matches the

  initiating entity's preferred language according to the "lookup

  scheme" specified in Section 3.4 of [LANGMATCH] (e.g., "de"

  instead of "de-CH"), then the value of the 'xml:lang' attribute

  SHOULD be the identifier for the matching language.

o If the receiving entity does not support the initiating entity's

  preferred language or a matching language according to the lookup

  scheme (or if the initiating entity did not include the 'xml:lang'

  attribute in its initial stream header), then the value of the

  'xml:lang' attribute MUST be the identifier for the default

  language of the receiving entity (e.g., "en").

R:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

If the initiating entity included the 'xml:lang' attribute in its

initial stream header, the receiving entity SHOULD remember that

value as the default xml:lang for all stanzas sent by the initiating

entity over the current stream. As described under Section 8.1.5,

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

the initiating entity MAY include the 'xml:lang' attribute in any XML

stanzas it sends over the stream. If the initiating entity does not

include the 'xml:lang' attribute in any such stanza, the receiving

entity SHOULD add the 'xml:lang' attribute to the stanza when routing

it to a remote server or delivering it to a connected client, where

the value of the attribute MUST be the identifier for the language

preferred by the initiating entity (even if the receiving entity does

not support that language for human-readable XML character data it

generates and sends to the initiating entity, such as in stream or

stanza errors). If the initiating entity includes the 'xml:lang'

attribute in any such stanza, the receiving entity MUST NOT modify or

delete it when routing it to a remote server or delivering it to a

connected client.

4.7.5. version

The inclusion of the version attribute set to a value of at least

"1.0" signals support for the stream-related protocols defined in

this specification, including TLS negotiation (Section 5), SASL

negotiation (Section 6), stream features (Section 4.3.2), and stream

errors (Section 4.9).

The version of XMPP specified in this specification is "1.0"; in

particular, XMPP 1.0 encapsulates the stream-related protocols as

well as the basic semantics of the three defined XML stanza types

(, , and as described under Sections

8.2.1, 8.2.2, and 8.2.3, respectively).

The numbering scheme for XMPP versions is ".". The

major and minor numbers MUST be treated as separate integers and each

number MAY be incremented higher than a single digit. Thus, "XMPP

2.4" would be a lower version than "XMPP 2.13", which in turn would

be lower than "XMPP 12.3". Leading zeros (e.g., "XMPP 6.01") MUST be

ignored by recipients and MUST NOT be sent.

The major version number will be incremented only if the stream and

stanza formats or obligatory actions have changed so dramatically

that an older version entity would not be able to interoperate with a

newer version entity if it simply ignored the elements and attributes

it did not understand and took the actions defined in the older

specification.

The minor version number will be incremented only if significant new

capabilities have been added to the core protocol (e.g., a newly

defined value of the 'type' attribute for message, presence, or IQ

stanzas). The minor version number MUST be ignored by an entity with

a smaller minor version number, but MAY be used for informational

purposes by the entity with the larger minor version number (e.g.,

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

the entity with the larger minor version number would simply note

that its correspondent would not be able to understand that value of

the 'type' attribute and therefore would not send it).

The following rules apply to the generation and handling of the

'version' attribute within stream headers:

  1. The initiating entity MUST set the value of the 'version'

   attribute in the initial stream header to the highest version

   number it supports (e.g., if the highest version number it

   supports is that defined in this specification, it MUST set the

   value to "1.0").

  1. The receiving entity MUST set the value of the 'version'

   attribute in the response stream header to either the value

   supplied by the initiating entity or the highest version number

   supported by the receiving entity, whichever is lower.  The

   receiving entity MUST perform a numeric comparison on the major

   and minor version numbers, not a string match on

   "<major>.<minor>".

  1. If the version number included in the response stream header is

   at least one major version lower than the version number included

   in the initial stream header and newer version entities cannot

   interoperate with older version entities as described, the

   initiating entity SHOULD close the stream with an <unsupported-

   version/> stream error (Section 4.9.3.25).

  1. If either entity receives a stream header with no 'version'

   attribute, the entity MUST consider the version supported by the

   other entity to be "0.9" and SHOULD NOT include a 'version'

   attribute in the response stream header.

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

4.7.6. Summary of Stream Attributes

The following table summarizes the attributes of the root

element.

+----------+--------------------------+-------------------------+

| | initiating to receiving | receiving to initiating |

+----------+--------------------------+-------------------------+

| to | JID of receiver | JID of initiator |

| from | JID of initiator | JID of receiver |

| id | ignored | stream identifier |

| xml:lang | default language | default language |

| version | XMPP 1.0+ supported | XMPP 1.0+ supported |

+----------+--------------------------+-------------------------+

                    Figure 4: Stream Attributes

4.8. XML Namespaces

Readers are referred to the specification of XML namespaces

[XML-NAMES] for a full understanding of the concepts used in this

section, especially the concept of a "default namespace" as provided

in Section 3 and Section 6.2 of that specification.

4.8.1. Stream Namespace

The root element ("stream header") MUST be qualified by the

namespace 'http://etherx.jabber.org/streams' (the "stream

namespace"). If this rule is violated, the entity that receives the

offending stream header MUST close the stream with a stream error,

which SHOULD be (Section 4.9.3.10), although

some existing implementations send (Section 4.9.3.1)

instead.

4.8.2. Content Namespace

An entity MAY declare a "content namespace" as the default namespace

for data sent over the stream (i.e., data other than elements

qualified by the stream namespace). If so, (1) the content namespace

MUST be other than the stream namespace, and (2) the content

namespace MUST be the same for the initial stream and the response

stream so that both streams are qualified consistently. The content

namespace applies to all first-level child elements sent over the

stream unless explicitly qualified by another namespace (i.e., the

content namespace is the default namespace).

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

Alternatively (i.e., instead of declaring the content namespace as

the default namespace), an entity MAY explicitly qualify the

namespace for each first-level child element of the stream, using so-

called "prefix-free canonicalization". These two styles are shown in

the following examples.

When a content namespace is declared as the default namespace, in

rough outline a stream will look something like the following.

<stream:stream

   from='juliet@im.example.com'

   to='im.example.com'

   version='1.0'

   xml:lang='en'

   xmlns='jabber:client'

   xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

 <message>

   <body>foo</body>

 </message>

</stream:stream>

When a content namespace is not declared as the default namespace and

so-called "prefix-free canonicalization" is used instead, in rough

outline a stream will look something like the following.

<stream

   from='juliet@im.example.com'

   to='im.example.com'

   version='1.0'

   xml:lang='en'

   xmlns='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

 <message xmlns='jabber:client'>

   <body>foo</body>

 </message>

Traditionally, most XMPP implementations have used the content-

namespace-as-default-namespace style rather than the prefix-free

canonicalization style for stream headers; however, both styles are

acceptable since they are semantically equivalent.

4.8.3. XMPP Content Namespaces

XMPP as defined in this specification uses two content namespaces:

'jabber:client' and 'jabber:server'. These namespaces are nearly

identical but are used in different contexts (client-to-server

communication for 'jabber:client' and server-to-server communication

for 'jabber:server'). The only difference between the two is that

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

the 'to' and 'from' attributes are OPTIONAL on stanzas sent over XML

streams qualified by the 'jabber:client' namespace, whereas they are

REQUIRED on stanzas sent over XML streams qualified by the 'jabber:

server' namespace. Support for these content namespaces implies

support for the common attributes (Section 8.1) and basic semantics

(Section 8.2) of all three core stanza types (message, presence, and

IQ).

An implementation MAY support content namespaces other than 'jabber:

client' or 'jabber:server'. However, because such namespaces would

define applications other than XMPP, they are to be defined in

separate specifications.

An implementation MAY refuse to support any other content namespaces

as default namespaces. If an entity receives a first-level child

element qualified by a content namespace it does not support, it MUST

close the stream with an stream error

(Section 4.9.3.10).

Client implementations MUST support the 'jabber:client' content

namespace as a default namespace. The 'jabber:server' content

namespace is out of scope for an XMPP client, and a client MUST NOT

send stanzas qualified by the 'jabber:server' namespace.

Server implementations MUST support as default content namespaces

both the 'jabber:client' namespace (when the stream is used for

communication between a client and a server) and the 'jabber:server'

namespace (when the stream is used for communication between two

servers). When communicating with a connected client, a server MUST

NOT send stanzas qualified by the 'jabber:server' namespace; when

communicating with a peer server, a server MUST NOT send stanzas

qualified by the 'jabber:client' namespace.

  Implementation Note: Because a client sends stanzas over a stream

  whose content namespace is 'jabber:client', if a server routes to

  a peer server a stanza it has received from a connected client

  then it needs to "re-scope" the stanza so that its content

  namespace is 'jabber:server'.  Similarly, if a server delivers to

  a connected client a stanza it has received from a peer server

  then it needs to "re-scope" the stanza so that its content

  namespace is 'jabber:client'.  This rule applies to XML stanzas as

  defined under Section 4.1 (i.e., a first-level <message/>,

  <presence/>, or <iq/> element qualified by the 'jabber:client' or

  'jabber:server' namespace), and by namespace inheritance to all

  child elements of a stanza.  However, the rule does not apply to

  elements qualified by namespaces other than 'jabber:client' and

  'jabber:server' nor to any children of such elements (e.g., a

  <message/> element contained within an extension element

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

  (Section 8.4) for reporting purposes).  Although it is not

  forbidden for an entity to generate stanzas in which an extension

  element contains a child element qualified by the 'jabber:client'

  or 'jabber:server' namespace, existing implementations handle such

  stanzas inconsistently; therefore, implementers are advised to

  weigh the likely lack of interoperability against the possible

  utility of such stanzas.  Finally, servers are advised to apply

  stanza re-scoping to other stream connection methods and

  alternative XMPP connection methods, such as those specified in

  [XEP-0124], [XEP-0206], [XEP-0114], and [XEP-0225].

4.8.4. Other Namespaces

Either party to a stream MAY send data qualified by namespaces other

than the content namespace and the stream namespace. For example,

this is how data related to TLS negotiation and SASL negotiation are

exchanged, as well as XMPP extensions such as Stream Management

[XEP-0198] and Server Dialback [XEP-0220].

  Interoperability Note: For historical reasons, some server

  implementations expect a declaration of the 'jabber:server:

  dialback' namespace on server-to-server streams, as explained in

  [XEP-0220].

However, an XMPP server MUST NOT route or deliver data received over

an input stream if that data is (a) qualified by another namespace

and (b) addressed to an entity other than the server, unless the

other party to the output stream over which the server would send the

data has explicitly negotiated or advertised support for receiving

arbitrary data from the server. This rule is included because XMPP

is designed for the exchange of XML stanzas (not arbitrary XML data),

and because allowing an entity to send arbitrary data to other

entities could significantly increase the potential for exchanging

malicious information. As an example of this rule, the server

hosting the example.net domain would not route the following first-

level XML element from romeo@example.net to juliet@example.com:

 <ns1:foo xmlns:ns1='http://example.org/ns1'

          from='romeo@example.net/resource1'

          to='juliet@example.com'>

   <ns1:bar/>

 </ns1:foo>

This rule also applies to first-level elements that look like stanzas

but that are improperly namespaced and therefore really are not

stanzas at all (see also Section 4.8.5), for example:

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

 <ns2:message xmlns:ns2='http://example.org/ns2'

              from='romeo@example.net/resource1'

              to='juliet@example.com'>

   <body>hi</body>

 </ns2:message>

Upon receiving arbitrary first-level XML elements over an input

stream, a server MUST either ignore the data or close the stream with

a stream error, which SHOULD be

(Section 4.9.3.24).

4.8.5. Namespace Declarations and Prefixes

Because the content namespace is other than the stream namespace, if

a content namespace is declared as the default namespace then the

following statements are true:

  1. The stream header needs to contain a namespace declaration for

   both the content namespace and the stream namespace.

  1. The stream namespace declaration needs to include a namespace

   prefix for the stream namespace.

  Interoperability Note: For historical reasons, an implementation

  MAY accept only the prefix 'stream' for the stream namespace

  (resulting in prefixed names such as <stream:stream> and <stream:

  features>); this specification retains that allowance from

  [RFC3920] for the purpose of backward compatibility.

  Implementations are advised that using a prefix other than

  'stream' for the stream namespace might result in interoperability

  problems.  If an entity receives a stream header with a stream

  namespace prefix it does not accept, it MUST close the stream with

  a stream error, which SHOULD be <bad-namespace-prefix/>

  (Section 4.9.3.2), although some existing implementations send

  <bad-format/> (Section 4.9.3.1) instead.

An implementation MUST NOT generate namespace prefixes for elements

qualified by the content namespace (i.e., the default namespace for

data sent over the stream) if the content namespace is 'jabber:

client' or 'jabber:server'. For example, the following is illegal:

<stream:stream

   from='juliet@im.example.com'

   to='im.example.com'

   version='1.0'

   xml:lang='en'

   xmlns='jabber:client'

   xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

 <foo:message xmlns:foo='jabber:client'>

   <foo:body>foo</foo:body>

 </foo:message>

An XMPP entity SHOULD NOT accept data that violates this rule (in

particular, an XMPP server MUST NOT route or deliver such data to

another entity without first correcting the error); instead it SHOULD

either ignore the data or close the stream with a stream error, which

SHOULD be (Section 4.9.3.2).

Namespaces declared in a stream header MUST apply only to that stream

(e.g., the 'jabber:server:dialback' namespace used in Server Dialback

[XEP-0220]). In particular, because XML stanzas intended for routing

or delivery over streams with other entities will lose the namespace

context declared in the header of the stream in which those stanzas

originated, namespaces for extended content within such stanzas MUST

NOT be declared in that stream header (see also Section 8.4). If

either party to a stream declares such namespaces, the other party to

the stream SHOULD close the stream with an

stream error (Section 4.9.3.10). In any case, an entity MUST ensure

that such namespaces are properly declared (according to this

section) when routing or delivering stanzas from an input stream to

an output stream.

4.9. Stream Errors

The root stream element MAY contain an child element that is

qualified by the stream namespace. The error child SHALL be sent by

a compliant entity if it perceives that a stream-level error has

occurred.

4.9.1. Rules

The following rules apply to stream-level errors.

4.9.1.1. Stream Errors Are Unrecoverable

Stream-level errors are unrecoverable. Therefore, if an error occurs

at the level of the stream, the entity that detects the error MUST

send an element with an appropriate child element specifying

the error condition and then immediately close the stream as

described under Section 4.4.

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C: No closing tag!

S: stream:error

    <not-well-formed

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

The entity that receives the stream error then SHALL close the stream

as explained under Section 4.4.

C: </stream:stream>

4.9.1.2. Stream Errors Can Occur During Setup

If the error is triggered by the initial stream header, the receiving

entity MUST still send the opening tag, include the

element as a child of the stream element, and send the closing

tag (preferably in the same TCP packet).

C:

  <stream:stream

      from='juliet@im.example.com'

      to='im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://wrong.namespace.example.org/'>

S:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

  <stream:error>

    <invalid-namespace

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

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4.9.1.3. Stream Errors When the Host Is Unspecified or Unknown

If the initiating entity provides no 'to' attribute or provides an

unknown host in the 'to' attribute and the error occurs during stream

setup, the value of the 'from' attribute returned by the receiving

entity in the stream header sent before closing the stream MUST be

either an authoritative FQDN for the receiving entity or the empty

string.

C:

  <stream:stream

      from='juliet@im.example.com'

      to='unknown.host.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

S:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

  <stream:error>

    <host-unknown

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.1.4. Where Stream Errors Are Sent

When two TCP connections are used between the initiating entity and

the receiving entity (one in each direction) rather than using a

single bidirectional connection, the following rules apply:

o Stream-level errors related to the initial stream are returned by

  the receiving entity on the response stream via the same TCP

  connection.

o Stanza errors triggered by outbound stanzas sent from the

  initiating entity over the initial stream via the same TCP

  connection are returned by the receiving entity on the response

  stream via the other ("return") TCP connection, since they are

  inbound stanzas from the perspective of the initiating entity.

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4.9.2. Syntax

The syntax for stream errors is as follows, where XML data shown

within the square brackets '[' and ']' is OPTIONAL.

stream:error

 <defined-condition xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

 [<text xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'

        xml:lang='langcode'>

    OPTIONAL descriptive text

 </text>]

 [OPTIONAL application-specific condition element]

</stream:error>

The "defined-condition" MUST correspond to one of the stream error

conditions defined under Section 4.9.3. However, because additional

error conditions might be defined in the future, if an entity

receives a stream error condition that it does not understand then it

MUST treat the unknown condition as equivalent to <undefined-

condition/> (Section 4.9.3.21). If the designers of an XMPP protocol

extension or the developers of an XMPP implementation need to

communicate a stream error condition that is not defined in this

specification, they can do so by defining an application-specific

error condition element qualified by an application-specific

namespace.

The element:

o MUST contain a child element corresponding to one of the defined

  stream error conditions (Section 4.9.3); this element MUST be

  qualified by the 'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams' namespace.

o MAY contain a child element containing XML character data

  that describes the error in more detail; this element MUST be

  qualified by the 'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams' namespace

  and SHOULD possess an 'xml:lang' attribute specifying the natural

  language of the XML character data.

o MAY contain a child element for an application-specific error

  condition; this element MUST be qualified by an application-

  defined namespace, and its structure is defined by that namespace

  (see Section 4.9.4).

The element is OPTIONAL. If included, it MUST be used only

to provide descriptive or diagnostic information that supplements the

meaning of a defined condition or application-specific condition. It

MUST NOT be interpreted programmatically by an application. It MUST

NOT be used as the error message presented to a human user, but MAY

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

be shown in addition to the error message associated with the defined

condition element (and, optionally, the application-specific

condition element).

4.9.3. Defined Stream Error Conditions

The following stream-level error conditions are defined.

4.9.3.1. bad-format

The entity has sent XML that cannot be processed.

(In the following example, the client sends an XMPP message that is

not well-formed XML, which alternatively might trigger a <not-well-

formed/> stream error (Section 4.9.3.13).)

C:

    <body>No closing tag!

  </message>

S: stream:error

    <bad-format

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

This error can be used instead of the more specific XML-related

errors, such as , , <not-well-

formed/>, , and . However,

the more specific errors are RECOMMENDED.

4.9.3.2. bad-namespace-prefix

The entity has sent a namespace prefix that is unsupported, or has

sent no namespace prefix on an element that needs such a prefix (see

Section 11.2).

(In the following example, the client specifies a namespace prefix of

"foobar" for the XML stream namespace.)

C:

  <foobar:stream

      from='juliet@im.example.com'

      to='im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:foobar='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

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S:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

  <stream:error>

    <bad-namespace-prefix

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.3.3. conflict

The server either (1) is closing the existing stream for this entity

because a new stream has been initiated that conflicts with the

existing stream, or (2) is refusing a new stream for this entity

because allowing the new stream would conflict with an existing

stream (e.g., because the server allows only a certain number of

connections from the same IP address or allows only one server-to-

server stream for a given domain pair as a way of helping to ensure

in-order processing as described under Section 10.1).

C:

  <stream:stream

      from='juliet@im.example.com'

      to='im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

S:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

  <stream:error>

    <conflict

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

If a client receives a stream error (Section 4.9.3.3),

during the resource binding aspect of its reconnection attempt it

MUST NOT blindly request the resourcepart it used during the former

session but instead MUST choose a different resourcepart; details are

provided under Section 7.

4.9.3.4. connection-timeout

One party is closing the stream because it has reason to believe that

the other party has permanently lost the ability to communicate over

the stream. The lack of ability to communicate can be discovered

using various methods, such as whitespace keepalives as specified

under Section 4.4, XMPP-level pings as defined in [XEP-0199], and

XMPP Stream Management as defined in [XEP-0198].

P: stream:error

    <connection-timeout

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

  Interoperability Note: RFC 3920 specified that the <connection-

  timeout/> stream error (Section 4.9.3.4) is to be used if the peer

  has not generated any traffic over the stream for some period of

  time.  That behavior is no longer recommended; instead, the error

  SHOULD be used only if the connected client or peer server has not

  responded to data sent over the stream.

4.9.3.5. host-gone

The value of the 'to' attribute provided in the initial stream header

corresponds to an FQDN that is no longer serviced by the receiving

entity.

(In the following example, the peer specifies a 'to' address of

"foo.im.example.com" when connecting to the "im.example.com" server,

but the server no longer hosts a service at that address.)

P:

  <stream:stream

      from='example.net'

      to='foo.im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xmlns='jabber:server'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

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S:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='g4qSvGvBxJ+xeAd7QKezOQJFFlw='

      to='example.net'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:server'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

  <stream:error>

    <host-gone

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.3.6. host-unknown

The value of the 'to' attribute provided in the initial stream header

does not correspond to an FQDN that is serviced by the receiving

entity.

(In the following example, the peer specifies a 'to' address of

"example.org" when connecting to the "im.example.com" server, but the

server knows nothing of that address.)

P:

  <stream:stream

      from='example.net'

      to='example.org'

      version='1.0'

      xmlns='jabber:server'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

S:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='g4qSvGvBxJ+xeAd7QKezOQJFFlw='

      to='example.net'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:server'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

  <stream:error>

    <host-unknown

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

4.9.3.7. improper-addressing

A stanza sent between two servers lacks a 'to' or 'from' attribute,

the 'from' or 'to' attribute has no value, or the value violates the

rules for XMPP addresses [XMPP-ADDR].

(In the following example, the peer sends a stanza without a 'to'

address over a server-to-server stream.)

P:

    <body>Wherefore art thou?</body>

  </message>

S: stream:error

    <improper-addressing

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.3.8. internal-server-error

The server has experienced a misconfiguration or other internal error

that prevents it from servicing the stream.

S: stream:error

    <internal-server-error

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.3.9. invalid-from

The data provided in a 'from' attribute does not match an authorized

JID or validated domain as negotiated (1) between two servers using

SASL or Server Dialback, or (2) between a client and a server via

SASL authentication and resource binding.

(In the following example, a peer that has authenticated only as

"example.net" attempts to send a stanza from an address at

"example.org".)

P:

    <body>Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike.</body>

  </message>

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S: stream:error

    <invalid-from

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.3.10. invalid-namespace

The stream namespace name is something other than

"http://etherx.jabber.org/streams" (see Section 11.2) or the content

namespace declared as the default namespace is not supported (e.g.,

something other than "jabber:client" or "jabber:server").

(In the following example, the client specifies a namespace of

'http://wrong.namespace.example.org/' for the stream.)

C:

  <stream:stream

      from='juliet@im.example.com'

      to='im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://wrong.namespace.example.org/'>

S:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

  <stream:error>

    <invalid-namespace

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.3.11. invalid-xml

The entity has sent invalid XML over the stream to a server that

performs validation (see Section 11.4).

(In the following example, the peer attempts to send an IQ stanza of

type "subscribe", but the XML schema defines no such value for the

'type' attribute.)

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P: <iq from='example.net'

      id='l3b1vs75'

      to='im.example.com'

      type='subscribe'>

    <ping xmlns='urn:xmpp:ping'/>

  </iq>

S: stream:error

    <invalid-xml

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.3.12. not-authorized

The entity has attempted to send XML stanzas or other outbound data

before the stream has been authenticated, or otherwise is not

authorized to perform an action related to stream negotiation; the

receiving entity MUST NOT process the offending data before sending

the stream error.

(In the following example, the client attempts to send XML stanzas

before authenticating with the server.)

C:

  <stream:stream

      from='juliet@im.example.com'

      to='im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

S:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

C:

    <body>Wherefore art thou?</body>

  </message>

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S: stream:error

    <not-authorized

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.3.13. not-well-formed

The initiating entity has sent XML that violates the well-formedness

rules of [XML] or [XML-NAMES].

(In the following example, the client sends an XMPP message that is

not namespace-well-formed.)

C:

    <foo:body>What is this foo?</foo:body>

  </message>

S: stream:error

    <not-well-formed

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

  Interoperability Note: In RFC 3920, the name of this error

  condition was "xml-not-well-formed" instead of "not-well-formed".

  The name was changed because the element name <xml-not-well-

  formed/> violates the constraint from Section 3 of [XML] that

  "names beginning with a match to (('X'|'x')('M'|'m')('L'|'l')) are

  reserved for standardization in this or future versions of this

  specification".

4.9.3.14. policy-violation

The entity has violated some local service policy (e.g., a stanza

exceeds a configured size limit); the server MAY choose to specify

the policy in the element or in an application-specific

condition element.

(In the following example, the client sends an XMPP message that is

too large according to the server's local service policy.)

C:

    <body>[ ... the-emacs-manual ... ]</body>

  </message>

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S: stream:error

    <policy-violation

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

    <stanza-too-big xmlns='urn:xmpp:errors'/>

  </stream:error>

S: </stream:stream>

4.9.3.15. remote-connection-failed

The server is unable to properly connect to a remote entity that is

needed for authentication or authorization (e.g., in certain

scenarios related to Server Dialback [XEP-0220]); this condition is

not to be used when the cause of the error is within the

administrative domain of the XMPP service provider, in which case the

condition is more appropriate.

C:

  <stream:stream

      from='juliet@im.example.com'

      to='im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

S:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

  <stream:error>

    <remote-connection-failed

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.3.16. reset

The server is closing the stream because it has new (typically

security-critical) features to offer, because the keys or

certificates used to establish a secure context for the stream have

expired or have been revoked during the life of the stream

(Section 13.7.2.3), because the TLS sequence number has wrapped

(Section 5.3.5), etc. The reset applies to the stream and to any

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

security context established for that stream (e.g., via TLS and

SASL), which means that encryption and authentication need to be

negotiated again for the new stream (e.g., TLS session resumption

cannot be used).

S: stream:error

    <reset

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.3.17. resource-constraint

The server lacks the system resources necessary to service the

stream.

C:

  <stream:stream

      from='juliet@im.example.com'

      to='im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

S:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

  <stream:error>

    <resource-constraint

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.3.18. restricted-xml

The entity has attempted to send restricted XML features such as a

comment, processing instruction, DTD subset, or XML entity reference

(see Section 11.1).

(In the following example, the client sends an XMPP message

containing an XML comment.)

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C:

    <!--<subject/>-->

    <body>This message has no subject.</body>

  </message>

S: stream:error

    <restricted-xml

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.3.19. see-other-host

The server will not provide service to the initiating entity but is

redirecting traffic to another host under the administrative control

of the same service provider. The XML character data of the <see-

other-host/> element returned by the server MUST specify the

alternate FQDN or IP address at which to connect, which MUST be a

valid domainpart or a domainpart plus port number (separated by the

':' character in the form "domainpart:port"). If the domainpart is

the same as the source domain, derived domain, or resolved IPv4 or

IPv6 address to which the initiating entity originally connected

(differing only by the port number), then the initiating entity

SHOULD simply attempt to reconnect at that address. (The format of

an IPv6 address MUST follow [IPv6-ADDR], which includes the enclosing

the IPv6 address in square brackets '[' and ']' as originally defined

by [URI].) Otherwise, the initiating entity MUST resolve the FQDN

specified in the element as described under

Section 3.2.

C:

  <stream:stream

      from='juliet@im.example.com'

      to='im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

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S:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

  <stream:error>

    <see-other-host

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'>

      [2001:41D0:1:A49b::1]:9222

    </see-other-host>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

When negotiating a stream with the host to which it has been

redirected, the initiating entity MUST apply the same policies it

would have applied to the original connection attempt (e.g., a policy

requiring TLS), MUST specify the same 'to' address on the initial

stream header, and MUST verify the identity of the new host using the

same reference identifier(s) it would have used for the original

connection attempt (in accordance with [TLS-CERTS]). Even if the

receiving entity returns a error before the

confidentiality and integrity of the stream have been established

(thus introducing the possibility of a denial-of-service attack), the

fact that the initiating entity needs to verify the identity of the

XMPP service based on the same reference identifiers implies that the

initiating entity will not connect to a malicious entity. To reduce

the possibility of a denial-of-service attack, (a) the receiving

entity SHOULD NOT close the stream with a stream

error until after the confidentiality and integrity of the stream

have been protected via TLS or an equivalent security layer (such as

the SASL GSSAPI mechanism), and (b) the receiving entity MAY have a

policy of following redirects only if it has authenticated the

receiving entity. In addition, the initiating entity SHOULD abort

the connection attempt after a certain number of successive redirects

(e.g., at least 2 but no more than 5).

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4.9.3.20. system-shutdown

The server is being shut down and all active streams are being

closed.

S: stream:error

    <system-shutdown

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.3.21. undefined-condition

The error condition is not one of those defined by the other

conditions in this list; this error condition SHOULD NOT be used

except in conjunction with an application-specific condition.

S: stream:error

    <undefined-condition

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

    <app-error xmlns='http://example.org/ns'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.3.22. unsupported-encoding

The initiating entity has encoded the stream in an encoding that is

not supported by the server (see Section 11.6) or has otherwise

improperly encoded the stream (e.g., by violating the rules of the

[UTF-8] encoding).

(In the following example, the client attempts to encode data using

UTF-16 instead of UTF-8.)

C:

  <stream:stream

      from='juliet@im.example.com'

      to='im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

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S:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

  <stream:error>

    <unsupported-encoding

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.3.23. unsupported-feature

The receiving entity has advertised a mandatory-to-negotiate stream

feature that the initiating entity does not support, and has offered

no other mandatory-to-negotiate feature alongside the unsupported

feature.

(In the following example, the receiving entity requires negotiation

of an example feature, but the initiating entity does not support the

feature.)

R: stream:features

    <example xmlns='urn:xmpp:example'>

      <required/>

    </example>

  </stream:features>

I: stream:error

    <unsupported-feature

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.3.24. unsupported-stanza-type

The initiating entity has sent a first-level child of the stream that

is not supported by the server, either because the receiving entity

does not understand the namespace or because the receiving entity

does not understand the element name for the applicable namespace

(which might be the content namespace declared as the default

namespace).

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(In the following example, the client attempts to send a first-level

child element of qualified by the 'jabber:client'

namespace, but the schema for that namespace defines no such

element.)

C:

    <publish node='princely_musings'>

      <item id='ae890ac52d0df67ed7cfdf51b644e901'>

        <entry xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom'>

          <title>Soliloquy</title>

          <summary>

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them?

          </summary>

          <link rel='alternate' type='text/html'

                href='http://denmark.example/2003/12/13/atom03'/>

          <id>tag:denmark.example,2003:entry-32397</id>

          <published>2003-12-13T18:30:02Z</published>

          <updated>2003-12-13T18:30:02Z</updated>

        </entry>

      </item>

    </publish>

  </pubsub>

S: stream:error

    <unsupported-stanza-type

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.3.25. unsupported-version

The 'version' attribute provided by the initiating entity in the

stream header specifies a version of XMPP that is not supported by

the server.

C:

  <stream:stream

      from='juliet@im.example.com'

      to='im.example.com'

      version='11.0'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

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S:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

  <stream:error>

    <unsupported-version

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

4.9.4. Application-Specific Conditions

As noted, an application MAY provide application-specific stream

error information by including a properly namespaced child in the

error element. The application-specific element SHOULD supplement or

further qualify a defined element. Thus, the element will

contain two or three child elements.

C:

    <body>

      My keyboard layout is:

      QWERTYUIOP{}|

      ASDFGHJKL:"

      ZXCVBNM<>?

    </body>

  </message>

S: stream:error

    <not-well-formed

        xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

    <text xml:lang='en' xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'>

      Some special application diagnostic information!

    </text>

    <escape-your-data xmlns='http://example.org/ns'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

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4.10. Simplified Stream Examples

This section contains two highly simplified examples of a stream-

based connection between a client and a server; these examples are

included for the purpose of illustrating the concepts introduced thus

far, but the reader needs to be aware that these examples elide many

details (see Section 9 for more complete examples).

A basic connection:

C:

  <stream:stream

      from='juliet@im.example.com'

      to='im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

S:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

[ ... stream negotiation ... ]

C: <message from='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

             to='romeo@example.net'

             xml:lang='en'>

      <body>Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?</body>

    </message>

S: <message from='romeo@example.net/orchard'

             to='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

             xml:lang='en'>

      <body>Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike.</body>

    </message>

C: </stream:stream>

S: </stream:stream>

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A connection gone bad:

C:

  <stream:stream

      from='juliet@im.example.com'

      to='im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

S:

  <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='++TR84Sm6A3hnt3Q065SnAbbk3Y='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

[ ... stream negotiation ... ]

C: <message from='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

             to='romeo@example.net'

             xml:lang='en'>

      <body>No closing tag!

    </message>

S: stream:error

   <not-well-formed

       xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

  </stream:error>

  </stream:stream>

More detailed examples are provided under Section 9.

  1. STARTTLS Negotiation

5.1. Fundamentals

XMPP includes a method for securing the stream from tampering and

eavesdropping. This channel encryption method makes use of the

Transport Layer Security [TLS] protocol, specifically a "STARTTLS"

extension that is modeled after similar extensions for the [IMAP],

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

[POP3], and [ACAP] protocols as described in [USINGTLS]. The XML

namespace name for the STARTTLS extension is

'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-tls'.

5.2. Support

Support for STARTTLS is REQUIRED in XMPP client and server

implementations. An administrator of a given deployment MAY specify

that TLS is mandatory-to-negotiate for client-to-server

communication, server-to-server communication, or both. An

initiating entity SHOULD use TLS to secure its stream with the

receiving entity before proceeding with SASL authentication.

5.3. Stream Negotiation Rules

5.3.1. Mandatory-to-Negotiate

If the receiving entity advertises only the STARTTLS feature or if

the receiving entity includes the child element as

explained under Section 5.4.1, the parties MUST consider TLS as

mandatory-to-negotiate. If TLS is mandatory-to-negotiate, the

receiving entity SHOULD NOT advertise support for any stream feature

except STARTTLS during the initial stage of the stream negotiation

process, because further stream features might depend on prior

negotiation of TLS given the order of layers in XMPP (e.g., the

particular SASL mechanisms offered by the receiving entity will

likely depend on whether TLS has been negotiated).

5.3.2. Restart

After TLS negotiation, the parties MUST restart the stream.

5.3.3. Data Formatting

During STARTTLS negotiation, the entities MUST NOT send any

whitespace as separators between XML elements (i.e., from the last

character of the first-level element qualified by the

'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-tls' namespace as sent by the initiating

entity, until the last character of the first-level

element qualified by the 'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-tls' namespace

as sent by the receiving entity). This prohibition helps to ensure

proper security layer byte precision. Any such whitespace shown in

the STARTTLS examples provided in this document is included only for

the sake of readability.

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5.3.4. Order of TLS and SASL Negotiations

If the initiating entity chooses to use TLS, STARTTLS negotiation

MUST be completed before proceeding to SASL negotiation (Section 6);

this order of negotiation is necessary to help safeguard

authentication information sent during SASL negotiation, as well as

to make it possible to base the use of the SASL EXTERNAL mechanism on

a certificate (or other credentials) provided during prior TLS

negotiation.

5.3.5. TLS Renegotiation

The TLS protocol allows either party in a TLS-protected channel to

initiate a new handshake that establishes new cryptographic

parameters (see [TLS-NEG]). The cases most commonly mentioned are:

  1. Refreshing encryption keys.

  1. Wrapping the TLS sequence number as explained in Section 6.1 of

   [TLS].

  1. Protecting client credentials by completing server authentication

   first and then completing client authentication over the

   protected channel.

Because it is relatively inexpensive to establish streams in XMPP,

for the first two cases it is preferable to use an XMPP stream reset

(as described under Section 4.9.3.16) instead of performing TLS

renegotiation.

The third case has improved security characteristics when the TLS

client (which might be an XMPP server) presents credentials to the

TLS server. If communicating such credentials to an unauthenticated

TLS server might leak private information, it can be appropriate to

complete TLS negotiation for the purpose of authenticating the TLS

server to the TLS client and then attempt TLS renegotiation for the

purpose of authenticating the TLS client to the TLS server. However,

this case is extremely rare because the credentials presented by an

XMPP server or XMPP client acting as a TLS client are almost always

public (i.e., a PKIX certificate), and therefore providing those

credentials before authenticating the XMPP server acting as a TLS

server would not in general leak private information.

As a result, implementers are encouraged to carefully weigh the costs

and benefits of TLS renegotiation before supporting it in their

software, and XMPP entities that act as TLS clients are discouraged

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

from attempting TLS renegotiation unless the certificate (or other

credential information) sent during TLS negotiation is known to be

private.

Support for TLS renegotiation is strictly OPTIONAL. However,

implementations that support TLS renegotiation MUST implement and use

the TLS Renegotiation Extension [TLS-NEG].

If an entity that does not support TLS renegotiation detects a

renegotiation attempt, then it MUST immediately close the underlying

TCP connection without returning a stream error (since the violation

has occurred at the TLS layer, not the XMPP layer, as described under

Section 13.3).

If an entity that supports TLS renegotiation detects a TLS

renegotiation attempt that does not use the TLS Renegotiation

Extension [TLS-NEG], then it MUST immediately close the underlying

TCP connection without returning a stream error (since the violation

has occurred at the TLS layer, not the XMPP layer as described under

Section 13.3).

5.3.6. TLS Extensions

Either party to a stream MAY include any TLS extension during the TLS

negotiation itself. This is a matter for the TLS layer, not the XMPP

layer.

5.4. Process

5.4.1. Exchange of Stream Headers and Stream Features

The initiating entity resolves the FQDN of the receiving entity as

specified under Section 3, opens a TCP connection to the advertised

port at the resolved IP address, and sends an initial stream header

to the receiving entity.

I: <stream:stream

    from='juliet@im.example.com'

    to='im.example.com'

    version='1.0'

    xml:lang='en'

    xmlns='jabber:client'

    xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

The receiving entity MUST send a response stream header to the

initiating entity over the TCP connection opened by the initiating

entity.

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R: <stream:stream

    from='im.example.com'

    id='t7AMCin9zjMNwQKDnplntZPIDEI='

    to='juliet@im.example.com'

    version='1.0'

    xml:lang='en'

    xmlns='jabber:client'

    xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

The receiving entity then MUST send stream features to the initiating

entity. If the receiving entity supports TLS, the stream features

MUST include an advertisement for support of STARTTLS negotiation,

i.e., a element qualified by the

'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-tls' namespace.

If the receiving entity considers STARTTLS negotiation to be

mandatory-to-negotiate, the element MUST contain an empty

child element.

R: stream:features

    <starttls xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-tls'>

      <required/>

    </starttls>

  </stream:features>

5.4.2. Initiation of STARTTLS Negotiation

5.4.2.1. STARTTLS Command

In order to begin the STARTTLS negotiation, the initiating entity

issues the STARTTLS command (i.e., a element qualified by

the 'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-tls' namespace) to instruct the

receiving entity that it wishes to begin a STARTTLS negotiation to

secure the stream.

I:

The receiving entity MUST reply with either a element

(proceed case) or a element (failure case) qualified by

the 'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-tls' namespace.

5.4.2.2. Failure Case

If the failure case occurs, the receiving entity MUST return a

element qualified by the 'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-tls'

namespace, close the XML stream, and terminate the underlying TCP

connection.

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

R:

R: </stream:stream>

Causes for the failure case include but are not limited to:

  1. The initiating entity has sent a malformed STARTTLS command.

  1. The receiving entity did not offer the STARTTLS feature in its

   stream features.

  1. The receiving entity cannot complete STARTTLS negotiation because

   of an internal error.

  Informational Note: STARTTLS failure is not triggered by TLS

  errors such as bad_certificate or handshake_failure, which are

  generated and handled during the TLS negotiation itself as

  described in [TLS].

If the failure case occurs, the initiating entity MAY attempt to

reconnect as explained under Section 3.3.

5.4.2.3. Proceed Case

If the proceed case occurs, the receiving entity MUST return a

element qualified by the 'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-tls'

namespace.

R:

The receiving entity MUST consider the TLS negotiation to have begun

immediately after sending the closing '>' character of the

element to the initiating entity. The initiating entity MUST

consider the TLS negotiation to have begun immediately after

receiving the closing '>' character of the element from

the receiving entity.

The entities now proceed to TLS negotiation as explained in the next

section.

5.4.3. TLS Negotiation

5.4.3.1. Rules

In order to complete TLS negotiation over the TCP connection, the

entities MUST follow the process defined in [TLS].

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The following rules apply:

  1. The entities MUST NOT send any further XML data until the TLS

   negotiation is complete.

  1. When using any of the mandatory-to-implement (MTI) ciphersuites

   specified under Section 13.8, the receiving entity MUST present a

   certificate.

  1. So that mutual certificate authentication will be possible, the

   receiving entity SHOULD send a certificate request to the

   initiating entity, and the initiating entity SHOULD send a

   certificate to the receiving entity (but for privacy reasons

   might opt not to send a certificate until after the receiving

   entity has authenticated to the initiating entity).

  1. The receiving entity SHOULD choose which certificate to present

   based on the domainpart contained in the 'to' attribute of the

   initial stream header (in essence, this domainpart is

   functionally equivalent to the Server Name Indication defined for

   TLS in [TLS-EXT]).

  1. To determine if the TLS negotiation will succeed, the initiating

   entity MUST attempt to validate the receiving entity's

   certificate in accordance with the certificate validation

   procedures specified under Section 13.7.2.

  1. If the initiating entity presents a certificate, the receiving

   entity too MUST attempt to validate the initiating entity's

   certificate in accordance with the certificate validation

   procedures specified under Section 13.7.2.

  1. Following successful TLS negotiation, all further data

   transmitted by either party MUST be protected with the negotiated

   algorithms, keys, and secrets (i.e., encrypted, integrity-

   protected, or both depending on the ciphersuite used).

  Security Warning: See Section 13.8 regarding ciphersuites that

  MUST be supported for TLS; naturally, other ciphersuites MAY be

  supported as well.

5.4.3.2. TLS Failure

If the TLS negotiation results in failure, the receiving entity MUST

terminate the TCP connection.

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The receiving entity MUST NOT send a closing tag before

terminating the TCP connection (since the failure has occurred at the

TLS layer, not the XMPP layer as described under Section 13.3).

The initiating entity MAY attempt to reconnect as explained under

Section 3.3, with or without attempting TLS negotiation (in

accordance with local service policy, user-configured preferences,

etc.).

5.4.3.3. TLS Success

If the TLS negotiation is successful, then the entities MUST proceed

as follows.

  1. The initiating entity MUST discard any information transmitted in

   layers above TCP that it obtained from the receiving entity in an

   insecure manner before TLS took effect (e.g., the receiving

   entity's 'from' address or the stream ID and stream features

   received from the receiving entity).

  1. The receiving entity MUST discard any information transmitted in

   layers above TCP that it obtained from the initiating entity in

   an insecure manner before TLS took effect (e.g., the initiating

   entity's 'from' address).

  1. The initiating entity MUST send a new initial stream header to

   the receiving entity over the encrypted connection (as specified

   under Section 4.3.3, the initiating entity MUST NOT send a

   closing </stream> tag before sending the new initial stream

   header, since the receiving entity and initiating entity MUST

   consider the original stream to be replaced upon success of the

   TLS negotiation).

I: <stream:stream

    from='juliet@im.example.com'

    to='im.example.com'

    version='1.0'

    xml:lang='en'

    xmlns='jabber:client'

    xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

  1. The receiving entity MUST respond with a new response stream

   header over the encrypted connection (for which it MUST generate

   a new stream ID instead of reusing the old stream ID).

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R: <stream:stream

    from='im.example.com'

    id='vgKi/bkYME8OAj4rlXMkpucAqe4='

    to='juliet@im.example.com'

    version='1.0'

    xml:lang='en'

    xmlns='jabber:client'

    xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

  1. The receiving entity also MUST send stream features to the

   initiating entity, which MUST NOT include the STARTTLS feature

   but which SHOULD include the SASL stream feature as described

   under Section 6 (see especially Section 6.4.1 regarding the few

   reasons why the SASL stream feature would not be offered here).

R: stream:features

    <mechanisms xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'>

      <mechanism>EXTERNAL</mechanism>

      <mechanism>SCRAM-SHA-1-PLUS</mechanism>

      <mechanism>SCRAM-SHA-1</mechanism>

      <mechanism>PLAIN</mechanism>

    </mechanisms>

  </stream:features>

  1. SASL Negotiation

6.1. Fundamentals

XMPP includes a method for authenticating a stream by means of an

XMPP-specific profile of the Simple Authentication and Security Layer

protocol (see [SASL]). SASL provides a generalized method for adding

authentication support to connection-based protocols, and XMPP uses

an XML namespace profile of SASL that conforms to the profiling

requirements of [SASL]. The XML namespace name for the SASL

extension is 'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'.

6.2. Support

Support for SASL negotiation is REQUIRED in XMPP client and server

implementations.

6.3. Stream Negotiation Rules

6.3.1. Mandatory-to-Negotiate

The parties to a stream MUST consider SASL as mandatory-to-negotiate.

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6.3.2. Restart

After SASL negotiation, the parties MUST restart the stream.

6.3.3. Mechanism Preferences

Any entity that will act as a SASL client or a SASL server MUST

maintain an ordered list of its preferred SASL mechanisms according

to the client or server, where the list is ordered according to local

policy or user configuration (which SHOULD be in order of perceived

strength to enable the strongest authentication possible). The

initiating entity MUST maintain its own preference order independent

of the preference order of the receiving entity. A client MUST try

SASL mechanisms in its preference order. For example, if the server

offers the ordered list "PLAIN SCRAM-SHA-1 GSSAPI" or "SCRAM-SHA-1

GSSAPI PLAIN" but the client's ordered list is "GSSAPI SCRAM-SHA-1",

the client MUST try GSSAPI first and then SCRAM-SHA-1 but MUST NOT

try PLAIN (since PLAIN is not on its list).

6.3.4. Mechanism Offers

If the receiving entity considers TLS negotiation (Section 5) to be

mandatory-to-negotiate before it will accept authentication with a

particular SASL mechanism, it MUST NOT advertise that mechanism in

its list of available SASL mechanisms before TLS negotiation has been

completed.

The receiving entity SHOULD offer the SASL EXTERNAL mechanism if both

of the following conditions hold:

  1. During TLS negotiation the initiating entity presented a

   certificate that is acceptable to the receiving entity for

   purposes of strong identity verification in accordance with local

   service policies (e.g., because said certificate is unexpired, is

   unrevoked, and is anchored to a root trusted by the receiving

   entity).

  1. The receiving entity expects that the initiating entity will be

   able to authenticate and authorize as the identity provided in

   the certificate; in the case of a server-to-server stream, the

   receiving entity might have such an expectation because a DNS

   domain name presented in the initiating entity's certificate

   matches the domain referenced in the 'from' attribute of the

   initial stream header, where the matching rules of [TLS-CERTS]

   apply; in the case of a client-to-server stream, the receiving

   entity might have such an expectation because the bare JID

   presented in the initiating entity's certificate matches a user

   account that is registered with the server or because other

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   information contained in the initiating entity's certificate

   matches that of an entity that has permission to use the server

   for access to an XMPP network.

However, the receiving entity MAY offer the SASL EXTERNAL mechanism

under other circumstances, as well.

When the receiving entity offers the SASL EXTERNAL mechanism, the

receiving entity SHOULD list the EXTERNAL mechanism first among its

offered SASL mechanisms and the initiating entity SHOULD attempt SASL

negotiation using the EXTERNAL mechanism first (this preference will

tend to increase the likelihood that the parties can negotiate mutual

certificate authentication).

Section 13.8 specifies SASL mechanisms that MUST be supported;

naturally, other SASL mechanisms MAY be supported as well.

  Informational Note: Best practices for the use of SASL in the

  context of XMPP are described in [XEP-0175] for the ANONYMOUS

  mechanism and in [XEP-0178] for the EXTERNAL mechanism.

6.3.5. Data Formatting

The following data formatting rules apply to the SASL negotiation:

  1. During SASL negotiation, the entities MUST NOT send any

   whitespace as separators between XML elements (i.e., from the

   last character of the first-level <auth/> element qualified by

   the 'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl' namespace as sent by the

   initiating entity, until the last character of the first-level

   <success/> element qualified by the

   'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl' namespace as sent by the

   receiving entity).  This prohibition helps to ensure proper

   security layer byte precision.  Any such whitespace shown in the

   SASL examples provided in this document is included only for the

   sake of readability.

  1. Any XML character data contained within the XML elements MUST be

   encoded using base 64, where the encoding adheres to the

   definition in Section 4 of [BASE64] and where the padding bits

   are set to zero.

  1. As formally specified in the XML schema for the

   'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl' namespace under Appendix A.4,

   the receiving entity MAY include one or more application-specific

   child elements inside the <mechanisms/> element to provide

   information that might be needed by the initiating entity in

   order to complete successful SASL negotiation using one or more

Saint-Andre Standards Track [Page 79]

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   of the offered mechanisms; however, the syntax and semantics of

   all such elements are out of scope for this specification (see

   [XEP-0233] for one example).

6.3.6. Security Layers

Upon successful SASL negotiation that involves negotiation of a

security layer, both the initiating entity and the receiving entity

MUST discard any application-layer state (i.e, state from the XMPP

layer, excluding state from the TLS negotiation or SASL negotiation).

6.3.7. Simple User Name

Some SASL mechanisms (e.g., CRAM-MD5, DIGEST-MD5, and SCRAM) specify

that the authentication identity used in the context of such

mechanisms is a "simple user name" (see Section 2 of [SASL] as well

as [SASLPREP]). The exact form of the simple user name in any

particular mechanism or deployment thereof is a local matter, and a

simple user name does not necessarily map to an application

identifier such as a JID or JID component (e.g., a localpart).

However, in the absence of local information provided by the server,

an XMPP client SHOULD assume that the authentication identity for

such a SASL mechanism is a simple user name equal to the localpart of

the user's JID.

6.3.8. Authorization Identity

An authorization identity is an OPTIONAL identity included by the

initiating entity to specify an identity to act as (see Section 2 of

[SASL]). In client-to-server streams, it would most likely be used

by an administrator to perform some management task on behalf of

another user, whereas in server-to-server streams it would most

likely be used to specify a particular add-on service at an XMPP

service (e.g., a multi-user chat server at conference.example.com

that is hosted by the example.com XMPP service). If the initiating

entity wishes to act on behalf of another entity and the selected

SASL mechanism supports transmission of an authorization identity,

the initiating entity MUST provide an authorization identity during

SASL negotiation. If the initiating entity does not wish to act on

behalf of another entity, it MUST NOT provide an authorization

identity.

In the case of client-to-server communication, the value of an

authorization identity MUST be a bare JID (localpart@domainpart)

rather than a full JID (<localpart@domainpart/resourcepart>).

In the case of server-to-server communication, the value of an

authorization identity MUST be a domainpart only ().

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If the initiating entity provides an authorization identity during

SASL negotiation, the receiving entity is responsible for verifying

that the initiating entity is in fact allowed to assume the specified

authorization identity; if not, the receiving entity MUST return an

SASL error as described under Section 6.5.6.

6.3.9. Realms

The receiving entity MAY include a realm when negotiating certain

SASL mechanisms (e.g., both the GSSAPI and DIGEST-MD5 mechanisms

allow the authentication exchange to include a realm, though in

different ways, whereas the EXTERNAL, SCRAM, and PLAIN mechanisms do

not). If the receiving entity does not communicate a realm, the

initiating entity MUST NOT assume that any realm exists. The realm

MUST be used only for the purpose of authentication; in particular,

an initiating entity MUST NOT attempt to derive an XMPP domainpart

from the realm information provided by the receiving entity.

6.3.10. Round Trips

[SASL] specifies that a using protocol such as XMPP can define two

methods by which the protocol can save round trips where allowed for

the SASL mechanism:

  1. When the SASL client (the XMPP "initiating entity") requests an

   authentication exchange, it can include "initial response" data

   with its request if appropriate for the SASL mechanism in use.

   In XMPP, this is done by including the initial response as the

   XML character data of the <auth/> element.

  1. At the end of the authentication exchange, the SASL server (the

   XMPP "receiving entity") can include "additional data with

   success" if appropriate for the SASL mechanism in use.  In XMPP,

   this is done by including the additional data as the XML

   character data of the <success/> element.

For the sake of protocol efficiency, it is REQUIRED for clients and

servers to support these methods and RECOMMENDED to use them;

however, clients and servers MUST support the less efficient modes as

well.

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6.4. Process

The process for SASL negotiation is as follows.

6.4.1. Exchange of Stream Headers and Stream Features

If SASL negotiation follows successful STARTTLS negotiation

(Section 5), then the SASL negotiation occurs over the protected

stream that has already been negotiated. If not, the initiating

entity resolves the FQDN of the receiving entity as specified under

Section 3, opens a TCP connection to the advertised port at the

resolved IP address, and sends an initial stream header to the

receiving entity. In either case, the receiving entity will receive

an initial stream from the initiating entity.

I: <stream:stream

    from='juliet@im.example.com'

    to='im.example.com'

    version='1.0'

    xml:lang='en'

    xmlns='jabber:client'

    xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

When the receiving entity processes an initial stream header from the

initiating entity, it MUST send a response stream header to the

initiating entity (for which it MUST generate a unique stream ID. If

TLS negotiation has already succeeded, then this stream ID MUST be

different from the stream ID sent before TLS negotiation succeeded).

R: <stream:stream

    from='im.example.com'

    id='vgKi/bkYME8OAj4rlXMkpucAqe4='

    to='juliet@im.example.com'

    version='1.0'

    xml:lang='en'

    xmlns='jabber:client'

    xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

The receiving entity also MUST send stream features to the initiating

entity. The stream features SHOULD include an advertisement for

support of SASL negotiation, i.e., a element qualified

by the 'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl' namespace. Typically there

are only three cases in which support for SASL negotiation would not

be advertised here:

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o TLS negotiation needs to happen before SASL can be offered (i.e.,

  TLS is required and the receiving entity is responding to the very

  first initial stream header it has received for this connection

  attempt).

o SASL negotiation is impossible for a server-to-server connection

  (i.e., the initiating server has not provided a certificate that

  would enable strong authentication and therefore the receiving

  server is falling back to weak identity verification using the

  Server Dialback protocol [XEP-0220]).

o SASL has already been negotiated (i.e., the receiving entity is

  responding to an initial stream header sent as a stream restart

  after successful SASL negotiation).

The element MUST contain one child element

for each authentication mechanism the receiving entity offers to the

initiating entity. As noted, the order of elements in

the XML indicates the preference order of the SASL mechanisms

according to the receiving entity (which is not necessarily the

preference order according to the initiating entity).

R: stream:features

    <mechanisms xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'>

      <mechanism>EXTERNAL</mechanism>

      <mechanism>SCRAM-SHA-1-PLUS</mechanism>

      <mechanism>SCRAM-SHA-1</mechanism>

      <mechanism>PLAIN</mechanism>

    </mechanisms>

  </stream:features>

6.4.2. Initiation

In order to begin the SASL negotiation, the initiating entity sends

an element qualified by the

'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl' namespace and includes an

appropriate value for the 'mechanism' attribute, thus starting the

handshake for that particular authentication mechanism. This element

MAY contain XML character data (in SASL terminology, the "initial

response") if the mechanism supports or requires it. If the

initiating entity needs to send a zero-length initial response, it

MUST transmit the response as a single equals sign character ("="),

which indicates that the response is present but contains no data.

I: <auth xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'

        mechanism='PLAIN'>AGp1bGlldAByMG0zMG15cjBtMzA=</auth>

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If the initiating entity subsequently sends another element

and the ongoing authentication handshake has not yet completed, the

receiving entity MUST discard the ongoing handshake and MUST process

a new handshake for the subsequently requested SASL mechanism.

6.4.3. Challenge-Response Sequence

If necessary, the receiving entity challenges the initiating entity

by sending a element qualified by the

'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl' namespace; this element MAY

contain XML character data (which MUST be generated in accordance

with the definition of the SASL mechanism chosen by the initiating

entity).

The initiating entity responds to the challenge by sending a

element qualified by the

'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl' namespace; this element MAY

contain XML character data (which MUST be generated in accordance

with the definition of the SASL mechanism chosen by the initiating

entity).

If necessary, the receiving entity sends more challenges and the

initiating entity sends more responses.

This series of challenge/response pairs continues until one of three

things happens:

o The initiating entity aborts the handshake for this authentication

  mechanism.

o The receiving entity reports failure of the handshake.

o The receiving entity reports success of the handshake.

These scenarios are described in the following sections.

6.4.4. Abort

The initiating entity aborts the handshake for this authentication

mechanism by sending an element qualified by the

'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl' namespace.

I:

Upon receiving an element, the receiving entity MUST return

a element qualified by the

'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl' namespace and containing an

child element.

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R:

    <aborted/>

  </failure>

6.4.5. SASL Failure

The receiving entity reports failure of the handshake for this

authentication mechanism by sending a element qualified by

the 'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl' namespace (the particular

cause of failure MUST be communicated in an appropriate child element

of the element as defined under Section 6.5).

R:

    <not-authorized/>

  </failure>

Where appropriate for the chosen SASL mechanism, the receiving entity

SHOULD allow a configurable but reasonable number of retries (at

least 2 and no more than 5); this enables the initiating entity

(e.g., an end-user client) to tolerate incorrectly provided

credentials (e.g., a mistyped password) without being forced to

reconnect (which it would if the receiving entity immediately

returned a SASL failure and closed the stream).

If the initiating entity attempts a reasonable number of retries with

the same SASL mechanism and all attempts fail, it MAY fall back to

the next mechanism in its ordered list by sending a new

request to the receiving entity, thus starting a new handshake for

that authentication mechanism. If all handshakes fail and there are

no remaining mechanisms in the initiating entity's list of supported

and acceptable mechanisms, the initiating entity SHOULD simply close

the stream as described under Section 4.4 (instead of waiting for the

stream to time out).

If the initiating entity exceeds the number of retries, the receiving

entity MUST close the stream with a stream error, which SHOULD be

(Section 4.9.3.14), although some existing

implementations send (Section 4.9.3.12) instead.

  Implementation Note: For server-to-server streams, if the

  receiving entity cannot offer the SASL EXTERNAL mechanism or any

  other SASL mechanism based on the security context established

  during TLS negotiation, the receiving entity MAY attempt to

  complete weak identity verification using the Server Dialback

  protocol [XEP-0220]; however, if according to local service

  policies weak identity verification is insufficient then the

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

  receiving entity SHOULD instead close the stream with a <policy-

  violation/> stream error (Section 4.9.3.14) instead of waiting for

  the stream to time out.

6.4.6. SASL Success

Before considering the SASL handshake to be a success, if the

initiating entity provided a 'from' attribute on an initial stream

header whose confidentiality and integrity were protected via TLS or

an equivalent security layer (such as the SASL GSSAPI mechanism) then

the receiving entity SHOULD correlate the authentication identity

resulting from the SASL negotiation with that 'from' address; if the

two identities do not match then the receiving entity SHOULD

terminate the connection attempt (however, the receiving entity might

have legitimate reasons not to terminate the connection attempt, for

example, because it has overridden a connecting client's address to

correct the JID format or assign a JID based on information presented

in an end-user certificate).

The receiving entity reports success of the handshake by sending a

element qualified by the

'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl' namespace; this element MAY

contain XML character data (in SASL terminology, "additional data

with success") if the chosen SASL mechanism supports or requires it.

If the receiving entity needs to send additional data of zero length,

it MUST transmit the data as a single equals sign character ("=").

R:

  Informational Note: For client-to-server streams, the

  authorization identity communicated during SASL negotiation is

  used to determine the canonical address for the initiating client

  according to the receiving server, as described under

  Section 4.3.6.

Upon receiving the element, the initiating entity MUST

initiate a new stream over the existing TCP connection by sending a

new initial stream header to the receiving entity (as specified under

Section 4.3.3, the initiating entity MUST NOT send a closing

tag before sending the new initial stream header, since the

receiving entity and initiating entity MUST consider the original

stream to be replaced upon success of the SASL negotiation).

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I: <stream:stream

    from='juliet@im.example.com'

    to='im.example.com'

    version='1.0'

    xml:lang='en'

    xmlns='jabber:client'

    xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

Upon receiving the new initial stream header from the initiating

entity, the receiving entity MUST respond by sending a new response

stream header to the initiating entity (for which it MUST generate a

new stream ID instead of reusing the old stream ID).

R: <stream:stream

    from='im.example.com'

    id='gPybzaOzBmaADgxKXu9UClbprp0='

    to='juliet@im.example.com'

    version='1.0'

    xml:lang='en'

    xmlns='jabber:client'

    xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

The receiving entity MUST also send stream features, containing any

further available features or containing no features (via an empty

element).

R: stream:features

    <bind xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'/>

  </stream:features>

6.5. SASL Errors

The syntax of SASL errors is as follows, where the XML data shown

within the square brackets '[' and ']' is OPTIONAL.

 <defined-condition/>

 [<text xml:lang='langcode'>

     OPTIONAL descriptive text

 </text>]

The "defined-condition" MUST be one of the SASL-related error

conditions defined in the following sections. However, because

additional error conditions might be defined in the future, if an

entity receives a SASL error condition that it does not understand

then it MUST treat the unknown condition as a generic authentication

failure, i.e., as equivalent to (Section 6.5.10).

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Inclusion of the element is OPTIONAL, and can be used to

provide application-specific information about the error condition,

which information MAY be displayed to a human but only as a

supplement to the defined condition.

Because XMPP itself defines an application profile of SASL and there

is no expectation that more specialized XMPP applications will be

built on top of SASL, the SASL error format does not provide

extensibility for application-specific error conditions as is done

for XML streams (Section 4.9.4) and XML stanzas (Section 8.3.4).

6.5.1. aborted

The receiving entity acknowledges that the authentication handshake

has been aborted by the initiating entity; sent in reply to the

element.

I:

R:

    <aborted/>

  </failure>

6.5.2. account-disabled

The account of the initiating entity has been temporarily disabled;

sent in reply to an element (with or without initial response

data) or a element.

I: <auth xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'

        mechanism='PLAIN'>AGp1bGlldAByMG0zMG15cjBtMzA=</auth>

R:

    <account-disabled/>

    <text xml:lang='en'>Call 212-555-1212 for assistance.</text>

  </failure>

6.5.3. credentials-expired

The authentication failed because the initiating entity provided

credentials that have expired; sent in reply to a element

or an element with initial response data.

I:

    [ ... ]

  </response>

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

R:

    <credentials-expired/>

  </failure>

6.5.4. encryption-required

The mechanism requested by the initiating entity cannot be used

unless the confidentiality and integrity of the underlying stream are

protected (typically via TLS); sent in reply to an element

(with or without initial response data).

I: <auth xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'

        mechanism='PLAIN'>AGp1bGlldAByMG0zMG15cjBtMzA=</auth>

R:

    <encryption-required/>

  </failure>

6.5.5. incorrect-encoding

The data provided by the initiating entity could not be processed

because the base 64 encoding is incorrect (e.g., because the encoding

does not adhere to the definition in Section 4 of [BASE64]); sent in

reply to a element or an element with initial

response data.

I: <auth xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'

        mechanism='DIGEST-MD5'>[ ... ]</auth>

R:

    <incorrect-encoding/>

  </failure>

6.5.6. invalid-authzid

The authzid provided by the initiating entity is invalid, either

because it is incorrectly formatted or because the initiating entity

does not have permissions to authorize that ID; sent in reply to a

element or an element with initial response data.

I:

    [ ... ]

  </response>

R:

    <invalid-authzid/>

  </failure>

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6.5.7. invalid-mechanism

The initiating entity did not specify a mechanism, or requested a

mechanism that is not supported by the receiving entity; sent in

reply to an element.

I: <auth xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'

        mechanism='CRAM-MD5'/>

R:

    <invalid-mechanism/>

  </failure>

6.5.8. malformed-request

The request is malformed (e.g., the element includes initial

response data but the mechanism does not allow that, or the data sent

violates the syntax for the specified SASL mechanism); sent in reply

to an , , , or element.

(In the following example, the XML character data of the

element contains more than 255 UTF-8-encoded Unicode characters and

therefore violates the "token" production for the SASL ANONYMOUS

mechanism as specified in [ANONYMOUS].)

I: <auth xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'

        mechanism='ANONYMOUS'>[ ... some-long-token ... ]</auth>

R:

    <malformed-request/>

  </failure>

6.5.9. mechanism-too-weak

The mechanism requested by the initiating entity is weaker than

server policy permits for that initiating entity; sent in reply to an

element (with or without initial response data).

I: <auth xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'

        mechanism='PLAIN'>AGp1bGlldAByMG0zMG15cjBtMzA=</auth>

R:

    <mechanism-too-weak/>

  </failure>

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6.5.10. not-authorized

The authentication failed because the initiating entity did not

provide proper credentials, or because some generic authentication

failure has occurred but the receiving entity does not wish to

disclose specific information about the cause of the failure; sent in

reply to a element or an element with initial

response data.

I:

    [ ... ]

  </response>

R:

    <not-authorized/>

  </failure>

  Security Warning: This error condition includes but is not limited

  to the case of incorrect credentials or a nonexistent username.

  In order to discourage directory harvest attacks, no

  differentiation is made between incorrect credentials and a

  nonexistent username.

6.5.11. temporary-auth-failure

The authentication failed because of a temporary error condition

within the receiving entity, and it is advisable for the initiating

entity to try again later; sent in reply to an element or a

element.

I:

    [ ... ]

  </response>

R:

    <temporary-auth-failure/>

  </failure>

6.6. SASL Definition

The profiling requirements of [SASL] require that the following

information be supplied by the definition of a using protocol.

service name: "xmpp"

initiation sequence: After the initiating entity provides an opening

  XML stream header and the receiving entity replies in kind, the

  receiving entity provides a list of acceptable authentication

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

  methods.  The initiating entity chooses one method from the list

  and sends it to the receiving entity as the value of the

  'mechanism' attribute possessed by an <auth/> element, optionally

  including an initial response to avoid a round trip.

exchange sequence: Challenges and responses are carried through the

  exchange of <challenge/> elements from receiving entity to

  initiating entity and <response/> elements from initiating entity

  to receiving entity.  The receiving entity reports failure by

  sending a <failure/> element and success by sending a <success/>

  element; the initiating entity aborts the exchange by sending an

  <abort/> element.  Upon successful negotiation, both sides

  consider the original XML stream to be closed and new stream

  headers are sent by both entities.

security layer negotiation: The security layer takes effect

  immediately after sending the closing '>' character of the

  <success/> element for the receiving entity, and immediately after

  receiving the closing '>' character of the <success/> element for

  the initiating entity.  The order of layers is first [TCP], then

  [TLS], then [SASL], then XMPP.

use of the authorization identity: The authorization identity can be

  used in XMPP to denote the non-default <localpart@domainpart> of a

  client; an empty string is equivalent to an absent authorization

  identity.

  1. Resource Binding

7.1. Fundamentals

After a client authenticates with a server, it MUST bind a specific

resource to the stream so that the server can properly address the

client. That is, there MUST be an XMPP resource associated with the

bare JID (localpart@domainpart) of the client, so that the address

for use over that stream is a full JID of the form

<localpart@domainpart/resource> (including the resourcepart). This

ensures that the server can deliver XML stanzas to and receive XML

stanzas from the client in relation to entities other than the server

itself or the client's account, as explained under Section 10.

  Informational Note: The client could exchange stanzas with the

  server itself or the client's account before binding a resource

  since the full JID is needed only for addressing outside the

  context of the stream negotiated between the client and the

  server, but this is not commonly done.

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After a client has bound a resource to the stream, it is referred to

as a "connected resource". A server SHOULD allow an entity to

maintain multiple connected resources simultaneously, where each

connected resource is associated with a distinct XML stream and is

differentiated from the other connected resources by a distinct

resourcepart.

  Security Warning: A server SHOULD enable the administrator of an

  XMPP service to limit the number of connected resources in order

  to prevent certain denial-of-service attacks as described under

  Section 13.12.

If, before completing the resource binding step, the client attempts

to send an XML stanza to an entity other than the server itself or

the client's account, the server MUST NOT process the stanza and MUST

close the stream with a stream error

(Section 4.9.3.12).

The XML namespace name for the resource binding extension is

'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'.

7.2. Support

Support for resource binding is REQUIRED in XMPP client and server

implementations.

7.3. Stream Negotiation Rules

7.3.1. Mandatory-to-Negotiate

The parties to a stream MUST consider resource binding as mandatory-

to-negotiate.

7.3.2. Restart

After resource binding, the parties MUST NOT restart the stream.

7.4. Advertising Support

Upon sending a new response stream header to the client after

successful SASL negotiation, the server MUST include a

element qualified by the 'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind' namespace

in the stream features it presents to the client.

The server MUST NOT include the resource binding stream feature until

after the client has authenticated, typically by means of successful

SASL negotiation.

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S: <stream:stream

      from='im.example.com'

      id='gPybzaOzBmaADgxKXu9UClbprp0='

      to='juliet@im.example.com'

      version='1.0'

      xml:lang='en'

      xmlns='jabber:client'

      xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

S: stream:features

    <bind xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'/>

  </stream:features>

Upon being informed that resource binding is mandatory-to-negotiate,

the client MUST bind a resource to the stream as described in the

following sections.

7.5. Generation of Resource Identifiers

A resourcepart MUST at a minimum be unique among the connected

resources for that localpart@domainpart. Enforcement of this

policy is the responsibility of the server.

  Security Warning: A resourcepart can be security-critical.  For

  example, if a malicious entity can guess a client's resourcepart

  then it might be able to determine if the client (and therefore

  the controlling principal) is online or offline, thus resulting in

  a presence leak as described under Section 13.10.2.  To prevent

  that possibility, a client can either (1) generate a random

  resourcepart on its own or (2) ask the server to generate a

  resourcepart on its behalf.  One method for ensuring that the

  resourcepart is random is to generate a Universally Unique

  Identifier (UUID) as specified in [UUID].

7.6. Server-Generated Resource Identifier

A server MUST be able to generate an XMPP resourcepart on behalf of a

client. The resourcepart generated by the server MUST be random (see

[RANDOM]).

7.6.1. Success Case

A client requests a server-generated resourcepart by sending an IQ

stanza of type "set" (see Section 8.2.3) containing an empty

element qualified by the 'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'

namespace.

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C:

   <bind xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'/>

  </iq>

Once the server has generated an XMPP resourcepart for the client, it

MUST return an IQ stanza of type "result" to the client, which MUST

include a child element that specifies the full JID for the

connected resource as determined by the server.

S:

   <bind xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'>

     <jid>

       juliet@im.example.com/4db06f06-1ea4-11dc-aca3-000bcd821bfb

     </jid>

   </bind>

  </iq>

7.6.2. Error Cases

When a client asks the server to generate a resourcepart during

resource binding, the following stanza error conditions are defined:

o The account has reached a limit on the number of simultaneous

  connected resources allowed.

o The client is otherwise not allowed to bind a resource to the

  stream.

Naturally, it is possible that error conditions not specified here

might occur, as described under Section 8.3.

7.6.2.1. Resource Constraint

If the account has reached a limit on the number of simultaneous

connected resources allowed, the server MUST return a <resource-

constraint/> stanza error (Section 8.3.3.18).

S:

    <error type='wait'>

      <resource-constraint

          xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </iq>

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7.6.2.2. Not Allowed

If the client is otherwise not allowed to bind a resource to the

stream, the server MUST return a stanza error

(Section 8.3.3.10).

S:

    <error type='cancel'>

      <not-allowed

          xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </iq>

7.7. Client-Submitted Resource Identifier

Instead of asking the server to generate a resourcepart on its

behalf, a client MAY attempt to submit a resourcepart that it has

generated or that the controlling user has provided.

7.7.1. Success Case

A client asks its server to accept a client-submitted resourcepart by

sending an IQ stanza of type "set" containing a element with

a child element containing non-zero-length XML character

data.

C:

    <bind xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'>

      <resource>balcony</resource>

    </bind>

  </iq>

The server SHOULD accept the client-submitted resourcepart. It does

so by returning an IQ stanza of type "result" to the client,

including a child element that specifies the full JID for the

connected resource and contains without modification the client-

submitted text.

S:

   <bind xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'>

     <jid>juliet@im.example.com/balcony</jid>

   </bind>

  </iq>

Alternatively, in accordance with local service policies the server

MAY refuse the client-submitted resourcepart and override it with a

resourcepart that the server generates.

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S:

   <bind xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'>

     <jid>

  juliet@im.example.com/balcony 4db06f06-1ea4-11dc-aca3-000bcd821bfb

     </jid>

   </bind>

  </iq>

7.7.2. Error Cases

When a client attempts to submit its own XMPP resourcepart during

resource binding, the following stanza error conditions are defined

in addition to those described under Section 7.6.2:

o The provided resourcepart cannot be processed by the server.

o The provided resourcepart is already in use.

Naturally, it is possible that error conditions not specified here

might occur, as described under Section 8.3.

7.7.2.1. Bad Request

If the provided resourcepart cannot be processed by the server (e.g.,

because it is of zero length or because it otherwise violates the

rules for resourceparts specified in [XMPP-ADDR]), the server can

return a stanza error (Section 8.3.3.1) but SHOULD

instead process the resourcepart so that it is in conformance.

S:

    <error type='modify'>

      <bad-request xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </iq>

7.7.2.2. Conflict

If there is a currently connected client whose session has the

resourcepart being requested by the newly connecting client, the

server MUST do one of the following (which of these the server does

is a matter for implementation or local service policy, although

suggestions are provided below).

  1. Override the resourcepart provided by the newly connecting client

   with a server-generated resourcepart.  This behavior is

   encouraged, because it simplifies the resource binding process

   for client implementations.

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  1. Disallow the resource binding attempt of the newly connecting

   client and maintain the session of the currently connected

   client.  This behavior is neither encouraged nor discouraged,

   despite the fact that it was implicitly encouraged in RFC 3920;

   however, note that handling of the <conflict/> error is unevenly

   supported among existing client implementations, which often

   treat it as an authentication error and have been observed to

   discard cached credentials when receiving it.

  1. Terminate the session of the currently connected client and allow

   the resource binding attempt of the newly connecting client.

   Although this was the traditional behavior of early XMPP server

   implementations, it is now discouraged because it can lead to a

   never-ending cycle of two clients effectively disconnecting each

   other; however, note that this behavior can be appropriate in

   some deployment scenarios or if the server knows that the

   currently connected client has a dead connection or broken stream

   as described under Section 4.6.

If the server follows behavior #1, it returns an stanza of type

"result" to the newly connecting client, where the child of

the element contains XML character data that indicates the

full JID of the client, including the resourcepart that was generated

by the server.

S:

   <bind xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'>

     <jid>

  juliet@im.example.com/balcony 4db06f06-1ea4-11dc-aca3-000bcd821bfb

     </jid>

   </bind>

  </iq>

If the server follows behavior #2, it sends a stanza

error (Section 8.3.3.2) in response to the resource binding attempt

of the newly connecting client but maintains the XML stream so that

the newly connecting client has an opportunity to negotiate a non-

conflicting resourcepart (i.e., the newly connecting client needs to

choose a different resourcepart before making another attempt to bind

a resource).

S:

    <error type='modify'>

      <conflict xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </iq>

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If the server follows behavior #3, it returns a stream

error (Section 4.9.3.3) to the currently connected client (as

described under Section 4.9.3.3) and returns an IQ stanza of type

"result" (indicating success) in response to the resource binding

attempt of the newly connecting client.

S:

    <bind xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'>

      <jid>

        juliet@im.example.com/balcony

      </jid>

    </bind>

  </iq>

7.7.3. Retries

If an error occurs when a client submits a resourcepart, the server

SHOULD allow a configurable but reasonable number of retries (at

least 5 and no more than 10); this enables the client to tolerate

incorrectly provided resourceparts (e.g., bad data formats or

duplicate text strings) without being forced to reconnect.

After the client has reached the retry limit, the server MUST close

the stream with a stream error

(Section 4.9.3.14).

  1. XML Stanzas

After a client and a server (or two servers) have completed stream

negotiation, either party can send XML stanzas. Three kinds of XML

stanza are defined for the 'jabber:client' and 'jabber:server'

namespaces: , , and . In addition, there

are five common attributes for these stanza types. These common

attributes, as well as the basic semantics of the three stanza types,

are defined in this specification; more detailed information

regarding the syntax of XML stanzas for instant messaging and

presence applications is provided in [XMPP-IM], and for other

applications in the relevant XMPP extension specifications.

Support for the XML stanza syntax and semantics defined in this

specification is REQUIRED in XMPP client and server implementations.

  Security Warning: A server MUST NOT process a partial stanza and

  MUST NOT attach meaning to the transmission timing of any part of

  a stanza (before receipt of the closing tag).

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8.1. Common Attributes

The following five attributes are common to message, presence, and IQ

stanzas.

8.1.1. to

The 'to' attribute specifies the JID of the intended recipient for

the stanza.

 <body>Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?</body>

For information about server processing of inbound and outbound XML

stanzas based on the 'to' address, refer to Section 10.

8.1.1.1. Client-to-Server Streams

The following rules apply to inclusion of the 'to' attribute in

stanzas sent from a connected client to its server over an XML stream

qualified by the 'jabber:client' namespace.

  1. A stanza with a specific intended recipient (e.g., a conversation

   partner, a remote service, the server itself, even another

   resource associated with the user's bare JID) MUST possess a 'to'

   attribute whose value is an XMPP address.

  1. A stanza sent from a client to a server for direct processing by

   the server (e.g., roster processing as described in [XMPP-IM] or

   presence sent to the server for broadcasting to other entities)

   MUST NOT possess a 'to' attribute.

The following rules apply to inclusion of the 'to' attribute in

stanzas sent from a server to a connected client over an XML stream

qualified by the 'jabber:client' namespace.

  1. If the server has received the stanza from another connected

   client or from a peer server, the server MUST NOT modify the 'to'

   address before delivering the stanza to the client.

  1. If the server has itself generated the stanza (e.g., a response

   to an IQ stanza of type "get" or "set", even if the stanza did

   not include a 'to' address), the stanza MAY include a 'to'

   address, which MUST be the full JID of the client; however, if

   the stanza does not include a 'to' address then the client MUST

   treat it as if the 'to' address were included with a value of the

   client's full JID.

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  Implementation Note: It is the server's responsibility to deliver

  only stanzas that are addressed to the client's full JID or the

  user's bare JID; thus, there is no need for the client to check

  the 'to' address of incoming stanzas.  However, if the client does

  check the 'to' address then it is suggested to check at most the

  bare JID portion (not the full JID), since the 'to' address might

  be the user's bare JID, the client's current full JID, or even a

  full JID with a different resourcepart (e.g., in the case of so-

  called "offline messages" as described in [XEP-0160]).

8.1.1.2. Server-to-Server Streams

The following rules apply to inclusion of the 'to' attribute in the

context of XML streams qualified by the 'jabber:server' namespace

(i.e., server-to-server streams).

  1. A stanza MUST possess a 'to' attribute whose value is an XMPP

   address; if a server receives a stanza that does not meet this

   restriction, it MUST close the stream with an <improper-

   addressing/> stream error (Section 4.9.3.7).

  1. The domainpart of the JID contained in the stanza's 'to'

   attribute MUST match the FQDN of the receiving server (or any

   validated domain thereof) as communicated via SASL negotiation

   (see Section 6), Server Dialback (see [XEP-0220]), or similar

   means; if a server receives a stanza that does not meet this

   restriction, it MUST close the stream with a <host-unknown/>

   stream error (Section 4.9.3.6) or a <host-gone/> stream error

   (Section 4.9.3.5).

8.1.2. from

The 'from' attribute specifies the JID of the sender.

<message from='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

        to='romeo@example.net'>

 <body>Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?</body>

8.1.2.1. Client-to-Server Streams

The following rules apply to the 'from' attribute in the context of

XML streams qualified by the 'jabber:client' namespace (i.e., client-

to-server streams).

  1. When a server receives an XML stanza from a connected client, the

   server MUST add a 'from' attribute to the stanza or override the

   'from' attribute specified by the client, where the value of the

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   'from' attribute MUST be the full JID

   (<localpart@domainpart/resource>) determined by the server for

   the connected resource that generated the stanza (see

   Section 4.3.6), or the bare JID (<localpart@domainpart>) in the

   case of subscription-related presence stanzas (see [XMPP-IM]).

  1. When the server generates a stanza on its own behalf for delivery

   to the client from the server itself, the stanza MUST include a

   'from' attribute whose value is the bare JID (i.e., <domainpart>)

   of the server as agreed upon during stream negotiation (e.g.,

   based on the 'to' attribute of the initial stream header).

  1. When the server generates a stanza from the server for delivery

   to the client on behalf of the account of the connected client

   (e.g., in the context of data storage services provided by the

   server on behalf of the client), the stanza MUST either (a) not

   include a 'from' attribute or (b) include a 'from' attribute

   whose value is the account's bare JID (<localpart@domainpart>).

  1. A server MUST NOT send to the client a stanza without a 'from'

   attribute if the stanza was not generated by the server on its

   own behalf (e.g., if it was generated by another client or a peer

   server and the server is merely delivering it to the client on

   behalf of some other entity); therefore, when a client receives a

   stanza that does not include a 'from' attribute, it MUST assume

   that the stanza is from the user's account on the server.

8.1.2.2. Server-to-Server Streams

The following rules apply to the 'from' attribute in the context of

XML streams qualified by the 'jabber:server' namespace (i.e., server-

to-server streams).

  1. A stanza MUST possess a 'from' attribute whose value is an XMPP

   address; if a server receives a stanza that does not meet this

   restriction, it MUST close the stream with an <improper-

   addressing/> stream error (Section 4.9.3.7).

  1. The domainpart of the JID contained in the stanza's 'from'

   attribute MUST match the FQDN of the sending server (or any

   validated domain thereof) as communicated via SASL negotiation

   (see Section 6), Server Dialback (see [XEP-0220]), or similar

   means; if a server receives a stanza that does not meet this

   restriction, it MUST close the stream with an <invalid-from/>

   stream error (Section 4.9.3.9).

Enforcement of these rules helps to prevent certain denial-of-service

attacks as described under Section 13.12.

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8.1.3. id

The 'id' attribute is used by the originating entity to track any

response or error stanza that it might receive in relation to the

generated stanza from another entity (such as an intermediate server

or the intended recipient).

It is up to the originating entity whether the value of the 'id'

attribute is unique only within its current stream or unique

globally.

For and stanzas, it is RECOMMENDED for the

originating entity to include an 'id' attribute; for stanzas,

it is REQUIRED.

If the generated stanza includes an 'id' attribute then it is

REQUIRED for the response or error stanza to also include an 'id'

attribute, where the value of the 'id' attribute MUST match that of

the generated stanza.

The semantics of IQ stanzas impose additional restrictions as

described under Section 8.2.3.

8.1.4. type

The 'type' attribute specifies the purpose or context of the message,

presence, or IQ stanza. The particular allowable values for the

'type' attribute vary depending on whether the stanza is a message,

presence, or IQ stanza. The defined values for message and presence

stanzas are specific to instant messaging and presence applications

and therefore are defined in [XMPP-IM], whereas the values for IQ

stanzas specify the part of the semantics for all structured request-

response exchanges (no matter what the payload) and therefore are

specified under Section 8.2.3. The only 'type' value common to all

three kinds of stanzas is "error" as described under Section 8.3.

8.1.5. xml:lang

A stanza SHOULD possess an 'xml:lang' attribute (as defined in

Section 2.12 of [XML]) if the stanza contains XML character data that

is intended to be presented to a human user (as explained in

[CHARSETS], "internationalization is for humans"). The value of the

'xml:lang' attribute specifies the default language of any such

human-readable XML character data.

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 <show>dnd</show>

 <status>Wooing Juliet</status>

The value of the 'xml:lang' attribute MAY be overridden by the 'xml:

lang' attribute of a specific child element.

 <show>dnd</show>

 <status>Wooing Juliet</status>

 <status xml:lang='cs'>Dvo&#x0159;&#x00ED;m se Julii</status>

If an outbound stanza generated by a client does not possess an 'xml:

lang' attribute, the client's server SHOULD add an 'xml:lang'

attribute whose value is that specified for the client's output

stream as defined under Section 4.7.4.

C:

    <show>dnd</show>

    <status>Wooing Juliet</status>

  </presence>

S: <presence from='romeo@example.net/orchard'

            to='juliet@im.example.com'

            xml:lang='en'>

    <show>dnd</show>

    <status>Wooing Juliet</status>

  </presence>

If an inbound stanza received by a client or server does not possess

an 'xml:lang' attribute, an implementation MUST assume that the

default language is that specified for the entity's input stream as

defined under Section 4.7.4.

The value of the 'xml:lang' attribute MUST conform to the NMTOKEN

datatype (as defined in Section 2.3 of [XML]) and MUST conform to the

format defined in [LANGTAGS].

A server MUST NOT modify or delete 'xml:lang' attributes on stanzas

it receives from other entities.

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8.2. Basic Semantics

8.2.1. Message Semantics

The stanza is a "push" mechanism whereby one entity pushes

information to another entity, similar to the communications that

occur in a system such as email. All message stanzas will possess a

'to' attribute that specifies the intended recipient of the message

(see Section 8.1.1 and Section 10.3), unless the message is being

sent to the bare JID of a connected client's account. Upon receiving

a message stanza with a 'to' address, a server SHOULD attempt to

route or deliver it to the intended recipient (see Section 10 for

general routing and delivery rules related to XML stanzas).

8.2.2. Presence Semantics

The stanza is a specialized "broadcast" or "publish-

subscribe" mechanism, whereby multiple entities receive information

(in this case, network availability information) about an entity to

which they have subscribed. In general, a publishing client SHOULD

send a presence stanza with no 'to' attribute, in which case the

server to which the client is connected will broadcast that stanza to

all subscribed entities. However, a publishing client MAY also send

a presence stanza with a 'to' attribute, in which case the server

will route or deliver that stanza to the intended recipient.

Although the stanza is most often used by XMPP clients,

it can also be used by servers, add-on services, and any other kind

of XMPP entity. See Section 10 for general routing and delivery

rules related to XML stanzas, and [XMPP-IM] for rules specific to

presence applications.

8.2.3. IQ Semantics

Info/Query, or IQ, is a "request-response" mechanism, similar in some

ways to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol [HTTP]. The semantics of IQ

enable an entity to make a request of, and receive a response from,

another entity. The data content of the request and response is

defined by the schema or other structural definition associated with

the XML namespace that qualifies the direct child element of the IQ

element (see Section 8.4), and the interaction is tracked by the

requesting entity through use of the 'id' attribute. Thus, IQ

interactions follow a common pattern of structured data exchange such

as get/result or set/result (although an error can be returned in

reply to a request if appropriate):

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Requesting Responding

 Entity                      Entity


   |                            |

   | <iq id='1' type='get'>     |

   |   [ ... payload ... ]      |

   | </iq>                      |

   | -------------------------> |

   |                            |

   | <iq id='1' type='result'>  |

   |   [ ... payload ... ]      |

   | </iq>                      |

   | <------------------------- |

   |                            |

   | <iq id='2' type='set'>     |

   |   [ ... payload ... ]      |

   | </iq>                      |

   | -------------------------> |

   |                            |

   | <iq id='2' type='error'>   |

   |   [ ... condition ... ]    |

   | </iq>                      |

   | <------------------------- |

   |                            |

                 Figure 5: Semantics of IQ Stanzas

To enforce these semantics, the following rules apply:

  1. The 'id' attribute is REQUIRED for IQ stanzas.

  1. The 'type' attribute is REQUIRED for IQ stanzas. The value MUST

   be one of the following; if not, the recipient or an intermediate

   router MUST return a <bad-request/> stanza error

   (Section 8.3.3.1).

   *  get -- The stanza requests information, inquires about what

      data is needed in order to complete further operations, etc.

   *  set -- The stanza provides data that is needed for an

      operation to be completed, sets new values, replaces existing

      values, etc.

   *  result -- The stanza is a response to a successful get or set

      request.

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   *  error -- The stanza reports an error that has occurred

      regarding processing or delivery of a get or set request (see

      Section 8.3).

  1. An entity that receives an IQ request of type "get" or "set" MUST

   reply with an IQ response of type "result" or "error".  The

   response MUST preserve the 'id' attribute of the request (or be

   empty if the generated stanza did not include an 'id' attribute).

  1. An entity that receives a stanza of type "result" or "error" MUST

   NOT respond to the stanza by sending a further IQ response of

   type "result" or "error"; however, the requesting entity MAY send

   another request (e.g., an IQ of type "set" to provide obligatory

   information discovered through a get/result pair).

  1. An IQ stanza of type "get" or "set" MUST contain exactly one

   child element, which specifies the semantics of the particular

   request.

  1. An IQ stanza of type "result" MUST include zero or one child

   elements.

  1. An IQ stanza of type "error" MAY include the child element

   contained in the associated "get" or "set" and MUST include an

   <error/> child; for details, see Section 8.3.

8.3. Stanza Errors

Stanza-related errors are handled in a manner similar to stream

errors (Section 4.9). Unlike stream errors, stanza errors are

recoverable; therefore, they do not result in termination of the XML

stream and underlying TCP connection. Instead, the entity that

discovers the error condition returns an error stanza, which is a

stanza that:

o is of the same kind (message, presence, or IQ) as the generated

  stanza that triggered the error

o has a 'type' attribute set to a value of "error"

o typically swaps the 'from' and 'to' addresses of the generated

  stanza

o mirrors the 'id' attribute (if any) of the generated stanza that

  triggered the error

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o contains an child element that specifies the error

  condition and therefore provides a hint regarding actions that the

  sender might be able to take in an effort to remedy the error

  (however, it is not always possible to remedy the error)

8.3.1. Rules

The following rules apply to stanza errors:

  1. The receiving or processing entity that detects an error

   condition in relation to a stanza SHOULD return an error stanza

   (and MUST do so for IQ stanzas).

  1. The error stanza SHOULD simply swap the 'from' and 'to' addresses

   from the generated stanza, unless doing so would (1) result in an

   information leak (see under Section 13.10) or other breach of

   security, or (2) force the sender of the error stanza to include

   a malformed JID in the 'from' or 'to' address of the error

   stanza.

  1. If the generated stanza was or and

   included an 'id' attribute then it is REQUIRED for the error

   stanza to also include an 'id' attribute.  If the generated

   stanza was <iq/> then the error stanza MUST include an 'id'

   attribute.  In all cases, the value of the 'id' attribute MUST

   match that of the generated stanza (or be empty if the generated

   stanza did not include an 'id' attribute).

  1. An error stanza MUST contain an child element.

  1. The entity that returns an error stanza MAY pass along its JID to

   the sender of the generated stanza (e.g., for diagnostic or

   tracking purposes) through the addition of a 'by' attribute to

   the <error/> child element.

  1. The entity that returns an error stanza MAY include the original

   XML sent so that the sender can inspect and, if necessary,

   correct the XML before attempting to resend (however, this is a

   courtesy only and the originating entity MUST NOT depend on

   receiving the original payload).  Naturally, the entity MUST NOT

   include the original data if it not well-formed XML, violates the

   XML restrictions of XMPP (see under Section 11.1), or is

   otherwise harmful (e.g., exceeds a size limit).

  1. An child MUST NOT be included if the 'type' attribute

   has a value other than "error" (or if there is no 'type'

   attribute).

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  1. An entity that receives an error stanza MUST NOT respond to the

   stanza with a further error stanza; this helps to prevent

   looping.

8.3.2. Syntax

The syntax for stanza-related errors is as follows, where XML data

shown within the square brackets '[' and ']' is OPTIONAL, 'intended-

recipient' is the JID of the entity to which the original stanza was

addressed, 'sender' is the JID of the originating entity, and 'error-

generator' is the entity that detects the fact that an error has

occurred and thus returns an error stanza.

 [OPTIONAL to include sender XML here]

 <error [by='error-generator']

        type='error-type'>

   <defined-condition xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

   [<text xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'

          xml:lang='langcode'>

     OPTIONAL descriptive text

   </text>]

   [OPTIONAL application-specific condition element]

 </error>

The "stanza-kind" MUST be one of message, presence, or iq.

The "error-type" MUST be one of the following:

o auth -- retry after providing credentials

o cancel -- do not retry (the error cannot be remedied)

o continue -- proceed (the condition was only a warning)

o modify -- retry after changing the data sent

o wait -- retry after waiting (the error is temporary)

The "defined-condition" MUST correspond to one of the stanza error

conditions defined under Section 8.3.3. However, because additional

error conditions might be defined in the future, if an entity

receives a stanza error condition that it does not understand then it

MUST treat the unknown condition as equivalent to <undefined-

condition/> (Section 8.3.3.21). If the designers of an XMPP protocol

extension or the developers of an XMPP implementation need to

communicate a stanza error condition that is not defined in this

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specification, they can do so by defining an application-specific

error condition element qualified by an application-specific

namespace.

The element:

o MUST contain a defined condition element.

o MAY contain a child element containing XML character data

  that describes the error in more detail; this element MUST be

  qualified by the 'urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas' namespace

  and SHOULD possess an 'xml:lang' attribute specifying the natural

  language of the XML character data.

o MAY contain a child element for an application-specific error

  condition; this element MUST be qualified by an application-

  specific namespace that defines the syntax and semantics of the

  element.

The element is OPTIONAL. If included, it is to be used only

to provide descriptive or diagnostic information that supplements the

meaning of a defined condition or application-specific condition. It

MUST NOT be interpreted programmatically by an application. It

SHOULD NOT be used as the error message presented to a human user,

but MAY be shown in addition to the error message associated with the

defined condition element (and, optionally, the application-specific

condition element).

  Interoperability Note: The syntax defined in [RFC3920] included a

  legacy 'code' attribute, whose semantics have been replaced by the

  defined condition elements; information about mapping defined

  condition elements to values of the legacy 'code' attribute can be

  found in [XEP-0086].

8.3.3. Defined Conditions

The following conditions are defined for use in stanza errors.

The error-type value that is RECOMMENDED for each defined condition

is the usual expected type; however, in some circumstances a

different type might be more appropriate.

8.3.3.1. bad-request

The sender has sent a stanza containing XML that does not conform to

the appropriate schema or that cannot be processed (e.g., an IQ

stanza that includes an unrecognized value of the 'type' attribute,

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or an element that is qualified by a recognized namespace but that

violates the defined syntax for the element); the associated error

type SHOULD be "modify".

C: <iq from='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

      id='zj3v142b'

      to='im.example.com'

      type='subscribe'>

    <ping xmlns='urn:xmpp:ping'/>

  </iq>

S: <iq from='im.example.com'

      id='zj3v142b'

      to='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

      type='error'>

    <error type='modify'>

      <bad-request xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </iq>

8.3.3.2. conflict

Access cannot be granted because an existing resource exists with the

same name or address; the associated error type SHOULD be "cancel".

C:

    <bind xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'>

      <resource>balcony</resource>

    </bind>

  </iq>

S:

    <error type='cancel'>

      <conflict xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </iq>

8.3.3.3. feature-not-implemented

The feature represented in the XML stanza is not implemented by the

intended recipient or an intermediate server and therefore the stanza

cannot be processed (e.g., the entity understands the namespace but

does not recognize the element name); the associated error type

SHOULD be "cancel" or "modify".

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C: <iq from='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

      id='9u2bax16'

      to='pubsub.example.com'

      type='get'>

    <pubsub xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/pubsub'>

      <subscriptions/>

    </pubsub>

  </iq>

E: <iq from='pubsub.example.com'

      id='9u2bax16'

      to='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

      type='error'>

    <error type='cancel'>

      <feature-not-implemented

          xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

      <unsupported

          xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/pubsub#errors'

          feature='retrieve-subscriptions'/>

    </error>

  </iq>

8.3.3.4. forbidden

The requesting entity does not possess the necessary permissions to

perform an action that only certain authorized roles or individuals

are allowed to complete (i.e., it typically relates to authorization

rather than authentication); the associated error type SHOULD be

"auth".

C: <presence

      from='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

      id='y2bs71v4'

      to='characters@muc.example.com/JulieC'>

    <x xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/muc'/>

  </presence>

E: <presence

      from='characters@muc.example.com/JulieC'

      id='y2bs71v4'

      to='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

      type='error'>

    <error type='auth'>

      <forbidden xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </presence>

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8.3.3.5. gone

The recipient or server can no longer be contacted at this address,

typically on a permanent basis (as opposed to the error

condition, which is used for temporary addressing failures); the

associated error type SHOULD be "cancel" and the error stanza SHOULD

include a new address (if available) as the XML character data of the

element (which MUST be a Uniform Resource Identifier [URI] or

Internationalized Resource Identifier [IRI] at which the entity can

be contacted, typically an XMPP IRI as specified in [XMPP-URI]).

C: <message

      from='juliet@im.example.com/churchyard'

      id='sj2b371v'

      to='romeo@example.net'

      type='chat'>

    <body>Thy lips are warm.</body>

  </message>

S: <message

      from='romeo@example.net'

      id='sj2b371v'

      to='juliet@im.example.com/churchyard'

      type='error'>

    <error by='example.net'

           type='cancel'>

      <gone xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'>

        xmpp:romeo@afterlife.example.net

      </gone>

    </error>

  </message>

8.3.3.6. internal-server-error

The server has experienced a misconfiguration or other internal error

that prevents it from processing the stanza; the associated error

type SHOULD be "cancel".

C: <presence

      from='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

      id='y2bs71v4'

      to='characters@muc.example.com/JulieC'>

    <x xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/muc'/>

  </presence>

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E: <presence

      from='characters@muc.example.com/JulieC'

      id='y2bs71v4'

      to='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

      type='error'>

    <error type='cancel'>

      <internal-server-error

          xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </presence>

8.3.3.7. item-not-found

The addressed JID or item requested cannot be found; the associated

error type SHOULD be "cancel".

C: <presence from='userfoo@example.com/bar'

            id='pwb2n78i'

            to='nosuchroom@conference.example.org/foo'/>

S: <presence from='nosuchroom@conference.example.org/foo'

            id='pwb2n78i'

            to='userfoo@example.com/bar'

            type='error'>

    <error type='cancel'>

      <item-not-found xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </presence>

  Security Warning: An application MUST NOT return this error if

  doing so would provide information about the intended recipient's

  network availability to an entity that is not authorized to know

  such information (for a more detailed discussion of presence

  authorization, refer to the discussion of presence subscriptions

  in [XMPP-IM]); instead it MUST return a <service-unavailable/>

  stanza error (Section 8.3.3.19).

8.3.3.8. jid-malformed

The sending entity has provided (e.g., during resource binding) or

communicated (e.g., in the 'to' address of a stanza) an XMPP address

or aspect thereof that violates the rules defined in [XMPP-ADDR]; the

associated error type SHOULD be "modify".

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C: <presence

      from='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

      id='y2bs71v4'

      to='ch@r@cters@muc.example.com/JulieC'>

    <x xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/muc'/>

  </presence>

E: <presence

      from='ch@r@cters@muc.example.com/JulieC'

      id='y2bs71v4'

      to='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

      type='error'>

    <error by='muc.example.com'

           type='modify'>

      <jid-malformed

          xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </presence>

  Implementation Note: Enforcement of the format for XMPP localparts

  is primarily the responsibility of the service at which the

  associated account or entity is located (e.g., the example.com

  service is responsible for returning <jid-malformed/> errors

  related to all JIDs of the form <localpart@example.com>), whereas

  enforcement of the format for XMPP domainparts is primarily the

  responsibility of the service that seeks to route a stanza to the

  service identified by that domainpart (e.g., the example.org

  service is responsible for returning <jid-malformed/> errors

  related to stanzas that users of that service have to tried send

  to JIDs of the form <localpart@example.com>).  However, any entity

  that detects a malformed JID MAY return this error.

8.3.3.9. not-acceptable

The recipient or server understands the request but cannot process it

because the request does not meet criteria defined by the recipient

or server (e.g., a request to subscribe to information that does not

simultaneously include configuration parameters needed by the

recipient); the associated error type SHOULD be "modify".

C:

    <body>[ ... the-emacs-manual ... ]</body>

  </message>

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S:

    <error type='modify'>

      <not-acceptable

          xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </message>

8.3.3.10. not-allowed

The recipient or server does not allow any entity to perform the

action (e.g., sending to entities at a blacklisted domain); the

associated error type SHOULD be "cancel".

C: <presence

      from='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

      id='y2bs71v4'

      to='characters@muc.example.com/JulieC'>

    <x xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/muc'/>

  </presence>

E: <presence

      from='characters@muc.example.com/JulieC'

      id='y2bs71v4'

      to='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

      type='error'>

    <error type='cancel'>

      <not-allowed xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </presence>

8.3.3.11. not-authorized

The sender needs to provide credentials before being allowed to

perform the action, or has provided improper credentials (the name

"not-authorized", which was borrowed from the "401 Unauthorized"

error of [HTTP], might lead the reader to think that this condition

relates to authorization, but instead it is typically used in

relation to authentication); the associated error type SHOULD be

"auth".

C: <presence

      from='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

      id='y2bs71v4'

      to='characters@muc.example.com/JulieC'>

    <x xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/muc'/>

  </presence>

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E: <presence

      from='characters@muc.example.com/JulieC'

      id='y2bs71v4'

      to='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'>

    <error type='auth'>

      <not-authorized xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </presence>

8.3.3.12. policy-violation

The entity has violated some local service policy (e.g., a message

contains words that are prohibited by the service) and the server MAY

choose to specify the policy in the element or in an

application-specific condition element; the associated error type

SHOULD be "modify" or "wait" depending on the policy being violated.

(In the following example, the client sends an XMPP message

containing words that are forbidden according to the server's local

service policy.)

C: <message from='romeo@example.net/foo'

           to='bill@im.example.com'

           id='vq71f4nb'>

    <body>%#&@^!!!</body>

  </message>

S: <message from='bill@im.example.com'

           id='vq71f4nb'

           to='romeo@example.net/foo'>

    <error by='example.net' type='modify'>

      <policy-violation

          xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </message>

8.3.3.13. recipient-unavailable

The intended recipient is temporarily unavailable, undergoing

maintenance, etc.; the associated error type SHOULD be "wait".

C: <presence

      from='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

      id='y2bs71v4'

      to='characters@muc.example.com/JulieC'>

    <x xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/muc'/>

  </presence>

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E: <presence

      from='characters@muc.example.com/JulieC'

      id='y2bs71v4'

      to='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'>

    <error type='wait'>

      <recipient-unavailable

          xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </presence>

  Security Warning: An application MUST NOT return this error if

  doing so would provide information about the intended recipient's

  network availability to an entity that is not authorized to know

  such information (for a more detailed discussion of presence

  authorization, refer to the discussion of presence subscriptions

  in [XMPP-IM]); instead it MUST return a <service-unavailable/>

  stanza error (Section 8.3.3.19).

8.3.3.14. redirect

The recipient or server is redirecting requests for this information

to another entity, typically in a temporary fashion (as opposed to

the error condition, which is used for permanent addressing

failures); the associated error type SHOULD be "modify" and the error

stanza SHOULD contain the alternate address in the XML character data

of the element (which MUST be a URI or IRI with which the

sender can communicate, typically an XMPP IRI as specified in

[XMPP-URI]).

C: <presence

      from='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

      id='y2bs71v4'

      to='characters@muc.example.com/JulieC'>

    <x xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/muc'/>

  </presence>

E: <presence

      from='characters@muc.example.com/JulieC'

      id='y2bs71v4'

      to='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

      type='error'>

    <error type='modify'>

      <redirect xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'>

        xmpp:characters@conference.example.org

      </redirect>

    </error>

  </presence>

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  Security Warning: An application receiving a stanza-level redirect

  SHOULD warn a human user of the redirection attempt and request

  approval before proceeding to communicate with the entity whose

  address is contained in the XML character data of the <redirect/>

  element, because that entity might have a different identity or

  might enforce different security policies.  The end-to-end

  authentication or signing of XMPP stanzas could help to mitigate

  this risk, since it would enable the sender to determine if the

  entity to which it has been redirected has the same identity as

  the entity it originally attempted to contact.  An application MAY

  have a policy of following redirects only if it has authenticated

  the receiving entity.  In addition, an application SHOULD abort

  the communication attempt after a certain number of successive

  redirects (e.g., at least 2 but no more than 5).

8.3.3.15. registration-required

The requesting entity is not authorized to access the requested

service because prior registration is necessary (examples of prior

registration include members-only rooms in XMPP multi-user chat

[XEP-0045] and gateways to non-XMPP instant messaging services, which

traditionally required registration in order to use the gateway

[XEP-0100]); the associated error type SHOULD be "auth".

C: <presence

      from='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

      id='y2bs71v4'

      to='characters@muc.example.com/JulieC'>

    <x xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/muc'/>

  </presence>

E: <presence

      from='characters@muc.example.com/JulieC'

      id='y2bs71v4'

      to='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'>

    <error type='auth'>

      <registration-required

          xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </presence>

8.3.3.16. remote-server-not-found

A remote server or service specified as part or all of the JID of the

intended recipient does not exist or cannot be resolved (e.g., there

is no _xmpp-server._tcp DNS SRV record, the A or AAAA fallback

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resolution fails, or A/AAAA lookups succeed but there is no response

on the IANA-registered port 5269); the associated error type SHOULD

be "cancel".

C: <message

      from='romeo@example.net/home'

      id='ud7n1f4h'

      to='bar@example.org'

      type='chat'>

   <body>yt?</body>

  </message>

E: <message

      from='bar@example.org'

      id='ud7n1f4h'

      to='romeo@example.net/home'

      type='error'>

    <error type='cancel'>

      <remote-server-not-found

          xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </message>

8.3.3.17. remote-server-timeout

A remote server or service specified as part or all of the JID of the

intended recipient (or needed to fulfill a request) was resolved but

communications could not be established within a reasonable amount of

time (e.g., an XML stream cannot be established at the resolved IP

address and port, or an XML stream can be established but stream

negotiation fails because of problems with TLS, SASL, Server

Dialback, etc.); the associated error type SHOULD be "wait" (unless

the error is of a more permanent nature, e.g., the remote server is

found but it cannot be authenticated or it violates security

policies).

C: <message

      from='romeo@example.net/home'

      id='ud7n1f4h'

      to='bar@example.org'

      type='chat'>

   <body>yt?</body>

  </message>

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E: <message

      from='bar@example.org'

      id='ud7n1f4h'

      to='romeo@example.net/home'

      type='error'>

    <error type='wait'>

      <remote-server-timeout

          xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </message>

8.3.3.18. resource-constraint

The server or recipient is busy or lacks the system resources

necessary to service the request; the associated error type SHOULD be

"wait".

C: <iq from='romeo@example.net/foo'

      id='kj4vz31m'

      to='pubsub.example.com'

      type='get'>

    <pubsub xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/pubsub'>

      <items node='my_musings'/>

    </pubsub>

  </iq>

E: <iq from='pubsub.example.com'

      id='kj4vz31m'

      to='romeo@example.net/foo'

      type='error'>

    <error type='wait'>

      <resource-constraint

          xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </iq>

8.3.3.19. service-unavailable

The server or recipient does not currently provide the requested

service; the associated error type SHOULD be "cancel".

C: <message from='romeo@example.net/foo'

           to='juliet@im.example.com'>

    <body>Hello?</body>

  </message>

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S: <message from='juliet@im.example.com/foo'

           to='romeo@example.net'>

    <error type='cancel'>

      <service-unavailable

          xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </message>

  Security Warning: An application MUST return a <service-

  unavailable/> stanza error (Section 8.3.3.19) instead of <item-

  not-found/> (Section 8.3.3.7) or <recipient-unavailable/>

  (Section 8.3.3.13) if sending one of the latter errors would

  provide information about the intended recipient's network

  availability to an entity that is not authorized to know such

  information (for a more detailed discussion of presence

  authorization, refer to [XMPP-IM]).

8.3.3.20. subscription-required

The requesting entity is not authorized to access the requested

service because a prior subscription is necessary (examples of prior

subscription include authorization to receive presence information as

defined in [XMPP-IM] and opt-in data feeds for XMPP publish-subscribe

as defined in [XEP-0060]); the associated error type SHOULD be

"auth".

C: <message

      from='romeo@example.net/orchard'

      id='pa73b4n7'

      to='playwright@shakespeare.example.com'

      type='chat'>

    <subject>ACT II, SCENE II</subject>

    <body>help, I forgot my lines!</body>

  </message>

E: <message

      from='playwright@shakespeare.example.com'

      id='pa73b4n7'

      to='romeo@example.net/orchard'

      type='error'>

    <error type='auth'>

      <subscription-required

          xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </message>

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8.3.3.21. undefined-condition

The error condition is not one of those defined by the other

conditions in this list; any error type can be associated with this

condition, and it SHOULD NOT be used except in conjunction with an

application-specific condition.

C: <message

      from='northumberland@shakespeare.example'

      id='richard2-4.1.247'

      to='kingrichard@royalty.england.example'>

    <body>My lord, dispatch; read o'er these articles.</body>

    <amp xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/amp'>

      <rule action='notify'

            condition='deliver'

            value='stored'/>

    </amp>

  </message>

S: <message from='example.org'

           id='amp1'

           to='northumberland@example.net/field'

           type='error'>

    <amp xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/amp'

         from='kingrichard@example.org'

         status='error'

         to='northumberland@example.net/field'>

      <rule action='error'

            condition='deliver'

            value='stored'/>

    </amp>

    <error type='modify'>

      <undefined-condition

          xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

      <failed-rules xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/amp#errors'>

        <rule action='error'

              condition='deliver'

              value='stored'/>

      </failed-rules>

    </error>

  </message>

8.3.3.22. unexpected-request

The recipient or server understood the request but was not expecting

it at this time (e.g., the request was out of order); the associated

error type SHOULD be "wait" or "modify".

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C: <iq from='romeo@example.net/foo'

      id='o6hsv25z'

      to='pubsub.example.com'

      type='set'>

    <pubsub xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/pubsub'>

       <unsubscribe

           node='my_musings'

           jid='romeo@example.net'/>

    </pubsub>

  </iq>

E: <iq from='pubsub.example.com'

      id='o6hsv25z'

      to='romeo@example.net/foo'

      type='error'>

    <error type='modify'>

      <unexpected-request

          xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

      <not-subscribed

          xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/pubsub#errors'/>

    </error>

  </iq>

8.3.4. Application-Specific Conditions

As noted, an application MAY provide application-specific stanza

error information by including a properly namespaced child within the

error element. Typically, the application-specific element

supplements or further qualifies a defined element. Thus, the

element will contain two or three child elements.

 <error type='modify'>

   <bad-request xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

   <too-many-parameters xmlns='http://example.org/ns'/>

 </error>

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 <error type='modify'>

   <undefined-condition

         xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

   <text xml:lang='en'

         xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'>

     [ ... application-specific information ... ]

   </text>

   <too-many-parameters xmlns='http://example.org/ns'/>

 </error>

An entity that receives an application-specific error condition it

does not understand MUST ignore that condition but appropriately

process the rest of the error stanza.

8.4. Extended Content

Although the message, presence, and IQ stanzas provide basic

semantics for messaging, availability, and request-response

interactions, XMPP uses XML namespaces (see [XML-NAMES]) to extend

the basic stanza syntax for the purpose of providing additional

functionality.

A message or presence stanza MAY contain one or more optional child

elements specifying content that extends the meaning of the message

(e.g., an XHTML-formatted version of the message body as described in

[XEP-0071]), and an IQ stanza of type "get" or "set" MUST contain one

such child element. Such a child element MAY have any name and MUST

possess a namespace declaration (other than "jabber:client", "jabber:

server", or "http://etherx.jabber.org/streams") that defines the data

contained within the child element. Such a child element is called

an "extension element". An extension element can be included either

at the direct child level of the stanza or in any mix of levels.

Similarly, "extension attributes" are allowed. That is: a stanza

itself (i.e., an , , or element qualified

by the "jabber:client" or "jabber:server" content namespace) or any

child element of such a stanza (whether an extension element or a

child element qualified by the content namespace) MAY also include

one or more attributes qualified by XML namespaces other than the

content namespace or the reserved

"http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace" namespace (including the so-

called "empty namespace" if the attribute is not prefixed as

described under [XML-NAMES]).

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  Interoperability Note: For the sake of backward compatibility and

  maximum interoperability, an entity that generates a stanza SHOULD

  NOT include such attributes in the stanza itself or in child

  elements of the stanza that are qualified by the content

  namespaces "jabber:client" or "jabber:server" (e.g., the <body/>

  child of the <message/> stanza).

An extension element or extension attribute is said to be "extended

content" and the qualifying namespace for such an element or

attribute is said to be an "extended namespace".

  Informational Note: Although extended namespaces for XMPP are

  commonly defined by the XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF) and by the

  IETF, no specification or IETF standards action is necessary to

  define extended namespaces, and any individual or organization is

  free to define XMPP extensions.

To illustrate these concepts, several examples follow.

The following stanza contains one direct child element whose extended

namespace is 'jabber:iq:roster':

<iq from='juliet@capulet.com/balcony'

   id='h83vxa4c'

   type='get'>

<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster'/>

The following stanza contains two direct child elements with two

different extended namespaces.

 <c xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/caps'

    hash='sha-1'

    node='http://code.google.com/p/exodus'

    ver='QgayPKawpkPSDYmwT/WM94uAlu0='/>

 <x xmlns='vcard-temp:x:update'>

   <photo>sha1-hash-of-image</photo>

 </x>

The following stanza contains two child elements, one of which is

qualified by the "jabber:client" or "jabber:server" content namespace

and one of which is qualified by an extended namespace; the extension

element in turn contains a child element that is qualified by a

different extended namespace.

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 <body>Hello?</body>

 <html xmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/xhtml-im'>

   <body xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>

     <p style='font-weight:bold'>Hello?</p>

   </body>

 </html>

It is conventional in the XMPP community for implementations to not

generate namespace prefixes for elements that are qualified by

extended namespaces (in the XML community, this convention is

sometimes called "prefix-free canonicalization"). However, if an

implementation generates such namespace prefixes then it MUST include

the namespace declaration in the stanza itself or a child element of

the stanza, not in the stream header (see Section 4.8.4).

Routing entities (typically servers) SHOULD try to maintain prefixes

when serializing XML stanzas for processing, but receiving entities

MUST NOT depend on the prefix strings to have any particular value

(the allowance for the 'stream' prefix, described under

Section 4.8.5, is an exception to this rule, albeit for streams

rather than stanzas).

Support for any given extended namespace is OPTIONAL on the part of

any implementation. If an entity does not understand such a

namespace, the entity's expected behavior depends on whether the

entity is (1) the recipient or (2) a server that is routing or

delivering the stanza to the recipient.

If a recipient receives a stanza that contains an element or

attribute it does not understand, it MUST NOT attempt to process that

XML data and instead MUST proceed as follows.

o If an intended recipient receives a message stanza whose only

  child element is qualified by a namespace it does not understand,

  then depending on the XMPP application it MUST either ignore the

  entire stanza or return a stanza error, which SHOULD be <service-

  unavailable/> (Section 8.3.3.19).

o If an intended recipient receives a presence stanza whose only

  child element is qualified by a namespace it does not understand,

  then it MUST ignore the child element by treating the presence

  stanza as if it contained no child element.

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o If an intended recipient receives a message or presence stanza

  that contains XML data qualified by a namespace it does not

  understand, then it MUST ignore the portion of the stanza

  qualified by the unknown namespace.

o If an intended recipient receives an IQ stanza of type "get" or

  "set" containing a child element qualified by a namespace it does

  not understand, then the entity MUST return an IQ stanza of type

  "error" with an error condition of <service-unavailable/>.

If a server handles a stanza that is intended for delivery to another

entity and that contains a child element it does not understand, it

MUST route the stanza unmodified to a remote server or deliver the

stanza unmodified to a connected client associated with a local

account.

  1. Detailed Examples

The detailed examples in this section further illustrate the

protocols defined in this specification.

9.1. Client-to-Server Examples

The following examples show the XMPP data flow for a client

negotiating an XML stream with a server, exchanging XML stanzas, and

closing the negotiated stream. The server is "im.example.com", the

server requires use of TLS, the client authenticates via the SASL

SCRAM-SHA-1 mechanism as juliet@im.example.com with a password of

"r0m30myr0m30", and the client binds a client-submitted resource to

the stream. It is assumed that before sending the initial stream

header, the client has already resolved an SRV record of

_xmpp-client._tcp.im.example.com and has opened a TCP connection to

the advertised port at the resolved IP address.

9.1.1. TLS

Step 1: Client initiates stream to server:

C: <stream:stream

    from='juliet@im.example.com'

    to='im.example.com'

    version='1.0'

    xml:lang='en'

    xmlns='jabber:client'

    xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

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Step 2: Server responds by sending a response stream header to

client:

S: <stream:stream

    from='im.example.com'

    id='t7AMCin9zjMNwQKDnplntZPIDEI='

    to='juliet@im.example.com'

    version='1.0'

    xml:lang='en'

    xmlns='jabber:client'

    xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

Step 3: Server sends stream features to client (only the STARTTLS

extension at this point, which is mandatory-to-negotiate):

S: stream:features

    <starttls xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-tls'>

      <required/>

    </starttls>

  </stream:features>

Step 4: Client sends STARTTLS command to server:

C:

Step 5: Server informs client that it is allowed to proceed:

S:

Step 5 (alt): Server informs client that STARTTLS negotiation has

failed, closes the XML stream, and terminates the TCP connection

(thus, the stream negotiation process ends unsuccessfully and the

parties do not move on to the next step):

S:

  </stream:stream>

Step 6: Client and server attempt to complete TLS negotiation over

the existing TCP connection (see [TLS] for details).

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Step 7: If TLS negotiation is successful, client initiates a new

stream to server over the TLS-protected TCP connection:

C: <stream:stream

    from='juliet@im.example.com'

    to='im.example.com'

    version='1.0'

    xml:lang='en'

    xmlns='jabber:client'

    xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

Step 7 (alt): If TLS negotiation is unsuccessful, server closes TCP

connection (thus, the stream negotiation process ends unsuccessfully

and the parties do not move on to the next step):

9.1.2. SASL

Step 8: Server responds by sending a stream header to client along

with any available stream features:

S: <stream:stream

    from='im.example.com'

    id='vgKi/bkYME8OAj4rlXMkpucAqe4='

    to='juliet@im.example.com'

    version='1.0'

    xml:lang='en'

    xmlns='jabber:client'

    xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

S: stream:features

    <mechanisms xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'>

      <mechanism>SCRAM-SHA-1-PLUS</mechanism>

      <mechanism>SCRAM-SHA-1</mechanism>

      <mechanism>PLAIN</mechanism>

    </mechanisms>

  </stream:features>

Step 9: Client selects an authentication mechanism (in this case,

SCRAM-SHA-1), including initial response data:

C: <auth xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl"

        mechanism="SCRAM-SHA-1">

    biwsbj1qdWxpZXQscj1vTXNUQUF3QUFBQU1BQUFBTlAwVEFBQUFBQUJQVTBBQQ==

  </auth>

The decoded base 64 data is

"n,,n=juliet,r=oMsTAAwAAAAMAAAANP0TAAAAAABPU0AA".

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Step 10: Server sends a challenge:

S:

    cj1vTXNUQUF3QUFBQU1BQUFBTlAwVEFBQUFBQUJQVTBBQWUxMjQ2OTViLTY5Y

    TktNGRlNi05YzMwLWI1MWIzODA4YzU5ZSxzPU5qaGtZVE0wTURndE5HWTBaaT

    AwTmpkbUxUa3hNbVV0TkRsbU5UTm1ORE5rTURNeixpPTQwOTY=

  </challenge>

The decoded base 64 data is "r=oMsTAAwAAAAMAAAANP0TAAAAAABPU0AAe12469

5b-69a9-4de6-9c30-

b51b3808c59e,s=NjhkYTM0MDgtNGY0Zi00NjdmLTkxMmUtNDlmNTNmNDNkMDMz,i=409

6" (line breaks not included in actual data).

Step 11: Client sends a response:

C:

    Yz1iaXdzLHI9b01zVEFBd0FBQUFNQUFBQU5QMFRBQUFBQUFCUFUwQUFlMTI0N

    jk1Yi02OWE5LTRkZTYtOWMzMC1iNTFiMzgwOGM1OWUscD1VQTU3dE0vU3ZwQV

    RCa0gyRlhzMFdEWHZKWXc9

  </response>

The decoded base 64 data is "c=biws,r=oMsTAAwAAAAMAAAANP0TAAAAAABPU0

AAe124695b-69a9-4de6-9c30-b51b3808c59e,p=UA57tM/

SvpATBkH2FXs0WDXvJYw=" (line breaks not included in actual data).

Step 12: Server informs client of success, including additional data

with success:

S:

    dj1wTk5ERlZFUXh1WHhDb1NFaVc4R0VaKzFSU289

  </success>

The decoded base 64 data is "v=pNNDFVEQxuXxCoSEiW8GEZ+1RSo=".

Step 12 (alt): Server returns a SASL error to client (thus, the

stream negotiation process ends unsuccessfully and the parties do not

move on to the next step):

S:

    <not-authorized/>

  </failure>

  </stream>

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Step 13: Client initiates a new stream to server:

C: <stream:stream

    from='juliet@im.example.com'

    to='im.example.com'

    version='1.0'

    xml:lang='en'

    xmlns='jabber:client'

    xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

9.1.3. Resource Binding

Step 14: Server responds by sending a stream header to client along

with supported features (in this case, resource binding):

S: <stream:stream

    from='im.example.com'

    id='gPybzaOzBmaADgxKXu9UClbprp0='

    to='juliet@im.example.com'

    version='1.0'

    xml:lang='en'

    xmlns='jabber:client'

    xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

S: stream:features

    <bind xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'/>

  </stream:features>

Upon being informed that resource binding is mandatory-to-negotiate,

the client needs to bind a resource to the stream; here we assume

that the client submits a human-readable text string.

Step 15: Client binds a resource:

C:

    <bind xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'>

      <resource>balcony</resource>

    </bind>

  </iq>

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Step 16: Server accepts submitted resourcepart and informs client of

successful resource binding:

S:

    <bind xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'>

      <jid>

        juliet@im.example.com/balcony

      </jid>

    </bind>

  </iq>

Step 16 (alt): Server returns error to client (thus, the stream

negotiation process ends unsuccessfully and the parties do not move

on to the next step):

S:

    <error type='cancel'>

      <conflict xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

    </error>

  </iq>

9.1.4. Stanza Exchange

Now the client is allowed to send XML stanzas over the negotiated

stream.

C: <message from='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

           id='ju2ba41c'

           to='romeo@example.net'

           type='chat'

           xml:lang='en'>

    <body>Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?</body>

  </message>

If necessary, sender's server negotiates XML streams with intended

recipient's server (see Section 9.2).

The intended recipient replies, and the message is delivered to the

client.

E: <message from='romeo@example.net/orchard'

           id='ju2ba41c'

           to='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

           type='chat'

           xml:lang='en'>

    <body>Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike.</body>

  </message>

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The client can subsequently send and receive an unbounded number of

subsequent XML stanzas over the stream.

9.1.5. Close

Desiring to send no further messages, the client closes its stream to

the server but waits for incoming data from the server.

C: </stream:stream>

Consistent with Section 4.4, the server might send additional data to

the client and then closes its stream to the client.

S: </stream:stream>

The client now sends a TLS close_notify alert, receives a responding

close_notify alert from the server, and then terminates the

underlying TCP connection.

9.2. Server-to-Server Examples

The following examples show the data flow for a server negotiating an

XML stream with a peer server, exchanging XML stanzas, and closing

the negotiated stream. The initiating server ("Server1") is

im.example.com; the receiving server ("Server2") is example.net and

it requires use of TLS; im.example.com presents a certificate and

authenticates via the SASL EXTERNAL mechanism. It is assumed that

before sending the initial stream header, Server1 has already

resolved an SRV record of _xmpp-server._tcp.example.net and has

opened a TCP connection to the advertised port at the resolved IP

address. Note how Server1 declares the content namespace "jabber:

server" as the default namespace and uses prefixes for stream-related

elements, whereas Server2 uses prefix-free canonicalization.

9.2.1. TLS

Step 1: Server1 initiates stream to Server2:

S1: <stream:stream

     from='im.example.com'

     to='example.net'

     version='1.0'

     xmlns='jabber:server'

     xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

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Step 2: Server2 responds by sending a response stream header to

Server1:

S2: <stream

     from='example.net'

     id='hTiXkW+ih9k2SqdGkk/AZi0OJ/Q='

     to='im.example.com'

     version='1.0'

     xmlns='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

Step 3: Server2 sends stream features to Server1 (only the STARTTLS

extension at this point, which is mandatory-to-negotiate):

S2:

     <starttls xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-tls'>

       <required/>

     </starttls>

   </features>

Step 4: Server1 sends the STARTTLS command to Server2:

S1:

Step 5: Server2 informs Server1 that it is allowed to proceed:

S2:

Step 5 (alt): Server2 informs Server1 that STARTTLS negotiation has

failed, closes the stream, and terminates the TCP connection (thus,

the stream negotiation process ends unsuccessfully and the parties do

not move on to the next step):

S2:

   </stream>

Step 6: Server1 and Server2 attempt to complete TLS negotiation via

TCP (see [TLS] for details).

Step 7: If TLS negotiation is successful, Server1 initiates a new

stream to Server2 over the TLS-protected TCP connection:

S1: <stream:stream

     from='im.example.com'

     to='example.net'

     version='1.0'

     xmlns='jabber:server'

     xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

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Step 7 (alt): If TLS negotiation is unsuccessful, Server2 closes the

TCP connection (thus, the stream negotiation process ends

unsuccessfully and the parties do not move on to the next step).

9.2.2. SASL

Step 8: Server2 sends a response stream header to Server1 along with

available stream features (including a preference for the SASL

EXTERNAL mechanism):

S2: <stream

     from='example.net'

     id='RChdjlgj/TIBcbT9Keu31zDihH4='

     to='im.example.com'

     version='1.0'

     xmlns='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

S2:

     <mechanisms xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'>

       <mechanism>EXTERNAL</mechanism>

     </mechanisms>

   </features>

Step 9: Server1 selects the EXTERNAL mechanism (including an empty

response of "="):

S1: <auth xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'

         mechanism='EXTERNAL'>=</auth>

Step 10: Server2 returns success:

S2:

Step 10 (alt): Server2 informs Server1 of failed authentication

(thus, the stream negotiation process ends unsuccessfully and the

parties do not move on to the next step):

S2:

     <not-authorized/>

   </failure>

   </stream>

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Step 11: Server1 initiates a new stream to Server2:

S1: <stream:stream

     from='im.example.com'

     to='example.net'

     version='1.0'

     xmlns='jabber:server'

     xmlns:stream='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

Step 12: Server2 responds by sending a stream header to Server1 along

with any additional features (or, in this case, an empty features

element):

S2: <stream

     from='example.net'

     id='MbbV2FeojySpUIP6J91qaa+TWHM='

     to='im.example.com'

     version='1.0'

     xmlns='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'>

S2:

9.2.3. Stanza Exchange

Now Server1 is allowed to send XML stanzas to Server2 over the

negotiated stream from im.example.com to example.net; here we assume

that the transferred stanzas are those shown earlier for client-to-

server communication, albeit over a server-to-server stream qualified

by the 'jabber:server' namespace.

Server1 sends XML stanza to Server2:

S1: <message from='juliet@im.example.com/balcony'

            id='ju2ba41c'

            to='romeo@example.net'

            type='chat'

            xml:lang='en'>

   <body>Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?</body>

  </message>

9.2.4. Close

Desiring to send no further messages, Server1 closes its stream to

Server2 but waits for incoming data from Server2. (In practice, the

stream would most likely remain open for some time, since Server1 and

Server2 do not immediately know if the stream will be needed for

further communication.)

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S1: </stream:stream>

Consistent with the recommended stream closing handshake, Server2

closes the stream as well:

S2:

Server1 now sends a TLS close_notify alert, receives a responding

close_notify alert from Server2, and then terminates the underlying

TCP connection.

  1. Server Rules for Processing XML Stanzas

Each server implementation will contain its own logic for processing

stanzas it receives. Such logic determines whether the server needs

to route a given stanza to another domain, deliver it to a local

entity (typically a connected client associated with a local

account), or handle it directly within the server itself. This

section provides general rules for processing XML stanzas. However,

particular XMPP applications MAY specify delivery rules that modify

or supplement the following rules (e.g., a set of delivery rules for

instant messaging and presence applications is defined in [XMPP-IM]).

10.1. In-Order Processing

An XMPP server MUST ensure in-order processing of the stanzas and

other XML elements it receives over a given input stream from a

connected client or remote server.

In-order processing applies (a) to any XML elements used to negotiate

and manage XML streams, and (b) to all uses of XML stanzas, including

but not limited to the following:

  1. Stanzas sent by a client to its server or to its own bare JID for

   direct processing by the server (e.g., in-order processing of a

   roster get and initial presence as described in [XMPP-IM]).

  1. Stanzas sent by a connected client and intended for delivery to

   another entity associated with the server (e.g., stanzas

   addressed from <juliet@im.example.com> to

   <nurse@im.example.com>).  The server MUST ensure that it delivers

   stanzas addressed to the intended recipient in the order it

   receives them over the input stream from the sending client,

   treating stanzas addressed to the bare JID and the full JID of

   the intended recipient as equivalent for delivery purposes.

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  1. Stanzas sent by a connected client and intended for delivery to

   an entity located at a remote domain (e.g., stanzas addressed

   from <juliet@im.example.com> to <romeo@example.net>).  The

   routing server MUST ensure that it routes stanzas addressed to

   the intended recipient in the order it receives them over the

   input stream from the sending client, treating stanzas addressed

   to the bare JID and the full JID of the intended recipient as

   equivalent for routing purposes.  To help ensure in-order

   processing, the routing server MUST route such stanzas over a

   single output stream to the remote domain, rather than sending

   some stanzas over one server-to-server stream and other stanzas

   over another server-to-server stream.

  1. Stanzas routed from one server to another server for delivery to

   an entity associated with the remote domain (e.g., stanzas

   addressed from <juliet@im.example.com> to <romeo@example.net> and

   routed by <im.example.com> over a server-to-server stream to

   <example.net>).  The delivering server MUST ensure that it

   delivers stanzas to the intended recipient in the order it

   receives them over the input stream from the routing server,

   treating stanzas addressed to the bare JID and the full JID of

   the intended recipient as equivalent for delivery purposes.

  1. Stanzas sent by one server to another server for direct

   processing by the server that is hosting the remote domain (e.g.,

   stanzas addressed from <im.example.com> to <example.net>).

If the server's processing of a particular request could have an

effect on its processing of subsequent data it might receive over

that input stream (e.g., enforcement of communication policies), it

MUST suspend processing of subsequent data until it has processed the

request.

In-order processing applies only to a single input stream.

Therefore, a server is not responsible for ensuring the coherence of

data it receives across multiple input streams associated with the

same local account (e.g., stanzas received over two different input

streams from <juliet@im.example.com/balcony> and

<juliet@im.example.com/chamber>) or the same remote domain (e.g., two

different input streams negotiated by a remote domain; however, a

server MAY close the stream with a stream error

(Section 4.9.3.3) if a remote server attempts to negotiate more than

one stream, as described under Section 4.9.3.3).

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10.2. General Considerations

At high level, there are three primary considerations at play in

server processing of XML stanzas, which sometimes are at odds but

need to be managed in a consistent way:

  1. It is good to deliver a stanza to the intended recipient if

   possible.

  1. If a stanza cannot be delivered, it is helpful to inform the

   sender.

  1. It is bad to facilitate directory harvesting attacks

   (Section 13.11) and presence leaks (Section 13.10.2).

With regard to possible delivery-related attacks, the following

points need to be kept in mind:

  1. From the perspective of an attacker, there is little if any

   effective difference between the server's (i) delivering the

   stanza or storing it offline for later delivery (see [XMPP-IM])

   and (ii) silently ignoring it (because an error is not returned

   immediately in any of those cases); therefore, in scenarios where

   a server delivers a stanza or places the stanza into offline

   storage for later delivery, it needs to silently ignore the

   stanza if that account does not exist.

  1. How a server processes stanzas sent to the bare JID

   <localpart@domainpart> has implications for directory harvesting,

   because an attacker could determine whether an account exists if

   the server responds differently depending on whether there is an

   account for a given bare JID.

  1. How a server processes stanzas sent to a full JID has

   implications for presence leaks, because an attacker could send

   requests to multiple full JIDs and receive different replies

   depending on whether the user has a device currently online at

   that full JID.  The use of randomized resourceparts (whether

   generated by the client or the server as described under

   Section 7) significantly helps to mitigate this attack, so it is

   of somewhat lesser concern than the directory harvesting attack.

Naturally, presence is not leaked if the entity to which a user's

server returns an error already knows the user's presence or is

authorized to do so (e.g., by means of a presence subscription or

directed presence), and a server does not enable a directory

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harvesting attack if it returns an error to an entity that already

knows if a user exists (e.g., because the entity is in the user's

contact list); these matters are discussed more fully in [XMPP-IM].

10.3. No 'to' Address

If the stanza possesses no 'to' attribute, the server MUST handle it

directly on behalf of the entity that sent it, where the meaning of

"handle it directly" depends on whether the stanza is message,

presence, or IQ. Because all stanzas received from other servers

MUST possess a 'to' attribute, this rule applies only to stanzas

received from a local entity (typically a client) that is connected

to the server.

10.3.1. Message

If the server receives a message stanza with no 'to' attribute, it

MUST treat the message as if the 'to' address were the bare JID

localpart@domainpart of the sending entity.

10.3.2. Presence

If the server receives a presence stanza with no 'to' attribute, it

MUST broadcast it to the entities that are subscribed to the sending

entity's presence, if applicable ([XMPP-IM] defines the semantics of

such broadcasting for presence applications).

10.3.3. IQ

If the server receives an IQ stanza with no 'to' attribute, it MUST

process the stanza on behalf of the account from which received the

stanza, as follows:

  1. If the IQ stanza is of type "get" or "set" and the server

   understands the namespace that qualifies the payload, the server

   MUST handle the stanza on behalf of the sending entity or return

   an appropriate error to the sending entity.  Although the meaning

   of "handle" is determined by the semantics of the qualifying

   namespace, in general the server will respond to the IQ stanza of

   type "get" or "set" by returning an appropriate IQ stanza of type

   "result" or "error", responding as if the server were the bare

   JID of the sending entity.  As an example, if the sending entity

   sends an IQ stanza of type "get" where the payload is qualified

   by the 'jabber:iq:roster' namespace (as described in [XMPP-IM]),

   then the server will return the roster associated with the

   sending entity's bare JID to the particular resource of the

   sending entity that requested the roster.

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  1. If the IQ stanza is of type "get" or "set" and the server does

   not understand the namespace that qualifies the payload, the

   server MUST return an error to the sending entity, which MUST be

   <service-unavailable/>.

  1. If the IQ stanza is of type "error" or "result", the server MUST

   handle the error or result in accordance with the payload of the

   associated IQ stanza or type "get" or "set" (if there is no such

   associated stanza, the server MUST ignore the error or result

   stanza).

10.4. Remote Domain

If the domainpart of the JID contained in the 'to' attribute does not

match one of the configured FQDNs of the server, the server SHOULD

attempt to route the stanza to the remote domain (subject to local

service provisioning and security policies regarding inter-domain

communication, since such communication is OPTIONAL for any given

deployment). As described in the following sections, there are two

possible cases.

  Security Warning: These rules apply only client-to-server streams.

  As described under Section 8.1.1.2, a server MUST NOT accept a

  stanza over a server-to-server stream if the domainpart of the JID

  in the 'to' attribute does not match an FQDN serviced by the

  receiving server.

10.4.1. Existing Stream

If a server-to-server stream already exists between the two domains,

the sender's server SHOULD attempt to route the stanza to the

authoritative server for the remote domain over the existing stream.

10.4.2. No Existing Stream

If there exists no server-to-server stream between the two domains,

the sender's server will proceed as follows:

  1. Resolve the FQDN of the remote domain (as described under

   Section 13.9.2).

  1. Negotiate a server-to-server stream between the two domains (as

   defined under Section 5 and Section 6).

  1. Route the stanza to the authoritative server for the remote

   domain over the newly established stream.

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10.4.3. Error Handling

If routing of a stanza to the intended recipient's server is

unsuccessful, the sender's server MUST return an error to the sender.

If resolution of the remote domain is unsuccessful, the stanza error

MUST be (Section 8.3.3.16). If resolution

succeeds but streams cannot be negotiated, the stanza error MUST be

(Section 8.3.3.17).

If stream negotiation with the intended recipient's server is

successful but the remote server cannot deliver the stanza to the

recipient, the remote server MUST return an appropriate error to the

sender by way of the sender's server.

10.5. Local Domain

If the domainpart of the JID contained in the 'to' attribute matches

one of the configured FQDNs of the server, the server MUST first

determine if the FQDN is serviced by the server itself or by a

specialized local service. If the latter, the server MUST route the

stanza to that service. If the former, the server MUST proceed as

follows. However, the server MUST NOT route or "forward" the stanza

to another domain, because it is the server's responsibility to

process all stanzas for which the domainpart of the 'to' address

matches one of the configured FQDNs of the server (among other

things, this helps to prevent looping).

10.5.1. domainpart

If the JID contained in the 'to' attribute is of the form

, then the server MUST either (a) handle the stanza as

appropriate for the stanza kind or (b) return an error stanza to the

sender.

10.5.2. domainpart/resourcepart

If the JID contained in the 'to' attribute is of the form

<domainpart/resourcepart>, then the server MUST either (a) handle the

stanza as appropriate for the stanza kind or (b) return an error

stanza to the sender.

10.5.3. localpart@domainpart

An address of this type is normally associated with an account on the

server. The following rules provide some general guidelines; more

detailed rules in the context of instant messaging and presence

applications are provided in [XMPP-IM].

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10.5.3.1. No Such User

If there is no local account associated with the

localpart@domainpart, how the stanza is processed depends on the

stanza type.

o For a message stanza, the server MUST either (a) silently ignore

  the stanza or (b) return a <service-unavailable/> stanza error

  (Section 8.3.3.19) to the sender.

o For a presence stanza, the server SHOULD ignore the stanza (or

  behave as described in [XMPP-IM]).

o For an IQ stanza, the server MUST return a

  stanza error (Section 8.3.3.19) to the sender.

10.5.3.2. User Exists

If the JID contained in the 'to' attribute is of the form

localpart@domainpart, how the stanza is processed depends on the

stanza type.

o For a message stanza, if there exists at least one connected

  resource for the account then the server SHOULD deliver it to at

  least one of the connected resources.  If there exists no

  connected resource then the server MUST either (a) store the

  message offline for delivery when the account next has a connected

  resource or (b) return a <service-unavailable/> stanza error

  (Section 8.3.3.19).

o For a presence stanza, if there exists at least one connected

  resource that has sent initial presence (i.e., has a "presence

  session" as defined in [XMPP-IM]) then the server SHOULD deliver

  it to such resources.  If there exists no connected resource then

  the server SHOULD ignore the stanza (or behave as described in

  [XMPP-IM]).

o For an IQ stanza, the server MUST handle it directly on behalf of

  the intended recipient.

10.5.4. localpart@domainpart/resourcepart

If the JID contained in the 'to' attribute is of the form

<localpart@domainpart/resourcepart> and the user exists but there is

no connected resource that exactly matches the full JID, the stanza

SHOULD be processed as if the JID were of the form

localpart@domainpart as described under Section 10.5.3.2.

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If the JID contained in the 'to' attribute is of the form

<localpart@domainpart/resourcepart>, the user exists, and there is a

connected resource that exactly matches the full JID, the server MUST

deliver the stanza to that connected resource.

  1. XML Usage

11.1. XML Restrictions

XMPP defines a class of data objects called XML streams as well as

the behavior of computer programs that process XML streams. XMPP is

an application profile or restricted form of the Extensible Markup

Language [XML], and a complete XML stream (including start and end

stream tags) is a conforming XML document.

However, XMPP does not deal with XML documents but with XML streams.

Because XMPP does not require the parsing of arbitrary and complete

XML documents, there is no requirement that XMPP needs to support the

full feature set of [XML]. Furthermore, XMPP uses XML to define

protocol data structures and extensions for the purpose of structured

interactions between network entities and therefore adheres to the

recommendations provided in [XML-GUIDE] regarding restrictions on the

use of XML in IETF protocols. As a result, the following features of

XML are prohibited in XMPP:

o comments (as defined in Section 2.5 of [XML])

o processing instructions (Section 2.6 therein)

o internal or external DTD subsets (Section 2.8 therein)

o internal or external entity references (Section 4.2 therein) with

  the exception of the predefined entities (Section 4.6 therein)

An XMPP implementation MUST behave as follows with regard to these

features:

  1. An XMPP implementation MUST NOT inject characters matching such

   features into an XML stream.

  1. If an XMPP implementation receives characters matching such

   features over an XML stream, it MUST close the stream with a

   stream error, which SHOULD be <restricted-xml/>

   (Section 4.9.3.18), although some existing implementations send

   <bad-format/> (Section 4.9.3.1) instead.

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11.2. XML Namespace Names and Prefixes

XML namespaces (see [XML-NAMES]) are used within XMPP streams to

create strict boundaries of data ownership. The basic function of

namespaces is to separate different vocabularies of XML elements that

are structurally mixed together. Ensuring that XMPP streams are

namespace-aware enables any allowable XML to be structurally mixed

with any data element within XMPP. XMPP-specific rules for XML

namespace names and prefixes are defined under Section 4.8 for XML

streams and Section 8.4 for XML stanzas.

11.3. Well-Formedness

In XML, there are two varieties of well-formedness:

o "XML-well-formedness" in accordance with the definition of "well-

  formed" from Section 2.1 of [XML].

o "Namespace-well-formedness" in accordance with the definition of

  "namespace-well-formed" from Section 7 of [XML-NAMES].

The following rules apply:

  1. An XMPP entity MUST NOT generate data that is not XML-well-

   formed.

  1. An XMPP entity MUST NOT accept data that is not XML-well-formed;

   instead it MUST close the stream over which the data was received

   with a <not-well-formed/> stream error (Section 4.9.3.13).

  1. An XMPP entity MUST NOT generate data that is not namespace-well-

   formed.

  1. An XMPP entity MUST NOT accept data that is not namespace-well-

   formed (in particular, an XMPP server MUST NOT route or deliver

   data that is not namespace-well-formed); instead it MUST return

   either a <not-acceptable/> stanza error (Section 8.3.3.9) or

   close the stream with a <not-well-formed/> stream error

   (Section 4.9.3.13), where it is preferable to close the stream

   with a stream error because accepting such data can open an

   entity to certain denial-of-service attacks.

  Interoperability Note: Because these restrictions were

  underspecified in [RFC3920], it is possible that implementations

  based on that specification will send data that does not comply

  with these restrictions.

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11.4. Validation

A server is not responsible for ensuring that XML data delivered to a

connected client or routed to a peer server is valid, in accordance

with the definition of "valid" provided in Section 2.8 of [XML]. An

implementation MAY choose to accept or send only data that has been

explicitly validated against the schemas provided in this document,

but such behavior is OPTIONAL. Clients are advised not to rely on

the ability to send data that does not conform to the schemas, and

SHOULD ignore any non-conformant elements or attributes on the

incoming XML stream.

  Informational Note: The terms "valid" and "well-formed" are

  distinct in XML.

11.5. Inclusion of XML Declaration

Before sending a stream header, an implementation SHOULD send an XML

declaration (matching the "XMLDecl" production from [XML]).

Applications MUST follow the rules provided in [XML] regarding the

format of the XML declaration and the circumstances under which the

XML declaration is included.

Because external markup declarations are prohibited in XMPP (as

described under Section 11.1), the standalone document declaration

(matching the "SDDecl" production from [XML]) would have no meaning

and therefore MUST NOT be included in an XML declaration sent over an

XML stream. If an XMPP entity receives an XML declaration containing

a standalone document declaration set to a value of "no", the entity

MUST either ignore the standalone document declaration or close the

stream with a stream error, which SHOULD be

(Section 4.9.3.18).

11.6. Character Encoding

Implementations MUST support the UTF-8 transformation of Universal

Character Set [UCS2] characters, as needed for conformance with

[CHARSETS] and as defined in [UTF-8]. Implementations MUST NOT

attempt to use any other encoding. If one party to an XML stream

detects that the other party has attempted to send XML data with an

encoding other than UTF-8, it MUST close the stream with a stream

error, which SHOULD be (Section 4.9.3.22),

although some existing implementations send

(Section 4.9.3.1) instead.

Because it is mandatory for an XMPP implementation to support all and

only the UTF-8 encoding and because UTF-8 always has the same byte

order, an implementation MUST NOT send a byte order mark ("BOM") at

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the beginning of the data stream. If an entity receives the

[UNICODE] character U+FEFF anywhere in an XML stream (including as

the first character of the stream), it MUST interpret that character

as a zero width no-break space, not as a byte order mark.

11.7. Whitespace

Except where explicitly disallowed (e.g., during TLS negotiation

(Section 5) and SASL negotiation (Section 6)), either entity MAY send

whitespace as separators between XML stanzas or between any other

first-level elements sent over the stream. One common use for

sending such whitespace is explained under Section 4.4.

11.8. XML Versions

XMPP is an application profile of XML 1.0. A future version of XMPP

might be defined in terms of higher versions of XML, but this

specification defines XMPP only in terms of XML 1.0.

  1. Internationalization Considerations

As specified under Section 11.6, XML streams MUST be encoded in

UTF-8.

As specified under Section 4.7, an XML stream SHOULD include an 'xml:

lang' attribute specifying the default language for any XML character

data that is intended to be presented to a human user. As specified

under Section 8.1.5, an XML stanza SHOULD include an 'xml:lang'

attribute if the stanza contains XML character data that is intended

to be presented to a human user. A server SHOULD apply the default

'xml:lang' attribute to stanzas it routes or delivers on behalf of

connected entities, and MUST NOT modify or delete 'xml:lang'

attributes on stanzas it receives from other entities.

Internationalization of XMPP addresses is specified in [XMPP-ADDR].

  1. Security Considerations

13.1. Fundamentals

XMPP technologies are typically deployed using a decentralized

client-server architecture. As a result, several paths are possible

when two XMPP entities need to communicate:

  1. Both entities are servers. In this case, the entities can

   establish a direct server-to-server stream between themselves.

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  1. One entity is a server and the other entity is a client whose

   account is hosted on that server.  In this case, the entities can

   establish a direct client-to-server stream between themselves.

  1. Both entities are clients whose accounts are hosted on the same

   server.  In this case, the entities cannot establish a direct

   stream between themselves, but there is only one intermediate

   entity between them, whose policies they might understand and in

   which they might have some level of trust (e.g., the server might

   require the use of Transport Layer Security for all client

   connections).

  1. Both entities are clients but their accounts are hosted on

   different servers.  In this case, the entities cannot establish a

   direct stream between themselves and there are two intermediate

   entities between them; each client might have some trust in the

   server that hosts its account but might know nothing about the

   policies of the server to which the other client connects.

This specification covers only the security of a direct XML stream

between two servers or between a client and a server (cases #1 and

#2), where each stream can be considered a single "hop" along a

communication path. The goal of security for a multi-hop path (cases

#3 and #4), although very desirable, is out of scope for this

specification.

In accordance with [SEC-GUIDE], this specification covers

communication security (confidentiality, data integrity, and peer

entity authentication), non-repudiation, and systems security

(unauthorized usage, inappropriate usage, and denial of service). We

also discuss common security issues such as information leaks,

firewalls, and directory harvesting, as well as best practices

related to the reuse of technologies such as base 64, DNS,

cryptographic hash functions, SASL, TLS, UTF-8, and XML.

13.2. Threat Model

The threat model for XMPP is in essence the standard "Internet Threat

Model" described in [SEC-GUIDE]. Attackers are assumed to be

interested in and capable of launching the following attacks against

unprotected XMPP systems:

o Eavesdropping

o Sniffing passwords

o Breaking passwords through dictionary attacks

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o Discovering usernames through directory harvesting attacks

o Replaying, inserting, deleting, or modifying stanzas

o Spoofing users

o Gaining unauthorized entry to a server or account

o Using a server or account inappropriately

o Denying service to other entities

o Subverting communication streams through man-in-the-middle attacks

o Gaining control over on-path servers

Where appropriate, the following sections describe methods for

protecting against these threats.

13.3. Order of Layers

The order of layers in which protocols MUST be stacked is as follows:

  1. TCP

  1. TLS

  1. SASL

  1. XMPP

This order has important security implications, as described

throughout these security considerations.

Within XMPP, XML stanzas are further ordered on top of XML streams,

as described under Section 4.

13.4. Confidentiality and Integrity

The use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) with appropriate

ciphersuites provides a reliable mechanism to ensure the

confidentiality and integrity of data exchanged between a client and

a server or between two servers. Therefore, TLS can help to protect

against eavesdropping, password sniffing, man-in-the-middle attacks,

and stanza replays, insertion, deletion, and modification over an XML

stream. XMPP clients and servers MUST support TLS as defined under

Section 5.

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  Informational Note: The confidentiality and integrity of a stream

  can be protected by methods other than TLS, e.g., by means of a

  SASL mechanism that involves negotiation of a security layer.

  Security Warning: The use of TLS in XMPP applies to a single

  stream.  Because XMPP is typically deployed using a distributed

  client-server architecture (as explained under Section 2.5), a

  stanza might traverse multiple streams, and not all of those

  streams might be TLS-protected.  For example, a stanza sent from a

  client with a session at one server (e.g.,

  <romeo@example.net/orchard>) and intended for delivery to a client

  with a session at another server (e.g.,

  <juliet@example.com/balcony>) will traverse three streams: (1) the

  stream from the sender's client to its server, (2) the stream from

  the sender's server to the recipient's server, and (3) the stream

  from the recipient's server to the recipient's client.

  Furthermore, the stanza will be processed as cleartext within the

  sender's server and the recipient's server.  Therefore, even if

  the stream from the sender's client to its server is protected,

  the confidentiality and integrity of a stanza sent over that

  protected stream cannot be guaranteed when the stanza is processed

  by the sender's server, sent from the sender's server to the

  recipient's server, processed by the recipient's server, or sent

  from the recipient's server to the recipient's client.  Only a

  robust technology for end-to-end encryption could ensure the

  confidentiality and integrity of a stanza as it traverses all of

  the "hops" along a communication path (e.g., a technology that

  meets the requirements defined in [E2E-REQS]).  Unfortunately, the

  XMPP community has so far failed to produce an end-to-end

  encryption technology that might be suitable for widespread

  implementation and deployment, and definition of such a technology

  is out of scope for this document.

13.5. Peer Entity Authentication

The use of the Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) for

authentication provides a reliable mechanism for peer entity

authentication. Therefore, SASL helps to protect against user

spoofing, unauthorized usage, and man-in-the middle attacks. XMPP

clients and servers MUST support SASL as defined under Section 6.

13.6. Strong Security

[STRONGSEC] defines "strong security" and its importance to

communication over the Internet. For the purpose of XMPP

communication over client-to-server and server-to-server streams, the

term "strong security" refers to the use of security technologies

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that provide both mutual authentication and integrity checking (e.g.,

a combination of TLS encryption and SASL authentication using

appropriate SASL mechanisms).

Implementations MUST support strong security. Service provisioning

SHOULD use strong security.

An implementation SHOULD make it possible for an end user or service

administrator to provision a deployment with specific trust anchors

for the certificate presented by a connecting entity (either client

or server); when an application is thus provisioned, it MUST NOT use

a generic PKI trust store to authenticate the connecting entity.

More detailed rules and guidelines regarding certificate validation

are provided in the next section.

The initial stream and the response stream MUST be secured

separately, although security in both directions MAY be established

via mechanisms that provide mutual authentication.

13.7. Certificates

Channel encryption of an XML stream using Transport Layer Security as

described under Section 5, and in some cases also authentication as

described under Section 6, is commonly based on a PKIX certificate

presented by the receiving entity (or, in the case of mutual

certificate authentication, both the receiving entity and the

initiating entity). This section describes best practices regarding

the generation of PKIX certificates to be presented by XMPP entities

and the verification of PKIX certificates presented by XMPP entities.

In general, the following sections rely on and extend the rules and

guidelines provided in the [PKIX] profile of [X509], and in

[TLS-CERTS]. The reader is referred to those specifications for a

detailed understanding of PKIX certificates and their use in TLS.

13.7.1. Certificate Generation

13.7.1.1. General Considerations

The following rules apply to end entity public key certificates that

are issued to XMPP servers or clients:

  1. The certificate MUST conform to [PKIX].

  1. The certificate MUST NOT contain a basicConstraints extension

   with the cA boolean set to TRUE.

  1. The subject field MUST NOT be null.

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  1. The signatureAlgorithm SHOULD be the PKCS #1 version 1.5

   signature algorithm with SHA-256 as defined by [PKIX-ALGO], or a

   stronger algorithm if available.

  1. The certificate SHOULD include an Authority Information Access

   (AIA) extension that specifies the address of an Online

   Certificate Status Protocol [OCSP] responder (if not, a relying

   party would need to fall back on the use of Certificate

   Revocation Lists (CRLs) as described in [PKIX]).

The following rules apply to certification authority (CA)

certificates that are used by issuers of XMPP end entity

certificates:

  1. The certificate MUST conform to [PKIX].

  1. The certificate MUST contain a keyUsage extension with the

   digitalSignature bit set.

  1. The subject field MUST NOT be null.

  1. The signatureAlgorithm SHOULD be the PKCS #1 version 1.5

   signature algorithm with SHA-256 as defined by [PKIX-ALGO], or a

   stronger algorithm if available.

  1. For issuers of public key certificates, the issuer's certificate

   MUST contain a basicConstraints extension with the cA boolean set

   to TRUE.

13.7.1.2. Server Certificates

13.7.1.2.1. Rules

In a PKIX certificate to be presented by an XMPP server (i.e., a

"server certificate"), the certificate SHOULD include one or more

XMPP addresses (i.e., domainparts) associated with XMPP services

hosted at the server. The rules and guidelines defined in

[TLS-CERTS] apply to XMPP server certificates, with the following

XMPP-specific considerations:

o Support for the DNS-ID identifier type [PKIX] is REQUIRED in XMPP

  client and server software implementations.  Certification

  authorities that issue XMPP-specific certificates MUST support the

  DNS-ID identifier type.  XMPP service providers SHOULD include the

  DNS-ID identifier type in certificate requests.

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o Support for the SRV-ID identifier type [PKIX-SRV] is REQUIRED for

  XMPP client and server software implementations (for verification

  purposes XMPP client implementations need to support only the

  "_xmpp-client" service type, whereas XMPP server implementations

  need to support both the "_xmpp-client" and "_xmpp-server" service

  types).  Certification authorities that issue XMPP-specific

  certificates SHOULD support the SRV-ID identifier type.  XMPP

  service providers SHOULD include the SRV-ID identifier type in

  certificate requests.

o Support for the XmppAddr identifier type (specified under

  Section 13.7.1.4) is encouraged in XMPP client and server software

  implementations for the sake of backward-compatibility, but is no

  longer encouraged in certificates issued by certification

  authorities or requested by XMPP service providers.

o DNS domain names in server certificates MAY contain the wildcard

  character '*' as the complete left-most label within the

  identifier.

13.7.1.2.2. Examples

For our first (relatively simple) example, consider a company called

"Example Products, Inc." It hosts an XMPP service at

"im.example.com" (i.e., user addresses at the service are of the form

"user@im.example.com"), and SRV lookups for the xmpp-client and xmpp-

server services at "im.example.com" yield one machine, called

"x.example.com", as follows:

_xmpp-client._tcp.im.example.com. 400 IN SRV 20 0 5222 x.example.com

_xmpp-server._tcp.im.example.com. 400 IN SRV 20 0 5269 x.example.com

The certificate presented by x.example.com contains the following

representations:

o An otherName type of SRVName (id-on-dnsSRV) containing an

  IA5String (ASCII) string of "_xmpp-client.im.example.com"

o An otherName type of SRVName (id-on-dnsSRV) containing an

  IA5String (ASCII) string of "_xmpp-server.im.example.com"

o A dNSName containing an ASCII string of "im.example.com"

o An otherName type of XmppAddr (id-on-xmppAddr) containing a UTF-8

  string of "im.example.com"

o A CN containing an ASCII string of "Example Products, Inc."

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For our second (more complex) example, consider an ISP called

"Example Internet Services". It hosts an XMPP service at

"example.net" (i.e., user addresses at the service are of the form

"user@example.net"), but SRV lookups for the xmpp-client and xmpp-

server services at "example.net" yield two machines ("x1.example.net"

and "x2.example.net"), as follows:

_xmpp-client._tcp.example.net. 68400 IN SRV 20 0 5222 x1.example.net.

_xmpp-client._tcp.example.net. 68400 IN SRV 20 0 5222 x2.example.net.

_xmpp-server._tcp.example.net. 68400 IN SRV 20 0 5269 x1.example.net.

_xmpp-server._tcp.example.net. 68400 IN SRV 20 0 5269 x2.example.net.

Example Internet Services also hosts chatrooms at chat.example.net,

and provides an xmpp-server SRV record for that service as well (thus

enabling entities from remote domains to access that service). It

also might provide other such services in the future, so it wishes to

represent a wildcard in its certificate to handle such growth.

The certificate presented by either x1.example.net or x2.example.net

contains the following representations:

o An otherName type of SRVName (id-on-dnsSRV) containing an

  IA5String (ASCII) string of "_xmpp-client.example.net"

o An otherName type of SRVName (id-on-dnsSRV) containing an

  IA5String (ASCII) string of "_xmpp-server.example.net"

o An otherName type of SRVName (id-on-dnsSRV) containing an

  IA5String (ASCII) string of "_xmpp-server.chat.example.net"

o A dNSName containing an ASCII string of "example.net"

o A dNSName containing an ASCII string of "*.example.net"

o An otherName type of XmppAddr (id-on-xmppAddr) containing a UTF-8

  string of "example.net"

o An otherName type of XmppAddr (id-on-xmppAddr) containing a UTF-8

  string of "chat.example.net"

o A CN containing an ASCII string of "Example Internet Services"

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13.7.1.3. Client Certificates

In a PKIX certificate to be presented by an XMPP client controlled by

a human user (i.e., a "client certificate"), it is RECOMMENDED for

the certificate to include one or more JIDs associated with an XMPP

user. If included, a JID MUST be represented as an XmppAddr as

specified under Section 13.7.1.4.

13.7.1.4. XmppAddr Identifier Type

The XmppAddr identifier type is a UTF8String within an otherName

entity inside the subjectAltName, using the [ASN.1] Object Identifier

"id-on-xmppAddr" specified below.

id-pkix OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { iso(1) identified-organization(3)

       dod(6) internet(1) security(5) mechanisms(5) pkix(7) }

id-on OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { id-pkix 8 } -- other name forms

id-on-xmppAddr OBJECT IDENTIFIER ::= { id-on 5 }

XmppAddr ::= UTF8String

As an alternative to the "id-on-xmppAddr" notation, this Object

Identifier MAY be represented in dotted display format (i.e.,

"1.3.6.1.5.5.7.8.5") or in the Uniform Resource Name notation

specified in [URN-OID] (i.e., "urn:oid:1.3.6.1.5.5.7.8.5").

Thus for example the JID juliet@im.example.com as included in a

certificate could be formatted in any of the following three ways:

id-on-xmppAddr:

  subjectAltName=otherName:id-on-xmppAddr;UTF8:juliet@im.example.com

dotted display format: subjectAltName=otherName:

  1.3.6.1.5.5.7.8.5;UTF8:juliet@im.example.com

URN notation: subjectAltName=otherName:urn:oid:

  1.3.6.1.5.5.7.8.5;UTF8:juliet@im.example.com

Use of the "id-on-xmppAddr" format is RECOMMENDED in the generation

of certificates, but all three formats MUST be supported for the

purpose of certificate validation.

The "id-on-xmppAddr" object identifier MAY be used in conjunction

with the extended key usage extension specified in Section 4.2.1.12

of [PKIX] in order to explicitly define and limit the intended use of

a certificate to the XMPP network.

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13.7.2. Certificate Validation

When an XMPP entity is presented with a server certificate or client

certificate by a peer for the purpose of encryption or authentication

of XML streams as described under Section 5 and Section 6, the entity

MUST attempt to validate the certificate to determine if the

certificate will be considered a "trusted certificate", i.e., a

certificate that is acceptable for encryption and/or authentication

in accordance with the XMPP entity's local service policies or

configured settings.

For both server certificates and client certificates, the validating

entity MUST do the following:

  1. Attempt to verify the integrity of the certificate.

  1. Attempt to verify that the certificate has been properly signed

   by the issuing Certificate Authority.

  1. Attempt to validate the full certification path.

  1. Check the rules for end entity public key certificates and

   certification authority certificates specified under

   Section 13.7.1.1 for the general case and under either

   Section 13.7.1.2 or Section 13.7.1.3 for XMPP server or client

   certificates, respectively.

  1. Check certificate revocation messages via Certificate Revocation

   Lists (CRLs), the Online Certificate Status Protocol [OCSP], or

   both.

If any of those validation attempts fail, the validating entity MUST

unilaterally terminate the session.

The following sections describe the additional identity verification

rules that apply to server-to-server and client-to-server streams.

Once the identity of the stream peer has been validated, the

validating entity SHOULD also correlate the validated identity with

the 'from' address (if any) of the stream header it received from the

peer. If the two identities do not match, the validating entity

SHOULD terminate the connection attempt (however, there might be good

reasons why the identities do not match, as described under

Section 4.7.1).

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13.7.2.1. Server Certificates

For server certificates, the rules and guidelines defined in

[TLS-CERTS] apply, with the proviso that the XmppAddr identifier

specified under Section 13.7.1.4 is allowed as a reference

identifier.

The identities to be checked are set as follows:

o The initiating entity sets the source domain of its reference

  identifiers to the 'to' address it communicates in the initial

  stream header; i.e., this is the identity it expects the receiving

  entity to provide in a PKIX certificate.

o The receiving entity sets the source domain of its reference

  identifiers to the 'from' address communicated by the initiating

  entity in the initial stream header; i.e., this is the identity

  that the initiating entity is trying to assert.

In the case of server-to-server communication, the matching procedure

described in [TLS-CERTS] can be performed by an application server

(receiving entity) when verifying an incoming server-to-server

connection from a peer server (initiating entity). In this case, the

receiving entity verifies the identity of the initiating entity and

uses as the source domain of its reference identifiers the DNS domain

name asserted by the initiating entity in the 'from' attribute of the

initial stream header. However, the matching procedure described in

[TLS-CERTS] remains unchanged and is applied in the same way.

13.7.2.2. Client Certificates

When an XMPP server validates a certificate presented by a client,

there are three possible cases, as discussed in the following

sections.

The identities to be checked are set as follows:

o The client sets the source domain of its reference identifiers to

  the 'to' address it communicates in the initial stream header;

  i.e., this is the identity it expects the server to provide in a

  PKIX certificate.

o The server sets the bare JID of its reference identifiers to the

  'from' address communicated by the initiating entity in the

  initial stream header; i.e., this is the identity that the client

  is trying to assert.

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13.7.2.2.1. Case #1

If the client certificate appears to be certified by a certification

path terminating in a trust anchor (as described in Section 6.1 of

[PKIX]), the server MUST check the certificate for any instances of

the XmppAddr as described under Section 13.7.1.4. There are three

possible sub-cases:

Sub-Case #1: The server finds one XmppAddr for which the domainpart

  of the represented JID matches one of the configured FQDNs of the

  server; the server SHOULD use this represented JID as the

  validated identity of the client.

Sub-Case #2: The server finds more than one XmppAddr for which the

  domainpart of the represented JID matches one of the configured

  FQDNs of the server; the server SHOULD use one of these

  represented JIDs as the validated identity of the client, choosing

  among them based on the bare JID contained in the 'from' address

  of the initial stream header (if any), based on the domainpart

  contained in the 'to' address of the initial stream header, or in

  accordance with local service policies (such as a lookup in a user

  database based on other information contained in the client

  certificate).

Sub-Case #3: The server finds no XmppAddrs, or finds at least one

  XmppAddr but the domainpart of the represented JID does not match

  one of the configured FQDNs of the server; the server MUST NOT use

  the represented JID (if any) as the validated identity of the

  client but instead MUST validate the identity of the client using

  other means in accordance with local service policies (such as a

  lookup in a user database based on other information contained in

  the client certificate).  If the identity cannot be so validated,

  the server MAY abort the validation process and terminate the TLS

  negotiation.

13.7.2.2.2. Case #2

If the client certificate is certified by a Certificate Authority not

known to the server, the server MUST proceed as under Case #1, Sub-

Case #3.

13.7.2.2.3. Case #3

If the client certificate is self-signed, the server MUST proceed as

under Case #1, Sub-Case #3.

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13.7.2.3. Checking of Certificates in Long-Lived Streams

Because XMPP uses long-lived XML streams, it is possible that a

certificate presented during stream negotiation might expire or be

revoked while the stream is still live (this is especially relevant

in the context of server-to-server streams). Therefore, each party

to a long-lived stream SHOULD:

  1. Cache the expiration date of the certificate presented by the

   other party and any certificates on which that certificate

   depends (such as a root or intermediate certificate for a

   certification authority), and close the stream when any such

   certificate expires, with a stream error of <reset/>

   (Section 4.9.3.16).

  1. Periodically query the Online Certificate Status Protocol [OCSP]

   responder listed in the Authority Information Access (AIA)

   extension of the certificate presented by the other party and any

   certificates on which that certificate depends (such as a root or

   intermediate certificate for a certification authority), and

   close the stream if any such certificate has been revoked, with a

   stream error of <reset/> (Section 4.9.3.16).  It is RECOMMENDED

   to query the OSCP responder at or near the time communicated via

   the nextUpdate field received in the OCSP response or, if the

   nextUpdate field is not set, to query every 24 hours.

After the stream is closed, the initiating entity from the closed

stream will need to reconnect and the receiving entity will need to

authenticate the initiating entity based on whatever certificate it

presents during negotiation of the new stream.

13.7.2.4. Use of Certificates in XMPP Extensions

Certificates MAY be used in extensions to XMPP for the purpose of

application-layer encryption or authentication above the level of XML

streams (e.g., for end-to-end encryption). Such extensions will

define their own certificate handling rules. At a minimum, such

extensions are encouraged to remain consistent with the rules defined

in this specification, specifying additional rules only when

necessary.

13.8. Mandatory-to-Implement TLS and SASL Technologies

The following TLS ciphersuites and SASL mechanisms are mandatory-to-

implement (naturally, implementations MAY support other ciphersuites

and mechanisms as well). For security considerations related to TLS

ciphersuites, see Section 13.9.4 and [TLS]. For security

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considerations related to SASL mechanisms, see Section 13.9.4,

[SASL], and specifications for particular SASL mechanisms such as

[SCRAM], [DIGEST-MD5], and [PLAIN].

13.8.1. For Authentication Only

For authentication only, servers and clients MUST support the SASL

Salted Challenge Response Authentication Mechanism [SCRAM] -- in

particular, the SCRAM-SHA-1 and SCRAM-SHA-1-PLUS variants.

  Security Warning: Even though it is possible to complete

  authentication only without confidentiality, it is RECOMMENDED for

  servers and clients to protect the stream with TLS before

  attempting authentication with SASL, both to help protect the

  information exchanged during SASL negotiation and to help prevent

  certain downgrade attacks as described under Section 13.9.4 and

  Section 13.9.5.  Even if TLS is used, implementations SHOULD also

  enforce channel binding as described under Section 13.9.4.

  Interoperability Note: The SCRAM-SHA-1 or SASL-SCRAM-SHA-1-PLUS

  variants of the SCRAM mechanism replace the SASL DIGEST-MD5

  mechanism as XMPP's mandatory-to-implement password-based method

  for authentication only.  For backward-compatibility with existing

  deployed infrastructure, implementations are encouraged to

  continue supporting the DIGEST-MD5 mechanism as specified in

  [DIGEST-MD5]; however, there are known interoperability issues

  with DIGEST-MD5 that make it impractical in the long term.

13.8.2. For Confidentiality Only

For confidentiality only, servers MUST support TLS with the

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA ciphersuite.

  Security Warning: Because a connection with confidentiality only

  has weaker security properties than a connection with both

  confidentiality and authentication, it is RECOMMENDED for servers

  and clients to prefer connections with both qualities (e.g., by

  protecting the stream with TLS before attempting authentication

  with SASL).  In practice, confidentiality only is employed merely

  for server-to-server connections when the peer server does not

  present a trusted certificate and the servers use Server Dialback

  [XEP-0220] for weak identity verification, but TLS with

  confidentiality only is still desirable to protect the connection

  against casual eavesdropping.

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13.8.3. For Confidentiality and Authentication with Passwords

For both confidentiality and authentication with passwords, servers

and clients MUST implement TLS with the TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA

ciphersuite plus SASL SCRAM, in particular the SCRAM-SHA-1 and

SCRAM-SHA-1-PLUS variants (with SCRAM-SHA1-PLUS being preferred, as

described under Section 13.9.4).

As further explained in the following Security Warning, in certain

circumstances a server MAY offer TLS with the

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA ciphersuite plus SASL PLAIN when it is

not possible to offer more secure alternatives; in addition, clients

SHOULD implement PLAIN over TLS in order to maximize interoperability

with servers that are not able to deploy more secure alternatives.

  Security Warning: In practice, many servers offer, and many

  clients use, TLS plus SASL PLAIN.  The SCRAM-SHA-1 and especially

  SCRAM-SHA-1-PLUS variants of the SCRAM mechanism are strongly

  preferred over the PLAIN mechanism because of their superior

  security properties (including for SCRAM-SHA-1-PLUS the ability to

  enforce channel binding as described under Section 13.9.4).  A

  client SHOULD treat TLS plus SASL PLAIN as a technology of last

  resort to be used only when interacting with a server that does

  not offer SCRAM (or other alternatives that are more secure than

  TLS plus SASL PLAIN), MUST prefer more secure mechanisms (e.g.,

  EXTERNAL, SCRAM-SHA-1-PLUS, SCRAM-SHA-1, or the older DIGEST-MD5

  mechanism) to the PLAIN mechanism, and MUST NOT use the PLAIN

  mechanism if the stream does not at a minimum have confidentiality

  and integrity protection via TLS with full certificate validation

  as described under Section 13.7.2.1.  A server MUST NOT offer SASL

  PLAIN if the confidentiality and integrity of the stream are not

  protected via TLS or an equivalent security layer.  A server

  SHOULD NOT offer TLS plus SASL PLAIN unless it is unable to offer

  some variant of SASL SCRAM (or other alternatives that are more

  secure than TLS plus SASL PLAIN), e.g., because the XMPP service

  depends for authentication purposes on a database or directory

  that is not under the control of the XMPP administrators, such as

  Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM), an Lightweight Directory

  Access Protocol (LDAP) directory [LDAP], or an Authentication,

  Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) key management protocol (for

  guidance, refer to [AAA]).  However, offering TLS plus SASL PLAIN

  even when the server supports more secure alternatives might be

  appropriate if the server needs to enable interoperability with an

  installed base of clients that do not yet support SCRAM or other

  alternatives that are more secure than TLS plus SASL PLAIN.

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13.8.4. For Confidentiality and Authentication without Passwords

For both confidentiality and authentication without passwords,

servers MUST and clients SHOULD implement TLS with the

TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA ciphersuite plus the SASL EXTERNAL

mechanism (see Appendix A of [SASL]) with PKIX certificates.

13.9. Technology Reuse

13.9.1. Use of Base 64 in SASL

Both the client and the server MUST verify any base 64 data received

during SASL negotiation (Section 6). An implementation MUST reject

(not ignore) any characters that are not explicitly allowed by the

base 64 alphabet; this helps to guard against creation of a covert

channel that could be used to "leak" information.

An implementation MUST NOT break on invalid input and MUST reject any

sequence of base 64 characters containing the pad ('=') character if

that character is included as something other than the last character

of the data (e.g., "=AAA" or "BBBB=CCC"); this helps to guard against

buffer overflow attacks and other attacks on the implementation.

While base 64 encoding visually hides otherwise easily recognized

information (such as passwords), it does not provide any

computational confidentiality.

All uses of base 64 encoding MUST follow the definition in Section 4

of [BASE64] and padding bits MUST be set to zero.

13.9.2. Use of DNS

XMPP typically relies on the Domain Name System (specifically

[DNS-SRV] records) to resolve a fully qualified domain name to an IP

address before a client connects to a server or before a peer server

connects to another server. Before attempting to negotiate an XML

stream, the initiating entity MUST NOT proceed until it has resolved

the DNS domain name of the receiving entity as specified under

Section 3 (although it is not necessary to resolve the DNS domain

name before each connection attempt, because DNS resolution results

can be temporarily cached in accordance with time-to-live values).

However, in the absence of a secure DNS option (e.g., as provided by

[DNSSEC]), a malicious attacker with access to the DNS server data,

or able to cause spoofed answers to be cached in a recursive

resolver, can potentially cause the initiating entity to connect to

any XMPP server chosen by the attacker. Deployment and validation of

server certificates help to prevent such attacks.

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13.9.3. Use of Hash Functions

XMPP itself does not directly mandate the use of any particular

cryptographic hash function. However, technologies on which XMPP

depends (e.g., TLS and particular SASL mechanisms), as well as

various XMPP extensions, might make use of cryptographic hash

functions. Those who implement XMPP technologies or who develop XMPP

extensions are advised to closely monitor the state of the art

regarding attacks against cryptographic hash functions in Internet

protocols as they relate to XMPP. For helpful guidance, refer to

[HASHES].

13.9.4. Use of SASL

Because the initiating entity chooses an acceptable SASL mechanism

from the list presented by the receiving entity, the initiating

entity depends on the receiving entity's list for authentication.

This dependency introduces the possibility of a downgrade attack if

an attacker can gain control of the channel and therefore present a

weak list of mechanisms. To mitigate this attack, the parties SHOULD

protect the channel using TLS before attempting SASL negotiation and

either perform full certificate validation as described under

Section 13.7.2.1 or use a SASL mechanism that provides channel

bindings, such as SCRAM-SHA-1-PLUS. (Protecting the channel via TLS

with full certificate validation can help to ensure the

confidentiality and integrity of the information exchanged during

SASL negotiation.)

The SASL framework itself does not provide a method for binding SASL

authentication to a security layer providing confidentiality and

integrity protection that was negotiated at a lower layer (e.g.,

TLS). Such a binding is known as a "channel binding" (see

[CHANNEL]). Some SASL mechanisms provide channel bindings, which in

the case of XMPP would typically be a binding to TLS (see

[CHANNEL-TLS]). If a SASL mechanism provides a channel binding

(e.g., this is true of [SCRAM]), then XMPP entities using that

mechanism SHOULD prefer the channel binding variant (e.g., preferring

"SCRAM-SHA-1-PLUS" over "SCRAM-SHA-1"). If a SASL mechanism does not

provide a channel binding, then the mechanism cannot provide a way to

verify that the source and destination end points to which the lower

layer's security is bound are equivalent to the end points that SASL

is authenticating; furthermore, if the end points are not identical,

then the lower layer's security cannot be trusted to protect data

transmitted between the SASL-authenticated entities. In such a

situation, a SASL security layer SHOULD be negotiated that

effectively ignores the presence of the lower-layer security.

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Many deployed XMPP services authenticate client connections by means

of passwords. It is well known that most human users choose

relatively weak passwords. Although service provisioning is out of

scope for this document, XMPP servers that allow password-based

authentication SHOULD enforce minimal criteria for password strength

to help prevent dictionary attacks. Because all password-based

authentication mechanisms are susceptible to password guessing

attacks, XMPP servers MUST limit the number of retries allowed during

SASL authentication, as described under Section 6.4.5.

Some SASL mechanisms (e.g., [ANONYMOUS]) do not provide strong peer

entity authentication of the client to the server. Service

administrators are advised to enable such mechanisms with caution.

Best practices for the use of the SASL ANONYMOUS mechanism in XMPP

are described in [XEP-0175].

13.9.5. Use of TLS

Implementations of TLS typically support multiple versions of the

Transport Layer Security protocol as well as the older Secure Sockets

Layer (SSL) protocol. Because of known security vulnerabilities,

XMPP servers and clients MUST NOT request, offer, or use SSL 2.0.

For further details, see Appendix E.2 of [TLS] along with [TLS-SSL2].

To prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, the TLS client (which might be

an XMPP client or an XMPP server) MUST verify the certificate of the

TLS server and MUST check its understanding of the server FQDN

against the server's identity as presented in the TLS Certificate

message as described under Section 13.7.2.1 (for further details, see

[TLS-CERTS].

Support for TLS renegotiation is strictly OPTIONAL. However,

implementations that support TLS renegotiation MUST implement and use

the TLS Renegotiation Extension [TLS-NEG]. Further details are

provided under Section 5.3.5.

13.9.6. Use of UTF-8

The use of UTF-8 makes it possible to transport non-ASCII characters,

and thus enables character "spoofing" scenarios, in which a displayed

value appears to be something other than it is. Furthermore, there

are known attack scenarios related to the decoding of UTF-8 data. On

both of these points, refer to [UTF-8] for more information.

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13.9.7. Use of XML

Because XMPP is an application profile of the Extensible Markup

Language [XML], many of the security considerations described in

[XML-MEDIA] and [XML-GUIDE] also apply to XMPP. Several aspects of

XMPP mitigate the risks described there, such as the prohibitions

specified under Section 11.1 and the lack of external references to

style sheets or transformations, but these mitigating factors are by

no means comprehensive.

13.10. Information Leaks

13.10.1. IP Addresses

A client's IP address and method of access MUST NOT be made public by

a server (e.g., as typically occurs in [IRC]).

13.10.2. Presence Information

One of the core aspects of XMPP is presence: information about the

network availability of an XMPP entity (i.e., whether the entity is

currently online or offline). A "presence leak" occurs when an

entity's network availability is inadvertently and involuntarily

revealed to a second entity that is not authorized to know the first

entity's network availability.

Although presence is discussed more fully in [XMPP-IM], it is

important to note that an XMPP server MUST NOT leak presence. In

particular at the core XMPP level, real-time addressing and network

availability is associated with a specific connected resource;

therefore, any disclosure of a connected resource's full JID

comprises a presence leak. To help prevent such a presence leak, a

server MUST NOT return different stanza errors depending on whether a

potential attacker sends XML stanzas to the entity's bare JID

(localpart@domainpart) or full JID

(<localpart@domainpart/resourcepart>).

13.11. Directory Harvesting

If a server generates an error stanza in response to receiving a

stanza for a user account that does not exist, using the <service-

unavailable/> stanza error condition (Section 8.3.3.19) can help

protect against directory harvesting attacks, since this is the same

error condition that is returned if, for instance, the namespace of

an IQ child element is not understood, or if "offline message

storage" ([XEP-0160]) or message forwarding is not enabled for a

domain. However, subtle differences in the exact XML of error

stanzas, as well as in the timing with which such errors are

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returned, can enable an attacker to determine the network presence of

a user when more advanced blocking technologies are not used (see for

instance [XEP-0016] and [XEP-0191]). Therefore, a server that

exercises a higher level of caution might not return any error at all

in response to certain kinds of received stanzas, so that a non-

existent user appears to behave like a user that has no interest in

conversing with the sender.

13.12. Denial of Service

[DOS] defines denial of service as follows:

  A denial-of-service (DoS) attack is an attack in which one or more

  machines target a victim and attempt to prevent the victim from

  doing useful work.  The victim can be a network server, client or

  router, a network link or an entire network, an individual

  Internet user or a company doing business using the Internet, an

  Internet Service Provider (ISP), country, or any combination of or

  variant on these.

Some considerations discussed in this document help to prevent

denial-of-service attacks (e.g., the mandate that a server MUST NOT

process XML stanzas from clients that have not yet provided

appropriate authentication credentials and MUST NOT process XML

stanzas from peer servers whose identity it has not either

authenticated via SASL or weakly verified via Server Dialback).

In addition, [XEP-0205] provides a detailed discussion of potential

denial-of-service attacks against XMPP systems along with best

practices for preventing such attacks. The recommendations include:

  1. A server implementation SHOULD enable a server administrator to

   limit the number of TCP connections that it will accept from a

   given IP address at any one time.  If an entity attempts to

   connect but the maximum number of TCP connections has been

   reached, the receiving server MUST NOT allow the new connection

   to proceed.

  1. A server implementation SHOULD enable a server administrator to

   limit the number of TCP connection attempts that it will accept

   from a given IP address in a given time period.  If an entity

   attempts to connect but the maximum number of connection attempts

   has been reached, the receiving server MUST NOT allow the new

   connection to proceed.

  1. A server implementation SHOULD enable a server administrator to

   limit the number of connected resources it will allow an account

   to bind at any one time.  If a client attempts to bind a resource

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   but it has already reached the configured number of allowable

   resources, the receiving server MUST return a <resource-

   constraint/> stanza error (Section 8.3.3.18).

  1. A server implementation SHOULD enable a server administrator to

   limit the size of stanzas it will accept from a connected client

   or peer server (where "size" is inclusive of all XML markup as

   defined in Section 2.4 of [XML], from the opening "<" character

   of the stanza to the closing ">" character).  A deployed server's

   maximum stanza size MUST NOT be smaller than 10000 bytes, which

   reflects a reasonable compromise between the benefits of

   expressiveness for originating entities and the costs of stanza

   processing for servers.  A server implementation SHOULD NOT

   blindly set 10000 bytes as the value for all deployments but

   instead SHOULD enable server administrators to set their own

   limits.  If a connected resource or peer server sends a stanza

   that violates the upper limit, the receiving server MUST either

   return a <policy-violation/> stanza error (Section 8.3.3.12),

   thus allowing the sender to recover, or close the stream with a

   <policy-violation/> stream error (Section 4.9.3.14).

  1. A server implementation SHOULD enable a server administrator to

   limit the number of XML stanzas that a connected client is

   allowed to send to distinct recipients within a given time

   period.  If a connected client sends too many stanzas to distinct

   recipients in a given time period, the receiving server SHOULD

   NOT process the stanza and instead SHOULD return a <policy-

   violation/> stanza error (Section 8.3.3.12).

  1. A server implementation SHOULD enable a server administrator to

   limit the amount of bandwidth it will allow a connected client or

   peer server to use in a given time period.

  1. A server implementation MAY enable a server administrator to

   limit the types of stanzas (based on the extended content

   "payload") that it will allow a connected resource or peer server

   send over an active connection.  Such limits and restrictions are

   a matter of deployment policy.

  1. A server implementation MAY refuse to route or deliver any stanza

   that it considers to be abusive, with or without returning an

   error to the sender.

For more detailed recommendations regarding denial-of-service attacks

in XMPP systems, refer to [XEP-0205].

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13.13. Firewalls

Although DNS SRV records can instruct connecting entities to use TCP

ports other than 5222 (client-to-server) and 5269 (server-to-server),

communication using XMPP typically occurs over those ports, which are

registered with the IANA (see Section 14). Use of these well-known

ports allows administrators to easily enable or disable XMPP activity

through existing and commonly deployed firewalls.

13.14. Interdomain Federation

The term "federation" is commonly used to describe communication

between two servers.

Because service provisioning is a matter of policy, it is OPTIONAL

for any given server to support federation. If a particular server

enables federation, it SHOULD enable strong security as previously

described to ensure both authentication and confidentiality;

compliant implementations SHOULD support TLS and SASL for this

purpose.

Before RFC 3920 defined TLS plus SASL EXTERNAL with certificates for

encryption and authentication of server-to-server streams, the only

method for weak identity verification of a peer server was Server

Dialback as defined in [XEP-0220]. Even when [DNSSEC] is used,

Server Dialback provides only weak identity verification and provides

no confidentiality or integrity. At the time of writing, Server

Dialback is still the most widely used technique for some level of

assurance over server-to-server streams. This reality introduces the

possibility of a downgrade attack from TLS + SASL EXTERNAL to Server

Dialback if an attacker can gain control of the channel and therefore

convince the initiating server that the receiving server does not

support TLS or does not have an appropriate certificate. To help

prevent this attack, the parties SHOULD protect the channel using TLS

before proceeding, even if the presented certificates are self-signed

or otherwise untrusted.

13.15. Non-Repudiation

Systems that provide both peer entity authentication and data

integrity have the potential to enable an entity to prove to a third

party that another entity intended to send particular data. Although

XMPP systems can provide both peer entity authentication and data

integrity, XMPP was never designed to provide non-repudiation.

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  1. IANA Considerations

The following subsections update the registrations provided in

[RFC3920]. This section is to be interpreted according to

[IANA-GUIDE].

14.1. XML Namespace Name for TLS Data

A URN sub-namespace for STARTTLS negotiation data in the Extensible

Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is defined as follows. (This

namespace name adheres to the format defined in [XML-REG].)

URI: urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-tls

Specification: RFC 6120

Description: This is the XML namespace name for STARTTLS negotiation

  data in the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) as

  defined by RFC 6120.

Registrant Contact: IESG iesg@ietf.org

14.2. XML Namespace Name for SASL Data

A URN sub-namespace for SASL negotiation data in the Extensible

Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is defined as follows. (This

namespace name adheres to the format defined in [XML-REG].)

URI: urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl

Specification: RFC 6120

Description: This is the XML namespace name for SASL negotiation

  data in the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) as

  defined by RFC 6120.

Registrant Contact: IESG iesg@ietf.org

14.3. XML Namespace Name for Stream Errors

A URN sub-namespace for stream error data in the Extensible Messaging

and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is defined as follows. (This namespace

name adheres to the format defined in [XML-REG].)

URI: urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams

Specification: RFC 6120

Description: This is the XML namespace name for stream error data in

  the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) as defined

  by RFC 6120.

Registrant Contact: IESG iesg@ietf.org

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14.4. XML Namespace Name for Resource Binding

A URN sub-namespace for resource binding in the Extensible Messaging

and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is defined as follows. (This namespace

name adheres to the format defined in [XML-REG].)

URI: urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind

Specification: RFC 6120

Description: This is the XML namespace name for resource binding in

  the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) as defined

  by RFC 6120.

Registrant Contact: IESG iesg@ietf.org

14.5. XML Namespace Name for Stanza Errors

A URN sub-namespace for stanza error data in the Extensible Messaging

and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is defined as follows. (This namespace

name adheres to the format defined in [XML-REG].)

URI: urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas

Specification: RFC 6120

Description: This is the XML namespace name for stanza error data in

  the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) as defined

  by RFC 6120.

Registrant Contact: IESG iesg@ietf.org

14.6. GSSAPI Service Name

The IANA has registered "xmpp" as a [GSS-API] service name, as

defined under Section 6.6.

14.7. Port Numbers and Service Names

The IANA has registered "xmpp-client" and "xmpp-server" as keywords

for [TCP] ports 5222 and 5269, respectively. In accordance with

[IANA-PORTS], this document updates the existing registration, as

follows.

Service Name: xmpp-client

Transport Protocol: TCP

Description: A service offering support for connections by XMPP

  client applications

Registrant: IETF XMPP Working Group

Contact: IESG iesg@ietf.org

Reference: RFC 6120

Port Number: 5222

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Service Name: xmpp-server

Transport Protocol: TCP

Description: A service offering support for connections by XMPP

  server applications

Registrant: IETF XMPP Working Group

Contact: IESG iesg@ietf.org

Reference: RFC 6120

Port Number: 5269

  1. Conformance Requirements

This section describes a protocol feature set that summarizes the

conformance requirements of this specification. This feature set is

appropriate for use in software certification, interoperability

testing, and implementation reports. For each feature, this section

provides the following information:

o A human-readable name

o An informational description

o A reference to the particular section of this document that

  normatively defines the feature

o Whether the feature applies to the Client role, the Server role,

  or both (where "N/A" signifies that the feature is not applicable

  to the specified role)

o Whether the feature MUST or SHOULD be implemented, where the

  capitalized terms are to be understood as described in [KEYWORDS]

The feature set specified here attempts to adhere to the concepts and

formats proposed by Larry Masinter within the IETF's NEWTRK Working

Group in 2005, as captured in [INTEROP]. Although this feature set

is more detailed than called for by [REPORTS], it provides a suitable

basis for the generation of implementation reports to be submitted in

support of advancing this specification from Proposed Standard to

Draft Standard in accordance with [PROCESS].

Feature: bind-gen

Description: Generate a random resource on demand.

Section: Section 7.6

Roles: Client N/A, Server MUST.

Feature: bind-mtn

Description: Consider resource binding as mandatory-to-negotiate.

Section: Section 7.3.1

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

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Feature: bind-restart

Description: Do not restart the stream after negotiation of resource

  binding.

Section: Section 7.3.2

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: bind-support

Description: Support binding of client resources to an authenticated

  stream.

Section: Section 7

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: sasl-correlate

Description: When authenticating a stream peer using SASL, correlate

  the authentication identifier resulting from SASL negotiation with

  the 'from' address (if any) of the stream header it received from

  the peer.

Section: Section 6.4.6

Roles: Client SHOULD, Server SHOULD.

Feature: sasl-errors

Description: Support SASL errors during the negotiation process.

Section: Section 6.5

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: sasl-mtn

Description: Consider SASL as mandatory-to-negotiate.

Section: Section 6.3.1

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: sasl-restart

Description: Initiate or handle a stream restart after SASL

  negotiation.

Section: Section 6.3.2

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: sasl-support

Description: Support the Simple Authentication and Security Layer

  for stream authentication.

Section: Section 6

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: security-mti-auth-scram

Description: Support the SASL SCRAM mechanism for authentication

  only (this implies support for both the SCRAM-SHA-1 and

  SCRAM-SHA-1-PLUS variants).

Section: Section 13.8

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

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Feature: security-mti-both-external

Description: Support TLS with SASL EXTERNAL for confidentiality and

  authentication.

Section: Section 13.8

Roles: Client SHOULD, Server MUST.

Feature: security-mti-both-plain

Description: Support TLS using the TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA

  ciphersuite plus the SASL PLAIN mechanism for confidentiality and

  authentication.

Section: Section 13.8

Roles: Client SHOULD, Server MAY.

Feature: security-mti-both-scram

Description: Support TLS using the TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA

  ciphersuite plus the SCRAM-SHA-1 and SCRAM-SHA-1-PLUS variants of

  the SASL SCRAM mechanism for confidentiality and authentication.

Section: Section 13.8

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: security-mti-confidentiality

Description: Support TLS using the TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA

  ciphersuite for confidentiality only.

Section: Section 13.8

Roles: Client N/A, Server SHOULD.

Feature: stanza-attribute-from

Description: Support the common 'from' attribute for all stanza

  kinds.

Section: Section 8.1.2

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stanza-attribute-from-stamp

Description: Stamp or rewrite the 'from' address of all stanzas

  received from connected clients.

Section: Section 8.1.2.1

Roles: Client N/A, Server MUST.

Feature: stanza-attribute-from-validate

Description: Validate the 'from' address of all stanzas received

  from peer servers.

Section: Section 8.1.2.2

Roles: Client N/A, Server MUST.

Feature: stanza-attribute-id

Description: Support the common 'id' attribute for all stanza kinds.

Section: Section 8.1.3

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

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Feature: stanza-attribute-to

Description: Support the common 'to' attribute for all stanza kinds.

Section: Section 8.1.1

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stanza-attribute-to-validate

Description: Ensure that all stanzas received from peer servers

  include a 'to' address.

Section: Section 8.1.1

Roles: Client N/A, Server MUST.

Feature: stanza-attribute-type

Description: Support the common 'type' attribute for all stanza

  kinds.

Section: Section 8.1.4

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stanza-attribute-xmllang

Description: Support the common 'xml:lang' attribute for all stanza

  kinds.

Section: Section 8.1.5

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stanza-error

Description: Generate and handle stanzas of type "error" for all

  stanza kinds.

Section: Section 8.3

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stanza-error-child

Description: Ensure that stanzas of type "error" include an

  child element.

Section: Section 8.3

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stanza-error-id

Description: Ensure that stanzas of type "error" preserve the 'id'

  provided in the triggering stanza.

Section: Section 8.3

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stanza-error-reply

Description: Do not reply to a stanza of type "error" with another

  stanza of type "error".

Section: Section 8.3

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

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Feature: stanza-extension

Description: Correctly process XML data qualified by an unsupported

  XML namespace, where "correctly process" means to ignore that

  portion of the stanza in the case of a message or presence stanza

  and return an error in the case of an IQ stanza (for the intended

  recipient), and to route or deliver the stanza (for a routing

  entity such as a server).

Section: Section 8.4

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stanza-iq-child

Description: Include exactly one child element in an stanza of

  type "get" or "set", zero or one child elements in an <iq/> stanza

  of type "result", and one or two child elements in an <iq/> stanza

  of type "error".

Section: Section 8.2.3

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stanza-iq-id

Description: Ensure that all stanzas include an 'id'

  attribute.

Section: Section 8.2.3

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stanza-iq-reply

Description: Reply to an stanza of type "get" or "set" with an

  <iq/> stanza of type "result" or "error".

Section: Section 8.2.3

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stanza-iq-type

Description: Ensure that all stanzas include a 'type'

  attribute whose value is "get", "set", "result", or "error".

Section: Section 8.2.3

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stanza-kind-iq

Description: Support the stanza.

Section: Section 8.2.3

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stanza-kind-message

Description: Support the stanza.

Section: Section 8.2.1

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

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Feature: stanza-kind-presence

Description: Support the stanza.

Section: Section 8.2.2

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stream-attribute-initial-from

Description: Include a 'from' attribute in the initial stream

  header.

Section: Section 4.7.1

Roles: Client SHOULD, Server MUST.

Feature: stream-attribute-initial-lang

Description: Include an 'xml:lang' attribute in the initial stream

  header.

Section: Section 4.7.4

Roles: Client SHOULD, Server SHOULD.

Feature: stream-attribute-initial-to

Description: Include a 'to' attribute in the initial stream header.

Section: Section 4.7.2

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stream-attribute-response-from

Description: Include a 'from' attribute in the response stream

  header.

Section: Section 4.7.1

Roles: Client N/A, Server MUST.

Feature: stream-attribute-response-id

Description: Include an 'id' attribute in the response stream

  header.

Section: Section 4.7.3

Roles: Client N/A, Server MUST.

Feature: stream-attribute-response-id-unique

Description: Ensure that the 'id' attribute in the response stream

  header is unique within the context of the receiving entity.

Section: Section 4.7.3

Roles: Client N/A, Server MUST.

Feature: stream-attribute-response-to

Description: Include a 'to' attribute in the response stream header.

Section: Section 4.7.2

Roles: Client N/A, Server SHOULD.

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Feature: stream-error-generate

Description: Generate a stream error (followed by a closing stream

  tag and termination of the TCP connection) upon detecting a

  stream-related error condition.

Section: Section 4.9

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stream-fqdn-resolution

Description: Resolve FQDNs before opening a TCP connection to the

  receiving entity.

Section: Section 3.2

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stream-negotiation-complete

Description: Do not consider the stream negotiation process to be

  complete until the receiving entity sends a stream features

  advertisement that is empty or that contains only voluntary-to-

  negotiate features.

Section: Section 4.3.5

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stream-negotiation-features

Description: Send stream features after sending a response stream

  header.

Section: Section 4.3.2

Roles: Client N/A, Server MUST.

Feature: stream-negotiation-restart

Description: Consider the previous stream to be replaced upon

  negotiation of a stream feature that necessitates a stream

  restart, and send or receive a new initial stream header after

  negotiation of such a stream feature.

Section: Section 4.3.3

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stream-reconnect

Description: Reconnect with exponential backoff if a TCP connection

  is terminated unexpectedly.

Section: Section 3.3

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: stream-tcp-binding

Description: Bind an XML stream to a TCP connection.

Section: Section 3

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

Feature: tls-certs

Description: Check the identity specified in a certificate that is

  presented during TLS negotiation.

Section: Section 13.7.2

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: tls-mtn

Description: Consider TLS as mandatory-to-negotiate if STARTTLS is

  the only feature advertised or if the STARTTLS feature

  advertisement includes an empty <required/> element.

Section: Section 5.3.1

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: tls-restart

Description: Initiate or handle a stream restart after TLS

  negotiation.

Section: Section 5.3.2

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: tls-support

Description: Support Transport Layer Security for stream encryption.

Section: Section 5

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: tls-correlate

Description: When validating a certificate presented by a stream

  peer during TLS negotiation, correlate the validated identity with

  the 'from' address (if any) of the stream header it received from

  the peer.

Section: Section 13.7.2

Roles: Client SHOULD, Server SHOULD.

Feature: xml-namespace-content-client

Description: Support 'jabber:client' as a content namespace.

Section: Section 4.8.2

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: xml-namespace-content-server

Description: Support 'jabber:server' as a content namespace.

Section: Section 4.8.2

Roles: Client N/A, Server MUST.

Feature: xml-namespace-streams-declaration

Description: Ensure that there is a namespace declaration for the

  'http://etherx.jabber.org/streams' namespace.

Section: Section 4.8.1

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

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Feature: xml-namespace-streams-prefix

Description: Ensure that all elements qualified by the

  'http://etherx.jabber.org/streams' namespace are prefixed by the

  prefix (if any) defined in the namespace declaration.

Section: Section 4.8.1

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: xml-restriction-comment

Description: Do not generate or accept XML comments.

Section: Section 11.1

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: xml-restriction-dtd

Description: Do not generate or accept internal or external DTD

  subsets.

Section: Section 11.1

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: xml-restriction-pi

Description: Do not generate or accept XML processing instructions.

Section: Section 11.1

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: xml-restriction-ref

Description: Do not generate or accept internal or external entity

  references with the exception of the predefined entities.

Section: Section 11.1

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: xml-wellformed-xml

Description: Do not generate or accept data that is not XML-well-

  formed.

Section: Section 11.3

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

Feature: xml-wellformed-ns

Description: Do not generate or accept data that is not namespace-

  well-formed.

Section: Section 11.3

Roles: Client MUST, Server MUST.

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  1. References

16.1. Normative References

[BASE64] Josefsson, S., "The Base16, Base32, and Base64 Data

               Encodings", RFC 4648, October 2006.

[CHANNEL] Williams, N., "On the Use of Channel Bindings to

               Secure Channels", RFC 5056, November 2007.

[CHANNEL-TLS] Altman, J., Williams, N., and L. Zhu, "Channel

               Bindings for TLS", RFC 5929, July 2010.

[CHARSETS] Alvestrand, H., "IETF Policy on Character Sets and

               Languages", BCP 18, RFC 2277, January 1998.

[DNS-CONCEPTS] Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - concepts and

               facilities", STD 13, RFC 1034, November 1987.

[DNS-SRV] Gulbrandsen, A., Vixie, P., and L. Esibov, "A DNS RR

               for specifying the location of services (DNS SRV)",

               RFC 2782, February 2000.

[IPv6-ADDR] Kawamura, S. and M. Kawashima, "A Recommendation for

               IPv6 Address Text Representation", RFC 5952,

               August 2010.

[KEYWORDS] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate

               Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

[LANGMATCH] Phillips, A. and M. Davis, "Matching of Language

               Tags", BCP 47, RFC 4647, September 2006.

[LANGTAGS] Phillips, A. and M. Davis, "Tags for Identifying

               Languages", BCP 47, RFC 5646, September 2009.

[OCSP] Myers, M., Ankney, R., Malpani, A., Galperin, S., and

               C. Adams, "X.509 Internet Public Key Infrastructure

               Online Certificate Status Protocol - OCSP", RFC 2560,

               June 1999.

[PKIX] Cooper, D., Santesson, S., Farrell, S., Boeyen, S.,

               Housley, R., and W. Polk, "Internet X.509 Public Key

               Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation

               List (CRL) Profile", RFC 5280, May 2008.

Saint-Andre Standards Track [Page 181]

RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

[PKIX-ALGO] Jonsson, J. and B. Kaliski, "Public-Key Cryptography

               Standards (PKCS) #1: RSA Cryptography Specifications

               Version 2.1", RFC 3447, February 2003.

[PKIX-SRV] Santesson, S., "Internet X.509 Public Key

               Infrastructure Subject Alternative Name for

               Expression of Service Name", RFC 4985, August 2007.

[PLAIN] Zeilenga, K., "The PLAIN Simple Authentication and

               Security Layer (SASL) Mechanism", RFC 4616,

               August 2006.

[RANDOM] Eastlake, D., Schiller, J., and S. Crocker,

               "Randomness Requirements for Security", BCP 106,

               RFC 4086, June 2005.

[SASL] Melnikov, A. and K. Zeilenga, "Simple Authentication

               and Security Layer (SASL)", RFC 4422, June 2006.

[SCRAM] Newman, C., Menon-Sen, A., Melnikov, A., and N.

               Williams, "Salted Challenge Response Authentication

               Mechanism (SCRAM) SASL and GSS-API Mechanisms",

               RFC 5802, July 2010.

[STRONGSEC] Schiller, J., "Strong Security Requirements for

               Internet Engineering Task Force Standard Protocols",

               BCP 61, RFC 3365, August 2002.

[TCP] Postel, J., "Transmission Control Protocol", STD 7,

               RFC 793, September 1981.

[TLS] Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla, "The Transport Layer

               Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2", RFC 5246,

               August 2008.

[TLS-CERTS] Saint-Andre, P. and J. Hodges, "Representation and

               Verification of Domain-Based Application Service

               Identity within Internet Public Key Infrastructure

               Using X.509 (PKIX) Certificates in the Context of

               Transport Layer Security (TLS)", RFC 6125,

               March 2011.

[TLS-NEG] Rescorla, E., Ray, M., Dispensa, S., and N. Oskov,

               "Transport Layer Security (TLS) Renegotiation

               Indication Extension", RFC 5746, February 2010.

[TLS-SSL2] Turner, S. and T. Polk, "Prohibiting Secure Sockets

               Layer (SSL) Version 2.0", RFC 6176, March 2011.

Saint-Andre Standards Track [Page 182]

RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

[UCS2] International Organization for Standardization,

               "Information Technology - Universal Multiple-octet

               coded Character Set (UCS) - Amendment 2: UCS

               Transformation Format 8 (UTF-8)", ISO Standard

               10646-1 Addendum 2, October 1996.

[UNICODE] The Unicode Consortium, "The Unicode Standard,

               Version 6.0", 2010,

               <http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode6.0.0/>.

[UTF-8] Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO

               10646", STD 63, RFC 3629, November 2003.

[URI] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter,

               "Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax",

               STD 66, RFC 3986, January 2005.

[X509] International Telecommunications Union, "Information

               technology - Open Systems Interconnection - The

               Directory: Public-key and attribute certificate

               frameworks", ITU-T Recommendation X.509, ISO Standard

               9594-8, March 2000.

[XML] Maler, E., Yergeau, F., Sperberg-McQueen, C., Paoli,

               J., and T. Bray, "Extensible Markup Language (XML)

               1.0 (Fifth Edition)", World Wide Web Consortium

               Recommendation REC-xml-20081126, November 2008,

               <http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-xml-20081126>.

[XML-GUIDE] Hollenbeck, S., Rose, M., and L. Masinter,

               "Guidelines for the Use of Extensible Markup Language

               (XML) within IETF Protocols", BCP 70, RFC 3470,

               January 2003.

[XML-MEDIA] Murata, M., St. Laurent, S., and D. Kohn, "XML Media

               Types", RFC 3023, January 2001.

[XML-NAMES] Thompson, H., Hollander, D., Layman, A., Bray, T.,

               and R. Tobin, "Namespaces in XML 1.0 (Third

               Edition)", World Wide Web Consortium

               Recommendation REC-xml-names-20091208, December 2009,

               <http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/REC-xml-names-20091208>.

[XMPP-ADDR] Saint-Andre, P., "Extensible Messaging and Presence

               Protocol (XMPP): Address Format", RFC 6122,

               March 2011.

Saint-Andre Standards Track [Page 183]

RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

[XMPP-IM] Saint-Andre, P., "Extensible Messaging and Presence

               Protocol (XMPP): Instant Messaging and Presence",

               RFC 6121, March 2011.

16.2. Informative References

[AAA] Housley, R. and B. Aboba, "Guidance for

               Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA)

               Key Management", BCP 132, RFC 4962, July 2007.

[ABNF] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax

               Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234,

               January 2008.

[ACAP] Newman, C. and J. Myers, "ACAP -- Application

               Configuration Access Protocol", RFC 2244,

               November 1997.

[ANONYMOUS] Zeilenga, K., "Anonymous Simple Authentication and

               Security Layer (SASL) Mechanism", RFC 4505,

               June 2006.

[ASN.1] CCITT, "Recommendation X.208: Specification of

               Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1)", 1988.

[DIGEST-MD5] Leach, P. and C. Newman, "Using Digest Authentication

               as a SASL Mechanism", RFC 2831, May 2000.

[DNSSEC] Arends, R., Austein, R., Larson, M., Massey, D., and

               S. Rose, "DNS Security Introduction and

               Requirements", RFC 4033, March 2005.

[DNS-TXT] Rosenbaum, R., "Using the Domain Name System To Store

               Arbitrary String Attributes", RFC 1464, May 1993.

[DOS] Handley, M., Rescorla, E., and IAB, "Internet Denial-

               of-Service Considerations", RFC 4732, December 2006.

[E2E-REQS] Saint-Andre, P., "Requirements for End-to-End

               Encryption in the Extensible Messaging and Presence

               Protocol (XMPP)", Work in Progress, March 2010.

[EMAIL-ARCH] Crocker, D., "Internet Mail Architecture", RFC 5598,

               July 2009.

Saint-Andre Standards Track [Page 184]

RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

[ETHERNET] "Information technology - Telecommunications and

               information exchange between systems - Local and

               metropolitan area networks - Specific requirements -

               Part 3: Carrier sense multiple access with collision

               detection (CSMA/CD) access method and physical layer

               specifications", IEEE Standard 802.3, September 1998.

[GSS-API] Linn, J., "Generic Security Service Application

               Program Interface Version 2, Update 1", RFC 2743,

               January 2000.

[HASHES] Hoffman, P. and B. Schneier, "Attacks on

               Cryptographic Hashes in Internet Protocols",

               RFC 4270, November 2005.

[HTTP] Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Frystyk, H.,

               Masinter, L., Leach, P., and T. Berners-Lee,

               "Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1", RFC 2616,

               June 1999.

[IANA-GUIDE] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing

               an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26,

               RFC 5226, May 2008.

[IANA-PORTS] Cotton, M., Eggert, L., Touch, J., Westerlund, M.,

               and S. Cheshire, "Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

               (IANA) Procedures for the Management of the Transport

               Protocol Port Number and Service Name Registry", Work

               in Progress, February 2011.

[IMAP] Crispin, M., "INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL -

               VERSION 4rev1", RFC 3501, March 2003.

[IMP-REQS] Day, M., Aggarwal, S., and J. Vincent, "Instant

               Messaging / Presence Protocol Requirements",

               RFC 2779, February 2000.

[INTEROP] Masinter, L., "Formalizing IETF Interoperability

               Reporting", Work in Progress, October 2005.

[IRC] Kalt, C., "Internet Relay Chat: Architecture",

               RFC 2810, April 2000.

[IRI] Duerst, M. and M. Suignard, "Internationalized

               Resource Identifiers (IRIs)", RFC 3987, January 2005.

Saint-Andre Standards Track [Page 185]

RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

[LDAP] Zeilenga, K., "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol

               (LDAP): Technical Specification Road Map", RFC 4510,

               June 2006.

[LINKLOCAL] Cheshire, S., Aboba, B., and E. Guttman, "Dynamic

               Configuration of IPv4 Link-Local Addresses",

               RFC 3927, May 2005.

[MAILBOXES] Crocker, D., "MAILBOX NAMES FOR COMMON SERVICES,

               ROLES AND FUNCTIONS", RFC 2142, May 1997.

[POP3] Myers, J. and M. Rose, "Post Office Protocol -

               Version 3", STD 53, RFC 1939, May 1996.

[PROCESS] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process --

               Revision 3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.

[REPORTS] Dusseault, L. and R. Sparks, "Guidance on

               Interoperation and Implementation Reports for

               Advancement to Draft Standard", BCP 9, RFC 5657,

               September 2009.

[REST] Fielding, R., "Architectural Styles and the Design of

               Network-based Software Architectures",  2000.

[RFC3920] Saint-Andre, P., Ed., "Extensible Messaging and

               Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core", RFC 3920,

               October 2004.

[RFC3921] Saint-Andre, P., Ed., "Extensible Messaging and

               Presence Protocol (XMPP): Instant Messaging and

               Presence", RFC 3921, October 2004.

[SASLPREP] Zeilenga, K., "SASLprep: Stringprep Profile for User

               Names and Passwords", RFC 4013, February 2005.

[SEC-TERMS] Shirey, R., "Internet Security Glossary, Version 2",

               RFC 4949, August 2007.

[SMTP] Klensin, J., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol",

               RFC 5321, October 2008.

[SEC-GUIDE] Rescorla, E. and B. Korver, "Guidelines for Writing

               RFC Text on Security Considerations", BCP 72,

               RFC 3552, July 2003.

Saint-Andre Standards Track [Page 186]

RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

[TLS-EXT] Eastlake 3rd, D., "Transport Layer Security (TLS)

               Extensions: Extension Definitions", RFC 6066,

               January 2011.

[TLS-RESUME] Salowey, J., Zhou, H., Eronen, P., and H. Tschofenig,

               "Transport Layer Security (TLS) Session Resumption

               without Server-Side State", RFC 5077, January 2008.

[URN-OID] Mealling, M., "A URN Namespace of Object

               Identifiers", RFC 3061, February 2001.

[USINGTLS] Newman, C., "Using TLS with IMAP, POP3 and ACAP",

               RFC 2595, June 1999.

[UUID] Leach, P., Mealling, M., and R. Salz, "A Universally

               Unique IDentifier (UUID) URN Namespace", RFC 4122,

               July 2005.

[XEP-0001] Saint-Andre, P., "XMPP Extension Protocols", XSF

               XEP 0001, March 2010.

[XEP-0016] Millard, P. and P. Saint-Andre, "Privacy Lists", XSF

               XEP 0016, February 2007.

[XEP-0045] Saint-Andre, P., "Multi-User Chat", XSF XEP 0045,

               July 2007.

[XEP-0060] Millard, P., Saint-Andre, P., and R. Meijer,

               "Publish-Subscribe", XSF XEP 0060, July 2010.

[XEP-0071] Saint-Andre, P., "XHTML-IM", XSF XEP 0071,

               September 2008.

[XEP-0077] Saint-Andre, P., "In-Band Registration", XSF

               XEP 0077, September 2009.

[XEP-0086] Norris, R. and P. Saint-Andre, "Error Condition

               Mappings", XSF XEP 0086, February 2004.

[XEP-0100] Saint-Andre, P. and D. Smith, "Gateway Interaction",

               XSF XEP 0100, October 2005.

[XEP-0114] Saint-Andre, P., "Jabber Component Protocol", XSF

               XEP 0114, March 2005.

[XEP-0124] Paterson, I., Smith, D., and P. Saint-Andre,

               "Bidirectional-streams Over Synchronous HTTP (BOSH)",

               XSF XEP 0124, July 2010.

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

[XEP-0138] Hildebrand, J. and P. Saint-Andre, "Stream

               Compression", XSF XEP 0138, May 2009.

[XEP-0156] Hildebrand, J. and P. Saint-Andre, "Discovering

               Alternative XMPP Connection Methods", XSF XEP 0156,

               June 2007.

[XEP-0160] Saint-Andre, P., "Best Practices for Handling Offline

               Messages", XSF XEP 0160, January 2006.

[XEP-0174] Saint-Andre, P., "Link-Local Messaging", XSF

               XEP 0174, November 2008.

[XEP-0175] Saint-Andre, P., "Best Practices for Use of SASL

               ANONYMOUS", XSF XEP 0175, September 2009.

[XEP-0178] Saint-Andre, P. and P. Millard, "Best Practices for

               Use of SASL EXTERNAL with Certificates", XSF

               XEP 0178, February 2007.

[XEP-0191] Saint-Andre, P., "Simple Communications Blocking",

               XSF XEP 0191, February 2007.

[XEP-0198] Karneges, J., Hildebrand, J., Saint-Andre, P., Forno,

               F., Cridland, D., and M. Wild, "Stream Management",

               XSF XEP 0198, February 2011.

[XEP-0199] Saint-Andre, P., "XMPP Ping", XSF XEP 0199,

               June 2009.

[XEP-0205] Saint-Andre, P., "Best Practices to Discourage Denial

               of Service Attacks", XSF XEP 0205, January 2009.

[XEP-0206] Paterson, I. and P. Saint-Andre, "XMPP Over BOSH",

               XSF XEP 0206, July 2010.

[XEP-0220] Miller, J., Saint-Andre, P., and P. Hancke, "Server

               Dialback", XSF XEP 0220, March 2010.

[XEP-0225] Saint-Andre, P., "Component Connections", XSF

               XEP 0225, October 2008.

[XEP-0233] Miller, M., Saint-Andre, P., and J. Hildebrand,

               "Domain-Based Service Names in XMPP SASL

               Negotiation", XSF XEP 0233, June 2010.

[XEP-0288] Hancke, P. and D. Cridland, "Bidirectional Server-to-

               Server Connections", XSF XEP 0288, October 2010.

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

[XML-FRAG] Grosso, P. and D. Veillard, "XML Fragment

               Interchange", World Wide Web Consortium CR CR-xml-

               fragment-20010212, February 2001,

               <http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/CR-xml-fragment-20010212>.

[XML-REG] Mealling, M., "The IETF XML Registry", BCP 81,

               RFC 3688, January 2004.

[XML-SCHEMA] Thompson, H., Maloney, M., Mendelsohn, N., and D.

               Beech, "XML Schema Part 1: Structures Second

               Edition", World Wide Web Consortium

               Recommendation REC-xmlschema-1-20041028,

               October 2004,

               <http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xmlschema-1-20041028>.

[XMPP-URI] Saint-Andre, P., "Internationalized Resource

               Identifiers (IRIs) and Uniform Resource Identifiers

               (URIs) for the Extensible Messaging and Presence

               Protocol (XMPP)", RFC 5122, February 2008.

Saint-Andre Standards Track [Page 189]

RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

Appendix A. XML Schemas

The following schemas formally define various namespaces used in this

document, in conformance with [XML-SCHEMA]. Because validation of

XML streams and stanzas is optional, these schemas are not normative

and are provided for descriptive purposes only.

A.1. Stream Namespace

<xs:schema

   xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'

   targetNamespace='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'

   xmlns='http://etherx.jabber.org/streams'

   elementFormDefault='unqualified'>

 <xs:import namespace='jabber:client'/>

 <xs:import namespace='jabber:server'/>

 <xs:import namespace='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'/>

 <xs:import namespace='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'/>

 <xs:import namespace='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-tls'/>

 <xs:element name='stream'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:sequence xmlns:client='jabber:client'

                  xmlns:server='jabber:server'>

       <xs:element ref='features'

                   minOccurs='0'

                   maxOccurs='1'/>

       <xs:any namespace='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-tls'

               minOccurs='0'

               maxOccurs='1'/>

       <xs:any namespace='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'

               minOccurs='0'

               maxOccurs='1'/>

       <xs:any namespace='##other'

               minOccurs='0'

               maxOccurs='unbounded'

               processContents='lax'/>

       <xs:choice minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='1'>

         <xs:choice minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='unbounded'>

           <xs:element ref='client:message'/>

           <xs:element ref='client:presence'/>

           <xs:element ref='client:iq'/>

         </xs:choice>

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         <xs:choice minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='unbounded'>

           <xs:element ref='server:message'/>

           <xs:element ref='server:presence'/>

           <xs:element ref='server:iq'/>

         </xs:choice>

       </xs:choice>

       <xs:element ref='error' minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='1'/>

     </xs:sequence>

     <xs:attribute name='from' type='xs:string' use='optional'/>

     <xs:attribute name='id' type='xs:string' use='optional'/>

     <xs:attribute name='to' type='xs:string' use='optional'/>

     <xs:attribute name='version' type='xs:decimal' use='optional'/>

     <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>

     <xs:anyAttribute namespace='##other' processContents='lax'/>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='features'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:sequence>

       <xs:any namespace='##other'

               minOccurs='0'

               maxOccurs='unbounded'

               processContents='lax'/>

     </xs:sequence>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='error'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:sequence  xmlns:err='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'>

       <xs:group   ref='err:streamErrorGroup'/>

       <xs:element ref='err:text'

                   minOccurs='0'

                   maxOccurs='1'/>

       <xs:any     namespace='##other'

                   minOccurs='0'

                   maxOccurs='1'

                   processContents='lax'/>

     </xs:sequence>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

</xs:schema>

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A.2. Stream Error Namespace

<xs:schema

   xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'

   targetNamespace='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'

   xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-streams'

   elementFormDefault='qualified'>

 <xs:element name='bad-format' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='bad-namespace-prefix' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='conflict' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='connection-timeout' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='host-gone' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='host-unknown' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='improper-addressing' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='internal-server-error' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='invalid-from' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='invalid-id' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='invalid-namespace' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='invalid-xml' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='not-authorized' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='not-well-formed' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='policy-violation' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='remote-connection-failed' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='reset' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='resource-constraint' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='restricted-xml' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='see-other-host' type='xs:string'/>

 <xs:element name='system-shutdown' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='undefined-condition' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='unsupported-encoding' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='unsupported-stanza-type' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='unsupported-version' type='empty'/>

 <xs:group name='streamErrorGroup'>

   <xs:choice>

     <xs:element ref='bad-format'/>

     <xs:element ref='bad-namespace-prefix'/>

     <xs:element ref='conflict'/>

     <xs:element ref='connection-timeout'/>

     <xs:element ref='host-gone'/>

     <xs:element ref='host-unknown'/>

     <xs:element ref='improper-addressing'/>

     <xs:element ref='internal-server-error'/>

     <xs:element ref='invalid-from'/>

     <xs:element ref='invalid-id'/>

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     <xs:element ref='invalid-namespace'/>

     <xs:element ref='invalid-xml'/>

     <xs:element ref='not-authorized'/>

     <xs:element ref='not-well-formed'/>

     <xs:element ref='policy-violation'/>

     <xs:element ref='remote-connection-failed'/>

     <xs:element ref='reset'/>

     <xs:element ref='resource-constraint'/>

     <xs:element ref='restricted-xml'/>

     <xs:element ref='see-other-host'/>

     <xs:element ref='system-shutdown'/>

     <xs:element ref='undefined-condition'/>

     <xs:element ref='unsupported-encoding'/>

     <xs:element ref='unsupported-stanza-type'/>

     <xs:element ref='unsupported-version'/>

   </xs:choice>

 </xs:group>

 <xs:element name='text'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:simpleContent>

       <xs:extension base='xs:string'>

         <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>

       </xs:extension>

     </xs:simpleContent>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:simpleType name='empty'>

   <xs:restriction base='xs:string'>

     <xs:enumeration value=''/>

   </xs:restriction>

 </xs:simpleType>

</xs:schema>

A.3. STARTTLS Namespace

<xs:schema

   xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'

   targetNamespace='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-tls'

   xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-tls'

   elementFormDefault='qualified'>

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 <xs:element name='starttls'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:choice minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='1'>

       <xs:element name='required' type='empty'/>

     </xs:choice>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='proceed' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='failure' type='empty'/>

 <xs:simpleType name='empty'>

   <xs:restriction base='xs:string'>

     <xs:enumeration value=''/>

   </xs:restriction>

 </xs:simpleType>

</xs:schema>

A.4. SASL Namespace

<xs:schema

   xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'

   targetNamespace='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'

   xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-sasl'

   elementFormDefault='qualified'>

 <xs:element name='mechanisms'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:sequence>

       <xs:element name='mechanism'

                   minOccurs='1'

                   maxOccurs='unbounded'

                   type='xs:NMTOKEN'/>

       <xs:any namespace='##other'

               minOccurs='0'

               maxOccurs='unbounded'

               processContents='lax'/>

     </xs:sequence>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='abort' type='empty'/>

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

 <xs:element name='auth'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:simpleContent>

       <xs:extension base='xs:string'>

         <xs:attribute name='mechanism'

                       type='xs:NMTOKEN'

                       use='required'/>

       </xs:extension>

     </xs:simpleContent>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='challenge' type='xs:string'/>

 <xs:element name='response' type='xs:string'/>

 <xs:element name='success' type='xs:string'/>

 <xs:element name='failure'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:sequence>

       <xs:choice minOccurs='0'>

         <xs:element name='aborted' type='empty'/>

         <xs:element name='account-disabled' type='empty'/>

         <xs:element name='credentials-expired' type='empty'/>

         <xs:element name='encryption-required' type='empty'/>

         <xs:element name='incorrect-encoding' type='empty'/>

         <xs:element name='invalid-authzid' type='empty'/>

         <xs:element name='invalid-mechanism' type='empty'/>

         <xs:element name='malformed-request' type='empty'/>

         <xs:element name='mechanism-too-weak' type='empty'/>

         <xs:element name='not-authorized' type='empty'/>

         <xs:element name='temporary-auth-failure' type='empty'/>

       </xs:choice>

       <xs:element ref='text' minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='1'/>

     </xs:sequence>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='text'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:simpleContent>

       <xs:extension base='xs:string'>

         <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>

       </xs:extension>

     </xs:simpleContent>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

 <xs:simpleType name='empty'>

   <xs:restriction base='xs:string'>

     <xs:enumeration value=''/>

   </xs:restriction>

 </xs:simpleType>

</xs:schema>

A.5. Client Namespace

<xs:schema

   xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'

   targetNamespace='jabber:client'

   xmlns='jabber:client'

   elementFormDefault='qualified'>

 <xs:import

     namespace='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

 <xs:element name='message'>

    <xs:complexType>

       <xs:sequence>

         <xs:choice minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='unbounded'>

           <xs:element ref='subject'/>

           <xs:element ref='body'/>

           <xs:element ref='thread'/>

         </xs:choice>

         <xs:any     namespace='##other'

                     minOccurs='0'

                     maxOccurs='unbounded'

                     processContents='lax'/>

         <xs:element ref='error'

                     minOccurs='0'/>

       </xs:sequence>

       <xs:attribute name='from'

                     type='xs:string'

                     use='optional'/>

       <xs:attribute name='id'

                     type='xs:NMTOKEN'

                     use='optional'/>

       <xs:attribute name='to'

                     type='xs:string'

                     use='optional'/>

       <xs:attribute name='type'

                     use='optional'

                     default='normal'>

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

         <xs:simpleType>

           <xs:restriction base='xs:NMTOKEN'>

             <xs:enumeration value='chat'/>

             <xs:enumeration value='error'/>

             <xs:enumeration value='groupchat'/>

             <xs:enumeration value='headline'/>

             <xs:enumeration value='normal'/>

           </xs:restriction>

         </xs:simpleType>

       </xs:attribute>

       <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>

    </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='body'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:simpleContent>

       <xs:extension base='xs:string'>

         <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>

       </xs:extension>

     </xs:simpleContent>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='subject'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:simpleContent>

       <xs:extension base='xs:string'>

         <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>

       </xs:extension>

     </xs:simpleContent>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='thread'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:simpleContent>

       <xs:extension base='xs:NMTOKEN'>

         <xs:attribute name='parent'

                       type='xs:NMTOKEN'

                       use='optional'/>

       </xs:extension>

     </xs:simpleContent>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

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 <xs:element name='presence'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:sequence>

       <xs:choice minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='unbounded'>

         <xs:element ref='show'/>

         <xs:element ref='status'/>

         <xs:element ref='priority'/>

       </xs:choice>

       <xs:any     namespace='##other'

                   minOccurs='0'

                   maxOccurs='unbounded'

                   processContents='lax'/>

       <xs:element ref='error'

                   minOccurs='0'/>

     </xs:sequence>

     <xs:attribute name='from'

                   type='xs:string'

                   use='optional'/>

     <xs:attribute name='id'

                   type='xs:NMTOKEN'

                   use='optional'/>

     <xs:attribute name='to'

                   type='xs:string'

                   use='optional'/>

     <xs:attribute name='type' use='optional'>

       <xs:simpleType>

         <xs:restriction base='xs:NMTOKEN'>

           <xs:enumeration value='error'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='probe'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='subscribe'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='subscribed'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='unavailable'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='unsubscribe'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='unsubscribed'/>

         </xs:restriction>

       </xs:simpleType>

     </xs:attribute>

     <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

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 <xs:element name='show'>

   <xs:simpleType>

     <xs:restriction base='xs:NMTOKEN'>

       <xs:enumeration value='away'/>

       <xs:enumeration value='chat'/>

       <xs:enumeration value='dnd'/>

       <xs:enumeration value='xa'/>

     </xs:restriction>

   </xs:simpleType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='status'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:simpleContent>

       <xs:extension base='string1024'>

         <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>

       </xs:extension>

     </xs:simpleContent>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:simpleType name='string1024'>

   <xs:restriction base='xs:string'>

     <xs:minLength value='1'/>

     <xs:maxLength value='1024'/>

   </xs:restriction>

 </xs:simpleType>

 <xs:element name='priority' type='xs:byte'/>

 <xs:element name='iq'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:sequence>

       <xs:any     namespace='##other'

                   minOccurs='0'

                   maxOccurs='1'

                   processContents='lax'/>

       <xs:element ref='error'

                   minOccurs='0'/>

     </xs:sequence>

     <xs:attribute name='from'

                   type='xs:string'

                   use='optional'/>

     <xs:attribute name='id'

                   type='xs:NMTOKEN'

                   use='required'/>

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     <xs:attribute name='to'

                   type='xs:string'

                   use='optional'/>

     <xs:attribute name='type' use='required'>

       <xs:simpleType>

         <xs:restriction base='xs:NMTOKEN'>

           <xs:enumeration value='error'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='get'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='result'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='set'/>

         </xs:restriction>

       </xs:simpleType>

     </xs:attribute>

     <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='error'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:sequence xmlns:err='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'>

       <xs:group ref='err:stanzaErrorGroup'/>

       <xs:element ref='err:text'

                   minOccurs='0'/>

     </xs:sequence>

     <xs:attribute name='by'

                   type='xs:string'

                   use='optional'/>

     <xs:attribute name='type' use='required'>

       <xs:simpleType>

         <xs:restriction base='xs:NMTOKEN'>

           <xs:enumeration value='auth'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='cancel'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='continue'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='modify'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='wait'/>

         </xs:restriction>

       </xs:simpleType>

     </xs:attribute>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

</xs:schema>

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A.6. Server Namespace

<xs:schema

   xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'

   targetNamespace='jabber:server'

   xmlns='jabber:server'

   elementFormDefault='qualified'>

 <xs:import

     namespace='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'/>

 <xs:element name='message'>

    <xs:complexType>

       <xs:sequence>

         <xs:choice minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='unbounded'>

           <xs:element ref='subject'/>

           <xs:element ref='body'/>

           <xs:element ref='thread'/>

         </xs:choice>

         <xs:any namespace='##other'

                 minOccurs='0'

                 maxOccurs='unbounded'

                 processContents='lax'/>

         <xs:element ref='error'

                     minOccurs='0'/>

       </xs:sequence>

       <xs:attribute name='from'

                     type='xs:string'

                     use='required'/>

       <xs:attribute name='id'

                     type='xs:NMTOKEN'

                     use='optional'/>

       <xs:attribute name='to'

                     type='xs:string'

                     use='required'/>

       <xs:attribute name='type'

                     use='optional'

                     default='normal'>

         <xs:simpleType>

           <xs:restriction base='xs:NMTOKEN'>

             <xs:enumeration value='chat'/>

             <xs:enumeration value='error'/>

             <xs:enumeration value='groupchat'/>

             <xs:enumeration value='headline'/>

             <xs:enumeration value='normal'/>

           </xs:restriction>

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

         </xs:simpleType>

       </xs:attribute>

       <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>

    </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='body'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:simpleContent>

       <xs:extension base='xs:string'>

         <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>

       </xs:extension>

     </xs:simpleContent>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='subject'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:simpleContent>

       <xs:extension base='xs:string'>

         <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>

       </xs:extension>

     </xs:simpleContent>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='thread'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:simpleContent>

       <xs:extension base='xs:NMTOKEN'>

         <xs:attribute name='parent'

                       type='xs:NMTOKEN'

                       use='optional'/>

       </xs:extension>

     </xs:simpleContent>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

 <xs:element name='subject'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:simpleContent>

       <xs:extension base='xs:NMTOKEN'>

         <xs:attribute name='parent'

                       type='xs:NMTOKEN'

                       use='optional'/>

       </xs:extension>

     </xs:simpleContent>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='presence'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:sequence>

       <xs:choice minOccurs='0' maxOccurs='unbounded'>

         <xs:element ref='show'/>

         <xs:element ref='status'/>

         <xs:element ref='priority'/>

       </xs:choice>

       <xs:any     namespace='##other'

                   minOccurs='0'

                   maxOccurs='unbounded'

                   processContents='lax'/>

       <xs:element ref='error'

                   minOccurs='0'/>

     </xs:sequence>

     <xs:attribute name='from'

                   type='xs:string'

                   use='required'/>

     <xs:attribute name='id'

                   type='xs:NMTOKEN'

                   use='optional'/>

     <xs:attribute name='to'

                   type='xs:string'

                   use='required'/>

     <xs:attribute name='type' use='optional'>

       <xs:simpleType>

         <xs:restriction base='xs:NMTOKEN'>

           <xs:enumeration value='error'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='probe'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='subscribe'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='subscribed'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='unavailable'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='unsubscribe'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='unsubscribed'/>

         </xs:restriction>

       </xs:simpleType>

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

     </xs:attribute>

     <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='show'>

   <xs:simpleType>

     <xs:restriction base='xs:NMTOKEN'>

       <xs:enumeration value='away'/>

       <xs:enumeration value='chat'/>

       <xs:enumeration value='dnd'/>

       <xs:enumeration value='xa'/>

     </xs:restriction>

   </xs:simpleType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='status'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:simpleContent>

       <xs:extension base='string1024'>

         <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>

       </xs:extension>

     </xs:simpleContent>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:simpleType name='string1024'>

   <xs:restriction base='xs:string'>

     <xs:minLength value='1'/>

     <xs:maxLength value='1024'/>

   </xs:restriction>

 </xs:simpleType>

 <xs:element name='priority' type='xs:byte' default='0'/>

 <xs:element name='iq'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:sequence>

       <xs:any namespace='##other'

               minOccurs='0'

               maxOccurs='1'

               processContents='lax'/>

       <xs:element ref='error'

                   minOccurs='0'/>

     </xs:sequence>

     <xs:attribute name='from'

                   type='xs:string'

                   use='required'/>

Saint-Andre Standards Track [Page 204]

RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

     <xs:attribute name='id'

                   type='xs:NMTOKEN'

                   use='required'/>

     <xs:attribute name='to'

                   type='xs:string'

                   use='required'/>

     <xs:attribute name='type' use='required'>

       <xs:simpleType>

         <xs:restriction base='xs:NMTOKEN'>

           <xs:enumeration value='error'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='get'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='result'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='set'/>

         </xs:restriction>

       </xs:simpleType>

     </xs:attribute>

     <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:element name='error'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:sequence xmlns:err='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'>

       <xs:group ref='err:stanzaErrorGroup'/>

       <xs:element ref='err:text'

                   minOccurs='0'/>

     </xs:sequence>

     <xs:attribute name='by'

                   type='xs:string'

                   use='optional'/>

     <xs:attribute name='type' use='required'>

       <xs:simpleType>

         <xs:restriction base='xs:NMTOKEN'>

           <xs:enumeration value='auth'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='cancel'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='continue'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='modify'/>

           <xs:enumeration value='wait'/>

         </xs:restriction>

       </xs:simpleType>

     </xs:attribute>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

</xs:schema>

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A.7. Resource Binding Namespace

<xs:schema

   xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'

   targetNamespace='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'

   xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-bind'

   elementFormDefault='qualified'>

 <xs:element name='bind'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:choice>

       <xs:element name='resource' type='resourceType'/>

       <xs:element name='jid' type='fullJIDType'/>

     </xs:choice>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:simpleType name='fullJIDType'>

   <xs:restriction base='xs:string'>

     <xs:minLength value='8'/>

     <xs:maxLength value='3071'/>

   </xs:restriction>

 </xs:simpleType>

 <xs:simpleType name='resourceType'>

   <xs:restriction base='xs:string'>

     <xs:minLength value='1'/>

     <xs:maxLength value='1023'/>

   </xs:restriction>

 </xs:simpleType>

</xs:schema>

A.8. Stanza Error Namespace

<xs:schema

   xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'

   targetNamespace='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'

   xmlns='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xmpp-stanzas'

   elementFormDefault='qualified'>

 <xs:element name='bad-request' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='conflict' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='feature-not-implemented' type='empty'/>

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

 <xs:element name='forbidden' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='gone' type='xs:string'/>

 <xs:element name='internal-server-error' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='item-not-found' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='jid-malformed' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='not-acceptable' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='not-allowed' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='not-authorized' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='policy-violation' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='recipient-unavailable' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='redirect' type='xs:string'/>

 <xs:element name='registration-required' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='remote-server-not-found' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='remote-server-timeout' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='resource-constraint' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='service-unavailable' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='subscription-required' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='undefined-condition' type='empty'/>

 <xs:element name='unexpected-request' type='empty'/>

 <xs:group name='stanzaErrorGroup'>

   <xs:choice>

     <xs:element ref='bad-request'/>

     <xs:element ref='conflict'/>

     <xs:element ref='feature-not-implemented'/>

     <xs:element ref='forbidden'/>

     <xs:element ref='gone'/>

     <xs:element ref='internal-server-error'/>

     <xs:element ref='item-not-found'/>

     <xs:element ref='jid-malformed'/>

     <xs:element ref='not-acceptable'/>

     <xs:element ref='not-authorized'/>

     <xs:element ref='not-allowed'/>

     <xs:element ref='policy-violation'/>

     <xs:element ref='recipient-unavailable'/>

     <xs:element ref='redirect'/>

     <xs:element ref='registration-required'/>

     <xs:element ref='remote-server-not-found'/>

     <xs:element ref='remote-server-timeout'/>

     <xs:element ref='resource-constraint'/>

     <xs:element ref='service-unavailable'/>

     <xs:element ref='subscription-required'/>

     <xs:element ref='undefined-condition'/>

     <xs:element ref='unexpected-request'/>

   </xs:choice>

 </xs:group>

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

 <xs:element name='text'>

   <xs:complexType>

     <xs:simpleContent>

       <xs:extension base='xs:string'>

         <xs:attribute ref='xml:lang' use='optional'/>

       </xs:extension>

     </xs:simpleContent>

   </xs:complexType>

 </xs:element>

 <xs:simpleType name='empty'>

   <xs:restriction base='xs:string'>

     <xs:enumeration value=''/>

   </xs:restriction>

 </xs:simpleType>

</xs:schema>

Appendix B. Contact Addresses

Consistent with [MAILBOXES], organization that offer XMPP services

are encouraged to provide an Internet mailbox of "XMPP" for inquiries

related to that service, where the host portion of the resulting

mailto URI is the organization's domain, not the domain of the XMPP

service itself (e.g., the XMPP service might be offered at

im.example.com but the Internet mailbox would be xmpp@example.com).

Appendix C. Account Provisioning

Account provisioning is out of scope for this specification.

Possible methods for account provisioning include account creation by

a server administrator and in-band account registration using the

'jabber:iq:register' namespace as documented in [XEP-0077]. An XMPP

server implementation or administrative function MUST ensure that any

JID assigned during account provisioning (including localpart,

domainpart, resourcepart, and separator characters) conforms to the

canonical format for XMPP addresses defined in [XMPP-ADDR].

Appendix D. Differences from RFC 3920

Based on consensus derived from implementation and deployment

experience as well as formal interoperability testing, the following

substantive modifications were made from RFC 3920 (in addition to

numerous changes of an editorial nature).

o Moved specification of the XMPP address format to a separate

  document.

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RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

o Recommended or mandated use of the 'from' and 'to' attributes on

  stream headers.

o More fully specified the stream closing handshake.

o Specified the recommended stream reconnection algorithm.

o Changed the name of the stream error

  condition to <not-well-formed/> for compliance with the XML

  specification.

o Removed the unnecessary and unused stream error (see

  RFC 3920 for historical documentation).

o Specified return of the stream error in response

  to receipt of prohibited XML features.

o More completely specified the format and handling of the <see-

  other-host/> stream error, including consistency with RFC 3986 and

  RFC 5952 with regard to IPv6 addresses (e.g., enclosing the IPv6

  address in square brackets '[' and ']').

o Specified that the SASL SCRAM mechanism is a mandatory-to-

  implement technology for client-to-server streams.

o Specified that TLS plus the SASL PLAIN mechanism is a mandatory-

  to-implement technology for client-to-server streams.

o Specified that support for the SASL EXTERNAL mechanism is required

  for servers but only recommended for clients (since end-user X.509

  certificates are difficult to obtain and not yet widely deployed).

o Removed the hard two-connection rule for server-to-server streams.

o More clearly specified the certificate profile for both public key

  certificates and issuer certificates.

o Added the stream error (Section 4.9.3.16) condition to

  handle expired/revoked certificates or the addition of security-

  critical features to an existing stream.

o Added the , ,

  <encryption-required/>, and <malformed-request/> SASL error

  conditions to handle error flows mistakenly left out of RFC 3920

  or discussed in RFC 4422 but not in RFC 2222.

o Removed the unused stanza error.

Saint-Andre Standards Track [Page 209]

RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

o Removed the unnecessary requirement for escaping of characters

  that map to certain predefined entities, since they do not need to

  be escaped in XML.

o Clarified the process of DNS SRV lookups and fallbacks.

o Clarified the handling of SASL security layers.

o Clarified that a SASL simple user name is the localpart, not the

  bare JID.

o Clarified the stream negotiation process and associated flow

  chart.

o Clarified the handling of stream features.

o Added a 'by' attribute to the element for stanza errors

  so that the entity that has detected the error can include its JID

  for diagnostic or tracking purposes.

o Clarified the handling of data that violates the well-formedness

  definitions for XML 1.0 and XML namespaces.

o Specified the security considerations in more detail, especially

  with regard to presence leaks and denial-of-service attacks.

o Moved documentation of the Server Dialback protocol from this

  specification to a separate specification maintained by the XMPP

  Standards Foundation.

Appendix E. Acknowledgements

This document is an update to, and derived from, RFC 3920. This

document would have been impossible without the work of the

contributors and commenters acknowledged there.

Hundreds of people have provided implementation feedback, bug

reports, requests for clarification, and suggestions for improvement

since publication of RFC 3920. Although the document editor has

endeavored to address all such feedback, he is solely responsible for

any remaining errors and ambiguities.

Special thanks are due to Kevin Smith, Matthew Wild, Dave Cridland,

Philipp Hancke, Waqas Hussain, Florian Zeitz, Ben Campbell, Jehan

Pages, Paul Aurich, Justin Karneges, Kurt Zeilenga, Simon Josefsson,

Ralph Meijer, Curtis King, and others for their comments during

Working Group Last Call.

Saint-Andre Standards Track [Page 210]

RFC 6120 XMPP Core March 2011

Thanks also to Yaron Sheffer and Elwyn Davies for their reviews on

behalf of the Security Directorate and the General Area Review Team,

respectively.

The Working Group chairs were Ben Campbell and Joe Hildebrand. The

responsible Area Director was Gonzalo Camarillo.

Author's Address

Peter Saint-Andre

Cisco

1899 Wyknoop Street, Suite 600

Denver, CO 80202

USA

Phone: +1-303-308-3282

EMail: psaintan@cisco.com

Saint-Andre Standards Track [Page 211]

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