RFC 2957
The application/whoispp-query Content-Type
The application/whoispp-query Content-Type 💖
okay bestie, this is RFC 2957 🎀 It was written by Leslie L. Daigle (Thinking Cat Enterprises) and Patrik Faltstrom (Cisco Systems Inc.) and published in October 2000. It's Informational, so it's not an Internet standard, just useful info for the community ✨ It doesn't list anything it obsoletes or updates, so it's a pretty chill, standalone doc 🧚
Status of This Memo 📋
this memo is here to give the Internet community information 💅 it does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. distribution of this memo is unlimited, so share it with everyone 🦋
Copyright Notice ©️
copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). all rights reserved 💜
Abstract 🌸
this doc defines how Whois++ protocol (RFC 1835) queries get written inside MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) (RFC 2046) media types. the goal, together with RFC 2958, is to let MIME-enabled mail software, and other systems using Internet media types, actually carry out Whois++ transactions. it's giving connection 🔥
1. MIME Registration Information 🎀
ok so here's the registration request that gets sent to IANA. it's literally just a form, but it's serving structure 💅
To: iana@isi.edu
Subject: Registration of MIME media type application/whoispp-query
MIME Type name: Application
MIME subtype name: whoispp-query
Required parameters: none
Optional parameters: none
Encoding considerations: Any valid MIME encodings may be used
Security considerations: This content-type contains purely
descriptive information (i.e., no directives). There are security
considerations with regards to the appropriateness (privacy) of
information provided through the use of this content-type, and the
authenticity of the information so-provided. This content-type
provides no native mechanisms for authentication.
Published specification: this document
Person & email address to contact for further information:
Leslie L. Daigle
leslie@thinkingcat.com
Intended usage: common⚠️ bestie, the security bit matters. this content-type is purely descriptive (no directives), but there are real privacy concerns about what info gets shared through it, and about whether that info is authentic. and there's zero native authentication, so don't assume anything is verified 😭
2. whoispp-query Syntax ✨
this grammar uses BNF-like notation from [RFC2234] to define what counts as valid input to a Whois++ server. so it basically describes what a whoispp-query media type object is supposed to look like 🧚
N.B. (note bene, aka pay attention!!): as the ABNF definition lays out, rule names and string literals are US-ASCII and case-insensitive 🙈
whois-command = ( system-command / terms [":" globalcnstrnts] )
nl
system-command = "constraints" / "describe" / "commands" /
"polled-by" / "polled-for" / "version" / "list" /
"show" [1*sp bytestring] / "help" [1*sp
bytestring] / "?" [bytestring]
terms = and-expr *("or" and-expr)
and-expr = not-expr *("and" not-expr)
not-expr = ["not"] (term / ( "(" terms ")" ))
term = ( generalterm / specificterm / combinedterm )
localcnstrnts
generalterm = bytestring
specificterm = specificname "=" bytestring
specificname = "handle" / "value" / "template"
combinedterm = attributename "=" bytestring
globalcnstrnts = globalcnstrnt *(";" globalcnstrnt)
globalcnstrnt = "format" "=" format / "maxfull" "=" 1*digit /
"maxhits" "=" 1*digit / "case" "=" casevalue /
"search" "=" searchvalue / opt-globalcnst
opt-globalcnst = "authenticate" "=" auth-method / "language" "="
language / "incharset" "=" characterset /
"outcharset" "=" characterset / "ignore" "="
attriblist / "include" "=" attriblist
localcnstrnts = 0*(";" localcnstrnt)
localcnstrnt = "case" "=" casevalue / "search" "=" searchvalue
format = "full" / "abridged" / "handle" / "summary" /
"server-to-ask"
auth-method = bytestring
language = <The language code defined in RFC1766 [ALVE95]>
characterset = "us-ascii" / "iso-8859-1" / "iso-8859-2" / "iso-
8859-3" / "iso-8859-4" / "iso-8859-5" / "iso-
8859-6" / "iso-8859-7" / "iso-8859-8" / "iso-
8859-9" / "iso-8859-10" / "UNICODE-1-1-UTF-8" /
"UNICODE-2-0-UTF-8" "UTF-8"
;"UTF-8" is as defined in [RFC2279]. This is
;the character set label that should be used
;for UTF encoded information; the labels
;"UNICODE-2-0-UTF-8" and "UNICODE-1-1-UTF-8"
;are retained primarily for compatibility with
;older Whois++ servers (and as outlined in
;[RFC2279]).
searchvalue = "exact" / "substring" / "regex" / "fuzzy" /
"lstring"
casevalue = "ignore" / "consider"
bytestring = 0*charbyte
attributename = 1*attrbyte
attriblist = attributename 0*("," attributename)
charbyte = "\" specialbyte / normalbyte
normalbyte = <%d33-255, except specialbyte>
attrbyte = <%d33-127 except specialbyte> /
"\" <specialbyte except
":" " " tab nl>
specialbyte = " " / tab / "=" / "," / ":" / ";" / "\" /
"*" / "." / "(" / ")" /
"[" / "]" / "^" /
"$" / "!" / "?"
tab = %d09
sp = %d32 ; space
digit = "0" / "1" / "2" / "3" / "4" /
"5" / "6" / "7" / "8" /
"9"
nl = %d13 %d10 ; CR LFNOTE: blanks that matter to a query must be escaped. the following characters, when they matter to the query, may be preceded and/or followed by a single blank:
: ; , ( ) = !3. Security Considerations 🔥
security issues are discussed in section 1. go back and re-read it, it's serious 😭
4. References 📚
these are all the refs, with every detail kept 💖
[ALVE95] Alvestrand H., "Tags for the Identification of Languages",
RFC 1766, March 1995.
[RFC2234] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997.
[RFC2958] Daigle, L. and P. Faltstrom, "The application/whoispp-
response Content-type", RFC 2958, October 2000.
[RFC1835] Deutsch, P., Schoultz, R., Faltstrom, P. and C. Weider,
"Architecture of the WHOIS++ service", RFC 1835, August
1995.
[RFC2046] Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types", RFC 2046,
November 1996.
[HARR85] Harrenstein K., Stahl M. and E. Feinler, "NICNAME/WHOIS",
RFC 954, October 1985.
[POST82] Postel J., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", STD 10, RFC
821, August 1982.
[IIIR] Weider C. and P. Deutsch, "A Vision of an Integrated
Internet Information Service", RFC 1727, December 1994.
[WINDX] Weider, C., Fullton, J. and S. Spero, "Architecture of the
Whois++ Index Service", RFC 1913, February 1996.
[RFC2279] Yergeau F., " UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646",
RFC 2279, January 1998.5. Authors' Addresses 🧚
here's how to reach the authors 💌
Leslie L. Daigle
Thinking Cat Enterprises
Email: leslie@thinkingcat.com
Patrik Faltstrom
Cisco Systems Inc
170 W Tasman Drive SJ-13/2
San Jose CA 95134
USA
EMail: paf@cisco.com
URL: http://www.cisco.com6. Full Copyright Statement ⚖️
copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). all rights reserved 💜
ok so the vibe here is: you can copy this document and share it, and you can make derivative works that comment on it, explain it, or help people implement it, as long as the copyright notice and this paragraph stay on every copy and derivative work. but the doc itself can't be modified in any way, like removing the copyright notice or the references to the Internet Society or other Internet orgs. the only exceptions are developing Internet standards (then the Internet Standards process copyright procedures have to be followed) or translating it into languages other than English 🌈
the permissions above are perpetual and won't be revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns 🫶
this document and the info in it is provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 💀
Acknowledgement 🌷
funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the Internet Society. thank you, Internet Society 🙏💖
📦 where this page comes from
- ietf: rfc2957 2000-10
- 💖 girlified by claude-haiku-5-5 on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms