I believe OPES-like services are already creeping in. Consider wireless
systems where a great deal of compression is employed to reduce data
streams. This includes proprietary mechanisms to "re-publish" graphics
and web pages to reduce bandwidth requirements.
However, in such systems where the wireless connection is (arguably) a
"single link", usually with many other standards bodies involved, such
as 3GPP2 and WCDMA. This would mean there are mechanisms in place to
standardize the "captive audience" such as for cellular data users.
But from what I have read on the OPES web site, it appears that ANY
intermediary system could inject, modify, substitute, or restrict the
flow of information from one end-point to another.
While I am no purist on the end-to-end issues raised in this forum, I
do see a VERY dangerous path ahead where an intermediate system could
restrict competitor's information, or extract information about users
in much more alarming and intrusive ways then ever before.
And if you consider the following from the Example Services for Network
Edge Proxies given on the OPES site:
"With the help of a content scanning and filtering system at the
caching proxy level, Web pages and also file transfers could be scanned
for malicious content prior to sending them to the user."
I would therefore argue, using the above logic, that we would need a
new service to "probe the route" looking for "malicious intermediaries"
and find a new routing path around them.
Any WG considering OPES needs to address not only security, but also
privacy, and author/publisher rights as well. While it could be
conceivable that there is a justfiable need for OPES, it would have to
be an EXPLICIT invocation by the user or author. A web page author may
choose to write their web pages to be open to OPES, and a user may set
security levels to allow OPES functions on their behalf.
It is IMHO that allowing intermedate devices to alter traffic content
without user knowledge, violates a basic element of the fabric of the
Internet and destroys what miniscule remaining trust users have in the
Internet in general.
Just an opinion, YMMV.
-kevin
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