RE: Plain text files in internet explorer

From: Bernie Cosell (bernie@fantasyfarm.com)
Date: 09/02/02 

From: "Bernie Cosell" <bernie@fantasyfarm.com>
To: <vuln-dev@securityfocus.com>
Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2002 18:19:34 -0400

On 1 Sep 2002, at 14:47, Alan Ramsbottom wrote:

> John Hennessy [mailto:johnh@charm.net wrote:
>
> > Is it just me or is impossible to have plain text in internet
> > explorer?
>
> It's everyone. Read all about it (datasniffing) here:
>
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/workshop/networking/m
> oniker/overview/appendix_a.asp
>
> "A MIME type is ambiguous if it is 'text/plain',
> 'application/octet-stream', an empty string, or null (that is, the
> server failed to provide it)."

Is this actually specified someplace in some relevant RFC? I can't
comment on application/octet-stream, but I've never before heard that
text/plain was ambiguous. I thought it was crystal-clear and meant,
well, "plain text" [basically a sequence of characters in whatever
charset is specified].

Is this interpretation some idiosyncracy of Microsoft's or is it actually
an RFC-supported 'correct' interpretation of the text/plain MIME type?

  /Bernie\ 

-- 
Bernie Cosell                     Fantasy Farm Fibers
mailto:bernie@fantasyfarm.com     Pearisburg, VA
    -->  Too many people, too few sheep  <--

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