Comment by ahoka

8 hours ago

Tracking sessions across different physical connections has some non-trivial privacy implications:

https://http3-explained.haxx.se/en/quic/quic-connections#con...

How do you imagine other protocols handle switching physical connections? With HTTP 1, you send your session ID as a cookie after wasting time creating a new TCP connection

  • Yes, obviously, but we already know how that is used. This is a more complex protocol that might enable attack vectors that were not possible before and we do not think about when accessing websites:

    But see the notes taken from the HTTP/3 RFC itself, written by the authors:

    10.11. Privacy Considerations

       Several characteristics of HTTP/3 provide an observer an opportunity
       to correlate actions of a single client or server over time.  These
       include the value of settings, the timing of reactions to stimulus,
       and the handling of any features that are controlled by settings.
    
       As far as these create observable differences in behavior, they could
       be used as a basis for fingerprinting a specific client.
    
       HTTP/3's preference for using a single QUIC connection allows
       correlation of a user's activity on a site.  Reusing connections for
       different origins allows for correlation of activity across those
       origins.
    
       Several features of QUIC solicit immediate responses and can be used
       by an endpoint to measure latency to their peer; this might have
       privacy implications in certain scenarios.