Advertisement

Asking the Service If It Trusts the Proxy

Bob Scheifler: I think I have a proxy for a server run by Bill Venners. What I really want to do is ask Bill Venners if he trusts the proxy. The thinking is, I trust Bill. If I talk to Bill as the service anyway, I have to trust Bill, right? If I trust Bill and Bill trusts the proxy, then I should trust the proxy. At least I should trust the proxy to the extent that I trust Bill to perform whatever service I ask him to perform.

So I want to turn the question around. Instead of deciding whether I trust the proxy, I will ask if the service trusts the proxy. Now that sounds good in theory, but there's a flaw. How do I ask the service if it trusts the proxy if the only way I can talk to the service is through a proxy I don't trust?