[gopher] Adding TLS and/or SSL support to Gopher

[simple at sdf.org]

New thread for an important topic :)

Looking in my OS's /etc/services file it appears there are several
available ports in the 700-799 range:

#                   703               Unassigned
#                   708               Unassigned
#                 717-728             Unassigned
#                   703               Unassigned
#                   708               Unassigned
#                 717-728             Unassigned
#                 732-740             Unassigned
#                   743               Unassigned
#                 745-746             Unassigned
#                 755-756             Unassigned
#                   766               Unassigned
#                   768               Unassigned
#                 778-779             Unassigned
#                 781-785             Unassigned
#                   786               Unassigned
#                   787               Unassigned
#                 788-799             Unassigned

As for implementation of the concept, I feel it should be done in a way
that doesn't shut out existing gopher clients/servers.

Perhaps adopting some sort of external client+server proxy model would be
the best starting point such that, for example, someone with a lynx(1)
browser could install a "secure_gopher" proxy on their computer such that
their now local port 70 requests are SSL-wrapped and sent on to a
corresponding "secure_gopher" proxy server listening on the new gopherS
TLS encrypted port (785 maybe?). Probably it's already doable using
opensshd and SOCKS, just need to pick a port.

The above approach would not preclude others from basically incorporating
the proxy model into their new clients and servers for an all-in-one
solution.

For making it officially part of Gopher World I think it means a new RFC
for "secure gopher" or at least adding the spec to the existing gopher
RFC; I don't know which would be easier.

Jeff / gopher://jgw.mdns.org