204-hidserv-subdomains - Tor design proposals

Filename: 204-hidserv-subdomains.txt
Title: Subdomain support for Hidden Service addresses
Author: Alessandro Preite Martinez
Created: 6 July 2012
Status: Closed


1. Overview

  This proposal aims to extend the .onion naming scheme for Hidden
  Service addresses with sub-domain components, which will be ignored
  by the Tor layer but will appear in HTTP Host headers, allowing
  subdomain-based virtual hosting.

2. Motivation

  Sites doing large-scale HTTP virtual hosting on subdomains currently
  do not have a good option for exposure via Hidden Services, short of
  creating a separate HS for every subdomain (which in some cases is
  simply not possible due to the subdomains not being fully known
  beforehand).

3. Implementation

  Tor should ignore any subdomain components besides the Hidden
  Service key, i.e. "foo.aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.onion" should be treated
  simply as "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.onion".