The XML specification is a work product of the World Wide Web
      Consortium's XML Working Group, and was edited by:

      Tim Bray <tbray@textuality.com>
      Jean Paoli <jeanpa@microsoft.com>
      C. M. Sperberg-McQueen <cmsmcq@uic.edu>

      The W3C, and the W3C XML working group, has change control over
      the XML specification.

4  Security Considerations

   XML, as a subset of SGML, has the same security considerations as
   specified in [RFC-1874].

   To paraphrase section 3 of [RFC-1874], XML entities contain
   information to be parsed and processed by the recipient's XML system.
   These entities may contain and such systems may permit explicit
   system level commands to be executed while processing the data.  To
   the extent that an XML system will execute arbitrary command strings,
   recipients of XML entities may be at risk. In general, it may be
   possible to specify commands that perform unauthorized file
   operations or make changes to the display processor's environment
   that affect subsequent operations.

   Use of XML is expected to be varied, and widespread.  XML is under
   scrutiny by a wide range of communities for use as a common syntax
   for community-specific metadata.  For example, the Dublin Core group
   is using XML for document metadata, and a new effort has begun which
   is considering use of XML for medical information.  Other groups view
   XML as a mechanism for marshalling parameters for remote procedure
   calls.  More uses of XML will undoubtedly arise.

   Security considerations will vary by domain of use.  For example, XML
   medical records will have much more stringent privacy and security
   considerations than XML library metadata. Similarly, use of XML as a
   parameter marshalling syntax necessitates a case by case security
   review.

   XML may also have some of the same security concerns as plain text.
   Like plain text, XML can contain escape sequences which, when
   displayed, have the potential to change the display processor
   environment in ways that adversely affect subsequent operations.
   Possible effects include, but are not limited to, locking the
   keyboard, changing display parameters so subsequent displayed text is
   unreadable, or even changing display parameters to deliberately




 
RFC 2376                    XML Media Types                    July 1998


   obscure or distort subsequent displayed material so that its meaning
   is lost or altered.  Display processors should either filter such
   material from displayed text or else make sure to reset all important
   settings after a given display operation is complete.

   Some terminal devices have keys whose output, when pressed, can be
   changed by sending the display processor a character sequence. If
   this is possible the display of a text object containing such
   character sequences could reprogram keys to perform some illicit or
   dangerous action when the key is subsequently pressed by the user.
   In some cases not only can keys be programmed, they can be triggered
   remotely, making it possible for a text display operation to directly
   perform some unwanted action. As such, the ability to program keys
   should be blocked either by filtering or by disabling the ability to
   program keys entirely.

   Note that it is also possible to construct XML documents which make
   use of what XML terms "entity references" (using the XML meaning of
   the term "entity", which differs from the MIME definition of this
   term), to construct repeated expansions of text. Recursive expansions
   are prohibited [REC-XML] and XML processors are required to detect
   them.  However, even non-recursive expansions may cause problems with
   the finite computing resources of computers, if they are performed
   many times.

5  The Byte Order Mark (BOM) and Conversions to/from UTF-16

   The XML Recommendation, in section 4.3.3, specifies that UTF-16 XML
   entities must begin with a byte order mark (BOM), which is the ZERO
   WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE character, hexadecimal sequence 0xFEFF (or
   0xFFFE, depending on endian). The XML Recommendation further states
   that the BOM is an encoding signature, and is not part of either the
   markup or the character data of the XML document.

   Due to the BOM, applications which convert XML from the UTF-16
   encoding to another encoding SHOULD strip the BOM before conversion.
   Similarly, when converting from another encoding into UTF-16, the BOM
   SHOULD be added after conversion is complete.

6  Examples

   The examples below give the value of the Content-type MIME header and
   the XML declaration (which includes the encoding declaration) inside
   the XML entity.  For UTF-16 examples, the Byte Order Mark character
   is denoted as "{BOM}", and the XML declaration is assumed to come at
   the beginning of the XML entity, immediately following the BOM. Note