Domain Fronting Http Header
Domain fronting in a nutshell for example domain a domain b are under the same cdn and domain a is blocked in some country while domain b is not.
Domain fronting http header. In a domain fronted request however the dns query and sni carry one name the front domain while the http host header hidden from the censor by https encryption carries another the covert forbidden destination. Http 1 1 introduced the concept of a host header which allows the server to host multiple virtual hosts which are selected based on the host name provided hence the term named virtual hosts. Domain fronting uses different domain names at different layers. With http 1 0 a web server was only able to serve one web site per ip address as it had no way to know the hostname used to request the site.
In this simplest case the dns domain and the host header match. Domain fronting works at https layer and under these different requests for hostname will be different at different layers. But the host header can mismatch often by design. In domain fronting hostname information will be same for dns request and sni whereas http host header which is hidden from censors from https encryption will carry another hostname.
Domain fronting relies on sending the same host in dns and sni requests and different blocked host in http host header. Der http host header ist für den zensor unsichtbar nicht jedoch für den frontend server. If both domains are served from the same cdn then the cdn may route to the address specified in the http header after unwrapping the tls header. Domain fronting does not conform to http standards that require the sni extension and http host header to contain the same domain.
In einer anforderung mittels domain fronting beinhalten dns abfrage und sni eine vorgeschobene domäne während der http host header der durch die https verschlüsselung vor dem zensor verborgen bleibt die eigentlich gewünschte domäne trägt. Large cloud service providers including amazon and google now actively prohibit domain fronting which has made it largely non viable as a censorship bypass technique. In a domain fronting scheme the dns request and sni extension use the domain name of an unblocked host but the https header contains the actual destination which the request is then forwarded to. The second address is the host header in the http request header above.