Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/master' into retry_throttle

3 files changed, 76 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/doc/PROTOCOL-WEB.md b/doc/PROTOCOL-WEB.md
index 0b54e0f34f..5f01af3627 100644
--- a/doc/PROTOCOL-WEB.md
+++ b/doc/PROTOCOL-WEB.md
@@ -94,8 +94,6 @@ the response stream needs to be text encoded e.g. when XHR is used or due
 to security policies with XHR
   * Accept: application/grpc-web-text
 2. The default text encoding is base64
-  * Text encoding may be specified with Content-Type or Accept headers as
-      * application/grpc-web-text-base64
   * Note that “Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64” should not be used.
   Due to in-stream base64 padding when delimiting messages, the entire
   response body is not necessarily a valid base64-encoded entity
diff --git a/doc/server_side_auth.md b/doc/server_side_auth.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..288c6e9cb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/server_side_auth.md
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+Server-side API for Authenticating Clients
+==========================================
+
+NOTE: This document describes how server-side authentication works in C-core based gRPC implementations only. In gRPC Java and Go, server side authentication is handled differently.
+
+## AuthContext
+
+To perform server-side authentication, gRPC exposes the *authentication context* for each call. The context exposes important authentication-related information about the RPC such as the type of security/authentication type being used and the peer identity.
+
+The authentication context is structured as a multi-map of key-value pairs - the *auth properties*. In addition to that, for authenticated RPCs, the set of properties corresponding to a selected key will represent the verified identity of the caller - the *peer identity*.
+
+The contents of the *auth properties* are populated by an *auth interceptor*. The interceptor also chooses which property key will act as the peer identity (e.g. for client certificate authentication this property will be `"x509_common_name"` or `"x509_subject_alternative_name"`).
+
+WARNING: AuthContext is the only reliable source of truth when it comes to authenticating RPCs. Using any other call/context properties for authentication purposes is wrong and inherently unsafe.
+
+####Example AuthContext contents
+
+For secure channel using mutual TLS authentication with both client and server certificates (test certificates from this repository are used).
+
+Populated auth properties:
+```
+"transport_security_type": "ssl"  # connection is secured using TLS/SSL
+"x509_common_name": "*.test.google.com"  # from client's certificate
+"x509_pem_cert": "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\n..."  # client's PEM encoded certificate
+"x509_subject_alternative_name": "*.test.google.fr"
+"x509_subject_alternative_name": "waterzooi.test.google.be"
+"x509_subject_alternative_name": "*.test.youtube.com"
+"x509_subject_alternative_name": "192.168.1.3"
+```
+
+The peer identity is set of all properties named `"x509_subject_alternative_name"`:
+```
+peer_identity_property_name = "x509_subject_alternative_name"
+```
+
+## AuthProperty
+
+Auth properties are elements of the AuthContext. They have a name (a key of type string) and a value which can be a string or binary data.
+
+## Auth Interceptors
+
+Auth interceptors are gRPC components that populate contents of the auth context based on gRPC's internal state and/or call metadata.
+gRPC comes with some basic "interceptors" already built-in.
+
+WARNING: While there is a public API that allows anyone to write their own custom interceptor, please think twice before using it.
+There are legitimate uses for custom interceptors but you should keep in mind that as auth interceptors essentially decide which RPCs are authenticated and which are not, their code is very sensitive from the security perspective and getting things wrong might have serious consequences. If unsure, we strongly recommend to rely on official & proven interceptors that come with gRPC.
+
+####Available auth interceptors
+- TLS/SSL certificate authentication (built into gRPC's security layer, automatically used whenever you use a secure connection)
+- (coming soon) JWT auth token authentication
+- more will be added over time
+
+## Status (by language)
+C-core exposes low level API to access auth context contents and to implement an auth interceptor.
+In C++, the auth interceptor API is exposed as `AuthMetadataProcessor`.
+
+A high level API to access AuthContext contents is available in these languages:
+- C++
+- C# (implementation in-progress)
+- other languages coming soon
diff --git a/doc/status_ordering.md b/doc/status_ordering.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..fccfa863a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/status_ordering.md
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+Ordering Status and Reads in the gRPC API
+-----------------------------------------
+
+Rules for implementors:
+1. Reads and Writes Must not succeed after Status has been delivered.
+2. OK Status is only delivered after all buffered messages are read.
+3. Reads May continue to succeed after a failing write.
+   However, once a write fails, all subsequent writes Must fail,
+   and similarly, once a read fails, all subsequent reads Must fail.
+4. When an error status is known to the library, if the user asks for status,
+   the library Should discard messages received in the library but not delivered
+   to the user and then deliver the status. If the user does not ask for status
+   but continues reading, the library Should deliver buffered messages before
+   delivering status. The library MAY choose to implement the stricter version
+   where errors cause all buffered messages to be dropped, but this is not a
+   requirement.