RFC References
99 key RFCs that define the Internet — curated references with context, significance, and cross-references.
Transport & Internet Layer (20)
RFC 768
Standard
User Datagram Protocol
1980-08 · J. Postel
RFC 791
Standard
Internet Protocol
1981-09 · J. Postel
RFC 792
Standard
Internet Control Message Protocol
1981-09 · J. Postel
RFC 793
Standard
Transmission Control Protocol
1981-09 · J. Postel
RFC 1122
Standard
Requirements for Internet Hosts — Communication Layers
1989-10 · R. Braden
RFC 1918
BCP
Address Allocation for Private Internets
1996-02 · Y. Rekhter, B. Moskowitz, D. Karrenberg, G. de Groot, E. Lear
RFC 4291
Proposed
IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture
2006-02 · R. Hinden, S. Deering
RFC 4443
Proposed
Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet Protocol Version 6
2006-03 · A. Conta, S. Deering, M. Gupta
RFC 4632
BCP
Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR): The Internet Address Assignment and Aggregation Plan
2006-08 · V. Fuller, T. Li
RFC 4862
Proposed
IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration
2007-09 · S. Thomson, T. Narten, T. Jinmei
RFC 5681
Proposed
TCP Congestion Control
2009-09 · M. Allman, V. Paxson, E. Blanton
RFC 6437
Proposed
IPv6 Flow Label Specification
2011-11 · S. Amante, B. Carpenter, S. Jiang, J. Rajahalme
RFC 6890
BCP
Special-Purpose IP Address Registries
2013-04 · M. Cotton, L. Vegoda, R. Bonica, B. Haberman
RFC 7413
Experimental
TCP Fast Open
2014-12 · Y. Cheng, J. Chu, S. Radhakrishnan, A. Jain
RFC 7858
Proposed
Specification for DNS over Transport Layer Security (TLS)
2016-05 · Z. Hu, L. Zhu, J. Heidemann, A. Mankin, D. Wessels, P. Hoffman
RFC 8200
Standard
Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification
2017-07 · S. Deering, R. Hinden
RFC 8312
Info
CUBIC for Fast Long-Distance Networks
2018-02 · I. Rhee, L. Xu, S. Ha, A. Zimmermann, L. Eggert, R. Scheffenegger
RFC 8484
Proposed
DNS Queries over HTTPS (DoH)
2018-10 · P. Hoffman, P. McManus
RFC 9250
Proposed
DNS over Dedicated QUIC Connections (DoQ)
2022-05 · P. Huitema, S. Dickinson, A. Mankin
RFC 9293
Standard
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
2022-08 · W. Eddy
Application Layer (25)
RFC 826
Standard
An Ethernet Address Resolution Protocol
1982-11 · D. Plummer
RFC 959
Standard
File Transfer Protocol
1985-10 · J. Postel, J. Reynolds
RFC 1034
Standard
Domain Names — Concepts and Facilities
1987-11 · P. Mockapetris
RFC 1035
Standard
Domain Names — Implementation and Specification
1987-11 · P. Mockapetris
RFC 1939
Standard
Post Office Protocol — Version 3
1996-05 · J. Myers, M. Rose
RFC 2131
Proposed
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
1997-03 · R. Droms
RFC 2616
Proposed
Hypertext Transfer Protocol — HTTP/1.1
1999-06 · R. Fielding, J. Gettys, J. Mogul, H. Frystyk, L. Masinter, P. Leach, T. Berners-Lee
RFC 2821
Proposed
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
2001-04 · J. Klensin
RFC 3315
Proposed
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6)
2003-07 · R. Droms, J. Bound, B. Volz, T. Lemon, C. Perkins, M. Carney
RFC 3501
Proposed
Internet Message Access Protocol — Version 4rev1
2003-03 · M. Crispin
RFC 4033
Proposed
DNS Security Introduction and Requirements
2005-03 · R. Arends, R. Austein, M. Larson, D. Massey, S. Rose
RFC 4035
Proposed
Protocol Modifications for the DNS Security Extensions
2005-03 · R. Arends, R. Austein, M. Larson, D. Massey, S. Rose
RFC 4510
Proposed
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP): Technical Specification Road Map
2006-06 · K. Zeilenga
RFC 5321
Proposed
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
2008-10 · J. Klensin
RFC 5905
Proposed
Network Time Protocol Version 4: Protocol and Algorithms Specification
2010-06 · D. Mills, J. Martin, J. Burbank, W. Kasch
RFC 6376
Standard
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures
2011-09 · D. Crocker, T. Hansen, M. Kucherawy
RFC 6455
Proposed
The WebSocket Protocol
2011-12 · I. Fette, A. Melnikov
RFC 7208
Proposed
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) for Authorizing Use of Domains in Email
2014-04 · S. Kitterman
RFC 7489
Info
Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC)
2015-03 · M. Kucherawy, E. Zwicky
RFC 8415
Proposed
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6)
2018-11 · T. Mrugalski, M. Siodelski, B. Volz, A. Yourtchenko, M. Richardson, S. Jiang, T. Lemon, T. Winters
RFC 9000
Proposed
QUIC: A UDP-Based Multiplexed and Secure Transport
2021-05 · J. Iyengar, M. Thomson
RFC 9110
Standard
HTTP Semantics
2022-06 · R. Fielding, M. Nottingham, J. Reschke
RFC 9112
Standard
HTTP/1.1
2022-06 · R. Fielding, M. Nottingham, J. Reschke
RFC 9113
Proposed
HTTP/2
2022-06 · M. Thomson, C. Benfield
RFC 9114
Proposed
HTTP/3
2022-06 · M. Bishop
Security (25)
RFC 2404
Proposed
The Use of HMAC-SHA-1-96 within ESP and AH
1998-11 · C. Madson, R. Glenn
RFC 3602
Proposed
The AES-CBC Cipher Algorithm and Its Use with IPsec
2003-09 · S. Frankel, R. Glenn, S. Kelly
RFC 4253
Proposed
The Secure Shell (SSH) Transport Layer Protocol
2006-01 · T. Ylonen, C. Lonvick
RFC 4254
Proposed
The Secure Shell (SSH) Connection Protocol
2006-01 · T. Ylonen, C. Lonvick
RFC 4301
Proposed
Security Architecture for the Internet Protocol
2005-12 · S. Kent, K. Seo
RFC 5246
Proposed
The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2
2008-08 · T. Dierks, E. Rescorla
RFC 5280
Proposed
Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and CRL Profile
2008-05 · D. Cooper, S. Santesson, S. Farrell, S. Boeyen, R. Housley, W. Polk
RFC 6125
Proposed
Representation and Verification of Domain-Based Application Service Identity within Internet Public Key Infrastructure Using X.509 (PKIX) Certificates in the Context of Transport Layer Security (TLS)
2011-03 · P. Saint-Andre, J. Hodges
RFC 6454
Proposed
The Web Origin Concept
2011-12 · A. Barth
RFC 6698
Proposed
The DNS-Based Authentication of Named Entities (DANE) Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol: TLSA
2012-08 · P. Hoffman, J. Schlyter
RFC 6749
Proposed
The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework
2012-10 · D. Hardt
RFC 6797
Proposed
HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS)
2012-11 · J. Hodges, C. Jackson, A. Barth
RFC 6960
Proposed
X.509 Internet Public Key Infrastructure Online Certificate Status Protocol - OCSP
2013-06 · S. Santesson, M. Myers, R. Ankney, A. Malpani, S. Galperin, C. Adams
RFC 7034
Info
HTTP Header Field X-Frame-Options
2013-10 · D. Ross, T. Gondrom
RFC 7235
Proposed
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Authentication
2014-06 · R. Fielding, J. Reschke
RFC 7296
Standard
Internet Key Exchange Protocol Version 2 (IKEv2)
2014-10 · C. Kaufman, P. Hoffman, Y. Nir, P. Eronen, T. Kivinen
RFC 7519
Proposed
JSON Web Token (JWT)
2015-05 · M. Jones, J. Bradley, N. Sakimura
RFC 7540
Proposed
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Version 2 (HTTP/2)
2015-05 · M. Belshe, R. Peon, M. Thomson
RFC 8301
BCP
Cryptographic Algorithm and Key Usage Update to DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)
2018-01 · S. Kitterman
RFC 8446
Proposed
The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.3
2018-08 · E. Rescorla
RFC 8461
Proposed
SMTP MTA Strict Transport Security (MTA-STS)
2018-09 · D. Margolis, M. Risher, B. Ramakrishnan, A. Brotman, J. Jones
RFC 8617
Experimental
The Authenticated Received Chain (ARC) Protocol
2019-07 · J. Levine, T. Herkula
RFC 8659
Proposed
DNS Certification Authority Authorization (CAA) Resource Record
2019-11 · P. Hallam-Baker, R. Stradling, J. Hoffman-Andrews
RFC 8855
Info
The WireGuard Protocol
2022-01 · J. A. Donenfeld
RFC 9116
Info
A File Format to Aid in Security Vulnerability Disclosure
2022-04 · E. Foudil, Y. Shafranovich
Routing (15)
RFC 2328
Standard
OSPF Version 2
1998-04 · J. Moy
RFC 2453
Standard
RIP Version 2
1998-11 · G. Malkin
RFC 2827
BCP
Network Ingress Filtering: Defeating Denial of Service Attacks which employ IP Source Address Spoofing
2000-05 · P. Ferguson, D. Senie
RFC 3031
Proposed
Multiprotocol Label Switching Architecture
2001-01 · E. Rosen, A. Viswanathan, R. Callon
RFC 4271
Proposed
A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)
2006-01 · Y. Rekhter, T. Li, S. Hares
RFC 4364
Proposed
BGP/MPLS IP Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
2006-02 · E. Rosen, Y. Rekhter
RFC 5340
Proposed
OSPF for IPv6
2008-07 · R. Coltun, D. Ferguson, J. Moy, A. Lindem
RFC 5765
Info
Use of Hash Algorithms for IPsec at the Internet Exchange Points
2010-02 · H. Ramalho
RFC 6480
Info
An Infrastructure to Support Secure Internet Routing
2012-02 · M. Lepinski, S. Kent
RFC 6482
Proposed
A Profile for Route Origin Authorizations (ROAs)
2012-02 · M. Lepinski, S. Kent, D. Kong
RFC 6811
Proposed
BGP Prefix Origin Validation
2013-01 · P. Mohapatra, J. Scudder, D. Ward, R. Bush, R. Austein
RFC 7454
BCP
BGP Operations and Security
2015-02 · J. Durand, I. Pepelnjak, G. Doering
RFC 7911
Proposed
Advertisement of Multiple Paths in BGP
2016-07 · D. Walton, A. Retana, E. Chen, J. Scudder
RFC 8092
Proposed
BGP Large Communities Attribute
2017-02 · J. Heitz, J. Snijders, K. Patel, I. Bagdonas, N. Hilliard
RFC 8174
BCP
Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC 2119 Key Words
2017-05 · B. Leiba
Infrastructure (14)
RFC 1591
Info
Domain Name System Structure and Delegation
1994-03 · J. Postel
RFC 1878
Info
Variable Length Subnet Table for IPv4
1995-12 · T. Pummill, B. Manning
RFC 1996
Proposed
A Mechanism for Prompt Notification of Zone Changes (DNS NOTIFY)
1996-08 · P. Vixie
RFC 2050
BCP
Internet Registry IP Allocation Guidelines
1996-11 · K. Hubbard, M. Kosters, D. Conrad, D. Karrenberg, J. Postel
RFC 2142
BCP
Mailbox Names for Common Services, Roles and Functions
1997-05 · D. Crocker
RFC 2317
BCP
Classless IN-ADDR.ARPA Delegation
1998-03 · H. Eidnes, G. de Groot, P. Vixie
RFC 2460
Proposed
Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification
1998-12 · S. Deering, R. Hinden
RFC 3596
Proposed
DNS Extensions to Support IP Version 6
2003-10 · S. Thomson, C. Huitema, V. Ksinant, M. Souissi
RFC 5735
Info
Special Use IPv4 Addresses
2010-01 · M. Cotton, L. Vegoda
RFC 5966
Proposed
DNS Transport over TCP - Implementation Requirements
2010-08 · R. Bellis
RFC 6598
BCP
IANA-Reserved IPv4 Prefix for Shared Address Space
2012-04 · J. Weil, V. Kuarsingh, C. Donley, C. Liljenstolpe, M. Azinger
RFC 7020
Info
The Internet Numbers Registry System
2013-08 · R. Housley, J. Curran, G. Huston, D. Conrad
RFC 7871
Info
Client Subnet in DNS Queries
2016-05 · C. Contavalli, W. van der Gaast, D. Lawrence, W. Kumari
RFC 8499
BCP
DNS Terminology
2019-01 · P. Hoffman, A. Sullivan, K. Fujiwara