One of the classic problems with HTTP Authentication has been the way browsers implement it: there’s no easy way to “log out” of a site. Once you’ve provided authentication tokens for a site, the browser keeps sending it. This decision has put a sharp dent in the adoption of standards-based authentication schemes. It doesn’t have to be this way. Bug 300002 is an enhancement request for Firefox that would add a UI element for telling the browser to stop. So far, this request has languished in undeserved obscurity; let’s put an end to that. Please vote up Bug 300002. If Firefox were to remedy this usability problem with HTTP authentication, maybe other browser makers would follow suit, and standards-based authentication would once again be seen as a viable option.

Back to flipping out…