MIME sniffing

What MIME sniffing means

Different clients can infer differently, producing parser and security inconsistencies.

Related terms in HTTP, edge and rendering

The delivery layer between an origin and a client: proxies, caches, redirects, status codes and the headers that decide what a crawler actually received.

Content-Language header · HTTP/3 · Alt-Svc · HTTPS DNS record · Link header · content negotiation · Markdown negotiation · Retry-After · Server-Timing · WWW-Authenticate · Allow header · Content-Digest · Origin server · Reverse proxy · CDN · Edge node · WAF · Bot score · TLS handshake · DNS resolution · DNS timeout · Connection timeout · Read timeout · Redirect chain · Redirect loop · 301 redirect · 302 redirect · 307 redirect · 308 redirect · 304 response · 404 response · 410 response · 429 response · 500 response · 502 response · 503 response · 504 response · HEAD request · GET request · Content type · Content encoding · Compression · Brotli · ETag · Last-Modified · If-None-Match · Cache hit · Cache miss · Cache key · Vary header · Stale response · Stale-while-revalidate · Edge redirect · Origin bypass · Response parity · Header parity · hreflang · canonical URL · HSTS · HSTS preload list · Content-Security-Policy · CSP nonce · edge cache · cache split · cache-buster · Cache-Control · Age header · render-blocking resource · payload text share · lazy loading · 404 and 410 status codes

Questions about MIME sniffing

What is MIME sniffing?

Inferring content format from bytes when metadata is absent or distrusted.

What does MIME sniffing not show or guarantee?

Inferring content format from bytes when metadata is absent or distrusted.

Which area of the glossary does MIME sniffing belong to?

HTTP, edge and rendering: The delivery layer between an origin and a client: proxies, caches, redirects, status codes and the headers that decide what a crawler actually received.

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