British programmer and writer John Graham-Cumming has spotted something interesting in the opening protocol of any HTTP/2 connection: an array of explicitly formatted code which spells the word PRISM, in an apparent reference to the NSA’s primary program for mass-surveillance of the internet, as disclosed by Edward Snowden in 2013.
The HTTP/2 client connection begins its work with a 24-octet sequence which unravels to PRI * HTTP/2.0\r\n\r\nSM\r\n\r\n. Anyone who has ever tried to make a line wrap in web server output will discount the returns and line breaks (such as ‘\r’ and ‘\n’) and see the word ‘PRISM’ stripped away from the code which it is sitting inside.
Source: Anti-NSA Easter egg in HTTP/2, it seems
Robin Edgar
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