rfc-4337

MIME Type Registration for MPEG-4

Y. Lim, D. Singer

date2006-03 streamIETF wgnon working group statusPROPOSED STANDARD pages11 canonicalhttps://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4337 doi10.17487/RFC4337 errataview

This document defines the standard MIME types associated with MP4 files. It also recommends use of registered MIME types according to the type of contents. [STANDARDS-TRACK]

updated by

rfc-6381 — The 'Codecs' and 'Profiles' Parameters for "Bucket" Media Types

Extracted elements (14)

design-rationale §1

The historical approach for MPEG data has been to declare it under 'video', and this approach is followed for ISO/IEC 14496. Additional MIME types are defined under 'audio' and 'application' for streams not containing visual presentation.

registry

interoperability-note §3.1

For all five registered MIME types, binary MP4 files should be transmitted without CR/LF conversion or 7-bit stripping; base64 is generally preferred as the encoding for transport.

registry

normative-requirement §2 SHOULD

For MP4 files containing video or audio streams (including those that also have MPEG-J, etc.), video/mp4 SHOULD be used.

registry

normative-requirement §2 MAY

For MP4 files with audio but no visual aspect (including those with MPEG-J, etc., in addition to audio streams), audio/mp4 MAY be used.

registry

normative-requirement §2 SHOULD

If an MP4 file contains neither visual nor audio presentations (e.g., only MPEG-J or MPEG-7), the MIME type application/mp4 MUST be used.

registry

registry §3.3

Registers MIME type application/mp4 for MP4 files with MPEG-4 System Stream and neither visual nor audio presentation, conforming to ISO/IEC 14496-1:2001. File extensions are mp4 and mpg4.

registry

registry §3.4

Registers MIME type application/mpeg4-iod for Initial Object Descriptor (IOD) content in binary format, conforming to ISO/IEC 14496-1:2001. Files are binary; base64 encoding is generally preferred.

registry

registry §3.5

Registers MIME type application/mpeg4-iod-xmt for Initial Object Descriptor (IOD) content in textual (XMT) format, conforming to ISO/IEC 14496-1:2001 AMD2. No special encoding considerations apply.

registry

registry §3.2

Registers MIME type audio/mp4 for MP4 files containing audio but no visual presentation, conforming to ISO/IEC 14496-1:2001. File extensions are mp4 and mpg4; base64 encoding is preferred.

registry

registry §3.1

Registers MIME type video/mp4 for general MP4 files containing visual presentations, conforming to ISO/IEC 14496-1:2001. File extensions are mp4 and mpg4; base64 encoding is preferred for transmission.

registry

security-consideration §4

Authentication mechanisms should be used to validate the sender and data to prevent security problems from non-compliant or malignant MP4 files.

security

security-consideration §4

ISO/IEC 14496 defines a security model for MPEG-J content in MP4 files: downloaded byte code is forbidden from loading libraries, defining native methods, starting programs, reading/writing files, or reading system properties.

security

security-consideration §4

MP4 files can contain executable content such as OD commands, BIFS commands, MPEG-J (Java byte code), and ECMAScript; non-compliant use of these can crash or temporarily disable the receiver.

security

security-consideration §4

Non-compliant MPEG streams injected into an MP4 file can overload receiver/decoder buffers, potentially crashing or compromising the receiver. This is especially dangerous for end-to-end systems like MPEG where buffer models are precisely defined.

security