On 9/12/10 11:27 PM, Murray S. Kucherawy wrote:
>> On Sunday, September 12, 2010 10:10 AM,Hector Santos Wrote:
>> But Crocker's DKIM.ORG FAQ web page says:
>>
>>     "DKIM permits signing to be performed by authorized third-parties."
>> [1]
>>
>> [1]  DKIM Frequently Asked Questions
>>        http://www.dkim.org/info/dkim-faq.html#basics
>>
>> How is this authorization done?  How do you verify the authorization?
> The third party gives you a public key matching a private key they wish to 
> use to sign mail as you, and you put it in your DNS.  Then that third party 
> can generate mail with signatures that have your "d=" by using the matching 
> private key.
Giving third-parties private cryptographic keys for your domain so they 
can then send messages that will appear signed by your domain without 
your review is risky since it does _not_ convey authorization has been 
granted.
> As a verifier, I confirm the authorization implicitly by noting that your 
> domain has a public key that works to verify signatures placed on mail that 
> appears to come from you.  That means that, absent cache poisoning or other 
> attacks, you authorized use of that key pair by putting half of it in your 
> DNS.
The verifier is only able to determine that the signature was valid, 
however distributing private cryptographic keys will not convey that the 
message came from an unidentified third-party.  In addition, this method 
is impractical for dealing with issues that are now causing delivery 
problems.  Distributing private keys to mailing-lists by domains that 
see a need to have restrictive policies would be extremely unwise, and 
not something able to scale.
> That's the third-party authorization that DKIM implicitly supports.  I 
> suspect, though, that you're looking for a mechanism by which X can say "d=Y 
> with From: X is OK by us."  Nothing officially supports that right now.
Indicating _any_ type of authorization by name does not currently 
exist.  Rather than a verifiable note that indicates X is allowed to 
drive your car, this would be giving them a mask and your drivers 
license to have everyone believing it was you driving.  Not such a great 
idea when things go wrong. wrong. wrong.

-Doug

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