Hector, thank you for the thoughtful post and background.  Since "reputation 
services" have the use cases most under-supported per your analysis by today's 
technology choices, I suggest you re-post this (or something like it) on the 
ietf-domainrep list for discussion.

-- Brett


On Sep 14, 2010, at 11:00 AM, Hector Santos wrote:

> Brett,
> 
> IMV, the topic of DKIM DNS management or who is saying is really a 
> moot point because at the end of the day, it goes back to your initial 
> posting here:
> 
>      How does the general public get protected from potential
>      PAYPAL abuse when using the public list servers promiscuously?
> 
> That has been the issue and basis for the philosophical differences 
> regarding policy for a very long time.
> 
> This has all been researched, debated, etc.  See the Security Threats 
> RFC 4686:
> 
>       http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4686
> 
> The problem is that even with all that, we had out of scope influences 
> that watered down the security concerns, namely because the List 
> Administators wanted unrestricted DKIM resigning capabilities.  But 
> since MLM is a natural breaker of integrity, some wanted their legacy 
> software to continue working as is.  I still don't understand why one 
> would consider DKIM for a MLM and not filter the restricted policy mail.
> 
> I'm afraid there is nothing you could do to protect your consideration 
> of using a domain (low or high) outside a direct 1 to 1 mail transaction.
> 
> At best today, you can do:
> 
>    - Declare a "My Mail is always sign", with the reduced version of
>      SSP called ADSP, that appears to be "DKIM=ALL"
> 
>    - Inform, suggest (mandate?) to your employees that with the
>      new domains specially for employee usage outside the corporation
>      that they only permitted to use it on KNOWN LIST SERVERS with
>      DKIM signing support.
> 
>      Note: It might be useful for an advertisement of what a list
>      server is capable of to first time subscribers
> 
> With this, what do you protect against?  At best:
> 
>    - Legacy Bad Guys who don't sign
>    - Bad Guys using broken DKIM-Signature headers.
> 
> You won't be protected against:
> 
>    - DKIM Adapted Bad Guys signing as a 3rd party with valid signatures.
> 
> Thats it! Thats the best we can do expect at deterministic level. 
> After that it is indeterminate environment which the wide spread of 
> reputation people are trying to address.
> 
>    - Hope that the majority of the end users seeing paypal submitted
>      list distributed mail are hitting receivers that are registered
>      subscribers of reputation vendors (Batteries required syndrome).
> 
> Thats it!
> 
> No gathered statistics data will fundamentally change this long 
> understood issue.  The data will most likely prove the above which 
> doesn't regard proof.
> 
> On another related note:
> 
> We long understood that a centralized repository or server for 
> reputation and/or certification would be ideal where everyone would be 
> able to use as a single source lookup system.  But no one likes a "one 
> vendor" to have this control.  Yet, there are vendors that offer a 
> free API or method for verifiers.
> 
> Maybe that is what is needed is a standard for a "reputation lookup.'
> 
> Crocker, Otis, Leslie drafted the CSV-CSA proposal which is at the 
> SMTP level.
> 
>    http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-crocker-csv-csa-00
> 
> It was the first time that a "reputation" model was introduced for 
> standard mail (during the MARID working group discussions, where 
> SPF/SenderID was worked out as well for RFC draft standards) .
> 
> But it still had the "one vendor" and "batteries required" issue which 
> no one really wanted (at the time) for a wide open standard across the 
> network.  I always thought CSV-CSA was a good idea and eventually 
> would be useful, but it wasn't ready for prime time.
> 
> Finally, maybe it is at this point it (the idea) is ready for prime 
> time, but we don't have a reputation standard for DKIM which is a RFC 
> 5322 technology (not RFC 5321 level technology).
> 
> Suggestions were made (by me and Otis) where somehow we can pass the 
> 5322.From domain to the CSV/CSA layer like we wanted that for 
> Sender-ID at the time discussed for MARID, and also useful for 
> reputation services to offer a POLICY as part of their attributes for 
> a domain records:
> 
>       [X] This domain requires mail to be signed.
> 
> That way, when an SMTP receiver does CSV/CSA, it can get the bits to:
> 
>   - Use it for Sender-ID at SMTP level
>   - At the payload DATA level for DKIM Policy
> 
> But again, this requires batteries and its not a self-asserting policy 
> design which would be ideal to cover the receivers that don't have 
> batteries or the same batteries others are using to get that "Policy 
> Bit" from the domain reputation/certification record.
> 
> As you can see, it all boils down to how can a domain, like a paypal, 
> can make policy visible, practically, feasibly and scales in a way 
> that doesn't hurt the DNS network.
> 
> We all have different ideas, some base of their current operations, 
> some based on making a profit, some based trying to do it in a way 
> that fits the current framework, some that want to make simple by 
> SIGNING first and then figure it all out later.
> 
> That latter is simple and great for pure DKIM adoption, but its can be 
> also  dangerous to create a new relaxed environment where it might be 
> too late to protect DKIM signatures deterministically.  I don't feel 
> we are there yet but it ain't going to happen until the concept of 
> POLICY is better accepted especially by the reputation advocates.
> 
> -- 
> Hector Santos, CTO
> http://www.santronics.com
> http://santronics.blogspot.com
> 
> McDowell, Brett wrote:
>> Here is why a paper should be written (BCP or not, IETF or not)..
>> 
>> On Sep 13, 2010, at 6:08 PM, J.D. Falk wrote:
>>> They say the former scenario where ESPs sign with their own domains is 
>>> still more common, because in general ESPs are more authentication-savvy 
>>> than their clients tend to be.  
>>> 
>> Ah, a deployment decision driven primarily by ignorance... that's an 
>> opportunity for us to educate.
>> 
>>> The ESP domain wasn't chosen because anyone thinks it's a better practice, 
>>> however.  
>> 
>> Ah, even worse, a deployment decision that is not even considered a better 
>> decision, driven by ignorance.
>> 
>>> It's because otherwise, they'd be sending unauthenticated mail
>> 
>> So these less sophisticated senders aren't acting as if they are aware of 
>> their options and they are defaulting to a deployment configuration simply 
>> because they don't understand or are not prepared to deploy the alternative.
>> 
>>> -- and many in the ESP world fear disastrous deliverability consequences if 
>>> they aren't fully buzzword-compliant.
>> 
>> If the ESP's are worried about the sophistication of their clients then they 
>> may not be on the front lines trying to educate their clients of this key 
>> management alternative that more sophisticated senders are deploying.
>> 
>> So, I don't want to argue over whether or not this group (or IETF DKIM) 
>> should publish a BCP around this, I just want to find out sooner than later 
>> whether or not their is a rough consensus to pursue it here or not (then 
>> I'll know what I have to do next).
>> 
>> -- Brett
>> _______________________________________________
>> dkim-ops mailing list
>> [email protected]
>> http://mipassoc.org/mailman/listinfo/dkim-ops
>> 
>> 
> 
> 


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