----- Original Message -----
> From: [email protected]
> To: "Tim Draegen" <[email protected]>
> Cc: "dmarc" <[email protected]>
> Sent: Sunday, February 1, 2015 5:58:10 PM
> Subject: Re: [dmarc-ietf] interoperability draft for review
> 
> > Hi all,
> 
> > Frank, Eliot, and myself have finished up a first cut at the WG’s 1st real
> > deliverable:
> >     • Document describing interoperability issues with DMARC and indirect 
> > mail
> >     flows and possible methods for addressing them.
> 
> > Please review at your convenience and submit comments, feedback, and
> > suggestions for text to this list.  Frank and/or Eliot will be folding in
> > edits.  A serious effort to cast issues in the language of RFC 5598 was
> > made.
> 
> > Find it here:
> > https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-dmarc-interoperability/
> 
> > Our aim is to have this document ready for publication by end of February.
> 
> <chair hat off>
> 
> A few quick comments:
> 
> The introduction classifies message transformations as a type of indirect
> mail
> flow. This takes a little getting used to, to say the least. For example, if
> someone's mail always traverses a relay which incorporates boundary filtering
> functionality that breaks DKIM signatures, and this in turn prevents them
> from
> performing DMARC checks, you may have a hard time convincing them that
> there's
> anything "indirect" about the path.
> 
> Of course it all works if you define "indirect" as anything more complex than
> an agent that incorporates a DKIM signer sending directly to the agent that
> verifies the signature. (And even this could involve a transport encoding
> change that breaks a DKIM signature.) I admit there's some temptation to
> define
> things this way - but do we really want to go there?
> 
> There also really needs to be a distinction made between indirect paths that
> involve final delivery and subsequent resubmission and those that do not. I
> for
> one don't have much expectation that if I resend a message that's been
> delivered to me without changing the From: field that it will pass muster.
> Message that fail because of the involvement of a simple alias are another
> matter.
> 
> The last sentence in section 2.1 doesn't really make sense to me. There is no
> problem with having multiple SPF records point at the same server IP address
> or
> addresses, so multiple mail streams are not issue. Of course this doesn't
> make this sort of thing a good idea. Selecting the host name for use in
> HELO/EHLO do that SPF checks will pass, while theoretically possible, is
> entirely contrary to the purpose of the parameter and thus bad operational
> practice. Indeed, I have to question why this is in the draft.
> Are people actually doing this?

at ESPs or domain hosters, dedicated IP address often comes at a premium, if 
possible. At google/microsoft/... email domain hosting, you get the 
google/microsoft/... hostname not something in your own domain. (if not 
mistaken)

> 
> Section 2.2 is incorrect in regards to how SPF mismatches on forwarders
> occur.
> Essentially all forwarders change the 5321.HELO/EHLO, but simple alias
> exansion
> usually does not change the 5321.MailFrom. In these cases the issue isn't
> that
> the 5321.MailFrom doesn't match the 5322.From, but rather that the SPF check
> may fail because the list of allowed IPs does not include the forwarder.

I think we speak of something else here the alignment, but your point is valid 
too. Adding some text.

> 
> Section 2.3 needs considerable expansion, and needs to talk about the
> differences between simple and relaxed canonicalization.

done

> 
> 3.1.2.1 conflates at least two different meanings of the word encoding.
> Further, only changes to the transport encoding fall under the purview
> of an MTA; charset transcoding is a gateway function and needs to move
> to the proper section for that.

done

> 
> 3.1.2.2 ismispositioned. An MTA that modifies, adds, or removes content isn't
> just an MTA, it's also performing the function of a gateway, boundary filter,
> mediator. etc. And once you get into such functions, AS/AV checks are but one
> possible action among many.
> 
> I guess my suggestion would be to talk about AS/AV checks and message
> modification under boundary filter. That's where RFC 5598 positions such
> things. (I note in passing that a brief mention of AS stuff is already in
> section 3.2.5. Merging this section in there seems like a good idea to me.)

merged

> 
> I also don't see how outright blocking is relevant to the matter at hand.
> Sure
> boundary filters reject or discard messages all the time, but how are such
> cases relevant to DMARC interoperability? DMARC validation can't fail for a
> message that never made it to the validator.
> 
> Section 3.1.2.3 "invalide" -> "invalidate"
> 
> In section 3.1.3, Sieve is in no way limited to messing around with headers.
> For example, sieve extensions exist that can delete or modify message parts.
> 
> That said, since Sieve operates on or around the time of final delivery, such
> modifications are supposed to be happening at a point past where DMARC checks
> have been performed. It's only when messages are reintroduced into the
> transport infrastructure with the same From: field that issues may arise, and
> this needs to be noted.
> 

done

> What is the first sentence of section 3.2 supposed to mean?

that we stole some text.

> 
> Section 3.2.3 really needs to talk about why mailing lists perform the
> message
> modifications they typically perform.

done

> 
> I don't believe the use of X-Original-From is described in any RFC currently.
> If we're going to talk about it in section 4.3 we need to talk about how
> it's actually used or refer to some place that does.

it is RFC5703

> 
> The Internet is a big place, and none of us are in a position to fully assess
> the state of play in every nook and cranny out there. As such, I'm very
> reluctant to make statements like "there is very little reason to modify the
> encoding of a message". What if there are good reasons to somwhere? Do we
> really want another round of the charset wars in this context?


Like the blue ribbon ASCI footer? :P

In my personal experience when I pointed that an MTA was doing encoding and 
therefore breaking DKIM, the option was removed, nobody came back to me and 
said I cannot do that.

toning down the language nevertheless

> 
> And as for transport encodings, like it or not, the standards say that if
> you're in possession of an 8bit message and the system you're sending it
> to doesn't support 8bitMIME, you either downgrade or bounce. Of course you
> can argue that this is obsolete, but do we really want to open this
> particular can of worms in this document?

well, in this day and age with security vulnerabilities every week, how far do 
we have to support legacy mail systems?

> 
> And on a similar note, try selling what 4.4.1.2 says to a financial
> institution
> that is bound by laws saying what must be and cannot be in the messages it
> emits as well as what's inbound messages destined for employees. I'm sure
> they'll find it amusing.

I think we had in mind the AV that adds "scanned by Great AV, you should buy 
it".

Can you give some samples of what you have in mind?

I suppose a financial institution would add a disclaimer on all emails, but 
before DKIM. Also I don't think they would operate a mailing list or forwarder 
lightly...

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