I used authentication results in the general sense, to include ARC sets,
Authentication-Resilts, and Received-SPF.   ARC is most applicable to this
situation but the others are not consistently removed prior to message
crossing organization boundaries.

After writing this, I wondered if the best approach would be the CVE/CCE
process, since it should be the hosting services problem to prevent.

Are you suggesting that this concern is already well handled in the hosting
industry?   I thought this threat was the reason that we are creating a
DKIM-only option for DMARCbis, and therefore it was not well handled.

Doug


On Mon, Aug 28, 2023, 5:21 AM Alessandro Vesely <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Sun 27/Aug/2023 20:49:26 +0200 Douglas Foster wrote:
> > I am much discouraged  by the recent discussion about false DMARC PASS
> > based on false SPF PASS or malicious mDKIM replay.   When combined with
> the
> > discussion about false DMARC FAIL for mailing lists, it seems like we
> have
> > a very unimpressive standards proposal.
> >
> > We have proposed defending against false SPF PASS by providing a DMARC
> > option for “DKIM-only”.  This will provide a solution to the domain
> owner’s
> > problem, at least for those evaluators who understand and enforce the
> > DKIM-only parameter.   But it does not come close to solving the
> > Evaluator’s problem, because the Evaluator is at risk of deception from
> > impersonation of any hosting service’s client domain.
> >
> > Consider the close similarity between these two scenarios:
> >
> > Legitimate Client via Legitimate Domain
> >
> > ·         MailFrom = user@GoodDomain, From=user@GoodDomain, Rcpt
> To=user@TargetDomain
> > ·         Received #1:  From clientdevce.tld by
> inbound.hostingservice.tld with SMTP (Authenticated)
> > ·         (Normal routing)
> > ·         MailFrom = user@GoodDomain, Rcpt To=user@TargetDomain
> > ·         Received #2: From outbound.hostingservice.tld by
> inbound.TargetDomain with SMTP (Unauthenticated)
> > ·         Result: SPF PASS and DKIM PASS based on SPF Strict Alignment
> >
> > Attacking client via Co-Conspirator domain
> >
> > ·         MailFrom = user@GoodDomain, From=user@GoodDomain, Rcpt
> To=user@ConspiratorDomain
> > ·         Received #1: From maliciousserver by
> inbound.hostingservice.tld with SMTP (Unauthenticated0
> > ·         (SPF Failure intentionally ignored.   Forwarding without any
> change to MailFrom)
> > ·         MailFrom = user@GoodDomain, Rcpt To=user@TargetDomain
> > ·         Received #2: From outbound.hostingservice.tld by
> inbound.TargetDomain with SMTP (unauthenticated)
> > ·         Result: SPF PASS and DKIM PASS based on SPF Strict Alignment
>
>
> IMHO hostingservice.tld is overly sloppy at allowing and signing fake
> From:
> values.  Doing so is legal, but they should be considered responsible for
> the
> consequences.
>
>
> > Note that these two scenarios are nearly identical to the evaluator at
> > TargetDomain.  To distinguish between the two scenarios, the evaluator
> > needs to reliably know either:
> >
> > ·         that the legitimate client used authenticated SMTP, which
> seems infeasible, or
>
>
> This is not unfeasible.  It's useless.  I do add an
> "Authentication-Results:
> tana.it; auth=pass (details omitted)", in this message too.  I omit the
> logged-in userID  1) to avoid feeding the trolls and 2) because it may
> well
> differ from From:.  Anyway, these A-R are to be discarded on entering a
> new
> domain's MX.
>
>
> > ·         that the Rcpt To address was altered in transit.
>
>
> This is unfeasible, see below.
>
>
> > Authentication result headers are only useful if the Evaluator knows that
> > the results apply to an unauthenticated connection, which in these
> examples
> > is uncertain in respect to the Received #1 header.   Additionally,
> > authentication result headers do not document the SMTP Rcpt To address.
>
>
> In general, A-R by inbound.hostingservice.tld is discarded by TargetDomain.
>
>
> > We have only one tool for downstream communication of the Rcpt To
> address:
> > the “For” clause of the Received header.   Some servers also document
> the
> > current value of the Mail From address by including a Received comment
> of
> > (envelope-from <emailaddress>).  Our solution needs to take advantage of
> > this capability.  If hosting services will add these clauses to inbound
> and
> > outbound Received headers, downstream evaluators could parse the headers
> to
> > distinguish between the malicious message and the legitimate one.   Even
> > better, the hosting service itself could use the inbound and outbound
> Mail
> > From data to detect the malicious impersonation and block the message.
> > The Received header information will have added credibility if both
> inbound
> > and outbound Received headers are included in a DKIM signature provided
> by
> > the hosting service.
>
>
> Now DKIM informally discourages to sign trace fields, and we are not going
> to
> change that.  However, "Include the SMTP RCPT-TO address in the DKIM
> signature"
> is one of the potential solutions to the replay attack, where another
> solution
> similarly proposes to specify destination domains.
>
>
> Best
> Ale
> --
>
>
>
>
>
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>
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