Thanks Dave,

Let's give it a day or two more to see if anyone else has
suggested changes then Barry & I will think about folding
in your suggestions.

Cheers,
S.

Dave CROCKER wrote:
> 
> Barry Leiba wrote:
>> Description of Working Group:
>>
>>   The Internet mail protocols and infrastructure allow mail sent
>>   from one domain to purport to be from another. While there are
>>   sometimes legitimate reasons for doing this, it has become a
>>   source of general confusion, as well as a mechanism for fraud and
>>   for distribution of spam (when done illegitimately, it's called
>>   "spoofing"). The DKIM working group has produced standards-track
>>   specifications that allow a domain to take responsibility, using
>>   digital signatures, for having taken part in the transmission of
>>   an email message and to publish "policy" information about how it
>>   applies those signatures. Taken together, these will assist
>>   receiving domains in detecting (or ruling out) certain forms of
>>   spoofing as it pertains to the signing domain.
> 
> I suggest replacing the last sentence with something more generic, to avoid 
> the 
> debate about how much any of this pertains to spoofing, per se.  Perhaps 
> instead 
> have a value proposition statement derived from the one in the Overview 
> abstract:
> 
>     These mechanisms permit email receivers to make additional assessments 
> about 
> messages.
> 
> 
>>   While the techniques specified by the DKIM working group will not
>>   prevent fraud or spam, they will provide a tool for defense
>>   against them by assisting receiving domains in detecting some
>>   spoofing of known domains. The standards-track specifications do
>>   not mandate any particular action by the receiving domain when a
>>   signature fails to validate. That said, with the understanding
>>   that guidance is necessary for implementers, the DKIM documents
>>   discuss a reasonable set of possible actions and strategies, and
>>   analyze their likely effects on attacks and on normal email
>>   delivery.
> 
> Delete the first sentence, per my concern above.  At the least, the sentence 
> appears to be largely redundant with the preceding paragraph's last sentence.
> 
> Isn't the second sentence incorrect?  Doesn't DKIM mandate treated a failed 
> validation the same as no signature present?
> 
>>   The previously chartered deliverables for the DKIM working group
>>   have been completed:
>>
>>   * An informational RFC presenting a detailed threat analysis of,
>>     and security requirements for, DKIM. (RFC 4686)
>>
>>   * A standards-track specification for DKIM signature and
>>     verification. (RFC 4871, updated by RFC 5672)
>>
>>   * A standards-track specification for DKIM policy handling.
>>     (RFC 5617)
>>
>>   * An informational RFC providing an overview of DKIM and how it
>>     can fit into overall messaging systems, how it relates to other
>>     IETF message signature technologies, implementation and
>>     migration considerations, and outlining potential DKIM
>>     applications and future extensions. (RFC 5585 and
>>     draft-ietf-dkim-deployment, in its final stages)
>>
>>   (One previously chartered deliverable, a standards-track
>>   specification for DKIM DNS Resource Record(s), was dropped by
>>   agreement between the working group and the Area Directors.)
> 
> Do re-charters usually contain all this history?
> 
> 
>>   The working group is now ready to switch its focus to refining and
>>   advancing the DKIM protocols.  The current deliverables for the
>>   DKIM working group are these:
>>
>>   * Advance the base DKIM protocol (RFC 4871) to Draft Standard.
>>
>>   * Collect data on the deployment and interoperability of the
>>     Author Domain Signing Practices protocol (RFC 5617), and
>>     determine if/when it's ready to advance on the standards track.
>>     Update it at Proposed Standard or advance it to Draft Standard,
>>     as appropriate.
>>
>>   As before, several related topics remain out of scope for the DKIM
>>   working group. These topics include:
>>
>>   * Reputation and accreditation systems. While we expect these to
>>     add value to what is defined by the DKIM working group, their
>>     development will be separate, and is out of scope for the DKIM
>>     working group.
>>
>>   * Message content encryption.
>>
>>   * Additional key management protocols or infrastructure.
>>
>>   * Signatures that are intended to make long-term assertions beyond
>>     the expected transit time of a message from originator to
>>     recipient, which is normally only a matter of a few days at
>>     most.
>>
>>   * Signatures that attempt to make strong assertions about the
>>     identity of the message author, and details of user-level
>>     signing of messages (as distinguished from domain-level keys
>>     that are restricted to specific users).
>>
>>   * Duplication of prior work in signed email, including S/MIME and
>>     OpenPGP.
> 

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