On Monday, January 23, 2012 09:37:49 PM John Levine wrote:
> Since Scott says he wants to move this forward, here's some comments:
> 
> In section 3, the r= option lets you specify an arbitrary address,
> which is an invitation to remote mailbombing.  I have my doubts about
> the utility of inviting reports from random strangers, but if you're
> going to do it, make it just a local part so you can only mailbomb
> yourself.

I agree.  I'd like to change this in -03.

> The rf= option specifies a report format.  The only plausible report
> format described in an IETF standard is ARF, and it seems unlikely
> that there will others, so lose this option.  If you want to make
> private arrangements to use non-standard formats, that's fine, but
> they don't go into the spec.

I'm fine with this.  Since this is going into an IANA registry, the same RFC 
that defines the report type can define this.

> The ri=N option asks senders to discard N/(N+1) of the reports they
> might generate.  It's not clear to me what this is supposed to
> accomplish.  If the goal is to limit the traffic, I'd suggest making
> it the maximum number of reports to send per minute or per hour.  Keep
> in mind that people sending reports will do whatever they do, so hosts
> MUST be prepared to deal with whatever garbage reporters send.

Here I disagree.  Assuming senders implement this as specified (and yes, I know 
they all won't) I think some kind of a global fractional rate is better than a 
per sender volume.  In applications where I've seen similar things done in 
private arrangements, the goal is to get a statistically valid sample of data 
without putting excessing strain on sending or receiving systems.

If you specify X per hour or Y perm minute then low volume senders will send 
at their normal rate while high volume senders throttle back.  This skews the 
sample data.

I find the current method a bit confusing to follow in English, but it would be 
easy enough to implement in code (I inherited it from the document split out).  
Describing the rate as a percentage of volume might be a little more 
understandable.  I could see doing either.

> In 6.2, it correctly notes that an included SPF record might have an
> r= field, inviting all sorts of mischief.  I'd suggest adjusting
> section 3 to say that the r= ri= and ro= options should be ignored in
> includes and perhaps in redirect records.

I agree for include: as it's intended to cross administrative boundaries.  
Redirect is intended to be used within a single administrative structure and 
the target domain is the same as for the initial record (this is described in 
paragraph 6.1 of RFC 4408), so I think for redirect it is OK to process them.

> I would shrink 6.3 somewhat and just say that the envelope of any
> report sent to an address found using the process in this document
> MUST have an envelope that produces an SPF Pass.

You think that's better than <> for Mail From and HELO/EHLO that Pass?  What 
about the rest of the text?  Just ditch it?  I'm not sure I'm following you 
here, so I'd appreciate it if you would amplify (with a proposed 6.3 text).

Thanks for the review,

Scott K
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