"Monique Y. Herman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> why shouldn't auto-responders be using From?

Essentially because this is the sole purpose of Return-Path -- to
provide an address suitable for machine generated messages.  SMTP
servers already use Return-Path for automated messages.  Using
Return-Path for auto-responses is also recommended by the IETF draft
``Recommendations for Automatic Responses to Electronic Mail''[1], and
TMDA attempts to be standards-compliant.  Section 4 of the draft
discusses the pros and cons of using Return-Path, Sender, From, or
Reply-To for this purpose.  In summary:

  ``The Return-Path address is really the only one from the message
  header that can be expected, as a matter of protocol, to be suitable
  for automatic responses that were not anticipated by the sender.''

I'll note that TMDA used Return-Path long before this draft was
written.  

> I'm guessing the answer is because the From header can be easily
> spoofed ...

Not really, as the envelope sender address can be easily spoofed as
well (using `/usr/sbin/sendmail -f' for example).

Footnotes: 
[1]  http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-moore-auto-email-response-03.txt
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