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Re: [Asrg] Re: 1a. Inventory of Problems - Spoofed mail addresses

2004-02-05 14:37:20

On Feb 5, 2004, at 2:56 PM, Za'mbori, Zolta'n wrote:

Brett Watson wrote:
Scenario: party A sends mail to party B at the request of party C. Example: Chris wants publisher Aardvarks.example.com to mail an article to Bob. The subsequent mail transaction has Aardvarks.example.com as the SMTP-sender, and Bob's mail server as the SMTP-receiver. "MAIL From:" is given as a bounce-handling address at Aardvarks.example.com (possibly utilising VERP), which allows an LMAP-like system to bless the use of the given address. This would not be possible if Chris' address were used at this point. "RCPT To:" is given as Bob's address. In the message itself, "Sender:" is an appropriate Aardvarks.example.com address, "From:" is Chris' address, and "To:" is Bob's address. If the message is refused for any reason, the bounce-handler at Aardvarks.example.com is in a position to notify Chris of this failure via email.

IMHO there are no 100% solution to this situation. (Other than the copy-paste "solution".)

If Aardvarks.example.com will be the MAIL FROM than MTA doing white-list filtering at the SMTP level will refuse this email even the white-list contains the email address of Bob.

Whitelisting based on the MAIL FROM: is faulty at best - the forgability of that information is why this discussion is occuring at all. In this situation, Aardvarks has no business or compelling interesting in putting Bob's address in the MAIL FROM:. Bob is not the agent sending the mail, Aardvarks is. Compelling reasons for Aardvarks to use their own address as the MAIL FROM: include:

a) they actually sent it
b) if Bill lied (intentionally or otherwise) about being Bob, now Aardvarks will be the one contacted, and they can correct their behavior.
c) Aardvarks stays in the loop of how their resources are being used.


// George Schlossnagle
// Postal Engine -- http://www.postalengine.com/
// Ecelerity: fastest MTA on earth


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