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Re: [ietf-dkim] Re: ISSUE 1525 -- Restriction to posting by first Author breaks email semantics

2008-01-29 12:40:00

On Jan 29, 2008, at 9:52 AM, Jeff Macdonald wrote:
On Wed, Jan 16, 2008 at 09:46:26AM -0800, Dave Crocker wrote:
<snip>

In any event, "on behalf of" is key wording that permits more flexibility than you seem to be acknowledging. Note, for example, that the agent specified in the Sender field is acting "on behalf of" the author.

Is that agent authorized to work "on behalf of" the author?

When the author's email-address domain is within (applying the key's g= and t= restrictions) the domain of the signature on-behalf-of the sender (per i=), the signature is authoritative for the author's domain. By signing the message, the author's domain confirms the message meets their signing policies. As such, the signing domain has indicated their authorization of the Sender in this case.

What sense would it make for an SSP assertion to declare valid signatures of the very domain to be non-compliant?

Whereas SSP began as a simple idea as a means of deciding whether an unsigned message should have been signed, it has morphed into an effort to validate the From field. That is a very, very different goal.

While DKIM has the goal of assigning *any* identity to a message, so that that identity can be assessed, the current work on SSP is attempting to instead validate authorship.


DKIM needs to say what part of DKIM asserts a new identity. What is the output of DKIM? And should that output be treated as opaque.

In general, the i= parameter should be considered independent of SSP policies (an exception may be made for g= restricted keys). For unrestricted keys, only the d= parameter needs to be assessed. Unfortunately, the scope of a signature has been complicated. A signature's scope can be restricted with g= and t= parameters within the key.

The i= parameter should be generally considered independent of SSP policies. Whether the i= parameter is on-behalf-of a particular header is a separate matter. Any on-behalf-of identity indication conveyed to the recipient must ensure this information is included within the signature's hash. This information must also be within the key's g= and t= parameters. A signing domain can have the signature's i= parameter assert on-behalf-of to convey who introduced the message. This identity might be opaque and not match with any existing headers. This might be done to retain the privacy of the entity introducing the message.

-Doug
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