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[ietf-dkim] Re: ISSUE 1547: SSP-02: MX Record publishing mandate to reduce DNS overhead for SSP Discovery and to detect fraudulent messages

2008-02-13 14:57:01
Douglas Otis wrote:

There appears to be confusion regarding the impact of this requirement. A requirement to publish an MX record when also publishing SMTP policy does _not_ impact RFC 2821, which had been the basis for these objections. When the concern is that DKIM Signing policy records apply to other types of message traffic, then _different_ policy records must be published for each of the different protocols or a scope parameter is needed. There should be a general stipulation that the scope of _asp, _ssp, _adsp, or whatever it is called is limited to SMTP. When the policy affects other types of message traffic, such as IM or UUDP, the policy records MUST BE specifically defined for the type of traffic covered by the policy.

I'm not confused about the impact of this requirement. But I don't see the benefit of this requirement, not even the efficiency benefit that you claim. I see it as an unnecessary requirement, and I oppose it on that basis.

Email policy discovery _will_ impact domains being forged in fraudulent email. These domains may not be either sending or accepting SMTP traffic as well. By establishing a convention that SMTP/DKIM policy is only valid in conjunction with a published MX record does not change how SMTP or any other message handling protocol operates. This requirement only affects the publishing of SMTP related policy.

It is rather unlikely there will be only one policy implemented for SMTP, NNTP, UUCP, etc. In addition, policy discovery adds to the DNS burden caused by an undefined number of subsequent key look-ups, existence tests, and tree walking for policy. There may be any number of signatures within different sub-domains contained within a message. The MX record mandate, in the case of SMTP policy, provides a means to truncate subsequent SMTP transactions to both protect the domain and to disavow any related traffic purportedly covered by policy.

I see that you have opened a separate issue regarding scope. Good. Let's discuss it there.

-Jim

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