ietf-dkim
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Re: [ietf-dkim] Data integrity claims

2010-10-20 10:21:34
On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:18:16 +0100, Murray S. Kucherawy  
<msk(_at_)cloudmark(_dot_)com> wrote:

This is no more presumptuous than expecting that MUAs will adapt to
consume the output of DKIM as it stands now.

In another message I indicated that I don't presume either, but assert  
that there's no middle ground; they will or they won't.  If they will,  
informative text is sufficient; if they won't, then we have to start  
hardening MTAs to defend against MUA attacks because that's where header  
changes and other enforcements are possible since, by definition, any  
current annotations are invisible and will stay that way.
I'm fine with accepting either model, but we have to understand the  
implications of picking one.  The latter, in particular, involves some  
major scope creep.

No it doesn't. I believe they "won't" (at least not on any short enough  
timescale). But we are already in the "hardening" business, because the  
basic assumption made by DKIM was that the verification (and resulting  
action) could and would be done at the boundary layer as part of, or  
closely associated with, the final MTA, and without any change to existing  
MUAs.

What options for 'action' are available at that point (or were envisaged  
as being available at that point when DKIM was first written)? I can think  
of

    discarding (silently or noisily)
    increased spamassassin score
    warning to the end user (e.g. in a changed Subject header)

So all we need is to ensure that those same actions will be activated by  
this new threat; in which case the language to bring this about needs to  
be just as normative as in the rest of the DKIM specification.

-- 
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
Tel: +44 161 436 6131                       
   Web: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl
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