ietf-mxcomp
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Re: towards a compromise

2004-04-22 06:31:56


On Apr 22, 2004, at 12:17 AM, Greg Connor wrote:

   o  For 2821, we will either pick HELO or MAIL FROM, but not both as
they have different meaning.  In the case of a null MAIL FROM, the
receiver has the choice to abandon the MARID check or drop back to 2822
checking.


This is a little odd, and I'm not sure if I understand it. But, I think HELO and MAIL FROM checking are compatible with each other, for the same reasons mentioned above... they just do two different things. (i.e. usually the HELO name is different from the domain in the MAIL FROM address, so again, each can be checked against its own DNS entry)

MAIL FROM checking is important so that I don't get bounces from mail I didn't actually send. HELO checking is not as important, but some domain owners don't want their domains used as fake HELO values and we can accomplish that pretty easily.

So how about this proposed language to replace the above paragraph:

o For 2821, MAIL FROM will be checked against its domain. In the case of MAIL FROM: <>, check the MTA authorization using the same logic as MAIL FROM: <postmaster(_at_)HELO>. Because HELO name is used sometimes as a fallback (i.e. for DSN messages) it is expected to have sensible LMAP info of its own, and any name used as a HELO (usually the FQDN of your mail servers) is either used consistently with its LMAP info or will have no LMAP info associated with it. Some recipients may choose to check the HELO name all the time, not just on MAIL FROM: <>.


While not getting into the details, I think the overall point is that we could also have a selection algorithm for 2821 just as with 2822, right? I believe this is what Gordon was also saying. And it sounds reasonable to me.

-andy