ietf
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Review of: draft-otis-dkim-harmful

2013-06-17 14:58:39

On Jun 4, 2013, at 7:16 PM, Sam Hartman <hartmans-ietf(_at_)mit(_dot_)edu> 
wrote:
So, I'd like to encourage Doug to refine his work, fix errors of
precision, but to say I think this is worth writing down.

Dear Sam,

Thank you for your interest.  I have updated the draft and, and as requested by 
Dave Crocker, included references to prior statements by Dave Crocker and Barry 
Leiba made public subsequent to the conclusion of the WG DKIM specification in 
response to comments about the phishing threat DKIM permits.  In reviewing some 
of Dave Crocker's responses, it appears differences between "validated the 
SDID" and "authenticated the SDID" could use some clarification since this is 
awkwardly described in RFC6376 section 6.3.  

Quoting the abstract of RFC5863 co-authored by Dave Crocker, "DKIM's 
authentication of email identity can assist in the global control of "spam" and 
"phishing".  This document provides implementation, deployment, operational, 
and migration considerations for DKIM." 

Section 5.4 "Inbound Mail Filtering" of RFC5863 states: 
,---
   DKIM is frequently employed in a mail filtering strategy to avoid
   performing content analysis on email originating from trusted
   sources.  Messages that carry a valid DKIM signature from a trusted
   source can be whitelisted, avoiding the need to perform computation
   and hence energy-intensive content analysis to determine the
   disposition of the message.
'---
This is exactly how DKIM is being used and why DKIM is harmful!

Additional information is being acquired, but will not alter conclusions 
reached.
http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-otis-dkim-harmful-03

Regards,
Douglas Otis

 

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>