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Re: SPF and viruses

2004-02-05 01:01:47


"Mark Shewmaker" <mark(_at_)primefactor(_dot_)com> wrote:
Then if someone forges mail from their own IP address:

  o The spf tests for mail froms of "user(_at_)example(_dot_)com" return FAIL.

  o But the spf tests for mail froms of 
"user(_at_)support(_dot_)example(_dot_)com"
    will return UNKNOWN, (even though support.example.com doesn't
    exist and a "host support.example.com" returns NXDOMAIN.)

--Guillaume Filion <gfk(_at_)logidac(_dot_)com> wrote:
It's allready a good idea to reject with a temporary error email with an
inexistant FROM domain. That's what I do, and it stops a lot of junk.


What he said. Also, sendmail default config out of the box is to reject any mail from a nonexistent domain, since it could not be replied or bounced it is assumed to be bogus.

I think it's pretty normal to issue a 5xx permanent rejection if the answer was "this really doesn't exist" and is authoritative (NXDOMAIN) and a 4xx temporary rejection if the DNS server was unreachable or similar.

It sort of sucks that you have to define SPF TXT records for everywhere you have an MX or A already, but at least we don't have to worry much about non-existent names. Essentially DNS already supports testing those for validity without having to invent SPF.

--
Greg Connor <gconnor(_at_)nekodojo(_dot_)org>

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