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Re: Whitelists instead of SRS

2004-04-21 21:52:40
How do we handle the case when trusted forward is compromised?

That requires a huge infrastructure change at _every_ receiver site instead of the far fewer forwarder sites. An enormous number of aol users have their mail forwarded from places like @acm.org or @alma.mader.edu. That would mean that aol would need to implement per-user trust lists -- and the users would need to be educated.

On the other hand, no users need to be educated if aol were to say: forwarders don't use aol.com in the envelope sender, if you are resending mail, take responsibility over the return path or expect it to be rejected.

On Apr 22, 2004, at 12:44 AM, Mark Shewmaker wrote:

Let me modify and reposition my previous suggestion:  I would suggest
that whitelists are a better solution to handling forwarding than SRS.

As a user, I would like to be able to have a ~/.trusted-forwarders file
such as:

  user(_at_)forwarder(_dot_)com
  @my_employer.com

  include:trusted-forwarders.org
  include:good_friend(_at_)isp(_dot_)com
  include:~myfriend/group-trusted-forwarder-list

  options:-all

How do we handle the case when trusted forward is compromised?

That requires a huge infrastructure change at _every_ receiver site instead of the far fewer forwarder sites. An enormous number of aol users have their mail forwarded from places like @acm.org or @alma.mader.edu. That would mean that aol would need to implement per-user trust lists -- and the users would need to be educated.

On the other hand, no users need to be educated if aol were to say: forwarders don't use aol.com in the envelope sender, if you are resending mail, take responsibility over the return path or expect it to be rejected.

Basically, what we are saying is that every _user_ that uses a forwarding service must be able to manage their own whitelist rather than timy (in comparison) number of forwarders adapting. I don't see how whitelists benefit from any economy of scale.

// Theo Schlossnagle
// Principal Engineer -- http://www.omniti.com/~jesus/
// Postal Engine -- http://www.postalengine.com/
// Ecelerity: fastest MTA on Earth


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