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Re: People keep misunderstanding what "Pass" and "Neutral" mean (was: Time to start rejecting on neutral?)

2005-05-17 07:08:36
On Tue, 17 May 2005, Hector Santos wrote:

For me, it is either a NONE, PASS or a FAIL and under a "Time Limited"
concept,  a relaxed result.

NEUTRAL (mostly)== NONE.  The only relaxed result is SOFTFAIL.

The point of NEUTRAL is that when you haven't completely secured
your network, you can still provide PASS/FAIL results for IPs inside
your secured network, and outside your network altogether.  Having
some PASS/FAIL results is better than none at all.

SOFTFAIL is a relaxed result, and should be time limited.  I handle
SOFTFAIL by sending a DSN to the purported sender.  If there is 
a mistake in their SPF record or mail config, the DSN helps them
fix it.  If it is a forgery, then the DSN nags them to work on
eliminating the SOFTFAIL - if they don't accept the DSN, I don't
accept the email (kind of a conditional CBV).  It is a real DSN
(null sender) so that if the alleged domain signs localparts (SES/SRS),
then forgeries are immediately detected.

-- 
              Stuart D. Gathman <stuart(_at_)bmsi(_dot_)com>
    Business Management Systems Inc.  Phone: 703 591-0911 Fax: 703 591-6154
"Confutatis maledictis, flamis acribus addictis" - background song for
a Microsoft sponsored "Where do you want to go from here?" commercial.


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