spf-discuss
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Re: [spf-discuss] promoting softfail to fail

2005-08-27 10:54:05
On Sat, 27 Aug 2005, David wrote:

Now most providers publish softfail instead fail to avoid problems
with forwarding.

Softfail is for new SPF publishers to help debug their policies, and solicits
feedback while still accepting the mail.  My checker sends a warning DSN
notifying the alleged sender of the policy failure (or forgery).  
If the DSN is not accepted, the message is rejected.

Problems with forwarding are due to broken SPF checkers on the receiving
end (e.g. not accounting for forwarders), and are never caused by
the sender policy.

<rant>We have all these tools to help sender check their policy
for errors.  What about tools to help SPF receivers avoid 
stupid mistakes? </rant>

        SPF receiver configuration validator website

We need a web site where a receiver can enter an email address and 
request test emails from several domains with various types of SPF records.
The web site would then display any rejections from attempting to
send the test emails.

is to check if the envelope recipient is in the To: header field, if
the envelope recipient is in the To: header field then the message has
not been forwarded and if not nothing could be assured. This could be

Interesting idea.  I would first simply log cases of said promotion to see
how it works out.  I will give it a try myself.  The comparing 
MFROM domain to From and Sender experiment didn't turn out to be
very useful, but you never know till you try (in the case of 
heuristics, anyway).

-- 
              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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