On Sat, 2 Dec 2006, wayne wrote:
A Modest Proposal: Intensifiers for SPF Results
[a funny complaint about the "I REALLY REALLY MEAN IT" problem]
OK, I think both Julian and Stuart have a point here, but I think they
are also somewhat missing stuff.
...
My proposal for a "I really mean FAIL" is: If you, as the email
receiver reject an otherwise legitimate email due to an SPF Fail, then
the blame can be put on me, as the domain owner. As a sender, I have
taken the steps necessary to make sure that the email I send will
never Fail, which may include things like never sending to email
addresses that get forwarded and such.
That is what "FAIL" is. In RFC4408 we have:
2.5.4. Fail
A "Fail" result is an explicit statement that the client is not authorized to
use the domain in the given identity. The checking software can choose to mark
the mail based on this or to reject the mail outright.
Note that the checking software is explicitly given permission to
reject the mail outright. If a sender complains that you rejected
their mail with SPF fail, just point to that paragraph.
If you want a FAIL that *doesn't* give permission to reject the mail,
use SOFTFAIL:
2.5.5. SoftFail
A "SoftFail" result should be treated as somewhere between a "Fail" and a
"Neutral". The domain believes the host is not authorized but is not willing
to make that strong of a statement. Receiving software SHOULD NOT reject the
message based solely on this result, but MAY subject the message to closer
scrutiny than normal.
While I promote SOFTFAIL as a debugging tool only, it certainly fills the
bill for those who want "FAIL, but I don't really mean it".
--
Stuart D. Gathman <stuart(_at_)bmsi(_dot_)com>
Business Management Systems Inc. Phone: 703 591-0911 Fax: 703 591-6154
"Confutatis maledictis, flammis acribus addictis" - background song for
a Microsoft sponsored "Where do you want to go from here?" commercial.
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