| < draft-newman-email-subaddr-00.txt | draft-newman-email-subaddr-01.txt > | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Network Working Group C. Newman | Network Working Group D. Cridland | |||
| Internet Draft: Internet Email Subaddressing Innosoft | Internet-Draft Isode Limited | |||
| Document: draft-newman-email-subaddr-00.txt July 1997 | Intended status: Informational November 16, 2007 | |||
| Expires in six months | Expires: May 19, 2008 | |||
| Internet Email Subaddressing | Internet Email Subaddressing | |||
| draft-newman-email-subaddr-01 | ||||
| Status of this memo | Status of this Memo | |||
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| Copyright Notice | ||||
| Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007). | ||||
| Abstract | Abstract | |||
| It is often useful for a single user to have multiple email | It is often useful for a single user to have multiple email addresses | |||
| addresses which can be used to assist categorizing incoming email. | which can be used to assist categorizing incoming email. One way of | |||
| One way of doing this is to divide the local-part of an email | doing this is to divide the local-part of an email address into user | |||
| address into a primary address and a subaddress. The primary | and detail parts. The user part is used to route the message within | |||
| address is used to route the message within the specified domain | the specified domain and the detail part is used to route the message | |||
| and the subaddress is used to route the message according to a | according to a particular user's wishes. | |||
| particular user's wishes. | ||||
| This specification formalizes the de-facto standard for | This specification formalizes the de-facto standard for subaddressing | |||
| subaddressing in use today and includes advice and requirements for | in use today and includes advice and requirements for final delivery | |||
| final delivery agents, MUAs and mail list servers which wish to | agents, MUAs and mail list servers which wish to support | |||
| support subaddressing. | subaddressing. | |||
| 1. Conventions Used in this Document | Table of Contents | |||
| The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", and "MAY" | 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 | |||
| in this document are to be interpreted as defined in "Key words for | 1.1. Conventions used in this document . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 | |||
| use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels" [KEYWORDS]. | 2. Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 | |||
| 3. Subaddressing Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 | ||||
| 4. Subaddress Support Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 | ||||
| 4.1. Final Delivery Agent Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 | ||||
| 4.2. Gateway/Firewall Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 | ||||
| 4.3. MUA Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 | ||||
| 4.4. Mailing List Server Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 | ||||
| 5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 | ||||
| 6. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 | ||||
| 7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 | ||||
| 7.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 | ||||
| 7.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 | ||||
| Appendix A. Subaddressing Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 | ||||
| A.1. Subscribe to Mailing List by Detailed Address . . . . . . 9 | ||||
| A.2. User Controlled Distribution Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 | ||||
| A.3. Mailto URL Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 | ||||
| A.4. Support for Special Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 | ||||
| A.5. Priority Categorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 | ||||
| A.6. Anti-Phishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 | ||||
| Appendix B. Open Issues and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 | ||||
| B.1. To-do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 | ||||
| Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 | ||||
| Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 12 | ||||
| The formal grammar in this document uses Augmented BNF [ABNF]. | 1. Introduction | |||
| 2. Definitions | Subaddressing is a common technique for providing users with multiple | |||
| addresses which can be used for filtering incoming email. A key | ||||
| feature is that no administrative action is required to provision or | ||||
| enable a particular detail part; instead, as long as the domain's | ||||
| mail system is subaddress-aware, the user may use arbitrary detail | ||||
| parts. | ||||
| Final Delivery Agent | Although commonly deployed, subaddressing has had minimal formal | |||
| The final delivery agent is the agent started by the Final MTA | documentation; this document attempts to define subaddressing, and | |||
| which interprets the local-part of the email address. | also define what it means to be subaddress-aware. | |||
| Final MTA | In general, deployed forms of subaddressing divide the local-part of | |||
| The final MTA is the MTA designated by the domain to the left | an email address into two strings, seperated by a delimiter | |||
| of the "@" in an email address. | character. This is most commonly a plus sign, "+". | |||
| Local-Part | This document does not document all forms of subaddressing, merely | |||
| The local-part of an email address is everything to the left | the most common form, also known as "plus-addressing". Other forms | |||
| of the "@" in the address used for delivery and is formally | are also deployed, sometimes using a minus sign, and in some rare | |||
| defined in [IMAIL]. It is also know as the "left hand side" | cases using encoding rules rather than simple catenation. | |||
| of an address. | ||||
| Mail List Server | 1.1. Conventions used in this document | |||
| A Mail List Server takes messages directed to it, rewrites the | ||||
| envelope addresses and redistributes the message to one or | ||||
| more subscribers. | ||||
| MTA A Mail Transport Agent (MTA) receives email from other MTAs or | The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", | |||
| MUAs and routes it towards the final MTA. | "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this | |||
| document are to be interpreted as described in [KEYWORDS]. | ||||
| MUA A Mail User Agent (MUA) is used by a user to send and read | The formal grammar in this document uses Augmented BNF [ABNF]. | |||
| email. | ||||
| Subaddress | 2. Definitions | |||
| A subaddress is information in addition to the address of a | ||||
| primary mailbox which may be used for categorization by the | ||||
| recipient. | ||||
| 3. Subaddress Syntax | Final Delivery Agent | |||
| The final delivery agent is the agent started by the Final MTA | ||||
| which interprets the local-part of the email address. | ||||
| A final delivery agent may divide the local-part into two pieces | Final MTA | |||
| separated by a "+". The primary address is to the left of the "+" | The final MTA is the MTA designated by the domain to the left of | |||
| and the subaddress is to the right of the "+". A message with a | the "@" in an email address. | |||
| valid primary address is delivered to that primary address by | ||||
| default, regardless of the contents of the subaddress. The | ||||
| subaddress may be used by final delivery filtering (e.g. to deliver | ||||
| messages with a particular subaddress into a special folder) or by | ||||
| an MUA. | ||||
| For example, an address <delenn+grey-council@babylon5.org> could be | Local-Part | |||
| used to send email to <delenn@babylon5.org> relating to grey- | The local-part of an email address is everything to the left of | |||
| council business. Delenn can then direct her final delivery agent | the "@" in the address used for delivery and is formally defined | |||
| to file messages with a "grey-council" subaddress into her "grey- | in [IMAIL]. It is also know as the "left hand side" of an | |||
| council" folder. | address. | |||
| When generating a subaddress, the local part of the address MUST be | Mail List Server | |||
| canonically quoted. A local part is canonically quoted if it is | A Mail List Server takes messages directed to it, rewrites the | |||
| legal according to both the formal grammer in [IMAIL] and the | envelope addresses and redistributes the message to one or more | |||
| formal grammar in [SMTP]. The following formal grammar restricts | subscribers. | |||
| <local-part> in this fashion and distinguishes the primary address | ||||
| from the subaddress. Subaddress aware MUAs MUST NOT generate | ||||
| addresses which violate this syntax and subaddress aware final | ||||
| delivery agents MAY refuse to apply subaddress interpretation to | ||||
| addresses which violate this syntax. | ||||
| local-part = local-quoted / local-unquoted | MTA | |||
| A Mail Transport Agent (MTA) receives email from other MTAs or | ||||
| MUAs and routes it towards the final MTA. | ||||
| local-quoted = <"> primary-q ["+" subaddress-q] <"> | MUA | |||
| A Mail User Agent (MUA) is used by a user to send and read email. | ||||
| local-unquoted = [primary-c] ["+" [subaddress-c]] | Detail Part | |||
| A detail part is information in addition to the address of a | ||||
| primary mailbox which may be used for categorization by the | ||||
| recipient. It is also known as a subaddress. | ||||
| primary = *(SAFEQ-CHAR / QUOTE-CHAR) | User Part | |||
| ;; This is the syntax for an unquoted primary | A user part is that portion of the local part which indicates the | |||
| ;; address. If it fits canonical form (primary-c) | primary mailbox. In a mail system which is not subaddress-aware, | |||
| ;; it is used directly in a local-part. Otherwise | the user part is equal to the local part. | |||
| ;; QUOTE-CHARs are escaped to fit quoted form. | ||||
| primary-c = primc-word *("." primc-word) | Detailed Address | |||
| An email address which has a detail part. | ||||
| primary-q = *(SAFEQ-CHAR / quoted) | Primary Address | |||
| An email address which has no detail part, or the corresponding | ||||
| address to a detailed address with the detail part removed. | ||||
| primc-word = 1*SAFE-CHAR | 3. Subaddressing Syntax | |||
| quoted = "\" QUOTE-CHAR | A subaddress-aware final delivery agent divides the local-part into | |||
| two pieces separated by a "+". The user part is to the left of the | ||||
| "+" and the detail part is to the right of the "+". A message with a | ||||
| valid user part is delivered to the primary address by default, | ||||
| regardless of the contents of the detail part. The detail part MAY | ||||
| be used by final delivery filtering (e.g. to deliver messages with a | ||||
| particular detail part into a special mailbox) or by an MUA. | ||||
| subaddress = *(SAFEQ-CHAR / QUOTE-CHAR / "+") | For example, the detailed address | |||
| ;; This is the syntax for an unquoted subaddress. | <delenn+grey-council@babylon5.example.org> might be used to send | |||
| ;; If it fits canonical form (subaddress-c) it is | email to <delenn@babylon5.example.org> relating to grey-council | |||
| ;; used directly in a local-part. Otherwise | business. Delenn can then direct her final delivery agent to file | |||
| ;; QUOTE-CHARs are escaped to fit quoted form. | messages with a "grey-council" subaddress into her "grey-council" | |||
| mailbox, perhaps with the [SIEVE-SUBADDRESS] extension. | ||||
| subaddress-c = subc-word *("." subc-word) | When generating a detailed address, the local part of the address | |||
| MUST be canonically quoted. A local part is canonically quoted if it | ||||
| is legal according to both the formal grammer in [IMAIL] and the | ||||
| formal grammar in [SMTP]. The following formal grammar restricts | ||||
| <local-part> in this fashion and distinguishes the user part from the | ||||
| detail part. Subaddress-aware MUAs MUST NOT generate addresses which | ||||
| violate this syntax and subaddress-aware final delivery agents MAY | ||||
| refuse to apply subaddress interpretation to addresses which violate | ||||
| this syntax. | ||||
| subaddress-q = *(SAFEQ-CHAR / "+" / quoted) | local-part = local-quoted / local-unquoted | |||
| subc-word = 1*(SAFE-CHAR / "+") | local-quoted = DQUOTE user-part-q ["+" detail-q] DQUOTE | |||
| QUOTE-CHAR = <"> / "\" | ||||
| SAFE-CHAR = %21 / %23..27 / %2A / %2D / %2F..39 / %3D / | local-unquoted = [user-part-c] ["+" [detail-c]] | |||
| %3F / %41..5A / %5E..7E | ||||
| ;; All printable US-ASCII characters except | ||||
| ;; space, plus "+" and <specials> as defined | ||||
| ;; in [IMAIL] | ||||
| SAFEQ-CHAR = %20..21 / %23..2A / %2C..5B / %5D..7E | user-part = *(SAFEQ-CHAR / QUOTE-CHAR) | |||
| ;; All printable US-ASCII characters except | ;; This is the syntax for an unquoted user-part | |||
| ;; plus "+", quote <"> and backslash "\" | ;; address. If it fits canonical form (user-part-c) | |||
| ;; it is used directly in a local-part. Otherwise | ||||
| ;; QUOTE-CHARs are escaped to fit quoted form. | ||||
| 4. Subaddress Support Requirements | user-part-c = userc-word *("." userc-word) | |||
| This section defines the requirements for subaddress aware final | user-part-q = *(SAFEQ-CHAR / quoted) | |||
| delivery agents, gateway/firewalls, MUAs and mail list servers. | ||||
| 4.1. Final Delivery Agent Requirements | userc-word = 1*SAFE-CHAR | |||
| A message with a valid primary address MUST be delivered to that | quoted = "\" QUOTE-CHAR | |||
| primary address by default, regardless of the contents of the | ||||
| subaddress. The subaddress MAY be used to route the message | ||||
| according to rules specified by the owner of that primary address. | ||||
| 4.2. Gateway/Firewall Requirements | detail-part = *(SAFEQ-CHAR / QUOTE-CHAR / "+") | |||
| ;; This is the syntax for an unquoted subaddress. | ||||
| ;; If it fits canonical form (subaddress-c) it is | ||||
| ;; used directly in a local-part. Otherwise | ||||
| ;; QUOTE-CHARs are escaped to fit quoted form. | ||||
| A subaddress aware gateway or firewall SHOULD preserve the | detail-c = detailc-word *("." detailc-word) | |||
| subaddress when rewriting an address. A subaddress aware gateway | ||||
| MAY rewrite an address into canonical quoted form. | ||||
| 4.3. MUA Requirements | detail-q = *(SAFEQ-CHAR / "+" / quoted) | |||
| A subaddress aware MUA MUST allow the user to include a subaddress | detailc-word = 1*(SAFE-CHAR / "+") | |||
| in the From header when sending a message. A subaddress aware MUA | ||||
| MUST generate addresses in canonically quoted form following the | ||||
| syntax for local-part in this specification. A subaddress aware | ||||
| MUA SHOULD allow the user to include a subaddress in the envelope | ||||
| sender address (as used in the SMTP MAIL FROM command). A | ||||
| subaddress aware MUA which validates local addresses MUST ignore | ||||
| subaddresses for the purposes of such validation. | ||||
| 4.4. Mail List Server Requirements | QUOTE-CHAR = DQUOTE / "\" | |||
| A subaddress aware mail list server MUST allow users to subscribe | SAFE-CHAR = %x21 / %x23-27 / %x2A / %x2D / %x2F-39 / %x3D / | |||
| using a subaddress. If such a server restricts postings by their | %x3F / %x41-5A / %x5E-7E | |||
| envelope sender, sender or from address, it MUST ignore | ;; All printable US-ASCII characters except | |||
| subaddresses for the purposes of such restrictions. | ;; space, plus "+" and <specials> as defined | |||
| ;; in [IMAIL] | ||||
| 5. Security Considerations | SAFEQ-CHAR = %x20-21 / %x23-2A / %x2C-5B / %x5D-7E | |||
| ;; All printable US-ASCII characters except | ||||
| ;; plus, quote and backslash. | ||||
| If a final delivery agent executes a command line containing the | 4. Subaddress Support Requirements | |||
| delivery address and the subaddress contains meta-characters with | ||||
| special meaning to the command line interpretor this could result | ||||
| in a serious security violation. In order to avoid this problem, | ||||
| the final delivery agent MUST verify the subaddress contains no | ||||
| characters with special meaning to the command line interpretor, | ||||
| not use a command line interpretor, or strip the subaddress from | ||||
| the address prior to generating the command line when it contains | ||||
| characters with special meaning. | ||||
| If a final delivery agent were to automatically create a folder | This section defines the requirements for subaddress aware final | |||
| based on the subaddress, this could result in a denial of service | delivery agents, gateway/firewalls, MUAs and mail list servers. | |||
| problem as well as placing control of a user's folder namespace in | ||||
| the hands of outsiders. In order to avoid this problem, final | ||||
| delivery agents MUST NOT automatically create new folders based on | ||||
| the subaddress without explicit permission from the owner of the | ||||
| primary address. Final delivery agents SHOULD NOT automatically | ||||
| file a message into a folder based on the subaddress without | ||||
| explicit permission from the owner of the primary address. | ||||
| 6. References | 4.1. Final Delivery Agent Requirements | |||
| [ABNF] Crocker, D., "Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: | By default, delivery to a detailed address MUST be identical to | |||
| ABNF", Work in progress: draft-ietf-drums-abnf-xx.txt | delivery to the primary address. Configuration MAY be used to | |||
| override behaviour for specific detailed addresses. | ||||
| [IMAIL] Crocker, D., "Standard for the Format of Arpa Internet Text | If [SIEVE] is supported by the delivery agent, then | |||
| Messages", RFC 822, University of Delaware, August 1982. | [SIEVE-SUBADDRESS] MUST be supported. | |||
| <ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc822.txt> | 4.2. Gateway/Firewall Requirements | |||
| [IMAP4] Crispin, M., "Internet Message Access Protocol - Version | A subaddress-aware gateway or firewall SHOULD preserve the detail | |||
| 4rev1", RFC 2060, University of Washington, December 1996. | part when rewriting an address. A subaddress aware gateway MAY | |||
| rewrite an address into canonical quoted form. | ||||
| <ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc2060.txt> | 4.3. MUA Requirements | |||
| [MBOX-NAMES] Crocker, D., "Mailbox Names for Common Services, Roles | A subaddress-aware MUA MUST allow the user to include a detail part | |||
| and Functions", RFC 2142, Internet Mail Consortium, May 1997. | in the From header when sending a message. A subaddress-aware MUA | |||
| MUST generate addresses in canonically quoted form following the | ||||
| syntax for local-part in this specification. A subaddress-aware MUA | ||||
| SHOULD allow the user to user a detailed address as the envelope | ||||
| sender address (as used in the SMTP MAIL FROM command). A | ||||
| subaddress-aware MUA which validates local addresses MUST ignore | ||||
| detail parts for the purposes of such validation. | ||||
| <ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc2142.txt> | 4.4. Mailing List Server Requirements | |||
| [SMTP] Postel, "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", RFC 821, | A subaddress-aware mailing list server MUST allow users to subscribe | |||
| Information Sciences Institute, August 1982. | using a detailed address. If such a server restricts postings by | |||
| their envelope sender, Sender or From address, it MUST be able to be | ||||
| configured, by the subscriber, to ignore detail parts for the | ||||
| purposes of such restrictions. | ||||
| <ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc821.txt> | Mailing list servers SHOULD provide a per-user configuration setting | |||
| to allow for alternate delimiters, such as "-". | ||||
| 7. Author's Address | 5. Security Considerations | |||
| Chris Newman | If a final delivery agent executes a command line containing the | |||
| Innosoft International, Inc. | delivery address and the detail part contains meta-characters with | |||
| 1050 Lakes Drive | special meaning to the command line interpretor this could result in | |||
| West Covina, CA 91790 USA | a serious security violation. In order to avoid this problem, the | |||
| final delivery agent MUST verify the detail part contains no | ||||
| characters with special meaning to the command line interpretor, not | ||||
| use a command line interpretor, or strip the detail part from the | ||||
| address prior to generating the command line when it contains | ||||
| characters with special meaning. | ||||
| Email: chris.newman@innosoft.com | If a final delivery agent were to automatically create a mailbox | |||
| based on the detail part, this could result in a denial of service | ||||
| problem as well as placing control of a user's mailbox namespace in | ||||
| the hands of outsiders. In order to avoid this problem, final | ||||
| delivery agents MUST NOT automatically create new mailboxes based on | ||||
| the detail part without explicit permission from the owner of the | ||||
| primary address. Final delivery agents SHOULD NOT automatically file | ||||
| a message into a mailbox based on the subaddress without explicit | ||||
| configuration from the owner of the primary address. | ||||
| Appendix A. Subaddress Scenarios | Detailed addresses themselves may be used as a weak form of | |||
| authorization token, for example in the scenario given in | ||||
| Appendix A.6. In such cases, acquisition of the token by a third | ||||
| party may aid in fraud. Therefore such subaddresses MUST be random, | ||||
| and MUST NOT be disclosed. | ||||
| This appendix includes examples of how subaddresses are used on the | 6. Acknowledgements | |||
| Internet today. | ||||
| A.1. Subscribe to Mailing List by Subaddress | This draft is a direct ancestor of a 1997 draft by Chris Newman. | |||
| Some usages documented herein may reflect this long heritage, however | ||||
| it has been updated with current usages, including the use of | ||||
| subaddressing as an anti-phishing technique described by John Klensin | ||||
| on the IETF mailing list. No existing usages had fallen out of | ||||
| fashion in the intervening decade. | ||||
| Many users (including the author of this specification) subscribe | Discussions within the SIEVE working group also influenced the | |||
| to mailing lists using a subaddress and use the final delivery | changes to the draft - in particular, the terminology has been | |||
| agent to file all messages from that mailing list into a different | changed to match that of [SIEVE-SUBADDRESS]. | |||
| incoming folder based on the subaddress. This sorts mailing list | ||||
| traffic into appropriate folders with 100% accuracy and without | ||||
| scanning the contents of the message headers. | ||||
| A.2. User Controlled Distribution Lists | 7. References | |||
| Some final delivery agents allow a user to set up a distribution | 7.1. Normative References | |||
| list and associate it with a particular subaddress. This permits | ||||
| users to manage their own distribution lists without administrative | ||||
| intervention. | ||||
| A.3. Mailto URL Indicator | [ABNF] Crocker, D., Ed. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax | |||
| Specifications: ABNF", RFC 4234, October 2005. | ||||
| By including a different subaddress for each mailto URL on a web | [IMAIL] Resnick, P., "Internet Message Format", RFC 2822, | |||
| page, a user can determine which mailto URL was selected for a | April 2001. | |||
| particular message. | ||||
| A.4. Support for Special Addresses | [KEYWORDS] | |||
| Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate | ||||
| Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. | ||||
| A user may forward mail from special purpose addresses, such as | [SIEVE] Showalter, T. and P. Guenther, "Sieve: An Email Filtering | |||
| those described in [MBOX-NAMES] to a subaddress of their primary | Language", draft-ietf-sieve-3028bis-13 (work in progress), | |||
| account. This avoids the need to login as multiple users while | October 2007. | |||
| still keeping the mail separated. | ||||
| A.5. Priority Categorization | [SIEVE-SUBADDRESS] | |||
| Murchison, K., "Sieve Email Filtering -- Subaddress | ||||
| Extension", draft-ietf-sieve-rfc3598bis-05 (work in | ||||
| progress), June 2006. | ||||
| A user may advertise different subaddresses to different audiences | [SMTP] Klensin, J., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", RFC 2821, | |||
| and prioritize reading them appropriately. For example, one of the | April 2001. | |||
| current esteemed area directors uses an "iesg" subaddress to | ||||
| prioritize IESG traffic separately from regular email. | 7.2. Informative References | |||
| [MAIL-ARCH] | ||||
| Crocker, D., "Internet Mail Architecture", | ||||
| draft-crocker-email-arch-09 (work in progress), May 2007. | ||||
| [MBOX-NAMES] | ||||
| Crocker, D., "MAILBOX NAMES FOR COMMON SERVICES, ROLES AND | ||||
| FUNCTIONS", RFC 2142, May 1997. | ||||
| [MIXER] Kille, S., "MIXER (Mime Internet X.400 Enhanced Relay): | ||||
| Mapping between X.400 and RFC 822/MIME", RFC 2156, | ||||
| January 1998. | ||||
| Appendix A. Subaddressing Scenarios | ||||
| This appendix includes examples of how subaddressing used on the | ||||
| Internet today. | ||||
| A.1. Subscribe to Mailing List by Detailed Address | ||||
| Many users subscribe to mailing lists using a detailed address and | ||||
| use the final delivery agent to file all messages from that mailing | ||||
| list into a different incoming mailbox based on the detail part. | ||||
| This sorts mailing list traffic into appropriate mailboxes with 100% | ||||
| accuracy and without scanning the contents of the message headers. | ||||
| A.2. User Controlled Distribution Lists | ||||
| Some final delivery agents allow a user to set up a distribution list | ||||
| and associate it with a particular detailed address. This permits | ||||
| users to manage their own distribution lists without administrative | ||||
| intervention. | ||||
| A.3. Mailto URL Indicator | ||||
| By including a different detail part for each mailto URL on a web | ||||
| page, a user can determine which mailto URL was selected for a | ||||
| particular message. | ||||
| A.4. Support for Special Addresses | ||||
| A user may forward mail from special purpose addresses, such as those | ||||
| described in [MBOX-NAMES] to a subaddress of their primary account. | ||||
| This avoids the need to login as multiple users while still keeping | ||||
| the mail separated. | ||||
| A.5. Priority Categorization | ||||
| A user may advertise different detailed addresses to different | ||||
| audiences and prioritize reading them appropriately. For example, | ||||
| one of the current esteemed area directors uses an "ietf" detail part | ||||
| to prioritize IETF traffic separately from regular email. | ||||
| A.6. Anti-Phishing | ||||
| If a user provides their bank with a unique detailed address, then | ||||
| any messages arriving either to the primary address or to a different | ||||
| detailed address are more easily detirmined to be fraudulent, and can | ||||
| be easily filtered out. | ||||
| This effectively uses the detailed address as a weak authorization | ||||
| token, so it is advisable to choose a random or unusual detail part. | ||||
| Appendix B. Open Issues and Discussion | ||||
| This section will hopefully be empty prior to publication as an RFC. | ||||
| The author is aware of two main areas of contention which stalled the | ||||
| original document. Firstly, the choice of subaddress delimiter | ||||
| character is not universal, nor even the choice of having one at all. | ||||
| Unfortunately, a choice must be made for interoperability, therefore | ||||
| the plus character remains specified by this document, being the most | ||||
| common case. | ||||
| Secondly, the recommendation in Section 4.4 effectively means that | ||||
| mailing list management software is encouraged into interpreting the | ||||
| local-part of addresses in foreign domains. This recommendation has | ||||
| been reduced in this version - to requiring that the ability be | ||||
| present, and possible to configure by the subscriber. It is the | ||||
| author's assertion that modern mailing list management software is | ||||
| typically able to be configured by the subscriber in many ways | ||||
| already, so this ought to settle contention. | ||||
| B.1. To-do | ||||
| This is likely to break [MIXER] - either a solution or advice will be | ||||
| needed here. | ||||
| Need to switch to and use terminology within [MAIL-ARCH], rather than | ||||
| defining potentially clashing terminology. | ||||
| Author's Address | ||||
| Dave Cridland | ||||
| Isode Limited | ||||
| 5 Castle Business Village | ||||
| 36, Station Road | ||||
| Hampton, Middlesex TW12 2BX | ||||
| GB | ||||
| Email: dave.cridland@isode.com | ||||
| Full Copyright Statement | ||||
| Copyright (C) The IETF Trust (2007). | ||||
| This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions | ||||
| contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors | ||||
| retain all their rights. | ||||
| This document and the information contained herein are provided on an | ||||
| "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS | ||||
| OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY, THE IETF TRUST AND | ||||
| THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS | ||||
| OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF | ||||
| THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED | ||||
| WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. | ||||
| Intellectual Property | ||||
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| Acknowledgment | ||||
| Funding for the RFC Editor function is provided by the IETF | ||||
| Administrative Support Activity (IASA). | ||||
| End of changes. 75 change blocks. | ||||
| 202 lines changed or deleted | 254 lines changed or added | |||
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