idnits 2.17.1 draft-newman-msgheader-originfo-02.txt: Checking boilerplate required by RFC 5378 and the IETF Trust (see https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info): ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** Cannot find the required boilerplate sections (Copyright, IPR, etc.) in this document. Expected boilerplate is as follows today (2024-04-25) according to https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info : IETF Trust Legal Provisions of 28-dec-2009, Section 6.a: This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. IETF Trust Legal Provisions of 28-dec-2009, Section 6.b(i), paragraph 2: Copyright (c) 2024 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. IETF Trust Legal Provisions of 28-dec-2009, Section 6.b(i), paragraph 3: This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License. Checking nits according to https://www.ietf.org/id-info/1id-guidelines.txt: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** Missing expiration date. The document expiration date should appear on the first and last page. ** The document seems to lack a 1id_guidelines paragraph about Internet-Drafts being working documents. ** The document seems to lack a 1id_guidelines paragraph about the list of current Internet-Drafts. ** The document seems to lack a 1id_guidelines paragraph about the list of Shadow Directories. == No 'Intended status' indicated for this document; assuming Proposed Standard Checking nits according to https://www.ietf.org/id-info/checklist : ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** The document seems to lack an Abstract section. ** The document seems to lack an IANA Considerations section. (See Section 2.2 of https://www.ietf.org/id-info/checklist for how to handle the case when there are no actions for IANA.) ** The document seems to lack separate sections for Informative/Normative References. All references will be assumed normative when checking for downward references. ** There are 4 instances of too long lines in the document, the longest one being 3 characters in excess of 72. Miscellaneous warnings: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- == The document seems to lack the recommended RFC 2119 boilerplate, even if it appears to use RFC 2119 keywords. (The document does seem to have the reference to RFC 2119 which the ID-Checklist requires). -- The document seems to lack a disclaimer for pre-RFC5378 work, but may have content which was first submitted before 10 November 2008. If you have contacted all the original authors and they are all willing to grant the BCP78 rights to the IETF Trust, then this is fine, and you can ignore this comment. If not, you may need to add the pre-RFC5378 disclaimer. (See the Legal Provisions document at https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info for more information.) -- The document date (August 1997) is 9750 days in the past. Is this intentional? Checking references for intended status: Proposed Standard ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (See RFCs 3967 and 4897 for information about using normative references to lower-maturity documents in RFCs) == Missing Reference: 'POP3-AUTH' is mentioned on line 106, but not defined == Missing Reference: 'RFC-822' is mentioned on line 162, but not defined ** Obsolete undefined reference: RFC 822 (Obsoleted by RFC 2822) ** Obsolete normative reference: RFC 822 (ref. 'IMAIL') (Obsoleted by RFC 2822) ** Obsolete normative reference: RFC 1730 (ref. 'IMAP4') (Obsoleted by RFC 2060, RFC 2061) ** Downref: Normative reference to an Informational RFC: RFC 1321 (ref. 'MD5') -- Possible downref: Non-RFC (?) normative reference: ref. 'MIME-PARAM' ** Obsolete normative reference: RFC 977 (ref. 'NNTP') (Obsoleted by RFC 3977) Summary: 14 errors (**), 0 flaws (~~), 4 warnings (==), 3 comments (--). Run idnits with the --verbose option for more detailed information about the items above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Network Working Group C. Newman 3 Internet Draft: Originator Info Message Header Innosoft 4 Document: draft-newman-msgheader-originfo-02.txt August 1997 6 Originator-Info Message Header 8 Status of this memo 10 This document is an Internet-Draft. Internet-Drafts are working 11 documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, 12 and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute 13 working documents as Internet-Drafts. 15 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six 16 months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other 17 documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts 18 as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in 19 progress." 21 To view the entire list of current Internet-Drafts, please check 22 the "1id-abstracts.txt" listing contained in the Internet-Drafts 23 Shadow Directories on ftp.is.co.za (Africa), ftp.nordu.net 24 (Europe), munnari.oz.au (Pacific Rim), ds.internic.net (US East 25 Coast), or ftp.isi.edu (US West Coast). 27 Introduction 29 This proposal is an attempt to provide a standard header to 30 indicate information about the message originator without implying 31 that there is a deliverable mailbox or mandating that internal 32 network information be revealed. The "Originator-Info" header is 33 intended to make the "X-Sender" and "X-X-Sender" headers obsolete. 35 Many mail clients on personal computers are now using a 36 non-standard "X-Sender" header to identify the originator of a 37 message without the implication that the sender has a known 38 deliverable mailbox (unlike the "Sender" header). Usually this 39 "X-Sender" header is constructed from the credentials used to login 40 to a POP [POP3], IMAP [IMAP4], or NNTP [NNTP] server. Such 41 credentials often do not refer to a deliverable mailbox, and 42 therefore MUST NOT be used to construct a return or reply address. 44 Unfortunately, some mailing list systems now use the "X-Sender" 45 header for authorization reply, or return messages. This causes 46 misdelivery for systems where the login credentials do not refer to 47 a deliverable mailbox and leaves some users unable to unsubscribe 48 to certain mailing lists. Some clients have responded to this 49 problem by supporting an "X-X-Sender" header. This situation is 50 obviously problematic. 52 1. Conventions Used in this Document 54 The key words "REQUIRED", "MUST", "MUST NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD 55 NOT", and "MAY" in this document are to be interpreted as described 56 in "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels" 57 [KEYWORDS]. 59 2. Originator-Info header 61 The Originator-Info header provides a list of attributes which may 62 be used to trace the originator of an Internet message [IMAIL]. 63 These attributes do not in any way imply the existence of a 64 deliverable mailbox and MUST NOT be used for authorization or to 65 construct a reply or return address. 67 Example: 69 From: Chris Newman 70 Originator-Info: login-token=avsgl; server=cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu 72 This example indicates that a person whose identity can be 73 determined from the token "avsgl" was logged into the server 74 "cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu" when this message was composed. 76 An "Originator-Info" header SHOULD be generated by Internet mail 77 user agents (MUA) upon submission of an Internet message [IMAIL] to 78 a delivery system if the MUA is unable to verify the existence of a 79 deliverable mailbox for the current user and is authenticated to an 80 Internet service such as POP or IMAP. 82 Multiple messages from a given user MAY have different 83 Originator-Info headers, as that user may have access to multiple 84 servers and/or login identities. In addition, mail servers are 85 renamed more frequently than email addresses change. For these 86 reasons, Originator-Info MUST NOT be used for any purpose other 87 than tracing the originator of the message. Specifically, 88 Originator-Info MUST NOT be used to control access to mail based 89 services, although such services MAY record Originator-Info in log 90 files. 92 2.1. "login-token" attribute 94 The login-token attribute is used to allow the identity of the 95 sender to be traced without explicitly revealing that identity. It 96 contains site-specific information which may be used to recover the 97 login-id (see section 2.2) of the originator. For example, it 98 might be constructed with an MD5 hash [MD5] of the login-id and a 99 site-specific secret. The login-token MAY use an algorithm which 100 produces a different token for each message. An Originator-Info 101 header SHOULD include a login-token attribute. 103 2.2. "login-id" attribute 105 The login-id attribute indicates the login identifier that was used 106 in a POP "USER" [POP3] or "AUTH" [POP3-AUTH] command or an IMAP 107 "LOGIN" or "AUTHENTICATE" [IMAP4] command. The login-id may also 108 be obtained from other services such as a Kerberos authentication 109 library. An Originator-Info header MAY include a login-id 110 attribute instead of a login-token attribute. A program 111 interpreting this header MUST NOT form an email address from the 112 "login-id" and "server" attributes. Such an address may not be 113 deliverable. 115 Example: 117 From: Chris Newman 118 Originator-Info: login-id=nifty; server=cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu 120 2.3. "server" attribute 122 The server attribute is a fully qualified Internet domain name 123 [DOM-NAME] of a mail server or other Internet server which the user 124 was authenticated to when the message was submitted. An 125 Originator-Info header SHOULD include a server attribute. 127 2.4. "token-authority" attribute 129 This attribute contains a human readable string providing 130 information about the individual or service that is capable of 131 translating the login-token. When absent, postmaster@ can 132 be assumed, where is the value of the server attribute. 134 Examples: 136 Originator-Info: login-token=avsgl; server=cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu; 137 token-authority="nifty@cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu" 139 Originator-Info: login-token=avsgl; server=cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu; 140 token-authority="Don't you recognize ROT13?" 142 Originator-Info: login-token=avsgl; server=cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu; 143 token-authority="phone 555-555-5555, ask for Mr. Spook" 145 2.5. Other attributes 147 Other attributes MAY be used to provide additional information. 148 There is no requirement to register attributes as the 149 Originator-Info header is not intended for automated processing. 150 For example, an MUA on a Macintosh may wish to include the owner 151 name as set in the "Sharing Setup" control panel. 153 Example: 155 From: Chris Newman 156 Originator-Info: login-id=nifty; server=cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu; 157 MacOS-owner-name=nifty 159 3. ABNF for Originator-Info header 161 This defines the formal syntax for the "Originator-Info" header 162 using the ABNF notation defined in RFC 822 [RFC-822] and using 163 terminals defined in MIME [MIME-IMB]. 165 originator-info := "Originator-Info:" parameter *(";" parameter) 167 4. Security Considerations 169 The "Originator-Info" header is useful for tracing the source of 170 Internet messages. However, it contains no authenticated 171 information and is completely susceptible to spoofing by an 172 intelligent sender or intervening host. Therefore it is not a 173 substitute secure message systems such as PGP-MIME [PGP-MIME]. 175 Some sites have concerns about revealing the names of internal 176 servers and login identities. MUAs could accommodate such sites 177 with an option to use the domain name of a SOCKS [SOCKS5] server 178 (or other firewall) in the "server" attribute instead of a private 179 mail server. Sites with no such considerations MAY use "login-id" 180 instead of "login-token". 182 5. Multinational Considerations 184 Parameters in character sets other than US-ASCII MAY use MIME 185 parameter extensions [MIME-PARAM]. This MAY also be used to 186 provide language labeling and continuations. 188 6. References 190 [DOM-NAME] Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Implementation and 191 Specification", RFC 1035, ISI, November 1987. 193 195 [IMAIL] Crocker, D., "Standard for the Format of Arpa Internet Text 196 Messages", RFC 822, University of Delaware, August 1982. 198 200 [IMAP4] Crispin, M., "Internet Message Access Protocol - Version 201 4", RFC 1730, University of Washington, December 1994. 203 205 [KEYWORDS] Bradner, "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate 206 Requirement Levels", RFC 2119, Harvard University, March 1997. 208 210 [MD5] Rivest, R. "The MD5 Message Digest Algorithm", RFC 1321, MIT 211 Laboratory for Computer Science, April 1992. 213 215 [MIME-IMB] Freed, Borenstein, "Mulitpurpose Internet Mail 216 Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies", RFC 217 2045, Innosoft, First Virtual, November 1996. 219 221 [MIME-PARAM] Freed, Moore, "MIME Parameter Value and Encoded Word 222 Extensions: Character Sets, Languages, and Continuations", RFC 223 XXXX, Innosoft, University of Tennessee, March 1997. 225 [NNTP] Kantor, Lapsley, "Network News Transfer Protocol: A Proposed 226 Standard for the Stream-Based Transmission of News", RFC 977, U.C. 227 San Diego, U.C. Berkeley, February 1986. 229 231 [PGP-MIME] Elkins, M., "MIME Security with Pretty Good Privacy 232 (PGP)", RFC 2015, The Aerospace Corporation, October 1996. 234 236 [POP3] Myers, J., Rose, M., "Post Office Protocol - Version 3", RFC 237 1939, Carnegie Mellon, Dover Beach Consulting, Inc., May 1996. 239 241 [SOCKS5] Leech, Ganis, Lee, Kuris, Koblas, Jones, "SOCKS Protocol 242 Version 5", RFC 1928, Bell-Northern Research Ltd, International 243 Business Machines, NEC Systems Laboratory, Unify Corporation, 244 Hewlett-Packard Company, March 1996. 246 248 7. Author's Address 250 Chris Newman 251 Innosoft International, Inc. 252 1050 Lakes Drive 253 West Covina, CA 91790 USA 255 Email: chris.newman@innosoft.com