Network Working Group | D. Crocker, Editor |
INTERNET DRAFT | Brandenburg InternetWorking |
<draft-ietf-dkim-rfc4871-errata-03-00dc> | 2009 |
Category: Standards Track | |
Expires: WRONG SYNTAX FOR MONTH |
RFC 4871 DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)
Signatures -- Errata
draft-ietf-dkim-rfc4871-errata-03-00dc
CONFORMANCE UNDEFINED.
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Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2009). All Rights Reserved.
This documents and resolves errata for RFC 4871, DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures. Specifically the document clarifies the nature, roles and relationship of the two DKIM identifier tag values that are candidates for payload delivery to a receiving processing module. This Errata entry has been developed and approved by the IETF's DKIM working group.
Technical
1
Introduction
2
RFC 4871 Abstract
3
RFC4871 Section 1. Introduction
4
RFC4871 Section 2.7 Identity
5
RFC4871 Section 2.8 Identifier
6
RFC4871 Section 2.9 Signing Domain Identifier (SDID)
7
RFC4871 Section 2.10 Agent or User Identifier (AUID)
8
RFC4871 Section 2.11 Identity Assessor
9
RFC4871 Section 3.5 The DKIM-Signature Header Field
10
RFC4871 Section 3.5 The DKIM-Signature Header Field
11
RFC4871 Section 3.8. Signing by Parent Domains
12
RFC4871 Section 3.9 Relationship Between SDID and AUID
13
RFC4871 Section 6.3. Interpret Results/Apply Local Policy
14
RFC4871 Section 6.3. Interpret Results/Apply Local Policy
15
RFC4871 Appendix D. MUA Considerations
16
Security Considerations
§
Normative References
§
Author's Address
A
Acknowledgements
§
Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements
About the purpose for DKIM, [RFC4871] states:
Hence, DKIM has a signer that produces a signed message, a verifier that confirms the signature and an assessor that consumes the validated signing domain. So the simple purpose of DKIM is to communicate an identifier to a receive-side assessor module. The identifier is in the form of a domain name that refers to a responsible identity. For DKIM to be interoperable and useful, signer and assessor must share the same understanding of the details about the identifier.
However the RFC5871 specification defines two, potentially different identifiers that are carried in the DKIM-Signature: header field, d= and i=. Either might be delivered to a receiving processing module that consumes validated payload. The DKIM specification fails to clearly define what is "payload" to be delivered to a consuming module, versus what is internal and merely in support of achieving payload delivery.
This currently leaves signers and assessors with the potential for having differing -- and therefore non-interoperable -- interpretations of how DKIM operates.
This erratum resolves this confusion. It defines new labels for the two values, clarifies their nature, and specifies and their relationship.
Original Text:
d= The domain of the signing entity (plain-text; REQUIRED). This is the domain that will be queried for the public key. This domain MUST be the same as or a parent domain of the "i=" tag (the signing identity, as described below), or it MUST meet the requirements for parent domain signing described in Section 3.8. When presented with a signature that does not meet these requirement, verifiers MUST consider the signature invalid. Internationalized domain names MUST be encoded as described in [RFC3490]. ABNF: sig-d-tag = %x64 [FWS] "=" [FWS] domain-name domain-name = sub-domain 1*("." sub-domain) ; from RFC 2821 Domain, but excluding address-literal
Corrected Text:
sig-d-tag = %x64 [FWS] "=" [FWS] domain-name
domain-name = sub-domain 1*("." sub-domain)
; from RFC 2821 Domain, but excluding address-literal
Original Text:
i= Identity of the user or agent (e.g., a mailing list manager) on behalf of which this message is signed (dkim-quoted-printable; OPTIONAL, default is an empty Local-part followed by an "@" followed by the domain from the "d=" tag). The syntax is a standard email address where the Local-part MAY be omitted. The domain part of the address MUST be the same as or a subdomain of the value of the "d=" tag. Internationalized domain names MUST be converted using the steps listed in Section 4 of [RFC3490] using the "ToASCII" function. ABNF: sig-i-tag = %x69 [FWS] "=" [FWS] [ Local-part ] "@" domain-name INFORMATIVE NOTE: The Local-part of the "i=" tag is optional because in some cases a signer may not be able to establish a verified individual identity. In such cases, the signer may wish to assert that although it is willing to go as far as signing for the domain, it is unable or unwilling to commit to an individual user name within their domain. It can do so by including the domain part but not the Local-part of the identity. INFORMATIVE DISCUSSION: This document does not require the value of the "i=" tag to match the identity in any message header fields. This is considered to be a verifier policy issue. Constraints between the value of the "i=" tag and other identities in other header fields seek to apply basic authentication into the semantics of trust associated with a role such as content author. Trust is a broad and complex topic and trust mechanisms are subject to highly creative attacks. The real-world efficacy of any but the most basic bindings between the "i=" value and other identities is not well established, nor is its vulnerability to subversion by an attacker. Hence reliance on the use of these options should be strictly limited. In particular, it is not at all clear to what extent a typical end-user recipient can rely on any assurances that might be made by successful use of the "i=" options.
Corrected Text:
sig-i-tag = %x69 [FWS] "=" [FWS] [ Local-part ] "@" domain-name
Original Text:
e.g., a key record for the domain example.com can be used to verify messages where the signing identity ("i=" tag of the signature) is sub.example.com, or even sub1.sub2.example.com. In order to limit the capability of such keys when this is not intended, the "s" flag may be set in the "t=" tag of the key record to constrain the validity of the record to exactly the domain of the signing identity. If the referenced key record contains the "s" flag as part of the "t=" tag, the domain of the signing identity ("i=" flag) MUST be the same as that of the d= domain. If this flag is absent, the domain of the signing identity MUST be the same as, or a subdomain of, the d= domain.
Corrected Text:
Original Text:
It is beyond the scope of this specification to describe what actions a verifier system should make, but an authenticated email presents an opportunity to a receiving system that unauthenticated email cannot. Specifically, an authenticated email creates a predictable identifier by which other decisions can reliably be managed, such as trust and reputation. Conversely, unauthenticated email lacks a reliable identifier that can be used to assign trust and reputation.
Corrected Text:
Original Text:
Once the signature has been verified, that information MUST be conveyed to higher-level systems (such as explicit allow/whitelists and reputation systems) and/or to the end user. If the message is signed on behalf of any address other than that in the From: header field, the mail system SHOULD take pains to ensure that the actual signing identity is clear to the reader.
Corrected Text:
This Errata document clarifies core details about DKIM's payload. As such it affects interoperability, semantic characterization, and the expectations for the identifiers carried with a DKIM signature. Clarification of these details is likely to limit misinterpretation of DKIM's semantics. Since DKIM is fundamentally a security protocol, this should improve its security characteristics.
[RFC4871] | Allman, E., Callas, J., Delany, M., Libbey, M., Fenton, J. and M. Thomas, "DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures", RFC 4871, May 2007. |
D. Crocker (editor) | |
Brandenburg InternetWorking | |
Phone: | +1.408.246.8253 |
EMail: | dcrocker@bbiw.net |
This document was initially formulated by an ad hoc design team, comprising: Jon Callas, J D Falk, Jim Fenton, Tony Hansen, Murray Kucherawy, John Levine, Michael Hammer, Jeff Macdonald, Ellen Siegel, Wietse Venema. It was then submitted to the DKIM working group for revision and approval.
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