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Advice for Safe Handling of Malformed Messages
draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail-11

Revision differences

Document history

Date Rev. By Action
2014-01-13
11 (System) RFC Editor state changed to AUTH48-DONE from AUTH48
2014-01-03
11 (System) RFC Editor state changed to AUTH48 from RFC-EDITOR
2013-12-19
11 (System) RFC Editor state changed to RFC-EDITOR from EDIT
2013-11-30
11 David Black Request for Telechat review by GENART Completed: Ready. Reviewer: David Black.
2013-11-26
11 Cindy Morgan State changed to RFC Ed Queue from Approved-announcement sent
2013-11-26
11 (System) RFC Editor state changed to EDIT
2013-11-26
11 (System) Announcement was received by RFC Editor
2013-11-26
11 (System) IANA Action state changed to No IC
2013-11-25
11 Barry Leiba Notification list changed to : appsawg-chairs@tools.ietf.org, draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail@tools.ietf.org, sm+ietf@elandsys.com
2013-11-25
11 Cindy Morgan State changed to Approved-announcement sent from Approved-announcement to be sent
2013-11-25
11 Cindy Morgan IESG has approved the document
2013-11-25
11 Cindy Morgan Closed "Approve" ballot
2013-11-25
11 Cindy Morgan Ballot approval text was generated
2013-11-25
11 Barry Leiba State changed to Approved-announcement to be sent from Approved-announcement to be sent::Point Raised - writeup needed
2013-11-22
11 Murray Kucherawy IANA Review state changed to Version Changed - Review Needed from IANA OK - No Actions Needed
2013-11-22
11 Murray Kucherawy New version available: draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail-11.txt
2013-11-21
10 Cindy Morgan State changed to Approved-announcement to be sent::Point Raised - writeup needed from IESG Evaluation
2013-11-21
10 Gonzalo Camarillo [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Gonzalo Camarillo
2013-11-21
10 Ted Lemon [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Ted Lemon
2013-11-21
10 Spencer Dawkins [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Spencer Dawkins
2013-11-21
10 Jari Arkko [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Jari Arkko
2013-11-21
10 Stephen Farrell
[Ballot comment]


Thanks for a useful document. I would have loved to have
seen text about S/MIME and PGP issues, but I guess that
might …
[Ballot comment]


Thanks for a useful document. I would have loved to have
seen text about S/MIME and PGP issues, but I guess that
might require another equally long document all by
itself. It might well be worth looking though to see if
there's a reference to which you could point that has
relevant guidance about those.

Separately, it might also be worth pointing out that
some of the handling guidance you give if applied to
some S/MIME or PGP messages is likely to break
signatures or make decryption impossible.

But those are just suggestions to take or leave, this is
already useful enough as-is.
2013-11-21
10 Stephen Farrell [Ballot Position Update] New position, Yes, has been recorded for Stephen Farrell
2013-11-21
10 Benoît Claise [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Benoit Claise
2013-11-20
10 Gunter Van de Velde Request for Telechat review by OPSDIR Completed. Reviewer: Lionel Morand.
2013-11-20
10 Gunter Van de Velde Request for Telechat review by OPSDIR is assigned to Lionel Morand
2013-11-20
10 Gunter Van de Velde Request for Telechat review by OPSDIR is assigned to Lionel Morand
2013-11-20
10 Sean Turner
[Ballot comment]
I quickly skimmed this draft and it looks fine to me.  I'm balloting no objection, but I'm sure it would have been a …
[Ballot comment]
I quickly skimmed this draft and it looks fine to me.  I'm balloting no objection, but I'm sure it would have been a YES had I had more time to review it - my fault mind you.
2013-11-20
10 Sean Turner Ballot comment text updated for Sean Turner
2013-11-20
10 Sean Turner
[Ballot comment]
I quickly skimmed this draft and I'm balloting no objection (I'm sure it would have been a YES had I had more time …
[Ballot comment]
I quickly skimmed this draft and I'm balloting no objection (I'm sure it would have been a YES had I had more time to review it - my fault mind you).
2013-11-20
10 Sean Turner [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Sean Turner
2013-11-20
10 Pete Resnick
[Ballot comment]
Nothing that would stop me from endorsing this document going forward, but please do take the following into consideration:

1.1 - The 5th …
[Ballot comment]
Nothing that would stop me from endorsing this document going forward, but please do take the following into consideration:

1.1 - The 5th paragraph seems redundant with previous paragraphs in this section. The last paragraph seems redundant with section 1.2. Suggest striking.

4 - It seems worth pointing out somewhere in this section that the prepending of Received fields is the safest thing to do if changes must be made to the message to pass information between modules.

7.1 - "A message using an obsolete header syntax" You might consider adding a direct reference to 5322 section 4 to define what's meant by "obsolete".

7.1.6 - Why is the second example not obviously better? I have a hard time imagining circumstances where an unterminated quoted-string that contains an angle-bracketed thing that looks like an addr-spec is in fact a local part.

7.4 - "acceptance grammar" is a weird construction, not used in 5322. Suggest "obsolete syntax" (with the reference to section 4) instead.

7.5 - Third paragraph: Reference to DKIM would be useful.
Fourth paragraph: I find the word "enacted" a bit weird. I suggest changing "can be enacted" to "can be used" or "strategies can be used"
What's the difference between 3 & 4? Or maybe I don't know what "compound instance" means in 3.

7.5.3 - What's the harm in more than one Return-Path? Only one of interest is the top-most.

---

Finally, a gedankenexperiment, or maybe fodder for a real experiment: What would happen if, upon receiving a malformed message that was determined to not be otherwise malicious, a receiving SMTP system both returned a 5xx to the message *and* processed and delivered the message (i.e., give the receiver what they want, but push back on folks who generate crap)? Would it help? (I am not asking for a discussion of this in the document. Just an interesting thought.)
2013-11-20
10 Pete Resnick [Ballot Position Update] New position, Yes, has been recorded for Pete Resnick
2013-11-20
10 Stewart Bryant [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Stewart Bryant
2013-11-20
10 Brian Haberman [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Brian Haberman
2013-11-19
10 Richard Barnes [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Richard Barnes
2013-11-19
10 Joel Jaeggli [Ballot comment]
10 appears to have addressed many of the ops reviewers concerns.

Thanks!
2013-11-19
10 Joel Jaeggli [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Joel Jaeggli
2013-11-18
10 Martin Stiemerling [Ballot Position Update] New position, No Objection, has been recorded for Martin Stiemerling
2013-11-14
10 Jean Mahoney Request for Telechat review by GENART is assigned to David Black
2013-11-14
10 Jean Mahoney Request for Telechat review by GENART is assigned to David Black
2013-11-08
10 (System) IANA Review state changed to IANA OK - No Actions Needed from Version Changed - Review Needed
2013-11-07
10 Barry Leiba Notification list changed to : appsawg-chairs@tools.ietf.org, draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail@tools.ietf.org, sm+ietf@elandsys.com, apps-discuss@ietf.org
2013-11-07
10 Barry Leiba Ballot has been issued
2013-11-07
10 Barry Leiba [Ballot Position Update] New position, Yes, has been recorded for Barry Leiba
2013-11-07
10 Barry Leiba Created "Approve" ballot
2013-11-07
10 Barry Leiba Ballot writeup was changed
2013-11-07
10 Barry Leiba State changed to IESG Evaluation from Waiting for AD Go-Ahead
2013-11-06
10 Murray Kucherawy IANA Review state changed to Version Changed - Review Needed from IANA OK - No Actions Needed
2013-11-06
10 Murray Kucherawy New version available: draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail-10.txt
2013-11-04
09 David Black Request for Last Call review by GENART Completed: Ready with Nits. Reviewer: David Black.
2013-10-31
09 Tero Kivinen Request for Last Call review by SECDIR Completed: Ready. Reviewer: Scott Kelly.
2013-10-29
09 (System) State changed to Waiting for AD Go-Ahead from In Last Call (ends 2013-10-29)
2013-10-24
09 (System) IANA Review state changed to IANA OK - No Actions Needed from IANA - Review Needed
2013-10-24
09 Pearl Liang
IESG/Authors/WG Chairs:

IANA has reviewed draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail-09, which is currently in Last Call, and has the following comments:

We understand that, upon approval of this …
IESG/Authors/WG Chairs:

IANA has reviewed draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail-09, which is currently in Last Call, and has the following comments:

We understand that, upon approval of this document, there are no IANA Actions that need completion. IANA requests that the IANA Considerations section of the document remain in place upon publication.

If this assessment is not accurate, please respond as soon as possible.
2013-10-17
09 Jean Mahoney Request for Last Call review by GENART is assigned to David Black
2013-10-17
09 Jean Mahoney Request for Last Call review by GENART is assigned to David Black
2013-10-17
09 Tero Kivinen Request for Last Call review by SECDIR is assigned to Scott Kelly
2013-10-17
09 Tero Kivinen Request for Last Call review by SECDIR is assigned to Scott Kelly
2013-10-15
09 Cindy Morgan IANA Review state changed to IANA - Review Needed
2013-10-15
09 Cindy Morgan
The following Last Call announcement was sent out:

From: The IESG
To: IETF-Announce
CC:
Reply-To: ietf@ietf.org
Sender:
Subject: Last Call:  (Advice for Safe Handling of …
The following Last Call announcement was sent out:

From: The IESG
To: IETF-Announce
CC:
Reply-To: ietf@ietf.org
Sender:
Subject: Last Call:  (Advice for Safe Handling of Malformed Messages) to Informational RFC


The IESG has received a request from the Applications Area Working Group
WG (appsawg) to consider the following document:
- 'Advice for Safe Handling of Malformed Messages'
  as Informational RFC

The IESG plans to make a decision in the next few weeks, and solicits
final comments on this action. Please send substantive comments to the
ietf@ietf.org mailing lists by 2013-10-29. Exceptionally, comments may be
sent to iesg@ietf.org instead. In either case, please retain the
beginning of the Subject line to allow automated sorting.

Abstract


  Although Internet mail formats have been precisely defined since the
  1970s, authoring and handling software often show only mild
  conformance to the specifications.  The malformed messages that
  result are non-standard.  Nonetheless, decades of experience has
  shown that handling with some tolerance the malformations that result
  is often an acceptable approach, and is better than rejecting the
  messages outright as nonconformant.  This document includes a
  collection of the best advice available regarding a variety of common
  malformed mail situations, to be used as implementation guidance.




The file can be obtained via
http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail/

IESG discussion can be tracked via
http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail/ballot/


No IPR declarations have been submitted directly on this I-D.


2013-10-15
09 Cindy Morgan State changed to In Last Call from Last Call Requested
2013-10-15
09 Barry Leiba Placed on agenda for telechat - 2013-11-21
2013-10-15
09 Barry Leiba Last call was requested
2013-10-15
09 Barry Leiba Last call announcement was generated
2013-10-15
09 Barry Leiba Ballot approval text was generated
2013-10-15
09 Barry Leiba State changed to Last Call Requested from AD Evaluation::AD Followup
2013-10-07
09 Murray Kucherawy Changed consensus to Yes from No
2013-10-05
09 (System) Sub state has been changed to AD Followup from Revised ID Needed
2013-10-05
09 Murray Kucherawy New version available: draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail-09.txt
2013-09-28
08 S Moonesamy Changed document writeup
2013-09-20
08 Barry Leiba Lots of mostly editorial comments.
2013-09-20
08 Barry Leiba State changed to AD Evaluation::Revised I-D Needed from AD Evaluation
2013-09-20
08 Barry Leiba Notification list changed to : appsawg-chairs@tools.ietf.org, draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail@tools.ietf.org, sm+ietf@elandsys.com
2013-09-20
08 Barry Leiba State changed to AD Evaluation from Publication Requested
2013-09-20
08 Barry Leiba Changed consensus to No from Yes
2013-09-20
08 Barry Leiba Ballot writeup was changed
2013-09-20
08 Barry Leiba Ballot writeup was generated
2013-09-20
08 Barry Leiba Changed document writeup
2013-09-19
08 Amy Vezza State changed to Publication Requested from I-D Exists (IESG: Dead)
2013-09-18
08 Murray Kucherawy IETF WG state changed to Submitted to IESG for Publication from WG Consensus: Waiting for Write-Up
2013-09-18
08 Murray Kucherawy Annotation tag Doc Shepherd Follow-up Underway cleared.
2013-09-18
08 Murray Kucherawy Changed document writeup
2013-09-18
08 S Moonesamy Changed document writeup
2013-09-17
08 Murray Kucherawy Intended Status changed to Informational from Best Current Practice
2013-09-17
08 Murray Kucherawy Changed consensus to Yes from Unknown
2013-09-17
08 Murray Kucherawy New version available: draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail-08.txt
2013-08-18
07 Murray Kucherawy IETF WG state changed to WG Consensus: Waiting for Write-Up from In WG Last Call
2013-08-18
07 Murray Kucherawy Annotation tag Doc Shepherd Follow-up Underway set.
2013-08-02
07 Murray Kucherawy Document shepherd changed to S Moonesamy
2013-07-29
07 Salvatore Loreto IETF WG state changed to In WG Last Call from WG Document
2013-07-13
07 Murray Kucherawy New version available: draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail-07.txt
2013-06-18
06 Murray Kucherawy New version available: draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail-06.txt
2013-05-28
05 Murray Kucherawy New version available: draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail-05.txt
2013-05-17
04 Murray Kucherawy IETF WG state changed to WG Document from Parked WG Document
2013-05-17
04 Murray Kucherawy New version available: draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail-04.txt
2013-04-12
03 (System) Document has expired
2013-04-12
03 (System) State changed to Dead from AD is watching
2013-04-09
03 Murray Kucherawy IETF WG state changed to Parked WG Document from WG Document
2012-10-09
03 Murray Kucherawy No recent interest.  Parking.
2012-10-09
03 Murray Kucherawy New version available: draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail-03.txt
2012-06-27
02 Alexey Melnikov Changed shepherd to Salvatore Loreto
2012-05-19
02 Murray Kucherawy New version available: draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail-02.txt
2012-04-04
01 Murray Kucherawy Changed shepherd to Alexey Melnikov
2012-04-04
01 Murray Kucherawy Unassigned shepherd
2012-03-30
01 Barry Leiba Responsible AD changed to Barry Leiba from Pete Resnick
2012-02-29
01 Murray Kucherawy New version available: draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail-01.txt
2012-01-27
00 (System) Document has expired
2012-01-27
00 (System) State changed to Dead from AD is watching.
2011-08-12
00 Pete Resnick Draft added in state AD is watching
2011-07-26
00 (System) New version available: draft-ietf-appsawg-malformed-mail-00.txt