Policy Proposal 2007-2 - Last Call

[Member Services]

Policy Proposal 2007-2
Documentation of the Mail-From Authentication Method

The ARIN Advisory Council (AC), acting under the provisions of the ARIN
Internet Resource Policy Evaluation Process (IRPEP), determined that
there is community consensus in favor of the proposal and moved it to
last call. The AC made this determination at their meeting at the
conclusion of the ARIN Public Policy meeting on 24 April 2007. The Chair
of the AC reported the results of the AC meeting during the Members
Meeting. The AC Chair's report can be found at:
http://www.arin.net/meetings/minutes/ARIN_XIX/mem.html

The policy proposal text is provided below and is also available at:
http://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/2007_2.html

Comments are encouraged. All comments should be provided to
ppml at arin.net. This last call will expire at 23:59, Eastern Time, 9 May
2007.

The ARIN Internet Resource Policy Evaluation Process can be found at:
http://www.arin.net/policy/irpep.html

Regards,

Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)


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Policy Proposal 2007-2
Documentation of the Mail-From Authentication Method

Proposal type: New

Policy term: Permanent

Policy statement:

DELETION FROM THE NRPM

12.1 Mail-From

This section intentionally left blank.

ADDITION TO THE NRPM

12.1 Mail-From

Mail-From is the default authentication method by which registration
records are protected from vandalism. If a registrant fails to designate
a more secure method, any subsequent email which bears the sender
address of an authorized Point of Contact may be deemed authentic with
regard to the registrant's records. Since it is trivial to forge a
sender address, Mail-From should not be regarded as secure. Use of
Mail-From authentication is not recommended to any registrant who has
the means to implement either of the more secure cryptographic
authentication methods.

Rationale:

This policy complements the previously-proposed "Reinstatement of PGP
Authentication Method" which introduces section 12 to the NRPM. Section
12 relates the existence of three authentication methods. Two of those,
mail-from and X.509, were preexisting but not documented within the NRPM.

This policy proposal simply seeks to provide brief documentation of the
existence of the mail-from authentication method. Because the specific
wording of the documentation may be subject to debate, and is in no way
interdependent upon the documentation of the other two methods, it is
being proposed in a separate policy, so that consensus may be more
easily reached.

Timetable for implementation: Immediate