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

[Member Services]

On 15 February 2007 the ARIN Advisory Council (AC) concluded its review
of 'Documentation of the Mail-From Authentication Method' and accepted
it as a formal policy proposal for discussion by the community.

The proposal is designated Policy Proposal 2007-2: Documentation of the
Mail-From Authentication Method. The proposal text is below and can be
found at: http://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/2007_2.html

All persons in the community are encouraged to discuss Policy Proposal
2007-2 prior to it being presented at the ARIN Public Policy Meeting in
San Juan, Puerto Rico, 23-24 April 2007. Both the discussion on the
Public Policy Mailing List and at the Public Policy Meeting will be used
to determine the community consensus regarding this policy proposal.

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

ARIN's Policy Proposal Archive can be found at:
http://www.arin.net/policy/proposals/proposal_archive.html

Regards,

Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)


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2007-2: Documentation of the Mail-From Authentication Method

Authors:
Paul Vixie,
Mark Kosters,
Chris Morrow,
Jared Mauch,
Bill Woodcock

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