On Tue, 2012-06-19 at 17:25 +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
Brad Knowles writes:
On Jun 18, 2012, at 11:44 AM, Lindsay Haisley wrote:
It might be very convenient to have what one might call EVERP, where the recipient address is encrypted into the envelope sender address, as an alternative choice to Mailman's VERP implementation.
It's just VERP, please. It doesn't require any difference in MTA behavior at all.
EVERP = Encrypted VERP
Uh, trust me -- you really don't want to get into the discussion of creating new SMTP protocol enhancements. I was on the DRUMS WG. You really, really don't want to go there.
I don't understand the technical issue here. VERP simply requires the (reasonably standard) existing feature that the final MTA ignore random goop in the mailbox spec if properly marked (usually with '+', sometimes with a '-'). As far as I know, no MTA ever checks that the random goop is well-formed random goop -- that's an oxymoron, isn't it? If this proposal won't fly, normal VERP shouldn't, either.
Exactly. Strictly speaking, this is a MDA issue, although the MTA must accept mail to user-<random-goop>@example.com based on the existence of an mail account for "user". If "user" is a Mailman list, then what's done with <random-goop> is Mailman's concern alone.
And even if one does, the ones we recommend don't, right? So somebody who wants to use Lindsay's proposal just needs to change MTAs.
Not really, because if the MTA and MDA will deal properly with mail addressed to list-bounce+user=example.com@foo.com, a standard VERP address, it will handle list-bounces+AESEncryptedAddress@foo.com. Only Mailman needs to extend the way it handles the VERPed address.
From a practical point of view my EVERP proposal may not be a good scheme for dealing with AOL's redaction policy in Email Feedback Reports. Although it would obviously fool the existing automated redaction process, a radical change to the contents of the VERP address in the envelope sender would probably attract the notice of a real person, no matter how clueless. Better to go with a "stealth" Resent-Message-ID header.
-- Lindsay Haisley |"Friends are like potatoes. FMP Computer Services | If you eat them, they die" 512-259-1190 | http://www.fmp.com | - Aaron Edmund