MARID
Encyclopedia
MARID was an IETF
working group in the applications area tasked to propose standards for E-mail authentication
in 2004.
The name is an acronym
of MTA
Authorization Records In DNS
.
(LMAP) was a generic name for a set of
'designated sender' proposals that were discussed
in the ASRG in the Fall of 2003, including:
These schemes attempt to list the valid IP
addresses that can send mail for a domain.
The lightweight in LMAP essentially stands
for no crypto as opposed to DomainKeys
.
In March 2004, the
Internet Engineering Task Force IETF
held a BoF
on these
proposals and as the result of that meeting,
chartered the MARID working group.
Microsoft
's Caller-ID proposal was a late and highly controversial addition to this mix, with the following features:
For many the use of RFC 2822 mail header fields is
already beyond the lightweight LMAP limits,
because it operates on the SMTP DATA, or in other
words the mail. In this sense Caller-ID
started outside of its class.
(WG) co-Chairs decided to postpone the question
of RFC 2821 SMTP identities - i.e. MAIL FROM
covered by SPF, or HELO covered by
CSV
and SPF - in
favour of RFC 2822 identities covered by
Caller-ID's and later Sender-ID's
Purported Responsible Address (PRA).
The WG finally arrived at a point, where sender
policies could be split into different scopes
like the 2821 MAIL FROM or the 2822 PRA. The
MARID spf2.0 syntax also allowed to
join different scopes into one policy record,
if the sets of permitted IPs are identical, as
it's often the case.
Less than a week after the publication of a first
mfrom or MAIL FROM draft the WG was
terminated unilaterally by its leadership. MARID
existed only seven months, no RFC
s were
published.
A podcast
with a former co-Chair
tries to explain the
MARID fiasco.
Another view of these events is the observation
that the WG did not support a division of the
E-mail authentication
field into PRA for 2822
and CSV for 2821, squeezing out the MAIL FROM.
The responsible IETF Area Director agreed to
sponsor the publication of some MARID fallout
as IETF experiments, this happened in 2005. Both
classic pre-MARID
SPF
and Sender ID
were approved as experimental RFCs. The latter is
to a certain degree a result of MARID.
The ongoing disputes on technical issues and
incompatibilities in Sender ID
resulted later
in appeals to the
IESG
and
the IAB
.
Internet Engineering Task Force
The Internet Engineering Task Force develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C and ISO/IEC standards bodies and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite...
working group in the applications area tasked to propose standards for E-mail authentication
E-mail authentication
Email authentication is the effort to equip messages of the email transport system with enough verifiable information, so that recipients can recognize the nature of each incoming message automatically...
in 2004.
The name is an acronym
Acronym and initialism
Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial components in a phrase or a word. These components may be individual letters or parts of words . There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of the various terms , nor on written usage...
of MTA
Mail transfer agent
Within Internet message handling services , a message transfer agent or mail transfer agent or mail relay is software that transfers electronic mail messages from one computer to another using a client–server application architecture...
Authorization Records In DNS
Domain name system
The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
.
Background
Lightweight MTA Authentication Protocol(LMAP) was a generic name for a set of
'designated sender' proposals that were discussed
in the ASRG in the Fall of 2003, including:
- Designated Mailers Protocol (DMP)
- Designated Relays Inquiry Protocol (DRIP)
- Flexible Sender Validation (FSV)
- MTAMARK
- Reverse MX (RMX)
- Sender Policy Framework (SPFSender Policy FrameworkSender Policy Framework is an email validation system designed to prevent email spam by detecting email spoofing, a common vulnerability, by verifying sender IP addresses. SPF allows administrators to specify which hosts are allowed to send mail from a given domain by creating a specific SPF...
)
These schemes attempt to list the valid IP
addresses that can send mail for a domain.
The lightweight in LMAP essentially stands
for no crypto as opposed to DomainKeys
DomainKeys
DomainKeys is an e-mail authentication system designed to verify the DNS domain of an e-mail sender and the message integrity. The DomainKeys specification has adopted aspects of Identified Internet Mail to create an enhanced protocol called DomainKeys Identified Mail...
.
In March 2004, the
Internet Engineering Task Force IETF
held a BoF
Birds of a Feather (computing)
In computing, BoF can refer to:* An informal discussion group. Unlike special interest groups or working groups, BoFs are informal and often formed in an ad-hoc manner...
on these
proposals and as the result of that meeting,
chartered the MARID working group.
Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's Caller-ID proposal was a late and highly controversial addition to this mix, with the following features:
- Use of XMLXMLExtensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
policies with DNSDomain name systemThe Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
- this was reduced to what is now known as Sender IDSender IDSender ID is an anti-spoofing proposal from the former MARID IETF working group that tried to join Sender Policy Framework and Caller ID. Sender ID is defined primarily in Experimental RFC 4406, but there are additional parts in RFC 4405, RFC 4407 and RFC 4408.- Principles of operation :Sender ID... - Proposals of an unfriendly takeover of SPFSender Policy FrameworkSender Policy Framework is an email validation system designed to prevent email spam by detecting email spoofing, a common vulnerability, by verifying sender IP addresses. SPF allows administrators to specify which hosts are allowed to send mail from a given domain by creating a specific SPF...
policies by Sender IDSender IDSender ID is an anti-spoofing proposal from the former MARID IETF working group that tried to join Sender Policy Framework and Caller ID. Sender ID is defined primarily in Experimental RFC 4406, but there are additional parts in RFC 4405, RFC 4407 and RFC 4408.- Principles of operation :Sender ID... - Use of RFC 2822 mail header fields as by DomainKeysDomainKeysDomainKeys is an e-mail authentication system designed to verify the DNS domain of an e-mail sender and the message integrity. The DomainKeys specification has adopted aspects of Identified Internet Mail to create an enhanced protocol called DomainKeys Identified Mail...
(All other LMAP drafts used the SMTPSimple Mail Transfer ProtocolSimple Mail Transfer Protocol is an Internet standard for electronic mail transmission across Internet Protocol networks. SMTP was first defined by RFC 821 , and last updated by RFC 5321 which includes the extended SMTP additions, and is the protocol in widespread use today...
envelope.) - Specific questions and unspecific flame warsFlamingFlaming, also known as bashing, is hostile and insulting interaction between Internet users. Flaming usually occurs in the social context of an Internet forum, Internet Relay Chat , Usenet, by e-mail, game servers such as Xbox Live or Playstation Network, and on video-sharing websites...
about patents and licensing
For many the use of RFC 2822 mail header fields is
already beyond the lightweight LMAP limits,
because it operates on the SMTP DATA, or in other
words the mail. In this sense Caller-ID
started outside of its class.
Proceedings
The working groupWorking group
A working group is an interdisciplinary collaboration of researchers working on new research activities that would be difficult to develop under traditional funding mechanisms . The lifespan of the WG can last anywhere between a few months and several years...
(WG) co-Chairs decided to postpone the question
of RFC 2821 SMTP identities - i.e. MAIL FROM
covered by SPF, or HELO covered by
CSV
Certified Server Validation
Certified Server Validation is atechnical method of Email authenticationintended to fight spam. Itsfocus is theSMTPHELO-identity of Mail transfer agents.CSV was designed to address the problems ofMARID and the ASRG, as defined in detail...
and SPF - in
favour of RFC 2822 identities covered by
Caller-ID's and later Sender-ID's
Purported Responsible Address (PRA).
The WG finally arrived at a point, where sender
policies could be split into different scopes
like the 2821 MAIL FROM or the 2822 PRA. The
MARID spf2.0 syntax also allowed to
join different scopes into one policy record,
if the sets of permitted IPs are identical, as
it's often the case.
Less than a week after the publication of a first
mfrom or MAIL FROM draft the WG was
terminated unilaterally by its leadership. MARID
existed only seven months, no RFC
Request for Comments
In computer network engineering, a Request for Comments is a memorandum published by the Internet Engineering Task Force describing methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet and Internet-connected systems.Through the Internet Society, engineers and...
s were
published.
A podcast
Podcasting
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
with a former co-Chair
tries to explain the
MARID fiasco.
Another view of these events is the observation
that the WG did not support a division of the
E-mail authentication
E-mail authentication
Email authentication is the effort to equip messages of the email transport system with enough verifiable information, so that recipients can recognize the nature of each incoming message automatically...
field into PRA for 2822
and CSV for 2821, squeezing out the MAIL FROM.
The responsible IETF Area Director agreed to
sponsor the publication of some MARID fallout
as IETF experiments, this happened in 2005. Both
classic pre-MARID
SPF
Sender Policy Framework
Sender Policy Framework is an email validation system designed to prevent email spam by detecting email spoofing, a common vulnerability, by verifying sender IP addresses. SPF allows administrators to specify which hosts are allowed to send mail from a given domain by creating a specific SPF...
and Sender ID
Sender ID
Sender ID is an anti-spoofing proposal from the former MARID IETF working group that tried to join Sender Policy Framework and Caller ID. Sender ID is defined primarily in Experimental RFC 4406, but there are additional parts in RFC 4405, RFC 4407 and RFC 4408.- Principles of operation :Sender ID...
were approved as experimental RFCs. The latter is
to a certain degree a result of MARID.
The ongoing disputes on technical issues and
incompatibilities in Sender ID
Sender ID
Sender ID is an anti-spoofing proposal from the former MARID IETF working group that tried to join Sender Policy Framework and Caller ID. Sender ID is defined primarily in Experimental RFC 4406, but there are additional parts in RFC 4405, RFC 4407 and RFC 4408.- Principles of operation :Sender ID...
resulted later
in appeals to the
IESG
Internet Engineering Steering Group
The Internet Engineering Steering Group is a body composed of the Internet Engineering Task Force chair and area directors.It provides the final technical review of Internet standards and is responsible for day-to-day management of the IETF...
and
the IAB
Internet Architecture Board
The Internet Architecture Board is the committee charged with oversight of the technical and engineering development of the Internet by the Internet Society ....
.
External links
- Historical ASRG LMAP draft (2004)
- MARID status page (2004) and mxcomp list archive
- IESG applications area DEA directorate (dissolved)
- IESG evaluation of Sender-ID (2005)
- IAB appeal with links to more sources (2006)
- SenderID appeal history (2006)