Network Working Group                                         M. Crispin
Request for Comments: 4467                      University of Washington
Updates: 3501                                                   May 2006
Category: Standards Track


     Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) - URLAUTH Extension

Status of This Memo

  This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
  Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
  improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
  Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
  and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

  Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).

Abstract

  This document describes the URLAUTH extension to the Internet Message
  Access Protocol (IMAP) (RFC 3501) and the IMAP URL Scheme (IMAPURL)
  (RFC 2192).  This extension provides a means by which an IMAP client
  can use URLs carrying authorization to access limited message data on
  the IMAP server.

  An IMAP server that supports this extension indicates this with a
  capability name of "URLAUTH".

1.  Introduction

  In [IMAPURL], a URL of the form imap://[email protected]/INBOX/;uid=20
  requires authorization as userid "fred".  However, [IMAPURL] implies
  that it only supports authentication and confuses the concepts of
  authentication and authorization.

  The URLAUTH extension defines an authorization mechanism for IMAP
  URLs to replace [IMAPURL]'s authentication-only mechanism.  URLAUTH
  conveys authorization in the URL string itself and reuses a portion
  of the syntax of the [IMAPURL] authentication mechanism to convey the
  authorization identity (which also defines the default namespace in
  [IMAP]).

  The URLAUTH extension provides a means by which an authorized user of
  an IMAP server can create URLAUTH-authorized IMAP URLs.  A URLAUTH-
  authorized URL conveys authorization (not authentication) to the data



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  addressed by that URL.  This URL can be used in another IMAP session
  to access specific content on the IMAP server, without otherwise
  providing authorization to any other data (such as other data in the
  mailbox specified in the URL) owned by the authorizing user.

  Conceptually, a URLAUTH-authorized URL can be thought of as a "pawn
  ticket" that carries no authentication information and can be
  redeemed by whomever presents it.  However, unlike a pawn ticket,
  URLAUTH has optional mechanisms to restrict the usage of a URLAUTH-
  authorized URL.  Using these mechanisms, URLAUTH-authorized URLs can
  be usable by:

     . anonymous (the "pawn ticket" model)
     . authenticated users only
     . a specific authenticated user only
     . message submission acting on behalf of a specific user only

  There is also a mechanism for expiration.

  A URLAUTH-authorized URL can be used in the argument to the BURL
  command in message composition, as described in [BURL], for such
  purposes as allowing a client (with limited memory or other
  resources) to submit a message forward or to resend from an IMAP
  mailbox without requiring the client to fetch that message data.

  The URLAUTH is generated using an authorization mechanism name and an
  authorization token, which is generated using a secret mailbox access
  key.  An IMAP client can request that the server generate and assign
  a new mailbox access key (thus effectively revoking all current URLs
  using URLAUTH with the old mailbox access key) but cannot set the
  mailbox access key to a key of its own choosing.

1.1.  Conventions Used in this Document

  The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", and "MAY"
  in this document are to be interpreted as defined in [KEYWORDS].

  The formal syntax uses the Augmented Backus-Naur Form (ABNF) notation
  including the core rules defined in Appendix A of [ABNF].

  In examples, "C:" and "S:" indicate lines sent by the client and
  server, respectively.  If a single "C:" or "S:" label applies to
  multiple lines, then the line breaks between those lines are for
  editorial clarity only and are not part of the actual protocol
  exchange.






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2.  Concepts

2.1.  URLAUTH

  The URLAUTH is a component, appended at the end of a URL, that
  conveys authorization to access the data addressed by that URL.  It
  contains an authorized access identifier, an authorization mechanism
  name, and an authorization token.  The authorization token is
  generated from the URL, the authorized access identifier, the
  authorization mechanism name, and a mailbox access key.

2.2.  Mailbox Access Key

  The mailbox access key is a random string with at least 128 bits of
  entropy.  It is generated by software (not by the human user) and
  MUST be unpredictable.

  Each user has a table of mailboxes and an associated mailbox access
  key for each mailbox.  Consequently, the mailbox access key is per-
  user and per-mailbox.  In other words, two users sharing the same
  mailbox each have a different mailbox access key for that mailbox,
  and each mailbox accessed by a single user also has a different
  mailbox access key.

2.3.  Authorized Access Identifier

  The authorized access identifier restricts use of the URLAUTH
  authorized URL to certain users authorized on the server, as
  described in section 3.

2.4.  Authorization Mechanism

  The authorization mechanism is the algorithm by which the URLAUTH is
  generated and subsequently verified, using the mailbox access key.

2.4.1.  INTERNAL Authorization Mechanism

  This specification defines the INTERNAL mechanism, which uses a token
  generation algorithm of the server's choosing and does not involve
  disclosure of the mailbox access key to the client.

     Note: The token generation algorithm chosen by the server
     implementation should be modern and reasonably secure.  At the
     time of the writing of this document, an [HMAC] such as HMAC-SHA1
     is recommended.






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     If it becomes necessary to change the token generation algorithm
     of the INTERNAL mechanism (e.g., because an attack against the
     current algorithm has been discovered), all currently existing
     URLAUTH-authorized URLs are invalidated by the change in
     algorithm.  Since this would be an unpleasant surprise to
     applications that depend upon the validity of a URLAUTH-authorized
     URL, and there is no good way to do a bulk update of existing
     deployed URLs, it is best to avoid this situation by using a
     secure algorithm as opposed to one that is "good enough".

     Server implementations SHOULD consider the possibility of changing
     the algorithm.  In some cases, it may be desirable to implement
     the change of algorithm in a way that newly-generated tokens use
     the new algorithm, but that for a limited period of time tokens
     using either the new or old algorithm can be validated.
     Consequently, the server SHOULD incorporate some means of
     identifying the token generation algorithm within the token.

  Although this specification is extensible for other mechanisms, none
  are defined in this document.  In addition to the mechanism name
  itself, other mechanisms may have mechanism-specific data, which is
  to be interpreted according to the definition of that mechanism.

2.5.  Authorization Token

  The authorization token is a deterministic string of at least 128
  bits that an entity with knowledge of the secret mailbox access key
  and URL authorization mechanism can use to verify the URL.

3.  IMAP URL Extensions

  [IMAPURL] is extended by allowing the addition of
  ";EXPIRE=<datetime>" and ";URLAUTH=<access>:<mech>:<token>" to IMAP
  URLs that refer to a specific message or message parts.

  The URLAUTH is comprised of ";URLAUTH=<access>:<mech>:<token>" and
  MUST be at the end of the URL.

  URLAUTH does not apply to, and MUST NOT be used with, any IMAP URL
  that refers to an entire IMAP server, a list of mailboxes, an entire
  IMAP mailbox, or IMAP search results.

  When ";EXPIRE=<datetime>" is used, this indicates the latest date and
  time that the URL is valid.  After that date and time, the URL has
  expired, and server implementations MUST reject the URL.  If
  ";EXPIRE=<datetime>" is not used, the URL has no expiration, but
  still can be revoked as discussed below.




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  The URLAUTH takes the form ";URLAUTH=<access>:<mech>:<token>".  It is
  composed of three parts.  The <access> portion provides the
  authorized access identifiers, which may constrain the operations and
  users that are permitted to use this URL.  The <mech> portion
  provides the authorization mechanism used by the IMAP server to
  generate the authorization token that follows.  The <token> portion
  provides the authorization token.

  The "submit+" access identifier prefix, followed by a userid,
  indicates that only a userid authorized as a message submission
  entity on behalf of the specified userid is permitted to use this
  URL.  The IMAP server does not validate the specified userid but does
  validate that the IMAP session has an authorization identity that is
  authorized as a message submission entity.  The authorized message
  submission entity MUST validate the userid prior to contacting the
  IMAP server.

  The "user+" access identifier prefix, followed by a userid, indicates
  that use of this URL is limited to IMAP sessions that are logged in
  as the specified userid (that is, have authorization identity as that
  userid).

     Note: If a SASL mechanism that provides both authorization and
     authentication identifiers is used to authenticate to the IMAP
     server, the "user+" access identifier MUST match the authorization
     identifier.

  The "authuser" access identifier indicates that use of this URL is
  limited to IMAP sessions that are logged in as an authorized user
  (that is, have authorization identity as an authorized user) of that
  IMAP server.  Use of this URL is prohibited to anonymous IMAP
  sessions.

  The "anonymous" access identifier indicates that use of this URL is
  not restricted by session authorization identity; that is, any IMAP
  session in authenticated or selected state (as defined in [IMAP]),
  including anonymous sessions, may issue a URLFETCH using this URL.

  The authorization token is represented as an ASCII-encoded
  hexadecimal string, which is used to authorize the URL.  The length
  and the calculation of the authorization token depends upon the
  mechanism used; but, in all cases, the authorization token is at
  least 128 bits (and therefore at least 32 hexadecimal digits).








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4.  Discussion of URLAUTH Authorization Issues

  In [IMAPURL], the userid before the "@" in the URL has two purposes:

     1) It provides context for user-specific mailbox paths such as
        "INBOX".

     2) It specifies that resolution of the URL requires logging in as
        that user and limits use of that URL to only that user.

  An obvious limitation of using the same field for both purposes is
  that the URL can only be resolved by the mailbox owner.

  URLAUTH overrides the second purpose of the userid in the IMAP URL
  and by default permits the URL to be resolved by any user permitted
  by the access identifier.

  The "user+<userid>" access identifier limits resolution of that URL
  to a particular userid, whereas the "submit+<userid>" access
  identifier is more general and simply requires that the session be
  authorized by a user that has been granted a "submit" role within the
  authentication system.  Use of either of these access identifiers
  makes it impossible for an attacker, spying on the session, to use
  the same URL, either directly or by submission to a message
  submission entity.

  The "authuser" and "anonymous" access identifiers do not have this
  level of protection and should be used with caution.  These access
  identifiers are primarily useful for public export of data from an
  IMAP server, without requiring that it be copied to a web or
  anonymous FTP server.  Refer to the Security Considerations for more
  details.

5.  Generation of URLAUTH-Authorized URLs

  A URLAUTH-authorized URL is generated from an initial URL as follows:

  An initial URL is built, ending with ";URLAUTH=<access>" but without
  the ":<mech>:<token>" components.  An authorization mechanism is
  selected and used to calculate the authorization token, with the
  initial URL as the data and a secret known to the IMAP server as the
  key.  The URLAUTH-authorized URL is generated by taking the initial
  URL and appending ":", the URL authorization mechanism name, ":", and
  the ASCII-encoded hexadecimal representation of the authorization
  token.






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     Note: ASCII-encoded hexadecimal is used instead of BASE64 because
     a BASE64 representation may have "=" padding characters, which
     would be problematic in a URL.

  In the INTERNAL mechanism, the mailbox access key for that mailbox is
  the secret known to the IMAP server, and a server-selected algorithm
  is used as described in section 2.4.1.

6.  Validation of URLAUTH-authorized URLs

  A URLAUTH-authorized URL is validated as follows:

  The URL is split at the ":" that separates "<access>" from
  "<mech>:<token>" in the ";URLAUTH=<access>:<mech>:<token>" portion of
  the URL.  The "<mech>:<token>" portion is first parsed and saved as
  the authorization mechanism and the authorization token.  The URL is
  truncated, discarding the ":" described above, to create a "rump URL"
  (the URL minus the ":" and the "<mech>:<token>" portion).  The rump
  URL is then analyzed to identify the mailbox.

  If the mailbox cannot be identified, an authorization token is
  calculated on the rump URL, using random "plausible" keys (selected
  by the server) as needed, before returning a validation failure.
  This prevents timing attacks aimed at identifying mailbox names.

  If the mailbox can be identified, the authorization token is
  calculated on the rump URL and a secret known to the IMAP server
  using the given URL authorization mechanism.  Validation is
  successful if, and only if, the calculated authorization token for
  that mechanism matches the authorization token supplied in
  ";URLAUTH=<access>:<mech>:<token>".

  Removal of the ":<mech>:<token>" portion of the URL MUST be the only
  operation applied to the URLAUTH-authorized URL to get the rump URL.
  In particular, URL percent escape decoding and case-folding
  (including to the domain part of the URL) MUST NOT occur.

  In the INTERNAL mechanism, the mailbox access key for that mailbox is
  used as the secret known to the IMAP server, and the same server-
  selected algorithm used for generating URLs is used to calculate the
  authorization token for verification.










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7.  Additional Commands

  These commands are extensions to the [IMAP] base protocol.

  The section headings of these commands are intended to correspond
  with where they would be located in the base protocol document if
  they were part of that document.

BASE.6.3.RESETKEY.  RESETKEY Command

  Arguments:  optional mailbox name
              optional mechanism name(s)

  Responses:  none other than in result

  Result:     OK - RESETKEY completed, URLMECH containing new data
              NO - RESETKEY error: can't change key of that mailbox
              BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

  The RESETKEY command has two forms.

  The first form accepts a mailbox name as an argument and generates a
  new mailbox access key for the given mailbox in the user's mailbox
  access key table, replacing any previous mailbox access key (and
  revoking any URLs that were authorized with a URLAUTH using that key)
  in that table.  By default, the mailbox access key is generated for
  the INTERNAL mechanism; other mechanisms can be specified with the
  optional mechanism argument.

  The second form, with no arguments, removes all mailbox access keys
  in the user's mailbox access key table, revoking all URLs currently
  authorized using URLAUTH by the user.

  Any current IMAP session logged in as the user that has the mailbox
  selected will receive an untagged OK response with the URLMECH status
  response code (see section BASE.7.1.URLMECH for more details about
  the URLMECH status response code).

  Example:

     C: a31 RESETKEY
     S: a31 OK All keys removed
     C: a32 RESETKEY INBOX
     S: a32 OK [URLMECH INTERNAL] mechs
     C: a33 RESETKEY INBOX XSAMPLE
     S: a33 OK [URLMECH INTERNAL XSAMPLE=P34OKhO7VEkCbsiYY8rGEg==] done





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BASE.6.3.GENURLAUTH.  GENURLAUTH Command

     Argument:   one or more URL/mechanism pairs

     Response:   untagged response: GENURLAUTH

     Result:     OK - GENURLAUTH completed
                 NO - GENURLAUTH error: can't generate a URLAUTH
                 BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

  The GENURLAUTH command requests that the server generate a URLAUTH-
  authorized URL for each of the given URLs using the given URL
  authorization mechanism.

  The server MUST validate each supplied URL as follows:

     (1) The mailbox component of the URL MUST refer to an existing
         mailbox.

     (2) The server component of the URL MUST contain a valid userid
         that identifies the owner of the mailbox access key table that
         will be used to generate the URLAUTH-authorized URL.  As a
         consequence, the iserver rule of [IMAPURL] is modified so that
         iuserauth is mandatory.

            Note: the server component of the URL is generally the
            logged in userid and server.  If not, then the logged in
            userid and server MUST have owner-type access to the
            mailbox access key table owned by the userid and server
            indicated by the server component of the URL.

     (3) There is a valid access identifier that, in the case of
         "submit+" and "user+", will contain a valid userid.  This
         userid is not necessarily the same as the owner userid
         described in (2).

     (4) The server MAY also verify that the iuid and/or isection
         components (if present) are valid.

  If any of the above checks fail, the server MUST return a tagged BAD
  response with the following exception.  If an invalid userid is
  supplied as the mailbox access key owner and/or as part of the access
  identifier, the server MAY issue a tagged OK response with a
  generated mailbox key that always fails validation when used with a
  URLFETCH command.  This exception prevents an attacker from
  validating userids.





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  If there is currently no mailbox access key for the given mailbox in
  the owner's mailbox access key table, one is automatically generated.
  That is, it is not necessary to use RESETKEY prior to first-time use
  of GENURLAUTH.

  If the command is successful, a GENURLAUTH response code is returned
  listing the requested URLs as URLAUTH-authorized URLs.

  Examples:

     C: a775 GENURLAUTH "imap://[email protected]/INBOX/;uid=20/
        ;section=1.2" INTERNAL
     S: a775 BAD missing access identifier in supplied URL
     C: a776 GENURLAUTH "imap://example.com/Shared/;uid=20/
        ;section=1.2;urlauth=submit+fred" INTERNAL
     S: a776 BAD missing owner username in supplied URL
     C: a777 GENURLAUTH "imap://[email protected]/INBOX/;uid=20/
        ;section=1.2;urlauth=submit+fred" INTERNAL
     S: * GENURLAUTH "imap://[email protected]/INBOX/;uid=20/;section=1.2
        ;urlauth=submit+fred:internal:91354a473744909de610943775f92038"
     S: a777 OK GENURLAUTH completed

BASE.6.3.URLFETCH.  URLFETCH Command

     Argument:   one or more URLs

     Response:   untagged response: URLFETCH

     Result:     OK - urlfetch completed
                 NO - urlfetch failed due to server internal error
                 BAD - command unknown or arguments invalid

  The URLFETCH command requests that the server return the text data
  associated with the specified IMAP URLs, as described in [IMAPURL]
  and extended by this document.  The data is returned for all
  validated URLs, regardless of whether or not the session would
  otherwise be able to access the mailbox containing that data via
  SELECT or EXAMINE.

     Note: This command does not require that the URL refer to the
     selected mailbox; nor does it require that any mailbox be
     selected.  It also does not in any way interfere with any selected
     mailbox.








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  The URLFETCH command effectively executes with the access of the
  userid in the server component of the URL (which is generally the
  userid that issued the GENURLAUTH).  By itself, the URLAUTH does NOT
  grant access to the data; once validated, it grants whatever access
  to the data is held by the userid in the server component of the URL.
  That access may have changed since the GENURLAUTH was done.

  The URLFETCH command MUST return an untagged URLFETCH response and a
  tagged OK response to any URLFETCH command that is syntactically
  valid.  A NO response indicates a server internal failure that may be
  resolved on later retry.

     Note: The possibility of a NO response is to accommodate
     implementations that would otherwise have to issue an untagged BYE
     with a fatal error due to an inability to respond to a valid
     request.  In an ideal world, a server SHOULD NOT issue a NO
     response.

  The server MUST return NIL for any IMAP URL that references an entire
  IMAP server, a list of mailboxes, an entire IMAP mailbox, or IMAP
  search results.

  Example:

     Note: For clarity, this example uses the LOGIN command, which
     SHOULD NOT be used over a non-encrypted communication path.

     This example is of a submit server, obtaining a message segment
     for a message that it has already validated was submitted by
     "fred".

     S: * OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4REV1 URLAUTH] example.com IMAP server
     C: a001 LOGIN submitserver secret
     S: a001 OK submitserver logged in
     C: a002 URLFETCH "imap://[email protected]/INBOX/;uid=20/
        ;section=1.2;urlauth=submit+fred:internal
        :91354a473744909de610943775f92038"
     S: * URLFETCH "imap://[email protected]/INBOX/;uid=20/;section=1.2
        ;urlauth=submit+fred:internal
        :91354a473744909de610943775f92038" {28}
     S: Si vis pacem, para bellum.
     S:
     S: a002 OK URLFETCH completed








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8.  Additional Responses

  These responses are extensions to the [IMAP] base protocol.

  The section headings of these responses are intended to correspond
  with where they would be located in the base protocol document if
  they were part of that document.

BASE.7.1.URLMECH.  URLMECH Status Response Code

  The URLMECH status response code is followed by a list of URL
  authorization mechanism names.  Mechanism names other than INTERNAL
  may be appended with an "=" and BASE64-encoded form of mechanism-
  specific data.

  This status response code is returned in an untagged OK response in
  response to a RESETKEY, SELECT, or EXAMINE command.  In the case of
  the RESETKEY command, this status response code can be sent in the
  tagged OK response instead of requiring a separate untagged OK
  response.

  Example:

     C: a33 RESETKEY INBOX XSAMPLE
     S: a33 OK [URLMECH INTERNAL XSAMPLE=P34OKhO7VEkCbsiYY8rGEg==] done

  In this example, the server supports the INTERNAL mechanism and an
  experimental mechanism called XSAMPLE, which also holds some
  mechanism-specific data (the name "XSAMPLE" is for illustrative
  purposes only).

BASE.7.4.GENURLAUTH.   GENURLAUTH Response

  Contents:   One or more URLs

  The GENURLAUTH response returns the URLAUTH-authorized URL(s)
  requested by a GENURLAUTH command.

  Example:

     C: a777 GENURLAUTH "imap://[email protected]/INBOX/;uid=20/
        ;section=1.2;urlauth=submit+fred" INTERNAL
     S: * GENURLAUTH "imap://[email protected]/INBOX/;uid=20/;section=1.2
        ;urlauth=submit+fred:internal:91354a473744909de610943775f92038"
     S: a777 OK GENURLAUTH completed






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BASE.7.4.URLFETCH.  URLFETCH Response

  Contents:   One or more URL/nstring pairs

  The URLFETCH response returns the message text data associated with
  one or more IMAP URLs, as described in [IMAPURL] and extended by this
  document.  This response occurs as the result of a URLFETCH command.

  The returned data string is NIL if the URL is invalid for any reason
  (including validation failure).  If the URL is valid, but the IMAP
  fetch of the body part returned NIL (this should not happen), the
  returned data string should be the empty string ("") and not NIL.

     Note: This command does not require that the URL refer to the
     selected mailbox; nor does it require that any mailbox be
     selected.  It also does not in any way interfere with any selected
     mailbox.

  Example:

     C: a002 URLFETCH "imap://[email protected]/INBOX/;uid=20/
        ;section=1.2;urlauth=submit+fred:internal
        :91354a473744909de610943775f92038"
     S: * URLFETCH "imap://[email protected]/INBOX/;uid=20/;section=1.2
        ;urlauth=submit+fred:internal
        :91354a473744909de610943775f92038" {28}
     S: Si vis pacem, para bellum.
     S:
     S: a002 OK URLFETCH completed

9.  Formal Syntax

  The following syntax specification uses the Augmented Backus-Naur
  Form (ABNF) notation as specified in [ABNF].

  The following modifications are made to the Formal Syntax in [IMAP]:

resetkey        = "RESETKEY" [SP mailbox *(SP mechanism)]

capability      =/ "URLAUTH"

command-auth    =/ resetkey / genurlauth / urlfetch

resp-text-code  =/ "URLMECH" SP "INTERNAL" *(SP mechanism ["=" base64])

genurlauth      = "GENURLAUTH" 1*(SP url-rump SP mechanism)

genurlauth-data = "*" SP "GENURLAUTH" 1*(SP url-full)



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url-full        = astring
                    ; contains authimapurlfull as defined below

url-rump        = astring
                    ; contains authimapurlrump as defined below

urlfetch        = "URLFETCH" 1*(SP url-full)

urlfetch-data   = "*" SP "URLFETCH" 1*(SP url-full SP nstring)

  The following extensions are made to the Formal Syntax in [IMAPURL]:

authimapurl     = "imap://" enc-user [iauth] "@" hostport "/"
                    imessagepart
                    ; replaces "imapurl" and "iserver" rules for
                    ; URLAUTH authorized URLs

authimapurlfull = authimapurl iurlauth

authimapurlrump = authimapurl iurlauth-rump

enc-urlauth     = 32*HEXDIG

enc-user        = 1*achar
                    ; same as "enc_user" in RFC 2192

iurlauth        = iurlauth-rump ":" mechanism ":" enc-urlauth

iurlauth-rump   = [expire] ";URLAUTH=" access

access          = ("submit+" enc-user) / ("user+" enc-user) /
                   "authuser" / "anonymous"

expire          = ";EXPIRE=" date-time
                     ; date-time defined in [DATETIME]

mechanism       = "INTERNAL" / 1*(ALPHA / DIGIT / "-" / ".")
                    ; case-insensitive
                    ; new mechanisms MUST be registered with IANA












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10.  Security Considerations

  Security considerations are discussed throughout this memo.

  The mailbox access key SHOULD have at least 128 bits of entropy
  (refer to [RANDOM] for more details) and MUST be unpredictable.

  The server implementation of the INTERNAL mechanism SHOULD consider
  the possibility of needing to change the token generation algorithm,
  and SHOULD incorporate some means of identifying the token generation
  algorithm within the token.

  The URLMECH status response code may expose sensitive data in the
  mechanism-specific data for mechanisms other than INTERNAL.  A server
  implementation MUST implement a configuration that will not return a
  URLMECH status response code unless some mechanism is provided that
  protects the session from snooping, such as a TLS or SASL security
  layer that provides confidentiality protection.

  The calculation of an authorization token with a "plausible" key if
  the mailbox can not be identified is necessary to avoid attacks in
  which the server is probed to see if a particular mailbox exists on
  the server by measuring the amount of time taken to reject a known
  bad name versus some other name.

  To protect against a computational denial-of-service attack, a server
  MAY impose progressively longer delays on multiple URL requests that
  fail validation.

  The decision to use the "authuser" access identifier should be made
  with caution.  An "authuser" access identifier can be used by any
  authorized user of the IMAP server; therefore, use of this access
  identifier should be limited to content that may be disclosed to any
  authorized user of the IMAP server.

  The decision to use the "anonymous" access identifier should be made
  with extreme caution.  An "anonymous" access identifier can be used
  by anyone; therefore, use of this access identifier should be limited
  to content that may be disclosed to anyone.  Many IMAP servers do not
  permit anonymous access; in this case, the "anonymous" access
  identifier is equivalent to "authuser", but this MUST NOT be relied
  upon.

  Although this specification does not prohibit the theoretical
  capability to generate a URL with a server component other than the
  logged in userid and server, this capability should only be provided





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  when the logged in userid/server has been authorized as equivalent to
  the server component userid/server, or otherwise has access to that
  userid/server mailbox access key table.

11.  IANA Considerations

  This document constitutes registration of the URLAUTH capability in
  the imap4-capabilities registry.

  URLAUTH authorization mechanisms are registered by publishing a
  standards track or IESG-approved experimental RFC.  The registry is
  currently located at:

http://www.iana.org/assignments/urlauth-authorization-mechanism-registry

  This registry is case-insensitive.

  This document constitutes registration of the INTERNAL URLAUTH
  authorization mechanism.

  IMAP URLAUTH Authorization Mechanism Registry

     Mechanism Name           Reference
     --------------           ---------
     INTERNAL                 [RFC4467]


























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12.  Normative References

  [ABNF]     Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
             Specifications: ABNF", RFC 4234, October 2005.

  [BURL]     Newman, C., "Message Submission BURL Extension", RFC 4468,
             May 2006.

  [DATETIME] Klyne, G. and C. Newman, "Date and Time on the Internet:
             Timestamps", RFC 3339, July 2002.

  [IMAP]     Crispin, M., "Internet Message Access Protocol - Version
             4rev1", RFC 3501, March 2003.

  [IMAPURL]  Newman, C., "IMAP URL Scheme", RFC 2192, September 1997.

  [KEYWORDS] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
             Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

13.  Informative References

  [HMAC]     Krawczyk, H., Bellare, M., and R. Canetti, "HMAC: Keyed-
             Hashing for Message Authentication", RFC 2104, February
             1997.

  [RANDOM]   Eastlake, D., 3rd, Schiller, J., and S. Crocker,
             "Randomness Requirements for Security", BCP 106, RFC 4086,
             June 2005.

Author's Address

  Mark R. Crispin
  Networks and Distributed Computing
  University of Washington
  4545 15th Avenue NE
  Seattle, WA  98105-4527

  Phone: (206) 543-5762
  EMail: [email protected]












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Full Copyright Statement

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Acknowledgement

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