Network Working Group                                          C. Newman
Request for Comments: 5337                              Sun Microsystems
Updates: 3461, 3464, 3798                               A. Melnikov, Ed.
Category: Experimental                                         Isode Ltd
                                                         September 2008


   Internationalized Delivery Status and Disposition Notifications

Status of This Memo

  This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
  community.  It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.
  Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

  Delivery status notifications (DSNs) are critical to the correct
  operation of an email system.  However, the existing Draft Standards
  (RFC 3461, RFC 3462, RFC 3464) are presently limited to US-ASCII text
  in the machine-readable portions of the protocol.  This specification
  adds a new address type for international email addresses so an
  original recipient address with non-US-ASCII characters can be
  correctly preserved even after downgrading.  This also provides
  updated content return media types for delivery status notifications
  and message disposition notifications to support use of the new
  address type.

  This document experimentally extends RFC 3461, RFC 3464, and RFC
  3798.




















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Table of Contents

  1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
  2.  Conventions Used in This Document  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
  3.  UTF-8 Address Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
  4.  UTF-8 Delivery Status Notifications  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
    4.1.  Additional Requirements on SMTP Servers  . . . . . . . . .  8
  5.  UTF-8 Message Disposition Notifications  . . . . . . . . . . .  9
  6.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
    6.1.  UTF-8 Mail Address Type Registration . . . . . . . . . . . 10
    6.2.  Update to 'smtp' Diagnostic Type Registration  . . . . . . 11
    6.3.  message/global-headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
    6.4.  message/global-delivery-status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
    6.5.  message/global-disposition-notification  . . . . . . . . . 13
  7.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
  8.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
    8.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
    8.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
  Appendix A.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
































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1.  Introduction

  When an email message is transmitted using the UTF8SMTP [RFC5336]
  extension and Internationalized Email Headers [RFC5335], it is
  sometimes necessary to return that message or generate a Message
  Disposition Notification (MDN) [RFC3798].  As a message sent to
  multiple recipients can generate a status and disposition
  notification for each recipient, it is helpful if a client can
  correlate these notifications based on the recipient address it
  provided; thus, preservation of the original recipient is important.
  This specification describes how to preserve the original recipient
  and updates the MDN and DSN formats to support the new address types.

2.  Conventions Used in This Document

  The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
  "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
  document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

  The formal syntax use the Augmented Backus-Naur Form (ABNF) [RFC5234]
  notation including the core rules defined in Appendix B of RFC 5234
  [RFC5234] and the UTF-8 syntax rules in Section 4 of [RFC3629].

3.  UTF-8 Address Type

  An Extensible Message Format for Delivery Status Notifications
  [RFC3464] defines the concept of an address type.  The address format
  introduced in Internationalized Email Headers [RFC5335] is a new
  address type.  The syntax for the new address type in the context of
  status notifications is specified at the end of this section.

  An SMTP [RFC2821] server that advertises both the UTF8SMTP extension
  [RFC5336] and the DSN extension [RFC3461] MUST accept a UTF-8 address
  type in the ORCPT parameter including 8-bit UTF-8 characters.  This
  address type also includes a 7-bit encoding suitable for use in a
  message/delivery-status body part or an ORCPT parameter sent to an
  SMTP server that does not advertise UTF8SMTP.

  This address type has 3 forms: utf-8-addr-xtext, utf-8-addr-unitext,
  and utf-8-address.  The first 2 forms are 7-bit safe.

  The utf-8-address form is only suitable for use in newly defined
  protocols capable of native representation of 8-bit characters.  That
  is, the utf-8-address form MUST NOT be used in the ORCPT parameter
  when the SMTP server doesn't advertise support for UTF8SMTP or the
  SMTP server supports UTF8SMTP, but the address contains US-ASCII
  characters not permitted in the ORCPT parameter (e.g., the ORCPT
  parameter forbids unencoded SP and the = character), or in a 7-bit



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  transport environment including a message/delivery-status Original-
  Recipient or Final-Recipient field.  In the former case, the utf-8-
  addr-xtext form (see below) MUST be used instead; in the latter case,
  the utf-8-addr-unitext form MUST be used.  The utf-8-address form MAY
  be used in the ORCPT parameter when the SMTP server also advertises
  support for UTF8SMTP and the address doesn't contain any US-ASCII
  characters not permitted in the ORCPT parameter.  It SHOULD be used
  in a message/global-delivery-status Original-Recipient or Final-
  Recipient DSN field, or in an Original-Recipient header field
  [RFC3798] if the message is a UTF8SMTP message.

  In addition, the utf-8-addr-unitext form can be used anywhere where
  the utf-8-address form is allowed.

  When using in the ORCPT parameter, the UTF-8 address type requires
  that US-ASCII CTLs, SP, \, +, and = be encoded using xtext encoding
  as described in [RFC3461].  This is described by the utf-8-addr-xtext
  form in the ABNF below.  Unicode characters MAY be included in a
  UTF-8 address type using a "\x{HEXPOINT}" syntax
  (EmbeddedUnicodeChar), where HEXPOINT is 2 to 6 hexadecimal digits.
  When sending data to a UTF8SMTP-capable server, native UTF-8
  characters SHOULD be used instead of the EmbeddedUnicodeChar syntax
  described in details below.  When sending data to an SMTP server that
  does not advertise UTF8SMTP, then the EmbeddedUnicodeChar syntax MUST
  be used instead of UTF-8.

  When the ORCPT parameter is placed in a message/
  global-delivery-status Original-Recipient field, the utf-8-addr-xtext
  form of the UTF-8 address type SHOULD be converted to the utf-8-
  address form (see the ABNF below) by removing all xtext encoding
  first (which will result in the utf-8-addr-unitext form), followed by
  removal of the unitext encoding.  However, if an address is labeled
  with the UTF-8 address type but does not conform to utf-8 syntax,
  then it MUST be copied into the message/global-delivery-status field
  without alteration.

  The ability to encode characters with the EmbeddedUnicodeChar
  encodings should be viewed as a transitional mechanism.  It is hoped
  that as systems lacking support for UTF8SMTP become less common over
  time, these encodings can eventually be phased out.

  In the ABNF below, all productions not defined in this document are
  defined in Appendix B of [RFC5234], in Section 4 of [RFC3629], or in
  [RFC3464].







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 utf-8-type-addr     = "utf-8;" utf-8-enc-addr

 utf-8-address       = uMailbox [ 1*WSP "<" Mailbox ">" ]
   ; uMailbox is defined in [RFC5336].
   ; Mailbox is defined in [RFC2821].

 utf-8-enc-addr      = utf-8-addr-xtext /
                       utf-8-addr-unitext /
                       utf-8-address

 utf-8-addr-xtext    = xtext
                   ; xtext is defined in [RFC3461].
                   ; When xtext encoding is removed,
                   ; the syntax MUST conform to
                   ; utf-8-addr-unitext.

 utf-8-addr-unitext  = 1*(QUCHAR / EmbeddedUnicodeChar)
                     ; MUST follow utf-8-address ABNF when
                     ; dequoted

 QUCHAR              = %x21-2a / %x2c-3c / %x3e-5b / %x5d-7e /
                       UTF8-2 / UTF8-3 / UTF8-4
                     ; US-ASCII printable characters except
                     ; CTLs, SP, '\', '+' and '=', plus
                     ; other Unicode characters in UTF-8

 EmbeddedUnicodeChar =   %x5C.78 "{" HEXPOINT "}"
                     ; starts with "\x"

 HEXPOINT = "5C" / (HEXDIG8 HEXDIG) /    ; 2 digit forms
            ( NZHEXDIG 2(HEXDIG) ) /     ; 3 digit forms
            ( NZDHEXDIG 3(HEXDIG) ) /
            ( "D" %x30-37 2(HEXDIG) ) /
                     ; 4 digit forms excluding surrogate
            ( NZHEXDIG 4(HEXDIG) ) /     ; 5 digit forms
                    ( "10" 4*HEXDIG )    ; 6 digit forms
            ; represents either "\" or a Unicode code point outside the
            ; US-ASCII repertoire

 HEXDIG8             = %x38-39 / "A" / "B" / "C" / "D" / "E" / "F"
                     ; HEXDIG excluding 0-7
 NZHEXDIG            = %x31-39 / "A" / "B" / "C" / "D" / "E" / "F"
                     ; HEXDIG excluding "0"
 NZDHEXDIG           = %x31-39 / "A" / "B" / "C" / "E" / "F"
                     ; HEXDIG excluding "0" and "D"






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4.  UTF-8 Delivery Status Notifications

  A traditional delivery status notification [RFC3464] comes in a
  three-part multipart/report [RFC3462] container, where the first part
  is human-readable text describing the error, the second part is a
  7-bit-only message/delivery-status, and the optional third part is
  used for content (message/rfc822) or header (text/rfc822-headers)
  return.  As the present DSN format does not permit returning of
  undeliverable UTF8SMTP messages, three new media types are needed.

  The first type, message/global-delivery-status, has the syntax of
  message/delivery-status with three modifications.  First, the charset
  for message/global-delivery-status is UTF-8, and thus any field MAY
  contain UTF-8 characters when appropriate (see the ABNF below).  In
  particular, the Diagnostic-Code field MAY contain UTF-8 as described
  in UTF8SMTP [RFC5336]; the Diagnostic-Code field SHOULD be in
  i-default language [DEFAULTLANG].  Second, systems generating a
  message/global-delivery-status body part SHOULD use the utf-8-address
  form of the UTF-8 address type for all addresses containing
  characters outside the US-ASCII repertoire.  These systems SHOULD up-
  convert the utf-8-addr-xtext or the utf-8-addr-unitext form of a
  UTF-8 address type in the ORCPT parameter to the utf-8-address form
  of a UTF-8 address type in the Original-Recipient field.  Third, a
  new optional field called Localized-Diagnostic is added.  Each
  instance includes a language tag [LANGTAGS] and contains text in the
  specified language.  This is equivalent to the text part of the
  Diagnostic-Code field.  All instances of Localized-Diagnostic MUST
  use different language tags.  The ABNF for message/
  global-delivery-status is specified below.

  In the ABNF below, all productions not defined in this document are
  defined in Appendix B of [RFC5234], in Section 4 of [RFC3629], or in
  [RFC3464].

  utf-8-delivery-status-content = per-message-fields
                        1*( CRLF utf-8-per-recipient-fields )
       ; "per-message-fields" remains unchanged from the definition
           ; in RFC 3464, except for the "extension-field"
           ; which is updated below.












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   utf-8-per-recipient-fields =
        [ original-recipient-field CRLF ]
        final-recipient-field CRLF
        action-field CRLF
        status-field CRLF
        [ remote-mta-field CRLF ]
        [ diagnostic-code-field CRLF
          *(localized-diagnostic-text-field CRLF) ]
        [ last-attempt-date-field CRLF ]
        [ will-retry-until-field CRLF ]
        *( extension-field CRLF )
    ; All fields except for "original-recipient-field",
    ; "final-recipient-field", "diagnostic-code-field"
    ; and "extension-field" remain unchanged from
    ; the definition in RFC 3464.

  generic-address =/ utf-8-enc-addr
    ; Only allowed with the "utf-8" address-type.
    ;
    ; This indirectly updates "original-recipient-field"
    ; and "final-recipient-field"

  diagnostic-code-field =
       "Diagnostic-Code" ":" diagnostic-type ";" *text-fixed

  localized-diagnostic-text-field =
       "Localized-Diagnostic" ":" Language-Tag ";" *utf8-text
    ; "Language-Tag" is a language tag as defined in [LANGTAGS].

  extension-field =/ extension-field-name ":" *utf8-text

  text-fixed = %d1-9 /      ; Any Unicode character except for NUL,
              %d11 /       ; CR and LF, encoded in UTF-8
              %d12 /
              %d14-127
    ; Same as <text> from [RFC2822], but without <obs-text>.
    ; If/when RFC 2822 is updated to disallow <obs-text>,
    ; this should become just <text>
    ; Also, if/when RFC 2822 is updated to disallow control characters
    ; this should become a reference to RFC 2822upd instead.

  utf8-text = text-fixed / UTF8-non-ascii

  UTF8-non-ascii   = UTF8-2 / UTF8-3 / UTF8-4







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  The second type, used for returning the content, is message/global
  which is similar to message/rfc822, except it contains a message with
  UTF-8 headers.  This media type is described in [RFC5335].

  The third type, used for returning the headers, is message/
  global-headers and contains only the UTF-8 header fields of a message
  (all lines prior to the first blank line in a UTF8SMTP message).
  Unlike message/global, this body part provides no difficulties for
  the present infrastructure.

  Note that as far as multipart/report [RFC3462] container is
  concerned, message/global-delivery-status, message/global, and
  message/global-headers MUST be treated as equivalent to message/
  delivery-status, message/rfc822, and text/rfc822-headers.  That is,
  implementations processing multipart/report MUST expect any
  combinations of the 6 MIME types mentioned above inside a multipart/
  report MIME type.

  All three new types will typically use the "8bit" Content-Transfer-
  Encoding.  (In the event all content is 7-bit, the equivalent
  traditional types for delivery status notifications MAY be used.  For
  example, if information in message/global-delivery-status part can be
  represented without any loss of information as message/
  delivery-status, then the message/delivery-status body part may be
  used.)  Note that [RFC5335] relaxed restriction from MIME [RFC2046]
  regarding use of Content-Transfer-Encoding in new "message" subtypes.
  This specification explicitly allows use of Content-Transfer-Encoding
  in message/global-headers and message/global-delivery-status.  This
  is not believed to be problematic as these new MIME types are
  intended primarily for use by newer systems with full support for
  8-bit MIME and UTF-8 headers.

4.1.  Additional Requirements on SMTP Servers

  If an SMTP server that advertises both UTF8SMTP and DSN needs to
  return an undeliverable UTF8SMTP message, then it MUST NOT downgrade
  [DOWNGRADE] the UTF8SMTP message when generating the corresponding
  multipart/report.  If the return path SMTP server does not support
  UTF8SMTP, then the undeliverable body part and headers MUST be
  encoded using a 7-bit Content-Transfer-Encoding such as "base64" or
  "quoted-printable" [RFC2045], as detailed in Section 4.  Otherwise,
  "8bit" Content-Transfer-Encoding can be used.









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5.  UTF-8 Message Disposition Notifications

  Message Disposition Notifications [RFC3798] have a similar design and
  structure to DSNs.  As a result, they use the same basic return
  format.  When generating an MDN for a UTF-8 header message, the third
  part of the multipart/report contains the returned content (message/
  global) or header (message/global-headers), same as for DSNs.  The
  second part of the multipart/report uses a new media type, message/
  global-disposition-notification, which has the syntax of message/
  disposition-notification with two modifications.  First, the charset
  for message/global-disposition-notification is UTF-8, and thus any
  field MAY contain UTF-8 characters when appropriate (see the ABNF
  below).  (In particular, the failure-field, the error-field, and the
  warning-field MAY contain UTF-8.  These fields SHOULD be in i-default
  language [DEFAULTLANG].)  Second, systems generating a message/
  global-disposition-notification body part (typically a mail user
  agent) SHOULD use the UTF-8 address type for all addresses containing
  characters outside the US-ASCII repertoire.

  The MDN specification also defines the Original-Recipient header
  field, which is added with a copy of the contents of ORCPT at
  delivery time.  When generating an Original-Recipient header field, a
  delivery agent writing a UTF-8 header message in native format SHOULD
  convert the utf-8-addr-xtext or the utf-8-addr-unitext form of a
  UTF-8 address type in the ORCPT parameter to the corresponding utf-8-
  address form.

  The MDN specification also defines the Disposition-Notification-To
  header, which is an address header and thus follows the same 8-bit
  rules as other address headers such as "From" and "To" when used in a
  UTF-8 header message.

    ; ABNF for "original-recipient-header", "original-recipient-field",
    ; and "final-recipient-field" from RFC 3798 is implicitly updated
    ; as they use the updated "generic-address" as defined in
    ; Section 4 of this document.

  failure-field = "Failure" ":" *utf8-text
    ; "utf8-text" is defined in Section 4 of this document.

  error-field = "Error" ":" *utf8-text
    ; "utf8-text" is defined in Section 4 of this document.

  warning-field = "Warning" ":" *utf8-text
    ; "utf8-text" is defined in Section 4 of this document.






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6.  IANA Considerations

  This specification does not create any new IANA registries.  However,
  the following items have been registered as a result of this
  document.

6.1.  UTF-8 Mail Address Type Registration

  The mail address type registry was created by RFC 3464.  The
  registration template response follows:

  (a) The proposed address-type name.

      UTF-8

  (b) The syntax for mailbox addresses of this type, specified using
      BNF, regular expressions, ASN.1, or other non-ambiguous language.

      See Section 3.

  (c) If addresses of this type are not composed entirely of graphic
      characters from the US-ASCII repertoire, a specification for how
      they are to be encoded as graphic US-ASCII characters in a DSN
      Original-Recipient or Final-Recipient DSN field.

      This address type has 3 forms (as defined in Section 3): utf-8-
      addr-xtext, utf-8-addr-unitext, and utf-8-address.  The first 2
      forms are 7-bit safe.

  The utf-8-address form MUST NOT be used

  1.  in the ORCPT parameter when the SMTP server doesn't advertise
      support for UTF8SMTP;

  2.  or the SMTP server supports UTF8SMTP, but the address contains
      US-ASCII characters not permitted in the ORCPT parameter (e.g.,
      the ORCPT parameter forbids SP and the = characters);

  3.  or in a 7-bit transport environment including a message/
      delivery-status Original-Recipient or Final-Recipient field.

  The utf-8-addr-xtext form MUST be used instead in the first case; the
  utf-8-addr-unitext form MUST be used in the other two cases.  The
  utf-8-address form MAY be used in the ORCPT parameter when the SMTP
  server also advertises support for UTF8SMTP and the address doesn't
  contain any US-ASCII characters not permitted in the ORCPT parameter;





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  in a message/global-delivery-status Original-Recipient or Final-
  Recipient DSN field; or in an Original-Recipient header field
  [RFC3798] if the message is a UTF8SMTP message.

  In addition, the utf-8-addr-unitext form can be used anywhere where
  the utf-8-address form is allowed.

6.2.  Update to 'smtp' Diagnostic Type Registration

  The mail diagnostic type registry was created by RFC 3464.  The
  registration for the 'smtp' diagnostic type should be updated to
  reference RFC 5337 in addition to RFC 3464.

  When the 'smtp' diagnostic type is used in the context of a message/
  delivery-status body part, it remains as presently defined.  When the
  'smtp' diagnostic type is used in the context of a message/
  global-delivery-status body part, the codes remain the same, but the
  text portion MAY contain UTF-8 characters.

6.3.  message/global-headers

  Type name:  message

  Subtype name:  global-headers

  Required parameters:  none

  Optional parameters:  none

  Encoding considerations:  This media type contains Internationalized
     Email Headers [RFC5335] with no message body.  Whenever possible,
     the 8-bit content transfer encoding SHOULD be used.  When this
     media type passes through a 7-bit-only SMTP infrastructure it MAY
     be encoded with the base64 or quoted-printable content transfer
     encoding.

  Security considerations:  See Section 7.

  Interoperability considerations:  It is important that this media
     type is not converted to a charset other than UTF-8.  As a result,
     implementations MUST NOT include a charset parameter with this
     media type.  Although it might be possible to downconvert this
     media type to the text/rfc822-header media type, such conversion
     is discouraged as it loses information.

  Published specification:  RFC 5337





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  Applications that use this media type:  UTF8SMTP servers and email
     clients that support multipart/report generation or parsing.

  Additional information:

  Magic number(s):  none

  File extension(s):  In the event this is saved to a file, the
     extension ".u8hdr" is suggested.

  Macintosh file type code(s):  The 'TEXT' type code is suggested as
     files of this type are typically used for diagnostic purposes and
     suitable for analysis in a UTF-8 aware text editor.  A uniform
     type identifier (UTI) of "public.utf8-email-message-header" is
     suggested.  This type conforms to "public.utf8-plain-text" and
     "public.plain-text".

  Person & email address to contact for further information:  See the
     Authors' Addresses section of this document.

  Intended usage:  COMMON

  Restrictions on usage:  This media type contains textual data in the
     UTF-8 charset.  It typically contains octets with the 8th bit set.
     As a result, a transfer encoding is required when a 7-bit
     transport is used.

  Author:  See the Authors' Addresses section of this document.

  Change controller:  IETF Standards Process

6.4.  message/global-delivery-status

  Type name:  message

  Subtype name:  global-delivery-status

  Required parameters:  none

  Optional parameters:  none

  Encoding considerations:  This media type contains delivery status
     notification attributes in the UTF-8 charset.  The 8-bit content
     transfer encoding MUST be used with this content-type, unless it
     is sent over a 7-bit transport environment in which case quoted-
     printable or base64 may be necessary.

  Security considerations:  See Section 7



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  Interoperability considerations:  This media type provides
     functionality similar to the message/delivery-status content-type
     for email message return information.  Clients of the previous
     format will need to be upgraded to interpret the new format;
     however, the new media type makes it simple to identify the
     difference.

  Published specification:  RFC 5337

  Applications that use this media type:  SMTP servers and email
     clients that support delivery status notification generation or
     parsing.

  Additional information:

  Magic number(s):  none

  File extension(s):  The extension ".u8dsn" is suggested.

  Macintosh file type code(s):  A uniform type identifier (UTI) of
     "public.utf8-email-message-delivery-status" is suggested.  This
     type conforms to "public.utf8-plain-text".

  Person & email address to contact for further information:  See the
     Authors' Addresses section of this document.

  Intended usage:  COMMON

  Restrictions on usage:  This is expected to be the second part of a
     multipart/report.

  Author:  See the Authors' Addresses section of this document.

  Change controller:  IETF Standards Process

6.5.  message/global-disposition-notification

  Type name:  message

  Subtype name:  global-disposition-notification

  Required parameters:  none

  Optional parameters:  none







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  Encoding considerations:  This media type contains disposition
     notification attributes in the UTF-8 charset.  The 8-bit content
     transfer encoding MUST be used with this content-type, unless it
     is sent over a 7-bit transport environment in which case quoted-
     printable or base64 may be necessary.

  Security considerations:  See Section 7.

  Interoperability considerations:  This media type provides
     functionality similar to the message/disposition-notification
     content-type for email message disposition information.  Clients
     of the previous format will need to be upgraded to interpret the
     new format; however, the new media type makes it simple to
     identify the difference.

  Published specification:  RFC 5337

  Applications that use this media type:  Email clients or servers that
     support message disposition notification generation or parsing.

  Additional information:

  Magic number(s):  none

  File extension(s):  The extension ".u8mdn" is suggested.

  Macintosh file type code(s):  A uniform type identifier (UTI) of
     "public.utf8-email-message-disposition-notification" is suggested.
     This type conforms to "public.utf8-plain-text".

  Person & email address to contact for further information:  See the
     Authors' Addresses section of this document.

  Intended usage:  COMMON

  Restrictions on usage:  This is expected to be the second part of a
     multipart/report.

  Author:  See the Authors' Addresses section of this document.

  Change controller:  IETF Standards Process










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7.  Security Considerations

  Automated use of report types without authentication presents several
  security issues.  Forging negative reports presents the opportunity
  for denial-of-service attacks when the reports are used for automated
  maintenance of directories or mailing lists.  Forging positive
  reports may cause the sender to incorrectly believe a message was
  delivered when it was not.

  Malicious users can generate report structures designed to trigger
  coding flaws in report parsers.  Report parsers need to use secure
  coding techniques to avoid the risk of buffer overflow or denial-of-
  service attacks against parser coding mistakes.  Code reviews of such
  parsers are also recommended.

  Malicious users of the email system regularly send messages with
  forged envelope return paths, and these messages trigger delivery
  status reports that result in a large amount of unwanted traffic on
  the Internet.  Many users choose to ignore delivery status
  notifications because they are usually the result of "blowback" from
  forged messages and thus never notice when messages they sent go
  undelivered.  As a result, support for correlation of delivery status
  and message disposition notification messages with sent-messages has
  become a critical feature of mail clients and possibly mail stores if
  the email infrastructure is to remain reliable.  In the short term,
  simply correlating message-IDs may be sufficient to distinguish true
  status notifications from those resulting from forged originator
  addresses.  But in the longer term, including cryptographic signature
  material that can securely associate the status notification with the
  original message is advisable.

  As this specification permits UTF-8 in additional fields, the
  security considerations of UTF-8 [RFC3629] apply.

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

  [RFC2119]      Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
                 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

  [RFC2821]      Klensin, J., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol",
                 RFC 2821, April 2001.

  [RFC2822]      Resnick, P., "Internet Message Format", RFC 2822,
                 April 2001.





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  [RFC3461]      Moore, K., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
                 Service Extension for Delivery Status Notifications
                 (DSNs)", RFC 3461, January 2003.

  [RFC3462]      Vaudreuil, G., "The Multipart/Report Content Type for
                 the Reporting of Mail System Administrative Messages",
                 RFC 3462, January 2003.

  [RFC3464]      Moore, K. and G. Vaudreuil, "An Extensible Message
                 Format for Delivery Status Notifications", RFC 3464,
                 January 2003.

  [RFC3629]      Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO
                 10646", STD 63, RFC 3629, November 2003.

  [RFC3798]      Hansen, T. and G. Vaudreuil, "Message Disposition
                 Notification", RFC 3798, May 2004.

  [RFC5234]      Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
                 Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234, January 2008.

  [RFC5335]      Yang, A., Ed., "Internationalized Email Headers",
                 RFC 5335, September 2008.

  [RFC5336]      Yao, J., Ed. and W. Mao, Ed., "SMTP Extension for
                 Internationalized Email Addresses", RFC 5336,
                 September 2008.

  [LANGTAGS]     Phillips, A. and M. Davis, "Tags for Identifying
                 Languages", RFC 4646, September 2006.

  [DEFAULTLANG]  Alvestrand, H., "IETF Policy on Character Sets and
                 Languages", RFC 2277, January 1998.

8.2.  Informative References

  [RFC2045]      Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet
                 Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet
                 Message Bodies", RFC 2045, November 1996.

  [RFC2046]      Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet
                 Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types",
                 RFC 2046, November 1996.

  [DOWNGRADE]    Fujiwara, K. and Y. Yoneya, "Downgrading mechanism for
                 Email Address Internationalization", Work in Progress,
                 July 2008.




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Appendix A.  Acknowledgements

  Many thanks for input provided by Pete Resnick, James Galvin, Ned
  Freed, John Klensin, Harald Alvestrand, Frank Ellermann, SM, and
  members of the EAI WG to help solidify this proposal.

Authors' Addresses

  Chris Newman
  Sun Microsystems
  800 Royal Oaks
  Monrovia, CA  91016-6347
  US

  EMail: [email protected]


  Alexey Melnikov (editor)
  Isode Ltd
  5 Castle Business Village
  36 Station Road
  Hampton, Middlesex  TW12 2BX
  UK

  EMail: [email protected]


























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Full Copyright Statement

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  contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
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