Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                        R. Gellens
Request for Comments: 6409                         QUALCOMM Incorporated
STD: 72                                                       J. Klensin
Obsoletes: 4409                                            November 2011
Category: Standards Track
ISSN: 2070-1721


                     Message Submission for Mail

Abstract

  This memo splits message submission from message relay, allowing each
  service to operate according to its own rules (for security, policy,
  etc.), and specifies what actions are to be taken by a submission
  server.

  Message relay is unaffected, and continues to use SMTP over port 25.

  When conforming to this document, message submission uses the
  protocol specified here, normally over port 587.

  This separation of function offers a number of benefits, including
  the ability to apply specific security or policy requirements.

Status of This Memo

  This is an Internet Standards Track document.

  This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
  (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
  received public review and has been approved for publication by the
  Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
  Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.

  Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
  and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
  http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6409.













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Copyright Notice

  Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
  document authors.  All rights reserved.

  This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
  Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
  (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
  publication of this document.  Please review these documents
  carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
  to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
  include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
  the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
  described in the Simplified BSD License.





































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Table of Contents

  1. Introduction ....................................................4
  2. Document Information ............................................5
     2.1. Definitions of Terms Used in This Memo .....................5
     2.2. Conventions Used in This Document ..........................6
  3. Message Submission ..............................................6
     3.1. Submission Identification ..................................6
     3.2. Message Rejection and Bouncing .............................6
     3.3. Authorized Submission ......................................7
  4. Mandatory Actions ...............................................8
     4.1. General Submission Rejection Code ..........................8
     4.2. Ensure All Domains Are Fully Qualified .....................8
     4.3. Require Authentication .....................................8
  5. Recommended Actions .............................................9
     5.1. Enforce Address Syntax .....................................9
     5.2. Log Errors .................................................9
     5.3. Apply Shorter Timeouts .....................................9
  6. Optional Actions ...............................................10
     6.1. Enforce Submission Rights .................................10
     6.2. Enforce Permissions .......................................10
     6.3. Check Message Data ........................................10
     6.4. Support for the Postmaster Address ........................10
     6.5. Adjust Character Encodings ................................11
  7. Interaction with SMTP Extensions ...............................12
  8. Message Modifications ..........................................13
     8.1. Add 'Sender' ..............................................14
     8.2. Add 'Date' ................................................14
     8.3. Add 'Message-ID' ..........................................14
     8.4. Transfer Encode ...........................................14
     8.5. Sign the Message ..........................................14
     8.6. Encrypt the Message .......................................14
     8.7. Resolve Aliases ...........................................15
     8.8. Header Rewriting ..........................................15
  9. Security Considerations ........................................15
  10. IANA Considerations ...........................................16
  11. Acknowledgments ...............................................16
  12. References ....................................................17
     12.1. Normative References .....................................17
     12.2. Informative References ...................................17
  Appendix A. Major Changes from RFC 4409 ...........................20










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1.  Introduction

  SMTP [SMTP-MTA] was defined as a message *transfer* protocol, that
  is, a means to route (if needed) and deliver finished (complete)
  messages.

  Message Transfer Agents (MTAs) are not supposed to alter the message
  text, except to add 'Received', 'Return-Path', and other header
  fields as required by [SMTP-MTA].  However, SMTP is now also widely
  used as a message *submission* protocol, that is, a means for Message
  User Agents (MUAs) to introduce new messages into the MTA routing
  network.  The process that accepts message submissions from MUAs is
  termed a "Message Submission Agent" (MSA).

  In order to permit unconstrained communications, SMTP is not often
  authenticated during message relay.

  Authentication and authorization of initial submissions have become
  increasingly important, driven by changes in security requirements
  and rising expectations that submission servers take responsibility
  for the message traffic they originate.

  For example, due to the prevalence of machines that have worms,
  viruses, or other malicious software that generate large amounts of
  spam, many sites now prohibit outbound traffic on the standard SMTP
  port (port 25), funneling all mail submissions through submission
  servers.

  In addition to authentication and authorization issues, messages
  being submitted are, in some cases, finished (complete) messages and,
  in other cases, are unfinished (incomplete) in one or more aspects.
  Unfinished messages may need to be completed to ensure they conform
  to the Message Format specification [MESSAGE-FORMAT] and related
  requirements.  For example, the message may lack a proper 'Date'
  header field, and domains might not be fully qualified.  In some
  cases, the MUA may be unable to generate finished messages (e.g., it
  might not know its time zone).  Even when submitted messages are
  complete, local site policy may dictate that the message text be
  examined or modified in some way, e.g., to conceal local name or
  address spaces.  Such completions or modifications have been shown to
  cause harm when performed by downstream MTAs -- that is, MTAs after
  the first-hop submission MTA -- and are, in general, considered to be
  outside the province of standardized MTA functionality.








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  Separating messages into submissions and transfers allows developers
  and network administrators to do the following more easily:

  o  Implement security policies and guard against unauthorized mail
     relaying or injection of unsolicited bulk mail.

  o  Implement authenticated submission, including off-site submission
     by authorized users such as travelers.

  o  Separate the relevant software code differences, thereby making
     each code base more straightforward and allowing for different
     programs for relay and submission.

  o  Detect configuration problems with a site's mail clients.

  o  Provide a basis for adding enhanced submission services.

  This memo describes a low-cost, deterministic means for messages to
  be identified as submissions, and it specifies what actions are to be
  taken by a submission server.

2.  Document Information

2.1.  Definitions of Terms Used in This Memo

  Many of the concepts and terms used in this document are defined in
  [SMTP-MTA]; familiarity with those documents is assumed here.

  Fully Qualified

  Containing or consisting of a domain that can be globally resolved
  using the Domain Name Service, that is, not a local alias or partial
  specification.

  Message Submission Agent (MSA)

  A process that conforms to this specification.  An MSA acts as a
  submission server to accept messages from MUAs, and it either
  delivers them or acts as an SMTP client to relay them to an MTA.

  Message Transfer Agent (MTA)

  A process that conforms to [SMTP-MTA].  An MTA acts as an SMTP server
  to accept messages from an MSA or another MTA, and it either delivers
  them or acts as an SMTP client to relay them to another MTA.






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  Message User Agent (MUA)

  A process that acts (often on behalf of a user and with a user
  interface) to compose and submit new messages, and to process
  delivered messages.

  For delivered messages, the receiving MUA may obtain and process the
  message according to local conventions or, in what is commonly
  referred to as a split-MUA model, Post Office Protocol [POP3] or IMAP
  [IMAP4] is used to access delivered messages, whereas the protocol
  defined here (or SMTP) is used to submit messages.

2.2.  Conventions Used in This Document

  Examples use the 'example.net' domain.

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

3.  Message Submission

3.1.  Submission Identification

  Port 587 is reserved for email message submission as specified in
  this document.  Messages received on this port are defined to be
  submissions.  The protocol used is ESMTP [SMTP-MTA], with additional
  restrictions or allowances as specified here.

  Although most email clients and servers can be configured to use port
  587 instead of 25, there are cases where this is not possible or
  convenient.  A site MAY choose to use port 25 for message submission
  by designating some hosts to be MSAs and others to be MTAs.

3.2.  Message Rejection and Bouncing

  MTAs and MSAs MAY implement message rejection rules that rely, in
  part, on whether the message is a submission or a relay.

  For example, some sites might configure their MTAs to reject all RCPT
  commands for messages that do not reference local users, and they
  might configure their MSA to reject all message submissions that do
  not come from authorized users, with authorization based on either
  the authenticated identity or the submitting endpoint being within a
  protected IP environment.

  NOTE: It is better to reject a message than to risk sending one that
  is damaged.  This is especially true for problems that are
  correctable by the MUA, for example, an invalid 'From' field.



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  If an MSA is not able to determine a return path to the submitting
  user, from a valid MAIL FROM, a valid source IP address, or based on
  authenticated identity, then the MSA SHOULD immediately reject the
  message.  A message can be immediately rejected by returning a 550
  code to the MAIL command.

  Note that a null return path, that is, MAIL FROM:<>, is permitted and
  MUST NOT, in itself, be cause for rejecting a message.  (MUAs need to
  generate null return-path messages for a variety of reasons,
  including disposition notifications.)

  Except in the case where the MSA is unable to determine a valid
  return path for the message being submitted, text in this
  specification that instructs an MSA to issue a rejection code MAY be
  complied with by accepting the message and subsequently generating a
  bounce message.  (That is, if the MSA is going to reject a message
  for any reason except being unable to determine a return path, it can
  optionally do an immediate rejection or accept the message and then
  mail a bounce.)

  NOTE: In the normal case of message submission, immediately rejecting
  the message is preferred, as it gives the user and MUA direct
  feedback.  To properly handle delayed bounces, the client MUA needs
  to maintain a queue of messages it has submitted and match bounces to
  them.  Note that many contemporary MUAs do not have this capability.

3.3.  Authorized Submission

  Numerous methods have been used to ensure that only authorized users
  are able to submit messages.  These methods include authenticated
  SMTP, IP address restrictions, secure IP and other tunnels, and prior
  POP authentication.

  Authenticated SMTP [SMTP-AUTH] has seen widespread deployment.  It
  allows the MSA to determine an authorization identity for the message
  submission, one that is not tied to other protocols.

  IP address restrictions are very widely implemented, but they do not
  allow for travelers and similar situations, and they can be easily
  spoofed unless all transport paths between the MUA and MSA are
  trustworthy.

  Secure IP [IPSEC], and other encrypted and authenticated tunneling
  techniques, can also be used and provide additional benefits of
  protection against eavesdropping and traffic analysis.

  Requiring a POP [POP3] authentication (from the same IP address)
  within some amount of time (e.g., 20 minutes) prior to the start of a



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  message submission session has also been used, but this does impose
  restrictions on clients as well as servers, which may cause
  difficulties.  Specifically, the client must do a POP authentication
  before an SMTP submission session, and not all clients are capable
  and configured for this.  Also, the MSA must coordinate with the POP
  server, which may be difficult.  There is also a window during which
  an unauthorized user can submit messages and appear to be a
  previously authorized user.  Since it is dependent on the MUA's IP
  addresses, this technique is substantially as subject to IP address
  spoofing as validation based on known IP addresses alone (see above).

4.  Mandatory Actions

  An MSA MUST do all of the following:

4.1.  General Submission Rejection Code

  Unless covered by a more precise response code, response code 554 is
  to be used to reject a MAIL, RCPT, or DATA command that contains
  something improper.

4.2.  Ensure All Domains Are Fully Qualified

  The MSA MUST ensure that all domains in the SMTP envelope are fully
  qualified.

  If the MSA examines or alters the message text in any way, except to
  add trace header fields [SMTP-MTA], it MUST ensure that all domains
  in address header fields are fully qualified.

  Reply code 554 is to be used to reject a MAIL, RCPT, or DATA command
  that contains improper domain references.

  A frequent local convention is to accept single-level domains (e.g.,
  'sales') and then to expand the reference by adding the remaining
  portion of the domain name (e.g., to 'sales.example.net').  Local
  conventions that permit single-level domains SHOULD reject, rather
  than expand, incomplete multi-level domains (e.g., 'squeaky.sales'),
  since such expansion is particularly risky.

4.3.  Require Authentication

  The MSA MUST, by default, issue an error response to the MAIL command
  if the session has not been authenticated using [SMTP-AUTH], unless
  it has already independently established authentication or
  authorization (such as being within a protected subnetwork).

  Section 3.3 discusses authentication mechanisms.



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  Reply code 530 [SMTP-AUTH] is used for this purpose.

5.  Recommended Actions

  The MSA SHOULD do all of the following.

5.1.  Enforce Address Syntax

  An MSA SHOULD reject messages with illegal syntax in a sender or
  recipient SMTP envelope address.

  If the MSA examines or alters the message text in any way, except to
  add trace header fields, it SHOULD reject messages with illegal
  address syntax in address header fields.

  Reply code 501 is to be used to reject a MAIL or RCPT command that
  contains a detectably improper address.

  When addresses are resolved after submission of the message body,
  reply code 554 (with a suitable enhanced status code from
  [SMTP-CODES]) is used after end-of-data, if the message contains
  invalid addresses in the header.

5.2.  Log Errors

  The MSA SHOULD log message errors, especially apparent
  misconfigurations of client software.

  It can be very helpful to notify the administrator when problems are
  detected with local mail clients.  This is another advantage of
  distinguishing submission from relay: system administrators might be
  interested in local configuration problems, but not in client
  problems at other sites.

  Note that it is important to impose limits on such logging to prevent
  certain forms of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

5.3.  Apply Shorter Timeouts

  The timeouts specified in Section 4.5.3.2 of RFC 5321 [SMTP-MTA] are
  designed to deal with the many types of situations that can be
  encountered on the public Internet.  The relationship among clients
  and servers corresponding to this specification is typically much
  closer and more predictable.  Submission clients behave differently
  from relay client in some areas, especially tolerance for timeouts.
  In practice, message submission clients tend to have short timeouts
  (perhaps 2-5 minutes for a reply to any command).  Submission servers
  SHOULD respond to any command (even DATA) in fewer than 2 minutes.



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  When the submission server has a close administrative and/or network
  relationship with the submission client(s) -- e.g., with a webmail
  interface calling on a tightly bound submission server -- mutual
  agreement on much shorter timeouts MAY be appropriate.

6.  Optional Actions

  The MSA MAY do any of the following.

6.1.  Enforce Submission Rights

  The MSA MAY issue an error response to a MAIL command if the address
  in MAIL FROM appears to have insufficient submission rights or is not
  authorized with the authentication used (if the session has been
  authenticated).

  Reply code 550 with an appropriate enhanced status code per
  [SMTP-CODES], such as 5.7.1, is used for this purpose.

6.2.  Enforce Permissions

  The MSA MAY issue an error response to a RCPT command if inconsistent
  with the permissions given to the user (if the session has been
  authenticated).

  Reply code 550 with an appropriate enhanced status code per
  [SMTP-CODES], such as 5.7.1, is used for this purpose.

6.3.  Check Message Data

  The MSA MAY issue an error response to the DATA command or send a
  failure result after end-of-data if the submitted message is
  syntactically invalid, seems inconsistent with permissions given to
  the user (if known), or violates site policy in some way.

  Reply code 554 is used for syntactic problems in the data.  Reply
  code 501 is used if the command itself is not syntactically valid.
  Reply code 550 with an appropriate enhanced status code per
  [SMTP-CODES] (such as 5.7.1) is used to reject based on the
  submitting user.  Reply code 550 with an appropriate enhanced status
  code (such as 5.7.0) is used if the message violates site policy.

6.4.  Support for the Postmaster Address

  If appropriate under local conditions and to facilitate conformance
  with the "postmaster" requirements of [SMTP-MTA], the MSA MAY permit
  a reduced degree of authentication for mail addressed to the
  "postmaster" (or one of its alternate spelling forms, see



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  [SMTP-MTA]), in one or more domains, as compared to requirements
  enforced for other addresses.  Among other benefits, this provides an
  address of last resort that can be used by authorized users to report
  problems that otherwise prevent them from submitting mail.

6.5.  Adjust Character Encodings

  Subject to limits imposed by other protocols and specifications, the
  MSA MAY convert among character sets or string encodings to improve
  message usefulness, likelihood of delivery, or conformance with other
  specifications or recommendations.  Such conversions MAY include,
  when necessary, replacement of addresses whose encoding does not
  conform to RFC 5321 with ones that do, using information available
  out of band.





































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7.  Interaction with SMTP Extensions

  The following table lists Standards Track and Experimental SMTP
  extensions whose documents do not explicitly specify their
  applicability to this protocol.  Listed are the EHLO keyword, name,
  an indication as to the use of the extension on the submit port, and
  a reference.

+--------------------+----------------------+--------+-----------------+
| Keyword            | Name                 |Sub-    | Reference       |
|                    |                      |mission |                 |
+--------------------+----------------------+--------+-----------------+
|PIPELINING          |Pipelining            |SHOULD  |[PIPELINING]     |
|ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES |Enhanced Status Codes |SHOULD  |[CODES-EXTENSION]|
|ETRN                |Extended Turn         |MUST NOT|[ETRN]           |
|   ...              |Extended Codes        |SHOULD  |[SMTP-CODES]     |
|DSN                 |Delivery Status       |SHOULD  |[DSN]            |
|                    |  Notification        |        |                 |
|SIZE                |Message size          |MAY     |[SIZE]           |
|   ...              |521 reply code        |MUST NOT|[REPLY-521]      |
|CHECKPOINT          |Checkpoint/Restart    |MAY     |[CHECKPOINT]     |
|BINARYMIME          |Binary MIME           |MAY     |[CHUNKING]       |
|CHUNKING            |Chunking              |MAY     |[CHUNKING]       |
|8BITMIME            |Use 8-bit data        |SHOULD  |[RFC6152]        |
|AUTH                |Authentication        |MUST    |[SMTP-AUTH]      |
|STARTTLS            |Start TLS             |MAY     |[START-TLS]      |
|NO-SOLICITING       |Notification of       |MAY     |[RFC3865]        |
|                    |  no soliciting       |        |                 |
|MTRK                |Message Tracking      |MAY     |[MSG-TRACK]      |
|ATRN                |On-Demand Relay       |MUST NOT|[RFC2645]        |
|DELIVERBY           |Deliver By            |MAY     |[RFC2852]        |
|CONPERM             |Content Conversion    |MAY     |[RFC4141]        |
|                    |  Permission          |        |                 |
|CONNEG              |Content Conversion    |MAY     |[RFC4141]        |
|                    |  Negotiation         |        |                 |
+--------------------+----------------------+--------+-----------------+
                            Table 1

  Future SMTP extensions SHOULD explicitly specify if they are valid on
  the Submission port.

  Some SMTP extensions are especially useful for message submission:

  Extended Status Codes [SMTP-CODES] SHOULD be supported and used
  according to [CODES-EXTENSION].  This permits the MSA to notify the
  client of specific configuration or other problems in more detail
  than the response codes listed in this memo.  Because some rejections




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  are related to a site's security policy, care should be used not to
  expose more detail to unauthenticated senders than is needed.

  [PIPELINING] SHOULD be supported by the MSA.

  [SMTP-AUTH] allows the MSA to validate the authority and determine
  the identity of the submitting user and MUST be supported by the MSA.

  [START-TLS] is the most widely used mechanism, at the time this
  document was written, that allows the MUA and MSA to protect message
  submission integrity and privacy.

  Any references to the DATA command in this memo also refer to any
  substitutes for DATA, such as the BDAT command used with [CHUNKING].

8.  Message Modifications

  Sites MAY modify submissions to ensure compliance with standards and
  site policy.  This section describes a number of such modifications
  that are often considered useful.

  NOTE: As a matter of guidance for local decisions to implement
  message modification, a paramount rule is to limit such actions to
  remedies for specific problems that have clear solutions.  This is
  especially true with address elements.  For example, indiscriminately
  appending a domain to an address or element that lacks one typically
  results in more broken addresses.  An unqualified address must be
  verified to be a valid local part in the domain before the domain can
  be safely added.

  Any message forwarded or delivered by the MSA MUST conform to the
  requirements of [SMTP-MTA] and [MESSAGE-FORMAT] or the requirements
  permitted by extensions that are supported by the MSA and accepted by
  the next-hop server.

  Message modification can affect the validity of an existing message
  signature, such as by DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) [DKIM],
  Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) [RFC4880], or Secure MIME (S/MIME)
  [RFC5751], and can render the signature invalid.  This, in turn, can
  affect message handling by later receivers, such as filtering engines
  that consider the presence or absence of a valid signature.










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8.1.  Add 'Sender'

  The MSA MAY add or replace the 'Sender' field, if the identity of the
  sender is known and this is not given in the 'From' field.

  The MSA MUST ensure that any address it places in a 'Sender' field
  is, in fact, a valid mail address.

8.2.  Add 'Date'

  The MSA MAY add a 'Date' field to the submitted message, if it lacks
  it, or correct the 'Date' field if it does not conform to
  [MESSAGE-FORMAT] syntax.

8.3.  Add 'Message-ID'

  The MSA SHOULD add or replace the 'Message-ID' field, if it lacks it,
  or it is not valid syntax (as defined by [MESSAGE-FORMAT]).  Note
  that a number of clients still do not generate 'Message-ID' fields.

8.4.  Transfer Encode

  The MSA MAY apply transfer encoding to the message according to MIME
  conventions, if needed and not harmful to the MIME type.

8.5.  Sign the Message

  The MSA MAY (digitally) sign or otherwise add authentication
  information to the message.

8.6.  Encrypt the Message

  The MSA MAY encrypt the message for transport to reflect
  organizational policies.

  NOTE: To be useful, the addition of a signature and/or encryption by
  the MSA generally implies that the connection between the MUA and MSA
  must, itself, be secured in some other way, for example, by operating
  inside of a secure environment, by securing the submission connection
  at the transport layer, or by using an [SMTP-AUTH] mechanism that
  provides for session integrity.










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8.7.  Resolve Aliases

  The MSA MAY resolve and rewrite aliases (e.g., Canonical Name (CNAME)
  records) for domain names, in the SMTP envelope and/or in address
  fields of the header, subject to local policy.

  NOTE: SMTP [SMTP-MTA] prohibits the use of domain name aliases in
  addresses and the session-opening announcement.  As with other SMTP
  requirements, RFC 5321 effectively prohibits an MSA from forwarding
  such messages into the public Internet.  Nonetheless, unconditionally
  resolving aliases could be harmful.  For example, if www.example.net
  and ftp.example.net are both aliases for mail.example.net, rewriting
  them could lose useful information.

8.8.  Header Rewriting

  The MSA MAY rewrite local parts and/or domains in the SMTP envelope
  and, optionally, in address fields of the header, according to local
  policy.  For example, a site may prefer to rewrite 'JRU' as
  'J.Random.User' in order to hide login names and/or to rewrite
  'squeaky.sales.example.net' as 'zyx.example.net' to hide machine
  names and make it easier to move users.

  However, only addresses, local-parts, or domains that match specific
  local MSA configuration settings should be altered.  It would be very
  dangerous for the MSA to apply data-independent rewriting rules, such
  as always deleting the first element of a domain name.  So, for
  example, a rule that strips the leftmost element of the domain, if
  the complete domain matches '*.foo.example.net', would be acceptable.

  The MSA MUST NOT rewrite a forward-pointing (destination) address in
  a way that violates the constraints of [SMTP-MTA] on modifications of
  local-parts.  Changes to addressing and encoding, carried out in
  conjunction with the action of Section 6.5, do not violate this
  principle if the MSA has sufficient information available to
  successfully and accurately apply the substitution.

9.  Security Considerations

  Separation of submission and relay of messages allows a site to
  implement different policies for the two types of services, including
  requiring the use of additional security mechanisms for one or both.
  It can do this in a way that is simpler, both technically and
  administratively.  This increases the likelihood that policies will
  be applied correctly.






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  Separation also can aid in tracking and preventing unsolicited bulk
  email.

  For example, a site could configure its mail servers such that the
  MSA requires authentication before accepting a message, and the MTA
  rejects all RCPT commands for non-local users.  This can be an
  important element in a site's total email security policy.

  If a site fails to require any form of authorization for message
  submissions (see Section 3.3 for discussion), it is allowing open use
  of its resources and name; unsolicited bulk email can be injected
  using its facilities.

  Section 3 includes further discussion of issues with some
  authentication methods.

  Section 5.2 includes a cautionary note that unlimited logging can
  enable certain forms of denial-of-service attacks.

10.  IANA Considerations

  The entries in Table 1 have been corrected (reference for NO-
  SOLICITING) and extended (ATRN, DELIVERBY, CONPERM, and CONNEG).  The
  "SMTP Service Extensions" registry has been updated to reflect the
  changed and new entries.  Entries in the registry that do not appear
  in the table above are correct and should not be altered.

  The entry in the "SMTP Service Extensions" registry for RFC 4409 has
  been updated to reference this document.  The original reference for
  Submit (RFC 2476), which should have been corrected earlier, has also
  been updated to point to this document.

  The entry in the "Service Name and Transport Protocol Port Number
  Registry" for port 587 has been updated to point to this document.

11.  Acknowledgments

  The preparation and development of the current version of this
  specification was stimulated by discussions in the IETF YAM and EAI
  Working Groups.  Dave Crocker, Subramanian Moonesamy, Barry Leiba,
  John Levine, and others provided text that appeared in this document
  or versions leading up to it.

  Nathaniel Borenstein and Barry Leiba were instrumental in the
  development of RFC 4409, the update to RFC 2476.

  The original memo (RFC 2476) was developed, in part, based on
  comments and discussions that took place on and off the IETF-Submit



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RFC 6409               Message Submission for Mail         November 2011


  mailing list.  The help of those who took the time to review that
  document and make suggestions is appreciated, especially that of Dave
  Crocker, Ned Freed, Keith Moore, John Myers, and Chris Newman.

  Special thanks to Harald Alvestrand, who got this effort started.

12.  References

12.1.  Normative References

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

  [SMTP-AUTH]  Siemborski, R. and A. Melnikov, "SMTP Service Extension
               for Authentication", RFC 4954, July 2007.

  [SMTP-MTA]   Klensin, J., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", RFC 5321,
               October 2008.

12.2.  Informative References

  [CHECKPOINT] Crocker, D. and N. Freed, "SMTP Service Extension for
               Checkpoint/Restart", RFC 1845, September 1995.

  [CHUNKING]   Vaudreuil, G., "SMTP Service Extensions for Transmission
               of Large and Binary MIME Messages", RFC 3030,
               December 2000.

  [CODES-EXTENSION]
               Freed, N., "SMTP Service Extension for Returning
               Enhanced Error Codes", RFC 2034, October 1996.

  [DKIM]       Crocker, D., Hansen, T., and M. Kucherawy, "DomainKeys
               Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures", RFC 6376,
               September 2011.

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

  [ETRN]       De Winter, J., "SMTP Service Extension for Remote
               Message Queue Starting", RFC 1985, August 1996.

  [IMAP4]      Crispin, M., "INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION
               4rev1", RFC 3501, March 2003.

  [IPSEC]      Kent, S. and K. Seo, "Security Architecture for the
               Internet Protocol", RFC 4301, December 2005.



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RFC 6409               Message Submission for Mail         November 2011


  [MESSAGE-FORMAT]
               Resnick, P., Ed., "Internet Message Format", RFC 5322,
               October 2008.

  [MSG-TRACK]  Allman, E. and T. Hansen, "SMTP Service Extension for
               Message Tracking", RFC 3885, September 2004.

  [PIPELINING] Freed, N., "SMTP Service Extension for Command
               Pipelining", STD 60, RFC 2920, September 2000.

  [POP3]       Myers, J. and M. Rose, "Post Office Protocol - Version
               3", STD 53, RFC 1939, May 1996.

  [REPLY-521]  Durand, A. and F. Dupont, "SMTP 521 Reply Code",
               RFC 1846, September 1995.

  [RFC2645]    Gellens, R., "ON-DEMAND MAIL RELAY (ODMR) SMTP with
               Dynamic IP Addresses", RFC 2645, August 1999.

  [RFC2852]    Newman, D., "Deliver By SMTP Service Extension",
               RFC 2852, June 2000.

  [RFC3865]    Malamud, C., "A No Soliciting Simple Mail Transfer
               Protocol (SMTP) Service Extension", RFC 3865,
               September 2004.

  [RFC4141]    Toyoda, K. and D. Crocker, "SMTP and MIME Extensions for
               Content Conversion", RFC 4141, November 2005.

  [RFC4880]    Callas, J., Donnerhacke, L., Finney, H., Shaw, D., and
               R.  Thayer, "OpenPGP Message Format", RFC 4880,
               November 2007.

  [RFC5751]    Ramsdell, B. and S. Turner, "Secure/Multipurpose
               Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) Version 3.2 Message
               Specification", RFC 5751, January 2010.

  [RFC6152]    Klensin, J., Freed, N., Rose, M., and D. Crocker, "SMTP
               Service Extension for 8-bit MIME Transport", STD 71,
               RFC 6152, March 2011.

  [SIZE]       Klensin, J., Freed, N., and K. Moore, "SMTP Service
               Extension for Message Size Declaration", STD 10,
               RFC 1870, November 1995.







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  [SMTP-CODES] Vaudreuil, G., "Enhanced Mail System Status Codes",
               RFC 3463, January 2003.

  [START-TLS]  Hoffman, P., "SMTP Service Extension for Secure SMTP
               over Transport Layer Security", RFC 3207, February 2002.














































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Appendix A.  Major Changes from RFC 4409

  The protocol specified by this document is not substantively
  different from that of RFC 4409.  However, the present specification
  contains several clarifications and updates to reflect changes and
  revisions to other documents subsequent to the publication of RFC
  4409.  The following specific changes may be of interest to some
  readers.

  o  Updated several references to reflect more recent versions of the
     various specifications.  As part of this, reclassified RFC 4954 to
     a normative reference (SMTP AUTH is a MUST for RFC 4409 and this
     specification).

  o  Updated the text in Section 7 to reflect the existence and partial
     population of the registry and the included table (Table 1) to
     correct one entry and add others.  See Section 10 for more
     information.

  o  Added new text (Section 5.3) to clarify that Submission Servers
     should respond quickly.

  o  Added text to make it explicit that character encoding changes are
     permitted.

  o  Added text to make it clear that modifications to signed messages
     may cause problems and that they should be carefully considered.

Authors' Addresses

  Randall Gellens
  QUALCOMM Incorporated
  5775 Morehouse Drive
  San Diego, CA  92121-2779
  USA

  EMail: [email protected]


  John C Klensin
  1770 Massachusetts Ave, #322
  Cambridge, MA  02140
  USA

  Phone: +1 617 491 5735
  EMail: [email protected]





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