One document matched: draft-ietf-marf-as-09.xml


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<rfc category="std" docName="draft-ietf-marf-as-09" ipr="trust200902"
     updates="5965">

<front>
	<title abbrev="ARF AS">
		Creation and Use of Email Feedback Reports:
		An Applicability Statement for the Abuse Reporting
		Format (ARF)</title>
	<author fullname="J.D. Falk" initials="J.D." surname="Falk">
		<organization>Return Path</organization>
		<address>
			<postal>
				<street>
					100 Mathilda Street, Suite 100
				</street>
				<city>Sunnyvale</city>
				<region>CA</region>
				<code>94089</code>
				<country>USA</country>
			</postal>
			<!-- <phone/> -->
			<!-- <facsimile/> -->
			<email>ietf@cybernothing.org</email>
			<uri>http://www.returnpath.net/</uri>
		</address>
	</author>
<author initials="M." surname="Kucherawy"
		fullname="M. Kucherawy" role="editor">
		<organization>Cloudmark</organization>
		<address>
			<postal>
				<street>128 King St., 2nd Floor</street>
				<city>San Francisco</city>
				<region>CA</region>
				<code>94107</code>
				<country>US</country>
			</postal>
			<email>msk@cloudmark.com</email>
		</address>
	</author>
	<date year="2012"/>
	<area>Applications</area>
	<workgroup>MARF Working Group</workgroup>
	<keyword>arf</keyword>
	<keyword>marf</keyword>
	<keyword>abuse reporting</keyword>
	<keyword>spam reporting</keyword>
	<abstract>
		<t> RFC 5965 defines an extensible, machine-readable
	    format intended for mail operators to report
		    feedback about received email to other parties.
		    This Applicability Statement describes common
		    methods for utilizing this format for reporting
		    both abuse and authentication failure events.
		    Mailbox Providers of any size, mail sending
		    entities, and end users can use these methods as
		    a basis to create procedures that best suit
		    them.  Some related optional mechanisms are
		    also discussed. </t>
	</abstract>
</front>

<middle>
	<section title="Introduction">
		<t> The Abuse Reporting Format (ARF) was initially
		    developed for two very specific use cases.
		    Initially, it was intended to be used for
		    reporting feedback between large email operators,
		    or from large email operators to end user network
		    access operators, any of whom could be presumed to
		    have automated abuse-handling systems.
		    Secondarily, it is used by those same large mail
	    operators to send those same reports to other
		    entities, including those involved in sending bulk
		    email for commercial purposes.  In either case,
		    the reports would be triggered by direct end user 
		    action such as clicking on a "report spam" button
		    in their email client. </t>
			
		<t> Though other uses for the format defined in
		    <xref target="RFC5965"/> have been discussed (and
		    may be documented similarly in the future), abuse
		    remains the primary application, with a small
		    amount of adoption of extensions that enable
		    authentication failure reporting. </t>

		<t> This Applicability Statement provides direction
		    for using the Abuse Reporting Format (ARF) in
		    both contexts.  It also includes some statements
		    about the use of ARF in conjunction with other email
		    technologies. </t>
			
		<t> The purpose for reporting abusive messages is to
		    stop recurrences.  The methods described in this
		    document focus on automating abuse reporting as
	    much as practical, so as to minimize the work of
		    a site's abuse team.  There are further reasons why
		    abuse feedback generation is worthwhile, such as 
		    instruction of mail filters or reputation trackers,
		    or to initiate investigations of particularly
		    egregious abuses.  These other applications are
		    not discussed in this memo. </t>

		<t> Further introduction to this topic may be found
		    in <xref target="RFC6449"/>. </t>

		<section title="Discussion">
			<t> [RFC Editor: please remove this section prior
			    to publication.] </t>
			
			<t> This document is being discussed within
			    the IETF MARF Working Group, on the
			    marf@ietf.org mailing list. </t>
		</section>
	</section>
		
<section title="Definitions">
		<t> 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
		    <xref target="RFC2119"/>, and are intended
		    to replace the Requirement Levels
		    described in Section 3.3 of
		    <xref target="RFC2026"/>. </t>
		
		<t> Some of the terminology used in this
		    document is taken from
		    <xref target="RFC5598"/>. </t>
						
		<t> "Mailbox Provider" refers to an
		    organization that accepts, stores, and
		    offers access to <xref target="RFC5322"/>
		    messages ("email messages") for end users.
		    Such an organization has typically
		    implemented SMTP
		    (<xref target="RFC5321"/>), and might
		    provide access to messages through IMAP
	    (<xref target="RFC3501"/>), POP3
		    (<xref target="RFC1939"/>), a proprietary
		    interface designed for HTTP
		    (<xref target="RFC2616"/>), or a
		    proprietary protocol. </t>
	</section>
		
	<section title="Solicited and Unsolicited Reports">
	   <t>The original application of <xref target="RFC5965"/>,
	      and still by far the most common, is when two mail
	      systems make a private agreement to exchange abuse
	      reports, usually reports due to recipients manually
	      reporting messages as spam.  We refer to these as
	      solicited reports.</t>

	   <t>Other uses for ARF involve reports sent between parties
	      that don't know each other.  These unsolicited reports
	      are sent without prior arrangement between the parties
	      as to the context and meaning of the reports, so the
	      constraints on how these unsolicited reports need to be
	      structured such that the reports generated are likely to
	      be useful to the recipient, to what address(es) they
	      can usefully be sent, what issues the can be used to
      report, and how they can be handled by the receiver
	      of the report are very different. </t>
	</section>

	<section title="Creating and Sending Complaint-Based Solicited Abuse Reports">
		<t> [The numbered items in these subsections are not
		     intended to be in a paricular sequence.  The
		     numbers are here during document development to
		     make it easier to identify the items for
		     discussion, and will be removed before
		     publication.] </t>

		<t> The following subsections include statements
		    applicable when establishing an abuse report
		    relationship and generating reports in that
		    context. </t>

		<section anchor="sol_general"
			 title="General Considerations">
		    <t> <list style="numbers">
			<t> A Mailbox Provider receives reports of
			    abusive or unwanted mail from its users,
		    most often by providing a "report spam"
		    button (or similar nomenclature) in the
			    MUA.  The method of transferring this
			    message and any associated metadata from
			    the MUA to the Mailbox Provider's ARF
			    processing system is not defined by any
			    standards document, but is discussed
			    further in Section 3.2 of
			    <xref target="RFC6449"/>.  Policy concerns
			    related to the collection of this data
			    are discussed in Section 3.4 of
			    <xref target="RFC6449"/>. </t>

			<t> To implement the recommendations of this
			    memo, the reports MUST be formatted per
			    <xref target="RFC5965"/>,
			    and transmitted as an email message
			    (<xref target="RFC5322"/>), typically
			    using SMTP (<xref target="RFC5321"/>). </t>

			<t> Ongoing maintenance of an ARF processing
			    system is discussed in Section 3.6 of
			    <xref target="RFC6449"/>. </t>
	    </list> </t>
		</section>

		<section anchor="sol_where"
			 title="Where To Send Reports">
		    <t> <list style="numbers">
			<t> The Mailbox Provider SHOULD send reports
			    to relevant parties who have requested
			    to receive such reports.
			    The process whereby such parties may 
			    request the reports is discussed in
			    Section 3.5 of
			    <xref target="RFC6449"/>.</t>
		    </list> </t>
		</section>

		<section anchor="sol_what"
			 title="What To Put In Reports">
		    <t> <list style="numbers">
			<t> The reports SHOULD use
			    "Feedback-Type: abuse", but MAY use other
			    types as appropriate.  However, the
			    Mailbox Provider generating the reports
		    SHOULD NOT assume that the operator
			    receiving the reports will treat different
			    Feedback-Types differently. </t>

			<t> The reports SHOULD include the following
			    optional fields whenever practical:
			    Original-Mail-From, Arrival-Date,
			    Source-IP, Original-Rcpt-To.  Other
			    optional fields MAY be included, as the
			    implementer feels is appropriate. </t>

			<t> Reports MAY be subjected to redaction of
			    user-identifiable data as described in
			    <xref target="I-D.IETF-MARF-REDACTION"/>. </t>
		    </list> </t>
		</section>
	</section>
		
	<section
	 title="Receiving and Processing Complaint-Based Solicited Abuse Reports">
		<t> [The numbered items in these subsections are not intended
		     to be in a paricular sequence.  The numbers are here
		     during document development to make it easier to identify
		     the items for discussion, and will be removed before
		     publication.] </t>

		<t> The following subsections include statements
		    applicable when receiving abuse reports in the
		    context of an established abuse report feedback
		    relationship. </t>

		<section anchor="sol_r_general"
			 title="General Considerations">
		    <t> <list style="numbers">
			<t> It is strongly suggested that the Mailbox
			    Provider process the reports to improve
			    its spam filtering systems.  The design of
			    these systems is discussed in
			    <xref target="RFC2505"/> and
			    elsewhere. </t>
						
			<t> At the time this document is being
			    written, for the use cases described here,
		    mail operators need to proactively request
			    a stream of ARF reports from Mailbox
			    Providers.   Recommendations for preparing
			    to make that request are discussed in
			    Section 4.1 of
			    <xref target="RFC6449"/>. </t>
					
			<t> Mail operators MUST be prepared to receive
			    reports formatted per
			    <xref target="RFC5965"/> as email
			    messages (<xref target="RFC5322"/>) over
			    SMTP (<xref target="RFC5321"/>).  These
			    and other types of email messages that
			    may be received are discussed in
			    Section 4.2 of
			    <xref target="RFC6449"/>. </t>
					
			<t> Mail operators need to consider the idea
			    of automating report processing.
			    Discussion of this can be found in
			    Section 4.4 of
			    <xref target="RFC6449"/>. </t>
		    </list> </t>
	</section>
					
		<section anchor="sol_r_content" title="What To Expect">
		    <t> <list style="numbers">
			<t> An automated report processing system MUST
			    accept all Feedback-Types defined in
			    <xref target="RFC5965"/> or extensions to
			    it, but implementers SHOULD NOT assume that
			    Mailbox Providers will make use of any
			    Feedback-Type other than "abuse".
			    Additional logic may be required to
			    separate different types of abuse reports
			    after receipt. </t>
					
			<t> Implementers SHOULD NOT expect all Mailbox
			    Providers to include the same optional
			    fields. </t>

			<t> Reports MAY be subjected to redaction of
			    user-identifiable data as described in
			    <xref target="I-D.IETF-MARF-REDACTION"/>.
			    This is also discussed in Section 4.4
			    of <xref target="RFC6449"/>.  Although
		    the end user causing the report to be
			    generated has been obscured, the report
			    processor SHOULD attempt to correlate
			    and prioritize reports that appear to
			    have been caused by the same end user as
			    it may be indicative of a problem
			    worthy of increased attention. </t>
		    </list> </t>
		</section>
					
		<section anchor="sol_r_action" title="What To Do">
		    <t> <list style="numbers">
			<t> Actions that mail operators might take upon
			    receiving a report (or multiple reports)
			    are discussed in Section 4.3 of
			    <xref target="RFC6449"/>. </t>
		    </list> </t>
		</section>
	</section>
	
	<section title="Generating and Handling Unsolicited Abuse Reports">
		<t> [The numbered items in these subsections are not
		     intended to be in a paricular sequence.  The numbers are
		     here during document development to make it easier to
		     identify the items for discussion, and will be removed
		     before publication.] </t>

		<t> The following subsections include statements
		    applicable when sending or receiving reports
		    outside of the context of an established abuse
		    report feedback relationship. </t>

		<section anchor="unsol_general"
			 title="General Considerations">
		    <t> <list style="numbers">
			<t> A report generator MUST provide a way for
			    a report recipient to request no further
			    reports be sent to that address and MAY
			    provide a way for recipients to change the
			    address(es) to which reports about them
			    are sent. </t>
		    </list> </t>
		</section>

	<section anchor="unsol_when"
			 title="When To Generate Reports">
		    <t> <list style="numbers">
			<t> Handling of unsolicited reports has a
			    significant cost to the receiver.  Senders
			    of unsolicited reports, especially those
			    sending large volumes of them
			    automatically, need to be aware of this
			    and do all they reasonably can to avoid
			    sending reports that cannot be used as a
			    basis for action by the recipient, whether
			    this is due to the report being sent about
			    an incident that is not abuse-related, the
			    report being sent to an email address that
			    won't result in action, or the content or
			    format of the report being hard for the
			    recipient to read or use. </t>

			<t> Systems that generate unsolicited reports
			    SHOULD ensure that the criteria used to
			    decide what messages to report accurately
			    identify messages that the reporting entity
			    believes in good faith are abusive.  Such
			    criteria might include direct complaint
			    submissions from MUAs, reports triggered
			    by mail sent to "spam trap" or "honeypot"
			    addresses, and virus reports.  (These
			    applications might be described in future
			    IETF documents.) </t>

			<t> Systems SHOULD NOT report all mail sent
			    from a particular sender merely because
			    some of it is determined to be abusive.
			    Mechanical reports of mail that "looks
			    like" spam, based solely on the results
			    of inline content analysis tools, SHOULD
			    NOT be sent since, because of their
			    subjective nature, they are unlikely to
			    provide a basis for the recipient to take
			    action. </t>

			<t> If a report generator applies SPF to
			    arriving messages, and that evaluation
			    produced something other than a "Pass",
			    "None" or "Neutral" result, a report
			    addressed to the RFC5321.MailFrom domain
			    SHOULD NOT be generated as it is probably
			    a forgery and thus not actionable.  A
			    valid exception would be specific
			    knowledge that the SPF result is not
			    definitive for that domain under those
			    circumstances (for example, a message that
			    is also DKIM-signed by the same domain,
			    and that signature validates). </t>

			<t> Message authentication is generally a good
			    idea, but it is especially important to
			    encourage credibility of and thus response
			    to unsolicited reports.  Therefore, as
			    with any other message, report generators
			    sending unsolicited reports SHOULD arrange
			    to send reports for which SPF and/or
			    DKIM checks will pass. </t>
		    </list> </t>
		</section>

		<section anchor="unsol_where"
		         title="Where To Send Reports">
		    <t> <list style="numbers">
			<t> MUAs SHOULD NOT generate abuse reports
			    directly to entities found in the message
			    or by queries to WHOIS
			    (<xref target="RFC3912"/>) or other
			    heuristic means.  Rather, the MUA needs to
			    signal, by some means, the mailbox
			    provider to which it connects to trigger
			    generation of such a report. </t>

			<t> Report generators SHOULD send reports to
			    recipients that are both responsible for
			    the messages and are able to do something
			    about them, and SHOULD NOT send reports to
			    recipients that are uninvolved or only
			    peripherally involved.  For example, they
			    SHOULD NOT send reports to the operator
			    of every Autonomous System in the path
			    between the apparent originating system
			    and the operator generating the
			    report.  </t>

			<t> Deciding where to send an unsolicited
			    report will typically rely on heuristics.
			    Abuse addresses in WHOIS records of the IP
			    address relaying the subject message
			    and/or of the domain name found in the
			    results of a PTR ("reverse lookup") query
			    on that address are likely reasonable
			    candidates, as is the abuse@domain role
			    address (see <xref target="RFC2142"/>) of
			    related domains.  Unsolicited reports
			    SHOULD NOT be sent to email addresses that
			    are not intended to handle abuse rpeorts,
			    including any personal or role address
			    found in WHOIS records or on a web site
			    that is not either explicitly described
			    as an abuse contact or is of the form
			    "abuse@domain". </t>

	        	<t> Where an abusive message is signed using a
			    domain-level authentication technology
			    such as DKIM (<xref target="RFC6376"/>)
			    or SPF (<xref target="RFC4408"/>), the
			    domain that has been verified by the
			    authentication mechanism is often a
			    reasonable candidate for receiving
			    feedback about the message.  For DKIM,
			    though, while the authenticated domain
			    has some responsibility for the mail sent,
			    it can be a poor contact point for abuse
			    issues (for example, it could represent
			    the message's author but not its sender,
			    it could identify the bad actor
			    responsible for the message, or it could
			    refer to a domain that cannot receive mail
			    at all). </t>

			<t> Unsolicited reports will have no meaning
			    if sent to abuse reporting addresses
			    belonging to the abusive parties
			    themselves.  In fact, it is possible that
			    such reports might reveal information
			    about their recipients.  Reports SHOULD
			    NOT be sent to such addresses if they can
			    be identified beforehand. </t>
		    </list> </t>
		</section>

		<section anchor="unsol_what"
		         title="What To Put In Reports">
		    <t> <list style="numbers">
			<t> Reports SHOULD use "Feedback-Type: abuse",
			    but MAY use other types as appropriate.
			    However, the Mailbox Provider generating
			    the reports SHOULD NOT assume that the
			    operator receiving the reports will treat
			    different Feedback-Types differently. </t>

			<t> Reports SHOULD include the following
			    optional fields whenever practical:
			    Original-Mail-From, Arrival-Date,
			    Source-IP, Original-Rcpt-To.  Other
			    optional fields MAY be included, as the
			    implementer feels is appropriate. </t>
				
			<t> Experience suggests use of ARF is
			    advisable in most contexts.  Automated
			    recipient systems can handle abuse reports
			    sent in ARF format at least as well as any
			    other format such as plain text, with or
			    without a copy of the message attached.
			    That holds even for systems that did not
			    request ARF format reports, provided that
			    reports are generated with use by
			    recipients not using automated ARF parsing
			    in mind.  Anyone sending unsolicited
			    reports in ARF format can legitimately
			    presume that some recipients will only be
			    able to access the human readable (first,
			    text/plain) part of it, and SHOULD include
			    all information needed also in this part.
			    Further, they SHOULD ensure that the
			    report is readable when viewed as plain
			    text, to give low-end ticketing systems as
			    much assistance as possible.  Finally,
			    they need to be aware that the report
			    could be discarded or ignored due to
			    failure to take these steps in the most
			    extreme cases. </t>
		    </list> </t>
		</section>

		<section anchor="unsol_actions"
		         title="What To Do With Reports">
		    <t> <list style="numbers">
			<t> Recipients of unsolicited ARF reports
			    SHOULD, in general, handle them the same
			    way as any other abuse reports.  However,
			    they MAY take advantage of the
			    standardized parts of the ARF format to
			    automate processing.  Lacking knowledge
			    about the sender of the report, they
			    SHOULD separate valid from invalid reports
			    by, for example, looking for references
			    to IP address ranges, domains, and
			    mailboxes for which the recipient
			    organization is responsible in the copy of
			    the reported message, and by correlating
			    multiple reports of similar messages to
			    identify bulk senders.  </t>

			<t> Per Section 4.4 of
			    <xref target="RFC6449"/>, a network
			    service provider MAY use ARF data for
			    automated forwarding of feedback messages
			    to the originating customer. </t> 

			<t> Published abuse mailbox addresses SHOULD
			    NOT reject messages not in the ARF format,
			    as generation of ARF messages can
			    occasionally be unavailable or not
			    applicable. </t>

			<t> Although <xref target="RFC6449"/> suggests
			    that replying to feedback is not useful,
			    in the case of receipt of ARF reports
			    where no feedback arrangement has been
			    established, a reply might be desirable
			    to indicate that the complaint will result
			    in action, heading off more severe
			    filtering by the report generator.  In
			    addition, using an address that cannot
			    receive replies precludes any requests for
			    additional information, and increases the
			    likelihood that further reports will be
			    discarded or blocked.  Thus, a report
			    generator sending unsolicited reports
			    SHOULD ensure that a reply to such a
			    report can be received.  Where an
			    unsolicited report results in the
			    establishment of contact with a
			    responsible and responsive party, this can
			    be saved for future complaint handling and
			    possible establishment of a formal
			    (solicited) feedback arrangement.  See
			    Section 3.5 of <xref target="RFC6449"/>
			    for a discussion of establishment of
			    feedback arrangements. </t>
		    </list> </t>
		</section>
	</section>

	<section title="Generating Automatic Authentication Failure Reports">
		<t> [These numbered items are not intended to be in a
		     paricular sequence.  The numbers are here during
		     document development to make it easier to identify
		     the items for discussion, and will be removed
		     before publication.] </t>

		<t> There are some cases where report generation is
		    caused by automation rather than user request.
		    A specific example of this is reporting, using
		    the ARF format (or extensions to it), of messages
		    that fail particular message authentication checks.
		    Examples of this include
		    <xref target="I-D.IETF-MARF-DKIM-REPORTING"/>
		    and <xref target="I-D.IETF-MARF-SPF-REPORTING"/>.
		    The considerations presented below apply in those
		    cases. </t>

		<t> The applicability statement for this use case
		    is somewhat smaller as many of the issues
		    associated with abuse reports are not relevant
		    to reports about authentication failures. </t>

		<t> <list style="numbers">
			<t> Selection of the recipient(s) for reports
			    that are automatically generated MUST
			    be done based on data provided by the
			    report recipient, and MUST NOT be done
			    heuristically.  Therefore these reports
			    are always solicited, though the means
			    for doing so are not specified in this
			    memo. </t>

			<t> If the message under evaluation by the
			    Verifier is an ARF
			    (<xref target="RFC5965"/>)
			    message, a report MUST NOT be automatically
			    generated. </t>

			<t> When sending a new report via SMTP,
			    it is necessary to construct the message
			    so as to avoid amplification attacks,
			    deliberate or otherwise.  The envelope
			    sender address of the report needs to be
			    chosen so that these reports will not
			    generate mail loops.  Similar to Section 2
			    of <xref target="RFC3464"/>, the envelope
			    sender address of the report SHOULD be
			    chosen to ensure that no feedback reports
			    will be issued in response to the report
			    itself.  Therefore, when an SMTP
			    transaction is used to send a report, the
			    MAIL FROM command SHOULD use the NULL
			    reverse-path, i.e.,
			    "MAIL FROM:<>". </t>

			<t> Reports SHOULD use
			    "Feedback-Type: auth-failure", but MAY use
			    other types as appropriate.  However, the
			    Mailbox Provider generating the reports
			    SHOULD NOT assume that the operator
			    receiving the reports will treat different
			    Feedback-Types differently. </t>

			<t> Reports SHOULD include the following
			    optional fields whenever practical:
			    Original-Mail-From, Arrival-Date,
			    Source-IP, Original-Rcpt-To.  Other
			    optional fields MAY be included, as the
			    implementer feels is appropriate. </t>
		    </list> </t>
	</section>

	<section anchor="IANA" title="IANA Considerations">
		<t> [RFC Editor: please remove this section prior to
		    publication.] </t>
		
		<t> This document has no IANA actions. </t>
   		</section>

	<section anchor="Security" title="Security Considerations">
		<section anchor="sec-other" title="In Other Documents">
			<t> Implementers are strongly urged to review,
			    at a minimum, the Security Considerations
			    sections of <xref target="RFC5965"/> and
			    <xref target="RFC6449"/>. </t>
		</section>

		<section anchor="sec-fake" title="Forgeries">
			<t> Report generators that relay user
			    complaints directly, rather than by
			    reference to a stored message (e.g.,
			    IMAP or POP), could be duped into sending
			    a complaint about a message that the
			    complaining user never actually received,
			    as an attack on the purported originator
			    of the falsified message.  Report
			    generators need to be resilient to such
			    attack methods. </t>

			<t> Also, these reports may be forged as
			    easily as ordinary Internet electronic
			    mail.  User agents and automatic mail
			    handling facilities (such as mail
			    distribution list exploders) that wish
			    to make automatic use of reports of any
			    kind should take appropriate precautions
			    to minimize the potential damage from
			    denial-of-service attacks. </t>

			<t> Perhaps the simplest means of mitigating
			    this threat is to assert that these
			    reports should themselves be signed with
			    something like DKIM or authorized by SPF.
			    On the other hand,
			    if there is a problem with the DKIM
			    infrastructure at the Verifier, signing
			    DKIM failure reports may produce reports
			    that aren't trusted or even accepted by
			    their intended recipients.  Similar issues
			    could exist with SPF evaluation.  Use of
			    both technologies can mitigate this risk
			    to a degree. </t>
		</section>

		<section anchor="sec-amplify"
		         title="Amplification Attacks">
			<t> Failure to comply with the recommendations
			    regarding selection of the envelope sender
			    can lead to amplification denial-of-service
			    attacks. </t>
		</section>

		<section anchor="sec-autogen"
		         title="Automatic Generation">
			<t> ARF (<xref target="RFC5965"/>) reports have
			    historically been generated individually
			    as a result of some kind of human request,
			    such as someone clicking a "Report Abuse"
			    button in a mail reader.  In contrast, the
			    mechanisms described in some extension
			    documents (i.e.,
			    <xref target="I-D.IETF-MARF-DKIM-REPORTING"/>
			    and
			    <xref target="I-D.IETF-MARF-SPF-REPORTING"/>)
			    are focused around automated reporting.
			    This obviously implies the potential for
			    much larger volumes or frequency of
			    messages, and thus greater mail system
			    load (both for report generators and
			    report receivers). </t>

			<t> Those mechanisms are primarily intended
			    for use in generating reports to aid
			    implementers of DKIM
			    (<xref target="RFC6376"/>),
			    ADSP (<xref target="RFC5617"/>), and
			    SPF (<xref target="RFC4408"/>), and other
			    related
			    protocols during development and debugging.
			    They are not generally intended for
			    prolonged forensic use, specifically
			    because of these load concerns.  However,
			    extended use is possible by ADMDs that
			    want to keep a close watch for fraud or
			    infrastructure problems.  It is important
			    to consider the impact of doing so on both
			    report generators and the requesting
			    ADMDs. </t>

			<t> A sender requesting these reports can
			    cause its mail servers to be overwhelmed
			    if it sends out signed messages whose
			    signatures fail to verify for some reason,
			    provoking a large number of reports from
			    report generators.  Similarly, a report
			    generator could be overwhelmed by a large
			    volume of messages requesting reports
			    whose signatures fail to validate, as
			    those now need to send reports back to
			    the signer. </t>

			<t> Limiting the rate of generation of these
			    messages may be appropriate but threatens
			    to inhibit the distribution of important
			    and possibly time-sensitive
			    information. </t>

			<t> In general ARF feedback loop terms, it is
			    often suggested that report generators
			    only create these (or any) ARF reports
			    after an out-of-band arrangement has been
			    made between two parties.  These extension
			    mechanisms then become ways to adjust
			    parameters of an authorized abuse report
			    feedback loop that is configured and
			    activated by private agreement rather than
			    starting to send them automatically based
			    solely on data found in the messages,
			    which may have unintended
			    consequences. </t>
		</section>

		<section anchor="multiple-incidents"
		         title="Reporting Multiple Incidents">
			<t> If it is known that a particular host
			    generates abuse reports upon certain
			    incidents, an attacker could forge a high
			    volume of messages that will trigger such
			    a report.  The recipient of the report
			    could then be innundated with reports. 
			    This could easily be extended to a
			    distributed denial-of-service attack by
			    finding a number of report-generating
			    servers. </t>

			<t> The incident count referenced in
			    ARF (<xref target="RFC5965"/>) provides a
			    limited
			    form of mitigation.  The host generating
			    reports can elect to send reports only
			    periodically, with each report
			    representing a number of identical or
			    nearly-identical incidents.  One might
			    even do something inverse-exponentially,
			    sending reports for each of the first ten
			    incidents, then every tenth incident up
			    to 100, then every 100th incident up to
			    1000, etc., until some period of relative
			    quiet after which the limitation
			    resets. </t>

			<t> The use of this for "nearly-identical"
			    incidents in particular causes a
			    degradation in reporting quality, however.
			    If for example a large number of pieces of
			    spam arrive from one attacker, a reporting
			    agent could decide only to send a report
			    about a fraction of those messages.  While
			    this averts a flood of reports to a
			    system administrator, the precise details
			    of each incident are similarly not
			    sent. </t>

			<t> Other rate limiting provisions might be
			    considered, including detection of a
			    temporary failure response from the report
			    destination and thus halting report
			    generation to that destination for some
			    period, or simply imposing or negotiating
			    a hard limit on the number of reports to
			    be sent to a particular receiver in a
			    given time frame. </t>
		</section>
	</section>

	<section anchor="Acknowledgements" title="Acknowledgements">
		<t> The author and editor wish to thank
		    Steve Atkins,
		    John Levine,
		    Shmuel Metz,
		    S. Moonesamy,
		    and
		    Alessandro Vesely
		    for their contributions to this memo.  </t>

		<t> All of the Best Practices referenced by this document are
		    found in <xref target="RFC6449"/>, written within the
		    Collaboration Committee of the Messaging Anti-Abuse
		    Working Group (MAAWG). </t>
				
		<t> Finally, the original author wishes to thank the doctors
		    and staff at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer
		    Center for doing what they do. </t>
    	</section>
</middle>
	
<back>
	<references title="Normative References">
      		&RFC2119;
		&RFC5321;
		&RFC5322;
      		&RFC5965;
      		&RFC5598;
    	</references>
	<references title="Informative References">
		&RFC1939;
		&RFC2026;
		&RFC2142;
		&RFC2505;
		&RFC3912;
		&RFC2616;
		&RFC3464;
		&RFC3501;
      		&RFC4408;
      		&RFC5617;
      		&RFC6376;
      		&RFC6449;

		<reference anchor="I-D.IETF-MARF-DKIM-REPORTING">
			<front>
			<title>Extensions to DKIM for Failure Reporting</title>
				<author initials="M." surname="Kucherawy"
				        fullname="M. Kucherawy">
    					<organization>
                                         Cloudmark
					</organization>
				</author>

				<date month="January" year="2012"/>
			</front>

			<seriesInfo name="I-D"
			            value="draft-ietf-marf-dkim-reporting" />
		</reference>

		<reference anchor="I-D.IETF-MARF-REDACTION">
			<front>
			<title>Redaction of Potentially Sensitive Data from Mail Abuse Reports</title>
				<author initials="JD" surname="Falk"
				        fullname="JD Falk">
    					<organization>
                                         Return Path
					</organization>
				</author>

				<author initials="M." surname="Kucherawy"
				        fullname="M. Kucherawy" role="editor">
    					<organization>
                                         Cloudmark
					</organization>
				</author>

				<date month="March" year="2011"/>
			</front>

			<seriesInfo name="I-D"
			            value="draft-ietf-marf-redaction" />
		</reference>

		<reference anchor="I-D.IETF-MARF-SPF-REPORTING">
			<front>
			<title>SPF Authentication Failure Reporting using
			       the Abuse Report Format</title>
				<author initials="S." surname="Kitterman"
				        fullname="S. Kitterman">
    					<organization>
                                         Agari Data, Inc.
					</organization>
				</author>

				<date month="January" year="2012"/>
			</front>

			<seriesInfo name="I-D"
			            value="draft-ietf-marf-spf-reporting" />
		</reference>
	</references>
</back>

</rfc>

PAFTECH AB 2003-20262026-04-24 02:56:24