| Network Working Group | T. Hansen, Ed. |
| Internet-Draft | AT&T Laboratories |
| Updates: 3461, 3462, 3464, 3798 (if approved) | C. Newman |
| Obsoletes: 5337 (if approved) | Oracle |
| Intended status: Standards Track | A. Melnikov |
| Expires: May 03, 2012 | Isode Ltd |
| October 31, 2011 |
Internationalized Delivery Status and Disposition Notifications
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 extends RFC 3461, RFC 3462, RFC 3464, and RFC 3798. It replaces the experimental RFC 5337.
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on May 03, 2012.
Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.
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When an email message is transmitted using the UTF8SMTP [I-D.ietf-eai-rfc5336bis] extension and Internationalized Email Headers [I-D.ietf-eai-rfc5335bis], 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.
NOTE: While this specification updates the experimental versions of this protocol by removing certain constructs (e.g., the "<addr <addr>>" address syntax is no longer permitted), the name of the Address Type "UTF-8" and the media type names message/global, message/global-delivery-status and message/global-headers have not been changed.
This specification is a revision of and replacement for [RFC5337]. Section 6 of [I-D.ietf-eai-frmwrk-4952bis] describes the change in approach between this specification and the previous version.
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 uses 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].
An Extensible Message Format for Delivery Status Notifications [RFC3464] defines the concept of an address type. The address format introduced in Internationalized Email Headers [I-D.ietf-eai-rfc5335bis] 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 [RFC5321] server that advertises both the UTF8SMTP extension [I-D.ietf-eai-rfc5336bis] 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. Only the first form is 7-bit safe (only uses 7-bit characters).
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 transport environment including a message/delivery-status Original-Recipient or Final-Recipient field. In the first and third case, the utf-8-addr-xtext form (see below) MUST be used instead; in the second case, either the utf-8-addr-unitext or the utf-8-addr-xtext 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 used in the ORCPT parameter, the UTF-8 address type requires that US-ASCII CTLs, SP, \, +, and = be encoded using 'unitext' encoding (see below). This is described by the utf-8-addr-xtext and utf-8-addr-unitext forms in the ABNF below. The 'unitext' encoding uses "\x{HEXPOINT}" syntax (EmbeddedUnicodeChar in the ABNF below) for encoding any Unicode character outside of US-ASCII range, as well as for encoding CTLs, SP, \, +, and =. HEXPOINT is 2 to 6 hexadecimal digits. This encoding avoids the need to use the xtext encoding described in [RFC3461], as any US-ASCII characters that needs to be escaped using xtext encoding never appear in any unitext encoded string. 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 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 and avoided when possible. 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].
utf-8-type-addr = "utf-8;" utf-8-enc-addr
utf-8-address = Mailbox
; Mailbox as defined in [I-D.ietf-eai-rfc5336bis].
utf-8-enc-addr = utf-8-addr-xtext /
utf-8-addr-unitext /
utf-8-address
utf-8-addr-xtext = 1*(QCHAR / EmbeddedUnicodeChar)
; 7bit form of utf-8-addr-unitext.
; Safe for use in the ORCPT [RFC3461]
; parameter even when UTF8SMTP SMTP
; extension is not advertised.
utf-8-addr-unitext = 1*(QUCHAR / EmbeddedUnicodeChar)
; MUST follow utf-8-address ABNF when
; dequoted.
; Safe for using in the ORCPT [RFC3461]
; parameter when UTF8SMTP SMTP extension
; is also advertised.
QCHAR = %x21-2a / %x2c-3c / %x3e-5b / %x5d-7e
; US-ASCII printable characters except
; CTLs, SP, '\', '+', '='.
QUCHAR = QCHAR / UTF8-2 / UTF8-3 / UTF8-4
; US-ASCII printable characters except
; CTLs, SP, '\', '+' and '=', plus
; other Unicode characters encoded in UTF-8
EmbeddedUnicodeChar = %x5C.78 "{" HEXPOINT "}"
; starts with "\x"
HEXPOINT = ( ( "0"/"1" ) %x31-39 ) / "10" / "20" /
"2B" / "3D" / "7F" / ; all xtext-specials
"5C" / (HEXDIG8 HEXDIG) / ; 2 digit forms
( NZHEXDIG 2(HEXDIG) ) / ; 3 digit forms
( NZDHEXDIG 3(HEXDIG) ) / ; 4 digit forms excluding
( "D" %x30-37 2(HEXDIG) ) / ; ... 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"
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 standard DSN format does not permit the return of undeliverable UTF8SMTP messages, three new media types are needed. ([RFC5337] introduced experimental versions of these media types.)
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 [I-D.ietf-eai-rfc5336bis]; the Diagnostic-Code field SHOULD be in i-default language [RFC2277]. 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, an optional field called Localized-Diagnostic is added. Each instance includes a language tag [RFC5646] 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]. Note that <text-fixed> is the same as <text> from [RFC5322], but without <obs-text>. If or when RFC 5322 is updated to disallow <obs-text>, this should become just <text>. Also, if or when RFC 5322 is updated to disallow control characters in <text>, this should become a reference to that update instead.
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.
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 ]
[ final-log-id-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.
; Updates Section 3.2.3 of RFC3798
;
; 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 [RFC5646].
extension-field =/ extension-field-name ":" *utf8-text
; Updates Section 7 of RFC3798
text-fixed = %d1-9 / ; Any US-ASCII character except for NUL,
%d11 / ; CR and LF
%d12 / ; See note above about <text-fixed>
%d14-127
utf8-text = text-fixed / UTF8-non-ascii
UTF8-non-ascii = UTF8-2 / UTF8-3 / UTF8-4
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 [I-D.ietf-eai-rfc5335bis].
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 a 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 media types mentioned above inside a multipart/report media 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 [I-D.ietf-eai-rfc5335bis] relaxed a restriction from MIME [RFC2046] regarding the use of Content-Transfer-Encoding in new "message" subtypes. This specification explicitly allows the use of Content-Transfer-Encoding in message/global-headers and message/global-delivery-status. This is not believed to be problematic as these new media types are intended primarily for use by newer systems with full support for 8-bit MIME and UTF-8 headers.
If an SMTP server that advertises both UTF8SMTP and DSN needs to return an undeliverable UTF8SMTP message, then it has two choices for encapsulating the UTF8SMTP message when generating the corresponding multipart/report:
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 [RFC2277].) 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 field, which is an address header field and thus follows the same 8-bit rules as other address header fields 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.
This specification does not create any new IANA registries. However, the following items are registered as a result of this document.
The mail address type registry was created by [RFC3464]. The registration template response follows:
The utf-8-address form MUST NOT 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; 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.
The utf-8-addr-xtext form MUST be used instead in the first and the third case; the utf-8-addr-unitext form MUST be used in the second case.
In addition, the utf-8-addr-unitext form can be used anywhere where the utf-8-address form is allowed.
The mail diagnostic type registry was created by [RFC3464] and updated by [RFC5337] and this specification. The registration for the 'smtp' diagnostic type should be updated to reference RFC XXXX in addition to [RFC3464] and [RFC5337].
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.
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.
| [RFC2045] | Freed, N. and N.S. 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. |
| [RFC5337] | Newman, C. and A. Melnikov, "Internationalized Delivery Status and Disposition Notifications", RFC 5337, September 2008. |
NOTE TO RFC EDITOR: Remove this section for publication.
Incorporated changes from draft-ietf-eai-dsnbis-01.
Fixed description of utf-8-addr-xtext and utf-8-addr-unitext.
Other minor corrections.
Incorporated comments by Apps Area reviewers.
References to Downgrade and uMailbox removed/fixed.
Made changes to move from Experimental to Standards Track. The most significant was the removal of an embedded alternative ASCII address within a utf-8-address, and reflections of the ABNF changes in [I-D.ietf-eai-rfc5336bis].
ABNF changes and errata suggested by Alfred Hoenes.
Minor changes to MIME type references.
Other minor corrections.
Many thanks for input provided by Pete Resnick, James Galvin, Ned Freed, John Klensin, Harald Alvestrand, Frank Ellermann, SM, Alfred Hoenes, Kazunori Fujiwara, and members of the EAI WG to help solidify this proposal.