Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-25 Thread David Lesher


Beating up the spokestech may feel good but is pointless.

The way to solve the Verislime problem is straightforward,
but not simple.

Make it unprofitable for them.

Maybe that is by political pressure [but I doubt it -- they have
big lobbying muscle..] from the Hill.

It may be by lawsuits.

It may be by driving their costs up.

It may be by hurting their other revenue lines, including registration.

I donno. 




(Today, all I wish is that all this ^%^*^ swen garbage was
choking their pipes, not mine.)




-- 
A host is a host from coast to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 no one will talk to a host that's close[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead20915-1433


Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-25 Thread Gerald

On Thu, 25 Sep 2003, David Lesher wrote:

 The way to solve the Verislime problem is straightforward,
 but not simple.

   Make it unprofitable for them.

...can't resist hitting reply. First there is little to no way to make
this unprofitable for them since they already have people paying for the
opportunity to catch the eyes of these lost Internet travellers. Second,
it would have to be a negative cash flow to be nixed in a corporate
setting. (unprofitable does not necessarily convey: negative cash flow)

Ugh...sucked in. Can we get back to network operation discussions. Someone
make a Verisign gripe/commiserate list. I'll sign up.

G

- How are ya? Never been better, ... Just once I'd like to be better.


Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-25 Thread Gregory Hicks


 Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 11:12:05 -0400 (EDT)
 From: Gerald [EMAIL PROTECTED]

[...snip...]
 
 Ugh...sucked in. Can we get back to network operation discussions. Someone
 make a Verisign gripe/commiserate list. I'll sign up.

[EMAIL PROTECTED] ...?

Regards,
Gregory Hicks


 
 G
 
 - How are ya? Never been better, ... Just once I'd like to be better.

---
Gregory Hicks| Principal Systems Engineer
Cadence Design Systems   | Direct:   408.576.3609
555 River Oaks Pkwy M/S 6B1  | Fax:  408.894.3400
San Jose, CA 95134   | 

The trouble with doing anything right the first time is that nobody
appreciates how difficult it was.

When a team of dedicated individuals makes a commitment to act as
one...  the sky's the limit.

Just because We've always done it that way is not necessarily a good
reason to continue to do so...  Grace Hopper, Rear Admiral, United
States Navy



Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-22 Thread Michael . Dillon

 Wrong protocol.  There should be *NO* SMTP transactions for 
 non-extistant domains. 

After being bit by this over the weekend I would have to agree, due to
a screwup at netSOL a companies domain I manage was resolving to their
sitefinder service, and all mail just went *poof*.

At anytime, Verisign could remove your .COM domain from their DNS for
a short period of time which would result in all of your inbound
email going to the Verisign collector servers. If this was only done
for a brief interval, say 10 minutes, you might never notice that it
had happened. But Versign's industrial espionage department would have
your email in their hands and could do whatever they wish with it.
How profitable might that be?

Of course, the right way to do this would be to resend the email onward
so that you never notice any missing messages at all. In fact, if I 
were designing the system to do this, I wouldn't log anything at the
mailserver. I'd let the mail server and web server technical folks
have plausible deniability. Meanwhile, I would have diverted a copy of
the mailserver communications at the Ethernet switch to a secret server
that does the actual logging of addresses and messages.

Son of Carnivore?

--Michael Dillon




Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-22 Thread Richard Cox

On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 10:42:51 +0100 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

| Meanwhile, I would have diverted a copy of the mailserver
| communications at the Ethernet switch to a secret server that
| does the actual logging of addresses and messages.
| 
| Son of Carnivore?

Son?  or Brother?
See: http://lists.insecure.org/lists/politech/2002/Oct/0009.html

-- 
Richard






Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-22 Thread Jack Bates
Matt Larson wrote:

In response to this feedback, we have deployed an alternate SMTP
implementation using Postfix that should address many of the concerns
we've heard.  Like snubby, this server rejects any mail sent to it (by
returning 550 in response to any number of RCPT TO commands).
Matt,

The problem is that some systems have a specially formatted response 
message that they send to their users under certain conditions. For 
example, commonly used Exchange servers will send User unknown for any 
550 issued on a RCPT command, where as they would inform the user that 
the domain did not exist for nxdomain. I have heard that these messages 
were also sent back in the proper language.

How will users of such systems know if it was a recipient issue or a 
domain issue? Granted, part of this problem in the example is the smtp 
implementation (which any abuse desk will tell you that it is 
aggrivating to get a call about a User unknown message when a Security 
Policy 550 5.7.1 was issued with comment).

Of course, mail is the least of concerns. There are millions of programs 
written that check for NXDOMAIN. A lot of this software cannot readily 
be changed to recognize the wildcard, requiring recursors to be patched; 
which is almost as repulsive as the wildcard to begin with.

Here's just 2 commonly used applications, who's output has changed which 
will break many expect scripts and then some.

$ ftp jkfsdkjlsfkljsf.com
ftp: connect: Connection refused
ftp quit
$ ftp jklfskjlsfljks.microsoft.com
jklfskjlsfljks.microsoft.com: unknown host
ftp quit
$ telnet jlkfsjklsfjklsfd.com
Trying 64.94.110.11...
^C$ telnet jksfljksfdljkfs.microsoft.com
jksfljksfdljkfs.microsoft.com: Unknown host


-Jack



Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-21 Thread Daniel Roesen

On Sun, Sep 21, 2003 at 10:08:27AM +, Stephen J. Wilcox wrote:
 What if you change the behaviour of the GTLD named daemons to return
 an NXDOMAIN response to any MX queries on non-existent domains, you
 will then take this whole debate on SMTP out of the equation ...

MTAs fall back to the A RR if there are no MX RRs for a given
recipient domain.


Regards,
Daniel


Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-21 Thread Petri Helenius
neal rauhauser wrote:

 Rather than bashing someone who is doing something positive we should
see if we can paypal him $$$ for a box of tacks so he can mine the
chairs of the tack head marketing weasels who decided this would be a
good idea ...
 

Could we convince Washington that this is an operation of the axis of 
evil and they
should send appropriate forces to remove the dictator(s) and liberate 
the .com and .net
domain spaces to the people with freely elected governing body looking 
after them
in the future?

Pete




Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-21 Thread Stephen J. Wilcox

On Sun, 21 Sep 2003, Daniel Roesen wrote:

 On Sun, Sep 21, 2003 at 10:08:27AM +, Stephen J. Wilcox wrote:
  What if you change the behaviour of the GTLD named daemons to return
  an NXDOMAIN response to any MX queries on non-existent domains, you
  will then take this whole debate on SMTP out of the equation ...
 
 MTAs fall back to the A RR if there are no MX RRs for a given
 recipient domain.

That was my understanding but on checking with Paul he said that NXDOMAIN means 
dont do further checks so dont look for A...

Steve



Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-21 Thread E.B. Dreger

SJW Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2003 15:17:34 + (GMT)
SJW From: Stephen J. Wilcox


SJW That was my understanding but on checking with Paul he said
SJW that NXDOMAIN means dont do further checks so dont look for
SJW A...

Return NOERROR for one type of RR, but NXDOMAIN for another?  Is
that valid?!  Hit me with a clue-by-four if appropriate, but I
thought NOERROR/NXDOMAIN was returned per-host, regardless of
RRTYPE requested.  Giving NXDOMAIN for MX yet returning NOERROR
for A RRs doesn't sound kosher.

Time for me to dig through a few RFCs.


Eddy
--
Brotsman  Dreger, Inc. - EverQuick Internet Division
Bandwidth, consulting, e-commerce, hosting, and network building
Phone: +1 785 865 5885 Lawrence and [inter]national
Phone: +1 316 794 8922 Wichita
_
  DO NOT send mail to the following addresses :
  [EMAIL PROTECTED] -or- [EMAIL PROTECTED] -or- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sending mail to spambait addresses is a great way to get blocked.



Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-21 Thread Eric A. Hall


on 9/21/2003 11:19 AM E.B. Dreger wrote:

 Return NOERROR for one type of RR, but NXDOMAIN for another?  Is
 that valid?!  Hit me with a clue-by-four if appropriate, but I
 thought NOERROR/NXDOMAIN was returned per-host, regardless of
 RRTYPE requested.  Giving NXDOMAIN for MX yet returning NOERROR
 for A RRs doesn't sound kosher.

It's not valid and it won't work very well if it works at all. Your local
cache will use whatever it learned on the last query.

This is the seed for another problem set with the various workarounds as
well, although I'm still thinking these through. Different servers that
provide different kinds of glue could theoretically trip your cache.

At this point, I think we're on the verge of having multiple (different)
namespaces, which is extremely dangerous. At the same time, the arguments
against multiple roots are pretty much going out the window.

To be clear, however, I don't think the workarounds are the problem. I
think VeriSign has broken DNS by conflating error codes.

-- 
Eric A. Hallhttp://www.ehsco.com/
Internet Core Protocols  http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coreprot/



Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-21 Thread Stephen J. Wilcox

On Sun, 21 Sep 2003, Eric A. Hall wrote:

 on 9/21/2003 11:19 AM E.B. Dreger wrote:
 
  Return NOERROR for one type of RR, but NXDOMAIN for another?  Is
  that valid?!  Hit me with a clue-by-four if appropriate, but I
  thought NOERROR/NXDOMAIN was returned per-host, regardless of
  RRTYPE requested.  Giving NXDOMAIN for MX yet returning NOERROR
  for A RRs doesn't sound kosher.
 
 It's not valid and it won't work very well if it works at all. Your local
 cache will use whatever it learned on the last query.

I didnt say it was valid :) just that if Verisign can't be stopped with their A 
record we might be able to mitigate on some of the things they broke (of course 
for a gtld to respond this way implies verisign actually implement this broken 
idea)

 This is the seed for another problem set with the various workarounds as
 well, although I'm still thinking these through. Different servers that
 provide different kinds of glue could theoretically trip your cache.

Maybe, needs more thought for sure..
 
 At this point, I think we're on the verge of having multiple (different)
 namespaces, which is extremely dangerous. At the same time, the arguments
 against multiple roots are pretty much going out the window.

Not at all, the problem is with .com and .net ... you arent seriously going to 
use an alternative root using someone elses .com/.net zones surely..
 
 To be clear, however, I don't think the workarounds are the problem. I
 think VeriSign has broken DNS by conflating error codes.

Yup, it perhaps needs a couple more weeks for the dust to settle but early 
indications are that they do not intend to give this up without a fight and thus 
far no one has engaged them properly

Steve



Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-21 Thread Matthew S. Hallacy

On Sat, Sep 20, 2003 at 08:31:27PM -0400, Joe Provo wrote:
 
 Wrong protocol.  There should be *NO* SMTP transactions for 
 non-extistant domains.  

After being bit by this over the weekend I would have to agree, due to
a screwup at netSOL a companies domain I manage was resolving to their
sitefinder service, and all mail just went *poof*.

-- 
Matthew S. HallacyFUBAR, LART, BOFH Certified
http://www.poptix.net   GPG public key 0x01938203


RE: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-21 Thread Eric Germann

Just wait until they start accepting the mail, logging it, and then
returning it to sender.

Make one hell of an interesting way to monitor whats going on out there 

Nahh, wouldn't happen, would it 

Eric


 -Original Message-
 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of
 Matthew S. Hallacy
 Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2003 2:02 PM
 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Subject: Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated



 On Sat, Sep 20, 2003 at 08:31:27PM -0400, Joe Provo wrote:
 
  Wrong protocol.  There should be *NO* SMTP transactions for
  non-extistant domains.

 After being bit by this over the weekend I would have to agree, due to
 a screwup at netSOL a companies domain I manage was resolving to their
 sitefinder service, and all mail just went *poof*.

 --
 Matthew S. HallacyFUBAR, LART, BOFH Certified
 http://www.poptix.net   GPG public key 0x01938203





Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread Dave Stewart
At 02:01 PM 9/20/2003, Matt Larson wrote:
In response to this feedback, we have deployed an alternate SMTP
implementation using Postfix that should address many of the concerns
we've heard.  Like snubby, this server rejects any mail sent to it (by
returning 550 in response to any number of RCPT TO commands).
ICANN has requested that Verisign remove the wildcards in .com and 
.net.  So what you're basically saying here is:  that ain't gonna 
happen.  Correct?



RE: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread Matthew Kaufman

 One piece of feedback we received multiple times after the 
 addition of the wildcard A record to the .com/.net zones 
 concerned snubby, our SMTP mail rejection server. 

Did you miss the other pieces of feedback about how wildcard records in .com
and .net are simply a bad idea for numerous reasons?

 We would like to state for the record that the only purpose 
 of this server is to reject mail immediately to avoid its 
 remaining in MTA queues throughout the Internet.  We are 
 specifically not retaining, nor do we have any intention to 
 retain, any email addresses from these SMTP transactions. 

Right. We can't trust you to do the right thing with regard to the wildcards
themselves, so now we have to trust you when you tell us what your SMTP
server does. Why should we trust you, again?

 I would welcome feedback on these options sent to me 
 privately or the list; I will summarize the former.

I'll take the list, even though I'm sure it'll get beaten to death by the
time I check my mailbox again.

Matthew Kaufman
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Ps. Are you planning on operating servers which reject, with proper status
codes, every other common service that might be found at an Internet
address?



Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread bert hubert

On Sat, Sep 20, 2003 at 02:16:34PM -0400, Dave Stewart wrote:

 implementation using Postfix that should address many of the concerns
 we've heard.  Like snubby, this server rejects any mail sent to it (by
 returning 550 in response to any number of RCPT TO commands).
 
 ICANN has requested that Verisign remove the wildcards in .com and 
 .net.  So what you're basically saying here is:  that ain't gonna 
 happen.  Correct?

Please don't try to force the benevolent techie into making further policy
statements - I think Matt is doing us enough of a favour already by keeping
us into the loop to the extent he can. Don't try to bait him.

Thanks.

-- 
http://www.PowerDNS.com  Open source, database driven DNS Software 
http://lartc.org   Linux Advanced Routing  Traffic Control HOWTO


Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread ken emery

On Sat, 20 Sep 2003, Matt Larson wrote:


 Folks,

 One piece of feedback we received multiple times after the addition of
 the wildcard A record to the .com/.net zones concerned snubby, our
 SMTP mail rejection server.  This server was designed to be the most
 modest of SMTP implementations and supported only the most common
 sequence of SMTP commands.

 In response to this feedback, we have deployed an alternate SMTP
 implementation using Postfix that should address many of the concerns
 we've heard.  Like snubby, this server rejects any mail sent to it (by
 returning 550 in response to any number of RCPT TO commands).

 We would like to state for the record that the only purpose of this
 server is to reject mail immediately to avoid its remaining in MTA
 queues throughout the Internet.  We are specifically not retaining,
 nor do we have any intention to retain, any email addresses from these
 SMTP transactions.  In fact, to achieve sufficient performance, all
 logging has been disabled.

 We are interested in feedback on the best way within the SMTP protocol
 to definitively reject mail at these servers.  One alternate option we
 are considering is rejecting the SMTP transaction by returning a 554
 response code as described in Section 3.1 of RFC 2821.  Our concern is
 if this response effectively causes most SMTP servers to bounce the
 message, which is the desired reaction.  We are researching common
 SMTP servers' handling of this response code; at least one popular
 server appears to requeue mail after receiving 554.  Another option is
 remaining with the more standard SMTP sequence (returning 250 in
 response to HELO/EHLO), but then returning 550 in response to MAIL
 FROM as well as RCPT TO.

 I would welcome feedback on these options sent to me privately or the
 list; I will summarize the former.

Matt,

I think you haven't gotten it.  I'm getting the message from you that
the changes made to the com and net gTLD's are fait accompli.  From the
message above it sounds like by changing your smtp server everything
will be perfect and back to normal on the internet.  The problem here
is by adding wildcard records Verisign has broken lots of software
(the internet is NOT just the web no matter what Verisign would like
one to believe).  Many spam algorithms have relied on the fact that
nonexitent domain names are one of the ways (and a very effective one
at that) to filter spam.  Other registrars do and nslookup on a domain
name when attempting to register and if this comes back positive then
the domain is considered taken.  Is Verisign expecting everyone else
to modify software which has been working for years (based on what
have been valid assumptions for well over a decade)?  This will cost
millions (if not billions) of dollars.  As those in the spam world would
say, the collateral damage is very high for this type of change.
Is Verisign going to hold the internet hostage to its whims?

So let us know why exactly you should be able to redirect any protocol
you wish to your IP addresses if someone mistypes a domain.

I look forward to your response.

bye,
ken emery



Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread neal rauhauser



 Oh come on people, this guy *implements* stuff. Here he is on the list
describing how he has implemented something to alleviate the problems
caused by PHBs at Verisign.

 ISC bind mods, ICANN displeasure, and other sources of pressure will
either remove this issue or make it irrelevant.

  Rather than bashing someone who is doing something positive we should
see if we can paypal him $$$ for a box of tacks so he can mine the
chairs of the tack head marketing weasels who decided this would be a
good idea ...




Matthew Kaufman wrote:
 
  One piece of feedback we received multiple times after the
  addition of the wildcard A record to the .com/.net zones
  concerned snubby, our SMTP mail rejection server.
 
 Did you miss the other pieces of feedback about how wildcard records in .com
 and .net are simply a bad idea for numerous reasons?
 
  We would like to state for the record that the only purpose
  of this server is to reject mail immediately to avoid its
  remaining in MTA queues throughout the Internet.  We are
  specifically not retaining, nor do we have any intention to
  retain, any email addresses from these SMTP transactions.
 
 Right. We can't trust you to do the right thing with regard to the wildcards
 themselves, so now we have to trust you when you tell us what your SMTP
 server does. Why should we trust you, again?
 
  I would welcome feedback on these options sent to me
  privately or the list; I will summarize the former.
 
 I'll take the list, even though I'm sure it'll get beaten to death by the
 time I check my mailbox again.
 
 Matthew Kaufman
 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
 Ps. Are you planning on operating servers which reject, with proper status
 codes, every other common service that might be found at an Internet
 address?

-- 
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
phone:402-301-9555
After all that I've been through, you're the only one who matters,
you never left me in the dark here on my own - Widespread Panic


Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread Stephen J. Wilcox

 We are interested in feedback on the best way within the SMTP protocol
 to definitively reject mail at these servers.  One alternate option we
 
 I would welcome feedback on these options sent to me privately or the
 list; I will summarize the former.

OK feedback, I suggest you withdraw the facility whilst you figure out the 
details the Internet is not your playground

Steve



Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread Niels Bakker

 On Sat, 20 Sep 2003, Matt Larson wrote:
 One piece of feedback we received multiple times after the addition of
 the wildcard A record to the .com/.net zones concerned snubby, our
[..]

* [EMAIL PROTECTED] (ken emery) [Sat 20 Sep 2003, 20:35 CEST]:
 I think you haven't gotten it.  I'm getting the message from you that
 the changes made to the com and net gTLD's are fait accompli.  From the
[..]

I think Mr Larson understands perfectly well the consequences of his
management's decisions.  I believe he is one of the fine people working
for the root servers group, who Paul Vixie recently praised unanimously
in this august forum.

Unfortunately, I have the feeling that questioning Mr Larson about the
policies of his management is about as useful as writing an RFC that
mandates world peace when it comes to effect sorted.

Alternate contacts within Verisign who do have influence on com/net
policy will, of course, be welcomed.


 Is Verisign going to hold the internet hostage to its whims?

To the tune of $100M/year?  Apparently so.


 So let us know why exactly you should be able to redirect any protocol
 you wish to your IP addresses if someone mistypes a domain.

Someone delegated com and net to them.  Simple.  They can also do it
with existing domains, but apparently they're unwilling to take the
backlash that would result from such an action...

Regards,


-- Niels.


Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread ken emery

On Sat, 20 Sep 2003, neal rauhauser wrote:

  Oh come on people, this guy *implements* stuff. Here he is on the list
 describing how he has implemented something to alleviate the problems
 caused by PHBs at Verisign.

He is a representative of Verisign and asked for feedback.  He
has gotten some.  I honestly think that the person who made the
decision to implement the A records thought the internet was only
web and thus everything would be just great and Verisign would
take in all sorts of advertising money and nothing else would
happen.

  ISC bind mods, ICANN displeasure, and other sources of pressure will
 either remove this issue or make it irrelevant.

Doubtful, the dollar number I heard was $100 million/year.  Verisign
won't let a bind mod get in their way with that much money at stake.
They will do everything in their power to keep this in place.

   Rather than bashing someone who is doing something positive we should
 see if we can paypal him $$$ for a box of tacks so he can mine the
 chairs of the tack head marketing weasels who decided this would be a
 good idea ...

I wrote a response to Matt (it went to the list).  I used the
directives Verisign and you a bit interchanably.  They both
were to mean the same thing, Verisign the company, not Matt
Larson the person.  I think the other responses I've seen so
far were much the same.  I'm hoping Matt doesn't take any of
this personally.

bye,
ken emery


 Matthew Kaufman wrote:
 
   One piece of feedback we received multiple times after the
   addition of the wildcard A record to the .com/.net zones
   concerned snubby, our SMTP mail rejection server.
 
  Did you miss the other pieces of feedback about how wildcard records in .com
  and .net are simply a bad idea for numerous reasons?
 
   We would like to state for the record that the only purpose
   of this server is to reject mail immediately to avoid its
   remaining in MTA queues throughout the Internet.  We are
   specifically not retaining, nor do we have any intention to
   retain, any email addresses from these SMTP transactions.
 
  Right. We can't trust you to do the right thing with regard to the wildcards
  themselves, so now we have to trust you when you tell us what your SMTP
  server does. Why should we trust you, again?
 
   I would welcome feedback on these options sent to me
   privately or the list; I will summarize the former.
 
  I'll take the list, even though I'm sure it'll get beaten to death by the
  time I check my mailbox again.
 
  Matthew Kaufman
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
  Ps. Are you planning on operating servers which reject, with proper status
  codes, every other common service that might be found at an Internet
  address?

 --
 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 phone:402-301-9555
 After all that I've been through, you're the only one who matters,
 you never left me in the dark here on my own - Widespread Panic




Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread Roy


While 550 may be the proper answer for a domain that does not exist, it 
is an improper answer for a domain that does exist but that is not 
included in the zone for some reason.  Verisign is not the owner of the 
domain and, as such, has no right to discard mail destined for that 
domain.  Mail should remain in the queue of the sender.



Matt Larson wrote:
Folks,

One piece of feedback we received multiple times after the addition of
the wildcard A record to the .com/.net zones concerned snubby, our
SMTP mail rejection server.  This server was designed to be the most
modest of SMTP implementations and supported only the most common
sequence of SMTP commands.
In response to this feedback, we have deployed an alternate SMTP
implementation using Postfix that should address many of the concerns
we've heard.  Like snubby, this server rejects any mail sent to it (by
returning 550 in response to any number of RCPT TO commands).
We would like to state for the record that the only purpose of this
server is to reject mail immediately to avoid its remaining in MTA
queues throughout the Internet.  We are specifically not retaining,
nor do we have any intention to retain, any email addresses from these
SMTP transactions.  In fact, to achieve sufficient performance, all
logging has been disabled.
We are interested in feedback on the best way within the SMTP protocol
to definitively reject mail at these servers.  One alternate option we
are considering is rejecting the SMTP transaction by returning a 554
response code as described in Section 3.1 of RFC 2821.  Our concern is
if this response effectively causes most SMTP servers to bounce the
message, which is the desired reaction.  We are researching common
SMTP servers' handling of this response code; at least one popular
server appears to requeue mail after receiving 554.  Another option is
remaining with the more standard SMTP sequence (returning 250 in
response to HELO/EHLO), but then returning 550 in response to MAIL
FROM as well as RCPT TO.
I would welcome feedback on these options sent to me privately or the
list; I will summarize the former.
Matt
--
Matt Larson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
VeriSign Naming and Directory Services




Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread Paul Vixie

[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Matt Larson) writes:

 We are interested in feedback on the best way within the SMTP protocol
 to definitively reject mail at these servers.  One alternate option we
 are considering is rejecting the SMTP transaction by returning a 554
 response code as described in Section 3.1 of RFC 2821.  Our concern is
 if this response effectively causes most SMTP servers to bounce the
 message, which is the desired reaction.

is it?  right now there are a lot of unintended consequences and several
of them are rather painful.  for example, let's say you were using a
friend as your backup MX and he got put on domain-hold.  or in the more
common case you misspell your backup mx.  either way mail that should be
queued and then later would have been successfully delivered will bounce
at the verisign server.

  We are researching common
 SMTP servers' handling of this response code; at least one popular
 server appears to requeue mail after receiving 554.  Another option is
 remaining with the more standard SMTP sequence (returning 250 in
 response to HELO/EHLO), but then returning 550 in response to MAIL
 FROM as well as RCPT TO.

no matter what you do you're turning nonfatal error conditions into fatal
ones.  i'm not sure it matters which kind of fatal condition you cause,
or the specific smtp messages you use to cause it.  either way you're in
the loop and there's no good that can come of it from an e-mail p-o-v.

before we deployed root-delegation-only here, i was also annoyed that my
e-mail tool could not tell me about misspelled domain names at send time
and i had to wait for the wildcard mail servers to bounce the traffic.  i
am much happier with nxdomain than i was with the wildcard.  it's just sad
that i'm going to have to move vix.com to a different parent domain name
to get that behaviour to work for me as a recipient and others as senders.

 I would welcome feedback on these options sent to me privately or the
 list; I will summarize the former.

i chose to send this to the list since some folks have been wondering if
i'm a verisign apologist lately and i believe that open debate is better
for this kind of thing.
-- 
Paul Vixie


Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread Declan McCullagh

On Sat, Sep 20, 2003 at 11:34:17AM -0700, ken emery wrote:
 I think you haven't gotten it.  I'm getting the message from you that
 the changes made to the com and net gTLD's are fait accompli.  From the

That's the exact message I got from Verisign on Thursday. See:
http://news.com.com/2100-1024-5078657.html

Basically Verisign is willing to tweak the service to make it less
controversial but not stop it.

-Declan


Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread Sean Donelan


Is it possible for the client resolver code to distinguish between a
wildcard answer and an explicit answer?  Or would the require another
flag passed between the client and a recursive name server?

If this was available, it would mail clients and other things interested
in the specific domain name could get the answers they want.  While other
stuff would get the wildcard answers.




Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread Paul Vixie

 Is it possible for the client resolver code to distinguish between a
 wildcard answer and an explicit answer?

no.

 If this was available, it would mail clients and other things
 interested in the specific domain name could get the answers they
 want.  While other stuff would get the wildcard answers.

right.


Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread Eric A. Hall


on 9/20/2003 1:01 PM Matt Larson wrote:

 We are interested in feedback on the best way within the SMTP protocol
 to definitively reject mail at these servers.

You need to:

 1) fatally reject mail for domains that are not delegated with 5xx

 -and-

 2) softly reject mail for domains that are delegated with 4xx so
the messages are requeed and may get to an authorized server on
the next run

Used to be able to use DNS for this.

-- 
Eric A. Hallhttp://www.ehsco.com/
Internet Core Protocols  http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coreprot/



Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread Eric A. Hall


on 9/20/2003 3:01 PM Sean Donelan wrote:

 Is it possible for the client resolver code to distinguish between a 
 wildcard answer and an explicit answer?  Or would the require another 
 flag passed between the client and a recursive name server?
 
 If this was available, it would mail clients and other things
 interested in the specific domain name could get the answers they want.
 While other stuff would get the wildcard answers.

Internet architecture generally favors abstracting higher-layer data away
from lower-layer services. EG, we don't have ~BGP that routes :80 traffic
separate from :25 traffic, nor do we have a URI syntax that allows you to
refer to svc/tcp separate from svc/udp, nor do we have a naming service
that allows for service-specific address responses. Although any of these
could could be emulated, it wouldn't do anything for today's apps.

My feeling is that this architectural design feature is becoming more and
more of a restraint as complexity seeps in, the conflation of DNS error
codes being just one of many examples.

-- 
Eric A. Hallhttp://www.ehsco.com/
Internet Core Protocols  http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coreprot/



Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread Robert Blayzor

On 9/20/03 3:39 PM, Roy [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 While 550 may be the proper answer for a domain that does not exist, it
 is an improper answer for a domain that does exist but that is not
 included in the zone for some reason.  Verisign is not the owner of the
 domain and, as such, has no right to discard mail destined for that
 domain.  Mail should remain in the queue of the sender.

Not to be picky, but the banner also violates RFC.  The 220 should be
followed by FQDN identifying the system.

[flem:~] telnet zzfoobar.net 25
Trying 64.94.110.11...
Won't send login name and/or authentication information.
Connected to zzfoobar.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 VeriSign mail rejector (Postfix)


--
Robert Blayzor, BOFH
INOC, LLC
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
PGP: http://www.inoc.net/~dev/
Key fingerprint = A445 7D1E 3D4F A4EF 6875  21BB 1BAA 10FE 5748 CFE9

Press [ESC] to detonate or any other key to explode.




Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread Owen DeLong
Correction:

They need to pull themselves out of the loop on this and allow DNS
to work as intended.
Owen

--On Saturday, September 20, 2003 3:06 PM -0500 Eric A. Hall 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:



on 9/20/2003 1:01 PM Matt Larson wrote:

We are interested in feedback on the best way within the SMTP protocol
to definitively reject mail at these servers.
You need to:

 1) fatally reject mail for domains that are not delegated with 5xx

 -and-

 2) softly reject mail for domains that are delegated with 4xx so
the messages are requeed and may get to an authorized server on
the next run
Used to be able to use DNS for this.

--
Eric A. Hallhttp://www.ehsco.com/
Internet Core Protocols  http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coreprot/




Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread bdragon

 Declan McCullagh wrote:
 
 On Sat, Sep 20, 2003 at 11:34:17AM -0700, ken emery wrote:
   
 
 I think you haven't gotten it.  I'm getting the message from you that
 the changes made to the com and net gTLD's are fait accompli.  From the
 
 
 
 That's the exact message I got from Verisign on Thursday. See:
 http://news.com.com/2100-1024-5078657.html
 
 Basically Verisign is willing to tweak the service to make it less
 controversial but not stop it.
   
 
 Then Verisign is no longer a responsible holder of the data and ICANN 
 sould act to remove their control and invalid data.
 
 / Mat

I wonder what ATT and InterNap have to say about it as the upstreams
I can see of AS30060. While InterNap has a short but notable career
of letting their customers do whatever they want (such as completely
deaggregate all of their address space down to /24s), I'ld think
ATT would be somewhat responsible.

I would hope Verisign would abandon their experiment if they received
no ill-gotten gains.


Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread Joe Provo

On Sat, Sep 20, 2003 at 02:01:39PM -0400, Matt Larson wrote:
[snip]
 We are interested in feedback on the best way within the SMTP protocol
 to definitively reject mail at these servers.  One alternate option we
[snip]

Wrong protocol.  There should be *NO* SMTP transactions for 
non-extistant domains.  

-- 
 RSUC / GweepNet / Spunk / FnB / Usenix / SAGE


Re: VeriSign SMTP reject server updated

2003-09-20 Thread Avleen Vig

On Sat, Sep 20, 2003 at 08:31:27PM -0400, Joe Provo wrote:
  We are interested in feedback on the best way within the SMTP protocol
  to definitively reject mail at these servers.  One alternate option we
 [snip]
 
 Wrong protocol.  There should be *NO* SMTP transactions for 
 non-extistant domains.  

Not so.

The correct solution is to remove the wildcarding.
Until that happens, the best thing to do IS accept and then reject mail.
This is significantly better than leaving it to expire in a spool after
5 days.

You might be find allowing the mail to sit in your spool, but for those
admins who manage large-scale systems where a queue will grow to several
gigabytes in a day or less under there conditions, verisign not
answering SMTP would be BAD.

Verisign aren't stupid. They know how much of a problem not talking on
port 25 would be for the large ISP's around the world. They might put up
with our bitching, but I'm sure they don't want multiple lawsuits
sitting in their mailbox for breaking an ISP's mail.