Internet Draft H. Alvestrand and R. Gellens, Authors Expires 12 December 1996 R. Gellens, Editor 12 June, 1996 draft-gellens-smtp-submit-00.txt SMTP extension for message submission Status of this Memo: This draft document is being circulated for comment. Please send comments to The following text is required by the Internet-draft rules: This document is an Internet Draft. Internet Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its Areas, and its Working Groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet Drafts. Internet Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months. Internet Drafts may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is not appropriate to use Internet Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as a "working draft" or "work in progress." Please check the I-D abstract listing contained in each Internet Draft directory to learn the current status of this or any other Internet Draft. The file name of this version is draft-gellens-smtp-submit-00.txt 1. Introduction In many cases, MUAs submit messages using [SMTP] without doing a proper job of creating the [RFC-822] headers for the message. This memo creates machinery to let them do this job properly. 2. SMTP extension for message submission Alvestrand, Gellens Expires Dec 96 [Page 1] Internet Draft Submit SMTP June 96 The name of this extension [EMSTP] is "Message Submission". The EHLO keyword is SUBMIT. One new parameter is defined for the MAIL FROM verb: SUBMIT. 3. Actions when SUBMIT is used The following things MAY be done by an MTA if the MAIL FROM line has the SUBMIT parameter: (1) Refuse the MAIL FROM command if the address in MAIL FROM is not believed to have submission right at this MTA, or is invalid. (2) Refuse the DATA command if the submitted message is syntactically invalid, or seems inconsistent with permissions given to the user (if known) (3) Add a Sender: field to the submitted message, if it knows the identity of the sender and this is not given in the From: field (4) Add a Date: field to the submitted message, if it lacks it. (5) Correct the Date: field if it does not conform to [RFC-822] syntax. (6) Add a Message-ID: field to the submitted message, if it lacks it. (7) Transfer encode the message according to MIME conventions, if desirable and needed If an MTA treats a message as a submission (see also section 5) and modifies its text in any way as a result, it MUST document all such alterations by one or more of the following: (1) Add a comment to each added or altered field, of the form "(added/corrected by MTA )". (2) Add a Comments: field which lists what alterations were made, the reason why each was done, and the domain name of the MTA. 4. Interaction with other SMTP extensions Alvestrand, Gellens Expires Dec 96 [Page 2] Internet Draft Submit SMTP June 96 The SMTP [AUTH] extension, if supported and used, may be used to find out the identity of the submitting user. 5. Possible other cases for doing the same mangling For backwards compatibility with unenlightened and broken mailers, the MTA MAY consider the message a submission, and treat it as above, under some combinations of the following circumstances: (1) The message lacks any Received: fields (2) The message comes from a host known to the MTA as being a "pure client", such as a PC (3) The message lacks a Date: field 6. Security considerations Security issues are not considered in this memo. 7. References [AUTH] J. Myers, "Internet Draft: SMTP Authentication", Carnegie Mellon, draft-myers-smtp-auth-02.txt, January 1996, work in progress. [ESMTP] Klensin, J., Freed, N., Rose, M., Stefferud, E., and D. Crocker, "SMTP Service Extensions", RFC 1869, STD 10, United Nations University, Innosoft International, Inc., Dover Beach Consulting, Inc., Network Management Associates, Inc., The Branch Office, November 1995. [RFC-822] D. Crocker, "Standard for the format of ARPA Internet text messages", RFC 822, STD 11, University of Delaware, 08/13/1982 [SMTP] J. Postel, "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", RFC 821, STD 10, Information Sciences Institute, 08/01/1982 8. Authors' addresses Alvestrand, Gellens Expires Dec 96 [Page 3] Internet Draft Submit SMTP June 96 Harald Tveit Alvestrand +47 73 59 70 94 UNINETT Harald.T.Alvestrand@uninett.no P.O.Box 6883 Elgeseter N-7002 TRONDHEIM NORWAY Randall Gellens +1.714.380.6350 Unisys Corporation +1.714.380.5912 (fax) 25725 Jeronimo Road Randy.Gellens@MV.Unisys.Com Mail Stop 237 Mission Viejo, CA 92651 U.S.A. Alvestrand, Gellens Expires Dec 96 [Page 4]