Network Working Group J. Levine
Internet-Draft Taughannock Networks
Intended status: Standards Track T. Herkula
Expires: January 23, 2017 optivo GmbH
July 22, 2016

Signalling one-click functionality for list email headers
draft-levine-herkula-oneclick-02

Abstract

This document describes a method for signaling a one-click function for the list-unsubscribe email header. The need for this arises out of the actuality that mail software sometimes fetches URLs in mail headers, and thereby accidentally triggers unsubcriptions in the case of the list-unsubscribe header.

Status of This Memo

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 January 23, 2017.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (c) 2016 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.

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


Table of Contents

1. Introduction

An [RFC2369] email header can contain HTTP or HTTPS URIs. In a List-Unsubscribe Header the HTTP or HTTPS URI is intended to unsubscribe the recipient of the email from the list. But anti-spam software often fetches all resources in mail headers automatically, without any action by the user. As a result of this unintended malicious behavior, senders implement landing pages with a confirmation step to finish the unsubscribe request. This document addresses this part of the problem, with a POST action for receivers that can be distinguished by senders from other requests and therefore handled as a one-click unsubscription.

2. Definitions

The capitalized 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].

One-click describes an action that directly triggers a change in a system's state, intended to be applied only with a user's intent.

3. High-Level Goals

This document has several goals.

4. Out of Scope

This document does not address problems associated with intended malicious behavior.

5. Implementation

5.1. Mail senders

An entity which is responsible for sending an email that wishes to add an HTTP or HTTPS URI for one-click unsubscriptions places both a List-Unsubscribe and a List-Unsubscribe-Post header in the message. The List-Unsubscribe-Post header may contain multiple key value pairs needed by the sending entity. It also MUST contain the key value pair "List-Unsubscribe=One-Click".

The combination of the URI in the List-Unsubscribe header and the POST arguments in the List-Unsubscribe-Post header MUST identify the mail recipient, so that the unsubscription process knows what address to handle. In particular, "one click" has no way to manually ask the user what address he or she wishes to unsubscribe.

The sending entity needs to provide the infrastructure to handle POST requests to the specified URI in the List-Unsubscribe header.

The "One-Click" action triggered by this URI SHOULD complete promptly and not burden the requester in an inappropriate way. The sending entity cannot expect that HTTP redirects are followed by the requester.

5.2. Mail receivers

A receiving entity which wants to use a List-Unsubscribe HTTP URI from an email that also contains a List-Unsubscribe-Post header performs an HTTP or HTTPS POST to the first HTTP or HTTPS URI in the List-Unsubscribe header and send the content of the List-Unsubscribe-Post header as the request body.

The POST content SHOULD be sent as "multipart/form-data" [RFC7578] and MAY be sent as "application/x-www-form-urlencoded". These encodings are the ones used by web browsers when sending forms. The target of the POST action will typically be the same as or similar to the one in the confirmation page when doing a manual two-click unsubscribe, so this is intended to allow the same server code to handle both.

The receiving entity MUST NOT perform a POST on the the HTTP or HTTPS URI without user consent. When and how the user consent is obtained is not part of this specification.

The Request uses the HTTP or HTTPS verb POST. The HEAD and GET requests are not intended to be used to trigger a state change. PUT and DELETE would offer similar functionality but are often unavailable.

6. Additional Requirements

The email needs at least one valid authentication identifier. In this version of the specification the only supported identifier type is DKIM [RFC6376], that provides a domain-level identifier in the content of the "d=" tag of a validated DKIM-Signature header field.

The List-Unsubscribe and List-Unsubscribe-Post headers need to be included in the "h=" tag of a valid DKIM-Signature header field.

[[ what is the intention of this next rule? ]]

The domain used in the HTTP or HTTPS URI MUST be the domain in the "d=" tag of a valid DKIM-Signature header field in which the headers are included in the "h=" tag.

7. IANA Considerations

IANA is requested to add a new entry to the Permanent Message Header Field Names registry.

Header field name: List-Unsubscribe-Post

Applicable protocol: mail

Status: standard

Author/Change controller: IETF

Specification document: this document

8. Examples

8.1. Simple

Header in Email

List-Unsubscribe: <https://example.com/unsubscribe.html>
List-Unsubscribe-Post: List-Unsubscribe=One-Click&recip=user@example.com

Resulting POST request

POST /unsubscribe.html HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Length: 49

List-Unsubscribe=One-Click&recip=user@example.com

8.2. Complex

Header in Email

List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:listrequest@example.com?subject=unsubscribe>,
    <https://example.com/unsubscribe.html?campaign=123456789>
List-Unsubscribe-Post: List-Unsubscribe=One-Click

Resulting POST request

POST /unsubscribe.html?campaign=123456789 HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Length: 49

List-Unsubscribe=One-Click&recip=user@example.com

9. Security Considerations

The List-Unsubscribe-Post header will typically contain the recipient address, but that address is usually also in the To: header. This specification allows anyone with access to a message to unsubscribe the recipient of the message, but that's typically the case with existing List-Unsubscribe, just with more steps.

10. Normative References

[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997.
[RFC2369] Neufeld, G. and J. Baer, "The Use of URLs as Meta-Syntax for Core Mail List Commands and their Transport through Message Header Fields", RFC 2369, DOI 10.17487/RFC2369, July 1998.
[RFC6376] Crocker, D., Hansen, T. and M. Kucherawy, "DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures", STD 76, RFC 6376, DOI 10.17487/RFC6376, September 2011.
[RFC7578] Masinter, L., "Returning Values from Forms: multipart/form-data", RFC 7578, DOI 10.17487/RFC7578, July 2015.

Authors' Addresses

John Levine Taughannock Networks PO Box 727 Trumansburg, NY 14886 Phone: +1 831 480 2300 EMail: standards@taugh.com URI: http://jl.ly
Tobias Herkula optivo GmbH Wallstrasse 16 Berlin, 10179 DE Phone: +49 30 768078 129 EMail: t.herkula@optivo.com URI: https://www.optivo.com