Subject: Protocol Action: 'IMAP LIST extension for special-use mailboxes' to Proposed Standard (draft-ietf-morg-list-specialuse-06.txt)

From: The IESG <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:30:47 -0800

The IESG has approved the following document:
- 'IMAP LIST extension for special-use mailboxes'
  (draft-ietf-morg-list-specialuse-06.txt) as a Proposed Standard

This document is the product of the Message Organization Working Group.

The IESG contact persons are Alexey Melnikov and Peter Saint-Andre.

A URL of this Internet Draft is:
http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-morg-list-specialuse/

Technical Summary

   Some IMAP message stores include special-use mailboxes, such as those
   used to hold draft messages or sent messages.  Many mail clients
   allow users to specify where draft or sent messages should be put,
   but configuring them requires that the user know which mailboxes the
   server has set aside for these purposes.  This extension adds new
   mailbox attributes that a server MAY include in IMAP LIST command
   responses to identify special-use mailboxes to the client, easing
   configuration.

Working Group Summary 

   There were some concerns about the number of IMAP CAPABILITY strings and
   about moving of existing special-use attributes, but there have been no
   complaints about the end result.

Document Quality 

   This extension is based on Google's XLIST extension for GMail. Google has
   expressed interest in implementing this extension as well, among several
   other server vendors. Many clients have already implemented XLIST, and they
   will either automatically or with very small modifications gain support for
   this extension

Personnel

   Timo Sirainen is the Document Shepherd for this document.
   Alexey Melnikov is the Responsible Area Director.

RFC Editor Note

In Section 7, please replace the 1st paragraph to read:

OLD:
   LIST response: There are no security issues with conveying special-
   use information to a client.

NEW:
   LIST response:
   Conveying special-use information to a client exposes a small bit of
   extra information that could be of value to an attacker.  Knowing, for
   example, that a particular mailbox contains pointers to every message
   the user has (\All) might be of particular value.  If the IMAP channel
   is not protected from passive eavesdropping, this could be an issue.

In Section 8.6:

OLD:
   Name: /shared/specialuse

NEW:
   Name: /private/specialuse