Subject: Re: SPF I-D for review: draft-schlitt-spf-classic-00.txt

From: Alex Bligh <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 23:42:38 +0000

--On 11 January 2005 14:45 -0800 "william(at)elan.net" <[email-masked]> 
wrote:

>> What's wrong with a wildcard TXT (or better still SPF) RR for such
>> subdomains?  Put that in the SPF spec, rather than speculatively heading
>> up the three.
>
> "*" wildcards are only useful for hosts that don't exist at all (no dns
> RR of any kind for that hostname), but they will not work for hosts that
> have some RR record which is what SPF people are after.
>
> P.S. Is there some reason you have not read the Ed Lewis's wildcard draft
> that was discussed on this list just couple months ago?

Whilst wildcards may not be a perfect solution, they are just one example
of synthesized/pseudosynthesized records at the authoritative server level.
By synthesized/psuedosynthesized I mean here only that the end user did not
input all the data of the result that's looked up (so I include, for
instance, macros in this) - they might or might not be there in an AXFR.
There is nothing wrong with application level "wildcards" handling this.

EG $authoritative_server_vendor could implement the "**" record/macro to
match any existing record and append a TXT record.

Why does this need solving at protocol layer at all? (people being unable
or unwilling to configure macros, and/or authoritative nameservers
not having an automagic function to turn SPF on in all zones etc.
does not seem like a good reason to me). We don't autogenerate/strip glue
records at a protocol layer because people are too lazy/incompetent to
work out how they work.

Alex

--
to unsubscribe send a message to [email-masked] with
the word 'unsubscribe' in a single line as the message text body.
archive: <http://ops.ietf.org/lists/namedroppers/>

---

From: Edward Lewis <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 16:35:32 -0500

Thanks for the prompt.

>that was discussed on this list just couple months ago?

Note to self: work on this document soon.

I can see why the doc hasn't been read - apparently the version from 
last October didn't enter the ID repository correctly.  I wouldn't 
blame anyone for not seeing it.  I should do something about it.

-- 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Edward Lewis                                                +1-571-434-5468
NeuStar

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man." - Jebediah Springfield