Re: [apps-discuss] Apps Dir review for: draft-kucherawy-dkim-atps-11

Claudio Allocchio <Claudio.Allocchio@garr.it> Fri, 09 December 2011 22:09 UTC

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Date: Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:08:25 +0100
From: Claudio Allocchio <Claudio.Allocchio@garr.it>
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To: "Murray S. Kucherawy" <msk@cloudmark.com>
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Cc: "draft-kucherawy-dkim-atps.all@tools.ietf.org" <draft-kucherawy-dkim-atps.all@tools.ietf.org>, "apps-discuss@ietf.org" <apps-discuss@ietf.org>, "iesg@ietf.org" <iesg@ietf.org>
Subject: Re: [apps-discuss] Apps Dir review for: draft-kucherawy-dkim-atps-11
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>> Major Issues:
>>
>> The only major issue which I really see in the specification is the
>> impact not only on DNS because of the increased number of queries, but
>> on the efficiency of the e-mail glogal system in general.
>>
>> It is true that in 9.3 this topic is correctly described, and a
>> possible alternate query mechanism depicted. However the real issue
>> which I see is not a load on DNS, but a greatly increased "timout risk"
>> on MTAs. One of the "experiment" scope should also be to verify the
>> impact that adding this new feature has on the whole messaging system
>> in terms of MTAs efficiency and effects of timeouts. We already know
>> well that, one of the first very evident effects which happens when DNS
>> "is slow" is a serious disruption on MTAs performances. Even if DNS is
>> performing correctly, adding more queries might trigger more easily
>> these performance disruptions in MTAs.
>>
>> I this suggest an explicit "guidance" on how to handle the experiment,
>> and monitor also this issue, and evaluate its impact. Probably section
>> 9.3 and the introduction are the appropriate spots to do this.
>>
>> This is even more important if the adoption of this specification grows
>> significantly because it proves useful.
>
> Thanks for that suggestion.  Since as you say Section 9.3 already gives 
> this a reasonable treatment, I've instead extended Section 7 to draw 
> specific attention to what 9.3 says, and asked that participants in the 
> experiment pay close attention to how the added DNS work might cause MTA 
> latency.  Is that sufficient?

I have not read it yet, but I think so!

>>   Minor Issues:
>>
>> Section 3. Discussion
>>
>> The title of the paragraph seems not so clear for the reader. It could
>> be better to name it either "Scope of this specification" or "Roles and
>> Scope of this specification".
>
> I've changed it to simply "Roles and Scope".

ok.

>
>> Also some sentences probably need a better phrasing:
>>
>> "Participation in this protocol is divided into three parties:"
>>
>> I would suggest:
>>
>> "The actors involved into the implementation of this (experimental)
>> protocol are:"
>
> Someone else already suggested changing it to "The context of this 
> protocol involves the following roles", so I'll just leave that as-is.

ok.

>
>> and below
>>
>> "An Author participates in this protocol if it..." -->
>>    "An Author implements this protocol if it..."
>>
>> "A Verifier participates in this protocol if..." -->
>>    "A Verifier implements this protocol if it..."
>
> Done and done.

ok.

>> -------
>>
>> Section 4.1 Extension to DKIM
>>
>> the sentence:
>>
>>     "domain-name" and "key-h-tag-alg" are imported from [DKIM].
>>
>> I guess it means:
>>
>>     for the definition of "domain-name" and "key-h-tag-alg" see [DKIM]
>>     (section x.y).
>>
>> There was long discussion on other WGs about correct handling of ABNF
>> cross refereces between RFCs, thus the above change is more clear and
>> conformant to that discussion, too.
>
> I've used the "are imported from" numerous times before without any 
resistance or concern.  But anyway, I've changed it to "are defined in".

ok.

>
>> Section 5. Interpretation
>>
>> I would add an explicit sentence stating what to do in case the
>> Verifier fails in the verification. Just a reference to DKIM procedure
>> for this cases, in order not invent further potentially different
>> actions.
>
> I've changed the first sentence so that it starts with: "For each DKIM 
signature that verifies, ..."  Is that sufficient?

yes.

>
>> -------
>>
>> Section 9.1 and Section 4.2
>>
>> I suggest to add explicitly the explanation from section 9.1:
>>
>> "the hash and encode steps are done merely to convert any third-party
>> domain name to a fixed width in the construction of the DNS query."
>>
>> also to section 4.2, bullet point 5, where the convertion of the domain
>> name is specified.
>
> I'd prefer to add a forward reference from 4.2 to 9.1 rather than 
> copying text.  That's done now in the working copy.


that's ok. too.

all the best!

;-)


>
> Thanks again,
> -MSK
>

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Claudio Allocchio             G   A   R   R          Claudio.Allocchio@garr.it
                         Senior Technical Officer
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