[ietf-smtp] Variable HELO name, was DSNs

[Alessandro Vesely <[e-mail]>]

On 26/04/2020 00:41, John C Klensin wrote:
> 
> Suppose there were correspondents, or even domains, for which I have found
> read receipts useful and something I'm willing to let them use.  So, because
> of them, I advertise the availability of that feature in the EHLO response.
> When the MAIL command comes along and doesn't contain that domain or
> mailbox, I reject the request.  Now, which mailboxes or domains to accept is
> an operational decision, but the behavior, AFAICT, is fully conforming and
> it certainly don't mean that the features doesn't work, just that I have an
> operational policy prohibiting its use in most circumstances.


Wow, I never tried that at home!


A decade ago we fantasized about a Verified Hello, whereby:

   Non-empty arguments of the MAIL FROM commands are restricted to
   addresses whose domain part consists of the authenticated Domain.
      https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-vesely-vhlo-06#section-3.4.1


Otherwise, the reply code is ambiguous.  For example:

  4xx HELO name/MAIL FROM inconsistency, try another session.

AFAIK, the HELO name is practically constant for most mailouts, so the above
reply will make the relevant message bounce for days, until timeout.


Best
Ale
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