Re: [yam] Interop problem: SMTP submission, STARTTLS, AUTH EXTERNAL

Tony Finch <dot@dotat.at> Sat, 01 May 2010 20:23 UTC

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Date: Sat, 01 May 2010 21:23:36 +0100
From: Tony Finch <dot@dotat.at>
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To: Chris Newman <chris.newman@oracle.com>
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Subject: Re: [yam] Interop problem: SMTP submission, STARTTLS, AUTH EXTERNAL
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On Fri, 30 Apr 2010, Chris Newman wrote:
>
> I've been dealing with client certificate authentication lately and realized
> we have an interoperability problem with our standards.  For SMTP submission,
> when an end-user wishes to authenticate using a client certificate, the
> protocol sequence to do so is unclear.

There is no specification for how SMTP+TLS interacts with any
authentication or authorization logic. There is no specification
for how SASL EXTERNAL interacts with security layers. Since the
problem is gaps (rather than errors) in the specifications I think
the right solution is:

Option 4: Write a spec for how SMTP + TLS + SASL EXTERNAL should work
together.

Tony.
-- 
f.anthony.n.finch  <dot@dotat.at>  http://dotat.at/
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