[ietf-dkim] DKIM Client Policy Requirement

Douglas Otis dotis at mail-abuse.org
Sat Aug 5 17:58:08 PDT 2006


A DKIM client authentication method validates the DKIM client.

A DKIM Client Policy defines whether:

  - The entire domain subject to the policy must adhere to a DKIM  
client authentication method.

  - All messages from a DKIM client within this domain must be signed.

  - All messages from a DKIM client within this domain must be signed  
by this domain.



An illustrative example of a DKIM authentication method could be:

_dkim.host-name-0.example.com	A	1.2.3.4
				A	1.2.3.5
				A	1.2.3.6
				A	1.2.3.7

EHLO _dkim.host-name-0.example.com

_DKIM_CP.example.com		DKIM-CP	"All clients DKIM authenticate & "All  
clients sign all"

  or

_DKIM_CP.example.com		DKIM-CP	"All clients DKIM authenticate & "All  
clients signed all by this domain"

Establishing a domain name evaluation early better defends the  
resources used to process DKIM signatures.  Use of the _dkim prefix  
eliminates any discovery process of the authentication assured to  
work for the client.  With the _dkim prefix, the associated A records  
must be present.  The "All clients DKIM authenticate" could be  
implied by the presence of a DKIM From policy where this policy could  
then also delineate the signing requires of the client.  Combining  
this policies into one record could be done to reduce the number of  
transactions.

-Doug






More information about the ietf-dkim mailing list