[Mailman-Developers] before next release: disable backscatterin default installation

[Ian Eiloart]

--On 29 March 2008 09:09:30 +0900 "Stephen J. Turnbull" 
<stephen at xemacs.org> wrote:

>
>  > There's friction in their [SPF and DKIM] adoption because certain 
features of
>  > email (notably mail forwarding, but also some others) have no
>  > regard for these features.
>
> By which you mean that SPF and DKIM in some configurations are as big
> a threat to Mailman as blacklisting for backscatter is, right?

Maybe, but it's a question of configuration, not principle. SPF is no 
particular problem, because emails passing through Mailman get new return 
paths. If your Mailman domain has good SPF records, then the only problem 
that could occur is with recipients having forwarding set up. Actually, 
Mailman should be a winner here, because the list member can change their 
entry in the list much more easily than they can do so in their friends' 
address books.

As far as DKIM is concerned, I think Mailman already can re-sign messages. 
I don't remember the details, though. Anyway, I think re-signing is the 
correct thing for a list to do. Again, Mailman is a winner here because 
it's capable of doing such things.

As far as configuration is concerned, of course if you misconfigure either 
of these things, you're screwed. But, the reasons that SPF and DKIM aren't 
universal yet are not specific to Mailman.

-- 
Ian Eiloart
IT Services, University of Sussex
x3148