Network Working Group J. Yao Internet-Draft X. Lee Intended status: Informational CNNIC Expires: March 12, 2010 September 8, 2009 Problems of impeding the use of internationalized email address draft-yao-eai-problem-00.txt Status of this Memo This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF Contributions published or made publicly available before November 10, 2008. The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process. Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other than English. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet- Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt. The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. This Internet-Draft will expire on March 12, 2010. Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2009 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Yao & Lee Expires March 12, 2010 [Page 1] Internet-Draft Problems September 2009 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents in effect on the date of publication of this document (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info). Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Abstract Many organizations have implemented and tested the internationalized email systems based on the key RFCs which have been published. This document points out some problems, which blocks the receiver to receive the internationalized email address and may impede the deployment and use of the internationalized email address. Knowing the problems will help the smooth deployment of Email Address Internationalization system. Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.1. Role of this specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. Problem statment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. Initial Implementation and Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4. Problems identified in the initial implementation and test . . 4 4.1. SMTP client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4.2. Relay Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4.3. SMTP Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4.4. Email Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4.5. Firewall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4.6. Mail User Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 5. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 7. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 8. Change History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 8.1. draft-yao-eai-problem: Version 00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 9.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 9.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Yao & Lee Expires March 12, 2010 [Page 2] Internet-Draft Problems September 2009 1. Introduction The IETF has published five RFCs [RFC4952] [RFC5335] [RFC5336] [RFC5337] [RFC5504] about internationalized email addresses. CNNIC has implemented these RFCs, does some tests and identify some problems during the initial deployment. This document is mainly for pointing out the problems of blocking the use of internationalized email address that needs to be considered in the deployment. The possible soultion to these poroblems can be found in the deployment document [DeploymentGuidelines]. 1.1. Role of this specification The framework document specifies the requirements for, and describes components of, full internationalization of email address. The EAI SMTP extension document [RFC5336] specifies the SMTP extension to use the internationalized email address. The EAI header document [RFC5335] allows the internationalized email address headers. The EAI downgrade document [RFC5504] addresses how to downgrade to be compatible with the current non-EAI-system. The deployment document [DeploymentGuidelines] addresses the possible solution to the problems identified in this document. 1.2. Terminology All the specialized terms used in this specification are defined in the framework document [RFC4952], the EAI SMTP extension document [RFC5336], the EAI header document [RFC5335] and the base Internet email specifications [RFC5321] [RFC5322]. In particular, the terms "ASCII user", and "i18mail user" are used in this document according to the definitions in the framework one. [[anchor3: NOTE TO RFC EDITOR: Please remove the following text before publication.]] Some ideas of this specification is being discussed on the EAI mailing list. See https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ima for information about subscribing. The list's archive is at http://www1.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ima/index.html. 2. Problem statment If the i18mail user sends the message with the internationalized email address which is successfuly received by the receiver without any downgrading, we define such sending as the successful sending of internationalized email address. If the i18mail user sends the message with the internationalized email address because the SMTP client or mail user agent or submission server can not support Yao & Lee Expires March 12, 2010 [Page 3] Internet-Draft Problems September 2009 internationalized email address, refuse to send the message and result into the failure of sending of internationalized email address, we call it the failure operation. In other situation, we call it the failure of the sending of internationalized email address. In order to have more successful sending of internationalized email address, less downgrade operation or failure operation, we need identify the problems which block the successful sending of internationalized email address. 3. Initial Implementation and Test As far as we know, CNNIC, TWNIC, AFILIAS, JPRS and NIDA have implemented the [RFC5335], [RFC5336], [RFC5504]. CNNIC updates the Postfix source code to support EAI. [RFC5504]. The openweb mail is used for EAI clients. Both TWNIC and AFILIAS update Sendmail. JPRS uses C language to implement EAI. NIDA uses python to implement it. CNNIC/TWNIC/JPRS/AFILIAS/NIDA have the co-tests based on the scenario documnent. We summarize the following problems identified in our tests which may block the successful sending of internationalized email address. 4. Problems identified in the initial implementation and test The key aim of EAI WG is to promote the use of internationalized email address. In order to have the smooth operation of EAI system and have the success use of internationalized email address, we should address all the following problems before deploying the EAI systems. 4.1. SMTP client If the SMTP client or submisstion server is not ready to support [RFC5335] and [RFC5336], the EAI mail user agent can not submit the email message to the SMTP client. So it is impossible to receive the internationalized email address from the i18mail user. 4.2. Relay Server If the relay server has not EAI-capability, it will not accept any UTF8SMTP message. Some downgrading may happen. 4.3. SMTP Server The SMTP server gets the message from the SMTP client. If the SMTP server which is the final delivery server has not EAI-capability, the receiver can not get the i18n messages. Yao & Lee Expires March 12, 2010 [Page 4] Internet-Draft Problems September 2009 4.4. Email Filter Many email receivers have installed the email filters. The non-EAI- capability filiters may regard EAI messages as the rubbish and drop them immediately. 4.5. Firewall The traditional fireall specified in [RFC2979] will not understand the keyword "UTF8SMTP", These actions will lead to unnecessary message failure, and the SMTP connection will be cut off by the firewall. 4.6. Mail User Agent Most non-EAI-capability Mail User Agent (MUA) can not support internationalized email address. It will regard the internationalized email address as illegal and refuse to send the message on behalf of the i18nmail user. 5. IANA Considerations There is no IANA consideraton. 6. Security Considerations See the extended security considerations discussion in the framework document [RFC4952]. 7. Acknowledgements Many ideas are from the discussion in the list ima@ietf.org. John C Klensin has done a lot of reasearch on ASCII email address and internationalized email address. I got many significant words or ideas from him. Many friends and experts in the EAI WG help us to produce the valuable ideas. Many organizations including CNNIC, TWNIC, JPRS, NIDA, AND AFFLILIAS have implemented EAI systems. These organizations have already done a lot of inter-operating testing. 8. Change History [[anchor13: RFC Editor: Please remove this section.]] Yao & Lee Expires March 12, 2010 [Page 5] Internet-Draft Problems September 2009 8.1. draft-yao-eai-problem: Version 00 o identifying the problems during EAI implementation and initial tests" 9. References 9.1. Normative References [ASCII] American National Standards Institute (formerly United States of America Standards Institute), "USA Code for Information Interchange", ANSI X3.4-1968, 1968. [DeploymentGuidelines] Yao, J. and X. Lee, "Guidelines for Internationalized Email Deployment", draft-yao-eai-deployment-03.txt (work in progress), September 2009. [RFC1652] Klensin, J., Freed, N., Rose, M., Stefferud, E., and D. Crocker, "SMTP Service Extension for 8bit-MIMEtransport", RFC 1652, July 1994. [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. [RFC2979] Freed, N., "Behavior of and Requirements for Internet Firewalls", RFC 2979, October 2000. [RFC3461] Moore, K., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) Service Extension for Delivery Status Notifications (DSNs)", RFC 3461, January 2003. [RFC3463] Vaudreuil, G., "Enhanced Mail System Status Codes", RFC 3463, January 2003. [RFC3490] Faltstrom, P., Hoffman, P., and A. Costello, "Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA)", RFC 3490, March 2003. [RFC3629] Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646", RFC 3629, November 2003. [RFC4409] Gellens, R. and J. Klensin, "Message Submission for Mail", RFC 4409, April 2006. [RFC4952] Klensin, J. and Y. Ko, "Overview and Framework for Internationalized Email", RFC 4952, July 2007. Yao & Lee Expires March 12, 2010 [Page 6] Internet-Draft Problems September 2009 [RFC5321] Klensin, J., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", RFC 5321, October 2008. [RFC5322] Resnick, P., Ed., "Internet Message Format", RFC 5322, October 2008. [RFC5335] Abel, Y., "Internationalized Email Headers", RFC 5335, September 2008. [RFC5336] Yao, J. and W. Mao, "SMTP Extension for Internationalized Email Addresses", RFC 5336, September 2008. [RFC5337] Newman, C. and A. Melnikov, "Internationalized Delivery Status and Disposition Notifications", RFC 5337, September 2008. 9.2. Informative References [DeploymentTests] YAO, J., YEE, J., KAO, M., and D. KIM, "Discussion, Test and Evaulation for EAI deployment", draft-yao-eai-tests-00.txt (work in progress), August 2009. [RFC5504] YONEYA, Y., Ed. and K. Fujiwara, Ed., "Downgrading mechanism for Internationalized eMail Address", RFC 5504, 3 2009. Authors' Addresses Jiankang YAO CNNIC No.4 South 4th Street, Zhongguancun Beijing Phone: +86 10 58813007 Email: yaojk@cnnic.cn Xiaodong LEE CNNIC No.4 South 4th Street, Zhongguancun Beijing Phone: +86 10 58813020 Email: lee@cnnic.cn Yao & Lee Expires March 12, 2010 [Page 7]