Use of SRV Records for Locating Email Submission/Access Services
draft-daboo-srv-email-05

Network Working Group                                           C. Daboo
Internet-Draft                                                Apple Inc.
Updates: 1939,3501                                          May 12, 2010
(if approved)
Intended status: Standards Track
Expires: November 13, 2010

    Use of SRV Records for Locating Email Submission/Access services
                        draft-daboo-srv-email-05

Abstract

   This specification describes how SRV records can be used to locate
   email services.

Status of This Memo

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   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

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   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   2.  Conventions Used in This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   3.  SRV Service Labels  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
     3.1.  Email Submission  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
     3.2.  IMAP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
     3.3.  POP3  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
     3.4.  Priority for Domain Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   4.  Guidance for MUAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   5.  Guidance for Service Providers  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
   8.  Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
   9.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
     9.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
     9.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
   Appendix A.  Change History (to be removed prior to
                publication as an RFC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

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1.  Introduction

   Internet Email protocols include SMTP [RFC5321], IMAP [RFC3501] and
   POP3 [RFC1939].  IMAP and POP3 are both message store access
   protocols used by message store user agents (MUAs) to manipulate
   email messages after delivery.  [RFC4409] defines a "profile" of the
   SMTP service that is specifically used for message submission.  MUAs
   are expected to submit messages to mail submission agents (MSAs)
   using this approach.

   [RFC2782] defines a DNS-based service discovery protocol that has
   been widely adopted as a means of locating particular services within
   a local area network and beyond, using DNS SRV Resource Records
   (RRs).

   [RFC5321] specifies how to use DNS MX RRs to locate SMTP services for
   a domain.  However, MUAs are expected to use the submission protocol
   defined in [RFC4409] which does not use MX records.

   Typically MUAs have required users to enter a fully qualified domain
   name (FQDN) and port information for the services they need.  This is
   not ideal as the way in which server configuration information is
   specified can differ from MUA to MUA, and can be confusing to users,
   leading to errors when inputting the details.  Alternatively, some
   MUAs have adopted a complex "auto-discovery" process involving
   probing a domain to see what services might be available.  A better
   approach to all this would be to require minimal information to be
   entered by a user which would result in automatic configuration of
   appropriate services for that user.  The minimal information entered
   would be the user's email address.

   This specification defines new SRV service types for the message
   submission, IMAP and POP3 services, to enable simple auto-
   configuration of MUAs.  The priority field of the SRV record can also
   be used to indicate a preference for one message store access
   protocol over another.

2.  Conventions Used in This Document

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

   Email-related terminology from [RFC5598] is used.

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3.  SRV Service Labels

3.1.  Email Submission

   This specification adds one SRV service label for message submission
   [RFC4409]:

   submission:  Identifies an MSA using [RFC4409].  Note that this
      covers connections both with and without TLS [RFC5246] as defined
      for SMTP in [RFC3207].

   Example: service record

       _submission._tcp     SRV 0 1 587 mail.example.com.

3.2.  IMAP

   This specification adds two SRV service labels for IMAP [RFC3501]:

   _imap:  Identifies an IMAP server that MAY advertise the
      "LOGINDISABLED" capability and MAY require the MUA to use the
      "STARTTLS" command prior to authentication.  Although these two
      extensions are mandatory-to-implement for both MUAs and IMAP
      servers, they are not mandatory-to-use by service providers.

   _imaps:  Identifies an IMAP server where TLS [RFC5246] is initiated
      directly upon connection to the IMAP server.

   Example: service record

       _imap._tcp     SRV 0 1 143 imap.example.com.

   Example: service record

       _imaps._tcp    SRV 0 1 993 imap.example.com.

3.3.  POP3

   This specification adds two SRV service labels for POP3 [RFC1939]:

   _pop3:  Identifies a POP3 server that MAY require the MUA to use the
      "STLS" extension command [RFC2595] prior to authentication.

   _pop3s:  Identifies a POP3 server where TLS [RFC5246] is initiated
      directly upon connection to the POP3 server.

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   Example: service record

       _pop3._tcp     SRV 0 1 110 pop3.example.com.

   Example: service record

       _pop3s._tcp    SRV 0 1 995 pop3.example.com.

3.4.  Priority for Domain Preferences

   The priority field in the SRV RR allows a domain to indicate that
   some records have a higher preference than others in the DNS query
   results (determined by those records having a lower priority value).
   Typically, this is used for choosing a record from a set for a single
   service label, however it is not restricted to choice within only one
   service.

   Often a site will offer both IMAP and POP3 message store access
   services for users.  However, the site may have a preference for one
   over the other that they want to convey to the user to ensure that,
   when the user has an MUA capable of using both IMAP and POP3, that
   the preferred choice is used.

   To aid with this choice, sites SHOULD offer both sets of IMAP (_imap
   and/or _imaps) and POP3 (_pop3 and/or _pop3s) SRV records in their
   DNS and set the priority for those sets of records such that the
   "preferred" service has a lower priority value than the other.  When
   an MUA supports both IMAP and POP3 it SHOULD retrieve records for
   both services and then use the service with the lowest priority
   value.  If the priority is the same for both services, MUAs are free
   to choose which ever one is appropriate.  When considering multiple
   records for different protocols at the same priority but with
   different weights, the client MUST first select the protocol it
   intends to use, then perform the weight selection algorithm given in
   [RFC2782] on the records associated with the selected protocol.

   Example: service records for both IMAP and POP3, with IMAP having a
   lower priority value (0) then POP3 (10), indicating to the MUA that
   IMAP is preferred over POP3, when the MUA can support either service.

       _imap._tcp     SRV  0 1 143 imap.example.com.
       _pop3._tcp     SRV 10 1 110 pop3.example.com.

4.  Guidance for MUAs

   By using SRV records as above, MUAs need initially only prompt the
   user for their email address [RFC5322].  The "local-part" and
   "domain" portions are then extracted from the email address by the

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   MUA.  The MUA uses the "domain" portion as the service domain to
   perform SRV lookups for the services it wants to configure.  If the
   SRV lookup is successful the target FQDN and port for the service can
   be determined and used to complete MUA configuration.  If an SRV
   record is not found, the MUA will need to prompt the user to enter
   the FQDN and port information directly, or use some other heuristic.
   In the case of multiple SRV records returned for a particular
   service, the MUA MUST use the priority and weight fields in the
   record to determine which one to use (as per [RFC2782]).

   MUAs that support both POP3 and IMAP use the procedure in Section 3.4
   to choose between each service when both are offered.

   Subsequent to configuration, the MUA will connect to the service.
   When using "imaps" or "pop3s" services, a TLS [RFC5246] negotiation
   is done immediately upon connection.  With "imap", "pop3" and
   "submission" services, the "STARTTLS", "STLS" and "STARTTLS" commands
   respectively are used to initiate a protected connection using TLS
   [RFC5246].  When using TLS in this way, MUAs SHOULD use the TLS
   Server Name Indication [RFC4366].  Certificate verification MUST use
   the procedure outlined in Section 4.3 of
   [I-D.saintandre-tls-server-id-check] in regard to verification with
   an SRV RR as the starting point.

   Once a suitable connection has been made, and any required protection
   setup, the MUA will typically need to authenticate with the IMAP,
   POP3 or SMTP (submission) server.  The details of that are governed
   by the specific protocols themselves, though often times a "user
   identifier" is required for some form of user/password
   authentication.  When a user identifier is required, MUAs MUST first
   use the full email address provided by the user, and if that results
   in an authentication failure, SHOULD fall back to using the "local-
   part" extracted from the email address.  This is in line with the
   guidance outlined in Section 5.  If both these user identifiers
   result in authentication failure, the MUA SHOULD prompt the user for
   a valid identifier.

   Once a successful connection and authentication have been done, MUAs
   SHOULD cache the service details (hostname, port, user identity) that
   were successfully used, and re-use those when connecting again at a
   later time.

   If a subsequent connection attempt fails, or authentication fails,
   MUAs SHOULD re-try the SRV lookup to "refresh" the cached data for
   the same protocol the client had chosen earlier. i.e., this means
   that the client MUST NOT change from IMAP service to POP3 (or vice
   versa) due to changes in the corresponding SRV priorities without
   user interaction.

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5.  Guidance for Service Providers

   Service providers wanting to offer IMAP, POP3 or SMTP (submission)
   services that can be configured by MUAs using SRV records need to
   follow certain guidelines to ensure proper operation.

   a.  IMAP, POP3 and SMTP (submission) servers SHOULD be configured to
       allow authentication with email addresses or email local-parts.
       In the former case, the email addresses MUST NOT conflict with
       other forms of permitted user login name.  In the latter case,
       the email local-parts need to be unique across the server and
       MUST NOT conflict with any login name on the server.

   b.  If the service provider uses TLS [RFC5246], the service provider
       MUST ensure a certificate is installed that can be verified by
       MUAs using the procedure outlined in Section 4.3 of
       [I-D.saintandre-tls-server-id-check] in regard to verification
       with an SRV RR as the starting point.  If the service provider
       hosts multiple domains on the same IP address, then the service
       provider MUST enable support for the TLS Server Name Indication
       [RFC4366].

   c.  Install the appropriate SRV records for the offered services.

6.  Security Considerations

   If a user has explicitly requested a connection with transport layer
   security (user interfaces sometimes present this choice as a "use
   SSL" or "secure connection" checkbox), the MUA MUST successfully
   negotiate transport layer security prior to sending an authentication
   command.  The MUA MAY do this with "imaps", "pop3s", "imap" with
   "STARTTLS", or "pop3" with "STLS".  Service providers MAY offer any
   subset of these four options for the mail service.

   A malicious attacker with access to the DNS server data, or able to
   get spoofed answers cached in a recursive resolver, can potentially
   cause MUAs to connect to any IMAP, POP3 or submission server chosen
   by the attacker.  In the absence of a secure DNS option, MUAs SHOULD
   check that the target FQDN returned in the SRV record matches the
   original service domain that was queried.  If the target FQDN is not
   in the queried domain, MUAs SHOULD verify with the user that the SRV
   target FQDN is suitable for use before executing any connections to
   the host.  Alternatively, if TLS [RFC5246] is being used for the
   email service, MUAs MUST use the procedure outlined in Section 4.3 of
   [I-D.saintandre-tls-server-id-check] to verify the service.

   Implementations of TLS [RFC5246] typically support multiple versions
   of the protocol as well as the older Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

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   protocol.  Because of known security vulnerabilities, email clients
   and email servers MUST NOT request, offer, or use SSL 2.0.  See
   Appendix E.2 of [RFC5246] for further details.

7.  IANA Considerations

   This document does not require any actions on the part of IANA.

8.  Acknowledgments

   Thanks to Tony Finch, Ned Freed, Alfred Hoenes, Suresh Krishnan,
   Alexey Melnikov, and Chris Newman for feedback and suggestions.  Some
   of this work is based on a previous internet draft by John Klensin
   and Eric Hall.

9.  References

9.1.  Normative References

   [I-D.saintandre-tls-server-id-check]  Saint-Andre, P. and J. Hodges,
                                         "Representation and
                                         Verification of Application
                                         Server Identity in Certificates
                                         Used with Transport Layer
                                         Security (TLS)", draft-
                                         saintandre-tls-server-id-check-
                                         04 (work in progress),
                                         April 2010.

   [RFC1939]                             Myers, J. and M. Rose, "Post
                                         Office Protocol - Version 3",
                                         STD 53, RFC 1939, May 1996.

   [RFC2119]                             Bradner, S., "Key words for use
                                         in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
                                         Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
                                         March 1997.

   [RFC2595]                             Newman, C., "Using TLS with
                                         IMAP, POP3 and ACAP", RFC 2595,
                                         June 1999.

   [RFC2782]                             Gulbrandsen, A., Vixie, P., and
                                         L. Esibov, "A DNS RR for
                                         specifying the location of
                                         services (DNS SRV)", RFC 2782,
                                         February 2000.

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   [RFC3207]                             Hoffman, P., "SMTP Service
                                         Extension for Secure SMTP over
                                         Transport Layer Security",
                                         RFC 3207, February 2002.

   [RFC3501]                             Crispin, M., "INTERNET MESSAGE
                                         ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION
                                         4rev1", RFC 3501, March 2003.

   [RFC4366]                             Blake-Wilson, S., Nystrom, M.,
                                         Hopwood, D., Mikkelsen, J., and
                                         T. Wright, "Transport Layer
                                         Security (TLS) Extensions",
                                         RFC 4366, April 2006.

   [RFC4409]                             Gellens, R. and J. Klensin,
                                         "Message Submission for Mail",
                                         RFC 4409, April 2006.

   [RFC5246]                             Dierks, T. and E. Rescorla,
                                         "The Transport Layer Security
                                         (TLS) Protocol Version 1.2",
                                         RFC 5246, August 2008.

   [RFC5321]                             Klensin, J., "Simple Mail
                                         Transfer Protocol", RFC 5321,
                                         October 2008.

   [RFC5322]                             Resnick, P., Ed., "Internet
                                         Message Format", RFC 5322,
                                         October 2008.

9.2.  Informative References

   [RFC5598]                             Crocker, D., "Internet Mail
                                         Architecture", RFC 5598,
                                         July 2009.

Appendix A.  Change History (to be removed prior to publication as an
             RFC)

   Changes in -05:

   1.  IESG review: Indicate that this spec updates 1937 and 3501.

   2.  IESG review: Fixed minor typos found in IESG review.

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   3.  IESG review: Added text explaining how to deal with both SRV
       priority and weight.

   4.  IESG review: Added text to explain client methodology when
       dealing with a failed connection to a service and how they re-do
       SRV lookup without changing the service.

   5.  IESG review: Added statement that SSL v2 is not allowed.

   6.  IESG review: Changed TLS server name indication reference back to
       RFC4366.

   7.  Changing "transport layer security" to TLS when it specifically
       refers to RFC5246.

   Changes in -04:

   1.  Updated reference to draft-saintandre-tls-server-id-check.

   2.  Tweaked 3.4 to indicate that the _XXXs variants of service type
       are also included in the "weighting" approach.

   3.  Tweaked Acknowledgments.

   Changes in -03:

   1.   Added ability to use priority to select one access protocol over
        another.

   2.   Added statement that clients should retry SRV on subsequent
        connection failure.

   3.   Added statement about handling multiple records for the same
        service.

   4.   Stronger use of MUST NOT in Section 5(a).

   5.   GENART: Added statement that clients should prompt the user if
        both email and local-part authentication fail.

   6.   Tweaked title.

   7.   "Service type" -> "Service label"

   8.   "Host name" -> "target FQDN"

   9.   Improvements to security considerations wrt DNS attacks.

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   10.  MUA and service provider guidance now includes submission
        service.

   11.  Added References to draft-saintandre-tls-server-id-check that
        should define the proper cert validation procedures.

   12.  SECDIR: reworked introduction.

   13.  Switched to using terminology from RFC5598.

   Changes in -02:

   1.  Tweaked text for imap to better describe mandatory-to-implement
       behavior from base spec.

   2.  Tweaked text for pop3 along similar lines as imap.

   3.  Teaked security considerations to account for use of STARTTLS and
       STLS.

   4.  Added examples for imaps and pop3s.

   5.  Re-worked client guidelines.

   6.  Added service provider guidelines.

   Changes in -01:

   1.  Tweaked text for pop3 to make it clearer that STLS is an
       extension.

   2.  Added text to explain that the email address, as well as the
       local-part, may be used as the user identifier.

   3.  Tweaked security considerations to account for use of STARTTLS
       and STLS.

Author's Address

   Cyrus Daboo
   Apple Inc.
   1 Infinite Loop
   Cupertino, CA  95014
   USA

   EMail: cyrus@daboo.name
   URI:   http://www.apple.com/

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