IMAP Access to IETF Email List Archives
draft-sparks-genarea-imaparch-06

Network Working Group                                          R. Sparks
Internet-Draft                                                   Tekelec
Intended status: Informational                               Apr 3, 2013
Expires: October 5, 2013

                IMAP Access to IETF Email List Archives
                    draft-sparks-genarea-imaparch-06

Abstract

   The IETF makes heavy use of email lists to conduct its work.  This
   often involves accessing the archived history of those email lists.
   Participants would like to have the ability to browse and search
   those archives using standard IMAP clients.  This memo captures the
   requirements for providing a service that would allow such browsing
   and searching.

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on October 5, 2013.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2013 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
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   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
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   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as

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   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   2.  Requirements for IMAP access to archived IETF lists . . . . . . 3
   3.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   4.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   5.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   6.  Changelog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
     6.1.  05 to 06  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
     6.2.  04 to 05  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
     6.3.  03 to 04  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
     6.4.  02 to 03  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
     6.5.  01 to 02  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
     6.6.  00 to 01  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
     6.7.  00  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   7.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

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1.  Introduction

   The IETF makes heavy use of email lists to conduct its work.  This
   often involves accessing the archived history of those email lists.
   Requirements for improved web-based browsing and searching of these
   archives are captured in [RFC6778].  Participants would like to have
   the ability to browse and search those archives using standard IMAP
   clients.  This memo captures the requirements for providing a service
   that would allow such browsing and searching.

   Discussion of this memo should take place on the ietf@ietf.org
   mailing list.

2.  Requirements for IMAP access to archived IETF lists

   Many participants would prefer to access the list archives using IMAP
   [RFC3501].  Providing this access while meeting the following
   requirements will likely require an IMAP server with specialized
   capabilities.

   o  The system should expose the archive using an IMAP interface, with
      each list represented as a mailbox.

   o  This interface must work with standard IMAP clients.

   o  The interface should allow users that have provided credentials to
      each have their own read/unread marks for messages.  Allowing
      other annotation is desirable.  The implementation should consider
      taking advantage of the IMAP extensions for ANNOTATE [RFC5257] and
      METADATA [RFC5464].

   o  The interface must allow administrators to disable setting read/
      unread marks and other annotations, and delete any such marks or
      annotations on a per user basis.

   o  The interface must not allow users to modify the underlying
      message or metadata other than the read/unread marks and
      annotations described above.  Specifically, users must not be able
      to delete or insert messages, or move them between mailboxes in
      the archive.  (Clients will, of course, be able to make local
      copies of messages from the archive.)

   o  The interface must have server-side searching enabled, and should
      support multiple simultaneous extensive searches.  The server
      should facilitate the enhanced search capabilities described in
      [RFC6778].  The implementation should consider taking advantage of
      the extensions defined for IMAP SORT and THREAD [RFC5256],

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      multimailbox search [RFC6237], and fuzzy search [RFC6203].

   o  When the system requires credentials, it must use the
      datatracker's authentication system

      -  While the vast majority of archived lists have an open access
         policy, some archived lists have restricted archives.  The
         system must make it possible to limit access to a restricted
         archive based on login credentials.

      -  The system must not require credentials for accessing lists
         with open archives.  (But it is acceptable for a user to access
         such archives while providing credentials).  Specifically, the
         system will allow anonymous access using the SASL ANONYMOUS
         authentication mechanism [RFC4505] or an LOGIN command with a
         special username (such as "anonymous") determined by the
         administrator .

3.  Security Considerations

   Allowing IMAP as an interface for browsing and searching the archives
   of IETF email lists does not affect the security of the Internet in
   any significant fashion.

   Searching can be I/O and CPU intensive.  Clients that make local
   copies all messages in a mailbox can also present an I/O burden,
   particularly when syncronizing for the first time.  The implementors
   of this interface should consider the potential for maliciously
   crafted searches attempting to consume all available resources.  The
   implementors should consider the potential for denial of service
   attacks through making many connections to the interface.  The
   implementors should consider ways to rate limit I/O due to making
   local copies of messages.

   Storing read/unread marks and other annotations requires potentially
   unbounded storage space.  The implementors of this interface should
   consider the potential for maliciously crafted annontations
   attempting to consume all storage space.  The implementers should
   consider making it easy for the administrator to determine which
   users are consuming exceptional space.

4.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no actions for IANA.

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5.  Acknowledgements

   This text was derived directly from an early version of the Internet
   Draft that became [RFC6778] which incorporated text suggestions from
   Alexey Melnikov, Pete Resnick, and S. Moonesamy.  Barry Leiba
   suggested several references to IMAP extensions for an implementation
   to consider.

6.  Changelog

6.1.  05 to 06

   o  Added a requirement making it explicit that this interface won't
      allow users to delete, insert, or move messages between archives.

   o  Clarified how the would allow access without credentials (at
      Alexey's suggestion).

   o  Pointed to potential resource abuse issues in the security
      considerations section.

6.2.  04 to 05

   o  Adapted text from RFC6778 to make it more clear that both
      authenticated and unauthenticated access should be supported.

6.3.  03 to 04

   o  Incorporated suggestions from Pete Resnick and Barry Leiba.

6.4.  02 to 03

   o  None - expiry refresh

6.5.  01 to 02

   o  Minor editorial changes

6.6.  00 to 01

   o  Added requirements to enable controlled access to restricted
      archives based on credentials

   o  Generalized the requirement to use the datatracker's credentials.

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6.7.  00

   o  Split this set of requirements out from the mailarch doc so that
      this project could be pursued separately

7.  Informative References

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

   [RFC4505]  Zeilenga, K., "Anonymous Simple Authentication and
              Security Layer (SASL) Mechanism", RFC 4505, June 2006.

   [RFC5256]  Crispin, M. and K. Murchison, "Internet Message Access
              Protocol - SORT and THREAD Extensions", RFC 5256,
              June 2008.

   [RFC5257]  Daboo, C. and R. Gellens, "Internet Message Access
              Protocol - ANNOTATE Extension", RFC 5257, June 2008.

   [RFC5464]  Daboo, C., "The IMAP METADATA Extension", RFC 5464,
              February 2009.

   [RFC6203]  Sirainen, T., "IMAP4 Extension for Fuzzy Search",
              RFC 6203, March 2011.

   [RFC6237]  Leiba, B. and A. Melnikov, "IMAP4 Multimailbox SEARCH
              Extension", RFC 6237, May 2011.

   [RFC6778]  Sparks, R., "Requirements for Archiving IETF Email Lists
              and for Providing Web-Based Browsing and Searching",
              RFC 6778, October 2012.

Author's Address

   Robert Sparks
   Tekelec
   17210 Campbell Road
   Suite 250
   Dallas, Texas  75254-4203
   USA

   Email: rjsparks@nostrum.com

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