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rfc:rfc5293

Network Working Group J. Degener Request for Comments: 5293 P. Guenther Category: Standards Track Sendmail, Inc.

                                                           August 2008
            Sieve Email Filtering: Editheader Extension

Status of This Memo

 This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
 Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
 improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
 Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
 and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

 This document defines two new actions for the "Sieve" email filtering
 language that add and delete email header fields.

1. Introduction

 Email header fields are a flexible and easy-to-understand means of
 communication between email processors.  This extension enables sieve
 scripts to interact with other components that consume or produce
 header fields by allowing the script to delete and add header fields.

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 [KEYWORDS].
 Conventions for notations are as in Section 1.1 of [SIEVE], including
 use of the "Usage:" label for the definition of action and tagged
 arguments syntax.
 The term "header field" is used here as in [IMAIL] to mean a logical
 line of an email message header.

3. Capability Identifier

 The capability string associated with the extension defined in this
 document is "editheader".

Degener & Guenther Standards Track [Page 1] RFC 5293 Sieve Email Filtering: Editheader Extension August 2008

4. Action addheader

 Usage: "addheader" [":last"] <field-name: string> <value: string>
 The addheader action adds a header field to the existing message
 header.  If the field-name is not a valid 7-bit US-ASCII header field
 name, as described by the [IMAIL] "field-name" nonterminal syntax
 element, the implementation MUST flag an error.  The addheader action
 does not affect Sieve's implicit keep.
 If the specified field value does not match the [IMAIL]
 "unstructured" nonterminal syntax element or exceeds a length limit
 set by the implementation, the implementation MUST either flag an
 error or encode the field using folding white space and the encodings
 described in [MIME3] or [MIMEPARAM] to be compliant with [IMAIL].
 An implementation MAY impose a length limit onto the size of the
 encoded header field; such a limit MUST NOT be less than 998
 characters, not including the terminating CRLF supplied by the
 implementation.
 By default, the header field is inserted at the beginning of the
 existing message header.  If the optional flag ":last" is specified,
 it is appended at the end.
 Example:
      /* Don't redirect if we already redirected */
      if not header :contains "X-Sieve-Filtered"
              ["<kim@job.example.com>", "<kim@home.example.com>"]
      {
              addheader "X-Sieve-Filtered" "<kim@job.example.com>";
              redirect "kim@home.example.com";
      }

5. Action deleteheader

    Usage: "deleteheader" [":index" <fieldno: number> [":last"]]
                 [COMPARATOR] [MATCH-TYPE]
                 <field-name: string>
                 [<value-patterns: string-list>]
 By default, the deleteheader action deletes all occurrences of the
 named header field.  The deleteheader action does not affect Sieve's
 implicit keep.

Degener & Guenther Standards Track [Page 2] RFC 5293 Sieve Email Filtering: Editheader Extension August 2008

 The field-name is mandatory and always matched as a case-insensitive
 US-ASCII string.  If the field-name is not a valid 7-bit header field
 name as described by the [IMAIL] "field-name" nonterminal syntax
 element, the implementation MUST flag an error.
 The value-patterns, if specified, restrict which occurrences of the
 header field are deleted to those whose values match any of the
 specified value-patterns, the matching being according to the match-
 type and comparator and performed as if by the "header" test.  In
 particular, leading and trailing whitespace in the field values is
 ignored.  If no value-patterns are specified, then the comparator and
 match-type options are silently ignored.
 If :index <fieldno> is specified, the attempts to match a value are
 limited to the <fieldno> occurrence of the named header field,
 beginning at 1, the first named header field.  If :last is specified,
 the count is backwards; 1 denotes the last named header field, 2 the
 second to last, and so on.  The counting happens before the <value-
 patterns> match, if any.  For example:
    deleteheader :index 1 :contains "Delivered-To"
                            "bob@example.com";
 deletes the first "Delivered-To" header field if it contains the
 string "bob@example.com" (not the first "Delivered-To" field that
 contains "bob@example.com").
 It is not an error if no header fields match the conditions in the
 deleteheader action or if the :index argument is greater than the
 number of named header fields.
 The implementation MUST flag an error if :last is specified without
 also specifying :index.

6. Implementation Limitations on Changes

 As a matter of local policy, implementations MAY limit which header
 fields may be deleted and which header fields may be added.  However,
 implementations MUST NOT permit attempts to delete "Received" and
 "Auto-Submitted" header fields and MUST permit both addition and
 deletion of the "Subject" header field.
 If a script tries to make a change that isn't permitted, the attempt
 MUST be silently ignored.

Degener & Guenther Standards Track [Page 3] RFC 5293 Sieve Email Filtering: Editheader Extension August 2008

7. Interaction with Other Sieve Extensions

 Actions that generate [MDN], [DSN], or similar disposition messages
 MUST do so using the original, unmodified message header.  Similarly,
 if an error terminates processing of the script, the original message
 header MUST be used when doing the implicit keep required by Section
 2.10.6 of [SIEVE].
 All other actions that store, send, or alter the message MUST do so
 with the current set of header fields.  This includes the addheader
 and deleteheader actions themselves.  For example, the following
 leaves the message unchanged:
    addheader "X-Hello" "World";
    deleteheader :index 1 "X-Hello";
 Similarly, given a message with three or more "X-Hello" header
 fields, the following example deletes the first and third of them,
 not the first and second:
    deleteheader :index 1 "X-Hello";
    deleteheader :index 2 "X-Hello";
 Tests and actions such as "exists", "header", or "vacation"
 [VACATION] that examine header fields MUST examine the current state
 of a header as modified by any actions that have taken place so far.
 As an example, the "header" test in the following fragment will
 always evaluate to true, regardless of whether or not the incoming
 message contained an "X-Hello" header field:
    addheader "X-Hello" "World";
    if header :contains "X-Hello" "World"
    {
            fileinto "international";
    }
 However, if the presence or value of a header field affects how the
 implementation parses or decodes other parts of the message, then,
 for the purposes of that parsing or decoding, the implementation MAY
 ignore some or all changes made to those header fields.  For example,
 in an implementation that supports the [BODY] extension, "body" tests
 may be unaffected by deleting or adding "Content-Type" or "Content-
 Transfer-Encoding" header fields.  This does not rescind the
 requirement that changes to those header fields affect direct tests;
 only the semantic side effects of changes to the fields may be
 ignored.

Degener & Guenther Standards Track [Page 4] RFC 5293 Sieve Email Filtering: Editheader Extension August 2008

 For the purpose of weeding out duplicates, a message modified by
 addheader or deleteheader MUST be considered the same as the original
 message.  For example, in an implementation that obeys the constraint
 in Section 2.10.3 of [SIEVE] and does not deliver the same message to
 a folder more than once, the following code fragment
    keep;
    addheader "X-Flavor" "vanilla";
    keep;
 MUST only file one message.  It is up to the implementation to pick
 which of the redundant "fileinto" or "keep" actions is executed, and
 which ones are ignored.
 The "implicit keep" is thought to be executed at the end of the
 script, after the headers have been modified.  (However, a canceled
 "implicit keep" remains canceled.)

8. IANA Considerations

 The following template specifies the IANA registration of the Sieve
 extension specified in this document:
 To: iana@iana.org
 Subject: Registration of new Sieve extension
 Capability name: editheader
 Description:     Adds actions 'addheader' and 'deleteheader' that
                  modify the header of the message being processed
 RFC number:      RFC 5293
 Contact Address: The Sieve discussion list <ietf-mta-filters&imc.org>

9. Security Considerations

 Someone with write access to a user's script storage may use this
 extension to generate headers that a user would otherwise be shielded
 from (e.g., by a gateway Mail Transport Agent (MTA) that removes
 them).
 This is the first Sieve extension to be standardized that allows
 alteration of messages being processed by Sieve engines.  A Sieve
 script that uses Sieve tests defined in [SIEVE], the editheader
 extension, and the redirect action back to the same user can keep
 some state between different invocations of the same script for the
 same message. But note that it would not be possible to introduce an
 infinite loop using any such script, because each iteration adds a
 new Received header field, so email loop prevention described in
 [SMTP] will eventually non deliver the message, and because the

Degener & Guenther Standards Track [Page 5] RFC 5293 Sieve Email Filtering: Editheader Extension August 2008

 editheader extension is explicitly prohibited to alter or delete
 Received header fields (i.e., it can't interfere with loop
 prevention).
 A sieve filter that removes header fields may unwisely destroy
 evidence about the path a message has taken.
 Any change in message content may interfere with digital signature
 mechanisms that include the header in the signed material.  For
 example, changes to (or deletion/addition of) header fields included
 in the "SHOULD be included in the signature" list in Section 5.5 of
 [DKIM] can invalidate DKIM signatures.  This also includes DKIM
 signatures that guarantee a header field absence.
 The editheader extension doesn't directly affect [IMAIL] header field
 signatures generated using [SMIME] or [OPENPGP], because these
 signature schemes include a separate copy of the header fields inside
 the signed message/rfc822 body part.  However, software written to
 detect differences between the inner (signed) copy of header fields
 and the outer (modified by editheader) header fields might be
 affected by changes made by editheader.
 Since normal message delivery adds "Received" header fields and other
 trace fields to the beginning of a message, many such digital
 signature mechanisms are impervious to headers prefixed to a message,
 and will work with "addheader" unless :last is used.
 Any decision mechanism in a user's filter that is based on headers is
 vulnerable to header spoofing.  For example, if the user adds an
 APPROVED header or tag, a malicious sender may add that tag or header
 themselves.  One way to guard against this is to delete or rename any
 such headers or stamps prior to processing the message.

10. Acknowledgments

 Thanks to Eric Allman, Cyrus Daboo, Matthew Elvey, Ned Freed, Arnt
 Gulbrandsen, Kjetil Torgrim Homme, Simon Josefsson, Will Lee, William
 Leibzon, Mark E. Mallett, Chris Markle, Alexey Melnikov, Randall
 Schwartz, Aaron Stone, Nigel Swinson, and Rand Wacker for extensive
 corrections and suggestions.

Degener & Guenther Standards Track [Page 6] RFC 5293 Sieve Email Filtering: Editheader Extension August 2008

11. References

11.1. Normative References

 [IMAIL]      Resnick, P., Ed., "Internet Message Format", RFC 2822,
              April 2001.
 [KEYWORDS]   Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
 [MIME3]      Moore, K., "MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
              Part Three: Message Header Extensions for Non-ASCII
              Text", RFC 2047, November 1996.
 [MIMEPARAM]  Freed, N. and K. Moore, "MIME Parameter Value and
              Encoded Word Extensions: Character Sets, Languages, and
              Continuations", RFC 2231, November 1997.
 [SIEVE]      Guenther, P., Ed., and T. Showalter, Ed., "Sieve: An
              Email Filtering Language", RFC 5228, January 2008.

11.2. Informative References

 [BODY]       Degener, J. and P. Guenther, "Sieve Email Filtering:
              Body Extension", RFC 5173, April 2008.
 [DKIM]       Allman, E., Callas, J., Delany, M., Libbey, M., Fenton,
              J., and M. Thomas, "DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)
              Signatures", RFC 4871, May 2007.
 [DSN]        Moore, K. and G. Vaudreuil, "An Extensible Message
              Format for Delivery Status Notifications", RFC 3464,
              January 2003.
 [MDN]        Hansen, T., Ed., and G. Vaudreuil, Ed., "Message
              Disposition Notification", RFC 3798, May 2004.
 [OPENPGP]    Elkins, M., Del Torto, D., Levien, R., and T. Roessler,
              "MIME Security with OpenPGP", RFC 3156, August 2001.
 [SMIME]      Ramsdell, B., Ed., "Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail
              Extensions (S/MIME) Version 3.1 Message Specification",
              RFC 3851, July 2004.
 [SMTP]       Klensin, J., Ed., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", RFC
              2821, April 2001.

Degener & Guenther Standards Track [Page 7] RFC 5293 Sieve Email Filtering: Editheader Extension August 2008

 [VACATION]   Showalter, T. and N. Freed, Ed., "Sieve Email Filtering:
              Vacation Extension", RFC 5230, January 2008.

Authors' Addresses

 Jutta Degener
 5245 College Ave, Suite #127
 Oakland, CA 94618
 EMail: jutta@pobox.com
 Philip Guenther
 Sendmail, Inc.
 6475 Christie Ave., Ste 350
 Emeryville, CA 94608
 EMail: guenther@sendmail.com

Degener & Guenther Standards Track [Page 8] RFC 5293 Sieve Email Filtering: Editheader Extension August 2008

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 contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
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Degener & Guenther Standards Track [Page 9]

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