





Network Working Group                                        R. Gellens
Request for Comments: 2645                                     Qualcomm
Category: Standards Track                                   August 1999


                      ON-DEMAND MAIL RELAY (ODMR)
                    SMTP with Dynamic IP Addresses

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.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

Table of Contents

    1.  Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1
    2.  Conventions Used in this Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
    3.  Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
    4.  Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
    5.  States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
      5.1.  Initial State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
        5.1.1.  EHLO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
        5.1.2.  AUTH  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
        5.1.3.  QUIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
      5.2.  Authenticated State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
        5.2.1.  ATRN (Authenticated TURN)  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
      5.3.  Reversed State  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
      5.4.  Other Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
    6.  Example On-Demand Mail Relay Session: . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
    7.  Response Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
    8.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
    9.  Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   10.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
   11.  Author's Address   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   12.  Full Copyright Statement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

1.  Abstract

   With the spread of low-cost computer systems and Internet
   connectivity, the demand for local mail servers has been rising.
   Many people now want to operate a mail server on a system which has



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   only an intermittent connection to a service provider.  If the system
   has a static IP address, the ESMTP ETRN command [ETRN] can be used.
   However, systems with dynamic IP addresses (which are very common
   with low-cost connections) have no widely-deployed solution.

   This memo proposes a new service, On-Demand Mail Relay (ODMR), which
   is a profile of SMTP [SMTP, ESMTP], providing for a secure,
   extensible, easy to implement approach to the problem.

2.  Conventions Used in this Document

   Because the client and server roles reverse during the session, to
   avoid confusion, the terms "customer" and "provider" will be used in
   place of "client" and "server", although of course this protocol may
   be useful in cases other than commercial service providers and
   customers.

   In examples, "P:" is used to indicate lines sent by the provider, and
   "C:" indicates those sent by the customer.  Line breaks within a
   command are for editorial purposes only.

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", and "MAY"
   in this document are to be interpreted as defined in [KEYWORDS].

   Examples use 'example.net' as the provider, and 'example.org' and '
   example.com' as the customers.

3.  Comments

   Private comments should be sent to the author.  Public comments may
   be sent to the IETF Disconnected SMTP mailing list,
   <ietf-disconn-smtp@imc.org>.  To subscribe, send a message to
   <ietf-disconn-smtp-request@imc.org> containing the word SUBSCRIBE as
   the body.

4.  Description

   On-Demand Mail Relay is a restricted profile of SMTP [SMTP, ESMTP].
   Port 366 is reserved for On-Demand Mail Relay.  The initial client
   and server roles are short-lived, as the point is to allow the
   intermittently-connected host to request mail held for it by a
   service provider.

   The customer initiates a connection to the provider, authenticates,
   and requests its mail.  The roles of client and server then reverse,
   and normal SMTP [SMTP, ESMTP] proceeds.





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   The provider has an On-Demand Mail Relay process listening for
   connections on the ODMR port.  This process does not need to be a
   full SMTP server.  It does need to be an SMTP client with access to
   the outgoing mail queues, and as a server implement the EHLO, AUTH,
   ATRN, and QUIT commands.

   An MTA normally has a mail client component which processes the
   outgoing mail queues, attempting to send mail for particular domains,
   based on time or event (such as new mail being placed in the queue,
   or receipt of an ETRN command by the SMTP server component).  The
   On-Demand Mail Relay service processes the outgoing queue not on a
   timer or new mail creation, but on request.

   The provider side has normal SMTP server responsibilities [SMTP],
   including generation of delivery failure notices, etc. as needed.

5.  States

   The On-Demand Mail Relay service has three states: an initial state,
   an authenticated state, and a reversed state.  The state progression
   is illustrated in the following diagram:

   ---------------------------
   !      initial state      !
   ---------------------------
     !             !
   QUIT           AUTH
     !             !
     !             V
     !      -----------------------
     !      ! authenticated state !
     !      -----------------------
     !       !            !
     !      QUIT         ATRN
     !       !            !
     !       !            V
     !       !      ------------------
     !       !      ! reversed state !
     !       !      ------------------
     !       !         !
     !       !        QUIT
     !       !         !
     V       V         V
     ---------------------
     !    termination    !
     ---------------------





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   (Note that in the reversed state, commands are sent by the provider,
   not the customer.)

5.1.  Initial State

   In the initial state, the provider is the server and the customer is
   the client.  Three commands are valid:  EHLO, AUTH, and QUIT.

5.1.1.  EHLO

   The EHLO command is the same as in [ESMTP].  The response MUST
   include AUTH and ATRN.

5.1.2.  AUTH

   The AUTH command is specified in [AUTH].  The AUTH command uses a
   [SASL] mechanism to authenticate the session.  The session is not
   considered authenticated until a success response to AUTH has been
   sent.

   For interoperability, implementations MUST support the CRAM-MD5
   mechanism [CRAM].  Other SASL mechanisms may be supported.  A site
   MAY disable CRAM-MD5 support if it uses more secure methods.  The
   EXTERNAL mechanism [SASL] might be useful in some cases, for example,
   if the provider has already authenticated the client, such as during
   a PPP connection.

5.1.3.  QUIT

   The QUIT command is the same as in [SMTP].

5.2.  Authenticated State

   The authenticated state is entered after a successful AUTH command.
   Two commands are valid in the authenticated state:  ATRN and QUIT.

5.2.1.  ATRN (Authenticated TURN)

   Unlike the TURN command in [SMTP], the ATRN command optionally takes
   one or more domains as a parameter.  The ATRN command MUST be
   rejected if the session has not been authenticated.  Response code
   530 [AUTH] is used for this.

   The timeout for this command MUST be at least 10 minutes to allow the
   provider time to process its mail queue.

   An ATRN command sent with no domains is equivalent to an ATRN command
   specifying all domains to which the customer has access.



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   If the authentication used by the customer does not provide access to
   all of the domains specified in ATRN, the provider MUST NOT send mail
   for any domains to the customer; the provider MUST reject the ATRN
   command with a 450 code.

   If the customer does have access to all of the specified domains, but
   none of them have any queued mail, the provider normally rejects the
   ATRN command with response code 453.  The provider MAY instead issue
   a 250 success code, and after the roles are reversed, send a QUIT
   following the EHLO.

   The provider MAY also reject the ATRN command with a 450 response to
   indicate refusal to accept multiple requests issued within a
   particular time interval.

   If the customer has access to all of the specified domains and mail
   exists in at least one of them, the provider issues a 250 success
   code.

   If the server is unable to verify access to the requested domains
   (for example, a mapping database is temporarily unavailable),
   response code 451 is sent.

      [ABNF] for ATRN:

      atrn          = "ATRN" [SP domain *("," domain)]

      domain        = sub-domain 1*("." sub-domain)

      sub-domain    = (ALPHA / DIGIT) *(ldh-str)

      ldh-str       = *(ALPHA / DIGIT / "-") (ALPHA / DIGIT)

5.3.  Reversed State

   After the provider has sent a success reply to the ATRN command, the
   roles reverse, and the customer becomes the server, and the provider
   becomes the client.

   After receiving the success response to ATRN, the customer sends a
   standard SMTP initial greeting line.  At this point normal SMTP
   [SMTP, ESMTP] commands are used.  Typically the provider sends EHLO
   after seeing the customer's greeting, to be followed by MAIL FROM and
   so on.







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5.4.  Other Commands

   The provider MAY reject all commands other than EHLO, AUTH, ATRN, and
   QUIT with response code 502.

6.  Example On-Demand Mail Relay Session

      P:  220 EXAMPLE.NET on-demand mail relay server ready
      C:  EHLO example.org
      P:  250-EXAMPLE.NET
      P:  250-AUTH CRAM-MD5 EXTERNAL
      P:  250 ATRN
      C:  AUTH CRAM-MD5
      P:  334 MTg5Ni42OTcxNzA5NTJASVNQLkNPTQo=
      C:  Zm9vYmFyLm5ldCBiOTEzYTYwMmM3ZWRhN2E0OTViNGU2ZTczMzRkMzg5MAo=
      P:  235 now authenticated as example.org
      C:  ATRN example.org,example.com
      P:  250 OK now reversing the connection
      C:  220 example.org ready to receive email
      P:  EHLO EXAMPLE.NET
      C:  250-example.org
      C:  250 SIZE
      P:  MAIL FROM: <Lester.Tester@dot.foo.bar>
      C:  250 OK
      P:  RCPT TO: <l.eva.msg@example.com>
      C:  250 OK, recipient accepted
      ...
      P:  QUIT
      C:  221 example.org closing connection

7.  Response Codes

   The response codes used in this document are:

   250  Requested mail action okay, completed
   450  ATRN request refused
   451  Unable to process ATRN request now
   453  You have no mail
   502  Command not implemented
   530  Authentication required [AUTH]

8.  Security Considerations

   Because access to the On-Demand Mail Relay server is only useful with
   a prior arrangement between the parties (so the provider is the
   target of MX records for the customer's domains and thus has mail to
   relay), it may be useful for the provider to restrict access to the
   On-Demand Mail Relay port.  For example, the ODMR server could be



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   configurable, or a TCP wrapper or firewall could be used, to block
   access to port 366 except within the provider's network.  This might
   be useful when the provider is the customer's ISP.  Use of such
   mechanisms does not reduce the need for the AUTH command, however,
   but can increase the security it provides.

   Use of SASL in the AUTH command allows for substitution of more
   secure authentication mechanisms in the future.

   See sections 5.1.2 and 5.2.1 for additional security details.

9.  Acknowledgments

   This memo has been developed in part based on comments and
   discussions which took place on and off the IETF-disconn-smtp mailing
   list.  Special thanks to Chris Newman and Ned Freed for their
   comments.

10.  References

   [ABNF]      Crocker, D. and P. Overell,  "Augmented BNF for Syntax
               Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997.

   [AUTH]      Myers, J., "SMTP Service Extension for Authentication",
               RFC 2554, March 1999.

   [CRAM]      Klensin, J., Catoe, R. and P. Krumviede, "IMAP/POP
               AUTHorize Extension for Simple Challenge/Response", RFC
               2195, September 1997.

   [ESMTP]     Klensin, J., Freed, N., Rose, M., Stefferud, E. and D.
               Crocker, "SMTP Service Extensions", RFC 1869, November
               1995.

   [ETRN]      De Winter, J., "SMTP Service Extension for Remote Message
               Queue Starting", RFC 1985, August 1996.

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

   [SASL]      Myers, J., "Simple Authentication and Security Layer
               (SASL)", RFC 2222, October 1997.

   [SMTP]      Postel, J., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", STD 10, RFC
               821, August 1982.






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11.  Author's Address

   Randall Gellens
   QUALCOMM Incorporated
   5775 Morehouse Dr.
   San Diego, CA  92121-2779
   U.S.A.

   Phone: +1.619.651.5115
   EMail: randy@qualcomm.com









































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12.  Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

   This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
   others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
   or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
   and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
   kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
   included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
   document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
   the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
   Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
   developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
   copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
   followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
   English.

   The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
   revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

   This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
   TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
   BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
   HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
   MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Acknowledgement

   Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
   Internet Society.



















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