Plans to add SPF?

[debrown3rd]

To whom it may concern,

Are there any plans to add SPF (http://spf.pobox.com) to the current installation? My apologies if this has already been done. If it hasn't, I really think it would be extremely beneficial for everyone!

[Donboy]

The problem with SPF is that its not widely accepted enough. If you are publishing SPF records for your domain, that's great. But if you're checking to see if another host is publishing SPF records before you accept their messages, then you may be sadly disappointed when you are rejecting a bunch of legitimate mail simply because the sending MTA didn't have SPF records published.

My feeling is that SPF will not be widely accepted until a large majority of the mail servers on today's internet are publishing SPF records. When that happens, people can start using SPF to reject mail and sleep well at night knowing they are not rejecting a large chunk of legitimate mail.

I think if the author of QMR were to change something, he could provide instructions on how to publish your own SPF records. Considering the number of people who install their mail server using QMR, it would certainly help to spread SPF. It might also be a good idea to have a control file that turns SPF checking on and off. I haven't looked but I don't know if that exists already or not. If it does, then it makes an easy way for admins to turn on SPF checking.

[Cobi]

well... you don't have to reject mail if there isnt an spf record... you could just reject it when there is an spf record, and the host in the spf record doesn't match the server sending the mail (that's what spf records are for... to verify that that host is allowed to send email for that domain...)

[javierz]

check out this spf patch (http://www.saout.de/misc/spf/) by Christophe Saout (listed on qmail.org site). it uses a few control files as described on that page. i don't understand why there would be any resistance to implementing this patch.

also, how about a patch to sign/verify DomainKeys such as this one (http://www.qmail.org/qmail-1.03-dk-0.53.patch)?