[Hidden-tech] AOL.COM emails have become problematic

[Robert Heller]

At Sun, 26 Apr 2015 22:18:24 -0400 "Town Websites" <townwebsites at gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> 
> 
> Curious about DMARC; it appears to be an attempt to solve a problem that
> most people would like to have solved for email, namely, limiting mail sent
> from a domain to those that come from an authorized sender.  In other words,
> if you set up DMARC on your domain, and someone spoofs an email from your
> domain pretending to be you, that is the problem DMARC is trying to solve -
> prevent that email from being delivered.
> 
> It appears to be a new standard (March 18th, 2015. RFC 7489) and I don't yet
> understand the standard - except that it looks like it turns SPF and DKIM
> into a more formal means of identifying who is authorized to send email from
> your domain, which I think is potentially a very good change.

There has been lots of dissusion about the pros/cons (mostly cons) about DMARC 
on the Mailman list (mailman-users at python.org).  I won't re-iterate that here, 
but it should all be in the archives.

>  
> With that in mind, Rich, do you know what specifically is the problem with
> mailing lists in general and HT mailing list in particular for those using
> AOL email?     Does the fix require changes in mailing list packages,
> changes in how individuals using some email such as AOL configure their
> SMTP, changes in everyone's client email, getting adapted to new
> conventions, or something else?

What is happening is this:  *traditionally* Mailman (and other mailing list 
software) re-writes some headers (Subject:, To:) and usually leave the From: 
header alone and then re-sends the message.  By alterning the Subject: and To: 
headers and re-sending without altering the From: header, this causes the DKIM 
header to be invalid (often DKIM is used with DMARC) and also violates the 
DMARC policy.  This causes Yahoo and Aol posters problems (as well as anyone 
receiving mail on one of the various E-Mail services that enforce Yahoo and 
Aol's DMARC policy).

There is a recent incarnation of Mailman that has features to deal with this, 
but it requires munging the From: header, which some people really don't like. 
The alternitive is to take Yahoo and AOL users off mailing lists (and baning 
Yahoo and AOL users from mailing lists).

> 
> I'm partly curious because my mother said some of her AOL email is getting
> blocked by some recipients, so I wonder if this is related.

Very likely.

> 
> Charlie
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net
> [mailto:hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net] On Behalf Of Rich Roth
> Sent: Sunday, April 26, 2015 9:20 PM
> To: Hidden-Tech Tech
> Subject: [Hidden-tech] AOL.COM emails have become problematic
> 
> 
> 
> 
> AOL has changed their email system in a way that will cause some emails not
> to be delivered:
> see:
> http://postmaster-blog.aol.com/2014/04/22/aol-mail-updates-dmarc-policy-to-r
> eject/
> 
> SO if you are receiving HT emails at an AOL.COM address, you might want to
> consider adding another email address to the HT list.
> Note: You might see this issue with other emails from/to AOL
> 
> Rich/webmaster
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