Received: from localhost by CS.UTK.EDU with SMTP (cf v2.9s-UTK) id EAA24544; Thu, 27 Jul 1995 04:51:44 -0400 X-Resent-To: drums@CS.UTK.EDU ; Thu, 27 Jul 1995 04:51:42 EDT Errors-to: owner-drums@CS.UTK.EDU Received: from vall.dsv.su.se by CS.UTK.EDU with ESMTP (cf v2.9s-UTK) id EAA24537; Thu, 27 Jul 1995 04:51:40 -0400 Received: from ester.dsv.su.se (ester.dsv.su.se [130.237.161.10]) by vall.dsv.su.se (8.6.10/8.6.9) with SMTP id KAA10204 for ; Thu, 27 Jul 1995 10:51:33 +0200 Received: by ester.dsv.su.se (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA10147; Thu, 27 Jul 95 10:51:32 +0200 Date: Thu, 27 Jul 1995 10:51:31 +0200 (MET DST) From: Jacob Palme X-Sender: jpalme@ester To: ietf-drums Subject: Uses of Message-ID Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Here is a suggestion for a text about uses of Message-ID in the new text: Message-ID-s can be used to collerate a message which refers to another message with a header field of type "In-Reply-To:", "References", "Obsoletes" or "Supersedes". Message-ID-s can be used in the following way: o They can enable mail readers to allow their users to traverse up and down the sequence of messages referring to each other. Note that this is neither a linear sequence nor a tree, structure, since a message can refer to more than one previous message, and there can be more than one messages referring to one previous message. o They can enable message archives to archive messages belonging to a certain sub-discussion together in the archive. o They can be used to stop loops where the same message arrives more than once to the same distribution list, if the list keeps a record of message-ID-s of recently expanded messages. This technique is basic to loop control in Usenet News. o They can be used to correlate duplicates of (almost) the same message in mailboxes and archives. Note that when Message-ID-s are used to correlate duplicates, the fact that there can be variants of the same message means that correlation may not only include storing only one of the messages. It could mean storing of several variants of the same message with references between them, showing the "best" to the user, and combining recipients to the same message from several copies into a combined more complete recipient list. Security considerations: A cracker who sees a message he does not like, might be able to rapidly send a new message with different text but the same Message-ID, and in that way harm distribution of the original message. Question: Is there any crypthographic method of protecting against this security risk? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jacob Palme (Stockholm University and KTH) for more info see URL: http://www.dsv.su.se/~jpalme