Subject: RFC 2634 Questions

From: suchet singh khalsa <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 09:55:24 -0700 (PDT)

Hi Paul,
  Can you please answer the following questions w.r.t
MLA processing of S/MIME messages :

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

According to RFC 2632, while verifying signatures it
should confirmed that the sender (RFC822 From or
Sender headers) of the message is the same as the
signed entity. Does this apply to ONLY the innermost
signature in a triple wrapped message ?
If no, this will impact MLA processing as documented
in RFC 2634 in the following manner :

1.  The MLA creates an outermost SignedData layer
using the private key of the list. The final recipient
will not be able to verify this signature since the
From header is not the list email address. Is the
solution here to set the list email address as the RFC
822 Sender header ?

2.  Most MLA's support mail merge functionality. Is
the intent of RFC 2634 to mandate that S/MIME and mail
merge do not go hand in hand ? The reason for this
question is : When MLA does mail merge, the innermost
signature in a triple wrapped message will become
invalid -  so the MLA will have to sign with the
private key of the list. So, the end recipient will
not be able to verify this signature since the From
header of the mail is not the list email address.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RFC 2634 does not talk about this case :
An application/pkcs7-mime bodypart is enclosed in
another multipart, so that it is not the level 1
bodypart. What should the MLA do in this case ?
Possibilities are :
1.  Create the outermost signature (according to
RFC2634 page 34) for the whole mail.

2.  Create the outermost signature (according to
RFC2634 page 34) only for the application/pkcs7-mime
content.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks,
Suchet

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