Re: Case Sensitivity

Marc,

On Sat, 2004-07-31 at 09:06, marc <at> alaia.net wrote:

> Hey, everyone.  A situation has come up on the SPF-Help list where a
> receiver is rejecting inbound mail from a domain and it turns out that
> the problem is case sensitivity.  A test using libspf2 verified that
> libspf2, at least, is case sensitive.

It is not in the spec, and it is wrong.

> Is this an implementation issue or a spec issue, or not an issue at
> all?  What I mean is:
> - Are all DNS-related issues supposed to be case-insensitive, so this
> does not need to be in the spec, but certain implementations have
> implemented it wrong?

This is a bug in "libspf-alt" AKA "libspf2".  This sort of behaviour is
common with immature and developing libraries.  Feel free to inform this
individual that they might wish to give one of the other implementations
a try.  

Since I am clearly biased as the author of libSPF, (although I would
recommend using it), I am left to advise that the individual in question
consult the spf.pobox.com website and select an alternative library
immediately to avoid further problems.  Given that age is often a good
gauge as to maturity one might look at the Mail::SPF:Query
implementation which has spent the longest time in the wild.

> - Are all DNS-related issues not specified, so the SPF spec needs to
> say?
> - Or do people need to be aware that case may cause their mail to be
> rejected?

People need to be made aware that they shouldn't be using this software
on production servers when its so young!  As an example, libspf-alt has
only had 4 public releases, where as the library I am a developer for,
libSPF, has seen release of 25 separate alpha/beta releases in addition
to the 4 recent release candidates on our way to a version we can
carefully call STABLE when it really is.

It is unfortunate that the library in question has attempted to purport
themselves to the public as anything other than UNSTABLE.  The unusual
leap they made from v0.3 to 1.04 is unfortunately rather misleading in
the stability department.

Good luck!

--

-- 
James Couzens,
Programmer
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