E-Mail Stamping with From-Header Validation

• US 20060277597A1
• Filed: 06/01/2006
• Published: 12/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Barracuda Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Barracuda Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Dreymann, Daniel T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,917,756 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3213 using tickets or tokens, e.g. Kerberos network architectures or network communication protocols for entities authentication using tickets in a packet data network H04L63/0807
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3297 involving time stamps, e.g. generation of time stamps

Abstract

Effective aspects of stamping outbound e-mail are combined with a registration system for e-mail senders. A mail sender participates by registering From: line information with a trusted third-party repository known as a stamp authority. When the sender sends an e-mail message, a hash of the From: line is compared against the From: line information for the sender stored in the repository. If the result is a match, the e-mail is allowed to be sent, subject to any other restrictions imposed by the stamping process. If there is not a match, then the e-mail is prevented from being stamped.

Claims

1. A method for validating a sender of an e-mail message, the method comprising:

receiving an e-mail from the sender, the e-mail including a header, the header having a first field, the contents of the first field indicating the sender'"'"'s identity;

determining that the sender is authorized to use the identity indicated by the contents first field; and

inserting a second field in the header, the contents of the second field indicating that the sender is authorized to use the identity indicated by the contents of the first field.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

returning the e-mail to the sender.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending the e-mail to a recipient indicated in the header.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the contents of the second field are cryptographically encoded.

5. A computer-implemented method for validating a sender of an e-mail message, the method comprising:

registering identification information about an e-mail sender with an authority;

sending a header associated with an e-mail message from the e-mail sender to the authority, the header including origination information, the origination information indicating that the associated the e-mail message is from the e-mail sender;

receiving from the authority a modified header, the modified header associated with the e-mail message and additionally including a token indicating that the origination information is accurate; and

sending the e-mail message and the associated modified header to a recipient.

6. A computer program product for validating a sender of an e-mail message, the computer program product stored on a computer-readable medium and including instructions configured to cause a processor to carry out the steps of:

registering identification information about an e-mail sender with an authority;

sending a header associated with an e-mail message from the e-mail sender to the authority, the header including origination information, the origination information indicating that the associated the e-mail message is from the e-mail sender;

receiving from the authority a modified header, the modified header associated with the e-mail message and additionally including a token indicating that the origination information is accurate; and

sending the e-mail message and the associated modified header to a recipient.

7. A system for validating a sender of an e-mail message, comprising:

a stamp authority, further comprising;

a registration database for storing identification information about an e-mail sender;

a stamp generator for receiving from the e-mail sender a header associated with an e-mail message, the header including origination information, the origination information indicating that the associated the e-mail message is from the e-mail sender; and

wherein the stamp generator is further adapted to determine that the identification information about the e-mail sender stored in the registration database matches the origination information in the header, and to create a modified header, the modified header associated with the e-mail message and additionally including a token indicating that the origination information is accurate.