E-mail stamping with from-header validation
View Patent ↗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.
1. A method for validating a sender of an e-mail message, the method executed by at least one processor of at least one computer and 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, by a stamp authority, that the sender is authorized to use the identity indicated by the contents of the first field;
inserting, by the stamp authority, 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; and
inserting, by the stamp authority, a digital signature field in the header, the field including a digital signature associated with the stamp authority.
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, the identification information including a display name and e-mail address;
sending a header associated with an e-mail message from a computer associated with the e-mail sender to a computer associated with the authority, the header including origination information, the origination information including the registered display name and e-mail address;
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 registered with the authority; 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 non-transitory computer-readable storage 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, the identification information including a display name and e-mail address;
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 including the registered display name and e-mail address;
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 registered with the authority; 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.
8. A method for validating a sender of an e-mail message, the method comprising:
receiving, by a computer associated with a stamp authority, a portion of an e-mail message from a computer associated with the sender, the received portion including a header field containing an indication of the identity of the sender;
determining by reference to a database of registered sender identities whether the sender is authorized to use the indicated identity;
responsive to a determination that the sender is authorized to use the indicated identity, generating a stamp for the e-mail message; and
returning, by the stamp authority, the stamp to the e-mail sender.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein the indication of the identity of the sender includes a display name and an e-mail address.
10. The method of claim 8 wherein the header field is a From: header.
11. A method for certifying an identity of an e-mail sender, the method executed by at least one processor of at least one computer and comprising:
receiving, by a computer at a stamp authority at least a portion of an e-mail message from a computer associated with a sender, the e-mail message including a From: header, the From: header including a display name and e-mail address;
determining, by the stamp authority, whether the sender is authorized to use the display name and e-mail address in the From: header; and
responsive to an indication that the sender is authorized to use the display name and e-mail address in the From: header, inserting in the e-mail message, by the stamp authority, a header indicating that the sender is authorized to use the display name and e-mail address.
12. The method of claim 11 further comprising returning the e-mail message to the sender.
13. The method of claim 11 further comprising sending the e-mail message to a recipient identified in the e-mail message.
14. A method for certifying an identity of an e-mail sender, the method comprising:
registering, by a computer associated with a stamp authority, authorized From: line information from each of a plurality of e-mail senders, the From: line information including a display name and an e-mail address;
receiving a request from one of the plurality of e-mail senders to certify that the sender has registered From: line information included with the request; and
responsive to a determination by the stamp authority that the sender has registered the From: line information included with the request, providing a certification to the requesting sender that the From: line information including the display name and e-mail address have been registered by the sender.
15. The method of claim 14 wherein the certification includes an e-mail header.
16. The method of claim 14 wherein the certification includes a digital signature of the stamp authority.