abusix / xarf

XARF - eXtended Abuse Reporting Format
https://abusix.com/xarf/
MIT License
117 stars 19 forks source link

XARF URL defanging #32

Closed rommelfs closed 1 year ago

rommelfs commented 2 years ago

I apologise if I didn't spot it, but is XARF supporting defanged URLs in one of other way? I just want to be sure that an XARF attachment is not being blocked by some smart mail filter rule because of malicious indicators.

Maximilian-Staab commented 1 year ago

The schema currently doesn't allow for defanged URLs in any way, and I don't think it's something we will support in the future.

Here's the reasoning behind that:

  1. Defanged urls often used to prevent accidental clicks from abuse-desk workers. This should be a non issue for XARF, because the schema is intended to be processed automatically.
  2. Spam filters on abuse addresses are never a good Idea[^1] and should't be a reason for adding defanged urls. We even made a video about this issue a while ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xeLcHIkTMo
  3. Someone who runs a spam filter on their abuse address probably won't be diligent about the incoming messages anyway.

[^1]: A spam filter could dislike many things about XARF reports and trying to circumvent them won't increase the quality of such reports.

I know this won't help you, but I hope this clarifies a few things.