Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: stupid email filter tricks
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2001 07:07:47 -0500
From: "George Feil" <hacker () stardragon com> To: "Dave Farber" <farber () cis upenn edu> Subject: stupid email filter tricks Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 23:50:12 -0800 Dave, I received a notice from two different mail servers warning me of a virus that had been enclosed in an message sent through a mailing list that I host. I was quite surprised by the warnings, given that I am a subscriber on the list, and received the message without a peep from my trusty anti-virus program. Fortunately, one of the warning messages included a log file diagnosing the problem. It turned out that the offending message didn't contain a virus at all, but it did contain a phrase that was used as a subject line for a recent email worm (I won't repeat it here so it doesn't trip any filers used by your list subscribers). We've all long known of the flaws in content filtering programs in locking out access to legitimate sites. But this is a new one: overzealous mail sentries crying wolf over suspected email. It's amazing how these filters were not even smart enough to look for VBS attachments or JavaScript code in the message... [By the way, one of the programs that notified me was called "MailMarshal".] George Feil Chief Hacker Stardragon Consulting Inc. http://www.stardragon.com
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- IP: stupid email filter tricks Dave Farber (Feb 22)