nanog mailing list archives
Re: GMail contact - misroute / security issue
From: "John Levine" <johnl () iecc com>
Date: 27 Sep 2014 02:37:24 -0000
My wife is receiving someone else's emails.
Welcome to the club.
Specifically she is receiving emails for <first name><middle initial><last name>@gmail.com (no dots) when her email address is really <same first name>.<same middle initial>.<same last name>@gmail.com (dots). I don't know if this is a "feature" or a "bug", but either way, it's disquieting my wife. (Unhappy wife = unhappy life.)
Google is quite clear that they ignore dots in the mailbox name. johnqpublic@gmail == john.q.public@gmail == j.o.h.n.q.p.u.b.l.i.c@gmail
I view this as both non-RFC compliant behavior
RFC 5321 says that the interpretation of the local-part in the address is entirely up to the recipient host, so it's hard to imagine how this would not be RFC compliant. In practice, you can't fix stupid, so if your wife is feeling charitable, she can write back and tell people she's not the guy they're looking for, or else she can just report it all as spam. If she writes back, be prepared for people to insist that she must be the person they intended to write to. My gmail address is my name, and my name is fairly common, so I get all sorts of mail, including mail from a car dealer in Phoenix who was just sure that I wanted to buy a car from him even though I live in upstate New York. R's, John
Current thread:
- GMail contact - misroute / security issue Grant Taylor (Sep 28)
- Re: GMail contact - misroute / security issue Royce Williams (Sep 28)
- Re: GMail contact - misroute / security issue Mike Lyon (Sep 28)
- Re: GMail contact - misroute / security issue Valdis . Kletnieks (Sep 29)
- Re: GMail contact - misroute / security issue Mike Lyon (Sep 28)
- Re: GMail contact - misroute / security issue ryanL (Sep 28)
- Re: GMail contact - misroute / security issue Karl Auer (Sep 28)
- Match.com contact - Previously: GMail contact - misroute / security issue Grant Taylor (Sep 28)
- Re: Match.com contact - Previously: GMail contact - misroute / security issue John Fraizer (Sep 28)
- Re: Match.com contact - Previously: GMail contact - misroute / security issue Bacon Zombie (Sep 29)
- Re: Match.com contact - Previously: GMail contact - misroute / security issue Jay Ashworth (Sep 29)
- Re: Match.com contact - Previously: GMail contact - misroute / security issue John Fraizer (Sep 28)
- Re: GMail contact - misroute / security issue John Levine (Sep 28)
- Re: GMail contact - misroute / security issue Nicolai (Sep 29)
- Re: GMail contact - misroute / security issue Philip (Sep 29)
- Re: GMail contact - misroute / security issue Jeff Woolsey (Sep 29)
- Re: GMail contact - misroute / security issue Alexander Harrowell (Sep 30)
- Re: GMail contact - misroute / security issue Bacon Zombie (Sep 30)
- Re: GMail contact - misroute / security issue Royce Williams (Sep 28)
- Re: GMail contact - misroute / security issue James Welcher (Sep 29)