gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) (04/10/91)
I sent mail to a large list and got back a very strange bounce message,
which I notified the site management about (at Cal State). I have
another such bounce now, from Mitre, so I figured it might be time to
warn the Internet in general about this broken product.
I strongly discourage everyone from connecting a GatorMail box to the
Internet mail system. It forges messages, and bothers people all over
the world about local problems. It does not meet the RFC's.
Apparently, when the GatorMail box bounces a message, it impersonates
the sender of the message. The enclosed message "From: gnu@toad.com"
showed up in my mailbox. But I'm <gnu@toad.com> and I didn't send this
message! I sent the original message, to which this is a response. If
they wanted to send a message to me about my mail bouncing, the From:
address should be something like mailer-daemon@wherever and the To:
address should be <gnu@toad.com>.
Not only is the header incorrect, but it sent the bounce message to a
useless place (the originator). If it "can't find MailCenter", it
should notify someone locally, not someone halfway around the world.
I can't find its MailCenter; I can't even find the company that produced it!
John Gilmore
Return-Path: gnu@toad.com
Return-Path: <gnu@toad.com>
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Date: 9 Apr 91 14:06:00
From: gnu@toad.com <gnu@toad.com>
Subject: Can't Find MailCenter!
To: Lee_LaBarre.G113_MAIL@qmgate.mitre.org,
Rich_Parker.D115_MAIL@qmgate.mitre.org
GatorMail-Q Looking for vendors for PEM
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Message-Id: <9104090833.AA25824@hop.toad.com>
To: pem-dev@tis.com, gnu@toad.com
Subject: Looking for vendors for PEM hardware and software
Date: Tue, 09 Apr 91 01:33:19 -0700
From: gnu@toad.com
Sender: pem-dev-relay@tis.com
The Electronic Frontier Foundation wants to offer PEM to its members.
In particular, we want to offer a "persona" registry where members can
get a certificate for authenticating their mail while still having
their privacy respected.
...text removed for comp.mail.misc purposes...
--
John Gilmore {sun,uunet,pyramid}!hoptoad!gnu gnu@toad.com gnu@cygnus.com
* Truth : the most deadly weapon ever discovered by humanity. Capable of *
* destroying entire perceptual sets, cultures, and realities. Outlawed by *
* all governments everywhere. Possession is normally punishable by death. *
* ..{amdahl|decwrl|octopus|pyramid|ucbvax}!avsd!childers@tycho *