From: Wayde Allen (wallen@boulder.nist.gov)
Date: 05/05/00-11:58:05 AM Z
On Fri, 5 May 2000, Rod Fleming wrote:
> > Care to provide a reference for this? I don't know of any viri that can
> > propagate without being executed.
>
> Check the Trend Software site- VBS_KAKWORM executes on viewing, and I can
> directly verify that from my own experience- only affects Outlook Express
> and is now patched by Microsoft, but it's the coming thing.
Yes I checked, and as noted it made use of a very specific bug in the
Outlook program.
> Oh really? Every other mailing list I have ever subscribed to _expressly
> forbids_ the use of anything other than plain text for email for exactly
> this reason. No-one complained. It was better than getting viri.
You need to read more carefully. E-mail, ALL e-mail, is only plain text.
Quite simply, the e-mail system by design only allows plain text. The
only way you get attachments to go through e-mail is by encoding them as
plain text using an encryption scheme such as uuencode, base64, binhex,
etc..
> > Of course if you are going to go to this trouble, why not use a file
> > transport mechanism designed for the job? The net was designed to allow
> > people to exchange binary files directly, and the e-mail system isn't it.
> > I can ftp anything I want to you, and don't have all the headaches
> > involved with converting to mail and back again.'
>
> Oh really again? SO you figure out how I can send to 20 or so different
> clients, all using different operating systems, software, some using ISDN,
> some on modems, some on non-capi 2 ISDN ta's, some, it's true, still using
> 14.4 modems, without being there all day?
E-mail attachments don't solve this problem. E-mail attachments only
transmit the file. Whether one sends the file via e-mail, ftp, etc., it
doesn't matter whether the intervening medium is a dialup link via modem,
ISDN, DSL, etc..
> The e-mail system has one total winner- it's called TCP/IP Everyone HAS
> to be able to talk to one another.
Actually, e-mail is normally broadcast via SMTP on top of the TCP/IP
protocol. The TCP/IP protocol is the normal low level transmission
protocol for the internet at large, and is required for most services (ftp
included). My point being that TCP/IP doesn't make e-mail special in
anyway. In fact, it is possible to send e-mail without using TCP/IP, but
that would be a different topic.
> So my 20 sends become one send with 20 addresses. That simple. Spent too
> many years on the ftp road to go back.
Oh if you are using the web at all you still have ftp since it is built
into your browser. I'd guess that you have downloaded a file from
somewhere? There are also ways to accomplish what you are saying using
ftp, but let's not bore the group.
> Unless you can think up an answer to
> that, kindly don't presume to tell me how to run my business again.
I don't recall telling you how to run your business. I just said that the
e-mail system was never really designed as an exchange mechanism for
sending binary files, and that there are other tools that were
specifically created for that purpose. E-mail has simply been pressed
into performing a service it wasn't originally meant to provide. Heck,
how many people have used a screw driver as a pry bar?
> My, my, my- we don't know everything, now do we?
No, never said I did. There are lots of things I don't know, and I make
plenty of mistakes. You certainly don't have to take my word for any of
this since the information I'm giving is widely available.
- Wayde
(wallen@boulder.nist.gov)
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