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  • #1

    funky e-mail

    I'm not sure if anyone has posted on this. I am not a big fan of spam mail myself, but it manages to get around my spam filter when it is SUPPOSEDLY from 1963 or some outrageously out of whack date. How do they modify timestamps like that? POP3 injection? Here is a picture of my inbox.

    http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/9597/wtfla7.png
    "I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art." -Kahlil Gibran

    "Half the world is composed of idiots, the other half of people clever enough to take indecent advantage of them." -Walter Kerr
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  • #2
    Re: funky e-mail

    Originally posted by Beginner View Post
    I'm not sure if anyone has posted on this. I am not a big fan of spam mail myself, but it manages to get around my spam filter when it is SUPPOSEDLY from 1963 or some outrageously out of whack date. How do they modify timestamps like that? POP3 injection? Here is a picture of my inbox.

    http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/9597/wtfla7.png
    The Dateline can be specified in the Header as a simple text string. Though there is a specification in RFC for how the date should be formatted, many mail clients will accept non-standard date formats.

    As a simple string format, mail Date: lines are not limited by the UNIX Epoch, or any other OS Epoch for tick counts.

    When a Date: line is missing from a header, mail clients have been known to compute their own based of the parent OS's Epoch. For *NIX systems, this is often Midnight, GMT, Jan 1, 1970. However, with any timezones using negative offset from GMT, it is possible to see datestamps like Dec 31, 1969 with 24 hours minus their present offset from GMT.

    Forging email is trivial. SMTP and ESMTP include a great deal of "trusting the client" and as a result, allow incoming messages to include unchecked lies. For example, there are mail servers that will allow for a MAIL From:<user@example.com> to be specified and then allow for a header line From: "some other user" <differentuser@differentexample.tld> but this does look spammy.

    Many mail servers will timestamp and include a header item showing when the message was received. This is often more reliable as a timestamp for messages than timestamp claimed in the message itself.

    See if you can tell your mail client to sort by date/time received instead of Date: in header.
    Last edited by TheCotMan; May 17, 2007, 23:12.

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    • #3
      Re: funky e-mail

      Thank you very much. That is exactly what I needed to know.
      "I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art." -Kahlil Gibran

      "Half the world is composed of idiots, the other half of people clever enough to take indecent advantage of them." -Walter Kerr

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      • #4
        Re: funky e-mail

        Originally posted by Beginner View Post
        Thank you very much. That is exactly what I needed to know.
        Someone actually happy with a help reply on the forums? I suppose it was only a matter of time (law of large numbers and all).
        "Never Underestimate the Power of Stupid People in Large Groups"

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