NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/comp/org/eff/talk/8041

Text File | 1992-12-24 | 2.7 KB | 64 lines

Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Path: sparky!uunet!think.com!enterpoop.mit.edu!eff!eff-gate!usenet
From: mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/OU=[e-mail]
Subject: Re: What gives?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Originator: [e-mail]
Sender: mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/OU=[e-mail]
Nntp-Posting-Host: eff.org
Organization: EFF mail-news gateway
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 15:16:50 GMT
Approved: [e-mail]
Lines: 50

Date: 12/24/92  9:47 AM
Subj: RE>What gives?

 > It looks as though every time you try to send out E-mail, your
 > X400 mailer is sending out an "ambiguous names report" instead.

Close, but no cigar.

Our email connection to the world is via SoftSwitch X.400, a component of
SoftSwitch Central, and among its "features" is the fact that it
auto-registers inbound mail, that is to say that it adds the return
addresses of all inbound mail to its "names directory" or address
database.

Where this otherwise useful feature turns into malware is when it
interacts with certain ListServs that re-distribute the message with the
original author's address in the return address field.

If anyone at MasterCard sends mail to a ListServ that does this and anyone
else at MasterCard subscribes to that list, then when that message comes
back to us, the sender's address gets added AGAIN to the directory,
creating a duplicate address.  From then until we spot it or the next
weekday morning's maintenance, all mail to that user will bounce back with
a "duplicate address" error, because the X.400 mailer can't figure out
which of the "duplicate" IDs to distribute the message(s) to.

This would be trivially easy for SoftSwitch to fix, all they'd have to do
is patch auto-registration so that it won't auto-register anything that
says it's from the same ADMD & PRMD.  I advised them of this more than a
month ago, and we're still waiting for them to even say that they're GOING
to do something about it.  In addition to this being annoying, it's also
surprising; SoftSwitch has otherwise been pretty good about rapidly fixing
shortcomings in their products.  *sigh*

In the meantime, I think I can safely say that we at MasterCard who use it
are all embarrassed and quite sorry about any annoyance this causes the
Internet communities.

 (s) J. Brad Hicks, Senior PC Specialist, MasterCard International

P.S. I'm cc'ing this message to SoftSwitch's vice president of support, in
hopes that when he sees (a) that we're getting abused over this, and (b)
what we have to tell people in response, that maybe, just maybe, we'll get
an answer this time.  If you (or he) have any questions, you may call me
during normal working hours (CST) at [phone].


 J. Brad Hicks     Internet: mc![e-mail]
 X.400: c=US admd=ATTMail prmd=MasterCard sn=Hicks gn=Brad