Re: [Exim] Fwd: Serious Microsoft File Association Bug

On 2000-09-01 at 17:21 +0200, Rainer Link gifted us with:
> > The system_filter tricky-regexp-based content-type filtering turns out
> > to be useless, thanks to Microsoft. :^(
> Note: This bug (?!) is nothing new - it's a known issue for several
> months.
> Read the (NT)BugTraq Archives, especially postings from Vess (Bontchev),
> Nick Fitzgerald and Eric Chien :)

Not all of us choose to read mailing-lists devoted specifically to
products which we neither use nor wish to use. The fact that
pathetically inept design decisions in those products make life worse
for us, and waste large amounts of our time, does not mean that we
should spend our time becoming experts on those products.

> Blocking for extensions does not make sense imho

The implications and problems are known. We do not live in an ideal
world with infinite resources. Manually probing the data on a busy mail
system is perhaps just too much overhead for many.

Until now, a reasonable middle-ground has been based on Exim's
system_filter facility. Not perfect, but it works for the major
problems. My warning message was specifically in relation to that
filter, which many people on this list use.

Changing operating systems so that we can use some commercial anti-viral
products to protect yet another product is not desirable, but may prove
for many to be necessary.

Warning: the rest of this mail is opinion on Correct Ways, not backed up
with resources or code.

As I see it, the viable options are as follows:

* Adopt GNU/Linux as a desktop OS, with Corel Wordperfect.

This appears to have become a viable solution for many. Solutions
such as this are being deployed. This stops mailadmin from having to
solve other peoples problems (and be blamed when the changing ground
rules result in those mailadmin being blamed when the solution is
less than perfect). My employer has a support-desk - support bobs
will need Windows still, for support reasons. For situations like
this, an extra mail gateway, which does invasive and intensive
filtering becomes more viable, as you only have to deal with a
limited amount of incoming mail.

Pros: Problem is solved.
Cons: Necessity of dealing with both Ostrich-approach management and
herd-of-lemmings mentality "we must use it" idiots, often in the same
person.

* For those of us (such as myself when dealing with my personal box)
fortunate enough to not have high-volume servers, or for those who
can partition the mail appropriately (as for previous solution), a
more invasive filtering approach. Yes, based on examining the
attachment content.

However, whilst saying "this is the way" is simple, coding it is perhaps
not.

Who here is in a position to do so in their Copious Free Time? Because
I'm not.
--
"We've got a patent on the conquering of a country through the use of force.
We believe in world peace through extortionate license fees." -Bluemeat