Re: [Exim] Problems with Norton Antivirus SMTP dropping mail

On Tue, Feb 10, 2004 at 04:18:58PM -0700, Kevin Reed said:
> Not sure if anyone else is running into this.
>
> Apparently there is some sort of problem with Norton Antivirus SMTP and
> certain MIME encoded mail arriving from an Exchange 5.5 server.

The last time I analyzed mail problems with Norton's crappy product, the
only solution was to replace it. Looking at their other product that
messes with SMTP (the desktop AV) which can't handle SMTP AUTH
correctly, it's clear that the people coding these products know nothing
at all about SMTP.

> The Antivirus package apparently barfs on the MIME content saying it is
> malformed.
>
> This is wierd because we basically use plain text to the Internet and they
> are apparently having problems with even regular messages without any
> attachments.
>
> I don't think this is Exim related even though the mail travels through a
> series of Exim servers before getting to the Internet. Also, the mail is
> being routed through MessageLabs in the UK and they don't have any problem
> scanning it for spam or viruses before forwarding it on to the destination
> site which then has a problem.
>
> When this occurs, apparently Norton Antivirus drops the message completely
> with little or no notice.
>
> Just in case someone else is running into wierd delivery or non-delivery
> problems this might be a problem for others. If Norton has rolled out a
> broken product, it might be the hosts using it don't know they have a
> problem.

If? There is no if. It's quite broken. :-)

And your right, it's not exim related, but it is something that exim
admins are going to run into, so it's good to know. Thanks!