Re: Eudora MUA: Risky practice

From: Will Bryant (will@core-dev.co.nz)
Date: Mon Aug 27 2001 - 09:27:39 PDT

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    >         A user deleting the attachments from the disk (for example, 
    > hundreds of
    >copies of Sircam) can execute one of them by accident. This deletion is
    >usually done from the Windows file manager, which will never ask for
    >confirmation before executing a file. [snip]
    
    Note that recent versions of Eudora have a feature to prevent exactly this 
    problem - when opening certain types of files in your attachments directory 
    from Explorer (yes, outside Eudora itself), you will be given a yes/no 
    confirmation prompt with this warning:
    
    'The file "<file name>" may contain programs or macros.  Opening it might 
    transmit your data over the Internet, or alter, damage, or remove files and 
    applications on your computer.  Unless you not only trusted the sender, but 
    also expected this file, you may not wish to open it.  Do you wish to open it?'
    
    Not as perfect solution, but definitely a good idea anyway.
    
    It only happens for certain file types - 
    HKCR\Software\Qualcomm\Eudora\LaunchManager lists the paths (both the 
    attachments and embedded folders) and file extensions (ade, adp, bas, bat, 
    chm, cmd, com, cpl, crt, do, exe, hlp, ht, inf, ins, isp, js, lnk, md, ms, 
    pcd, pif, pl, pot, pp, pwz, reg, scr, sct, shb, shs, url, vb, ws, xl) it 
    will prompt for.  (Incidentally, it doesn't prompt for .url files for me 
    even though they're on the list.  Haven't tested all the others.)
    
    I don't know how it's implemented - some sort of shell extension, I assume 
    it just hooks all opens from Explorer and checks them against the 
    lists.  Perhaps someone at Qualcomm can fill us in?
    
    
    Personally I would however still prefer it to not extract attachments out 
    to the directory automatically - it is more manageable than say Outlook 
    Express where people tend to end up with 90mb mail folders, but it does 
    cause a lot of mess and worry for those of us who use Eudora to read 
    buqtraq :) (and it's a pain when you get a lot of mail with 
    attachments.)  IMHO it would be much nicer if it say didn't seperate the 
    attachments by default, but let you do it manually.
    
    Fixing the problem noted on bugtraq a while back where people can 'fake' 
    attachments by putting in the 'Attachment Converted:' text in the body of 
    an email would be good, too.
    
    _______________________________________________________________________
    Will Bryant, will@core-dev.co.nz                    cell +64 21 655 443
    http://www.core-dev.co.nz/             Personal: http://carcino.gen.nz/
    [PGP 0x96A7F40A, FP 827F A2A9 C718 106D 8F80  E16E A244 D5F2 96A7 F40A]
    



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