n s srikanth

Hi All
I use a dual boot(Win98/RH9.0) system.
When composing an e mail message with a picture
in Outlook Express, I paste the picture inside the
message area itself, I do not attach it to the mail
so as to save my friends the anxiety of opening an
attachment and getting infected (Friends running
Win boxes).
I use sylpheed (0.8.2claws)in RH9.0 and am using this
for the past2 years. Now only I realise that such a
facility is not available in sylpheed.
Or is it available and has to be compiled during
configuration time and I missed out?

Cheeka

simon

["Followup-To:" header set to alt.os.linux.slackware.]


I don't use Sylpheed or Kmail, so I can't help with that part of the
problem, but let me correct a gap in your understanding of email: there
is no danger in opening attachments per se. The danger comes when the
attachment includes malicious code designed to run on the same system
that it's run on (and, generally, malicious emails will find ways of
running themselves, with Outlook Express).

As long as there's no malicious code in the attachment (e.g it's a
picture), there's no danger of getting infected. If they're that
worried about it, they can always save the attachment to disc somewhere
and scan it for viruses before opening it. --
Simon <simon@no-dns-yet.org.uk> **** GPG: F4A23C69
"We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty."
- Douglas Adams

walter mautner

It's still an attachment: mail clients not able to display the attachment
"inline" will offer to save it or open it with an external application.

--
Longhorn error#4711: TCPA / NGSCB VIOLATION: Microsoft optical mouse
detected penguin patterns on mousepad. Partition scan in progress
to remove offending incompatible products. Reactivate your MS software
(3 days grace period). [LinuxCounter#295241]

robert newson

That's the problem: windoze nicely "hides" extensions, but most people don't
realise this, and when they're told a picture is attached and they see it as
'picture.jpg' they're click on it...only it's actually called
'picture.jpg.exe' with Windoze hiding the ".exe" bit. The problem came from
Windoze hiding extensions (by default install?) *AND* allowing dots in a
filename - allow either, not BOTH.


For Windoze users, unless mail agent can scan, I'd advise *ALWAYS* save
attachments to disk and scan before opening (_AND_ turn off extension hiding).