[Gllug] [OT] spam accident

[Ian Lewis]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Schutzer-Weissmann [mailto:trmsw at yahoo.co.uk] 
> Sent: 19 May 2005 10:29
> To: Greater London Linux User Group
> Subject: [Gllug] [OT] spam accident

> Someone at work receives emails from an organisation who sent one
> particular email to about 200 people. The email somehow "got 
> replicated"
> and filled up our POP server and many others with 1000s of copies of
> itself.
> 
> The organisation responsible for this accidental DOS have 
> explained that
> this was because of a dodgy email server 'somewhere in 
> Shropshire' madly
> spawning copies of the email, but I wondered if putting so many
> addresses into one email might be partly responsible. Has anyone come
> across something similar?

We've been victims of this particular problem a few times. It appears that if
an unpatched M$ POP3 (mspop3connector) receives an email containing a large
number of addresses stupidly placed in the To: or Cc: field it will choke and
then start to send out (I know pop3 can't send)  huge numbers of copies of
the email.

Of course MS in their wisdom conncted the POP3 server to the SMTP server in
their own way.

The only way we could deal with it in the end to avoid a DOS was to REJECT
the From: of the original sender. And complain loudly.

> 
> Perhaps I should suggest they use proper mailing list software?

Definitely. 
That's a subject in itself!


Cheers,
Ian

 
> cheers,
> Tom
> 
> 
> 
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