Bug 14873

Summary:	corrupted file attachments when mail passes a FreeBSD v.3.1 exchanger
Product:	Base System	Reporter:	administrator <administrator>
Component:	misc	Assignee:	Greg Lehey <grog>
Status:	Closed FIXED
Severity:	Affects Only Me
Priority:	Normal
Version:	Unspecified
Hardware:	Any
OS:	Any

Description administrator 1999-11-14 14:40:01 UTC

When mail client is configured for html certain file attachments (MS
Word, MS Excel) can become corrupted when they pass BSD mail
exchangers. I have been able to create this problem when sending mail
from Swedish Telias mail servers and when bouncing mail of our new
smtp server, smtp2.tbv.se.  The old (v.2.2.5) FreeBSD firewall does
not cause this problem.

How-To-Repeat: Configure client (in our case MS Outlook or Outlook Express) for html
format (as opposed to plain text format).  Attach a simple MS Word or
MS Excel file to a message.  Send the message via a (recent version)
BSD mail exchanger.  >Fix: Only known fix as yet is to configure
clients for plain text which is, unfortunately, not the default in
Outlook Express.  It is possible that something was overlooked in
configuring FreeBSD 3.1 in our new smtp server.  However, the problem
can also be caused by sending mail from Swedish Telias mail server
(Telia uses a BSD variety on their mail exchangers).

Comment 1 james.wilde 1999-11-24 22:00:14 UTC

Hello:

I have now investigated this further and have had my findings
verified by an independent UNIX consultant.

I am now convinced that the problem lies not in the mail client
software but in the operating system.  Somewhere between versions
2.2.5 and 3.1 FreeBSD - and possibly other varieties of BSD UNIX
became 'broken'.  The problem is reproducible and demonstrable.  It
has not gone away in version 3.2.

Since I have now taken our Y2K-safe mail exchanger out of function as
a result of this problem and don't know in which version the problem
first arose, Y2K-safe or pre-Y2K-safe, I really need a solution
within the next 30 days and would like to ask you to upgrade the
problem to critical.

I repeat that you may have access to my experiments and I can arrange
that you relay from our mail exchangers for the purposes of testing
for reproducibility.

Thanks for your attention.

mvh/regards

James Wilde
administrator@tbv.se
Mail and DNS administrator
TBV Head Office
Stockholm, Sweden

Comment 2 Greg Lehey freebsd_committer

1999-11-24 22:41:32 UTC

State Changed
From-To: open->feedback

Awaiting feedback from submitter.

Comment 3 Greg Lehey freebsd_committer

1999-11-24 22:41:32 UTC

Responsible Changed
From-To: freebsd-bugs->grog

grog is looking at this PR.

Comment 4 james.wilde 1999-11-29 19:17:57 UTC

Further investigation has revealed the following:

The machine which shows no trace of the problem, stofw.tbv.se, runs =
FreeBSD 2.2.5 with which the included=20
Sendmail is version 8.9.1.  The affected machine, smtp2.tbv.se, runs =
FreeBSD 3.1 which has Senmail 8.9.2.
A third machine we have tested runs FreeBSD 3.2 and Sendmail 8.9.3.

Compiling Sendmail 8.9.1 on the machine running FreeBSD 3.1 produces =
clean output.  We have yet to take the
reverse step of compiling Sendmail 8.9.2 or above on the machine running =
FreeBSD 2.2.5 to see whether this
causes the problem.

In that case, it would appear reasonable to assume that the version of =
Sendmail in use on the machine is important.

It would further be interesting to see which version of Sendmail is =
being used on the two systems which are not
affected by the problem, and which use Sun Solaris as the UNIX operating =
system.

mvh/regards

James Wilde

Comment 5 grog 1999-11-29 21:27:47 UTC

[Format recovered--see http://www.lemis.com/email/email-format.html]

On Monday, 29 November 1999 at 20:17:57 +0100, James A Wilde wrote:
> Further investigation has revealed the following:
>
> The machine which shows no trace of the problem, stofw.tbv.se, runs
> FreeBSD 2.2.5 with which the included Sendmail is version 8.9.1.
> The affected machine, smtp2.tbv.se, runs FreeBSD 3.1 which has
> Senmail 8.9.2.  A third machine we have tested runs FreeBSD 3.2 and
> Sendmail 8.9.3.

And what were the results with this last machine?

> Compiling Sendmail 8.9.1 on the machine running FreeBSD 3.1 produces
> clean output.  We have yet to take the reverse step of compiling
> Sendmail 8.9.2 or above on the machine running FreeBSD 2.2.5 to see
> whether this causes the problem.
>
> In that case, it would appear reasonable to assume that the version
> of Sendmail in use on the machine is important.

Yes, looking at the stuff you sent me, it seemed so.  I haven't had
time for a thorough examination, but I note that at one point the text
// at the beginning of a line grows a prepended 'file:'.  Since this
is an encoded file, the text // is random, and the 'file:' undoubtedly
causes corruption.  I don't know if this is the only problem, though,
but considering that sendmail does autoconversion, it's possible that
this is a bug in sendmail.

> It would further be interesting to see which version of Sendmail is
> being used on the two systems which are not affected by the problem,
> and which use Sun Solaris as the UNIX operating system.

Indeed.  Keep me informed.

Greg
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Comment 6 Greg Lehey freebsd_committer

1999-12-23 01:57:31 UTC

State Changed
From-To: feedback->closed

Problem has been resolved (sendmail, not FreeBSD)