At 10:57 AM 8/3/95, Marianne Reed wrote:
>Are any of you ListPROC owners?
I was, but it turns out that this isn't really a listproc question.
>However, listPROC's don't seem to allow the id/address to be specified with
>the command, preferring to take only the id/address in the FROM: field of the
>message. I've also tried specifying the subscription address in the REPLY-TO:
>field, hoping that the listproc will take it from there. No luck. I've also
>tried specifying my password for the list in the command, but UNSUBSCRIBE
>and the command to temporarily hold mail from the list do not allow passwords
>to be used with them.
Basically you want to create a mail message with the "correct" address in
the From: line. To this end, I think that knowing how to forge email is a
very valuable skill for any list owner and/or postmaster, so I'll post some
instructions. For those of you on VMs with only bitnet access, this isn't
going to help you at all. Those of you with VM, VMS, Unix, Mac, DOS (or
Windows) machines that are on the internet can use these instructions.
Internet mail travels using a protocol call SMTP -- the Simple Mail
Transport Protocol. You don't need to know a whole lot about the protocol,
just a few simple commands.
First of all, you have to open a telnet session to port 25 on *almost any*
machine that receives email. It's most efficient if the machine you
connect to is the one that the mail will eventually be going to, but other
machines will forward your mail appropriately. If you are behind a
firewall, for example, you'll want to communicate with your company's mail
router, which will forward your mail on to the internet.
How you open a telnet session to port 25 varies based on what kind of
machine you're on. Let's suppose that the machine you're trying to connect
to is called mailhost.domain.edu, and the machine you're on is called
localhost.domain.edu.
Mac: Use NCSA Telnet, and in the open session window, type in
"mailhost.domain.edu 25" where it says "session"
DOS: Try typing "telnet mailhost.domain.edu 25" at a prompt. If that doesn't
work, ask your sysadmin -- there's too many variations to document here.
Windows: Open your telnet program, probably called telnet, vt220, or tnvt,
go to file...open session, and type in "mailhost.domain.edu 25". I'm
assuming that if you have a telnet program installed, someone
probably went to the trouble of configuring it so that it works.
VMS: Type "telnet mailhost.domain.edu 25"
VM: Type "Library TCPIP", then type "telnet mailhost.domain.edu 25"
Unix: Type "telnet mailhost.domain.edu 25" at a shell prompt.
(From now on, messages that are sent back to you from mailhost.domain.edu
are going to be on their own line, preceeded by a number. I'll try to make
it obvious when I'm telling you to type something into the session.)
Ok, now you have a connection on the SMTP port of mailhost. When that
machine is ready to talk to you, you should see a message like:
220-mailhost.domain.edu Sendmail 8.6.10/8.6.9 ready
220 ESMTP spoken here
At this point you need to identify yourself. Type in:
HELO localhost.domain.edu
You should get a response back acknowledging who you are:
250 mailhost Hello localhost.domain.edu [a.d.c.d], pleased to meet you
Now that you've greeted each other, you're ready to get down to the
business of sending a message. First you say who the mail is from. *This
is the most crucial part of this entire post* because this is where you
fool the system
into thinking that you're somebody else. Type in
MAIL FROM:<[log in to unmask]>
Note that the colon and the surrounding greater than and less than signs
are vital. When you press return you should get an acknowledgement that
the mailer understands who you are.
250 <[log in to unmask]>... Sender ok
The next step is to tell the mailer where to send the message. Type:
RCPT TO:<[log in to unmask]>
Again, the colon and the greater than and less than signs are vital. And
again, you should get an acknowledgement back, saying that the mailer knows
how to deliver mail to that address:
250 <[log in to unmask]>... Recipient ok
Now you have to actually type in the message. To start doing this, type in:
DATA
You'll get an acknowledgement back saying that the mailer is waiting for you
to type:
354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
At this point you need to enter the message, headers first. It often
suprises people who are learning how to forge mail that all the headers
need to be typed in, but this part of the standard. A good format might
be:
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Unsubscribe mail-list
.
There are a few things to notice here. First, I've only put in From: and
To: headers. You can add a Reply-To: if you want to receive some kind of
acknowledgement. I didn't add a subject because listserv doesn't use it,
and I didn't add a date because a)listserv ignores it, and b)most mailers
will add it for you.
Notice that there is a *blank line* between the headers and the body of the
message. This often disturbs ricemail users, who are used to a line of
equal signs between their headers and body. Ricemail removes that line
when it sends the message.
Finally, notice that I ended the message by typing a period in the first
column of a line and pressed return. After you do that, the mailer should
respond saying that it has accepted the message from you:
250 NAA01600 Message accepted for delivery
At this point, you're ready to leave. Just type:
QUIT
and you should be logged out, possibly after a good-bye message.
I hope this little tutorial makes it easier for some of you to deal
with problems that might arise in managing your lists. I also hope it
gives you some idea how very easy it is to forge internet email -- you can
imagine using the same method to create a SPAM or an anonymous message to
someone. I hope that everyone will use their judgement, and only send
prank anonymous messages to people who can take a joke.
Caveat: I am speaking for myself, not for Brown University or my Employer.
Lee Silverman [log in to unmask] http://www.netspace.org/users/lee/
Live each day as if your life had just begun. -- Goethe
|
