[Warty] and Evolution - sent mail going to unassigned recipients - Linz

[Lindsay]

I think I need a doctorate in Computer Science.

On Sun, 2005-04-17 at 22:47 +0100, James Wilkinson wrote:
> I explained: 
> > It's possible that the worm got stripped before it reached the third
> > party.
> Quite plausible. All that would have had to happen is that the Linux
> user happened to have his address in the address book of the Windows
> user with the worm, and the infected computer would have tried sending
> him a copy of the worm.
> 
> And e-mails have two completely separate places to specify to whom they
> are sent. When an e-mail is sent via SMTP, the sending computer issues a
> line like:
> RCPT TO:<ubuntu-person at example.com>
> (the "envelope address"), and then, a bit later, sends the complete
> e-mail including the headers. The receiving computer is *only* supposed
> to use the envelope address in routing the e-mail.
> 
> That's how this e-mail got to you, the gentle reader, despite having 
> To: ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
> at the top of the e-mail: the Ubuntu server kept that line there and put
> your e-mail address in the RCPT TO: line.
> 
> (E-mail servers may put the envelope address somewhere in the headers as
> they process the e-mail, but it's not that common.)
> 
> That's how a worm can send out a message without having the recipient's
> name in the header.
> 
> Hope this helps,
> 
> James.
> 
> --