Re: OT: Re: Mail loop revisited

[jeremy at omsys dot com (Jeremy H. Griffith)]

On Sun, 29 Oct 2000 15:39:20 -0400 (EST), "John E. Simpson" 
<simpson@polaris.net> wrote:

>Just out of curiosity, what is it that causes the looping? 
>some setting in a mail reader program?

No.  It's usually when someone sets up a redistribution list,
consisting of others in the same company interested in the topic.
The error is adding the *list posting* address to this list,
which happens when someone thinks, "Hey, if it's of interest
to this local group, it should go to the XXX-List too!"

Then you have posts from the list going back to the list.
The quick fix is to include a specific X-header in the
outgoing mail (by convention, "X-MailLoop: 1"), then look
for it in the incoming posts and reject any that have it
(which must be from your list or maybe another list).

This will not of course stop an intentional attack, but
then not much will short of the IRL* police...  ;-)  In
most cases the error is perfectly innocent, and the perp
is as horrified as everyone else.  And often quite unaware
that they are the cause.

(*IRL = "In Real Life")

-- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
  (jeremy@omsys.com)  http://www.omsys.com/




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