Bugtraq mailing list archives
Re: base64
From: David Wilson <David.Wilson () isode com>
Date: 24 Sep 2003 20:01:50 +0100
99.99% of all software should create the standard form, so please let the tiny fraction of users with broken software suffer when their mails get rejected. (Note: this of course applies not only to Base64 but to all aspects of header-parsing, file-format guessing etc...)
I wish it were true... I see many invalid messages, e.g. - Using CR or LF not as CR LF, or including NUL. (Forbidden for MIME messages, except for Content-transfer-encoding: binary, which needs an SMTP Extension which few MTAs support). - Using encoded words in MIME header parameter values (forbidden by RFC 2047 Page 8). - Not quoting parameters when required - Not setting Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit on all enclosing MIME composite types (multipart or message/rfc822) when 8bit is used in a data part (see RFC 2045 Section 6.4). - Using characters outside the advertised character set. (E.g. using the MS 'smart quotes' in something advertised as iso-8859-1). - Not using the 'minimum' character set (e.g. saying iso-8859-1 when us-ascii would do). - Using 8bit characters in headers. That's just in the structure of the message. The original post in this thread made the valid point that different interpreters of MIME messages make different assumptions. That applies to other areas as well as base64 decoding. cheers David Wilson David.Wilson () isode com Isode Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 8783 2961 http://www.isode.com
Current thread:
- Re: base64, (continued)
- Re: base64 Bennett Todd (Sep 22)
- Re: base64 Erwan David (Sep 23)
- Re: base64 Birl (Sep 23)
- Re: base64 Lothar Kimmeringer (Sep 24)
- Re: base64 David Wilson (Sep 24)
- Re: base64 Earl Hood (Sep 25)
- Re: base64 Christian Vogel (Sep 25)
- Re: base64 Seth Breidbart (Sep 24)
- Re: base64 Lothar Kimmeringer (Sep 24)
- Re: base64 Alexander Ogol (Sep 23)
- Re: base64 Christian Vogel (Sep 24)
- Re: base64 David Wilson (Sep 24)
- Re: base64 der Mouse (Sep 24)
- Re: base64 Christian Vogel (Sep 24)
- Re: base64 Earl Hood (Sep 26)
- RE: base64 latte (Sep 23)
- Re: base64 Ilya Teterin (Sep 23)
- Re: base64 MightyE (Sep 24)
- Re: base64 Buck Huppmann (Sep 24)
- Re: base64 Andrew Church (Sep 25)
- Message not available
- Re: base64 MightyE (Sep 25)
- Re: base64 Bennett Todd (Sep 25)
- Re: base64 MightyE (Sep 25)
- Re: base64 Buck Huppmann (Sep 24)