TEXT/PLAIN: ALERT("OUTLOOK EXPRESS")

Friday, July 25, 2003

Active Scripting and HTML in a plain text mail message: 

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Source: 25.07.03 http://www.malware.com

<img dynsrc=javascript:alert()><font color=red>foo


The above is a legitimate RFC822 mail message in plain text. 
Ordinarily one would require an html mail message [Content-Type: 
text/html;] to parse html and scripting. The above functions under a 
plain text mail message in Outlook Express 6.00 and Outlook Express 
5.5 [perhaps others]. Outlook Exprss 6 has restricted zone as default 
as well as an option to read messages in plain text [use it !]. Other 
versions do not.

This was definitely fixed way back when:

[see: http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/3334 ]

And now appears to be back.

It can be of interest to admins who filter based on content type at 
the gateway, as well as newsgroup operators who do the same [less so 
as comprehensive].

Notes:

1. We're working on html in the 'plain text' zone of OE6 next.
2. None.


End Call

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