Fwd: E-mail attachments and local names

Fwd: E-mail attachments and local names

[Robert Bihlmeyer]

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Hi,

this just came on comp.risks:


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From: rubin@research.att.com (Avi Rubin)
Subject: E-mail attachments and local names
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 17:46:58 GMT

I just had a mildly embarrassing incident because of a Netscape mail
"feature" when sending attachments. I'm sure that other mailers do this as
well. When attaching a file to an e-mail message, the local name of the file
is included in the attachment.  So, the recipient gets to see the contents
of the file, as you would hope, but also the local name that you gave
it. Imagine several possible embarrassing scenarios:

  Attachment: our.most.gullable.client.invoice.doc
  Attachment: proposal.with.doctored.data.xls
  Etc.

It seems that the user should be able to rename the attachment for the
purposes of the message or that the file should just be called attachment1,
attachment2, ...

Avi Rubin

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In gnus, a
<#part ... filename="path/bla" disposition=attachment>
<#/!part>
will also leak the basename of filename ("bla" in this case) into the
message. While I think this is mostly a useful feature, should this be 
made more obvious/intuitive?

        Robbe

-- 
Robert Bihlmeyer       reads: Deutsch, English, MIME, Latin-1, NO SPAM!
<robbe@orcus.priv.at>    <http://stud2.tuwien.ac.at/~e9426626/sig.html>

Re: Fwd: E-mail attachments and local names

[Hrvoje Niksic]

Robert Bihlmeyer <robbe@orcus.priv.at> writes:

> It seems that the user should be able to rename the attachment for
> the purposes of the message or that the file should just be called
> attachment1, attachment2, ...

I agree that there should be an option to do that.  I usually store my 
patches in a dummy file like `fl', which is short and makes sense for
me, but looks quite ugly in the resulting MIME message.

Re: Fwd: E-mail attachments and local names

[Kai Großjohann]

Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@srce.hr> writes:

> I agree that there should be an option to do that.  I usually store my 
> patches in a dummy file like `fl', which is short and makes sense for
> me, but looks quite ugly in the resulting MIME message.

In addition to the filename parameter there is a name (or was it
file?) parameter in the MML stuff.  Filename gives the name of the
local file, and I guess Gnus just uses it for the file name in the
message if nothing else is specified.

kai
-- 
Life is hard and then you die.

Re: Fwd: E-mail attachments and local names

[David S. Goldberg]

>>>>> Kai Großjohann writes:

> In addition to the filename parameter there is a name (or was it
> file?) parameter in the MML stuff.  Filename gives the name of the
> local file, and I guess Gnus just uses it for the file name in the
> message if nothing else is specified.

I thought that too.  Then I tried it :-) Unfortunately, the name tag
gets copied to the Content-Type part rather than Content-Disposition,
where the filename tag goes.  The latter gets preference for the
suggested filename when saving.  The former just shows up as a label
in the button.  What's needed is either an option that says if both
name and filename are specified in MML, then after using filename to
load the content, the filename tag in the Content-Disposition header
gets the value of the name tag; or, invent a new tag if overloading
name is a bad idea.  I started to make a pass at doing just that
(called `filesuggestion' for lack of a better idea) yesterday.  I'll
post a patch once its ready and I've had a chance to try it out.
-- 
Dave Goldberg
Post: The Mitre Corporation\MS B325\202 Burlington Rd.\Bedford, MA 01730
Phone: 781-271-3887
Email: dsg@mitre.org

Re: Fwd: E-mail attachments and local names

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

dsg@mitre.org (David S. Goldberg) writes:

> I thought that too.  Then I tried it :-) Unfortunately, the name tag
> gets copied to the Content-Type part rather than Content-Disposition,
> where the filename tag goes.  The latter gets preference for the
> suggested filename when saving.  The former just shows up as a label
> in the button.  What's needed is either an option that says if both
> name and filename are specified in MML, then after using filename to
> load the content, the filename tag in the Content-Disposition header
> gets the value of the name tag; or, invent a new tag if overloading
> name is a bad idea.  I started to make a pass at doing just that
> (called `filesuggestion' for lack of a better idea) yesterday.  I'll
> post a patch once its ready and I've had a chance to try it out.

I think if people compose a Word document called
They-Are-Going-To-Go-Broke-If-They-Sign-This-Contact.doc and send it
off, they deserve having the recipient seeing what the name of the
document is.  (And in the case of Word files, the name of the file is
also stored inside the file itself.  Ha!)

But, sure, adding a new parameter -- displayfilename, for instance --
would be OK.  If you send me a patch, I'll apply it.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen