Debian Bug report logs - #611804
Astonishing header mangling

Reply or subscribe to this bug.

Toggle useless messages

Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>

To: submit@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Astonishing header mangling

Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2011 13:04:28 +0000

Package: mailman
Version: 1:2.1.11-11+lenny1
Severity: serious

Mailman does stuff to the headers of messages which pass through it.
This can completely break the syntax and semantics of eg the CC
header.

Mailman should not edit existing headers _at all_.

For example, I sent this message (using Emacs VM):

  Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2011 13:00:59 +0000
  MIME-Version: 1.0
  Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
  Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
  To: test-list@chiark.greenend.org.uk
  Cc: Ian Jackson <Ian.Jackson@eu.citrix.com>, Ian Jackson
	  <ijackson+long.address@slimy.greenend.org.uk>, Some Person With
	  A Whole Paragraph Of Words Preceding Their Email Address Which
	  Will Make It Word Wrap <0ijacksonk.test@slimy.greenend.org.uk>,
	  Some Other Address <0ijacksonk.test2@slimy.greenend.org.uk>
  Subject: Re: Test message
  In-Reply-To: <19785.18559.624449.560200@mariner.uk.xensource.com>
  References: <19785.18559.624449.560200@mariner.uk.xensource.com>
  X-Mailer: VM 8.0.9 under Emacs 22.2.1 (i486-pc-linux-gnu)

  Body.

What arrived the other side of mailman and exim4 was this:

  From test-list-bounces@chiark.greenend.org.uk Wed Feb 02 13:01:00 2011
  Return-path: <test-list-bounces@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
  Envelope-to: ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk
  Received: from localhost
	  ([127.0.0.1] helo=chiark.greenend.org.uk ident=list)
	  by chiark.greenend.org.uk (Debian Exim 4.69 #1) with esmtp
	  (return-path test-list-bounces@chiark.greenend.org.uk)
	  id 1PkcKS-0008Cm-RN; Wed, 02 Feb 2011 13:01:00 +0000
  Received: by chiark.greenend.org.uk (Debian Exim 4.69 #1) with local
	  (return-path ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk)
	  id 1PkcKR-0008Bl-BP; Wed, 02 Feb 2011 13:00:59 +0000
  Message-ID: <19785.21899.335155.540143@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
  MIME-Version: 1.0
  In-Reply-To: <19785.18559.624449.560200@mariner.uk.xensource.com>
  References: <19785.18559.624449.560200@mariner.uk.xensource.com>
  X-Mailer: VM 8.0.9 under Emacs 22.2.1 (i486-pc-linux-gnu)
  X-BeenThere: test-list@chiark.greenend.org.uk
  X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.11
  Precedence: list
  List-Id: "test mailing list, not archived" <test-list.chiark.greenend.org.uk>
  List-Unsubscribe: <http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/mailman/options/test-list>, 
	  <mailto:test-list-request@chiark.greenend.org.uk?subject=unsubscribe>
  List-Post: <mailto:test-list@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
  List-Help: <mailto:test-list-request@chiark.greenend.org.uk?subject=help>
  List-Subscribe: <http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/test-list>, 
	  <mailto:test-list-request@chiark.greenend.org.uk?subject=subscribe>
  Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
  Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
  Errors-To: test-list-bounces@chiark.greenend.org.uk
  From: Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
  Sender: test-list-bounces@chiark.greenend.org.uk
  To: test-list@chiark.greenend.org.uk
  Cc: A@chiark.greenend.org.uk, Some Other Address <0ijacksonk.test2@slimy.greenend.org.uk>,
	  Will Make It Word Wrap <0ijacksonk.test@slimy.greenend.org.uk>,
	  Ian Jackson <Ian.Jackson@eu.citrix.com>,
	  Ian Jackson <ijackson+long.address@slimy.greenend.org.uk>, Some@chiark.greenend.org.uk
  Subject: Re: Test message
  Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2011 13:00:59 +0000

  Body.

  _______________________________________________
  test-list maillist  -  test-list@chiark.greenend.org.uk
  http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/test-list

Message #10 received at 611804@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: "Thijs Kinkhorst" <thijs@debian.org>

To: "Ian Jackson" <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>, 611804@bugs.debian.org

Cc: control@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: [Pkg-mailman-hackers] Bug#611804: Astonishing header mangling

Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2011 21:28:25 +0200

tags 611804 moreinfo
severity 611804 important
thanks

Hi Ian,

On Wed, February 2, 2011 15:04, Ian Jackson wrote:
> Package: mailman
> Version: 1:2.1.11-11+lenny1
> Severity: serious
>
> Mailman does stuff to the headers of messages which pass through it.
> This can completely break the syntax and semantics of eg the CC
> header.
>
> Mailman should not edit existing headers _at all_.
>
> For example, I sent this message (using Emacs VM):
>
>   Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2011 13:00:59 +0000
>   MIME-Version: 1.0
>   Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>   Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>   To: test-list@chiark.greenend.org.uk
>   Cc: Ian Jackson <Ian.Jackson@eu.citrix.com>, Ian Jackson
> 	  <ijackson+long.address@slimy.greenend.org.uk>, Some Person With
> 	  A Whole Paragraph Of Words Preceding Their Email Address Which
> 	  Will Make It Word Wrap <0ijacksonk.test@slimy.greenend.org.uk>,
> 	  Some Other Address <0ijacksonk.test2@slimy.greenend.org.uk>

Thanks for reporting this, but I cannot reproduce it. I'm also using
mailman/1:2.1.11-11+lenny1 to test, with Postfix, and these headers (I
changed only the email addresses) pass through literally, without change.

Since you have a system where you're experiencing the issue, perhaps you
can try to find out more to pinpoint which combination is needed to
trigger this problem, or if newer Mailman versions make any difference.

In any case, reproducible or not, I do not think that release critical
severity is justified here. For the moment assuming this is Mailmans
fault, yes, it's a bug, the situation that triggers it is sufficiently
exotic to not make Mailman completely unusable.

cheers,
Thijs

Send a report that this bug log contains spam.