Mail5 / 11/3/2005 12:00p

[dvanburen]

The virus is the root cause of all these problems. It's not that the virus just 'dissapeared', although that would be nice. We tweaked the settings on the mailserver until we finally found a set that works well in this situation. I think we will all be happy if this is the final resolution to this ongoing issue with duplicate emails.

[Brangwyn]

Oh, I agree that the latest craziness is not due to contact form spam alone, but the above solution has stopped, for one of my domains alone, about 90 contact form attacks a day, each containing hundreds of emails bcc'd in each message through the exploit.

The simplest contact form is still the best I reckon .. mailto:blah .. very hard to abuse

[Silverbug]

The simplest contact form is still the best I reckon .. mailto:blah .. very hard to abuse

however its also the easiest for spambots to harvest

[Brangwyn]

Encode it.

<script type='text/javascript'>
// <!-- 1199764218
// This script is (C) Copyright 2004 Jim Tucek
// Leave these comments alone!  For more info, visit
// www.jracademy.com/~jtucek/email/ 
function bind(steel,soul,cleverness) {
steel += ' ';
var athlete = steel.length;
var atmosphere = 0;
var kiss = '';
for(var bed = 0; bed < athlete; bed++) {
atmosphere = 0;
while(steel.charCodeAt(bed) != 32) {
atmosphere = atmosphere * 10;
atmosphere = atmosphere + steel.charCodeAt(bed)-48;
bed++;
}
kiss += String.fromCharCode(hold(atmosphere,soul,cleverness));
}
parent.location = 'm'+'a'+'i'+'l'+'t'+'o'+':'+kiss;
}
function forgive(sky,crime,square) {
sky += ' ';
var diablura = sky.length;
var equipment = 0;
for(var experiment = 0; experiment < diablura; experiment++) {
equipment = 0;
while(sky.charCodeAt(experiment) != 32) {
equipment = equipment * 10;
equipment = equipment + sky.charCodeAt(experiment)-48;
experiment++;
}
//document.write('&');
//document.write('#');
//document.write(hold(equipment,crime,square));
document.write(String.fromCharCode(hold(equipment,crime,square)));
}
}
function hold(lion,license,lottery) {
if (lottery % 2 == 0) {
matter = 1;
for(var spoon = 1; spoon <= lottery/2; spoon++) {
moss = (lion*lion) % license;
matter = (moss*matter) % license;
}
} else {
matter = lion;
for(var bunny = 1; bunny <= lottery/2; bunny++) {
moss = (lion*lion) % license;
matter = (moss*matter) % license;
}
}
return matter;
}
// -->
</script>
<!-- Clicking on this link uses javascript to decrypt the email address -->
<a href='javascript:bind("1449 384 2101 2078 384 1330 2078 1541 1195 384 2101 733 566 1330 46 2013 384 2101 1762 1449 610 1145 166 2078 2013 1189 98 743 2078 1449 1189 2099 217 2101 733 566 930",2117,1613)'>Click to email me</a>
<BR>- or -<BR>
<!-- Alternativly, you can have the script display the text of your email address -->
<!-- which is less secure, but it's better than nothing and looks better -->
Email me at <a href='javascript:bind("1449 384 2101 2078 384 1330 2078 1541 1195 384 2101 733 566 1330 46 2013 384 2101 1762 1449 610 1145 166 2078 2013 1189 98 743 2078 1449 1189 2099 217 2101 733 566 930",2117,1613)' onMouseOver="self.status=''; return true;" onMouseOut="self.status=' '; return true;"><script type='text/javascript'>forgive("1449 384 2101 2078 384 1330 2078 1541 1195 384 2101 733 566 1330 46 2013 384 2101",2117,1613)</script></a>  (A tad bit less secure, but looks better.  So, the question is whether you're shallow or not. ;)

[DigitalSkyline]

I don't get how load on the server from virus activity or just eavy usage would cause the server to send duplicate emails... can someone explain this to me please.

As mentioned previously this is the reason why people get accused of spamming when they only sent a single email and the mail server sends 30 copies of that email.

There has to be some other explaination.

[Altair]

This is just a guess...

I think it has more to do with the email program people use. My thought is this... If the server is taking a long time to send an email, your email application will timeout and attempt to send the email again and again and so on.

Another thing could be the server itself... Same type of problem... The server attempts to send mail and fails, so it tries again and again. Stacking up emails in the outgoing mail on the server.

Or it could be a bit of both....

Just a wild guess, but it helps ME sleep at night

Are things still slow for anyone?

[Francisco]

Yep ALTAIR, you´re right I solve the repeated emails issue during the mail5 problem in the past days just increasing the "waiting time" on the advanced properties of outlook by default is 1 minute so I increase that to 5 and the repeated emails send by my accounts stop Not a real solution becouse non of this is supposed to happen but at least I stop complains from my clients

[mresell]

It is always a good idea to bump up the wait time or time out. It cut's down on those timeout messages also. I actually got a rather vague message from mail1 or forward the other night about it taking too long. It bounced back, but didn't happen again tho.

[bubba]

Originally Posted by Brangwyn

Encode it.

<script type='text/javascript'>
// <!-- 1199764218
// This script is (C) Copyright 2004 Jim Tucek
// Leave these comments alone!  For more info, visit
// www.jracademy.com/~jtucek/email/ 
function bind(steel,soul,cleverness) {
steel += ' ';
var athlete = steel.length;
var atmosphere = 0;
var kiss = '';
for(var bed = 0; bed < athlete; bed++) {
atmosphere = 0;
while(steel.charCodeAt(bed) != 32) {
atmosphere = atmosphere * 10;
atmosphere = atmosphere + steel.charCodeAt(bed)-48;
bed++;
}
kiss += String.fromCharCode(hold(atmosphere,soul,cleverness));
}
parent.location = 'm'+'a'+'i'+'l'+'t'+'o'+':'+kiss;
}
function forgive(sky,crime,square) {
sky += ' ';
var diablura = sky.length;
var equipment = 0;
for(var experiment = 0; experiment < diablura; experiment++) {
equipment = 0;
while(sky.charCodeAt(experiment) != 32) {
equipment = equipment * 10;
equipment = equipment + sky.charCodeAt(experiment)-48;
experiment++;
}
//document.write('&');
//document.write('#');
//document.write(hold(equipment,crime,square));
document.write(String.fromCharCode(hold(equipment,crime,square)));
}
}
function hold(lion,license,lottery) {
if (lottery % 2 == 0) {
matter = 1;
for(var spoon = 1; spoon <= lottery/2; spoon++) {
moss = (lion*lion) % license;
matter = (moss*matter) % license;
}
} else {
matter = lion;
for(var bunny = 1; bunny <= lottery/2; bunny++) {
moss = (lion*lion) % license;
matter = (moss*matter) % license;
}
}
return matter;
}
// -->
</script>
<!-- Clicking on this link uses javascript to decrypt the email address -->
<a href='javascript:bind("1449 384 2101 2078 384 1330 2078 1541 1195 384 2101 733 566 1330 46 2013 384 2101 1762 1449 610 1145 166 2078 2013 1189 98 743 2078 1449 1189 2099 217 2101 733 566 930",2117,1613)'>Click to email me</a>
<BR>- or -<BR>
<!-- Alternativly, you can have the script display the text of your email address -->
<!-- which is less secure, but it's better than nothing and looks better -->
Email me at <a href='javascript:bind("1449 384 2101 2078 384 1330 2078 1541 1195 384 2101 733 566 1330 46 2013 384 2101 1762 1449 610 1145 166 2078 2013 1189 98 743 2078 1449 1189 2099 217 2101 733 566 930",2117,1613)' onMouseOver="self.status=''; return true;" onMouseOut="self.status=' '; return true;"><script type='text/javascript'>forgive("1449 384 2101 2078 384 1330 2078 1541 1195 384 2101 733 566 1330 46 2013 384 2101",2117,1613)</script></a>  (A tad bit less secure, but looks better.  So, the question is whether you're shallow or not. ;)

I was playing with this and it looks prety cool.

When I click the email link that it generates it trys to open outlook express and send using hotmail.

Do you know what is the solution is to this?

(the script author says he may not respond for a few days to FAQ's)

Thanks,
b

[cleonard]

I always just used this

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="Javascript">
name="webmaster"
at="@"
domain="yourdomain.com.com"
document.write("<A HREF='mailto:"+name+""+at+""+domain+"' class='pagecontentlink'>"+name+""+at+""+domain+"</a>")
</script>

[mresell]

Just a thought..just glanced at code, but do check the content. This line looks wrong with cleverness and there was an extra space after a comma on document.write line.
kiss += String.fromCharCode(hold(atmosphere,soul,clevernes s));

javascript isn't as exact as some languages, but it can cause problems. Did you look at what the link is asking? Is your pc setup to use outlook express? May not be a malfunction, but needs to be changed.

[Brangwyn]

What happens when you click an unencoded mailto link ? chances are, OE pops up then too.

Theres a good number of ways to encode or obfuscate mailto links using javascript, some of the simpler ones I believe have been countered by harvesters, the one I posted above does seem to be (to me at least) fairly compicatred to reverse and unencode it using any form of script/harvester .. though, don't take that as it being 100% perfect or safe either I guess YMMV

[mresell]

Bubba you need to go to the authors site to make your own. The key here is you need to enter the email address to encrypt it. The variables are also randomized.

[dpyers]

A friend of mine has a free utility for obfuscating maito's 4 different ways - http://renegademinds.com/Default.aspx?tabid=68