On 8/26/2022 10:00 AM, post...@ptld.com wrote:
is telling logging to add the '?' at the line break.
Unprintable characters are replaced with "?"
I understand that concept. The only part that leaves me confused is
where did an unprintable character come from and how can you tell
there was an unprintable character in the subject line to be able to
assume that is the reason why? IMO that seems unlikely.
The mail client is free to put whatever crap in the Subject (and
other headers and the envelope) they want, regardless of standards
or usefulness. It would be unsafe to send this crap to the logs
since there is a rich history of exploits against logging systems
and various log analysis tools. Therefore unprintable characters -
which have the greatest possibility of breaking things yet are
easily filtered - are replaced in the log with "?" for safety.
Wietse said postfix logging "does not alter subject lines".
Replacing unprintable characters with '?' in my opinion is altering,
if that is what is happening.
Both statements are true.
Postfix does not alter the subject line as eventually delivered. The
logging is altered/sanitized for safety.
I can tell that im beating a dead horse now and will just let this
issue go. Bug or not, it is clear that it is not going to change.
Thank you everyone for the replies.
There is nothing to change, except possibly documenting this
behavior better.
-- Noel Jones
