M Lyons writes:
>
> On 29 Dec 1998, Russell Nelson wrote:
>
> > o Bounce message bounces because sender domain not in DNS.
> > o email has been misdelivered to unrelated third party.
> > o This is a total privacy breach, an email disaster.
>
> Well, the "unrelated third party" is the postmaster alias at the qmail
> site. Whoever controls the .qmail and control files can already forward
> copies of the mail passing through the system anywhere they want, so this
> is no more of a privacy breach than sending unencrypted mail through
> untrusted third-party systems is in the first place.
There are legal and social prescriptions against reading mail in other
people's mailboxes; none in one's own. In any case, if two people
have been unable to communicate, it only seems right to inform one of
them, and not a third party.
Dan defends bare-lf checking because qmail-smtpd should not accept
mail which it cannot reliably deliver. Well, I'm applying the same
principle: that qmail-smtpd should not accept mail which it knows it
cannot reliably deliver -- or bounce if it comes to that.
Yes, verifying an email address is an unsolvable problem (it's
equivalent to the halting problem). But *not* taking the simple and
practical step of consulting the DNS is silly. People halt runaway
programs every day without worrying whether the program is *really*
non-halting.
--
-russ nelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://crynwr.com/~nelson
Crynwr supports Open Source(tm) Software| PGPok | There is good evidence
521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315 268 1925 voice | that freedom is the
Potsdam, NY 13676-3213 | +1 315 268 9201 FAX | cause of world peace.
