[Mimedefang] Re: Unsafe file types

[WBrown at e1b.org]

mimedefang-bounces at lists.roaringpenguin.com wrote on 12/01/2003 04:47:19 
PM:

> On my mail server, I don't block any attachment's based on file 
extension. I
> figure that the whole purpose of email is to communicate and I do my 
best to
> help that. Blocking perfectly legitimate email that's carrying a 
"dangerous"
> attachment extension is a bit silly. "Dangerous" is in the eyes of the
> beholder. I'm willing to do virus scanning of attachments on the server 
but
> after that, as far as I'm concerned, it's up to the user to have an up 
to
> date virus scanner and to use the wetware between the ears when opening 
file
> attachments. If they screw up their computer after all that, well, it's 
not
> my problem.
> 
> My problem is trying to weed out the non-legitimate email in the first
> place. That is, spam and email's containing known virus's. Blindly 
blocking
> attachments based on file extensions is going too far IMHO.

I agree, to a point.  There is never a good reason to be sending an SCR or 
PIF file.  Since they are almost always a virus, I block those.  Right 
now, I'm doing it in my mail (Lotus Domino) server Antivirus.  I will be 
doing it as I implement MIMEDefang.

You make an excellent point about not blocking legitimate mail.  Security 
is always a balance, and blocking those two extensions is where I set the 
level.