[Mimedefang] MD 2.43 - Missing Viruses

Albert Whale aewhale at ABS-CompTech.com
Mon May 31 08:42:08 EDT 2004


Thanks for the reply.

David F. Skoll wrote:

>>------ This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. ------
>>    
>>
>
>The bounce message doesn't encapsulate the virus in a MIME message, but
>just sticks the whole original message in a text/plain part.  So MIMEDefang
>never sees the virus, and any e-mail client that *does* attempt to decode
>the virus is completely broken.
>
>MIMEDefang is behaving correctly.
>  
>
OK, MIMEDefang is behaving correctly, but I don't want to send Viruses 
to my Users. 

The problem is not with the rest of the world, as this virus is detected 
with a manual scan using Clamscan.  Unfortunately the PC Tool that 
detects it is Norton Anti-Virus, used the world over.

I can manually run the scanner on the mbox file and detect the virus. I 
just cannot see what the difference is between a Manual Scan and an MD 
Scan, given the same tools.

 I am filtering with MD using the sequence:

    # Virus scan
    # Copy original message into work directory as an "mbox" file for
    # virus-scanning
    md_copy_orig_msg_to_work_dir_as_mbox_file();

    # Scan for viruses if any virus-scanners are installed
    my($code, $category, $action) = message_contains_virus();

    # Lower level of paranoia - only looks for actual viruses
    $FoundVirus = ($category eq "virus");


SO, if MD is behaving correctly, why can I scan the mbox manually and 
find the virus, but not while using MD? 

BTW, I am running the same command line for clamscan manually as what it 
run from MD. 

Now I am confused, if I copy the original message to work dir. as a mbox 
and cannot detect it, I would think that I should not be able to perform 
the same function manually. 

Right?  Wrong?  Did this make sense?

-- 
Albert E. Whale, CISSP - Sr. Security, Network, and Systems Consultant
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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ABS Computer Technology, Inc. - ESM, Computer & Networking Specialists
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