| ▲ | liveoneggs 5 hours ago |
| This is how email work(ed) over smtp. When each command was sent it would get a '200'-class message (success) or 400/500-class message (failure). Sound familiar? telnet smtp.mailserver.com 25 HELO MAIL FROM: me@foo.com RCPT TO: you@bar.com DATA blah blah blah how's it going? talk to you later! . QUIT |
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| ▲ | Telemakhos 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| This brings back some fun memories from the 1990s when this was exactly how we would send prank emails. |
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| ▲ | kstrauser an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Yep! And also, if you included a blank line and then the headers for a new email in the bottom of your message, you could tell the server, hey, here comes another email for you to process! If you were typing into a feedback form powered by something from Matt’s Script Archive, there was about a 95% chance you could trivially get it to send out multiple emails to other parties for every one email sent to the site’s owner. | |
| ▲ | fix4fun 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | That was nice part of 1990s - many systems allow for funny things ;) |
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| ▲ | 1718627440 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| For anyone who wants to try this against a modern server: openssl s_client -connect smtp.mailserver.com:smtps -crlf
220 smtp.mailserver.com ESMTP Postfix (Debian/GNU)
EHLO example.com
250-smtp.mailserver.com
250-PIPELINING
250-SIZE 10240000
250-VRFY
250-ETRN
250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-8BITMIME
250-DSN
250-SMTPUTF8
250 CHUNKING
MAIL FROM:me@example.com
250 2.1.0 Ok
RCPT TO:postmaster
250 2.1.5 Ok
DATA
354 End data with <CR><LF>.<CR><LF>
Hi
.
250 2.0.0 Ok: queued as BADA579CCB
QUIT
221 2.0.0 Bye
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| ▲ | xg15 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| I like how SMTP was at least honest in calling it the "receipt to" address and not the "sender" address. Edit: wrong. |
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| ▲ | 1718627440 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | RCPT TO specifies the destination (recipient) address, the "sender" is what is written in MAIL FROM. However what most mail programs show as sender and recipient is neither, they rather show the headers contained in the message. | | |
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