I've just spent a couple of hours tracking down why dozens of
e-mails to this list have been quarantined by anti-virus software on
my servers (and probably other servers).
As I receive the list in digest format, this means many postings as
the entire digest (typically a day's worth of posts) is treated as
malicious.
The problem turned out to be that a member's e-mail signature
includes a URL that Google has detected as a distributor of 19
exploits.
I've notified that member of the details privately.
For everyone else: The lesson is that including URLs in your
signature (as well as in the message body) can cause your e-mail to
be treated as malicious and not delivered. At least when sending to
mailing lists, please keep your signatures as simple (and short) as
possible!
FYI, to check a URL's status with Google's service, simply visit http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=
, appending the url (starting with http://) after the '='.
For the listserv administrator: Mail sent to the list should
go through an anti-virus filter before being accepted. ClamAV is
what I use (free, safe & effective); configure it with
'SafeBrowsing yes' in freshclam.conf. Because that (apparently)
isn't being done, a single problematic posting causes every digest
including (or quoting) that message to be treated as malicious. The
classification is correct, but the effect is to suppress delivery of
many postings. In any case, the list should try not to distribute
malicious mail. (In this case, sent inadvertently.)
This technical interlude now returns you to the regularly-scheduled
programming...
--
Timothe Litt
ACM Distinguished Engineer
--------------------------
This communication may not represent the ACM or my employer's views,
if any, on the matters discussed.