Banning Emailed Executables

from the stick-with-not-executing-files dept

The latest tactic in stopping emailed virus attacks is to stop letting a mail server pass on emailed executables. MIT is apparently rejecting all such messages. Of course, the virus writers will quickly figure out a social engineering trick around this, and will try to get people to download the executable from somewhere else. Besides, there certainly are cases where it does make sense to email an executable, and suddenly people are going to need to figure out a way around that block.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Tom J., 14 Nov 2003 @ 2:16pm

    This by you is news?

    Most corporations have been doing this for YEARS. There are alternatives, called the web/FTP/etc for transferring executable binaries. When e-mail worms try to use secondary distributors for the executable code the infection can be stopped by killing that secondary source(s). Such worms have already been stopped this way, whereas the pure e-mail ones spread because too many ISPs don't block EXEs or even virus scan.

    Blocking e-mail executables currently stops most every major e-mail infector, including new variants as they pop up. A small price to pay, and again, e-mail was not designed for trading programs in the first place.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Beck, 14 Nov 2003 @ 2:27pm

    ZIP

    The standard way around this is to zip the executable files before sending them. Of course now I have started to receive emails with attached ZIP files that contain a virus. But the fight continues, because my new 2004 virus software scans the contents of zip files before the files are unzipped.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2003 @ 2:59pm

    No Subject Given

    seems to me that blocking executables that won't be executed automatically by an e-mail client is unnecessary. An individual clueless enough to execute such a file will also execute it if it arrives inside zip format.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2003 @ 3:08pm

    Re: ZIP

    Outlook actually blocks zip files with executables or script files in them, the only real way around it is to rename the files. For example: runme.exe becomes runme.ex_

    This is how we've been currently working around it, but it would take work to execute it.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.