[Mailman-Users] Displaying message sender

You will have to modify code to make this happen.

I have several ideas about how this could be done, but perhaps the most
interesting to me is not to make the list anonymous, but to mung the
address in From:. Exactly how to design this depends on what
naughty.com looks at/for.

Does it care about Reply-To:? It would be cool if it didn't. You could
mung the address in From: replacing '@' with ' at ' and '.' with
' dot ' or whatever works. Now, if there's already a Reply-To:, you're
done because reply would go there anyway. If there isn't a Reply-To:,
you add one with the original From: address.

If it cares about Reply-To:, you probably have to strip it (a current
list option), and people will have to edit the addresses in their
replies so this is not nearly as viable.

Also, even in the first case, you'll probably run into MUA's that want
to reply to the To: and the Cc: and the From: and the Reply-To: on a
'reply all', so the From: will have to be edited out in those cases.

The logical place to do all this is Mailman/Handlers/CookHeaders.py.

Mark> The logical place to do all this is
Mark> Mailman/Handlers/CookHeaders.py.

I don't understand this recommendation. Why not use a separate
Handler in either the global pipeline (if it's an organizational
installation) or the list-specific pipeline?

Actually, you are correct Stephen. I was thinking in terms of existing
handlers, but a separate handler that could be inserted in the global
pipeline in mm_cfg.py or in a list specific pipeline is a much better
idea since it would persist across updates.

Thanks for the correction.

Matthew> I have a mailing list with users subscribed from two
Matthew> particular domains, call them nice.com and naughty.com.
Matthew> The security czars are naughty.com have decided that
Matthew> inbound email with naughty.com in the From address cannot
Matthew> possibly be legitimate so they silently drop the mail.

"Mr. Foot, meet Mr. Bullet." Make sure you cash any checks from
naughty.com immediately; one gets the feeling they're not going to be
around for very long.

Matthew> One way around this is to make the list anonymous but
Matthew> that creates the problem that we don't know who sent the
Matthew> message unless everyone always remembers to mark the
Matthew> messages either in the subject line or at the end of the
Matthew> message.

Why not simply change all instances of @naughty.com in the author
headers to @naughty.invalid or @censored.invalid or something like
that? It's easy enough to create a custom Handler to do that kind of
thing, and should be safe, too. Since you're going to have to modify
Mailman in any case, I believe, this is the least intrusive way to do
it.

If the answer is "that would work for us", then I'll look at doing the
coding and documenting the installation process, unless somebody beats
me to it. :-) Gotta run....

I haven't had time to sit and poke at the offending mail server to see
if they react to the reply to: or the from: header. I'll have to mess
with that this weekend when traffic is lower on lour lists.
I can't believe they are doing this either but unless someone invents a
machine capable of perpetual motion in the next couple of years, I'll
probably still have a job. ;)
This would probably work for us. I was throwing this out to the list to
see what other approaches existed than the ideas I had. It didn't occur
to me to just obscure the domain name. I'd be happy to help out with
either the coding or testing if you need the help.


Thanks for the great suggestions all.

-Matt

You know your institutional requirements and I don't. However, I don't
think I would do anything to accommodate naughty.com's users. Let them use
an address elsewhere for dealing with your mailing list.

--John the Churl

By the way, almost any domain whose name one invents for purposes like this
exists.

nice.com has existed since 1992 (or earlier), and naughty.com since 1996
(or earlier).

--John

[Not to mention at.com since 1993 and atdot.com since 1998.]