Bugtraq: Re: I found this today and iam reporting it to you first!!! (fwd)

[alan () MANAWATU GEN NZ (Alan Brown)]

On Sat, 4 Sep 1999, Wietse Venema wrote:

> Whatever reasoning the poster used, it is invalid with any reasonable
> mail system, because it is the mail system that chooses the bounce
> message originator address; the bounce message originator address
> is not under control by the attacker.
>
> In other words, the suggested loop does not exist.
I can personally vouch for most cc:mail installations being so braindead
that they will bounce indefinitely. One such machine returned 5800
bounce messages from a single complaint sent to bounce messages from a single complaint sent to postmaster () rDNS about
relayed spam - with each additional message being 2kb larger than the
previous one.

Put 2 of those back-to-back and see what happens.

AB