[Lvlug] [Fwd: PLEASE HELP]

[Thomas Phipps]

on Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 08:12:35AM -0700, Doug Nusbaum spewed:
>    Mike Martinet wrote:
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> 
> 
> This email account [1]dpaladin at ix.netcon.com has a white list, and yet this
> email got through.  Also this email has no to: in the header.
> 
> Can we expect white lists to be transparent now?
> 
> Anybody got any ideas on how I can make my list whiter?
> 
> Well, this is just a guess, but if the white list is checking "to" fields to dec
> ide which emails to pass through, perhaps the code needs to be adjusted to rejec
> t emails with no "to" field.
> 
>    Thanks.   I gave that a fleeting thought to that after sending the
>    message, but if there is no to field, how does routing work??
> 

The way the mail RFC was written, you don't need a to, or a cc or even
technically a bcc. It's all handled through RCPT. 

The headers are only there to make people feel warm and fuzzy. 

If you telnet into the mail server of the recipient and type
HELO localhost
MAIL FROM: <fake address>
RCPT TO: <recipient address>
DATA
<message>
.
QUIT

they will get the email with the smallest headers possible. 

mail programs just split the TO, CC, and BCC into RCPT.