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Re: Claws-mail - which plugin for html mails?



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On Fri, Jun 29, 2018 at 10:05:47AM +0200, Aldo Maggi wrote:
> Ok, I understand your point, but, I wonder, are you using just lynx or
> links2 for going on Internet?  The problems you correctly point out are
> not the same with Chromium, Firefox etc.?

I wouldn't be so sure about lynx et al. Here [1] is a rough but readable
explanation on how eFail works. There are two components into it: (1)
a format like HTML, in which the client possibly follows links without
user interaction (more on that below) and (2) how to bury a MIME
boundary within HTML's baroque syntax so that for the HTML parser,
the whole (now decrypted) message forms part of that link, which will
be "given" readily to a server out there, waiting to harvest it.

More on (1): the example uses an img tag. You might argue that HTML
capable mail readers have learnt these days to not follow automatically
img tags (on privacy grounds), but there is a multitude of other links
which might be followed automatically: CSS, iframes...

Are you sure your l{ynx,inks} doesn't download any of them? Do you know
by heart all of those? Do you even know where to look them up? [2]

I for one wouldn't know better than to look into lynx/links source
code. Good luck with that.

Cheers

[1] https://thehackernews.com/2018/05/efail-pgp-email-encryption.html
[2] This isn't to make you look bad: I don't myself either! This is
   to drive home the message that "HTML" is a huge, ill-defined mess
   of standards, and that all HTML renderers out there have to be
   a steaming pile of pragmatism which is practically impossible to
   validate.

- -- tomás
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