Basic details about how emails work

[Alex]

Hi everyone,

I put these bits together to help you learn something about
email-related protocols:
http://railean.net/index.php/2012/06/30/how-to-track-anonymous-emails


This will add some more experience points to your current skill-set
and I hope this will help you in the future.

Ta-da!

[Vladimir Pintea]

Mad world... :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3N1MlvVc4

[Alex]

Da măi tu, niște nebuni... :-)

I assume you've watched Donnie Darko; if not - you should!

[Vladimir Pintea]

I did :)

[Vlada Grosu]

It all makes sense except one thing, why does the google groups message assignment differ from user to user?

In my version message nr 157 belongs to me https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/fafomatic/157

 

And the reply to it (therefore message nr 158)

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/fafomatic/158

was written by 06BC2C1BB27A6B8909EDC5EA8FE2AB84

However, the blurred image timestamp 12:35 (of the reply to msg 157 on the image) does not match up with the reply to 157 (therefore author of 158) according to my google groups historical evidence. 

So, all those nights of sneaking around with Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle and Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, have panned out. 

Elementary, my dear Watson, there's only one user matching the timestamp:  1D9053528E001F72F9AB86A3BF666C23

On Sun, Jul 1, 2012 at 9:48 PM, Vladimir Pintea <vladimi...@gmail.com> wrote:

I did :)

[Alex Railean]

There's one catch related to timestamps, they're not accurate in that
screenshot.

There are two timestamps that my mail client keeps track of:
- sent //when the sender pressed 'send'
- received //when my mail client downloaded it


If you send me a message at 00:45 at night, my mail client will
retrieve it only when I get up and check my email, say - at 11:13
(because until then the computer is turned off).

0045 - time sent
1113 - time received



What you see in the screenshot is not 100% reliable, because the
"time sent" column is not shown.

> And the reply to it (therefore message nr 158)
> https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!searchin/fafomatic/158
> was written by 06BC2C1BB27A6B8909EDC5EA8FE2AB84

Not entirely accurate still. For example, the subject of this message
will be "Re: [SIPC-170] Basic details about how emails work", however
there is no force in the universe that prevents me from changing it to

"Re: [SIPC-1945] kedavra" or "Re: [SIPC-32768] murtanjo".


The sender could anticipate your approach, or there could be multiple
people who replied to that message, and all of the subjects would
start with "Re: [SIPC-158]".

> Elementary, my dear Watson, there's only one user matching the
> timestamp:  1D9053528E001F72F9AB86A3BF666C23

:-) So far I was unable to replicate the name, thus we need to
discuss the subject of canonicalization, also known as c14n (because
there are 14 letters between the first one and the last one). There
must be a "normal form" we agree to use, to ensure we're fully
sync'ed.

Let's define it as:
- capitalize each word
- lastname firstname
- use the full name
- strip all the other characters
- do not use any form of transliteration


Ex:
"Ana-Maria Zelenogradova" -> "Zelenogradova Anamaria"
"Miha Eminescu" -> "Eminescu Mihaela"
"Victor Shontea" -> "Sontea Victor"


Hmm, this gets pretty complicated, so let's just use email addresses
as is, in small letters:

>>> import md5
>>> md5.new('rali...@gmail.com').hexdigest()
'16d5426dece90384db01d8a495f7d828'
>>>
>>> md5.new('grosu...@gmail.com').hexdigest()
'1c6fb038a5fcb11287023f5b8b045676'
>>>
>>> md5.new('jumbik-pa...@sever.com').hexdigest()
'cfbe62790a20b1fc4a23f4b0b4b2abcc'



I'm revealing another part of the prediction in the attachment.