Base64 Encoded messages?

David

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Aug 7, 2007, 6:22:01 PM8/7/07

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Hi all,

Not sure where to go for this one...
We have a couple of customers that -when we get email from them - the
message is displayed in Outlook (2000 & 2003) as a bunch of jibberish like:

=======================================
From:
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 3:24 PM
Subject:

Message-ID: <20070806T15234...@someone.com>
Subject: Re: FW:
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="____NEDCQRDASOTYLCGWEYJO____"
FILETIME=[C02BB730:01C7D867]

--____NEDCQRDASOTYLCGWEYJO____
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Language:

VGltOiAgSSBhbSBub3QgZ29pbmcgdG8gY2hhbmdlIG15IGUtbWFpbC4gIFlvdSBhcmUgdGhlIG9u
bHkgcGVyc29uIHdobyBjYW5ub3QgcmVjZWl2ZSBlLW1haWwgZnJvbSBtZS4gIEkgc3VnZ2VzdCB5
b3UgZmluZCBhIHNvbHV0aW9uIG9uIHlvdXIgb3duIGVuZC4gIA0KDQo+Pj4gIlNoZXJpZGFu
b3UgZmluZCBhIHNvbHV0aW9uIG9uIHlvdXIgb3duIGVuZC4gIA0KDQo+LCBU
aW0iIDx0c2hlcmlkYW5ATkFDb3Jwb3JhdGlvbi5jb20+IDgvMy8yMDA3IDU6MTcgUE0gPj4+DQoN
ClRyaWNpYSwNCg0KSSBzcGVudCBzb21lIHRpbWUgd2l0aCBteSBJVCBkZXNrIHRvIGlucXVpcmUg
YXMgdG8gd2h5IHlvdXIgZW1haWxzDQphbHdheXMgYXJyaXZlIGdhcmJsZWQgbGlrZSB0aGlzLg0K
DQpUaGV5IGJlbGlldmUgaXQgaGFzIHRvIGRvIHdpdGggdGhlIHdheS
(and so on)
=======================================

One commonality is that every time I see this, it seems as though the
originating email system is GroupWise 6.5... Strange...
Anyway - I have advised our staff to tell the sender to try again and send
as plain text, but to no avail... (who knows if they are actually doing that
or not)...
Is there any setting or config for our SMTP connector that could be causing
this issue (or that could relieve this issue?)? We are on Exchange 2000 SP3
(on Win2000 SP4) and we have clients running Outlook 2000 SP3 and Outlook
2003 SP2. The messages show up the same in either client.

TIA,

David

Susan

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Aug 7, 2007, 6:37:15 PM8/7/07

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that almost looks like PGP encryption...?

--
Susan Conkey [MVP]

"David" <Da...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BDBBA234-DF08-4089...@microsoft.com...

David

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Aug 7, 2007, 8:40:24 PM8/7/07

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Thanks so much for the response...
Yes, it does look a little like an encrypted message - but that is not the
case according to the sender. She says she is not doing anything out of the
ordinary... just sending a regular email - no attachments or anything either.

Oi. Now our VP of sales is involved. "explain to me why we can't support
this customer's email format?". <krusty>heheh.... uuugghhh...</krusty>

Any other thoughts? :)

D

Andy David {MVP}

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Aug 7, 2007, 9:10:06 PM8/7/07

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On Tue, 7 Aug 2007 17:40:24 -0700, David
<Da...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Thanks so much for the response...
>Yes, it does look a little like an encrypted message - but that is not the
>case according to the sender. She says she is not doing anything out of the
>ordinary... just sending a regular email - no attachments or anything either.
>
>Oi. Now our VP of sales is involved. "explain to me why we can't support
>this customer's email format?". <krusty>heheh.... uuugghhh...</krusty>
>
>Any other thoughts? :)

Cuz your customoer is sending you malformed messages?

Is that really what is the message body in Outlook? The headers and
attachment encoding?

Is there really an empty line after the Subject: ?
ANything following a blank line is considered part of the message body
and will show in email as that.

Compare that to the messages that come through correctly ( Look at the
internet headers in Outlook)

John Fullbright

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Aug 7, 2007, 9:28:02 PM8/7/07

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"--____NEDCQRDASOTYLCGWEYJO____
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Language:"

The content-language header is malformed. See RFC3282. The problem is on
the sender's end.

http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3282.html

John

"David" <Da...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BDBBA234-DF08-4089...@microsoft.com...

John Fullbright

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Aug 7, 2007, 9:47:52 PM8/7/07

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These time delays in newsgroup post arrival are annoying. Anyway, as I
pointed out in my *other post, the content-language header is malformed so
everything below it doesn't get decoded. This issue is on the sending end;
probably a setting in groupmailbomber or something.

This is the envelope:

>>> > X-Mailer: Groupwise
>>> > - Yup, groupwise 6.5 is where it came from

>>> > Message-ID: <20070806T15234...@someone.com>
>>> > x-gfi-me-from: "Patricia Logue" <Patrici...@someone.com>
>>> > x-gfi-me-cc: "Nicholson, Vicky" <Vicky.N...@someone.com>
>>> > Subject: Re: FW:
>>> > x-gfi-me-to: "Sheridan, Tim" <tshe...@mycorp.com>
>>> > Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
>>> > boundary="____NEDCQRDASOTYLCGWEYJO____"
>>> > Return-Path: Patrici...@someone.com
>>> > X-OriginalArrivalTime: 06 Aug 2007 20:24:12.0067 (UTC)
>>> > FILETIME=[C02BB730:01C7D867]

Down here is the header for the first part, the plaintext body of the
message:

>>> > --____NEDCQRDASOTYLCGWEYJO____
>>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>>> > Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
>>> > Content-Language:
>>> >

Right there at content-language: header it's broke, so everything below
doesn't get decoded. So what you get is the 8 bit utf-8 base64 encoding
.... and yeah it does look like that.

>>> > VGltOiAgSSBhbSBub3QgZ29pbmcgdG8gY2hhbmdlIG15IGUtbWFpbC4gIFlvdSBhcmUgdGhlIG9u
>>> > bHkgcGVyc29uIHdobyBjYW5ub3QgcmVjZWl2ZSBlLW1haWwgZnJvbSBtZS4gIEkgc3VnZ2VzdCB5
>>> > b3UgZmluZCBhIHNvbHV0aW9uIG9uIHlvdXIgb3duIGVuZC4gIA0KDQo+Pj4gIlNoZXJpZGFu
>>> > b3UgZmluZCBhIHNvbHV0aW9uIG9uIHlvdXIgb3duIGVuZC4gIA0KDQo+LCBU
>>> > aW0iIDx0c2hlcmlkYW5ATkFDb3Jwb3JhdGlvbi5jb20+IDgvMy8yMDA3IDU6MTcgUE0gPj4+DQoN
>>> > ClRyaWNpYSwNCg0KSSBzcGVudCBzb21lIHRpbWUgd2l0aCBteSBJVCBkZXNrIHRvIGlucXVpcmUg
>>> > YXMgdG8gd2h5IHlvdXIgZW1haWxzDQphbHdheXMgYXJyaXZlIGdhcmJsZWQgbGlrZSB0aGlzLg0K
>>> > DQpUaGV5IGJlbGlldmUgaXQgaGFzIHRvIGRvIHdpdGggdGhlIHdheS
>>> > (and so on)

The applicable RFC is 3282, http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3282.html

John

"Andy David {MVP}" <ada...@pleasekeepinngcheesebucket.com> wrote in message
news:ct5ib316n82k501v4...@4ax.com...

Rich Matheisen [MVP]

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Aug 7, 2007, 10:15:21 PM8/7/07

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David <Da...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Not sure where to go for this one...
>We have a couple of customers that -when we get email from them - the
>message is displayed in Outlook (2000 & 2003) as a bunch of jibberish like:

Is that the complete set of message headers? It's missing the
mandatory "MIME-Version: 1.0" so the message is probably being read as
if it's plain text instead of a base64-encoded MIME body part.

--
Rich Matheisen
MCSE+I, Exchange MVP
MS Exchange FAQ at http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm
Don't send mail to this address mailto:h.p...@getronics.com
Or to these, either: mailto:h.p...@pinkroccade.com mailto:melvin.mcp...@getronics.com mailto:melvin.mcp...@pinkroccade.com

John Fullbright

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Aug 7, 2007, 10:23:13 PM8/7/07

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That went right by me, probably because I say the from and subject and just
assumed it was omitted, but you're correct. If the MIME-Version header is
missing, the whole thing is assumed plaintext. Still, any way you look at
it, it's malformed and a problem at the sender's end.

John

"Rich Matheisen [MVP]" <rich...@rmcons.com.NOSPAM.COM> wrote in message
news:ji9ib3935vmcsm79h...@4ax.com...

David

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Aug 8, 2007, 1:08:01 AM8/8/07

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Thanks everyone for the replies...

As you are saying, the message format is definately broken and causing it to
not be decoded... I was able to take the entire body of the message and use a
base64 decoder to see the actual text... here it is (pretty funny):

=======================================
Tim: I am not going to change my e-mail. You are the only person who
cannot receive e-mail from me. I suggest you find a solution on your own
end.

>>> "Sheridanou find a solution on your own end.

>, Tim" <tshe...@mycorp.com> 8/3/2007 5:17 PM >>>

Tricia,

I spent some time with my IT desk to inquire as to why your emails
always arrive garbled like this.

They believe it has to do with the way your Groupwise mail client is set
up. They suggested as a simple solution to start with would be for you
to send your emails in plain text mode, as opposed to HTML.

Otherwise, you may want to forward this on to your IT group and see what
they suggest.

Regards,

Tim
=======================================

Apparently she did not like the fact that I had suggested the problem is on
thier end! :)

There is one more thing I want to look at... our firewall uses an
application layer filter (proxy) for incoming SMTP communication to our
Exchange Server. I am curious if that may be stripping part of the header out
of the message thus breaking it and making it unreadable.

I will look into that and post my findings.

Thanks all!

David

Andy David {MVP}

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Aug 8, 2007, 8:20:40 AM8/8/07

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On Tue, 7 Aug 2007 22:08:01 -0700, David
<Da...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Thanks everyone for the replies...
>
>As you are saying, the message format is definately broken and causing it to
>not be decoded... I was able to take the entire body of the message and use a
>base64 decoder to see the actual text... here it is (pretty funny):
>
>=======================================

>There is one more thing I want to look at... our firewall uses an

>application layer filter (proxy) for incoming SMTP communication to our
>Exchange Server. I am curious if that may be stripping part of the header out
>of the message thus breaking it and making it unreadable.
>
>I will look into that and post my findings.
>
>Thanks all!
>
>David

Have them send a test message to another account ( yahoo, gmail
etc...) and see how it looks.

David

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Aug 8, 2007, 8:44:01 AM8/8/07

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Yep - did that... our sales rep has asked the customer to use his comcast.net
email address for the time being... all emails display just fine there.

Thanks!

Susan

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Aug 8, 2007, 10:39:12 AM8/8/07

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hahaha...that's is pretty funny...

--
Susan Conkey [MVP]

"David" <Da...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:49E4F3F5-B95E-41E9...@microsoft.com...

Rich Matheisen [MVP]

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Aug 8, 2007, 10:23:17 PM8/8/07

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"Susan" <sco...@mgmmirage.nospam.com> wrote:

>hahaha...that's is pretty funny...

The "you're the only {person | domain | company | etc. } that has a
problem" is the typical response when you point out the error to
people that don't understand what they're doing or the way things
work. :-(

Susan

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Aug 9, 2007, 11:04:04 AM8/9/07

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I've run into issues like this so often...the "decoded" text of the message
was just too funny...such irony...

--
Susan Conkey [MVP]

"Rich Matheisen [MVP]" <rich...@rmcons.com.NOSPAM.COM> wrote in message

news:aeukb3pfsrdn6ipal...@4ax.com...

John Fullbright

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Aug 21, 2007, 11:49:49 PM8/21/07

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Assuming the message is from groupwise and mising the MIME Version header,
tt's a problem that the admin for groupwise in the
sending domain needs to fix that..

"pyang" <py...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AB3814C5-15BF-486D...@microsoft.com...
> Dear Susan,
>
> Did you manage to resolve the Base64 issue?
>
> I am using MS Exchange 2007. I have the similar problem when some guy from
> x...@skyfile.com send me their emails.
>
> Appreciate you response.
>
> Best regards.
> Peter Yang

Fishbones

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Aug 27, 2007, 4:09:50 PM8/27/07

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We had the same issue with one of our Exchange servers not receive the
mail correctly from Groupwise. I don't think it has anything to do
with the sending side. It has to be a configuration issue with the
virutal smtp. I tested on a test Exchange box and mail from Groupwise
would show up fine on the test box and would come in Garbled on the
production box. I have yet to recreate the virtual smtp, but running
another exchange box let me bypass this issue until I can find another
fix.