TMG-L Archives

Archiver > TMG > 2002-05 > 1020394632


From: "Kirk Ransom" <>
Subject: RE: OT [TMG] Virus or what?? HTML
Date: Thu, 2 May 2002 21:57:19 -0500
In-Reply-To: <005601c1f0e5$fc82eba0$e2daf943@reed>


Theresa

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Theresa Greene Reed [mailto:]
> Hello Kirk,
>
> What do you mean by ". . . the ability to display html or web pages in the
> body. This feature is turned on by default and you can tell if
> it is on if
> you see messages with web page features." ? What are html or web page
> features, and how can I recognize them? Can you be more specific?
>

If when you open a message and see colors and graphics - that is HTML.
Actually it is just a text message in the language of web pages - HTML - and
is 'rendered' to display like a web page. The problem is that because HTML
are "instructions" to the render engine on how to display the graphics,
frames, formated text, the insturctions and also contain instructions to
reassemble the text into a virus.

You can also see just formated text in the message body which can be another
form called RTF - rich text format. While RTF should be harmless, in the
Microsoft Office family with its VBA and VBS capability would make it
possible for RTF to 'create' a virus on the fly as it is rendered.

In the "options" or "preferences" menu of your email program you can set the
default to show only text. This is the safe way to use Outlook or Outlook
Express.

Kirk


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