Feature Request: MailScannerWebBug

[Julian Field]

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Kai Schaetzl wrote:
> Julian Field wrote on Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:11:02 +0100:
>
>   
>>>> A suitable setting might be 
>>>> Allowed Web Bug Filenames = spacer pixel.gif pixel.png 
>>>>
>>>>         
>
> Thanks, Julian, I'll try with the next beta or normal release.
>
>   
>> I've changed it to "Ignored Web Bug Filenames" as that explains its   
>> purpose rather better. 
>>     
>
> I do not mind what it is named. But I just compared to to fiel names/types 
> and there we have:
> Allow Filenames =
>
> although the purpose of the rule is a bit different, so your new naming 
> may fit better to understand it.
>
>   
>>  
>>     
>>> Are you planning to make that the default, or will it be <empty   
>>> string>? 
>>>       
>>  
>> The feature will be disabled by default.
>>     
>
> Of course, that's reasonable.
>
> May I repoint you to the main reason of my enquiry, though? I think it's 
> worthwhile to get rid of those 404's each time a webmail user reads such a 
> mail. For the time being I just touched a file there, don't know what the 
> browser will make out of this. But it would be better to be able to either 
> supply no URL or remove the tag or supply a URL of your own choice 
> somewhere where that one pixel graphic can be fetched by the browser. If I 
> can configure this in MailScanner that's much more convenient than adding 
> some file to each webmail package. Browsers may also deny rendering 
> "MailScannerWebBug" as an image since there's no appropriate MIME header 
> coming with it. So something like this:
>
> Allow WebBugs = yes|disarm|remove (with remove = remove the whole tag)
> Disarm WebBugs String = "MailScannerWebBug" (default)
>
> with possible choices like
> Disarm WebBugs String = "" (empty)
> Disarm WebBugs String = "mypixel.gif" (relative path)
> Disarm WebBugs String = "http://somewhere.somplace.com/mypixel.gif" 
> (absolute path)
>
> I'm not sure how "remove" would fit in the "Allow...Tags    Convert 
> Danger... " table (around line 792), so this may be too complex or 
> confusing. (Although, the conversion obviously applies to tags that can be 
> "converted" to text, so, it wouldn't apply to images, anyway?)
> But the Disarm WebBugs String should be easy to add, shouldn't it?
>   
Yes, it is, and it's done. I didn't appreciate that was your main reason 
for posting. I have created a 51-byte file on the MailScanner web site 
which is a harmless 1x1 pixel transparent GIF, which will serve as an 
ideal web bug replacement. The default value if nothing is specified at 
all is the old string "MailScannerWebBug", and the value in the default 
MailScanner.conf file is the URL of my transparent GIF.

The 282nd option is called "Web Bug Replacement" and is the URL of the 
image used to replace web bugs.

I promise I won't track uses of the transparent GIF image except to 
count the total number of hits to indicate how widely web bugs are used 
in total.

- -- 
Julian Field
www.MailScanner.info
Buy the MailScanner book at www.MailScanner.info/store
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