Feature Request: MailScannerWebBug

[Glenn Steen]

On 27/04/06, Julian Field <MailScanner at ecs.soton.ac.uk> wrote:
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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.
>
Ah, this I can both understand(!:-) and appreciate. Might even use it
myself. Thanks Kai&Jules.

--
-- Glenn
email: glenn < dot > steen < at > gmail < dot > com
work: glenn < dot > steen < at > ap1 < dot > se