Check out this message I just recd. Probably from someone who knows me...
Then again, it might be considered spam what?? I have included headers as
well - one of them is particularly interesting. Read on...
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Received: from mcfs.whowhere.com (mcfs.whowhere.com [209.1.236.44])
by smv18.iname.net (8.9.3/8.9.1SMV2) with SMTP id HAA06928
for <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> sent by <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Thu,
20 Apr 2000 07:37:25 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from Unknown/Local ([?.?.?.?]) by shared3.whowhere.com; Thu Apr 20
04:36:35 2000
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 04:36:35 -0700
From: "Linus Torvalds" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
X-Sent-Mail: off
X-Mailer: MailCity Service
Subject: Invitation...
X-Sender-Ip: 202.141.151.74
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
hi philip,
i read your postings on ilug (bombay edition) and am impressed by your
interest and knowledge in linux.
i invite you to come an join my company.
^^
damn spellings...
linus.
www.tranmeta.com
reply back soon.
-------------End Forwarded message-------
Now, two things:
1. I definitely think Linus' grammar and spellings are better than here.
He even capitalises his sentences correctly - check out
/usr/src/linux/Documentation
2. Given the sender's IP address: 202.141.151.74
and mail time: Thu Apr 20 04:36:35 2000
Wouldn't it be possible to trace this back to the actual sender? In
principle...
Look at the IP address. 202.141.151.* should belong to some ISP. Check
their dhcp.leases file for all leases for 202.141.151.74 active at
04:36:35 on Apr 20. That would tell us a client host name (that you enter
in windows or unix) and a uid. I'm assuming no hardware address (which
would uniquely id any machine in the world) cause the user would most
likely be using a modem.
If the ISP has dial-in log files, we could then find out the number of the
origin phone. The phone number would uniquely identify a particular
house at least ... unless the person has gone to lengths to spoof his
phone number or something like that. I don't think anyone would go to
that much trouble to send me junk.
So, what are your thoughts on tracing this mail back to the sender. Is is
possible, and how would you do it?
Philip
PS: I am not really interested in tracing it back. It just seems
interesting to figure out how it would be done.
===========
Nice guys don't finish nice.
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