On Thu, 14 Oct 1999, Aumont - Comite Reseaux des Universites wrote:
> Let me explain Sympa's choice about this topics :
>
> Sympa returns a confirmation message for subscription (if the
> list is configured for it). This message is replyable in order
> to confirm the subscription request.
>
> The cookie for confirmation is in the subject field so
> quoted printable transfert encoding and crasy multipart/alternative
> message structure do not affect reply confirmation.
[snip]
This is not a safe assumption to make. While it does keep
multipart/alternative out of your hair, it does NOT mean you are safe from
quoted-printable. I have seen quoted-printable subject fields:
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Forms_4=2E5_-=3E_5=2E0_konverte
It was one of the earliest Listar feature requests when we opened the bug
database (entry #16, in fact), to allow Listar to decode quoted-printable
subjects for commands and for digest/archive/etc.
The -only- safe way to be 100% sure that a command address gets a parsable
reply is to add a way to actually understand multipart/* and
quoted-printable, and decode anything sent to a list command address down
into plaintext. (This is what Listar does.)
Including the ticket in the subject is -comparitively- safe, but never
assume that the subject won't contain quoted-printable, because it is
allowed to. It's annoying when it does, but...
