Re: OT: newsgroup SPAM

johnwallace4@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Anyway, do you actually need an email account/address to *send* spam?

You need to know the host name or IP address of an smtp server
accessable from the compromised PC.

I happily admit that I don't fully understand the typical SMTP/email
setup, I'm not sure exactly how spam would get from a compromised PC
to (for example) my email account(s);

The software on the compromised PC can look into the (e.g.) Outlook
profile and read out the smtp server used to send emails from that
particular PC. Then it is simple to send faked emails throught
the same server.

My ISP has reasently changed from plain smtp to using SSL
when sending emails, so it's not that simple now to fake
emails.

something to do with DNS MX
records and all that, iirc, but it's all a bit vague.

But that is far later in the distribution process, way after
the email has left the compromised PC (and not any different
then deleviering any other email to you or anyone else).

Quite why anybody places any trust in or value on an email mechanism
which hasn't really changed since the era of the teletype and has no
pretence of built in authentication or tamper-resistance is a bit
beyond me, but X.400 email (which addresses most of the underlying
problems) doesn't seem fashionable any more (except perhaps within the
military?).
.

Relevant Pages

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