Questions tagged [email-attachments]

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Security impact of Mail attachment type message/rfc822

I am currently developing a tool that transfers emails and their attachments from Outlook to a local folder. Currently, I am denying the message/rfc822 attachment because of legacy code reasons. Now I ...
Lukas Knirschnig's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
1k views

Accidently opened a phishing email .docx attachment on my iPhone, should I worry?

Two days ago, I received an email saying as object "March rent" in French. It says time to pay my rent for the month of March, and got the email March 1st... I thought this was my landlord ...
pmbonneau's user avatar
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0 answers
504 views

How to inspect for potential malware on pdf attachment?

I received an email at work the other day from a client (with the correct email address) that had a pdf attached. When I opened the pdf, it said the client had required the recipient to login to ...
Elaine's user avatar
  • 9
2 votes
4 answers
224 views

Email with an attached file vs. email with a link to a file

We have a software that sends out invoices by email. As the invoices contain the names of the clients and their addresses we consider the invoice to be sensitive to some degree. Rather than sending ...
Omir's user avatar
  • 121
32 votes
5 answers
6k views

Is there any security benefit from emailing a "secure link"?

Sometimes I receive email messages from organisations I'm involved with saying something like: Alice at AnyCo has sent you a secure message Along with a link to access said message. Sometimes I'm ...
James Bradbury's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
162 views

What's the point of password protecting your document in a 1st email, then writing the password in a 2nd email within 5 minutes?

What security is gained from this procedure? What does this procedure accomplish? Many professionals do this, like government officials and lawyers. First, they email me the attachment (e.g. PDF, Word ...
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0 votes
1 answer
87 views

Could one malicious email attachment contaminate all attachments in my cloud email account?

Could one malicious email attachment contaminate all attachments in my cloud email account? There are various preview functionalities available in Gmail or Microsoft Outlook that would effectively ...
aleks1265's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
533 views

Got an e-mail with weird text and an .htm attachment. What does it do?

Here's the text from that e-mail (no subject) 31725714 65 TJBPYEW YBTLI UNILPW FPW J II NSWKW LGKJQBS PVGVQX ZEWW WQUWFZ VT Here's the code from the attachment I extracted with Notepad++: https://...
Krzeszny's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
201 views

Is there any security risk in sending a dangerous file via email to oneself?

Most common email services don't allow to attach file like exe files, or similar files that may contain security threats to a computer. This can be bugging for users, but I can understand that, in ...
user2638180's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
168 views

Malicious email in Outlook Sent folder, could it be a clickjacking exploit? [closed]

Recently I discovered there are malicious emails (with HTM attachment) in the Sent folder of an @hotmail account to some unknown recipients in (Outlook app in iPad). I immediately proceed to change ...
Zephyr's user avatar
  • 171
1 vote
1 answer
300 views

E-mail with just an image attached: could it be an attack? [closed]

Today I received an e-mail to my GMail account with just an image attached, empty subject and body. E-mail came from another GMail account, with SPF and other checks passed. Sender account differs ...
Dmitry Osinovskiy's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
282 views

Sending securely attachments over email

Email exchange is not a secure means of communication despite using SSL to connect to (all/most?) the email providers. What I am not sure though, is what is a good way to send important information ...
Jim's user avatar
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0 votes
0 answers
127 views

How to determine if a PC is safe after receiving a suspicious email message

I was checking my gmail account spam folder and I noticed an email sent by a known sender. I thought it was flagged as spam by mistake so I opened it. Then I realized the content is the same as ...
Valerio Bulla's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
178 views

How I can read and handle MS Office documents, such as doc/ppt files, securely?

I've heard of too many horror stories of people opening a seemingly innocent docx or pptx file that they've got from a business partner, only to find out that it had embedded malware inside. What ...
Mahn's user avatar
  • 363
2 votes
1 answer
205 views

New trend? Recognizable and specific subject in Spam / malware mails

It seems that a new trend has emerged in the past few weeks. While users are (meanwhile) aware that an unexpected mail with subject "Your invoice" or "Your delivery" is suspicious, ...
Hagen von Eitzen's user avatar
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0 answers
220 views

Handling file uploads securely in phpmailer/php

I have a lengthy HTML form with around 20-26 file uploads required and some of them are even multiple. I am really concerned about how secure it is. I would really like to have some secure solution to ...
Sarcasm's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
320 views

Secure way of sending an email attachment in a user-friendly manner

In the last months I very often was in a position where I needed to send an email attachments with sensitive content to someone whom I didn't know well personally (so that I could talk to them how set ...
MyCatsHat's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
247 views

Phishing emails - What do I look for?

I want to be able to spot a phishing email. What are the things to check when investigating and doing forensics on one? There are some things I know to look for already but I want to get moer ...
Warren White's user avatar
45 votes
7 answers
11k views

Why do email server/clients block executable attachments?

If I send an email with an .exe attachment to an Outlook recipient, the email client blocks the attachment and the recipient has no way of overriding this security setting (short of making certain ...
user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
52 views

Safe way to open potentially compromised attachments [duplicate]

I have in my inbox what I believe to be (95% sure) a phishing attack email or my IT department doing a phishing attack knowledge awareness campaign. I'm a very curious person by nature and I'd like ...
Mandelbrotter's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
629 views

Possible dangers of .doc files

I just recieved some generic work related mail with word file attached that was requesting to Enable Editing in order to view its content. I'm not going to fall for it but it got me wondering. What ...
RotV's user avatar
  • 103
0 votes
2 answers
18k views

Possible attack via Netflix; what action should I take, if any?

Late last night I received a "password reset" email from [email protected]. It looked legit, but I had not requested a password reset. I checked my account's "recent account access" but saw ...
Stewart's user avatar
  • 343
0 votes
1 answer
606 views

Are there any kinds of ID where it would be safe to email a photocopy of that ID?

I am developing an online registration form for a discount program whose eligibility can be determined by examining a person's ID. When a user submits the form, he or she is asked to upload a ...
ScoobyDrew18's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
1k views

What's the point of S/MIME?

I received an email recently which displayed as an empty body with a smime.p7m attachment. After some Googling, I discovered it was an encrypted email -- neat! So I started looking for the key. But... ...
user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
321 views

How this tracking (and more) was done using an image in an email?

As reported in the NY Times, there was some type of electronic spying in a high-profile military trial. Its claimed that the prosecutors were spying on the defense: The court-martial ... has been ...
StayOnTarget's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
192 views

Email PDF Attachment altered 'in transit'

I've tried searching a few terms but can't really answer my question. We have a system which sends out invoices and we have had a couple of instances with one individual where the PDF attachment has ...
DarrenM's user avatar
  • 11
0 votes
2 answers
223 views

ML approach to malicious attachments using email contents

Based on my understanding of the field, it seems like there is a lot of attention paid to spam filtering based on the contents and metadata of an email, and there is considerable attention paid to ...
solumnant's user avatar
  • 133
10 votes
2 answers
6k views

Is it possible to get infected by opening an email in Android Gmail app?

I just received an email from an unknown person, titled "da vinci" and containing a docx file with the same name. Not suspicious at all, right? I have not opened or downloaded the file, but: The ...
AJPerez's user avatar
  • 203
3 votes
2 answers
1k views

I received an encrypted email attachment as a reply to a previous conversation, months later

As in the title - I received an email reply to a months old thread containing a password protected zip file. I had previously asked them for a particular CAD file, but this was months ago and we had ...
Bassinator's user avatar
53 votes
2 answers
11k views

How do US government agencies open their email attachments?

I suppose the FBI receives email with attachments, like any other government agency: documents, resumes/CVs, etc. I also suppose they are very careful not to get infected, more than the average user, ...
reed's user avatar
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3 votes
0 answers
124 views

Search function in Outlook and attachements

I am wondering how the search function of Outlook is working, especially in regards to researching key words that are presents in emails attachements. Does the Outlook search function opens the files ...
404guest's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
13k views

How to inspect an email attachment without downloading it?

I accidentally opened a PDF email attachment on an Android phone as I was trying to figure out if the email was fraud or a scam. It was an email claiming I booked a flight and the pdf had my e-tickets....
Jayson's user avatar
  • 41
0 votes
3 answers
82 views

Sending email from my provider back to my provider with data from user input secure?

My boss wants me to create the following functionality: A user fills out a form on our website with some data. He can also upload some files, which have personal information. After the form is ...
Roman's user avatar
  • 157
0 votes
4 answers
2k views

Proving a forwarded email attachment was not modified

There was an issue and my employer asked me to forward the email that I sent out to a client a few days prior. The email contained 3 PDF attachments and I immediately sent this to my manager. I am ...
Fairbanksash's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
268 views

Downloaded "DHL" fraud email to Linux, action needed?

Yesterday I ordered a package and today received an email from "DHL". I downloaded an attachment from the email and clicked it. It opened a htm page. (I did not fill out any information.) I now ...
cvr's user avatar
  • 119
0 votes
3 answers
473 views

Executable files in email attachments on UNIX

.EXE files are a danger in email attachments, and are usually blocked by Windows email clients. How is this on UNIX/macOS, where executables don't have an extension? Based on the file data, how do ...
forthrin's user avatar
  • 1,801
2 votes
2 answers
158 views

Can email be secured by the receiver only, without action by the sender?

An established financial institution just directed me to email them a document with sensitive information. When I questioned the security, the CS rep and manager both tried to assure me that, "...
zwiebelspaetzle's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
447 views

E-Mail attachments can be opened using their URL in webmail even after logging off

My E-Mail is on Bell Net. I noticed today what I thought was a major security hole. Then I wasn't sure so I wanted to post this. I discovered that even though I have logged off my E-Mail, I can still ...
Denis H's user avatar
  • 41
1 vote
1 answer
9k views

What's the risk in downloading a .pdf from a phishing email?

I've received an email which is an obvious phishing attempt. However, a .pdf has been attached which I want to open, just out of curiosity! What are the risks in downloading .pdf files from unknown ...
dvniel's user avatar
  • 111
1 vote
1 answer
739 views

I need to download and open an email attachment but how to check if it's safe before?

Someone sent a 39 kb file email attachment. A strange picture appears over the attachment. I didn't open it. I would need to check the file but I'm afraid it's a scam. I was planning to log into my ...
franz1's user avatar
  • 481
-2 votes
1 answer
142 views

Transferring potentially malicious e-mail attachments to air-gapped machine

Overview: I am interested in having an e-mail account designated for receiving anonymous tips as part of a larger anonymous tip infrastructure at my business. My professional domain's e-mail is ...
Tigelle's user avatar
  • 177
0 votes
2 answers
438 views

How can I select a compression utility that is popular and secure enough

In a previous posting on Which is a safe way to transfer a copy of a sensitive document?, I have received suggestions to compress and encrypt an attachment file using the options of utilities such as ...
XavierStuvw's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
2k views

Which is a safe way to transfer a copy of a sensitive document?

A reputable and clearly identified institution asked me, for legitimate reasons, to e-mail a scan of the passport. However, I regard the passport as a sensitive document and am pretty reluctant to use ...
XavierStuvw's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
201 views

How does Thunderbird quarantine downloaded emails? Is it dangerous to download emails and store them offline?

There shouldn't be a high security risk as long as the email attachments aren't opened / executed by the user but it could still be a risk and maybe I'm wrong. So how does Thunderbird quarantine ...
mYnDstrEAm's user avatar
19 votes
4 answers
3k views

What lessons can be learned from the latest spate of Ransomware attacks? [closed]

I'm not sure this is the right place, but figured people would find it useful if they aren't too familiar with security policies and general best practices. There is a lot of information out there, ...
Lelantos's user avatar
  • 329
1 vote
2 answers
1k views

Is EICAR a valid test for a mail virus scanner?

We have a fairly standard commercial e-mail setup, we use Outlook and Exchange and have a very well known third party service providing spam & phishing filtering and virus and malware scanning. I ...
iainpb's user avatar
  • 4,162
0 votes
2 answers
3k views

Is sending personal information over email between different providers secure?

For example, if I use Gmail, and use my Gmail account to send personal information, which I don't want others to see except the intended recipient, to a Hotmail account, both in the body as well as an ...
Jonathan Redmond's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
457 views

Blocking Email Attachment download from outside company in Office 365

In Office 365, Emails can accessed from anywhere (within or outside of the company). Want to block Email attachment download from outside of the company. Emails should be accessible from outside of ...
Tushar's user avatar
  • 443
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

Sandbox for attachment accessment

I am currently trying to review an e-mail sent to myself, that could be malicious, or it could not. I would like to create a sandbox environment to review this kind of message (it's more than likely ...
Chri3's user avatar
  • 327
15 votes
6 answers
5k views

How do I investigate where personal information in a fraudulent email was leaked from?

I have seen an email which is obvious from the content that it's a phishing/spurious email. However, the personal content is quite revealing and specific to that individual. How could I go about ...
Djuro's user avatar
  • 159