Return Delivery of Mail I've never Sent

[Dan Nelson]

In the last episode (May 12), Bob Perry said:
> Just setup mutt and I've begun to notice mail return to me indicating
> that it did not pass the server content filter, etc.  The last one
> stated that a virus was found, file name disco.zip, virus name
> W32/Netsky.c at MM!zip and apprarently was found by McAfee Scanning
> Engine (4359/4.3.20).  What makes it worse is that the recipient is
> not recognizable.
> 
> I understand that my system can be used as a mail relay and would
> like to know how to combat this.  Can anyone point me in the right
> direction so that I can quickly resolve this issue?

Most likely the original email never touched your system.  A virus that
selects random sender and recipients from the infected machine's
addressbook sent a message to another system with a misconfigured virus
scanner that attempted to notify the sender that they're infected (even
though viruses have been forging the sender address for years).

-- 
	Dan Nelson
	dnelson at allantgroup.com