RFI: [LINK] The ZIP email and the PDF email

[Roger Clarke]

At 12:26 +1000 2/7/07, Rick Welykochy wrote:
>I have been receiving two or three emails per days for months now
>that contain a ZIP file attachment. ...
>Now I am seeing a similar number of emails with a PDF attachment. ...

I've always assumed that:
(1)  the squillions of .zip attachments to spam (and the recent trickle
      of .pdf attachments) contain .exe content mis-labelled;  and
(2)  those machines with settings that allow auto-invocation of
      attachments process them based on what they contain, rather
      than on what the suffix says they're supposed to contain.

But, in my ignorance and laziness, I've never actually checked how 
the various (mal)configured Windows environments actually work.

 From what Rick's saying, have I been wrong? i.e. does the suffix 
actually determine what Windows environments do with incoming 
attachments?

-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
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Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW