Viruswall: Warning about an "EMail_Flaw_MIME_Tag_Overflow"
Background
The virus alert you received from the LBNL Virus Wall contained a warning about
an "EMail_Flaw_MIME_Tag_Overflow".
Does this mean I have a virus?
No, it does NOT mean you have a virus. This message is simply a warning
about an old, obscure problem that existed in some email programs.
This is not a serious concern, and is mainly in place to allow us to
keep an eye out in case anyone does try to take advantage of the problem,
which is highly unlikely.
What causes this warning?
The warning results from the VirusWall detecting an email message
with an attachment whose name is greater than 200 characters. A URL
(address) of a web page you send to someone, for example, could fall
into this category.
Do I need to do anything?
No, you don't need to do anything.
The warning refers to a loophole that existed in an old version of
Microsoft Outlook Express. Trend Micro, who makes our VirusWall software,
believes other older email clients weren't particularly vulnerable,
and that most vendors have included fixes for this going back several
versions. The problem was first detected more than one year ago.
Why didn't my anti-virus software notify me?
This isn't something Norton Antivirus or any other desktop virus
protection software would find, because it's not an actual virus, just
a potentially dangerous part of an email message.
You can disregard the warning, though it's always good to ensure that you have
recently run a virus scan on your computer.
Last modified Thu May 24 17:37:25 PDT 2001