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Strange email problem

I am trying to figure out if the problem I am having is related to the UTM or if it is an external issue.

To start with, I am running the latest version (9.407-3) with a home license.

 

When I receive replies to some mail messages (not all) I am getting what looks like double spacing on all of the lines of text in the message I sent previously.

In a worst case scenario there is also an issue with the MIME encryption of the message, where the message size goes from less than 100K to over 3MB.

Here is a small example of what is being shown in the message body:

In-Reply-To:
Subject: RE: Some message title
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2016 22:06:29 +1100
Message-ID: <002e01d22866$82dc3310$88949930$@xyz.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/related;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_002F_01D228C2.B66EB200"
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 14.0
Thread-Index: AdIoONy/HMM9RiTQS3qDxtgPtP6rhwAAYiOwAArO8lA=
Content-Language: en-au
 
This is a multipart message in MIME format.
 
------=_NextPart_000_002F_01D228C2.B66EB200
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_001_0030_01D228C2.B66ED910"
 
 
------=_NextPart_001_0030_01D228C2.B66ED910
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="gb2312"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

 

Does anyone have any idea what is happening here, or better yet, how I get rid of this problem.



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Parents
  • If you use a different mail client, do you see the same phenomenon?  Do you always get extra space from some emailers and never from others?

    Cheers - Bob

     
    Sophos UTM Community Moderator
    Sophos Certified Architect - UTM
    Sophos Certified Engineer - XG
    Gold Solution Partner since 2005
    MediaSoft, Inc. USA
  • Firstly, thanks for the reply Bob.

    I have not tried to use a different mail client, as that would be a bit of a pain.
    Currently I am using Outlook 2010 which connects to Exchange 2003. The Exchange server is a bit old now, but it has been working for a long time and has not had any configuration changes in many years.
    This problem has been happening for a while, but I cannot give a definite timeline on when this started, but I cannot remember it being there a year ago.

    And yes, you are correct. Some recipients cause this issue whereas some others do not. That is the thing that has me most confused.
    I thought it may be a result of the recipients mail server, but I have no way of testing or confirming this.

    As mentioned... the double spacing is a bit of a pain, but other than that it is not really a big deal. That is more of an aesthetics problem.
    The issue that concerns me the most is when the mail message gets bloated, by what I can only assume is a failure to encode/re-encode the message correctly.
    I do not know if this is happening because of any settings that I have in the UTM SMTP proxy or for some other reason.

  • "a result of the recipients mail server"

    That's what I think, too - the server or the client. With Outlook, I always get double space from one supplier, but never from others.  The double spacing goes away when I use my personal account with roundcube.

    Cheers - Bob

     
    Sophos UTM Community Moderator
    Sophos Certified Architect - UTM
    Sophos Certified Engineer - XG
    Gold Solution Partner since 2005
    MediaSoft, Inc. USA
  • As mentioned, I am not that concerned about the double line spacing, annoying as it is.
    The concern is about the mail message getting bloated due to what I see as a failure to encode or decode the message properly.

    The main user I have problems with is from a Chinese company. As shown previously, they use charset="gb2312".
    My personal assessment is that when those messages hit the UTM they are not being handled correctly, hence the bloating.

    There is also a problem with the base64 encoding of images. Instead of seeing the image in the message I am getting the encoded version of the image.

    ------=_NextPart_000_002F_01D228C2.B66EB200
    Content-Type: image/jpeg;
    name="image001.jpg"
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
    Content-ID: <image001.jpg@01D228C2.4A910470>
     
    /9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/2wBDAAEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEB
    AQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQH/2wBDAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEB
    AQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQH/wAARCACGAGIDASIA
    AhEBAxEB/8QAHwAAAQUBAQEBAQEAAAAAAAAAAAECAwQFBgcICQoL/8QAtRAAAgEDAwIEAwUFBAQA
    AAF9AQIDAAQRBRIhMUEGE1FhByJxFDKBkaEII0KxwRVS0fAkM2JyggkKFhcYGRolJicoKSo0NTY3
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    AwEBAQEBAQEBAQAAAAAAAAECAwQFBgcICQoL/8QAtREAAgECBAQDBAcFBAQAAQJ3AAECAxEEBSEx
    BhJBUQdhcRMiMoEIFEKRobHBCSMzUvAVYnLRChYkNOEl8RcYGRomJygpKjU2Nzg5OkNERUZHSElK
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    and it goes on for hundreds of lines....

    As I mentioned, this problem is happening on replies to my emails, so the problem could be at their end or with the UTM.
    My problem is determining which one of these it is.

    To complicate the issue, some replies in a continuing email thread are fine and then it all goes to hell, and I have no idea why.

Reply
  • As mentioned, I am not that concerned about the double line spacing, annoying as it is.
    The concern is about the mail message getting bloated due to what I see as a failure to encode or decode the message properly.

    The main user I have problems with is from a Chinese company. As shown previously, they use charset="gb2312".
    My personal assessment is that when those messages hit the UTM they are not being handled correctly, hence the bloating.

    There is also a problem with the base64 encoding of images. Instead of seeing the image in the message I am getting the encoded version of the image.

    ------=_NextPart_000_002F_01D228C2.B66EB200
    Content-Type: image/jpeg;
    name="image001.jpg"
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
    Content-ID: <image001.jpg@01D228C2.4A910470>
     
    /9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/2wBDAAEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEB
    AQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQH/2wBDAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEB
    AQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQH/wAARCACGAGIDASIA
    AhEBAxEB/8QAHwAAAQUBAQEBAQEAAAAAAAAAAAECAwQFBgcICQoL/8QAtRAAAgEDAwIEAwUFBAQA
    AAF9AQIDAAQRBRIhMUEGE1FhByJxFDKBkaEII0KxwRVS0fAkM2JyggkKFhcYGRolJicoKSo0NTY3
    ODk6Q0RFRkdISUpTVFVWV1hZWmNkZWZnaGlqc3R1dnd4eXqDhIWGh4iJipKTlJWWl5iZmqKjpKWm
    p6ipqrKztLW2t7i5usLDxMXGx8jJytLT1NXW19jZ2uHi4+Tl5ufo6erx8vP09fb3+Pn6/8QAHwEA
    AwEBAQEBAQEBAQAAAAAAAAECAwQFBgcICQoL/8QAtREAAgECBAQDBAcFBAQAAQJ3AAECAxEEBSEx
    BhJBUQdhcRMiMoEIFEKRobHBCSMzUvAVYnLRChYkNOEl8RcYGRomJygpKjU2Nzg5OkNERUZHSElK
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    and it goes on for hundreds of lines....

    As I mentioned, this problem is happening on replies to my emails, so the problem could be at their end or with the UTM.
    My problem is determining which one of these it is.

    To complicate the issue, some replies in a continuing email thread are fine and then it all goes to hell, and I have no idea why.

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