Texas internet connectivity declining due to blackouts

Mon Feb 22 17:21:42 UTC 2021

On Wed, Feb 17, 2021 at 10:34:35AM -0800, Sabri Berisha wrote:
> With apologies to those on the list who still use mutt/pine etc. 

1. "still"?  Competent professionals with security awareness use text-only
email clients as a matter of basic self-defense.  I trust it's obvious
why those of us who are responsible for systems/networks/data need to
protect ourselves in order to protect the resources we run.

2. It's pretty easy to handle attachments gracefully while using mutt.
By default it checks ~/.mailcap, and in that file one can specify external
programs to handle various attachment types, e.g.:

	text/html; w3m -dump -T text/html %s | less
	application/pdf; /usr/bin/evince %s

Of course this needs to be done carefully, since it subjects the user
to attacks against those applications carried via attachments, but
that's where judicious choices on the part of the user come in --
choices as in "which attachment types, which applications, and
whether or not to exercise this capability on a per-message basis".

---rsk