2008-03-23

GMail blocks 'executables' ;-)

Sometimes i want a quick backup solution... so i sent "backup.tgz" to my gmail account. But gmail blocked it ??!!

From the GMail help pages:
"As a security measure to prevent potential viruses, Gmail doesn't allow you to send or receive executable files (such as files ending in .exe) that could contain damaging executable code.

Gmail won't accept these types of files even if they are sent in a zipped (.zip, .tar, .tgz, .taz, .z, .gz) format. If this type of message is sent to your Gmail account, it is bounced back to the sender automatically."


Funny thing is, my backup.tgz file did not contain any executables...only some files ending in .cmd !

Solution: Rename the backup.tgz file, problem solved!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you think that's stupid, try my webhost ... their mailservers block attachments ending in all the aforementioned formats, and in .eml extensions as well. What's even more retarded is that they do this even if there isn't an actual attachment attached ... just a mention of .eml in an email is enough to trigger a ridiculous failure. Bah. I hate broken mailservers.

Paul Cobbaut said...

The blocking is not stupid, only the fact that renaming a file is enough to get past the block.
imho it is better to scan for dangerous content than to scan for "dangerous file extensions".