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Attachment processing - medical and central
Currently attachments to email messages are processed by both the Medical Center and Central email systems. There are subtle differences of this processing due to the differences in the systems involved.
Neither of these systems examines the contents of attachments in any way. They simply detect whether attachments to messages are present and, if present, review the attachment's file name.
Neither system changes common attachment types such as those used by MS Word, Excel or Adobe files.
Both systems insert warning messages which clearly indicate what was done and where to find additional help.
Comparison of the differences between the two systems:
Medical campus attachment processing
Potentially destructive attachments which first pass through the Medical School email servers with a file extension ("file type") of ".exe" have those extensions renamed to ".xex", while other potentially destrutive attachments with file extensions such as ".vbs", ".com", ".bat" are stripped from messages. Other messages may simply have a warning message inserted. For details, see the Medical School Attachment Processing web page.
Central ITS attachment processing
Potentially destructive attachments to email messages which pass though the central ITS email servers first will have their attachments renamed to "filename.xex". Complete details of when this occurs are available at the Central ITS Attachment Renaming web page.
Potential points of confusion:
- Which process is used depends on email software settings of sender
Which side does the processing is controlled, for the most part, by the originators outgoing "SMTP" server set in their email software. Central ITS users typically use the central ITS servers, while Medical Center users tend to use Medical center servers. - Under certain circumstances both proceses will affect a single message
There are a few situations where a warning message may be inserted by the Medical Center and then the central system renames the attachment, inserting another message. - Slightly different warning messages used
The Medical Center servers insert a warning message just before each attachment in the message, while the central servers insert a warning at the beginning of the message. These warnings clearly indicate which system did the processing, what precisely was done and where to go for additional help.
