PDA

View Full Version : Email Clients | Loading Images



DonCoryon
April 9th, 2008, 01:32 AM
I know all you Ubuntu / Linux guys and gals are tech savvy and I wanted to ask you all a question.

Why don't email clients (and some web mail hosts) load email images by default. Is there a security risk by loading images? Or is it simply to block accidental porn?

Taino
April 9th, 2008, 02:39 AM
Is there a security risk by loading images? Or is it simply to block accidental porn?

There is a security risk, Its more wide spread in the Windows OS thru IE (Internet Explorer) images can contain infectious code.

mridkash
April 9th, 2008, 09:49 AM
The email sender can know that you opened the image, because the image is downloaded from the sender's server, unlike the email text, which is downloaded from your email server.
Spammers can use this information to confirm your email address.
I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think this is why an email client blocks only 'remote' images, and not the ones coming from email server.