The text 'Not Virus Scanned' is prepended to my subject lines

Question

Rick411 Author

Level 1

6 points

The text 'Not Virus Scanned' is prepended to my subject lines

In iCloud (mac.com) messages I send, the text

"[Not Virus Scanned]" - it is being pre-pended to the subject line.

I hope that someone in the Apple/iCloud operations facility will actually look at what your

systems are doing. And I hope it is not the user named "Winston Churchill".

Background:

Back in August 2012, someone asked whether Apple was virus scanning emails:

John W 1980

Aug 8, 2012 4:12 PM

I reveived a password protected pdf by email. The subject line was marked [Not Virus Scanned]. Was this mark applied by the iCloud server?

iCloud

This solved my question by Winston Churchill on Aug 8, 2012 4:28 PM

Welcome to the Apple Community.

No, it wasn't added by Apple

See the answer in context

I have attached an email header (edited for privacy) to show this:

"Oracle Communications Messaging Server" running on st11p00mm-asmtp004.mac.com

Which is handling the messages, is running Fsecure Proofpoint, or something that is claiming to

be - SO apparently iCloud IS doing virus scanning, and has chosen to corrupt our Email subject lines

rather than simply stick to the conventional behavior of using SMTP headers to flag virus scan status.

The outgoing subject was "Re: ...."

after passing through

st11p00mm-asmtp004.mac.com ([17.172.81.3])

(Oracle Communications Messaging Server 7u4-23.01(7.0.4.23.0) 64bit (built Aug

10 2011)) with ESMTPSA id <0MGF004P5DB96310@st11p00mm-asmtp004.mac.com>

Which IS an Apple system,

the subject reads

[Not Virus Scanned] Re: ....

What else is Apple editing on the email it handles?

Return-path: <xxx@mac.com>

Received: from st11p00mm-asmtp004.mac.com ([17.172.81.3])

by ms02552.mac.com (Oracle Communications Messaging Server 7u4-26.01

(7.0.4.26.0) 64bit (built Jul 13 2012))

with ESMTP id <0MGF00APXDBCZR30@ms02552.mac.com> for xxx@mac.com; Thu,

10 Jan 2013 19:40:24 +0000 (GMT)

Original-recipient: rfc822;xxx@mac.com

Received: from [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]

(cpe-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-.rr.com [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx])

by st11p00mm-asmtp004.mac.com

(Oracle Communications Messaging Server 7u4-23.01(7.0.4.23.0) 64bit (built Aug

10 2011)) with ESMTPSA id <0MGF004P5DB96310@st11p00mm-asmtp004.mac.com> for

xxx@mac.com (ORCPT xxx@mac.com); Thu,

10 Jan 2013 19:40:24 +0000 (GMT)

X-Proofpoint-Virus-Version: vendor=fsecure

engine=2.50.10432:5.9.8327,1.0.431,0.0.0000

definitions=2013-01-10_09:2013-01-10,2013-01-10,1970-01-01 signatures=0

X-Proofpoint-Spam-Details: rule=notspam policy=default score=0 spamscore=0

ipscore=0 suspectscore=0 phishscore=0 bulkscore=0 adultscore=0 classifier=spam

adjust=0 reason=mlx scancount=1 engine=6.0.2-1203120001

definitions=main-1301100166

References: <0D4B60EA-B519-41E0-B6DB-1031E0D7C31D@mac.com>

<50ED585B020000F100042ABD@xxx.org>

In-reply-to: <50ED585B020000F100042ABD@yyy.org>

MIME-version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1085)

Message-id: <28910C52-7B93-4C2F-BE58-9CAB7B7A9201@mac.com>

Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=Apple-Mail-20--564984355

From: XXX <xxx@mac.com>

Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:40:21 -0800

To: YYY <YYY@yyy.org>

X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1085)

Subject: [Not Virus Scanned] Re: ....

---- end of attachment ----

iCloud-OTHER, ICloud operations - not related to

Posted on Jan 10, 2013 12:33 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 10, 2013 11:24 PM in response to Rick411

No, Apple's Support site is here: http://www.apple.com/support/ - completely different site.

You'll note that on that page there is a clearly labelled link to these Communities where it says "Find and share solutions with Apple users around the world". There is also a link for contacting Apple for support directly.

So if you want the "actual service provider to provide service" you have to contact the actual service provider, not post on a user to user forum.

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Answer 2

Jan 10, 2013 1:37 PM in response to Rick411

We're all just users here. Neither Apple nor anyone from the 'iCloud operations facility' monitors these posts.

Nobody here has any inside knowledge of under what circumstances any emails are 'edited' (if in fact they are) by any email systems between sender and recipient.

In 12 years of using Apple's email systems I have never seen a single email subject changed. However prepending text is not 'corruption'. Corruption means the data is unreadable/inaccessible. Adding a few extra characters does not make the subject unreadable.

All responsible email providers scan email for viruses. From Google searches it appears that such a message is added by some virus scanners to the subject only when an email attachment cannot be read (such as a password protected file, or a deeply nested zip file) and it serves as a warning to the recipient to exercise caution before opening the email. How many users routinely check SMTP headers before opening potentially damaging emails?

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Answer 3

Rick411 Author

Level 1

6 points

Jan 10, 2013 10:41 PM in response to Julian Wright

My mistake. Apple advertises this as their "support" site. I thought Apple might have something to do with it.

Modifying my message in anyway is a corruption in my opinion. Lets leave it there and close this ticket as unsolvable without the actual service provider providing service.

Reply

Answer 4

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,031 points

Jan 11, 2013 7:00 AM in response to Rick411

Note that Apple does not add such text to iCloud emails. That text is being added by something else. Perhaps it's being added by the recipient's server, perhaps you're using a mail client other than Mail that is doing this, or perhaps you have some kind of anti-virus software installed that is causing this issue. In any event, it sounds like you have some preconceptions about your issue and who should be solving it, and you need to forget all that. Be willing to look at this issue with a more open mind and less negativity, or you may never find out what's causing it.

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