[Mailman-Users] Approved header

[Dominic Hargreaves]

On Fri, Feb 02, 2001 at 09:11:14AM -0600, Dave Sherohman wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 02, 2001 at 08:46:42AM -0600, James Thompson wrote:
> > First, Mailman doesn't seem to allow a user to type 
> > Approved: Password
> > 
> > as the first line of the mail to the list to bypass the approval by the
> > administrator.  The user doesn't want to maintain the list of posters that
> > bypass approval.  So this is holding up the migration of 3 lists.
> > 
> > Is this not supported?
> 
> No.  Mailman doesn't use an Approved header, so adding one has no effect.
> (Incidentally, what you describe seems like a very ugly, labor-intensive,
> insecure, and just plain *wrong* way of allowing multiple people to post
> to a moderated list.  I can't see how allowing list members to bypass
> moderation could be a Good Thing.  Shame on majordomo!)

No, this is not the case. Approved headers, while perhaps slightly 
inelegant, are more secure (FSVO "secure") than simply allowing a set of 
posters to post. Anyone can trivially fake a "From" header in an email 
address, whereas with an approved header you need to know the password.

-- 
Dominic Hargreaves | http://dom.magd.ox.ac.uk/
You can get my PGP key from my web site.
"Only two things are infinite: the Universe and human stupidity, and 
   I'm not sure about the former" - Albert Einstein