Why does Outlook block pictures and make you
respond to let them through? In short, it is because Outlook is trying to protect you from potentially harmful (read:
virus or spyware carrying) images. Believe it or not virus writers have figured out how to embed viruses even in
certain types photos. In reality, these photo types, including WMF, and RLE bitmaps among others are the most
vulnerable yet more rarely used. Usually jpeg, gif, png, and tiff files are okay. The Philadelphia daily news has a short piece on
how to fix images displaying correctly in Outlook and more on why and how to use Outlook's security features regarding
images.Outlook picture security
Why does Outlook block pictures and make you
respond to let them through? In short, it is because Outlook is trying to protect you from potentially harmful (read:
virus or spyware carrying) images. Believe it or not virus writers have figured out how to embed viruses even in
certain types photos. In reality, these photo types, including WMF, and RLE bitmaps among others are the most
vulnerable yet more rarely used. Usually jpeg, gif, png, and tiff files are okay. The Philadelphia daily news has a short piece on
how to fix images displaying correctly in Outlook and more on why and how to use Outlook's security features regarding
images.
1. Largely, it's not because of security vunlerabilities in image processing, but rahter because of potential information disclosure. A spammer can decode if you've received a message if the image in that message has been downloaded by putting your email in the image URL, and then can know if your email address has more value for future spamming.
Posted at 5:00PM on Mar 29th 2006 by Brian