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base64 coded on .pdf-attachments
Question asked by Uwe Degenhardt - 5/4/2025 at 2:31 AM
Unanswered
I have a weird problem.

Some (not all!) customers complain, that they can not properly receive
eMails with MIME-Type: .pdf

Instead of attaching (and viewing) .pdf correctly
they report the following in the body of their eMails:

--trekuen-9610e881-3f8b-4bff-a863-76fa3c518b7b Content-Type: application/pdf Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=70755199.pdf Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 X-UI-Content-Hash: 87308c53e05d730ce20b0b1b8d9e6d9ad3541052e8c7cf9c06b972a4012326a4 JVBERi0xLjMKMyAwIG9iago8PC9UeXBlIC9QYWdlCi9QYXJlbnQgMSAwIFIKL1Jlc291cmNlcyAy IDAgUgovQ29udGVudHMgNCAwIFI+PgplbmRvYmoKNCAwIG9iago8PC9GaWx0ZXIgL0ZsYXRlRGVj b2RlIC9MZW5ndGggMTY1Nz4+CnN0cmVhbQp4nJVXy3bbNhDd5ytm03OSUwkGQIAgvaoVSbYT23Uj J219sqEkUELNRwpSVeKfbRf+hq686IDUg9QjTexzbIu+mLmYx50hhzcvKJEKli/+BI9SIhRQ/A4V oQFwPyQ8BMV893ySwsklg34Ov7zo3cHJkIFPKIW7GAZ37onkHuES/NAjAh9P4eVlVmp7o8vfXsHd ....


(this is only the extraction!)

So instead of seeing the .MIME type correctly I see those base64-coded line.
It only happens with the provider gmx.net and web.de in Germany.
It looks as if they use a similar engine.

We use:
                        
SmarterMail Enterprise, Build 8251

Any ideas would be appreciated.

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Douglas Foster Replied
It sounds like the file is damaged.   If you download to EML file, can you open it in any email clients and have it display correctly?

Assuming no, you have to figure out how that damage happens.  Probably not SM, or many others would have seen it
  I suspect a spam filter or the source.  Is it a single sender of automated messages and the sender has a software bug in message creation?  Does your spam filter alter the message at all?

Do any DKIM signatures validate during inbound processing?   Do any authentication headers indicate that the message previously had a valid signature?  This should help clarify when the damage occurred.

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