Forged e-mails from Linus

davec wrote to us with the text of an e-mail from Linus [click below]. The point of the message is that someone is/was spamming in Linus' name, having him endorse the Java client for Seti@Home, you've got a fake e-mail.

"Here's a copy of an e-mail from Linus.

X-Authentication-Warning: penguin.transmeta.com: torvalds owned process doing -bs
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 00:31:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com>
To: Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu>
Subject: Fake emails from "Linus"
X-Loop: majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
X-Orcpt: rfc822;linux-kernel-outgoing-dig
X-UIDL: e42dadffdd3e89d559b44840e4ccea2a
Just a heads-up: somebody is sending out fake emails that claim to be from me, and that have me endorsing the Java client for Seti@Home.

The reason I know somebody is faking emails is that I got a bounce from one of them.

If somebody on the kernel list gets a message that claims to be from "Linus Torvalds " with a subject line of "Seti@Home user interface", it is fake.

I'd like to see the full headers from such a message, to see if it shows where it is really originating from: the bounced message does not contain the original headers..

I assume it is a mass-posting trying to market Seti@Home or the particular client in question, and I'm not all that amused.

Linus

PS. Although I have to admit that the first line brought a grin: "Being the awesome Linux stud that I am.." "

Comments

Re:Fucking Seti@Home

[Psiren]

You shouldn't bad mouth a project just because you don't agree with it. I happen to think RC5 is a waste of time, but I don't have a go at the poeple running the clients. It's their choice, the same as it's mine to run the SETI client.

SETI is big news at the moment. I would surmise that this is the reason this particular project is getting so much bad attention. It has a lot of good things going on too though.

Signatures

[HP LoveJet]

Maybe instead of interpreting this incident as a rallying cry to the mass lynching of forgers and spammers, we should think of it as a reminder of why it's good to use digital signatures for authentication.

bong

[eyeball]

Ok, so how many people think that Linus was stoned out of his gourd and actually sent the email?

I can just see it now. He goes to Phantom Menace, gets all psyched up on finding aliens, goes home....

Re:Sue me, litigate!

[whm]

Linus should sue! Seriously. He's probably the only person in the Linux world who can more or less demand 100% respect

Hrm...Linus suing would be a way for him to lose that 100% respect. Its definitely alright to be upset over this sort of thing, but its not something to get all govermental about. I think I like how Linus sticks to Linux, and not to politics.