Uuencode attachments that are sent from non-Exchange servers are displayed as garbled text in Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (912433)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2

SYMPTOMS

After you install Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2), uuencode attachments that are sent from non-Exchange servers are displayed as garbled text in the body of the e-mail message.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs because the uuencode message is incorrectly tagged with a MIME Version 1.0 header. Therefore, the message is incorrectly formatted.

In Exchange Server, when a uuencode message is incorrectly tagged with a MIME Version 1.0 header, the text in the message is treated as MIME text. Therefore, the text of the attachment is displayed in the body of the message and appears garbled to the message recipient. This behavior occurs because the message combines two different Internet body formats by combining a MIME Version 1.0 header in a uuencode message.

RESOLUTION

Configure the non-Exchange SMTP server that is sending messages to Exchange Server so that the non-Exchange server does not add MIME version headers to uuencode messages.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

The word "uuencode" is derived from "Unix to Unix encoding." A uuencode message can be identified when the first word in the message is "begin." The following is an example of a uuencode message:

begin 664 sampleletter.txt
begin <mode> <file name>
<mode> = the file's read/write/execute permissions as three octal digits
<file> = output name to write the decoded data

The MIME Version 1.0 header usually identifies that a message is a MIME message and that the message complies with RFC 2045. The following is an example of a MIME Version 1.0 header:

Mime-Version: 1.0
"MIME-Version" ":" 1*DIGIT "." 1*DIGIT

Both standards (MIME and uuencode) cannot be combined in the same message as displayed in the following sample header:

Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2005 14:21:33 +1100 (EDT)
From: John Doe <JohnDoe@contoso.com>
Message-Id: <200512020321.server.domain.com>
To: Jane Doe@contoso.com
Subject: View the attachment
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Return-Path: JohnDoe@contoso.com
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 02 Dec 2005 03:21:31.0901 (UTC)
FILETIME=[7DDA6AD0:01C5F6EF]

Here is your attachment report
begin 664 sampleletter.txt
M:6-L;W)P+G`@92L@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@
M("`@(#,N-BXV($EN=F5N=&]R>2!$971A:6P@8GD@3&]C871I;VX@("`@("`@
M("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@($1A=&4Z(#`R+S$R+S`U#0I0
M86P-"E-I=&4@("`@($QO8V%T:6]N($ET96T@3G5M8F5R("`@("`@("!2968@
M("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@54T@(%%T>2!/;B!(86YD($-R96%T960@($5X<&ER
M92`@($%S<V%Y("4@1W)A9&4@4W1A='5S("`@079A:6P@3F5T($]V<DES#0H
M
M+2TM+2TM+2`M+2TM+2TM+2`M+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2T@+2TM+2
TM+2TM
M+2TM+2TM+2TM("TM("TM+2TM+2TM+2TM+2`M+2TM+2TM+2`M+2TM+2T
M+2`
M M+2TM+2TM("TM+2TM("TM+2TM+2TM("TM+2TM("TM+2`M+2TM+0T*,C`P,"
`@
M("`@1C`P,2`@("`@,3`P,#`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@ M("`@("!%02`@("`@("`@+3$X+C`@,#(O,#<O,#`@("`@("`@("`@("`P+C`P
=("`@("`@("`@("`@("`@($)A=&-H($E$.@T*#!H@
`
end

REFERENCES

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

836555 Frequently asked questions about MIME and content conversion in Exchange 2000 Server and in Exchange Server 2003

For more information about MIME, visit the following Internet Engineering Task Force Web site:

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2045.txt

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:12/22/2005
Keywords:kbprb KB912433 kbAudITPRO
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