Re: [squid-users] A Logging question

Bill Delphenich wrote:

> Joe,
>
> OK, I hear what you're saying. I'm sure a lot of us find ourselves
> up to our nostrils in these kinds of issues, even if we never went
> looking for this kind of work in the first place.
>
> The focus of my question was really more specific than that. I did a
> test this morning by logging onto my personal Earthlink mail
> account via the browser from work. I then composed a mail message
> and attached a file from one of the file servers on the office LAN.
> I then sent it to myself at my work mail address. I was surprised
> to find that Squid really didn't seem to be aware that any of that
> had happened.
>
> I'm not interested in reading other people's e-mail. I was just
> surprised that I could attach a file to a message and send it and
> no one would know it ever happened. I would like to have an entry
> in the log that such-and-such a file was attached and sent with
> this message. I take it you feel knowing the filename that was sent
> with the mail to be comparable to knowing the contents of the mail
> message?

Hmmm... I don't know how the courts would feel about that (it's not my
opinion that matters here). But, here's why it's not being logged: To
Squid, an email with an attachment being sent to a webmail client is
just another request. It logs the request sent to the server but not
the posted material included in that request. This is a good thing, as
your logs would get mighty big real fast otherwise--and you'd be setting
yourself up for big privacy troubles.

But, from a purely technical standpoint, you could probably hack Squid
to pull out that file attachment data and log it. I doubt any of the
regular developers would have any interest in such a project, but it
could be done. I'm also unsure of the legal ramifications of this. I
don't know how the courts would come down on the issue of whether a
filename contained within a personal email is protected. I would think
it would be, but it hasn't been tested in court as far as I know.

Still, I think the problem is more a human resources issue than a
technical one.
                                   --
                      Joe Cooper <joe@swelltech.com>
                  Affordable Web Caching Proxy Appliances
                         http://www.swelltech.com
Received on Fri Aug 10 2001 - 11:37:44 MDT