From: Harald Tveit Alvestrand
<harald(_dot_)t(_dot_)alvestrand(_at_)delab(_dot_)sintef(_dot_)no>
To: ietf-822(_at_)dimacs(_dot_)rutgers(_dot_)edu
Subject: Should I worry about NULLs in 7-bit?
Hello,
I am currently writing the first ever (I think) gateway between
X.400 and MIME that follows the MIME-MHS specifications.
Now I have a nit to worry me:
- RFC 822 and MIME do not outlaw the NULL character inside quoted strings
of the heading.
- RFC 822 and MIME do not outlaw the NULL character inside the body in
7-bit encoding.
The code will have more lines if I worry about this than if I don't.
(Of course, the code will handle the cases of NULLs inside Q-P or Base64
encoding!)
So, opinions are sought:
- It is CRITICAL to allow NULLs inside headings and text
- It is nice to have, but an initial version that ignores it is OK
- It is a bug in the specification, and nobody cares about it
If you don't deal with NULs, your code will be incorrect. Since you have to
deal with encoded NULs anyway in the body, you may as well be prepared to
deal with them in unencoded text also.
Not being able to deal with NULs in the header may not be as big a problem.
I've never seen NUL used in an email address of any kind.
Keith