From: mouss (moussnetoyen.net)
Date: Fri Mar 14 2008 - 13:56:15 CDT

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AlxFrag wrote:
> Hi,
> i'd like to ask if it is possible to avoid date spoofing in emails.
> Supposing there is a deadline for paper submission through emails, one
> can change the date and time on his mail client and put it in the past.

one way is
- to require that the papers are sent before a public deadline.
- to accept papers received at last 7 days after the deadline.

Keep it social and you don't need to look at headers.

> The person who receives his email could simply check the mail headers
> and see the true date. An average user might not think to do that.

The same person can also trust the date inside the pdf/ps/latex/...
The same person can find the document unreadable and ask the other for a
readable version (so an author can send garbage and hope the recipient
will ask...).
There are many ways to cheat.
>
> Is it possible for postfix to write the correct date on the incoming
> emails?
>

postfix puts the date in the Received header. you can use an external
program to only accept papers received by a given date.

Rewriting the Date header is not without problems. what happens if the
sender talks over the phone about the paper he sent on 02-03-2008? what
happens if the message was signed? ... etc.

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