Manual SMTP with anonymous sender

emailsmtp

I read that you can connect to an SMTP server (like gmail, hotmail, etc) via telnet, and manually put in commands to send anonymous email (or even worse, send email with a false "from" address). Is this still possible? (I'm receiving many emails from dubious addresses.)

Best Answer

As Wes said, it's possible, depends of the server's level of security. Below is a classic telnet sequence against a SMTP server :

$ telnet 127.0.0.1 25
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to 127.0.0.1.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 hostname.server.net ESMTP Postfix
EHLO dummydummy
250-hostname.server.net
250-PIPELINING
250-SIZE 10240000
250-VRFY
250-ETRN
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-8BITMIME
250 DSN
MAIL FROM:<fake@email.net>
250 2.1.0 Ok
RCPT TO:<recipient@email.net>
250 2.1.5 Ok
DATA
354 End data with <CR><LF>.<CR><LF>
test
.
250 2.0.0 Ok: queued as 8ACF13E1B8
QUIT
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