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Input validation is an orthogonal issue here, since bash doesn't know anything about RFC821/RFC2821, doesn't expect data in that format, and doesn't make any guarantees about what it will or won't do on such data.

The only reasonable policy for a shell to follow is to be entirely input-agnostic and never execute code based on the contents of an environment variable (regardless of which RFCs the contents conform to).

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Of course bash doesn't know and shouldn't know about the SMTP RFCs. Yes, bash shouldn't execute code in variables. I was talking about input validation in qmail itself, not bash.

Even though bash shouldn't have executed the code, better input validation and RFC conformance in qmail could have prevented exploitation of bash. You know, defense-in-depth.

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