Woodmark Technologies' Blog

Delay sending of mail using Microsoft Outlook

Greg Woodard — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:53:22 +0000

Have you ever sent an email and immediately remembered you forgot to attach a file or wanted to add one last thought?

For me, it happens daily and I found a solution that works for me.

I use Microsoft Outlook as my email program. In Microsoft Outlook, you are able to set up “Rules” that perform tasks on email messages. I have used inbound rules for years to automatically file messages in sub-folders of my inbox.

The other day a light bulb came on that I could use a rule to delay the outbound delivery of my sent email messages . It works great. All my outbound messages are delayed by 1 minute which gives me enough time to go edit the message. I picked 1 minute so that messages wouldn’t be too delayed, but you can enter the number of minutes that works for you.

Here’s how I did it – (Screen Shots below):

I launched the “Rules and Alerts” in Outlook 2007 from the “Tools” menu.

I then created a new rule using the “Rule Wizard”.

Below I select the “Check messages after sending” which is an event that occurs when you click the “Send” button on a message, but before Outlook actually transmits it.

Note: Click on any image below for a larger version.

Next, I don’t select any conditions as I want it applied to all messages:

Next, I click yes to acknowledge that it will apply to every message sent.

Next I pick the “Defer Delivery by a number of minutes”.
You click on the “number of minutes” in the “Step 2″ box to pick the minutes you want used.

I pick no exceptions on the next screen:

Finally, I give it a name and click “Finish”.

How secure is your database driven website?

Greg Woodard — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:14:39 +0000

Recently, Woodmark was asked to assist a company who had their website modified by a hacker. They were very surprised that links that pointed to other pages on their sites or to advertisers pages were changed to new, less politically correct, ones.

The question at hand was how the hacker was able to accomplish this task and where was the breach.

In the end, this site fell prey to a situation where the website was tied into back-end databases. This provided customized content to users when users searched or interacted with the site. More and more, websites are built on top of databases to provide a richer, more customized experience.

In this case, the hacker didn’t gain access to the server, but was able to take advantage of how the website was built to gain access to the data in the database and make changes to that data. Since that data controlled page content, the page links were modified.

The hacker used a practice known as a SQL Injection Vulnerability. The following is an excerpt from an article from a DevX website that explains more about this type of vulnerability:

” (The) Vulnerability arises when an application dynamically generates commands and sends them to SQL Server for execution. To exploit this vulnerability the intruder simply appends executable code to a text field that provides input for the query. Under the right conditions, an intruder can experimentally find the right combination of quote delimiters and comment marks to modify the current command or append an unwanted command. The results can range from returning otherwise hidden data to the user to letting the user execute commands that they would normally not be able to do from the form.”

If you would like to read more from this article, you can find at www.devx.com/codemag/Article/10290

In this case, the hacker (aka. intruder), used SQL Injection with the search functionality to update the links in the database.

The situation was complicated by the fact that the company did not have a recent backup and thus we had to use a log recovery tool to roll back the changes. But that’s a story for another blog entry.

In the end, we were able to assist the company, now a client, with recovering their website and guidance for securing their website and database. Luckily this breach did not concern confidential data, but you can imagine the public relations nightmare a situation like this could cause if social security numbers or credit card numbers had been compromised.

If you make data available through a website that is tied into a back-end database, you should ensure that you have proper safeguards in place and that your website is not subject to SQL injection attacks.

The following are some additional links to resources on SQL Injection:

Wikipedia Entry on SQL Injection – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_injection
SQL Injection Walkthrough – http://www.securiteam.com/securityreviews/5DP0N1P76E.html
Microsoft Technet Link – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms161953.aspx

Virtual Machines Thoughts

Greg Woodard — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:34:12 +0000

I have always been the type of person that wants to try out new things when they first come out. For example, Windows 7 RC was released a few months back and I replaced Vista on my Lenovo laptop with the release candidate. Normally when I do this, I have a very painful process of reloading my applications and getting my environment setup to support all of our clients. However, this time, I am taking a different approach. I am building virtual machines to support unique client needs.

We have used virtual environments at Woodmark for several years. We have a VMware Server that hosts a number of older server images that we virtualized so we could throw away older hardware. We also have virtualized older PCs so they are available for emergencies and to support older client work that might reappear.

However, the idea of keeping our main machines relatively clean and using virtual environments for all client work, is a new twist on my thinking. It is allowing us to upgrade machines and use the latest and greatest OS, while still being able to support existing clients in the environments that they use.

In addition, Windows 7 improves on the integration of virtual machines with the host machine and the environments seem much faster. I have also been able to move to a 64-bit environment on my laptop, while my Virtual machines are 32-bit environments.

All this will continue to allow me to stay abreast of the latest software while being able to support my existing and even past clients.

Jawbone Bluetooth Headset

Greg Woodard — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:51:58 +0000

As a consultant, I spend a lot of time out of my office and rely on my cell phone for communication. I make a lot of calls from my car and wanted to improve the call quality. I came across a review of a bluetooth headset earlier this year called “Jawbone” and was intrigued. Once I saw the demo videos on their webite showing how it works with leaf blowers and in a moving car I was sold. I ordered one and was not disappointed at all. As a test, I called my mom from my car while driving down the highway. When she asked where I was since it was so quiet, I knew I had found the headset I needed. You can check out the demo videos at Jawbone’s website (www.jawbone.com). In addition, you can check out PC Magazine’s review at their website (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2150061,00.asp).