How to forge e-mails!

Step 3 Forging the Email

LONG READ AHEAD!

I explained EVERYTHING as best I could so you would understand how and why it works, that way I wouldn't be giving you a bunch of commands and you wouldn't be thinking in the back of your head "why does this command do that"...

I went through typing this and decided it might be hard to read so just so you can understand it I formatted everything so it would be easier to read.
Besides the formatting I went through and commented and explained under every command you would be entering here so even the kiddies can understand.

So lets start:

You should have written down the mail exchangers that we found earlier through nslookup that are YOUR ISP's SMTP servers, you won't be able to forge mail without these, so if you skipped Step 2 go back and do it---or find a random SMTP server that allows messaging that you don't have to be authenticated with.

With the nslookup prompt still open type "exit" to go back to the normal prompt or exit it and go back to Start --> Run and type "command" to open a new one.

Now you are going to need to connect to the server. So for example for me I would type in the command prompt:

telnet mx1.earthlink.net 25 

"telnet" means your trying to essentially establish a TCP connection with the following address
"mx1.earthlink.net" is my mail server I'm trying to connect to
"25" is the standard port number for all SMTP servers

So you would type in the command prompt:

telnet YourSMTPserver.com 25

No matter what the name of your server is you HAVE to have 25 at the end so the prompt knows your trying to connect to that domains SMTP server.

NOTE:Almost all SMTP servers have a timeout set. So normally if you don't enter in a command every 15 seconds the server will drop you and you will lose the connection.

If you get an error like "could not connect to the host on port 25: connection failed" this means the server is no longer working, so you will have to find a different one.

The following is a copy of an example email forging session. Remember the lines with the number "250" in front of them are what the mail server auto replies after you send in a command, and the lines without numbers are the commands you would give.

The # lines below are just me inserting comments, you don't type those...

And another quick side-note, the auto-respond messages sent by the server after you enter a command may say be worded slightly or completely different than they are for this example, but the explanations still mean the same.

=========================================================================

250 Earthlink.com VopMail SMTP Receiver Version 5.1.202.0 Ready 

#This appears at the top of the command prompt screen and gives the SMTP servers name, and what version the server is

helo [e-mail]  

#Start by typing "helo" and then the address you will be using

250 Hello, <[e-mail]>, welcome to Earthlink VopMail SMTP server     

#This is the servers auto-response

MAIL FROM: <[e-mail]> 

#You begin forging by typing "MAIL FROM: <[e-mail]>", this is where your actually forging, because normally say if someone has the name [e-mail] you can't use that name because it's already created, so you have to pick a different one, but with SMTP you can use that name although it's already taken, thus, forging. Remember when you type "MAIL FROM:" right after the colon you need a space and then <[e-mail]>
#So remember the address can be a real or it can be fake

250 <[e-mail]> OK

#This is the server basically replying "Alright, the sender is [e-mail]"

RCPT TO: <[e-mail]>

#This is the person your gonna send it to, so you start off the same as above with the mail from command. You type "RCPT TO:" and right after the colon a space and the person your sending the message to inside two "<>" symbols.

250 <[e-mail]> OK

#This is the server replying back again saying "Alright the message will be sent to <[e-mail]>"

data

#This is the part where your gonna enter who its from, where its going, subject, stuff like that. Because SMTP isn't really fancy so you have to make the headers yourself, otherwise the message will come to the receivers inbox with no subject or anything; not a very good forged email huh? After typing "data" hit enter and the server will send an auto-reply.

354 Ready for data

#Do I have to explain what the server is saying for this part?
#Below you start entering your data.

Date: May 6th, 2007From: [e-mail]: [e-mail]: You SuckYou Really Do Suck.

#Remember after you hit enter after typing "Subject:You Suck" you will go down to the message paragraph, this is where your message will be. In my email the message paragraph will read "You Really Do Suck"
#Take note of the PERIOD!!! You have to hit enter, then type a period, then hit enter again to send your email

250 Message received OK

#Server telling you your message was sent and went through ok

QUIT

#Type "QUIT" to disconnect from the server

221 mx1.earthlink.net closing

#The server is disconnecting you

Comments

[cprogrammer]

All mails using SMTP go out with a header. The header contains the source IP address from where the mail was sent. The IP address of each destination gets added till the mail reaches the recipient. With the help of these IP address and session data from the ISP, law enforcement agencies can find out the actual user who sent out the forged mali. I have worked in an ISP before and this prank has often got people into trouble.

[dawncoffey]

I was wondering if you know how to contact deadfake.com.....I have been receiving threatning e-mails and want to try and contact the to try and trace IP adress of sender. Thanks, Dawn

[snax]

hay i need some help i can only get to tha part were you have to tye "data" well when i do it says " 554 Error: no valid recipients " can ya help me thanks

[AGS]

Like it says you need to give the recipient command, which is given on step 3 of this instructable I believe. All it's asking is the person your sending to but you need to give the correct syntax of the command.

[dannydutton]

you have to say:

rcpt to:<[e-mail]>

or what ever user name REALLY exists. Remember the server you connect to has to actually have an account with that name in it.

For example:

---

telnet gsmtp163.google.com 25
helo [e-mail]
mail from:<[e-mail]>
rcpt to:<*********@gmail.com>
data
From: [e-mail]
To: *********@gmail.com
Subject: TEST
Hey, this is a test!
.
quit

---

The ********* represents a real username within gmail.

[snax]

thanks for the tip it works great now :)