Proofpoint added to URLs in received emails

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arkonbob
Posts: 4
Joined: November 12th, 2017, 1:26 pm

Proofpoint added to URLs in received emails

Post by arkonbob »

Hi,

I've received an email from my gf with a number of URLs embedded in the HTML. The URLs appear as sent, but when I hover over the URLs I see in the status bar that they have been prefixed with "https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=". Looking at the original in my gf's Gmail sent folder the prefix is not present, nor is it present in my Gmail webmail inbox. Does anyone know if TBird is adding this? If not, any ideas where else it might be coming from?

I haven't been able to find much information regarding Proofpoint using Google. No evidence that it's used by default in Mac OS/Safari/Gmail (my gf sent the email from Mac OS using Gmail in Safari).

Thunderbird did identify the email as a potential scam. I'm using Windows 10's default security, no additional antivirus or other protection.

Cheers,

Bob
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DanRaisch
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Joined: September 23rd, 2004, 8:57 pm
Location: Somewhere on the right coast

Re: Proofpoint added to URLs in received emails

Post by DanRaisch »

Was your friend sending from a work location, school or other such institution? It looks like that might have been added by a security package running on the sending email system.
https://www.proofpoint.com/us/products/email-protection
http://support.proofpointessentials.com ... fense-faqs
arkonbob
Posts: 4
Joined: November 12th, 2017, 1:26 pm

Re: Proofpoint added to URLs in received emails

Post by arkonbob »

That was my first thought - she is currently enrolled at a university. However she says that she sent the email from her personal computer at home. Also the prefix isn't present in the copy of the message in either of our Gmail accounts (viewed in the Gmail webapp, her Sent folder, my Inbox).
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DanRaisch
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Posts: 127166
Joined: September 23rd, 2004, 8:57 pm
Location: Somewhere on the right coast

Re: Proofpoint added to URLs in received emails

Post by DanRaisch »

It wouldn't necessarily preclude the addition by security software on a network if your friend used her personal computer at home but was sending through her university's SMTP servers. Regardless, that's not something that Thunderbird itself would add. If it were, all users would see the same result.
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