[Resolved] mail_attach() sends mangled attachments

[ppowell]

Each time I try to send an attachment via email using this function that I borrowed from two different sources, the attachment comes across completely mangled, instead of an image, you see garbage every time.

This is via one particular Red Hat 7.3 server.

HOWEVER, on the other Red Hat 7.3 server, using the exact same function, the mail is sent just fine with a totally OK attachment of an image or whatever.

Is there a particular setting somewhere between the two servers that either mangles, reforms or does something weird to attachments in email?

Here is the code:

// ORIGINAL FUNCTION FOUND AT [url]http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.mail.php#41681[/url] WITH cc AND bcc MODIFICATIONS BY PHIL POWELL 6/10/2004
function mail_attach($to, $subject, $message, $from, $files = false, $lb = "\r\n", $cc = '', $bcc = '') {
 /*----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     $to Recipient
     $from Sender (like "[e-mail]" or "Name <[e-mail]>")
     $subject Subject
     $message Content
     $files hash-array of files to attach
     $lb Line break (defaults to "\r\n")
     $cc Carbon copy email(s)
     $bcc Blind carbon-copy email(s)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
 global $phpVersionInt;
 $mime_boundary = md5(uniqid(mt_rand(), 1));
 $header = "From: $from";
 if ($cc) $header .= "${lb}Cc: $cc";
 if ($bcc && (int)$phpVersionInt > 430) $header .= "${lb}Bcc: $bcc";
 if (is_array($files)) {
  $header.= "${lb}MIME-Version: 1.0$lb" .
                     "Content-Type: multipart/mixed; " .
                     "boundary=\"$mime_boundary\"$lb" . 
		     "--$mime_boundary$lb";
  $content = "This is a multi-part message in MIME format.$lb$lb" .
                      "--$mime_boundary$lb" .
                      "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"$lb" .
                      "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit$lb$lb";
 }
 $content.= "$message$lb";
 if (is_array($files)) {
  $content.= "--$mime_boundary$lb";
  foreach ($files as $filename => $filelocation) {
   if (is_readable($filelocation) && is_file($filelocation)) {
    $data = chunk_split(base64_encode(join('', file($filelocation))));
    $content .= 'Content-Type: ' . mime_content_type($filelocation) . '; ' .
		    "name=\"$filename\"$lb" .
		    "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64$lb" .
		    'Content-Disposition: attachment; ' .
		    "filename=\"$filename\"$lb" . 
		   "--${mime_boundary}--$lb";
    /*
    $content.= "Content-Disposition: attachment$lb" .
                         'Content-Type: ' . mime_content_type($filelocation) . ';'; // USE CUSTOM "mime_content_type()" TO CHANGE MIME TYPE OF CONTENT
    $content.= " name=\"$filename\"$lb" .
                        "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64$lb$lb" .
                        $data . $lb .
                        "--$mime_boundary$lb";
    */
   }
  }
 }
 if (mail($to, $subject, $content, $header)) return true;
 return false;
} 

Thanx
Phil

[tsinka]

Hi ppowell,

did you try to add a Content-Disposition: inline to the header part of the image (at the first position in the header, just in front of Content-Type🙂 ?

Did you check if the mime_content_type function returns the same value on both systems ?

Besides that I'd suggest to use a mail class like e.g.

phpmailer

Thomas

[ppowell]

A shot in the dark but this might be it:

$data = chunk_split(base64_encode(join('', file($filelocation)))); 

Which is the literal image itself in a binary data stream reattached to the mail content. And which I forgot to add to the $content variable after "Content-Disposition" line and before the mime boundary.

In the original configuration the binary image data stream is added after the "Content-Transfer-Encoding" line and would exist in the email, but it would exist mangled (see the commented out lines of code), so I substituted those lines with lines from a script I found elsewhere, and now you see nothing because the binary image data stream was accidentally left out.

I am theorizing the above-mentioned line might be the problem: in other words, the binary image data stream itself is the problem. In theory, I could test doing this:

$data = chunk_split(base64_encode(join('', file($filelocation)))); 
$ext = substr($filelocation, strrpos($filelocation, '.') + 1, strlen($filelocation));
$fileID = @fopen("blah.$ext", 'wb');
if ($fileID) {
 @fputs($fileID, $data);
 @fflush($fileID);
 @fclose($fileID);
 clearstatcache();
}

And then just check to see what the "blah" image looks like; if it looks mangled, then the email content headers are not mangled, the data is!

Would that be the best approach or are you thinking something else?

Phil

[ppowell]

In case anyone's interested, here is the working code, is verified to work with versions 4.1.2 onward..

// ORIGINAL FUNCTION FOUND AT [url]http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.mail.php#41681[/url] WITH cc AND bcc MODIFICATIONS BY PHIL POWELL 6/10/2004
function mail_attach($to, $subject, $message, $from, $files = false, $lb = "\r\n", $cc = '', $bcc = '') {
 /*----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     $to Recipient
     $from Sender (like "[e-mail]" or "Name <[e-mail]>")
     $subject Subject
     $message Content
     $files hash-array of files to attach
     $lb Line break (defaults to "\r\n")
     $cc Carbon copy email(s)
     $bcc Blind carbon-copy email(s)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
 global $phpVersionInt;
 $mime_boundary = '<<<:' . md5(uniqid(mt_rand(), 1));
 $header = "From: $from";
 if ($cc) $header .= "${lb}Cc: $cc";
 if ($bcc && (int)$phpVersionInt > 430) $header .= "${lb}Bcc: $bcc";
 if (is_array($files)) {
  $header.= "${lb}MIME-Version: 1.0$lb" .
                     "Content-Type: multipart/mixed; " .
                     "boundary=\"$mime_boundary\"$lb" . 
		     "--$mime_boundary$lb";
  $content = "This is a multi-part message in MIME format.$lb$lb" .
                      "--$mime_boundary$lb" .
                      "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"$lb" .
                      "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit$lb$lb";
 }
 $content.= "$message$lb";
 if (is_array($files)) {
  $content.= "--$mime_boundary$lb";
  foreach ($files as $filename => $filelocation) {
   if (is_readable($filelocation) && is_file($filelocation)) {
    if ((int)$phpVersionInt >= 430) {
     // file() IS BINARY SAFE AS OF 4.3.0+ ACCORDING TO PHP MANUAL
     $data = chunk_split(base64_encode(join('', @file($filelocation))));
    } else {
     // DO AN OLD-FASHIONED BINARY READ
     $fileID = @fopen($filelocation, 'rb');
     if ($fileID) {
      $data = @fread($fileID, filesize($filelocation));
      @fclose($fileID);
      $data = chunk_split(base64_encode($data));
     }
    }
    $content.= "Content-Disposition: attachment$lb" .
                         'Content-Type: ' . mime_content_type($filelocation) . ';'; // USE CUSTOM "mime_content_type()" TO CHANGE MIME TYPE OF CONTENT
    $content.= " name=\"$filename\"$lb" .
                        "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64$lb$lb" .
                        $data . $lb .
                        "--$mime_boundary$lb";
   }
  }
 }
 if (mail($to, $subject, $content, $header)) return true;
 return false;
} 

Oh BTW $phpVersionInt is the integer-converted representation of phpversion()

Phil