Using Attachment Name or Extension Criteria

The Attachment is "name or extension" criteria allows you to create rules that take actions on messages based on the name or extension of attachments that a message contains. If a message contains a compressed attachment, this criteria can further match the name or extension of the files included in the compressed attachment.

  1. On the Criteria screen, select Advanced to display the advanced criteria.
  2. Select the Attachment is "name or extension" criteria.
  3. Click the "name or extension" link.

    The Attachment Names screen appears.

  4. From the drop-down list, select either Selected attachment names or Not the selected attachment names.
  5. If you want to block attachment names by file extension:
    1. Select File extensions to block (recommended) and/or File extensions to block (commonly exchanged).
      Note:

      The "recommended" category contains those whose file types commonly act as containers for malware and are not types that are normally exchanged via email in an organization. This list includes extensions such as COM, DLL, and EXE. The commonly exchanged category includes file types that are commonly sent between members of an organization.

      The latter list includes the DOC extension used by Microsoft Word documents. These files are often used to propagate VB macro viruses, but they are also often commonly exchanged within organizations.

    2. Click the open arrow buttons to drop-down the lists of standard file extensions.
    3. Select the file extensions for Hosted Email Security to trigger on for this rule.
    4. Click the close arrow button to collapse the list.
  6. If you want to block attachments with your own specified names or extensions:
    1. Select Attachments named.
    2. Type an extension to block or use an asterisk (*) as a substitute for any part of a filename.
      Tip:

      The following examples are valid:

      • doc or *.doc

      • docx or *.docx

      • doc* or *.doc*

      • LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs

      • LOVE-LETTER*.vbs

    3. Click Add.

      The file name is added to the list just below.

    Tip:

    If there are any names in the list that you want to delete, select them and click Delete.

Parent topic: Configuring Advanced Criteria