Exemptions for filename checks

Julian Field mailscanner at ecs.soton.ac.uk
Sun Dec 15 03:55:22 GMT 2002


At 21:35 14/12/2002, you wrote:
>I've received a couple of complaints about not allowing .exe files.
>Apparently, a national bank sends out monthly statements in the form of
>a .exe file.  Users run it and scroll through their bank statement. I
>tried adding the site to the spam whitelist but that didn't work.  After
>all, it's not a spam problem, it's an illegal attachment filename
>problem.
>
>Is there a way to exempt a specific site from the filename checks?  I
>don't won't to make .exe files wide open, I think they should be
>restricted.  I just want to open it up for this one site.  Any iedas?

You can make the MailScanner.conf entry
Filename Rules = /etc/MailScanner/filename.rules.conf
point to a ruleset instead, such as
Filename Rules = /etc/MailScanner/rules/filenames.rules

And then make /etc/MailScanner/rules/filenames.rules contain
From:   *@nationalbank.com      /etc/MailScanner/etc/filename.rules.bank.conf
FromOrTo:       default /etc/MailScanner/etc/filename.rules.conf

That will make the default filename rules come from filename.rules.conf.
But mail from nationalbank.com will use filename.rules.bank.conf.
Copy filename.rules.conf into filename.rules.bank.conf, and add an extra
rule added on the top to explicitly allow .exe files like this
allow   \.exe$  -       -

Hope you followed that... :-)

P.S. As John Rudd suggested, if you can also match a more specific filename
than just *.exe then you will be protected from rogue .exe files from
nationalbank.com too. My description above restricts it to only
nationalbank.com, his suggestion restricts it to only certain .exe
filenames. If you use both you will be protected as much as possible.
--
Julian Field
www.MailScanner.info
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