whitelist issues

[Furnish, Trever G]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bret Hughes [mailto:bhughes at ELEVATING.COM]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 11:37 PM
> To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
> Subject: whitelist issues {Scanned by HJMS}
>
> [root at mail1 rules]# cat spam.whitelist.rules
> # This is where you can build a Spam WhiteList
> # Addresses matching in here, with the value
> # "yes" will never be marked as spam.
> #From:          152.78.         yes
> #From:          130.246.        yes
> To:             MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK      yes
> FromOrTo:       default         no
>
> in MailScanner.conf:
> [root at mail1 MailScanner]# grep rules-dir MailScanner.conf
> %rules-dir% = /etc/MailScanner/rules
> Is Definitely Not Spam = %rules-dir%/spam.whitelist.rules

I think you're confused about the difference between the address used to
deliver the message and the address listed in the headers (which are inside
the message).

MailScanner sees the address used to deliver the message - ie in this case
probably bhughes at elevating.com.  That's how the message reaches you and
that's what you would have to put in your whitelist (which would obviously
be a bad thing - no more filtering for you).  In effect when your mail
server receives the message it is neither To nor From the list address - it
is To you From whoever sent it.

When the message is delivered to a mailbox and a MUA (Eudora, Pine, Outlook)
opens it, the MUA displays the headers inside the message and behaves as
prescribed by those headers.  For example, the replies go to the list, the
To appears to be the list address, errors go to another address, etc.

I don't think you can use MailScanner's whitelists to match the headers
inside the message, so it seems like you're stuck filtering on the sender ip
address.

-t.

PS: Hopefully I'm completely wrong and someone will correct me. :-)