SpamAssassin gumming up the works

[Stephen Swaney]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MailScanner mailing list [mailto:MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On
> Behalf Of Jason Balicki
> Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2005 4:31 PM
> To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
> Subject: SpamAssassin gumming up the works
>
> First, let me apologize.  I'm rather sick and I'm running a high fever,
> so much
> so that I'm sure I'm probably partially incoherent and not checking
> obvious
> stuff.
>
> I've been running MailScanner for quite a long time, and when I've run
> into
> this issue before it's always been a RBL going dark or something that's
> causing the problem.  In this case, I don't think it is.
>
> A little background:  yesterday, my boss called me at home (I'm at home
> sick) and complained that they're getting spam delivered to the users@
> email address, which is an alias for all users.  The real problem is that
> the spam wasn't getting tagged as spam.
>
> First thing's first, I hadn't upgraded MailScanner or SpamAssassin in
> a while, so I got the most recent versions and started plugging away.
> (MailScanner 4.39.6 and Spamassassin 3.0.2 (the tarball says
> 4.0.2, what's up with that?))
>
> The problem that I've run into is that after the upgrade if I enable
> Use Spamassassin = yes in my MailScanner.conf then nothing gets
> delivered.  Well, I lie, if I send a few test messages through, those
> get delivered, but it seems like the first piece of spam (this is
> speculation)
> that I get gums up the works, and after that nothing goes through until
> I set Use SpamAssassin=no.   Then things come through, but, of
> course, there's no spam checks being done.
>
> Here's what I see in the logs:
> Mar 12 15:29:27 mail MailScanner[25723]: Using locktype = flock
> Mar 12 15:29:27 mail MailScanner[25723]: New Batch: Scanning 2 messages,
> 5505 bytes
> Mar 12 15:29:27 mail MailScanner[25723]: MCP Checks completed at 5505
> bytes per second
> Mar 12 15:29:27 mail MailScanner[25723]: Spam Checks: Starting
> Mar 12 15:29:31 mail MailScanner[25727]: SophosSAVI 3.91 (engine 2.28)
> recognizing 101433 viruses
> Mar 12 15:29:31 mail MailScanner[25727]: SophosSAVI using 85 IDE files
> Mar 12 15:29:31 mail MailScanner[25735]: MailScanner E-Mail Virus
> Scanner version 4.28.6 starting...
> Mar 12 15:29:34 mail MailScanner[25725]: Using locktype = flock
> Mar 12 15:29:34 mail MailScanner[25725]: New Batch: Scanning 2 messages,
> 5505 bytes
> Mar 12 15:29:34 mail MailScanner[25725]: MCP Checks completed at 5505
> bytes per second
> Mar 12 15:29:34 mail MailScanner[25725]: Spam Checks: Starting
> Mar 12 15:29:41 mail MailScanner[25737]: MailScanner E-Mail Virus
> Scanner version 4.28.6 starting...
>
> and after more messages come in:
>
> Mar 12 15:36:06 mail MailScanner[25969]: Using locktype = flock
> Mar 12 15:36:06 mail MailScanner[25969]: New Batch: Scanning 5 messages,
> 19152 bytes
> Mar 12 15:36:06 mail MailScanner[25969]: MCP Checks completed at 19152
> bytes per second
> Mar 12 15:36:06 mail MailScanner[25969]: Spam Checks: Starting
> Mar 12 15:36:08 mail MailScanner[25978]: MailScanner E-Mail Virus
> Scanner version 4.28.6 starting...
>

Did you install correctly the Log reports your running  4.28.6 ! ! !


15:29:34 mail MailScanner[25725]: Spam Checks: Starting Mar 12 15:29:41 mail
MailScanner[25737]: MailScanner E-Mail Virus Scanner version 4.28.6
starting...
I'm pretty sure this version did not support support SpamAssasin 3.02

How did you install MS. What OS and version are you using?

>
> And the number just keeps growing until I set Use SpamAssassin=no.
>
> As I mentioned, usually this is because of an RBL going dark,
> but I've set skip_rbl_checks 1 in my spam.assassin.prefs.conf
> (for testing).
>
> So, how can I trace this to find out where it's failing?  Have
> I done something obviously stupid?  Is there more information I can
> give to help someone help me figure this out?  Any flu remedy
> recommendations?
>
> Again, sorry if I haven't given enough information, but I'm
> not thinking clearly at the moment and any and all help is
> appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> --J(K)

Steve

Steve Swaney
President
Fortress Systems Ltd.
Phone: 202 338-1670
Cell: 202 352-3262
www.fsl.com
steve.swaney at fsl.com

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