dealing with dictionary attacks

[Dhawal Doshy]

am.lists wrote:
> So does anyone have any advice re: postgrey vs policyd?

This question truly belongs to the postfix list..

> Policyd seems more inclusive but postgrey still seems effective in my 
> setup.

postgrey will simply greylist (and/or selectively greylist), policyd can 
do much more..

> I read the info on the policyd site and it seems "thin" -- and so that
> scares me a bit. The examples given were in the form of SQL Insert
> queries.  I don't fancy managing my server by sending commands at the
> mysql> prompt all day.

If you want to build a front-end to all the whitelisting and other 
things, a SQL backend makes it simpler.. also see sqlgrey and sgwi 
(http://www.vanheusden.com/sgwi/)

> I would like to set up some sort of rate limiting / DoS throttling,
> and policyd seems capable, but is the management really as archaic as
> it looks?

no it is not.. but you'd really get better answers on the policyd list 
OR the postfix list.. i could go on about various other policy servers 
that do a similar job (apolicy, ppolicyd etc.) but not in this list.