RBL Checks within mailscanner - no spam scanning

Peter Lemieux mailscanner at replies.cyways.com
Wed Jul 6 17:15:20 UTC 2016


I prefer to let SpamAssassin do the RBL checks since they give the different 
RBLs varying weights.  Using a milter or some other method requires you to 
make a yes or no decision during the SMTP exchange.  Leaving it to SA lets 
you put the RBL results into a bigger context.

However your client's request might work better at the SMTP level though 
since they only want to use blacklists.  So you could use some form of 
milter with your mail exchanger (sendmail, Postfix, exim, etc.) and turn off 
spam scanning in MailScanner altogether.

Alternatively, you could put a copy of /usr/share/spamassassin/72_scores.cf 
in /etc/mail/spamassassin and set all the scores to zero except for the 
RBL-related ones.  Then you can let MailScanner invoke SpamAssassin and only 
the RBL scores will apply.

I definitely agree with Kevin that bouncing either spam or viruses back to 
their alleged "senders" is a bad idea. You'll just flood your outbound mail 
queue with undeliverable messages directed to bogus spamming accounts.

Peter


On 07/06/2016 12:43 PM, Kevin Miller wrote:
> You don’t want to bounce mail from w/in MailScanner – so much of it (close
> to all I’d wager) has a forged from address and/or envelope sender address
> that the bounce will end up going to someone that had nothing to do with the
> spam.  That’s a good way to get yourself blacklisted.  An old trick of
> spammers is to send to bogus addresses with a good from address.  The spam
> is bounced to the from address who is the real target, disguised as a
> non-delivery report.  Pretty sleazy.
>
> The proper way is to reject at the MTA rather than in MailScanner, as that
> deals directly with the sending server.
>
> ...Kevin
>
> --
>
> Kevin Miller
>
> Network/email Administrator, CBJ MIS Dept.
>
> 155 South Seward Street
>
> Juneau, Alaska 99801
>
> Phone: (907) 586-0242, Fax: (907) 586-4588 Registered Linux User No: 307357
>
> *From:*MailScanner
> [mailto:mailscanner-bounces+kevin.miller=juneau.org at lists.mailscanner.info]
> *On Behalf Of *Richard Mealing
> *Sent:* Wednesday, July 06, 2016 7:57 AM
> *To:* MailScanner discussion (mailscanner at lists.mailscanner.info)
> *Subject:* RBL Checks within mailscanner - no spam scanning
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> I have a request from a client who wants to see all the RBL checks within
> mailscanner, but they don’t want to do any SA spam scanning, just AV scanning.
>
> Is this possible?
>
> I’ve never done RBL checks on mailscanner before. I’m wondering how it
> works. I read somewhere that is quarantines the emails, is that correct? Is
> there any way to bounce the emails back to the sender?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Rich
>
>
>
>
>


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