Showing posts with the label spamassassin

SpamAssassin v4.0.0 released

Breaking news! Popular open-source spam filter SpamAssassin version 4.0.0 was just released . Find more information in the release notes here . Kevin A. McGrail, Chair Emeritus, Apache SpamAssassin, had this to say about the new version: "The efficacy is much higher, bett…

SpamAssassin: What does this mean?

Here’s a question that a friend asked me lately:  What does the SpamAssassin "HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAIN" rule ("From and EnvelopeFrom 2nd level mail domains are different") mean? First, we need to understand what they mean by From and Envelope From. In th…

Learning more about SpamAssassin filter rules

It's always good to check your email messages against the popular and free SpamAssassin spam filter (maybe even using my  KBXSCORE  tool?) to try to minimize your spam score. But sometimes the results can be cryptic, or you get a quite unexpected result . Understanding Spam…

Here's an odd SpamAssassin problem

I was just testing an email for a friend of a friend. Part of that testing involved running the email through my KBXSCORE checker. It came back with very few issues; most of the header bits are configured properly and the email is fully authenticated. But I had a weirdly highe…

Apache SpamAssassin 3.4.4 now available

The Apache SpamAssassin Project has just announced the release of version 3.4.4 of the popular spam filter SpamAssassin. Apache SpamAssassin 3.4.4 is "primarily a security release," but includes various fixes for things like improved carriage return handling for …

A spam score of 33.8!

Since I've enabled a "reject" DMARC policy on my domains, I've been reviewing the various failure reports that come in to see what crazy spam those crazy spammers might try to send. Amazingly, they are willing to try to send some really bad stuff to see if it …

OpenDKIM & SpamAssassin Gotchas on Ubuntu 12.04

Allow me to share with you my rough notes compiled during my recent configuration of email and DKIM on a new Ubuntu VPS installation. Hopefully these helpful hints will help the next poor soul trying to get DKIM up and running on the first try: SpamAssassin seems to want to fai…

SpamAssassin 3.4.0 Released

The Apache Software Foundation just announced the release of SpamAssassin 3.4.0 via a message posted to the SpamAssassin announcements email list by project chair Kevin A. McGrail. Release notes menion that "this is a major release.  It introduces over two years of bug fix…

DNSBL Safety Report 5/14/2011

SpamTips.org, a website devoted to SpamAssassin Tips ( SpamAssassin being the wildly popular open-source spam filter) recently posted a wonderful DNSBL Safety Report , showing hit rates against both spam and non-spam (false positives) for various blacklists commonly used in Spa…

SpamAssassin 2010 bug

If you use SpamAssassin and today it's suddenly scoring every email you receive with at least 3.2 points, and it says that "the date is grossly in the future," then you should read this . Update: Daryl C. W. O'Shea, VP, Apache SpamAssassin, posted the follow…

Ask Al: Checking email addresses against URIBLs?

Scott writes, "I use URIBL lists in SpamAssassin, and these are configured according to their documented purpose (URI checks). I am getting a lot of spam now which spamvertise email addresses, rather than a URI. The bad domain might be in the From: field, or it might be in…

Neat Hack: Re-Assassinate

Over on his blog, Justin Mason shows us how you can re-run already received messages through SpamAssassin . This is a neat idea. He explains this in the context of coming back from vacation, and having a big pile o' messages to wade through. A lot of that is going to be spa…

Senders: How to avoid false positives

As I often say, listen to as many sources of information as possible, and learn as much as you can from all of them. Don't be afraid to search for a second or third opinion on how to handle a deliverability problem or list management issue. To that end, it's worth ch…