Re: Spam Problems

>Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 01:23:23 +0100 (CET)
>From: "Yuval Levy" <freebsd-current_at_sfina.com>

Note:  the topic is off-topic for freebsd-current.  I am posting back to
the list solely to help prevent an onslaught of off=-topic responses.  I
have provided a hint (Reply-To:) to mail clients that wish to make use of
it. -- postmaster

>I am not sure if there is awareness of a spam problem with this list.
>While spam might be off topic, it is a nuisance to all of us so I allow
>myself to post my findings here in the hope that it will help the list
>identify and get rid of the problem.

If you have concerns about mail issues for FreeBSD.org, please feel free
to contact postmaster_at_freebsd.org.  Please do not try to hijack
technical mailing lists that are intended for other purposes.  The
freebsd-curreent_at_freebsd.org list is one example of such a list where
"spam" (per se) is off-topic. 

>I subscribed to this list with a unique alias (freebsd-current_at_sfina.com)
>that I used for this specific list only. I do this with every mailing list
>I subscribe to, so to insulate the spam problem should it arise by
>diverting the alias to /dev/null. On my mail server all of the alias in
>use are collected into a single mailbox for reading.

>Recently I received some spams to freebsd-current_at_sfina.com. This happened
>after I used that alias to post to the list.

You do realize, of course, that posts to freebsd-current_at_ are archived
in a publicly-accessible manner by the FreeBSD project, and are also
gatewayed to other facilities that are searchable via Web search engines
or to USENET newsgroups?

>My suspicion is that a spammer is subscribed to this list and uses his
>subscription to harvest email addresses.

That could be, but it's rather more complicated than necessary to
accomplish the foul deed.  Recall Occam's Razor.

>Whenever a user posts a messages, his email address is published
>to all the list in the From header. It does not take much to parse
>incoming messages from the list to harvest addresses.

Yes....

>Is anybody else aware of this problem?

Of course.

>Has there been any thought about a possible solution?

I'm sure there has.

I suggest you consider adjusting your filter so that mail to the
list-specific address in question is less likely to be considered spam
if it is relayed via mx2.freebsd.org, and considered more likely
otherwise.  (You might want to consider the message less likely to be
spam if it appears to be in reply to a message you wrote, but thta could
get complicated.)

Now, everyone:  please do not continue this discussion on any of the
freebsd.org technical mailing lists.  If you must continue it on a list,
I nominate freebsd-chat.

Peace,
david       (current hat: postmaster_at_freebsd.org)
-- 
David H. Wolfskill				david_at_catwhisker.org
I resent spammers because spam is a DoS attack on my time.

See http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for public key.