Spamassassin Newbie Questions

[datazen]

Hello All,

Due to the ever increasing SPAM problem we had Spamassassin and ClamAv installed today on our servers.

My question is:

Ala's email to me after SA install:

Mimedefang/clamav/spamassassin is now installed. It is currently set tocheck for spam and if it finds an email that is spam, it marks it as spamand sends the email to the enduser with an attachment saying that theemail is spam. I can change it to delete the emails instead, or I canchange it to quarantining the emails that are marked as spam for two daysAND deleting the emails (so the client can check to make sure the email isactually spam).

So what is best? mark as spam, delete spam, or quarantine spam?

Thanks for any input. I will br Google'ing next to see if I can answer some of my own questions but it seems that answers come faster sometimes through this wonderful forum.

Thanks again all for any help.

[nova]

Interesting. I just had those installed too but I didn't get that note. Anyway, was your question ever answered? Of course, it's a matter pf choice. But I am puzzled by one item. I was not at all aware that email can be quarantined. But the bigger question is where would the clients go to see if they wanted the message before deletion in 2 days?

Anyone?

[datazen]

I chose to delete spam and never looked back.

[nova]

I chose to delete spam and never looked back.

I'm leaning that way.

This just in.......

Our server is being blocked by blacklist.mail.ops.worldnet.att.net.
<<< 550 Blocked for abuse. Please contact the administrator of your ISP or sending mail service.

That's a joke. That ATT Behemoth doesn't even supply an email address or a web site to get off their stinking list.

[Thad]

send an email to abuse at alabanza.com ( replase the at with an @) The person that handles abuse might be able to help get you off the list. He has extensive contacts at many ISPs and will do his best to help.

[newcanada]

Is there anyway to delete such SA-spam for some clients and not for others?

[De1MastR]

I See that Thad reads this forum and he will be mad me mentioning this because I tourtured the Alabanza staff with something that I thought was supported but they don't really do. That being said I got them to set SpamAssassian (with mimeDefang and clamAV (which was the trick)) to ammend the subject line of all mail that SpamAssassian thinks is spam with ***SPAM***.

This is a great service (THANKS THAD) and my clients love it. I call spamassassian flagged mail "Marginal" (at least until you get the number right) but the mail can come in and it is easy for the cilent to set up a rule in outlook/express to just filter ***SPAM*** into a junk folder them selves. Makes the client feel "safer" that you are not deleteing good mail.

I even rewrote Alahosts "SpamWatch" program (THANKS ARF) that counts Spamassassian, calculates persentage of filter effectiveness, and graphs it out. I gave the updates to arf to use freely so they my or maynot be in a later distribution, BUT you can see the effectiveness of SpamAssassian clearly from my page at http://oneko.com/spamwatch/

I hope that I didn't make to much work for the Ala staff but maybe if the demand is there it will become a standard feature.

[shpilkus]

That being said I got them to set SpamAssassian (with mimeDefang and clamAV (which was the trick)) to ammend the subject line of all mail that SpamAssassian thinks is spam with ***SPAM***.

Hey, I love Thad too, but I have to mention that this is how SpamAssassin works out of the box... perhaps in Alabanza's installation they do something different.

We have it set up on a per-user fee-based system (that is, we charge a small amount for its use). Each user can amend their own personal settings from a CP interface and change the subject from '*****SPAM*****' to 'THIS IS A BIG FAT HAIRY PIECE OF JUNK EMAIL' if they so desire. Just FYI.

[mbodamer]

As many of you know we just upgraded servers and got the whole SA/ClamAV/mimedefang thing going on now too.

Currently SA checks the messages and delivers them as normal witht eh subject as normal... but it attaches a file to teh message saying that SA thinks its spam.

How can I get it to modify the subject line instead of attaching a file to the email?

Also Craig is that CP tool a trade secret or something you are willing to share?

[Okidoki]

As many of you know we just upgraded servers and got the whole SA/ClamAV/mimedefang thing going on now too.

Currently SA checks the messages and delivers them as normal witht eh subject as normal... but it attaches a file to teh message saying that SA thinks its spam.

How can I get it to modify the subject line instead of attaching a file to the email?

Also Craig is that CP tool a trade secret or something you are willing to share?

Edit the file mimedefang-filter

Original

# We add a header which looks like this:
# X-Spam-Score: 6.8 (******) NAME_OF_TEST,NAME_OF_TEST
# The number of asterisks in parens is the integer part
# of the spam score clamped to a maximum of 40.
# MUA filters can easily be written to trigger on a
# minimum number of asterisks...
if ($hits >= $req) {
action_change_header("X-Spam-Score", "$hits ($score) $names");
md_graphdefang_log('spam', $hits, $RelayAddr);

# If you find the SA report useful, add it, I guess...
action_add_part($entity, "text/plain", "-suggest",
"$report\n",
"SpamAssassinReport.txt", "inline");
action_quarantine_entire_message();

} else {
# Delete any existing X-Spam-Score header?
action_delete_header("X-Spam-Score");

Change for:

# We add a header which looks like this:
# X-Spam-Score: 6.8 (******) NAME_OF_TEST,NAME_OF_TEST
# The number of asterisks in parens is the integer part
# of the spam score clamped to a maximum of 40.
# MUA filters can easily be written to trigger on a
# minimum number of asterisks...
if ($hits >= $req) {
action_change_header("X-Spam-Score", "$hits ($score) $names");
md_graphdefang_log('spam', $hits, $RelayAddr);

# If you find the SA report useful, add it, I guess...
action_change_header('Subject', "{SPAM? Hits: $hits} $Subject");
action_accept();

} else {
# Delete any existing X-Spam-Score header?
action_delete_header("X-Spam-Score");

To observe that the mail is accepted and only modifies the subject.

[Sapphyre]

As many of you know we just upgraded servers and got the whole SA/ClamAV/mimedefang thing going on now too.

Currently SA checks the messages and delivers them as normal witht eh subject as normal... but it attaches a file to teh message saying that SA thinks its spam.

How can I get it to modify the subject line instead of attaching a file to the email?

Also Craig is that CP tool a trade secret or something you are willing to share?

Look at the report_safe option. We have this changeable by the domain owner in the user_prefs file. CP tool compatible with SA 3.13 is being beta tested; will keep you posted.

[De1MastR]

De1MastR wrote:
That being said I got them to set SpamAssassian (with mimeDefang and clamAV (which was the trick)) to ammend the subject line of all mail that SpamAssassian thinks is spam with ***SPAM***.
Hey, I love Thad too, but I have to mention that this is how SpamAssassin works out of the box... perhaps in Alabanza's installation they do something different.

We have it set up on a per-user fee-based system (that is, we charge a small amount for its use). Each user can amend their own personal settings from a CP interface and change the subject from '*****SPAM*****' to 'THIS IS A BIG FAT HAIRY PIECE OF JUNK EMAIL' if they so desire. Just FYI.
_________________

That is true EXCEPT. If you tie SA to Mimedefang you loose the functionaly of changing the subject line the normal way. you have to edit the mimedefang config (somewhere) in a place that only Thad knows. I have SA and do it all the time and when I couldn't do it here I tourchered the Alabanza staff (sorry guys).