Earl Hood <earl@earlhood.com> wrote:
On March 6, 2006 at 18:44, Bill Wohler wrote:Earl Hood <earl@earlhood.com> writes:I recommend "discard". Spammers are known to use originating addresses of regular people, so you can potentially be the cause of receiving more spam due to mis-directed bounces.Unfortunately, this is worse because legitimate posters don't get a notification that their message didn't get through.An unfortunate side-effect, but probably something we must live with. Bounce noise can get bad and generate anger among those that receive bounce messages that they never sent.
Bounce messages are treated like any other spam. I get lots every day but never see them. No anger.
I'm not sure how Mailman creates bounce messages, but bounces can open a door for exploitation by spammers.
Are you thinking they may take the bounce message, use Google to get a list of names on the mailing list, and then post using those names? Given how many spams I get to me on lists from people on the list, this is probably already happening. Hmmmm... You may have a point. But still, it's unlikely that anyone on this list is reading without a spam filter in place. So even if the list is exploited, our filters will discard the dreck anyway. Another thing to do, which I do on my lists, is to employ the filter before it gets to the list in the first place, which makes moderation once again possible. That way spammers get a nebulous "Permission denied" or nothing as you wish, and non-members get a useful bounce message. For example, I have the following alias: list: "|/usr/local/sbin/mailman-filter post list" The mailman-filter script is attached inline here. It uses bogofilter but could be adapted for any spam filter. The variables at the top need to be modified for your installation. I see I have to update MAILMAN for Mailman 2.1...
mailman-filter
Description: application/shellscript
-- Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com> http://www.newt.com/wohler/ GnuPG ID:610BD9AD Maintainer of comp.mail.mh FAQ and MH-E. Vote Libertarian! If you're passed on the right, you're in the wrong lane.
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