Next steps to stop SPAM on the TYPO3 lists

By: Luc de Louw

So what are the next actions to take to keep SPAM away from the mailing lists? Basic pre-queueing filters and Spamassassin.

SPAM hitting TYPO3

1. The weekend of June, 23/24 I'll implement some basic pre-queuing filters to filter about 70% of the SPAM and Viruses. This will include blocking potentially dangerous and for the lists clueless attachments such as .exe, .pif etc. Additionally, non-FQHN HELOs[1] and HELOs from invalid domains will be dropped silently.

What does that mean for you: Nothing to take care about, unless you plan to post some Windows executables to a list (which is quite clueless).

2. Update the System to Debian etch. This task will be done by Michael Stucki and me with Jan-Hendrik Heuing being on standby. This action will be announced seperatly, because it means several hours of downtime.

3. Installation of Spamassassin. After upgrading the system to the latest available Debian system, Spamassassin will be deployed to further enhance the anti-SPAM system based on filter rules.

At the end of the day the mailing lists should perform much better and open lists will not suffer from SPAM that much as they do now.

Questions? luc(at)delouw.ch

[1] (E)HELO is a SMTP command in the first phase of a SMTP transmission. Here the connecting hosts declares its hostname. Spammers often declare a bogus or even invalid domain name. This is a good opportunity to reject SPAM emails due to invalid and bogus HELO commands.