#2208 spamassassin filters too lenient
Closed: Fixed None Opened 13 years ago by mjw.

= phenomenon =

Too much spam gets through to mailman.

= reason =

The spamassassin filters seem much too lenient.

= recommendation =

Please adjust the spamassassin filters so they catch more spam.
Some examples of things not flagged as spam by spammassassin on fedorahosted, but marked as spam by the redhat.com filters (I can provide the full messages on request):

X-spam-checker-version: SpamAssassin 3.2.5 (2008-06-10) on hosted1.fedoraproject.org
X-spam-level: *
X-spam-status: No, score=1.7 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_60,RCVD_IN_SORBS_DUL, RDNS_DYNAMIC autolearn=no version=3.2.5

Versus:

X-redhat-spam-warning: 10.16 (*) RCVD_IN_ANBREP_L5,RCVD_IN_BRBL_LASTEXT,RCVD_IN_PBL,RCVD_IN_PSBL,RCVD_IN_RP_RNBL,RCVD_IN_SORBS_DUL,RDNS_DYNAMIC,T_OBFU_DOC_ATTACH
X-redhat-spam-score: 10.16
* (RCVD_IN_ANBREP_L5,RCVD_IN_BRBL_LASTEXT,RCVD_IN_PBL,RCVD_IN_PSBL,RCVD_IN_RP_RNBL,RCVD_IN_SORBS_DUL,RDNS_DYNAMIC,T_OBFU_DOC_ATTACH)

X-spam-checker-version: SpamAssassin 3.2.5 (2008-06-10) on hosted1.fedoraproject.org
X-spam-level: *
X-spam-status: No, score=1.8 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_60,RCVD_IN_SORBS_DUL, RDNS_DYNAMIC autolearn=no version=3.2.5

Versus:

X-redhat-spam-warning: 6.776 (**) RCVD_IN_ANBREP_L5,RCVD_IN_BRBL_LASTEXT,RCVD_IN_PBL,RCVD_IN_SORBS_DUL,RDNS_DYNAMIC,T_OBFU_DOC_ATTACH
X-redhat-spam-score: 6.776
**** (RCVD_IN_ANBREP_L5,RCVD_IN_BRBL_LASTEXT,RCVD_IN_PBL,RCVD_IN_SORBS_DUL,RDNS_DYNAMIC,T_OBFU_DOC_ATTACH)

X-spam-checker-version: SpamAssassin 3.2.5 (2008-06-10) on hosted1.fedoraproject.org
X-spam-level:
X-spam-status: No, score=0.8 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_60,RDNS_NONE autolearn=no version=3.2.5

Versus:

X-redhat-spam-warning: 11.84 (**) RCVD_IN_BL_SPAMCOP_NET,RCVD_IN_BRBL_LASTEXT,RCVD_IN_PBL,RCVD_IN_PSBL,RCVD_IN_RP_RNBL,RCVD_IN_XBL,RDNS_NONE,T_OBFU_DOC_ATTACH
X-redhat-spam-score: 11.84
** (RCVD_IN_BL_SPAMCOP_NET,RCVD_IN_BRBL_LASTEXT,RCVD_IN_PBL,RCVD_IN_PSBL,RCVD_IN_RP_RNBL,RCVD_IN_XBL,RDNS_NONE,T_OBFU_DOC_ATTACH)


Any progress on adjusting the spam filters? Any way I can help?

Is anybody looking into this? Is there some way I can help? It really is a pain :(

We are not actually filtering mail at all. We expect lists to require subscription.

Mailman does filter on the spam headers (if setup by the admin under Privacy options, Spam filters). It isn't a problem to require subscription. But it means that the moderators have to handle a lot of spam emails in the approval queue. If the spamassassin settings were a bit better then mailmain could automagically filter out most spam and the admins only need to attend to the moderator queue for real messages from non-subscribers.

I know the websites list gets a lot of spam in the moderation queue. But it is where all webmaster@ mail for fedoraproject.org is sent. Most of the other lists have the generic non-member filter set to discard or reject (set by previous admins).

The amount of spam for the websites list is definitely a lot higher now than it was with websites-list at redhat.com. It ends up getting 10-20 per day now which does get out of hand quickly if not tended regularly.

mjw, i guess i was not clear enough.

We do not use spamassasin to scan incoming mail at all. we have no real way to train and tweak the filters since the smtp boxes dont save any actual mail. and we collect no user mail.

we talked about iut in the infra meeting we are not planning to change it. our recommendation is that you require people to subscribe to your lists

Sigh. OK, I'll set the generic_nonmember_action to reject then. But this is fairly unfriendly both for hackers wanting to post to the list from an address that isn't subscribed and for any envelop sender in any messages that will now get bounced spam :{

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