E-mail Filter Manager - Beta Testers Needed

[Tom]

Okay, I'm getting rejection logs now, Sheila. Banning the message words:

s.1618, s. 1618, s1618, s 1618, h.r. 1910 and h.r. 3113

...seems to work on some, since many of the evil ones put something about how their message isn't unsolicited according to the above senate & hr bills. I changed the bounce message to "Your e-mail was unsolicited spam." so they don't catch on too soon.

But with my /emailfilter/ directory set to 770, I couldn't log in -- in fact, I got the initial setup screen wanting me to re-register the email notification & password; and once I did, it crashed all over the place with:

ERROR: E-mail Filter Configuration file couldn't be opened for writing.
Filename: /big/dom/xdomain/emailfilter/filter_data_1.dat
ERROR: E-mail Filter Configuration file couldn't be opened for writing.
Filename: /big/dom/xdomain/emailfilter/filter_data_2.dat
ERROR: E-mail Filter Configuration file couldn't be opened for writing.
Filename: /big/dom/xdomain/emailfilter/filter_data_3.dat

...and so on. So back to 755 it went and all is well.

Tom

[Arthur]

with my /emailfilter/ directory set to 770, I couldn't log in

Sorry, oversight on my part. 770 is enough for the Python script to run, because it runs under your own group. But, the PHP script runs under the same user Apache runs under, so it needs to be world-readable/writable for that.

[sheila]

Originally posted by arthur:
Sorry, oversight on my part. 770 is enough for the Python script to run, because it runs under your own group. But, the PHP script runs under the same user Apache runs under, so it needs to be world-readable/writable for that.

So what you're saying, Arthur, is that the directory needs to be 776, right?

Here are some phrases that work well for me in my filter and seem to catch things:

Code Sample:

read this e-mail to the end to be removed from you may have inadvertently received as seen on

When the next version of the script comes out, you will be able to filter on

undisclosed recipients

in the "To" field.

[wildmuse]

I added "click here" and "clicking here" and that seems to have helped catch a lot of spam for me as well. Many of the variations on "To be removed from this list..." include one or the other of those phrases. It's amazing how many variations there are on this line.


Code Sample:

click here clicking here

Originally posted by sheila:

When the next version of the script comes out, you will be able to filter on <undisclosed recipients> in the "To" field.

This would be fantastic. I wanted to thank everyone involved with this
project. I am impressed. I have been using the efm for just a few days now and it work wonders. It was also easy to install and set up.

I have a question about ways to filter spam that is on the idea of
<undisclosed recipients> when the to field is:

someaddress@wellknowndomain such as someone@yahoo.com
or someone@aol.com

Would something like this have any effect?


Code Sample:

*@yahoo.com *@hotmail.com

I wouldn't want to block all mail not addresses directly to me (even if there was a way to do that) as that would probably filter out mailing lists that I am subscribed to.

I originally set up the filters to bounce mail from someone who was harrassing me but the spam blocking possibilities have captured my attention.

[sheila]

Originally posted by wildmuse:

I have a question about ways to filter spam that is on the idea of
<undisclosed recipients> when the to field is:

someaddress@wellknowndomain such as someone@yahoo.com
or someone@aol.com

Would something like this have any effect?


Code Sample:

In the next version, you could put the following to filter on in the To: field:

Code Sample:

@yahoo.com @hotmail.com

In other words, as you show above, but without the asterisks.

I wouldn't want to block all mail not addresses directly to me (even if there was a way to do that) as that would probably filter out mailing lists that I am subscribed to.

You really should set up white-lists for your mailing lists, using the "Allowed-To" and "Allowed-CC" filters.
Put the addresses that are in the To/Cc fields for messages being sent to your mailing lists there and it will send them right through. (Allowed lists are checked before anything else.)

Not only will this prevent you from missing messages sent to the mailing list, but it will also make the script run more efficiently, since it won't have to run through all that filter checking on those messages.

[sheila]

I added "click here" and "clicking here" and that seems to have helped catch a lot of spam for me as well.

I decided to try this suggestion out. Boy, is it important to have whitelists!!! It bounced a notification from my own message board on my website that gets emailed to me when someone starts a new thread. Message says something like:

"New thread started in such-and-such forum. To view, click here:
URL"

Well, I have now whitelisted the address that sends me those notifications.

(I'd resisted "click here" previously. I can see my sister-in-law sending me joke email that has 'click here' in the message. However, she is already on my white-list, so her messages shouldn't ever get rejected.)