IETF Logo Mail Archive

Re: [Asrg] An Anti-Spam Heuristic

"John Levine" <johnl@taugh.com> Sat, 15 December 2012 01:12 UTC

Return-Path: <johnl@iecc.com>
X-Original-To: asrg@ietfa.amsl.com
Delivered-To: asrg@ietfa.amsl.com
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ietfa.amsl.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6A8B221F8AC6 for <asrg@ietfa.amsl.com>; Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:12:18 -0800 (PST)
X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at amsl.com
X-Spam-Flag: NO
X-Spam-Score: -108.777
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-108.777 tagged_above=-999 required=5 tests=[AWL=2.422, BAYES_00=-2.599, HABEAS_ACCREDITED_SOI=-4.3, RCVD_IN_BSP_TRUSTED=-4.3, USER_IN_WHITELIST=-100]
Received: from mail.ietf.org ([64.170.98.30]) by localhost (ietfa.amsl.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 4+s21FDPXm4l for <asrg@ietfa.amsl.com>; Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:12:17 -0800 (PST)
Received: from leila.iecc.com (leila6.iecc.com [IPv6:2001:470:1f07:1126:0:4c:6569:6c61]) by ietfa.amsl.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 818E521F8AA4 for <asrg@irtf.org>; Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:12:17 -0800 (PST)
Received: (qmail 41351 invoked from network); 15 Dec 2012 01:12:16 -0000
Received: from leila.iecc.com (64.57.183.34) by mail1.iecc.com with QMQP; 15 Dec 2012 01:12:16 -0000
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=simple; d=iecc.com; h=date:message-id:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:vbr-info; s=50cbce70.xn--i8sz2z.k1212; i=johnl@user.iecc.com; bh=l4StrgjuGXBq9M9nsbgISqlV+viq9Ybboe3rnzi3upo=; b=Cn1jSIZrXVrwPLDVBfPTq3pFRjNxgCgqmAUgAzmQF6Fv/JtvRRkb5dNgMIvqZiRPv7yyHMzgCpuiJzihzfUHV+RDJ4Vnl9EQuF9A1RXdkvzht9tzdCeYRxwrvHbJ4TqzHls8sFWv55N5JSUoMkvn98qFjoXNt4nqf4cPpxAYxMc=
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=simple; d=taugh.com; h=date:message-id:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:vbr-info; s=50cbce70.xn--i8sz2z.k1212; olt=johnl@user.iecc.com; bh=l4StrgjuGXBq9M9nsbgISqlV+viq9Ybboe3rnzi3upo=; b=aKYJUPXlrxa945EO+AVg/6dyMzZjV9CsUaqOhWgpfGu3kb1boBKz3vPicfuq6dwKqOv5vZDLQbUT2oxze1JZbTj0OlPxYUN6+S5DhgMtxbqON7Vs0gAFv5f2HD38nFTsaLteySE9DdDXX6Gm28EbN05Ik4lDw1+q4tzbX+sE+4g=
VBR-Info: md=iecc.com; mc=all; mv=dwl.spamhaus.org
Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2012 01:11:54 -0000
Message-ID: <20121215011154.54619.qmail@joyce.lan>
From: John Levine <johnl@taugh.com>
To: asrg@irtf.org
In-Reply-To: <20682.24984.463533.515455@world.std.com>
Organization:
X-Headerized: yes
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
Subject: Re: [Asrg] An Anti-Spam Heuristic
X-BeenThere: asrg@irtf.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.12
Precedence: list
Reply-To: Anti-Spam Research Group - IRTF <asrg@irtf.org>
List-Id: Anti-Spam Research Group - IRTF <asrg.irtf.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://www.irtf.org/mailman/options/asrg>, <mailto:asrg-request@irtf.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://www.irtf.org/mail-archive/web/asrg>
List-Post: <mailto:asrg@irtf.org>
List-Help: <mailto:asrg-request@irtf.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://www.irtf.org/mailman/listinfo/asrg>, <mailto:asrg-request@irtf.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2012 01:12:18 -0000

>They don't implement RFCs accurately because they're trying to send
>faster/cheaper.

Actually, a lot of it is still because they're sloppy and inept.  Not
all spammers are stupid, but a lot of them are.  This one, for example
(I know, I was there):

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nj/Press/files/Rad,%20Christopher%20Verdict%20PR.html

>Even e-bay for example had a problem when this "demand they wait for a
>response" feature started to become popular because they too figured
>out they could just dump one side of the SMTP conversation w/o waiting
>for responses and it previously worked well enough and was much
>"cheaper" on their servers.

That was just broken.  There's a perfectly well specified way to do
SMTP pipelining, which lets clients skip most of the waits without
losing the responses.

R's,
John

v2.23.0 | Report a Bug | By Email