[Mimedefang] Re: calling action_bounce() for viruses

[Stephen Smoogen]

On Mon, 2003-09-29 at 18:40, James Ralston wrote:
> On 2003-09-25 at 22:19:20-0700 Jeremy Mates <jmates at sial.org> wrote:
> 
> > * James Ralston <qralston+ml.mimedefang at andrew.cmu.edu>

> I am aware that David posted (in another thread) that he now believes
> that silently dropping incoming mail messages which contain viruses is
> the best thing to do.  I still disagree.  No matter how smart or
> experienced we think we are, we don't even scratch the surface of the
> depth of the experience and intelligence that went into the
> construction of the mail-related RFCs.  And the RFCs don't permit you
> to return 250 and then dump the message in the trash.
> 

Do the RFC's go into what should be done when messages are forged (or do
they assume that everyone plays nicely with each other). 

I get 20-100 bounced messages a day that say I sent someone a windows
virus. I didnt because a) we have an outgoing scanner and b) I dont run
windows. Now multiply that by 20,000+ people/email lists and you get an
idea of the amount of crap we get here. It actually is now higher than
SPAM content. On one mailing list I have read it has become a DOS for
some sites whenever a new worm goes out there.

Heck my folks (who I set up with Linux) now get more messages about them
sending Virii to someone somewhere than they get about enlargements.

Blind adherance to the law is as bad as not following it at all.

-- 
Stephen John Smoogen		smoogen at lanl.gov
Los Alamos National Lab  CCN-5 Sched 5/40  PH: 4-0645
Ta-03 SM-1498 MailStop B255 DP 10S  Los Alamos, NM 87545
-- So shines a good deed in a weary world. = Willy Wonka --