[Mimedefang] MIMEDefang 2.40 is released

[Stephen Smoogen]

On Mon, 8 Mar 2004, Josh Kelley wrote:

>Stephen Smoogen wrote:
>
>>On Fri, 2004-03-05 at 12:37, Josh Kelley wrote:
>>  
>>
>>>1.  Most mass-mailing viruses are sent directly by the virus, in which 
>>>case no one will see any bounces generated.
>>>    
>>>
>>
>>Right and Wrong. Most mass mailing viruses are sent by the virus, but
>>with a spoofed email address that can be either something in the mailbox
>>or some other item. I get about 20 you sent this virus that I couldnt
>>have sent every week.
>>  
>>
>I'm not suggesting sending out "you sent this message" notifications; I 
>know that's a bad idea.  I'm suggesting using action_bounce, which 
>rejects the message at the SMTP level, instead of action_discard, which 
>accepts the message and silently discards it.
>
>In this case, the only time someone would see the bounce is if the virus 
>sends a copy of itself through unprotected mail server A, unprotected 
>mail server A tries to relay the message to protected mail server B, 
>which rejects the message, so then unprotected mail server A tries to 
>generate an error message to the forged sender address.  The proper fix 
>for this problem, I think, is for mail server A to add virus protection, 
>not for mail server B to start silently discarding email that it can't 
>guarantee has no valid content.

I have no control over the 300+ mail relay A's that hit my site every 
day. From the various other labs, ISPs etc.. this is the usual case.

>>people are going to bounce it to the recipient.]
>>
>>  
>>
>My argument is that if a mail server silently drop all viral messages, 
>it risks losing valid content.  I don't know of a good way to prevent this.
>

Sorry.. I am from the 'there is no such thing as valid content if its 
infected' school. However I have to be for they really are out to get me 
:).




-- 
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 --