Spam Assassin

Spamassassin

It can either be used stand-alone by invoking spamassassin or in client-server mode by the spamc client connecting to the spamd server daemon. Because it is supposed to be faster and produce a lower overall workload we are using the client/server approach with the server currently running on spamd.it.usyd.edu.au.

NB: The server only accepts connections from our mail servers staff and black.

The rules SpamAssassin uses and the actions it takes can be widely configured as described on the spamc man page.

More information about how SpamAssassin works and how to set it up with different mail clients (including mutt) can be found in its online documentation and FAQ.

Most GUI-based mail clients can be made to redirect mail tagged by SpamAssassin, e.g. by filtering for the "X-Spam-Flag" header. A Google search helps to find appropriate and comprehensive instructions like those at http://support.real-time.com/open-source/spamassassin/ or http://www.csupomona.edu/~helpdesk/spam/client_app.htm

If you would like to report spam you receive to the authorities, please have a look at http://www.acma.gov.au/ACMAINTER.196732:STANDARD::pc=PC_100097 (note that you might need to copy the URL and paste it into your browser in case just clicking onto it doesn't work)

Please find below a working sample .postie script that simply pipes incoming mail through spamassassin before appending it to the mail spool file. This setup assumes that filtering happens in the user's mail client. With a bit more work the invoking .postie file could of course also be made to take specific action depending on the result of the spam check.

#!/bin/sh 
 
PATH=$PATH:/bin:/usr/bin:/local/usr/bin 
export PATH 
 
FILTEROPTIONS="-f -d spamd.it.usyd.edu.au" 
 
SPOOLFILE=/usr/spool/mail/$2 
TEMPFILE=/tmp/postie-${2}.$$ 
 
echo $1 > $TEMPFILE 
cat | spamc -u $2 $FILTEROPTIONS >> $TEMPFILE 
/local/usr/bin/maillock $SPOOLFILE "cat $TEMPFILE >> $SPOOLFILE" 
 
rm -f $TEMPFILE 

To get going with spamassassin straight away just take the above text, copy it into a file called .postie in your home directory, make that file executable (chmod u+x .postie) and that's it. The next mail you get will be scanned by spamassassin.

If you use it I would be interested to know how you like it: ronald@it.usyd.edu.au

If spamassassin or the spamd daemon (man page) finds the file

$HOME/.spamassassin/user_prefs

spamassassin man page

A simple tool to create a basic user_prefs file to start with can be found at

http://www.yrex.com/spam/spamconfig.php

sample user prefs file

NB: SpamAssassin can also be setup to use a challenge/response method to do what WhiteList does on mails hitting the defined threshold.

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