viruses (was Re: Meeting notice)

viruses (was Re: Meeting notice)

[Will Yardley]

Appeal to whomever runs this list....

I know this has been hashed out repeatedly in the past, but this is
getting ridiculous. While I like this list, the volume of spam / viruses
I get from it exceeds the actual list traffic.

Could you either

a) Close the list to non-subscribers
b) Use a confirmation system like TMDA for non-subscribers and / or
moderate the list.
c) Do some sort of filtering to reduce the number of viruses / spam
messages that go through to the list.

-- 
Will Yardley
input: william < @ hq . newdream . net . >

Re: viruses (was Re: Meeting notice)

[Roman Neuhauser]

# william@hq.newdream.net / 2002-10-31 20:59:36 -0800:
> Appeal to whomever runs this list....
> 
> I know this has been hashed out repeatedly in the past, but this is
> getting ridiculous. While I like this list, the volume of spam / viruses
> I get from it exceeds the actual list traffic.

    through the list? i filter this list into its mailbox on the
    Delivered-To: header, so anything that goes to the list should end
    up in that mailbox, and i don't remember a single spam or virus
    getting in the folder. I don't use anything like SA, nor any AV,
    just a few maildrop rules... Hm, but they route quite a few emails
    to /dev/null, so that might be it: aol, juno, msn, yahoo, to name a
    few.

-- 
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Re: viruses (was Re: Meeting notice)

[Vincent Lefevre]

On Fri, Nov 01, 2002 at 14:13:09 +0100, Roman Neuhauser wrote:
>     through the list?

Yes, I get many viruses and spam messages via the zsh-users
mailing-list. Most of them are now filtered (bounced for some
of them). And I sometimes get a message from the mailing-list
manager (to check whether my e-mail address is still valid)
saying that some of the messages sent to me were bounced.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@vinc17.org> - Web: <http://www.vinc17.org/> - 100%
validated (X)HTML - Acorn Risc PC, Yellow Pig 17, Championnat International
des Jeux Mathématiques et Logiques, TETRHEX, etc.
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / SPACES project at LORIA

RE: viruses (was Re: Meeting notice)

[Borzenkov Andrey]

> # william@hq.newdream.net / 2002-10-31 20:59:36 -0800:
> > Appeal to whomever runs this list....
> >
> > I know this has been hashed out repeatedly in the past, but this is
> > getting ridiculous. While I like this list, the volume of spam /
viruses
> > I get from it exceeds the actual list traffic.
> 
>     through the list? i filter this list into its mailbox on the
>     Delivered-To: header, so anything that goes to the list should end
>     up in that mailbox, and i don't remember a single spam or virus
>     getting in the folder. I don't use anything like SA, nor any AV,
>     just a few maildrop rules... Hm, but they route quite a few emails
>     to /dev/null, so that might be it: aol, juno, msn, yahoo, to name
a
>     few.
> 

Not everybody is using client that allows easy filtering. In any case,
you still have to download message which means extra traffic and often
extra cost.

Unfortunately, zsh workers do not own list server in any way and IIRC
list server maintainers have been quite unresponsive in the past. To
workers: what about relocating lists to sourceforge? To my impression,
lists hosted there do not suffer from spam so much.

-andrey

Re: viruses (was Re: Meeting notice)

[Oliver Kiddle]

On 1 Nov, Andrey wrote:
> 
> Unfortunately, zsh workers do not own list server in any way and IIRC
> list server maintainers have been quite unresponsive in the past. To
> workers: what about relocating lists to sourceforge? To my impression,
> lists hosted there do not suffer from spam so much.

I got a reply from Karsten at Sunsite Denmark. He wrote:
: To me directly? Well - I'm sorry if I have missed a mail - I get quite
: a lot...
:
: I have removed the sunsite.auc.dk alternative. Not they only work on
: sunsite.dk
:
: We can make the lists moderated, but I fear, that the
: announce->users->workers will tricker tripple moderation.
:
: I will leave for the USA/philadelphia to attend LISA in 10 hours, so I
: really would hate to make drastic changes right now, but I will be
: happy to look into the matter when I return at tuesday 12th.
:
: We will also offer TMDA protected lists in short time - we are working
: on the matters right now...

Anyone know what `TMDA' stands for? Or `LISA' for that matter?

I've confirmed that the auc.dk alternative now bounces which it does so
remember that you can't use it any more. That'll cut out more than half
the spam.

I'd be in favour of some sort of automated spam filtering such as
spamassassin with the rejected messages going to some address which a
human can periodically check through and resend any false positives on
from. I can do that unless somebody else is happy to.

Roman Neuhauser wrote: 
|    just a few maildrop rules... Hm, but they route quite a few emails
|    to /dev/null, so that might be it: aol, juno, msn, yahoo, to name

Are other people blocking yahoo? If so I'll post under a different
address.

Oliver

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Re: viruses (was Re: Meeting notice)

[Clint Adams]

> Anyone know what `TMDA' stands for? Or `LISA' for that matter?

http://tmda.net/
http://www.usenix.org/events/lisa02/

> I'd be in favour of some sort of automated spam filtering such as
> spamassassin with the rejected messages going to some address which a
> human can periodically check through and resend any false positives on
> from. I can do that unless somebody else is happy to.

I think even some MTA-level checks could be benficial; I get ezmlm
bounce messages from the zsh lists because sendmail doesn't like the
envelope headers of some spam.

SpamAssassin is run on the Debian lists, to some positive effect as
well.

> Are other people blocking yahoo? If so I'll post under a different
> address.

People take all sorts of draconian measures which result in the loss of
legitimate mail.