sendmail Milters: A Guide for Fighting Spam

By Bryan Costales and Marcia Flynt

ISBN: 0321213335
Published: Jan 28, 2005
Copyright 2005

Dimensions 7x9-1/4
Pages: 320
Edition: 1st

List Price: $39.99
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Description

Spam is a formidable, costly, and pervasive problem. And now that it is being used to commit fraud and identity theft, every mail administrator needs to understand how to successfully monitor and fight spam.

Although they are some of the most powerful anti-spamming tools available, open-source sendmail Milters have lacked clear documentation...until now. sendmail Milters: A Guide for Fighting Spam is the first in-depth guide to writing powerful Milters to block even the cleverest spammers.

Inside this definitive new reference, readers will find:

• An exhaustive description of the Milter interface
• Gruesome details on what spam is, its harmful effects, and the diverse techniques used by spammers
• A step-by-step guide to luring spammers using a honeypot network
• Ways to decode the common encoding methods used in spam email
• A reference on the Milter libray and how to use it
• Techniques for expanding software to deal with future spamming methods

This website offers downloadable code that can be used as is or modified.

Whether you administer a sendmail, MS Exchange, procmail or other mail system, this book will give you the knowledge you need to combat current or future spamming techniques.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
I. THE NEFARIOUS SPAM PROBLEM
1. Gorilla versus Guerrilla
2. The Characteristics of Spam Email
II. CREATE A TEST ENVIRONMENT
3. Set Up a Bait Machine
4. Bait the Hook
5. Preventive Measures Learned
III. THE PARTS OF A SENDMAIL MILTER
6. The Roles and Flow of a Milter
7. The Milter Library
8. The xxfi Handler Milter Functions
IV. NUTS AND BOLTS
9. Milters and the Environment
10. User and Temporal Feedback
11. Handy Routines for the Message Body
V. APPENDIX
Appendix: Useful Source
Bibliography
Index

Authors

Bryan Costales has been involved with sendmail for over fifteen years and is author of the O'Reilly sendmail book (the "bat" book). He has also written books about C-language programming and UNIX communications. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay area with his dog, a fine German shepherd named Java.

Marcia Flynt has been involved in software engineering for over twenty-five years and has managed the email development for opt-in custom email businesses. She lives in Boulder, Colorado, with her husband, John, and two children, Adrian and Amy.

Reviews

"sendmail Milters: A Guide for Fighting Spam should become the fundamental comprehensive text for anyone writing spam filters using the sendmail Milter interface."
—Eric Allman, creator of sendmail

"Bryan and Marcia have not only provided tips and tricks for detecting and blocking spam and email fraud but have also written the first of its kind Milter reference guide. This book will help you start writing your own special purpose mail filters quickly and easily."
—Gregory Neil Shapiro, coauthor of the Milter interface