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Comment: Ugly workaround for "Checkout view is disabled"

The "Virus Bounce Ruleset

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" is a SpamAssassin ruleset to catch "backscatter".

Backscatter is mail you Wiki MarkupBackscatter is mail you didn't ask to receive, generated by legitimate, non-spam-sending systems in response to spam. Here are some examples, \[http://www.spamresource.com/2007/02/backscatter-what-is-it-how-do-i-stop-it.html courtesy of Al Iverson\]:

  • Misdirected "undeliverable email" bounce messages from spam runs, from mail servers who "accept then bounce" instead of rejecting mail during the SMTP transaction.
  • Misdirected virus/worm "OMG your mail was infected!" email notifications from virus scanners.
  • Misdirected "please confirm your subscription" requests from mailing lists that allow email-based signup requests.
  • Out of office or vacation autoreplies and autoresponders.
  • Challenge requests from "Challenge/Response" anti-spam software. Maybe C/R software works great for you, but it generates significant backscatter to people you don't know.

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If you are using SA 3.1.x, you can install the ruleset as follows:

  1. Wiki MarkupDownload \[http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/spamassassin/rules/trunk/sandbox/jm/20_vbounce.cf?revision=482200&pathrev=482207 and VBounce.pm. (Note: download was disabled for 20_vbounce.cf \] and \[http://taint.org/x/2007/VBounce.pm VBounce.pm\]. \\when I tried this - "Checkout view is disabled" - you can get it from here with by copying, pasting into an editor with good rectangle support, and getting rid of the line numbers.)

2. Save both files to your /etc/mail/spamassassin directory.

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If upgrading from 3.1.x to 3.2.0, you need to delete VBounce.pm and 20_vbounce.cf from /etc/mail/spamassassin, so that it doesn't clash with the released version.

Further Steps

Wiki MarkupIf you're using Postfix, and volumes of backscatter at your mailserver are very high, you can also block incoming backscatter during the SMTP transaction. \[http://taint.org/2007/05/30/164456a.html This blog post\] describes how to do it.

What About My Own Bounces?

You might be worried that the VBounce ruleset will block bounces sent in response to your own mail. As long as the error conditions are flagged during the SMTP transaction (as they should be nowadays), and you've specified your own mailserver(s) in ‘whitelist'whitelist_bounce_relays', you're fine.