heh. with another 70 weeks of log data to sift through, the count of imaginary friends at https://nxdomain.no/~peter/traplist.shtml just rolled past seven million (also see https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html or tracked https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2025/08/eighteen-years-of-greytrapping-is.html) #spamtraps #imaginaryfriends #spamd #smtp #cybercrime #openbsd

@ska

I know all that I need to know from having written a mailbox name parser, many years ago, with the knowledge that the only correctly workable approach involves parsing the lexemes *backwards*, from end to beginning. So I won't be bothering with some quiz that tells me that there's scope for bizarre antics in mailbox names.

I already know; and I've been mercifully blessed with not having to think about it in years. (-:

#SMTP #InternetMessageFormat

It's heartwarming to a greying geek that a 5000+ words retrospective on greytrapping is turning out to be popular - https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html (tracked https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2025/08/eighteen-years-of-greytrapping-is.html)

#greytrapping #spam #antispam #greylisting #blocklist #openbsd #freebsd #smtp #email #ssh #passwords #passwordguessing #pop3 #security #networking #cybercrime

Friends, it finally happened. On August 7th, 2025, the number of spamtraps intended to fool spammers rolled past the number of inhabitants in my home country of Norway. It's time for a retrospective.

Eighteen Years of Greytrapping - Is the Weirdness Finally Paying Off? https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html (tracked https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2025/08/eighteen-years-of-greytrapping-is.html)

#greytrapping #spam #antispam #greylisting #blocklist #openbsd #freebsd #smtp #email #ssh #passwords #passwordguessing #pop3 #security #networking #cybercrime

Recently I found out that when I sent mail to GOOG hosted domains, they would mark my messages as spam or disappear then entirely.

Then today a mailing list host's spamassassin rejected my message.

It turned out that somebody had reported bsdly.blogspot.com (GOOG hosted, but referenced in my .signature) to spamhaus as malicious, and GOOG + the mailing list hoster believed them.

Got delisted, no problem. So which party is to blame here, or what method?
#spam #antispam #smtp #contentfiltering

[Again for those on the other side of the pond] -

Friends, it finally happened. On August 7th, 2025, the number of spamtraps rolled past the number of people in my home country. It's time for a retrospective.

Eighteen Years of Greytrapping - Is the Weirdness Finally Paying Off? https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html (tracked https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2025/08/eighteen-years-of-greytrapping-is.html)

#greytrapping #spam #antispam #greylisting #blocklist #openbsd #freebsd #smtp #email #ssh #passwords #passwordguessing #pop3 #security #networking #cybercrime

Friends, it finally happened. On August 7th, 2025, the number of spamtraps intended to woo the unwary spammer rolled past the number of inhabitants in my home country of Norway. It's time for a retrospective.

Eighteen Years of Greytrapping - Is the Weirdness Finally Paying Off? https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html (tracked https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2025/08/eighteen-years-of-greytrapping-is.html)

#greytrapping #spam #antispam #greylisting #blocklist #openbsd #freebsd #smtp #email #ssh #passwords #passwordguessing #pop3 #security #networking #cybercrime

Eighteen Years of Greytrapping - Is the Weirdness Finally Paying Off? https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html (tracked https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2025/08/eighteen-years-of-greytrapping-is.html)

Friends, it finally happened. On August 7th, 2025, the number of spamtraps intended to woo the unwary spammer rolled past the number of inhabitants in my home country of Norway.

It's time for a retrospective.

#greytrapping #spam #antispam #greylisting #blocklist #openbsd #freebsd #smtp #email #ssh #passwords #passwordguessing #pop3 #security #networking #cybercrime

In 2013 I wrote up "Maintaining A Publicly Available Blacklist - Mechanisms And Principles" (also https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2013/04/maintaining-publicly-available.html) . TL;DR: blocklisting is a kind of public shaming, be sure your process is verifiable and transparent.

Minor edits today, links to resources and #eurobsdcon inside. #blocklists #spamtraps #antispam #smtp #spamd #openbsd #freebsd #security #cybercrime

The BIG MAIL operators disappear valid mail. We have all seen it happen.

I am pondering starting a campaign to collect war stories with as much log data and other relevant data as possible in order to write an article which may evolve into something else.

If you have potentially useful input, I want to hear from you.

#mail #smtp #bigmail #runyourown #antispam #spam #disappearingmail #smallmail

For further notes going back to 2017, see "Twenty-plus years on, SMTP callbacks are still pointless and need to die" https://nxdomain.no/~peter/twenty-plus_years_on_smtp_callbacks_are_still_pointless.html #spam #smtp #smtpcallbacks #callbacks #email #verification #cybercrime #hacking #stupidity