--On 25 June 2010 13:56:12 +0100 Ron White <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Fri, 2010-06-25 at 11:28 +0100, Ian Eiloart wrote:
>> --On 24 June 2010 09:43:40 +0000 Kebba Foon <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> > Backscatterer - Why it is abusive and how to stop your system doing so
>> >
>> > Email servers should be configured to provide Non-Delivery Reports
>> > (bounces) to local users only.
>> > Unacceptable email from anywhere else should be rejected.
>> >
>>
>> This is silly advice. It should be quite acceptable to bounce email that
>> has an SPF pass, or that has a valid DKIM signature (provided the return
>> path domain matches a signed From header domain). In both cases, if
>> you're  creating collateral spam, then that's the fault of the domain
>> operator.
>>
> There is probably a bit of a translation issue there as backscatter.org
> is part of Dirk & Claus 'UCEProtect' stable of blocklists.
>
> My personal opinion is you should never accept mail that you cannot
> deliver to a user and in such a scenario it should be rejected at SMTP
> time - not after a 250 is given and (any/the) MTA decides it does not
> want it for whatever reason. Exim is very flexible and its brilliant
> ACL's can pretty much reduce backscatter to zero if configured
> correctly.

Well, the backscatter issue means that we have no choice but to try to do 
that. But that's a bad thing. It would be a much better world in which we 
were able to accept such messages, and then generate a bounce. Why? Because 
bounce messages have the potential to be more user-friendly.

I believe that with improved email authentication (SPF, DKIM, etc), we'll 
one day be able to revive the bounce message.


-- 
Ian Eiloart
IT Services, University of Sussex
01273-873148 x3148
For new support requests, see http://www.sussex.ac.uk/its/help/



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