SpamAssassin

SpamAssassin
Mail recognized as spam
Basic data
developer	The SpamAssassin team
Publishing year	April 20, 2001
Current  version	3.4.4 ( January 25, 2020 )
operating system	platform independent
programming language	Perl , C.
category	Spam filter
License	Apache license
German speaking	No
spamassassin.apache.org

SpamAssassin is a widely used and excellent filter program that can automatically sort out unwanted e-mail ( spam ). SpamAssassin is released as free software under the terms of version 2 of the Apache license .

Details

SpamAssassin can be used at any point in the mail processing chain; This means that it can be used at the user level , for example as a plug-in in the e-mail program or as a direct call in the user's procmailrc , as well as at the mail server level, where it does its job with many e-mail providers does by being involved in the operation of the mail transfer agents .

The program, written in Perl , gives every e-mail points according to certain rules, which show how high SpamAssassin estimates the probability of spam to be. This point allocation is checked by irregular test runs carried out by half a dozen volunteers. If an adjustable threshold is exceeded, the e-mail is marked as spam and can then, for example, be deleted directly at the mail server level, rejected, stored in special spam folders or spam files, or simply given a warning subject; e-mails marked as spam can also be automatically stored at the user level in a spam folder or in a spam file (“caughtspam”) with the help of filter settings in the mail program and fed into the learning function of the Bayesian spam filter .

SpamAssassin uses different mechanisms to differentiate between wanted and unwanted mail ( ham and spam ):

• Static rules that are based on regular expressions and look for sequences in the emails, as they typically appear in spam.
• Querying blacklists from servers sending spam, the Realtime Blackhole Lists (RBLs).
• Query of checksum- based filters like Vipul's Razor , Pyzor and DCC .
• Integrated spam filter which, based on the classification of the mails received so far, statistically calculates the probability of whether the new mail is wanted or unwanted.

An installation of SpamAssassin can be checked for functionality using the test text GTUBE .

License

SpamAssassin has been a project of the Apache Software Foundation since August 2004 and is licensed under the Apache license . SpamAssassin is therefore free software .

See also

• Bogofilter - an alternative system based only on statistical analysis

The following free or open source systems can be used in conjunction with SpamAssassin:

• Citadel - An email / groupware server with a built-in interface for integrating SpamAssassin
• Exim - Mail Transfer Agent , can parse the output of SpamAssassin and insert the calculated spam score in the e-mail header, so that other programs (e.g. Sieve- enabled Mail Delivery Agent such as Cyrus ) can send the e-mail be categorized accordingly.
• MailScanner - A free anti-virus and anti-spam filter
• KMail - works with SpamAssassin and other spam filters through a modular filter system.
• MIME catch
• SmarterMail 4.x - Free edition
• Mozilla Thunderbird
• Novell Evolution
• Claws Mail
• Mailfence
• SpamAware integrates SpamAssassin in MS Outlook or Outlook Express.
• Under Windows, hMailServer integrates spamd directly into the GUI.
• balsa, an email client for Gnome
• ProtonMail

SpamAssassin has been used in many commercial products such as: B. in:

• Atmail uses SpamAssassin, including its own set of filters and filter rules. A web interface enables users to adjust the settings independently.
• AntibodyMX includes SpamAssassin.
• Anti-Spam & Anti-Virus, used & a. a SpamAssassin filter for Windows.
• Icewarp E-Mail-Server uses SpamAssassin in its anti-spam module
• IServ uses SpamAssassin as a spam filter in the integrated e-mail service
• McAfee uses SpamAssassin in its anti-spam tool SpamKiller .
• Spamnix is ​​also based on SpamAssassin.
• SmartPOP2Exchange runs SpamAssassin as a Windows service.
• MDaemon includes SpamAssassin.
• Kerio Connect uses SpamEliminator, which is based on SpamAssassin, for heuristic spam filtering
• MailLaunder is anti-spam and anti-virus software that SpamAssassin uses in its spam filtering process.
• Mac OS X Server , E-Mail Component also uses SpamAssassin
• SmarterMail Enterprise - Enterprise version
• Sophos PureMessage

Web links

• SpamAssassin's official homepage
• SpamAssassin on the Apache Wiki
• amavisd - Interface between Mail Transfer Agents and content analyzing programs like ClamAV and SpamAssassin
• OpenNTF Lotus Domino SpamAssassin Integration ( AFL license , open source ) - Integration of SpamAssassin in Lotus Domino
• nod32mta Spamassassin program integrates SpamAssassin into MailEnable-free mail servers.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ projects.apache.org . (accessed on April 8, 2020).
2. ↑ github.com . January 25, 2020.
3. ↑ The spam_assassin Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page . In: Open Hub . (accessed on October 19, 2018).
4. ↑ ^{a b} projects.apache.org . In: Open Hub . (accessed on April 8, 2020).
5. ↑ The 2003 OSDir.com Editor's Choice Awards in Open Source . ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. osdir.com 
6. ↑ SpamAssassin Takes Top Anti-Spam Honors . earthweb.com
7. ↑ Datamation.com Announces Product of the Year Winners 2006 . earthweb.com
8. ↑ Linux New Media Awards 2006 . ( Memento of December 5, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) linuxnewmedia.com
9. ↑ RescoreMassCheck - Spamassassin Wiki. Retrieved March 15, 2017 . 
10. ^ FrontPage - Spamassassin Wiki. Retrieved March 15, 2017 . 
11. ↑ Email Header: How to read and understand message headers. December 18, 2018, accessed on May 4, 2020 (German). 
12. ^ ProtonMail Spam Fliter. Protonmail, June 13, 2017, accessed February 24, 2010 . 
13. ↑ Various Licenses and Comments about Them. GNU Project, Free Software Foundation (FSF)