Just don't do it!
Been testing that rule by Taj May which quarantines forged bounces. As we do have some non-Domino software submitting SMTP via our Domino servers and using our domains in the sender envelopes, we have the rule tuned to permit these messages to bounce too. And we move to an alternate database instead of rejecting, so we can see what is happening.
It is working pretty well too, but what have we here?
Two false positives. Both bounced out-of-office * messages where local Domino users here have thrown caution to the wind and told OOO to reply to Internet email addresses. The bounces currently in hand are addressed to "do-not-rely@someplace" and "noreply@someotherplace".
- I get the feeling that the senders didn't want any replies (which is evidently why they bounced). OOO doesn't seem to recognise this. Who knew?
- OOO to Internet senders? How about a big (OK, metaphorical) sign on your back while you're on saying "spam me!"
Users!
* Being generated by an agent running on the server, these messages have no X-Mailer header at all. We need to tune the rule to allow local servers to bounce.
Category: Dumb and Dumber
Technorati: Dumb and Dumber
1. Declan Lynch04/08/2005 10:56:32
Homepage: http://www.qtzar.com
In a corporate environment there is no way that you could ask people to tick that box. They deal with customers and they want their customers to know that they are not available and who to deal with instead. There would be uproar if I said to all staff to turn on that option.
2. Chris Linfoot04/08/2005 11:00:37
Well we strongly advise people to turn that on. It is on by default actually. And unappetising as the thought of turning it off may be, it is a backscatter vector which could lead to you being blacklisted:
- Spammer or virus spams your user.
- Spoofs the sender address as a spamtrap belonging to SORBS, Spamcop or similar
- Victim has OOO enabled to Internet senders
- Backscatter OOO notification goes to spamtrap et voila! Blacklisted.
I have seen this happen too so be careful.
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