[LI] [Fwd: SAUCE (paranoid anti-spam mailserver) 0.5.0 ALPHA released]

[Sudhakar Chandrasekharan <thaths@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is kind of off-topic.  But considering the discussion that has been
going on around here about open relays I thought people might be interested
in this.

Historical note: Ian Jackson was the last year's Project Leader for Debian.

Thaths

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: SAUCE (paranoid anti-spam mailserver) 0.5.0 ALPHA released
Resent-Date: 20 Oct 1999 12:28:45 -0000
Resent-From: debian-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 13:28:30 +0100 (BST)
From: sauce-maint@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Ian Jackson)
To: info-gnu@xxxxxxx,
sauce-announce@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,debian-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
spamtools@xxxxxxxxx

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

I am pleased to announce the first public release of GNU SAUCE,
version 0.5.0 ALPHA.

SAUCE (Software Against Unsolicited Commercial Email) is an SMTP
server that sits between the Internet and your actual mail software.
It was originally written to help in the fight against spam, but it
also helps encourage good configuration and administration in general.

It has various tactics for reducing incoming spam:
* Extremely aggressive checks on incoming email and its sources.
  If any problems are discovered the mail is not accepted.
* Spambait addresses: when mail is sent to a bait address its
  sources are blacklisted.
* Mail from previously-unknown sources is delayed to give them a
  chance to try a bait address or get their account cancelled.

Pros:
* SAUCE is very sucessful.  It can cut spam by an order of magnitude.
* Administrators using SAUCE have to deal with much less bounced mail.
* SAUCE never bounces legitimate mail from correct, non-spamming sites.

Cons:
* Hardly any documentation at the moment - for mail experts only !
* Most spam sources are misconfigured, but many other sites are too,
  and SAUCE will bounce their mail.  SAUCE is not for you if clueless
  strangers often send you mail that's important to you.
* SAUCE delays mail from new senders and sites (configurable, though).
* SAUCE is something of a resource hog.
* SAUCE is hard to install, especially if you're not using Debian.

SAUCE is not a mailer.  You need existing SMTP software, which must
have standard anti-spam features such as relay prevention, checking
recipients during the SMTP conversation, etc.  Currently you must be
using Exim, though support for other mailers could be added.  You also
need Tcl 8.1 or later.

Software which will make SAUCE easier to install or more functional:
* authbind (as from Debian GNU/Linux).
* userv (`you-serve', www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ian/userv/).
* Linux 2.2 ipchains firewalling.

See also:
 The Exim Internet Mailer (www.exim.org)
 The Mail Abuse Protection System (http://maps.vix.com/)
 The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (www.cauce.org)

For more information, including details of the mailing lists, CVS
repository, and distribution files, visit
  http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ian/sauce/
SAUCE is also available via the GNU FTP site and its mirrors, listed
below.  0.5.0 ALPHA should soon be available at most mirrors.

If you have queries, please join the sauce-discuss mailing list in
preference to mailing the author.  Thank you.

MD5 checksum:
8b88d1510ed297a999603ca1bdf971de  sauce-0.5.0.tar.gz

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