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Date:      Tue, 17 Mar 2015 17:50:47 -0700
From:      Doug Hardie <bc979@lafn.org>
To:        Dave Horsfall <dave@horsfall.org>
Cc:        FreeBSD PF List <freebsd-pf@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Hints on rate limiting
Message-ID:  <B8167BC7-C903-49DB-A91F-846EC0AB425C@lafn.org>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.11.1503180358070.15124@aneurin.horsfall.org>
References:  <alpine.BSF.2.11.1503180358070.15124@aneurin.horsfall.org>

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> On 17 March 2015, at 10:14, Dave Horsfall <dave@horsfall.org> wrote:
>=20
> FreeBSD 9.3-RELEASE-p5 (GENERIC) #0: Mon Nov  3 22:02:57 UTC 2014
>=20
> fxp0: <Intel 82801DB (ICH4) Pro/100 VM Ethernet> (on board)
>=20
> I'm having trouble with getting rate limiting to work i.e. so many=20
> connections from the same source in so many seconds (what we in the=20
> anti-spam community call "woodpeckers").
>=20
> Does it actually work on FreeBSD 9?  I know that PF doesn't work at =
all on=20
> FreeBSD 8 (at least, with the NIC above), and if it does indeed work =
then=20
> what would be a good starting point?
>=20
> Note that a complicating factor is that I have configured a "greet =
pause"=20
> of 10 seconds i.e. after the connection I wait for that long before=20
> issuing the SMTP greeting (and woe betide you if you don't wait in =
turn).
>=20
> And before anyone asks me why aren't I running 10.x, I will as soon as =
my=20
> new server arrives; the current box is going to fail soon (the=20
> electrolytic capacitors are starting to bulge) so it's not worth the=20=

> hassle.  And anyway, I've screwed up the ports area Yet Again from a=20=

> failure to read simple instructions :-(

You might want to provide some details on which approach to rate =
limiting you are using.  There are at least two that I am aware of.  =
Also, are your sure that you are having a large number of connections =
from each IP, or are they using one connection and trying many different =
ids and passwords?  I see lots of the latter on several mail servers I =
run.  I don=E2=80=99t recall seeing one IP making many connection =
attempts.  Rate limiting won=E2=80=99t help if they are using one =
connection.=



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