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Date:      Sun, 16 Mar 2003 16:28:07 -0800
From:      Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>
To:        Craig Carey <snowfall@gmx.co.uk>
Cc:        freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Blocking addresses of non-spammers; bug reporting
Message-ID:  <3E751697.8B69040E@mindspring.com>
References:  <200303131013.h2DADL386993@flip.jhs.private> <200303131013.h2DADL386993@flip.jhs.private> <5.2.0.9.2.20030316095750.035d3748@213.165.64.20>

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Craig Carey wrote:
> At 03\03\14 17:05 -0500 Friday, Dan Langille wrote:
>  >I've used both the web interface and send-pr.  I have no problem with
>  >either.  All my dealings with postmaster@ have been resolved promptly.
> 
> The web interface is disabled as you would know I presume.
> 
> It's confirmable by browsing to here: http://www.freebsd.org/send-pr.html
> 
> The webpage lacks does not give any reasoning whatsoever for that.
> Immediately I wondered if Postmaster was involved. The same was not found
> by me in the bugs, and www, mailing lists.

The problem is that the send-pr web form can, effectively, be used
to attack someone once a week automatically by submitting a PR from
a false email address (this is arguably a bug in the send-pr system
when it comes to sending weekly status messages to pester someone).

In addition, it can be used to file false and harrassing PR's, to
generate email to mailing lists, and so on, and it can be used to
generate individual email messages directly, through multiple use
of the interface (this is also arguably a bug in the send-pr
system when it comes to sending acknowledgement messages to the
"original submitter").

Basically, it's a web->email gateway, and can be abused as such.

I would like to see the weekly status messages disabled, and I
would like to see the submission feedback email disabled.  By doing
this, I believe that the send-pr web form can be reenabled.


Dan:

The reason you have not had a problem with send-pr is that you
are not sending from an email address which is authorized to use
a mail server that does not match its domain.  In other words,
you are not being shut down over legitimate relay.

For example, my current email address is "@mindspring.com", but
the mail server through which I am required to relay email is
"@earthlink.net".  There are a number of places that block my
email on the basis of "@mindspring.com != @earthlink.net", and
FreeBSD's mail server that handles send-pr is one of them.

In other words, my mail is blocked because the person who
configured the blocking engine is apparently unaware that
Mindspring is a wholly owned subsidiary of Earthlink, and
therefore that my "relay" is not in fact a relay.

There are a *lot* of people in this boat, and with ISP's trying
to buy marketshare by gobbling up smaller ISPs (in particular,
Earthlink does this), this problem will continue into the
forseeable future.

-- Terry

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