[exim] Out of Office and collateral spam

Hi -

We have an Exchange system with an Exim/Linux gateway for incoming mail.

We are under increasing pressure to allow Exchange Out of Office
autoreplies to be sent to off site senders. So far I have been able to
resist this, partly on the basis that allowing it creates collateral
spam. However, I fear that the day may come (and it could be quite soon)
when Management will decide that the business case for allowing it is
going to override such considerations.

If this happens, has anyone got a good way to prevent, or at least
minimise, the collateral spam problem? Specifically, I'm wondering if
the Exim/Linux gateways can somehow get access to the recipient's OoO
status (whether via an LDAP query or perhaps a file generated
periodically by some other programmatic process), and either generate an
OoO (or not, if the source "looks faked" or the incoming message is
otherwise "suspicious") or do a fakereject with some suitable text
(although I'm conscious that this text could be suppressed by "helpful"
remote mail systems such as Exchange).

If anyone has better suggestions, I'd like to hear them. Please don't
just tell me that sending OoO off site is a Really Bad Idea (TM) - I
already know that!

Thanks and regards

Richard

--
Richard Rogers
IT Development and Innovation Manager
Information Services, Staffordshire University


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