Re: [exim] EXIM SA?

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Author: W B Hacker
Date:  
To: exim users
Subject: Re: [exim] EXIM SA?
ROGERS Richard wrote:
>> -----Original Message----- From: exim-users-bounces@???
>> [mailto:exim-users-bounces@exim.org] On Behalf Of Phil Pennock Sent: 26
>> October 2010 19:56 To: ROGERS Richard Cc: 'exim-users@???' Subject:
>> Re: [exim] EXIM SA?
>>
>> On 2010-10-25 at 14:53 +0100, ROGERS Richard wrote:
>>> Yes, we are users of exim-sa, as it provides some options that are
>> not
>>> otherwise available (or at least, not straightforwardly).
>>
>> Could you please elaborate?
>>
>> Without knowing what someone has an active use-case for, I'm not going to
>> dig out the exim-sa patches just to opportunistically implement every nook
>> and cranny in Exim itself.
>>
>> If you can point to what features are needed, and answer questions such as
>> "Have you tried approach X instead?" when I come up with them, we can have
>> a go at improving Exim to be more useful to you.
>>
>> -Phil
>
> It's a while since this decision was made, so please forgive me if my memory
> is a little hazy or incomplete...
>
> Our objective was to continue the behaviour that our previous
> Sendmail/MailScanner set-up provided, in terms of user experience. This meant
> that when a message was scored above the set SpamAsassin threshold: - the
> original message would be sent to the recipient as an attachment - the
> subject line would have a string such as "{Spam?}[Spam score 9.7]" prepended
> to the original subject text - the spam scores would be itemised within the
> headers and in the body of the new "containing" message
>
> I'm not completely sure about the last two, but I don't think the first can
> be readily achieved other than with exim-sa (which makes it very easy).
>
> Regards
>
> Richard
>


Converting any message to an attachment - with or without a prepended
'transmittal' explanatory intro, is not limited to triggering on SA score, so
yes - Exim can do that first item as well as the rest on your list w/o need of
the now-legacy EXIM-SA build [1].

Since SA integration, we have done it a bit differently toward a similar goal:

At score (n) we add an 'X-Junk' header with simple SA score - no details.
(intended for MUA sorting)

At score (n+?) we also prepend 'Suspect' into the Subject Line.

At score (n++?) we ALSO route into a 'Suspect' folder instead of the INBOX.
Folder is created if non-existent/user deleted [2].

At score (n+++?), we deny outright, and at 'smtp time'.

NB: Thresholds are per-user, with a global max as fallback for the unwary.

Having a bespoke quarantine folder that one can check 'now and then' seems to be
less confusing and less end-user work than leaving the probable spam in the
INBOX to be waded through. Especially if attachments might need to be opened...

YMMV, of course...

Bill

[1] How well does that hold up if/as/when the original body MIME-type is
mis-identified?

[2] CAVEAT: IMAP-only here, no POP