1485190 - Need Thunderbird-SPAMcop reporting feature (for educated users)

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Thunderbird :: Filters, enhancement)

Description

[Craig Arno]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:61.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/61.0
Build ID: 20180807170231

Steps to reproduce:

Upgrading to Thunderbird 60.0 killed HabuL, an Add-On I use to report SPAM to SPAMCOP.  I need a highly automated, but still manual method of reporting SPAM to SPAMCOP, so I can make sure everything I send -really- is SPAM.  Or I need a comparable replacement.

Those of us who've maintained the same email address for a few decades are overwhelmed by the amount of SPAM constantly being pushed at our systems. A couple years ago I setup my system with strict SMTP RFC compliance checking, 5 RBL's, and Thunderbird "adaptive Junk SPAM filtering", I was still getting 500+ SPAM's/day, making Thunderbird and that email address useless to me.  Then came along SPAMcop and HabuL.  After a month of reporting real SPAM, 500/day dropped to about 10/day.  At this point, living without SPAMCOP reporting, or a suitable replacement, is not an option, as Thunderbird will quickly once again become useless to me.


Actual results:

HabuL no longer works.

KnujOn finally gave up saying there is too much money in SPAM, resulting in no incentive to enforce existing -effective- Anti-SPAM policies. Read the report http://knujon.com/illicit_domains_icann_graphic.pdf .  KnujOn [NoJunk backwards] effort shutdown.

After looking for suitable alternatives it is becoming apparent the SPAM industry is killing off all effective Anti-SPAM tool development; Blue Frog anti-SPAM dead, HabuL abandoned.



Expected results:

I need a Thunderbird tool equivalent to HabuL/SpamCop, or the HabuL Add-On to run again.

Or I need a quick out of the box solution to setup, configure, and use my own RBL/Thunderbird solution to block the SPAM garbage dump-trucks from my INBOX.

I need Mozilla to provide effective tools to block SPAM mass emailers as they pop into existence.  A solution where the entire Thunderbird community can collectively report what is/isn't SPAM for blocking would be ideal.  That is what HabuL/SpamCop are to the Thunderbird/Outlook community.

Comment 1

[Craig Arno]

Additional observations for anyone wishing to build a Thunderbird SPAM filter...

Prior to running HabuL/SpamCop for SPAM reporting, I tried adding the SPAM email "Received: IP" to IP tables for a day. I found with the first 8-10 SPAM messages I'd effectively blocked all the machines sending me new SPAM every 2-3 minutes for about half a day. Then I had to repeat the blocking process for the next half day. Then at night I'd get about 30-80 more SPAM emails while I was asleep.  i.e. SPAM sending is a highly organized effort which changes servers every ~8 hours.  The "new" IP's have to be reentered into whatever blocking mechanism is used, in my case, iptables on my Linux server.

Comment 2

[Craig Arno]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Frog is also recommended reading as it describes how SPAMmers attacked and ultimately took down Blue Frog Security (anti-SPAM service).  This is good "lessons learned" material for any new anti-SPAM efforts. This historical accounting includes ideas like a peer-peer SPAM processing for a decentralized SPAM reporting system.  Peer-peer processing removes any easy centralized anti-SPAM server targets for organized SPAM efforts to attack.  A peer-peer spam fighting effort would make an anti-SPAM effort resilient to attack, like the Internet itself.

Comment 3

[[e-mail]]

Excellent idea. Thank you for your request, Craig. I would be very glad to hear about a new addon fur Thunderbird 60+, too.

Comment 4

[Jorg K (CEST = GMT+2)]

(In reply to Craig Arno from comment #0)

> Upgrading to Thunderbird 60.0 killed HabuL, an Add-On I use to report SPAM
> to SPAMCOP.  ...
And why don't you contact its author so he can fix it? There are only few interface changes to get stuff working again for TB 60. Most likely the failure comes from changes to the http request interface, see:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Add-ons_Guide_57#Changes_to_JS_in_mozilla59

Comment 5

[Craig Arno]

(In reply to Jorg K (GMT+2) from comment #4)
> (In reply to Craig Arno from comment #0)
> 
> > Upgrading to Thunderbird 60.0 killed HabuL, an Add-On I use to report SPAM
> > to SPAMCOP.  ...
> And why don't you contact its author so he can fix it?

The HabuL author took down the HabuL Add-On from the Thunderbird site which seems like fairly definitive answer to how welcome further efforts to convince him to resume development will be received.  He doesn't want to be contacted.

"HabuL abandoned" as posted on the HabuL primary site and mentioned in my original posting, usually means abandoned, relinquished, To withdraw one's support or help from, give up entirely.

If you think you can change his mind, or wish to take on the HabuL project, go ahead, looks like it's open.  I suspect the HabuL solution is only part of a larger better effort needed to stop or slow SPAM activity.

I exchanged messages with one SPAMmer (through SpamCop) who strenuously objected to being reported and seemed to think his SPAM was something "special" which shouldn't be blocked.  Most of his arguments circled back to he gets paid to deliver this stuff (making his customers "golden"), and he is using a large collection of hospital IT resources (not his own resources) to deliver this stuff.  That should set off a few red flags to help you understand, these individuals don't want to stop and reason/words aren't going to stop them or even slow them down.  Spammers are well organized and will attack any effort to block this activity (reference Blue Frog).

From everything I've read at http://knujon.com/illicit_domains_icann_graphic.pdf and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Frog , fighting SPAM is going to take a larger better coordinated well thought out effort than HabuL/SpamCop. Current comprehensive Anti-SPAM Laws aren't working, a larger organized non-distributed SPAM fighting solution was continuously attacked until it finally shutdown. A solution coordinated and rethought by Mozilla, or Thunderbird projects might be big enough to address this issue and might work.  We need second or third generation SPAM fighting solutions.

This is what this request is about, not just getting HabuL/SpamCop running again (I already did this much myself).

Comment 6

[[e-mail]]

Friendly Note: We still need a Thunderbird-SPAMcop reporting feature (now for Thunderbird 68.x) ;).

Comment 7

[Craig Arno]

My modified version of Habul worked with TB 60.x. My modified Habul breaks and no longer works with TB 68.x. I am -not- a TB Add-On developer and am too busy developing other projects to determine+repair whatever changed in the Thunderbird Add-On interface. Per my earlier comments, with TB 68+, there are no longer any tools to replace Habul functionality. I just tried Habu with TB 68.4.1, it won't install either.

FYI I am using TB Junk filters, Blacklist blocking programs (which SpamCop+Habul/Thunderbird effectively maintained), and strict SMTP HELO type checking in Postfix. The reason I was using Habul is because the SPAM problem is severe enough that 500+ SPAM messages/day were making it past this gauntlet of defenses. Maintaining this has nothing to do with my day job/career.

The urgency of this report just increased.