SpamAssassin

Setup

We are using a fairly standard SpamAssassin setup, close to the default. Any variations from default MUST be noted here. Spam is getting out of hand, so the most basic setup is no longer sufficient.

Basic

A reference in /etc/postfix/master.cf lets the mail system know to use spamassassin, i.e. "spamd"

You can check that spamassassin does not have errors in the configuration with:

spamassassin --lint

To make sure it is tagging spam properly you can send it a test:

spamassassin -D < /usr/share/doc/spamassassin-3.3.1/sample-spam.txt

There is also a no-spam file there. Note that the -D gives a TON of output for debugging, and is not needed for testing basic functionality.

Sieve

For spam filtering to work, each user needs a sieve script that directs the spam somewhere else. The most basic .sieve script is:

#  a simple SPAM filter
#
require "fileinto";

if header :contains "X-Spam-Flag" "YES" {
#
#  move messages with "X-Spam-Flag: YES" header
#  into "spam" folder
#
	fileinto "INBOX.SPAM";
}

Plugins

SpamAssassin plugins are found in: /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/Mail/SpamAssassin

AutoWhiteList

See: http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/ManualWhitelist

This automatically adds spam messages to a blacklist and not-spam (i.e. ham) to a whitelist.

Important Note

SpamAssassin needs to have a user account named spamd, and this has to be a local account as well as being in the LDAP database.