Happy 18th Birthday, Apache SpamAssassin™ software to stop spam Sidney Markowitz Chair, Apache SpamAssassin PMC [email protected] linkedin.com/in/sidneymarkowitz What is SpamAssassin? A scoring framework An API and a program In Plesk and cPanel and … What is SpamAssassin? A scoring framework An API and a program In Plesk and cPanel and … (You might be using it and not even know it) SpamAssassin timeline, conception to birth 20 Apr 2001 - Justin Mason first commits code to Sourceforge repo 05 Sep 2001 - SpamAssassin 1.0 released 19 Sep 2001 - SpamAssassin 1.1 released 29 Sep 2001 - SpamAssassin 1.2 released 11 Oct 2001 - Genetic Algorithm to score rules (machine learning) 16 Oct 2001 - spamc/spamd client server added 25 Oct 2001 - SpamAssassin 1.3 released 15 Nov 2001 - SpamAssassin 1.4 released 23 Jan 2002 - SpamAssassin 2.0 released SpamAssassin timeline, childhood 23 Jan 2002 - SpamAssassin 2.0 released 20 Feb 2003 - SpamAssassin 2.50 released - Plugin support! 21 Aug 2003 - SpamAssassin 2.60 released 20 Dec 2003 - SpamAssassin becomes an Apache incubator project 23 Jun 2004 - SpamAssassin graduates to full Apache Project status 22 Sep 2004 - Apache SpamAssassin 3.0.0 released SpamAssassin timeline, release, release... 22 Sep 2004 - Apache SpamAssassin 3.0.0 released 14 Sep 2005 SpamAssassin 3.1.0 released Awards! Datamatation’s Product of the Year Anti-Spam Category 2005, 2006 Linux New Media Awards 2006 Best Linux Anti-Spam Solution 02 May 2007 SpamAssassin 3.2.0 released (3.1.x releases continue) 01 Jan 2010 - Y2K10 bug found and fix released! 21 Jun 2010 - SpamAssassin 3.3.0 released 11 Feb 2014 - SpamAssassin 3.4.0 released SpamAssassin to now 11 Feb 2014 - SpamAssassin 3.4.0 released (IPv6!) 30 Apr 2015 - SpamAssassin 3.4.1 released, begin 4.0 development 16 Sep 2018 - SpamAssassin 3.4.2 released Now - SpamAssassin 3.4.3 at third release candidate Final important bug fixes before continuing with 4.0 development SpamAssassin 4.0 - Native international support What is Spam? Do you know it when you see it? What is Ham? Do you know it when you see it? Machine Learning Can a computer figure out how to do things I can’t figure out? Bayes Theorem Neural nets, deep learning, etc. Machine Learning Can a computer figure out how to do things I can’t figure out? Bayes Theorem If all politicians are liars, what is the probability this liar is a politician? Neural nets, deep learning, etc. Machine Learning Can a computer figure out how to do things I can’t figure out? Bayes Theorem If all politicians are liars, what is the probability this liar is a politician? What if they are a lawyer? An outlier? Neural nets, deep learning, etc. Machine Learning Can a computer figure out how to do things I can’t figure out? Bayes Theorem If all politicians are liars, what is the probability this liar is a politician? What if they are a lawyer? An outlier? Neural nets, deep learning, etc. What if you are not Google? Human made rules Could you list everything that would cause you to immediately know that an email is spam? For each such thing could you make up a scenario in which you receive a legitimate email that has it? Human made rules - Stronger together! Contributed rule sets Nightly mass-check sa-update Human made rules - Stronger together! Contributed rule sets Nightly mass-check sa-update You can help! Real time detection - RBLs / DNSBLs Existing DNS system as a inexpensive distributed database Databases of bad actors maintained by Good People Can contain domains for URIs or ip addresses SpamAssassin is a framework Combines results from Bayes db, rules, network RBLs, URI RBLs, local custom white/black lists, optional plugins Output is a numeric score that can be used by a filter SpamAssassin is an API Integrated with and called by other mail processing software Exim, postfix, amavisd, … too many to list here, see https://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/IntegratedSolutions SpamAssassin is Apache License 2.0 We can’t know how many people are using it We are happy that people are using it! SpamAssassin may be helping you avoid spam! SpamAssassin - More information https://spamassassin.apache.org Users mailing list - If you configure SpamAssassin for mail, here is where you can get help and hints. [email protected] Help us code! Help us document! Help us maintain our rule update server infrastructure! Help us by contributing anonymized processed statistics and spam from your mail hosting facility! [email protected] Questions? Sidney Markowitz linkedin.com/in/sidneymarkowitz https://spamassassin.apache.org Users mailing list - [email protected] Help us ... [email protected].