SURBL and URIBL
These two checks url block lists, mentioned in message body.

It seemed a bit unclear configuration for me, so here I will write a little tutorial how to enable these tests to spamassassin, and how to test new configuration. Tested on production server, using spamassassin v 3.x.

First, check for init.pre file in spamassassin’s config directory. The plugin URIDNSBL should be uncommented. Like this:

And ensure, that plugin really exists. It is file named URIDNSBL.pm in SA plugins directory.

If everything ok – add to local.cf spamassassin rules:

You can adjust scores, to fit your server’s needs. With such scores, as shown below, in my server simple URL spam messages gets A BIG score (about 20 points).

If you interested what kind of URLs checks these rules – there is a list on SURBL website

Checking config

To check for typos or other config related errors use lint parameter in SA

To check newly written rules – get a spam mail with URL, save it as TXT or EML file and execute SA with parameters:

At the end of output you should see something like this:

Content preview:  If diseases show themselves, it is time to click on our
site http://xxx.xxxx.xxx/ If diseases show themselves, it is time
to click on our site http://xxx.xxxx.xxx/ [...]

Content analysis details:   (22.5 points, 4.7 required)

pts rule name              description

0.1 FORGED_RCVD_HELO       Received: contains a forged HELO
0.5 HTML_40_50             BODY: Message is 40% to 50% HTML
0.0 HTML_MESSAGE           BODY: HTML included in message
3.5 BAYES_99               BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 99 to 100%
[score: 1.0000]
1.6 RCVD_IN_BL_SPAMCOP_NET RBL: Received via a relay in bl.spamcop.net
[Blocked - see ]
3.9 RCVD_IN_XBL            RBL: Received via a relay in Spamhaus XBL
[201.235.56.232 listed in zen.spamhaus.org]
0.0 RCVD_IN_PBL            RBL: Received via a relay in Spamhaus PBL
[201.235.56.232 listed in zen.spamhaus.org]
2.0 URIBL_BLACK            Contains an URL listed in the URIBL blacklist
[URIs: xxxx.xxx]
0.5 URIBL_SC_SURBL         Contains a URL listed in the SC SURBL list
[URIs: xxxx.xxx]
1.9 URIBL_AB_SURBL         Contains a URL listed in the AB SURBL list
[URIs: xxxx.xxx]
1.5 URIBL_JP_SURBL         Contains a URL listed in the JP SURBL list
[URIs: xxxx.xxx]
1.5 URIBL_WS_SURBL         Contains a URL listed in the WS SURBL list
[URIs: xxxx.xxx]
1.5 URIBL_OB_SURBL         Contains a URL listed in the OB SURBL list
[URIs: xxxx.xxx]
4.0 AWL                    AWL: From: address is in the auto white-list

Also you can read my erlier article about writing custom rulesets on spamassassin

Creating a hard drive backup directly to another hard drive

Also, very useful boot cd with live linux and utility partimage: System rescue CD

To get files nightly, I used cron task scheduler. But there were problem when decoding gpg files (when ran shell script, everything went ok, but when cron initialised, no decryption were done).
This is a shell script:

As you can see, script finds all *.gpg files in given directory, then passes file by file to gpg to decode files.
But it does not work when executed with cron.

After some debugging, found such error:

So, gpg tries to open tty, but in cron enviroment there is no access to tty. So found out switch to gpg no-tty.

This is the final, working excerpt from my script:

P.S. Echoeing password through pipe to give it as parameter to gpg is not secure, if your server is accesed by other users. At good timing, user can get your password. As my server accessed only in trusted LAN, and no other users use shell, I’ve made that method.

Recently, I was writing one bash script, which uses munpackutility. Tested it – worked with no problems. After adding script to crontab, to do this routine daily, I’ve noticed, that something is wrong.

Problem was, that munpack was in /usr/local/bin/bin/munpack directory, and there was created symlink /usr/local/bin/munpack.

So, crontab didn’t follow symlink.

Users create folders with spaces e.g. very important and Bash script interprets it as two separate folders: very and important when my script finds all folders and starts to move them, I get error on folders with spaces. This is the command:

This piece of code moves files and folders older than 14 days from /mnt/volume/tomove to /path/tomovewhere

So, if there is folder /mnt/volume/tomove/very important
Bash tries to move /mnt/volume/tomove/very and important

To interpret directories as one command you will need to add this variable to your script:

$IFS is internal field separator, this variable determines how Bash recognizes fields, or word boundaries, when it interprets character strings.
You can find more info with samples here:
http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/internalvariables.html

cron: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info.

Problem is that after pam update something wrong went to passwd/shadow files and postgres user had wrong entry. To fix this, simply use command in root shell:

From man page of pwconv:

pwconv creates shadow from passwd and an optionally existing shadow.
So pwconv fixes this problem, and cron for postgres works again.
The other problem, why postgres or other non-root user crons doesnt run my occur if you don’t add those users to cron group. To add postgres user to cron group use this command:

More info about shadow/passwd problem after update you can read on gentoo forums:
pwconv+postgres.html
cron+authentication+service+retrieve+authentication.html

Problem is, that in old laptop there is only 128MB ram, and during ubuntu boot, it hangs (not enough ram).
The sollution is to download ubuntu-6.10-alternate-i386.iso. It’s alternate installation cd, where you can choose text based install.

There are also two good resources about ThinkPad 600x problems and their sollutions on Ubuntu:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=188736
http://www.mueller.ch.vu/misc/tp600e_en.html
Also, you can check thread on ubuntuforums, where I made a post about “Getting Error After Disc Loads to First Menu”
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2337274

( Start (K :) -> Preferences -> Control Center ->Appearence & Themes -> Fonts)

But it didn’t work with non-kde apps.

The sollution is to change dpi in kdm options. Edit /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc and change line ServerArgsLocal=-nolisten tcp to

ServerArgsLocal=-nolisten tcp -dpi 100HTH .
And restart your kdm (Ctrl+Alt+Backspace)

In my sample, there is 100dpi otion. If result doesn’t satisfy your needs, play a little with this number (75, 170 etc.)

For example:

In example there is rule PASTAS_OPT which adds score 1 to e-mail if there is obfuscated sentence in message body Remove your email. The dot symbol match any character (except newline), so sentences like “Re-move y our e~mail:” will be found, and score will be increased. Symbol “i” means that sentence (string) is case insensitive. All rules are written in perl regexp form. More abour regexps you can find here: http://www.perl.com/doc/manual/html/pod/perlre.html
Do not add big scores to one rule. Better write more rules with smaller score.
After custom spmassassin rules are written, check for correct syntax:

OR

for more info on errors

However spammers find more and more typos and methods of obfuscation to bypass such rules. So I recommend you to use Rules Du Jour and sa-update scripts. There are both in gentoo portage. Allso when you get spam, send those spam mails to your mail server (in examle /tmp/spam/) and train spamassassin’s bayesian filter:

Allso it is important to train bayesian filter with good e-mails. Upload good emails to server (in examle /tmp/ham/) and train filter, showing how good mails looks like:

Finaly, restart spamd or amavisd (depends on your mail/antispam configuration)