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Posted to users@spamassassin.apache.org by Quanah Gibson-Mount <qu...@zimbra.com> on 2013/02/16 01:34:30 UTC

DKIM scoring with spamassassin

Does anyone tweak the DKIM scores given by SA?  There are plenty of 
scenarios where DKIM has failed, yet SA does not give the email a 
particularly high spam mark.  3 example test cases below.  I guess I was 
expecting SA would score DKIM failures more aggressively if there are 
problems with the signing:

Case 1. Actively modify "from" field of the message and send in manually via
SMTP keeping the same signature.

X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.379 tagged_above=-10 required=6.6
        tests=[ALL_TRUSTED=-1, BAYES_05=-0.5, DKIM_SIGNED=0.1,
        NO_DNS_FOR_FROM=0.001, T_DKIM_INVALID=0.01,
        T_HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS=0.01, T_NOT_A_PERSON=-0.01,
        T_UNKNOWN_ORIGIN=0.01] autolearn=no
Authentication-Results: zqa-398.eng.vmware.com (amavisd-new);
        dkim=fail (1024-bit key) reason="fail (message has been altered)"
        header.d=dkimtest.com

Case 2. Update signature on a domain, but don't update it in DNS.

X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.057 tagged_above=-10 required=6.6
        tests=[ALL_TRUSTED=-1, BAYES_20=-0.001, DKIM_SIGNED=0.1,
        NO_DNS_FOR_FROM=0.001, RDNS_NONE=0.793, T_BIG_HEADERS_2K=0.01,
        T_DKIM_INVALID=0.01, T_HELO_NO_DOMAIN=0.01,
        T_LONG_HEADER_LINE_80=0.01, T_NOT_A_PERSON=-0.01,
        T_THREAD_INDEX_BAD=0.01, T_UNKNOWN_ORIGIN=0.01] autolearn=no
Authentication-Results: zqa-398.eng.vmware.com (amavisd-new);
        dkim=fail (1024-bit key) reason="fail (bad RSA signature)"
        header.d=dkimtest.com

Case 3. Don't populate DNS record with DKIM signature at all

X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.957 tagged_above=-10 required=6.6
        tests=[ALL_TRUSTED=-1, BAYES_00=-1.9, DKIM_SIGNED=0.1,
        RDNS_NONE=0.793, T_BIG_HEADERS_2K=0.01, T_DKIM_INVALID=0.01,
        T_HELO_NO_DOMAIN=0.01, T_LONG_HEADER_LINE_80=0.01,
        T_NOT_A_PERSON=-0.01, T_THREAD_INDEX_BAD=0.01, 
T_UNKNOWN_ORIGIN=0.01]
        autolearn=no
Authentication-Results: zqa-398.eng.vmware.com (amavisd-new); dkim=neutral
        reason="invalid (public key: not available)" header.d=dkimtest.com

Thanks,
Quanah

--

Quanah Gibson-Mount
Sr. Member of Technical Staff
Zimbra, Inc
A Division of VMware, Inc.
--------------------
Zimbra ::  the leader in open source messaging and collaboration

Re: DKIM scoring with spamassassin

Posted by Patrick Ben Koetter <p...@sys4.de>.
Quanah,

* Quanah Gibson-Mount <qu...@zimbra.com>:
> --On Friday, February 15, 2013 5:01 PM -0800 John Hardin
> <jh...@impsec.org> wrote:
> 
> >On Fri, 15 Feb 2013, Quanah Gibson-Mount wrote:
> >
> >>Does anyone tweak the DKIM scores given by SA?  There are plenty of
> >>scenarios  where DKIM has failed, yet SA does not give the email a
> >>particularly high  spam mark.  3 example test cases below.  I guess I
> >>was expecting SA would  score DKIM failures more aggressively if there
> >>are problems with the signing:
> >
> >DKIM and SPF are anti-forgery tools, not anti-spam tools.
> >
> >If you take a DKIM-signed email that is whitelisted because of
> >whitelist_auth and make a change that invalidates the signature, does it
> >still get whitelisted? If not, then SA is doing all that it can
> >reasonably be expected to do with the invalid signature.
> >
> >DKIM or SPF pass or fail *by itself* is not useful as a spam sign. Taken
> >together with other factors (such as DKIM invalid + claims to be from
> >Wells Fargo) it's useful.
> 
> Ok, thanks.  If any of our users ask, this is a good summary. :)

if you want your spam filters to benefit from DKIM, you need to build
reputation. You need to account if or if not a domain uses DKIM and what the
average spam score of that sender domains is.

The OpenDKIM reputation project has introduced a local reputation database and
uses SpamAssassin to get the spam score. You might want to investigate in the
project if you want to use DKIM (as one of many methods) to filter spam.

p@rick

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Re: DKIM scoring with spamassassin

Posted by Quanah Gibson-Mount <qu...@zimbra.com>.
--On Friday, February 15, 2013 5:01 PM -0800 John Hardin 
<jh...@impsec.org> wrote:

> On Fri, 15 Feb 2013, Quanah Gibson-Mount wrote:
>
>> Does anyone tweak the DKIM scores given by SA?  There are plenty of
>> scenarios  where DKIM has failed, yet SA does not give the email a
>> particularly high  spam mark.  3 example test cases below.  I guess I
>> was expecting SA would  score DKIM failures more aggressively if there
>> are problems with the signing:
>
> DKIM and SPF are anti-forgery tools, not anti-spam tools.
>
> If you take a DKIM-signed email that is whitelisted because of
> whitelist_auth and make a change that invalidates the signature, does it
> still get whitelisted? If not, then SA is doing all that it can
> reasonably be expected to do with the invalid signature.
>
> DKIM or SPF pass or fail *by itself* is not useful as a spam sign. Taken
> together with other factors (such as DKIM invalid + claims to be from
> Wells Fargo) it's useful.

Ok, thanks.  If any of our users ask, this is a good summary. :)

--Quanah



--

Quanah Gibson-Mount
Sr. Member of Technical Staff
Zimbra, Inc
A Division of VMware, Inc.
--------------------
Zimbra ::  the leader in open source messaging and collaboration

Re: DKIM scoring with spamassassin

Posted by John Hardin <jh...@impsec.org>.
On Fri, 15 Feb 2013, Quanah Gibson-Mount wrote:

> Does anyone tweak the DKIM scores given by SA?  There are plenty of scenarios 
> where DKIM has failed, yet SA does not give the email a particularly high 
> spam mark.  3 example test cases below.  I guess I was expecting SA would 
> score DKIM failures more aggressively if there are problems with the signing:

DKIM and SPF are anti-forgery tools, not anti-spam tools.

If you take a DKIM-signed email that is whitelisted because of 
whitelist_auth and make a change that invalidates the signature, does it 
still get whitelisted? If not, then SA is doing all that it can reasonably 
be expected to do with the invalid signature.

DKIM or SPF pass or fail *by itself* is not useful as a spam sign. Taken 
together with other factors (such as DKIM invalid + claims to be from 
Wells Fargo) it's useful.

-- 
  John Hardin KA7OHZ                    http://www.impsec.org/~jhardin/
  jhardin@impsec.org    FALaholic #11174     pgpk -a jhardin@impsec.org
  key: 0xB8732E79 -- 2D8C 34F4 6411 F507 136C  AF76 D822 E6E6 B873 2E79
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