How to add a spamassassin rule to block all mails that contain a certain word

Webmin
1

Hi,

I get quite a lot spam. A couple mails per day.

I am know trying to block those via spamassassin, however it is not working. For example, I get daily mails from someone with a different e-mail adress everytime, but in the FROM name is always the word ‘Degree’

So, I created this rule:
Test Name: Degree
Check: From: header
Match expression: / [Degree] / []
Score to apply: 10

What am I doing wrong? Is there documentation somewhere on how the match expression should be formed?

2

Howdy,

Well, first off, I’ll offer that if you’ve gotten things down to two spam messages a day, you’re doing pretty well :slight_smile:

However, off the top of my head I’m not entirely certain what the required syntax there is… I’d be curious if it worked simple to enter:

Degree

In the “Match expression” field.

If that doesn’t help, what is the resulting rule that is generated into the SpamAssassin local.cf field?

-Eric

3

Hi Eric,

Thanks for your prompt reply.

It does not seem to work, I still get mails containing exactly these words. I know 2 messages a day is not to crazy, however, I can rule at least one of the two out because it alwas contains the same words.

If I just add Degree to the match expression, it results in this rule in the local.cf:
header Degreefrom From =~ /Degree/

Is that good? Because I still get mails with sender name containing Degree…

4

Howdy,

I’ve been looking into that, and it really does look like what you have there should work.

Amongst other things, I see examples of that here:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2246294/local-cf-spamassassin

I’m wondering if it’s just something simple… could you try restarting the SpamAssassin service? That would ensure that the config file has been re-read.

-Eric

5

Hi,

Thanks a lot. I am going to do some checks using the stack link you posted.

I also discovered this: when I go to Email messages > Spam and virus scannign then the ‘Spamassassing client program’ is set to spamc instead of spamassassin. Is this correct? What client program should I use? Which one is faster, better, lighter?

6

Howdy,

I use spamc myself, as it just uses one running SpamAssassin service instance. Then, for each incoming email, a small spamc process is launched to communicate with it.

The other option launches a full SpamAssassin process for each incoming email, but has no resident SpamAssassin service.

The second option I think is best on servers with extremely low email traffic, which are also low on RAM. However, the second option also allows per-domain SpamAssassin settings, rather than global settings.

-Eric

7

HI,

Thanks for your help!

As for the spamassasin rules. I see in the link you posted that the rules should be ended with /i/ however, my rules do not have that part.
Should I put an i character in the field next to match expression? Or should I just add /i/ to my match expression?