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Receiver Initiated Authentication:Practical Method to Authenticate Incoming Mail

MikeWhitehead
Grafter
Posts: 748
Registered: ‎19-08-2007

Receiver Initiated Authentication:Practical Method to Authenticate Incoming Mail

Struggled to fit the full title into the subject there Tongue This paper was quite an interesting read on spam prevention without complete dropping of all messages. While reading, I thought it might be something the folks responsible for the e-mail platform might be interested in, since there's still the ongoing problem of how to get away from all the spam without dropping legitimate e-mail.
Link to the paper
6 REPLIES 6
VileReynard
Hero
Posts: 12,616
Thanks: 582
Fixes: 20
Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: Receiver Initiated Authentication:Practical Method to Authenticate Incoming Mail

The diagrams are missing from that link.
AFAIK It seems to rely on adding an additional prefix to my email address (which is supposedly hidden from everyone). It doesn't say where this comes from. I can't see how this could work.

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

VileReynard
Hero
Posts: 12,616
Thanks: 582
Fixes: 20
Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: Receiver Initiated Authentication:Practical Method to Authenticate Incoming Mail

http://spamfizzle.com/default.aspx definitely has no images at all, whatsoever. Mind you. I do block popups, popunders, flash.
A big chunk of the source of that page reads:-

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So I was lucky to see anything.
cp:green Block of HTML broken into many lines was it was causing issues displaying this page on FireFox mod:end

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

MikeWhitehead
Grafter
Posts: 748
Registered: ‎19-08-2007

Re: Receiver Initiated Authentication:Practical Method to Authenticate Incoming Mail

I assume you have javascript disabled? A quick look at the source code shows that it requires javascript for parts of the page to load correctly.
VileReynard
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Posts: 12,616
Thanks: 582
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Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: Receiver Initiated Authentication:Practical Method to Authenticate Incoming Mail

Thanks James,
As you can see, I always accept Javascript [should be an attachment somewhere...]
It will definitely fail to work - except that a few of the larger ISP's will cut themselves off from standard email. AFAIK any spammer could read the bounced emails and send them back.
In order to get round the problems caused by loss of email some ISP's will set up a scheme which involves corporate clients paying to be whitelisted.
Too bad about the rest of us.

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

MikeWhitehead
Grafter
Posts: 748
Registered: ‎19-08-2007

Re: Receiver Initiated Authentication:Practical Method to Authenticate Incoming Mail

Quote from: axisofevil
AFAIK any spammer could read the bounced emails and send them back.

Do you really think spammers would take the time to respond to a single mail? It's largely an automated affair, using false e-mail addresses. How can the spammer resend the bounce when its been bounced to a non-existant address?
I feel this is a great method of building up a whitelist while not dropping mail automatically. It may, however, cause a little more stress on the mail platforms for the time that they build the lists, but I'm sure it won't be anything that they can't handle (it's not like all spam is going to be accepted).
VileReynard
Hero
Posts: 12,616
Thanks: 582
Fixes: 20
Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: Receiver Initiated Authentication:Practical Method to Authenticate Incoming Mail

How does it work if I want to operate my own email server [not using PlusNet's smart host or spam checking]?
I might find it more desirable (for business reasons, say) to not reject, incorrectly,  the occasional email - even if I do have to sift through quite a bit of spam.

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."