Date: 07/01/07 (WebDesign)    Keywords: web, hosting, spam

The latest version of Appleseed (0.7.2) is now available. This version adds further functionality to the photo component, "tagging" functionality, and the ability for administrators to "trust" or "block" other nodes. A simple configuration page has also been added to the administration section for first time users.

The source code for this release can be downloaded at:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/appleseed

If you're looking to set up a test site, I would recommend using Dreamhost.com. I currently use them for hosting appleseedproject.org and Appleseed is sure to work if installed on one of their shared accounts.

Appleseed is doing three things that are very cutting edge for the web:

1. Distributed Social Networking - Taking social networking away from massive, monolithic sites like MySpace and Friendster and distributing it across potentially thousands of sites that all work together.

2. Single Sign On - Similar to OpenID, Appleseed's single sign on focuses on end-user ease of use. If you have a login for one appleseed site, then you can log in using your appleseed address (for example, michael.chisari@appleseedproject.org) to authenticate you for any other appleseed site. More on OpenID is available at http://openid.net/

3. Sender-Stores messaging: Based loosely on the IM2000 proposal, a Sender Stores system seeks to add accountability as a means to reducing and possibly eliminating spam. More on IM2000 is available at: http://www.im2000.org/

If you would like an invite to the test site (http://appleseedproject.org), just let me know and I'll send you an email.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/webdesign/1275535.html

Date: 07/01/07 (Web Development)    Keywords: web, hosting, spam

The latest version of Appleseed (0.7.2) is now available. This version adds further functionality to the photo component, "tagging" functionality, and the ability for administrators to "trust" or "block" other nodes. A simple configuration page has also been added to the administration section for first time users.

The source code for this release can be downloaded at:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/appleseed

If you're looking to set up a test site, I would recommend using Dreamhost.com. I currently use them for hosting appleseedproject.org and Appleseed is sure to work if installed on one of their shared accounts.

Appleseed is doing three things that are very cutting edge for the web:

1. Distributed Social Networking - Taking social networking away from massive, monolithic sites like MySpace and Friendster and distributing it across potentially thousands of sites that all work together.

2. Single Sign On - Similar to OpenID, Appleseed's single sign on focuses on end-user ease of use. If you have a login for one appleseed site, then you can log in using your appleseed address (for example, michael.chisari@appleseedproject.org) to authenticate you for any other appleseed site. More on OpenID is available at http://openid.net/

3. Sender-Stores messaging: Based loosely on the IM2000 proposal, a Sender Stores system seeks to add accountability as a means to reducing and possibly eliminating spam. More on IM2000 is available at: http://www.im2000.org/

If you would like an invite to the test site (http://appleseedproject.org), just let me know and I'll send you an email.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/webdev/418989.html

Date: 07/01/07 (PHP Community)    Keywords: web, hosting, spam

The latest version of Appleseed (0.7.2) is now available. This version adds further functionality to the photo component, "tagging" functionality, and the ability for administrators to "trust" or "block" other nodes. A simple configuration page has also been added to the administration section for first time users.

The source code for this release can be downloaded at:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/appleseed

If you're looking to set up a test site, I would recommend using Dreamhost.com. I currently use them for hosting appleseedproject.org and Appleseed is sure to work if installed on one of their shared accounts.

Appleseed is doing three things that are very cutting edge for the web:

1. Distributed Social Networking - Taking social networking away from massive, monolithic sites like MySpace and Friendster and distributing it across potentially thousands of sites that all work together.

2. Single Sign On - Similar to OpenID, Appleseed's single sign on focuses on end-user ease of use. If you have a login for one appleseed site, then you can log in using your appleseed address (for example, michael.chisari@appleseedproject.org) to authenticate you for any other appleseed site. More on OpenID is available at http://openid.net/

3. Sender-Stores messaging: Based loosely on the IM2000 proposal, a Sender Stores system seeks to add accountability as a means to reducing and possibly eliminating spam. More on IM2000 is available at: http://www.im2000.org/

If you would like an invite to the test site (http://appleseedproject.org), just let me know and I'll send you an email.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/php/573716.html

Date: 07/02/07 (Security)    Keywords: spam

MessageLabs reports a surge in malicious spam aimed at individuals in senior management positions--and their family members.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6194497.html

Date: 07/12/07 (WebDesign)    Keywords: php, web, spam

Spammers can be so strange sometimes.

I received an email through a form on one of my websites, and I got to be mildly flattered for a little while.

Hello, Your site is great. Regards, Valintino Guxxi

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/webdesign/1280809.html

Date: 07/17/07 (Java Web)    Keywords: spam

A spammer finally resorted to heavy quoting of scriptures from Bible just to get in his comments and a heavy one at that. But there’s more much more. First lets see what he had to say: Name: Master Conqueror | E-mail: Master@Conqueror.co.jp | URI: http: // www. congress check. com | IP: 75.126.248.223 | Date: July [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/spammers-do-bible-thumping/

Date: 07/23/07 (Java Web)    Keywords: technology, spam

Mike @ TechCrunch wondered whether TailRank belonged to the technology deadpool. And today the top story on TailRank is a viagra spam post. The second headline story is a porn spam post. Below that are real stories but they’re months old. This is from the site that was “designed with spam prevention in mind.” His concerns [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/tailrank-overtaken-by-spammers-link-based-importance-algorithm-suspect/

Date: 07/23/07 (Computer Geeks)    Keywords: security, virus, web, spam

I have my own domain, djmattb241.com. I use it mainly to host my out of date website and for my email address. Lately, I've been getting a bunch of emails like the following:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the server7.web4a.de program at host server7.web4a.de.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that the message returned
below could not be delivered to one or more destinations.

For further assistance, please send mail to

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the message returned below.

The server7.web4a.de program

: host mx0.gmx.net[213.165.64.100] said: 551 5.2.3 Your mail shows
indications of viruses or spam. We cannot accept your mail. {mx092} (in
reply to end of DATA command)



Reporting-MTA: dns; server7.web4a.de
Arrival-Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 10:37:40 +0200 (CEST)
Content-Type: text/plain

Final-Recipient: rfc822; tt48@gmx.de
Action: failed
Status: 5.0.0
Diagnostic-Code: X-server7-web4a-de; host mx0.gmx.net[213.165.64.100] said: 551
5.2.3 Your mail shows indications of viruses or spam. We cannot accept your
mail. {mx092} (in reply to end of DATA command)



Subject:
Emailing: detail report.zip
From:
"Janine manalang"
Date:
Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:36:56 +0800
To:
mail@bultmann-net.de


The message is ready to be sent with the following file or link attachments:
detail report.zip

Note: To protect against computer viruses, e-mail programs may prevent sending or receiving certain types of file attachments. Check your e-mail security settings to determine how attachments are handled.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This one came from manalangiduz@djmattb241.com. I've seen ones from billing@djmattb241.com and others. Is this ad-ware on my machine? (I use Thunderbird) Or is it something to do with my server? I know I can shut off the feature where all email going to djmattb241.com goes to me, but that's not really solving the problem.

Help? :(

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/1090475.html

Date: 08/12/07 (Java Web)    Keywords: spam

I am seeing a steady and alarming rise of russian comment spams. Often people will not understand a comment in a foreign language and may approve it in a hurry. Such comment spams when translated may cause embarrassment for the blogger and also provide unwanted boost to comment spammers. I have a recommendation. Let’s first [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/rise-of-russian-comment-spam/

Date: 08/12/07 (Java Web)    Keywords: spam

Now I have seen it all. I received a nigerian scam as a comment spam on my blog. In case you are wondering Nigerian scam or 419 scam is conducted traditionally using unsolicited emails (spam) where you are promised millions of dollars for participating in a money laundering scheme. Comment spam has become a serious [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/nigerian-scam-419-scam-as-comment-spam/

Date: 08/16/07 (Security)    Keywords: security, spam

No hard evidence that PDF spam exposes users to security risks, claims the company, which nonetheless recommends user caution.

Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6202909.html

Date: 08/20/07 (Java Web)    Keywords: spam

I received a rather interesting article as comment on my blog (quoted below). Let’s see how this can be an intelligent spam by utilizing a less-known loophole in WordPress’ in-built comment spam protection logic. Valentine Water Valentine’s day 2007 - and it is raining cats and dogs. Which is a particular good time to capture rain water [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/is-this-comment-spam/

Date: 08/23/07 (Java Web)    Keywords: mysql, sql, spam

I was watching the mysql queries using mytop just before our server went down. In a flash I realized the cause of our persistent server load problem. I have also come up with an elegant solution which I will implement in the next few days. The problem is due to huge spam comment load on my [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/wordpress-server-load-problem-cause-solution/

Date: 08/23/07 (Java Web)    Keywords: spam

The message was a surprise coming from Ryze, which I thought was pretty sane and non-spammy. On investigating their link I realized they want me to subscribe to their paid services to see who wants to network with me! While I am fine with monetization efforts, I just don’t get it. Why would someone sane [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/ryze-says-someone-wants-to-network-with-you-so-pay-up/

Date: 08/26/07 (Java Web)    Keywords: spam

I have opened this blog for testing. Now any spammer can get to my moderation queue. I am trapping the spam comments for our Comment Guard plugin. So all spammers are welcome to spam me! Obviously your comment will not go past the moderation queue and also several bad things will happen to you (spammer) but [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/spam-me-ye-comment-spammers/

Date: 08/26/07 (Java Web)    Keywords: spam

I got over 2000 comments in my moderation queue, all spam. I was testing Akismet and it appears it is overloaded for quite sometime now and putting literally every comment in moderation queue (happens when it fails or when the connectivity to Akismet fails). Also whenever I am trying to moderate my queue, it is [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/akismet-overloaded-down-slowing-blog/

Date: 08/30/07 (Java Web)    Keywords: spam

We have the Comment Guard plugin on all of our blogs with the latest version. Comment Guard is our fool-proof solution to eliminate comment spam from automated bots, which constitute over 90% of comments. It protects against normal comment spam as well as trackback & pingback spams too. This version takes care of the occasional complaints [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/comment-guard-plugin-updated-with-new-features/

Date: 08/30/07 (Software)    Keywords: web, linux, spam

Greetings and Salutations!
I have an interesting issue.

I am running a mail / domain controller on SELinux.
There is a webmin interface installed.
There is webmail.
The mail service is a variation of sendmail called SquirrelMail.
The mail server is also running ClamAV and SpamAssassin.

Tuesday a problem appeared around 11AM where the outbound mail service just stalls.
I starting looking at the queue and I noticed an inordinate amount of replies to bad addresses from the Mailer Daemon that are timing out. On peeking in on them I discovered that they are bouncebacks on emails sent to bad addresses here and that they are spam (no surprise there). Many of these messages are stalling in the queue and I suspected that this was the problem. Clearing the queue did not fix the issue, but restarting sendmail did and still does make the outbound process work.

So, last night, I updated ClamAV (no update needed), sendmail (update completed) and SA (update completed).
I hoped that the problem would go away but it did not. In fact, it is now worse. The frequency that I must manually restart the sendmail service has gone up.

In an effort to provide less overall interruption to my users I created a cron task to do this for me.
Here is the script:
#/bin/bash
#this is to restart sendmail
date >>/etc/mailcron.log
service sendmail stop>>/etc/mailcron.log
service sendmail start>>/etc/mailcron.log
echo "mailtab1 process done
">>/etc/mailcron.log

Now, here is the interesting part.
The cron is set to run every 10 minutes (minutes ending in 3)
It runs.
The output put into the log file when it runs automatically is incomplete:
Thu Aug 30 11:23:01 EDT 2007
mailtab1 process done

So, obviously the script it running, but it is only time-stamping and informing me that it is done.

The more interesting part is that when I run the task manually it works:
Thu Aug 30 11:25:19 EDT 2007
Shutting down sm-client: [ OK ]
Shutting down sendmail: [ OK ]
Starting sendmail: [ OK ]
Starting sm-client: [ OK ]
mailtab1 process done

WHY?

I need a solution to one (or, preferably, both) of these problems. I also have a second script that does the mailreload command.

My current plan, based on some of the mail server logs showing errors with the ClamAV milter, is to uninstall and reinstall clamav tonight afterhours. Thoughts?


Cross-posted all over the place

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/software/75058.html

Date: 08/30/07 (Computer Help)    Keywords: web, linux, spam

Greetings and Salutations!
I have an interesting issue.

I am running a mail / domain controller on SELinux.
There is a webmin interface installed.
There is webmail.
The mail service is a variation of sendmail called SquirrelMail.
The mail server is also running ClamAV and SpamAssassin.

Tuesday a problem appeared around 11AM where the outbound mail service just stalls.
I starting looking at the queue and I noticed an inordinate amount of replies to bad addresses from the Mailer Daemon that are timing out. On peeking in on them I discovered that they are bouncebacks on emails sent to bad addresses here and that they are spam (no surprise there). Many of these messages are stalling in the queue and I suspected that this was the problem. Clearing the queue did not fix the issue, but restarting sendmail did and still does make the outbound process work.

So, last night, I updated ClamAV (no update needed), sendmail (update completed) and SA (update completed).
I hoped that the problem would go away but it did not. In fact, it is now worse. The frequency that I must manually restart the sendmail service has gone up.

In an effort to provide less overall interruption to my users I created a cron task to do this for me.
Here is the script:
#/bin/bash
#this is to restart sendmail
date >>/etc/mailcron.log
service sendmail stop>>/etc/mailcron.log
service sendmail start>>/etc/mailcron.log
echo "mailtab1 process done
">>/etc/mailcron.log

Now, here is the interesting part.
The cron is set to run every 10 minutes (minutes ending in 3)
It runs.
The output put into the log file when it runs automatically is incomplete:
Thu Aug 30 11:23:01 EDT 2007
mailtab1 process done

So, obviously the script it running, but it is only time-stamping and informing me that it is done.

The more interesting part is that when I run the task manually it works:
Thu Aug 30 11:25:19 EDT 2007
Shutting down sm-client: [ OK ]
Shutting down sendmail: [ OK ]
Starting sendmail: [ OK ]
Starting sm-client: [ OK ]
mailtab1 process done

WHY?

I need a solution to one (or, preferably, both) of these problems. I also have a second script that does the mailreload command.

My current plan, based on some of the mail server logs showing errors with the ClamAV milter, is to uninstall and reinstall clamav tonight afterhours. Thoughts?


Cross-posted all over the place

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computer_help/812585.html

Date: 08/30/07 (Java Web)    Keywords: spam

We have deployed Comment Guard Pro across all our blogs. It has been extensively tested for this internal release and we don’t expect any problems. However if you do find problem(s) submitting your comments (and you are definitely not a spammer) then I would very much appreciate if you could let us know the problem(s) [...]

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/problem-commenting/