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SPF: Ready for Prime Time, Part II
By: Pete O'Hara
Spammers are Using SPF
At this point in time it's no big secret that spammers are publishing their own SPF records to thwart the system and once their domains end up on a URI block list they throw them away and start with new domains with new SPF records. There may be future solutions to this such as "reputation" schemes (i.e. Aspen Framework) to judge a domain credibility but not at this time.
Why isn't there a standard for SPF?
The MARID group (MTA Authorization Records in DNS) was created by the IETF (The Internet Engineering Task Force) to "produce a standard in the area of DNS-stored policies related to and accessible by MTAs." Due to a failure to come to an agreement to a solution the MARID group was dissolved as reported in an email from the IESG secretary ( ). "From the outset, however, the working group participants have had fundamental disagreements on the nature of the record to be provided and the mechanism by which it would be checked. Technical discussion of the merits of these mechanisms has not swayed their proponents, and what data is available on existing deployments has not made one choice obviously superior. Each represents trade-offs, and the working group has not succeeded in establishing which trade-offs are the most appropriate for this purpose. These assessments have been difficult in part because they have been moved out of the realm of pure engineering by the need to evaluate IPR and licensing related to at least one proposal in the light of a variety of licenses associated with the deployed base of MTAs."
It seems that the problem came down to the "last call" when a proposed solution (Sender ID) to MARID included PRA (Purported Responsible Address algorithm) which Microsoft claimed intellectual property rights to. Microsoft was willing to allow free use but only in conjunction with a patent license. Most of the MARID participants objected to this and rightfully so. Many strongly suspected the intention to gain control over another piece of the industry.
The Future
The future of email sender verification has several possibilities. Some of which are Yahoo's "DomainKeys", Cisco's "IIM" (Identified Internet Mail), a mix of both of these referred to as "DKIM", the "Aspen Framework" (which incorporates second generation "Unified" SPF) and CSV (Client SMTP Verification). Here is a brief run down on these proposals.
Read Entire Article:
https://guardiandigital.com/cloud-email-security
LinuxSecurity.com Feature Extras:
Getting to Know Linux Security: File Permissions - Welcome to the first tutorial in the 'Getting to Know Linux Security' series. The topic explored is Linux file permissions. It offers an easy to follow explanation of how to read permissions, and how to set them using chmod. This guide is intended for users new to Linux security, therefore very simple. If the feedback is good, I'll consider creating more complex guides for advanced users. Please let us know what you think and how these can be improved.
The Tao of Network Security Monitoring: Beyond Intrusion Detection - To be honest, this was one of the best books that I've read on network security. Others books often dive so deeply into technical discussions, they fail to provide any relevance to network engineers/administrators working in a corporate environment. Budgets, deadlines, and flexibility are issues that we must all address. The Tao of Network Security Monitoring is presented in such a way that all of these are still relevant.
Encrypting Shell Scripts - Do you have scripts that contain sensitive information like passwords and you pretty much depend on file permissions to keep it secure? If so, then that type of security is good provided you keep your system secure and some user doesn't have a "ps -ef" loop running in an attempt to capture that sensitive info (though some applications mask passwords in "ps" output).
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Thank you for reading the LinuxSecurity.com weekly security newsletter. The purpose of this document is to provide our readers with a quick summary of each week's most relevant Linux security headline.
Fedora | ||
Fedora Core 4 Update: elinks-0.10.3-3.1 | ||
16th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-elinks-0103-31-10-19-00-119321 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: mikmod-3.1.6-35.FC4 | ||
16th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-mikmod-316-35fc4-10-19-00-119322 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: tcpdump-3.8.2-13.FC4 | ||
16th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-tcpdump-382-13fc4-10-20-00-119323 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: parted-1.6.22-3.FC4 | ||
16th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-parted-1622-3fc4-11-09-00-119324 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: system-config-securitylevel-1.5.8.1-1 | ||
16th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-system-config-securitylevel-1581-1-11-10-00-119325 |
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Fedora Core 3 Update: checkpolicy-1.17.5-1.2 | ||
16th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-checkpolicy-1175-12-13-59-00-119327 |
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Fedora Core 3 Update: selinux-policy-targeted-1.17.30-3.9 | ||
16th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-selinux-policy-targeted-11730-39-13-59-00-119328 |
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Fedora Core 3 Update: spamassassin-3.0.4-1.fc3 | ||
16th, June, 2005
Important update for a Denial of Service vulnerability, plus more bug fixes from upstream. More details available at: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/SPAMASSASSIN/NextRelease advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-spamassassin-304-1fc3-17-58-00-119332 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: spamassassin-3.0.4-1.fc4 | ||
16th, June, 2005
Important update for a Denial of Service vulnerability, plus more bug fixes from upstream. More details available at: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/SPAMASSASSIN/NextRelease advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-spamassassin-304-1fc4-17-59-00-119333 |
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Fedora Core 3 Update: gaim-1.3.1-0.fc3 | ||
16th, June, 2005
More bug and denial of service fixes. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-gaim-131-0fc3-17-59-00-119334 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: gaim-1.3.1-0.fc4 | ||
16th, June, 2005
More bug and denial of service fixes. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-gaim-131-0fc4-18-00-00-119335 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: ruby-1.8.2-7.fc4.1 | ||
16th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-ruby-182-7fc41-23-22-00-119338 |
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Fedora Core 3 Update: ruby-1.8.2-1.fc3.2 | ||
16th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-ruby-182-1fc32-23-22-00-119339 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: arts-1.4.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-arts-141-0fc41-12-38-00-119342 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kdelibs-3.4.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kdelibs-341-0fc41-12-38-00-119343 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kdebase-3.4.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kdebase-341-0fc41-12-39-00-119344 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kdemultimedia-3.4.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kdemultimedia-341-0fc41-12-44-00-119345 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kdesdk-3.4.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kdesdk-341-0fc41-12-44-00-119346 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kdeaccessibility-3.4.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kdeaccessibility-341-0fc41-12-45-00-119347 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kdeaddons-3.4.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kdeaddons-341-0fc41-12-46-00-119348 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kdeartwork-3.4.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kdeartwork-341-0fc41-12-46-00-119349 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kdebindings-3.4.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kdebindings-341-0fc41-12-47-00-119350 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kdeedu-3.4.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kdeedu-341-0fc41-12-48-00-119351 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kdegames-3.4.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kdegames-341-0fc41-12-48-00-119352 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kdegraphics-3.4.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kdegraphics-341-0fc41-12-55-00-119353 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kdenetwork-3.4.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kdenetwork-341-0fc41-12-56-00-119354 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kdepim-3.4.1-0.fc4.2 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kdepim-341-0fc42-12-56-00-119355 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kdeutils-3.4.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kdeutils-341-0fc41-12-57-00-119356 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kdevelop-3.2.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kdevelop-321-0fc41-12-58-00-119357 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kdewebdev-3.4.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kdewebdev-341-0fc41-12-59-00-119358 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kdeadmin-3.4.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kdeadmin-341-0fc41-12-59-00-119359 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: kde-i18n-3.4.1-0.fc4.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-kde-i18n-341-0fc41-13-00-00-119360 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: util-linux-2.12p-9.5 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-util-linux-212p-95-20-20-00-119363 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: sudo-1.6.8p8-2.1 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-sudo-168p8-21-20-20-00-119364 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: gawk-3.1.4-5.2 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-gawk-314-52-20-21-00-119365 |
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Fedora Core 3 Update: util-linux-2.12a-24.3 | ||
17th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-util-linux-212a-243-20-22-00-119366 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: mc-4.6.1a-0.10.FC4 | ||
20th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-mc-461a-010fc4-10-27-00-119373 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: pilot-link-0.12.0-0.pre3.0.fc4.1 | ||
20th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-pilot-link-0120-0pre30fc41-14-20-00-119374 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: selinux-policy-targeted-1.23.18-12 | ||
20th, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-selinux-policy-targeted-12318-12-14-21-00-119375 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: alsa-lib-1.0.9rf-2.FC4 | ||
21st, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-alsa-lib-109rf-2fc4-02-18-00-119377 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: alsa-utils-1.0.9rf-2.FC4 | ||
21st, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-alsa-utils-109rf-2fc4-02-18-00-119378 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: system-config-soundcard-1.2.12-2 | ||
21st, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-system-config-soundcard-1212-2-02-19-00-119379 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: jpilot-0.99.8-0.pre9.fc4.1 | ||
21st, June, 2005
This is new upstream version which is compatible with new fc4 pilot-link version. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-jpilot-0998-0pre9fc41-03-02-00-119380 |
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Fedora Core 3 Update: ruby-1.8.2-1.fc3.3 | ||
21st, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-ruby-182-1fc33-13-07-00-119385 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: ruby-1.8.2-7.fc4.2 | ||
21st, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-ruby-182-7fc42-13-08-00-119386 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: ImageMagick-6.2.2.0-3.fc4.0 | ||
21st, June, 2005
The package version numbers of the ImageMagick package could cause upgrades from FC3 to FC4 to miss the newer ImageMagick package in FC4. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-imagemagick-6220-3fc40-14-23-00-119387 |
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Fedora Core 3 Update: sudo-1.6.7p5-30.3 | ||
21st, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-3-update-sudo-167p5-303-14-24-00-119388 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: sudo-1.6.8p8-2.2 | ||
21st, June, 2005
Updated package. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-sudo-168p8-22-14-25-00-119389 |
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Fedora Core 4 Update: hwdata-0.158.1-1 | ||
22nd, June, 2005
This update adds the hisax modules to the hotplug blacklist; this ensures they aren't loaded at boot, so that the ISDN script can load them. This works around the problems created by the ISDN module configuration parameters being written to /etc/sysconfig/isdncard instead of /etc/modprobe.conf. advisories/fedora/fedora-core-4-update-hwdata-01581-1-14-19-00-119399 |
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Gentoo | ||
Gentoo: webapp-config Insecure temporary file handling | ||
17th, June, 2005
The webapp-config utility insecurely creates temporary files in a world writable directory, potentially allowing the execution of arbitrary commands. |
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Gentoo: Sun and Blackdown Java Applet privilege escalation | ||
19th, June, 2005
Sun's and Blackdown's JDK or JRE may allow untrusted applets to elevate their privileges. |
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Gentoo: PeerCast Format string vulnerability | ||
19th, June, 2005
PeerCast suffers from a format string vulnerability that could allow arbitrary code execution. |
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Gentoo: cpio Directory traversal vulnerability | ||
19th, June, 2005
cpio contains a flaw which may allow a specially crafted cpio archive to extract files to an arbitrary directory. |
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Gentoo: SpamAssassin 3, Vipul's Razor Denial of Service vulnerability | ||
21st, June, 2005
SpamAssassin and Vipul's Razor are vulnerable to a Denial of Service attack when handling certain malformed messages. |
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Gentoo: Tor Information disclosure | ||
21st, June, 2005
A flaw in Tor may allow the disclosure of arbitrary memory portions. |
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Gentoo: SquirrelMail Several XSS vulnerabilities | ||
21st, June, 2005
Squirrelmail is vulnerable to several cross-site scripting vulnerabilities which could lead to a compromise of webmail accounts. |
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Gentoo: Cacti Several vulnerabilities | ||
22nd, June, 2005
Cacti is vulnerable to several SQL injection and file inclusion vulnerabilities. |
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Gentoo: Trac File upload vulnerability | ||
22nd, June, 2005
Trac may allow remote attackers to upload files, possibly leading to the execution of arbitrary code. |
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Gentoo: sudo Arbitrary command execution | ||
23rd, June, 2005
A vulnerability in sudo may allow local users to elevate privileges. |
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Red Hat | ||
RedHat: Low: bzip2 security update | ||
16th, June, 2005
Updated bzip2 packages that fix multiple issues are now available. This update has been rated as having low security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-low-bzip2-security-update-RHSA-2005-474-01 |
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RedHat: Moderate: mc security update | ||
16th, June, 2005
Updated mc packages that fix several security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1. This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-moderate-mc-security-update-66451 |
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RedHat: Moderate: gaim security update | ||
16th, June, 2005
An updated gaim package that fixes two denial of service issues is now available. This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team. advisories/red-hat/redhat-moderate-gaim-security-update-RHSA-2005-518-01 |
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