SpamAssassin 2010 Bug

SEWilco writes "You might want to check your spam folder, as SpamAssassin has a rule which is tending to mark email sent in 2010 as spam. There is some discussion in a bug report. The SpamAssassin Wiki FH_DATE_PAST_20XX page doesn't have discussion, but it was updated today with a different date rule."

Comments

Re:Millenium bug, how I have missed thee

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Given what memory cost in 1970, I suspect that using 64-bit time would have been an expensive decision.

A lot of gross little hacks look like (and are) great ideas when hardware costs a fortune and you don't yet know how persistent legacy stuff is going to be.

Re:crapola

[ngc5194]

"Is there a way to work around this that doesn't involve root access?"

Yes, but it isn't a good way. Check your scores file for the scores associated with the FH_DATE_PAST_20XX. This indicates the number of points added to the spam score of every message that fails this test. Basically, increase your spam threshold by this amount until you can apply this patch.

Good for a quick-n-dirty fix.

Re:crapola

[karnal]

I think you missed the "My provider runs spamassassin" part of the parent post.

Nice....

[kramer]

[url]https://issues.apache.org/SpamAssassin/show_bug.cgi?id=5852[/url]

Noticed 14 months ago. Fixed 5 months ago. Released today.

I almost missed some important mail!

[darthwader]

"You might want to check your spam folder, as SpamAssassin has a rule ...

Thanks for the heads-up. There was a very important e-mail from the Internet Lottery people telling me my e-mail address had been picked as the winner of the EUR 20,000 prize. All I have to do is send them $200 by Western Union to cover the processing fees. And to think I almost missed it!

It's terrible that SpamAssassin flags such important messages as spam.

Note from the VP, Apache SpamAssassin

[doshea]

Clearly we dropped the ball on this one. As far as I know it's our first big rule screw up in the project's 10 years. If you're going to screw up you might as well do it well.

I posted the following note to the Apache SpamAssassin website (http://spamassassin.apache.org/). Updates are available via sa-update, please run sa-update immediately. It's included in all versions of 3.2.x (the affected version of SpamAssassin). Alternatively zero the rule's score in your local.cf file if you have access to it. If you don't, increase your spam threshold by 3.6 points if your mail provider allows you to do that.

Y2K10 Rule Bug - Update Your Rules Now!

2010-01-01:

Versions of the FH_DATE_PAST_20XX rule released with versions of Apache SpamAssassin 3.2.0 thru 3.2.5 will trigger on most mail with a Date header that includes the year 2010 or later. The rule will add a score of up to 3.6 towards the spam classification of all email. You should take corrective action immediately; there are two easy ways to correct the problem:

* If your system is configured to use sa-update run sa-update now. An update is available that will correct the rule. No further action is necessary (other than restarting spamd or any service that uses SpamAssassin directly).

* Add "score FH_DATE_PAST_20XX 0" without the quotes to the end of your local.cf file to disable the rule.

If you require help updating your rules to correct this issue you are encouraged to ask for assistance on the Apache SpamAssassin Users' list. Users' mailing list info is here.

On behalf of the Apache SpamAssassin project I apologize for this error and the grief it may have caused you.

Regards,

Daryl C. W. O'Shea

VP, Apache SpamAssassin