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Ask Slashdot: Should I Publish My Collection of Email Spamming IP Addresses?

Posted by timothy on from the for-all-the-good-it'll-do-ya dept.

An anonymous reader writes: I have, for a while now, been collecting IP addresses from which email spam has been sent to, or attempted to be relayed through, my email server. I was wondering if I should publish them, so that others can adopt whatever steps are necessary to protect their email servers from that vermin. However, I am facing ethical issues here. What if the addresses are simply spoofed, and therefore branding them as spamming addresses might cause harm to innocent parties? What if, after having been co-opted by spammers, they are now used legitimately? I wonder if there's a market for all the thousands of webmail addresses that send Slashdot nothing but spam.

6 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. What sort of a question is this? by ma++i+ude · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As is, nobody cares about your list. Use an adaptive blacklist and join Project Honey Pot.

    --
    You can't shut us down! The Internet is about the free exchange and sale of other people's ideas!
  2. Publish your own, or join in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are hundreds of blacklists out there: https://mxtoolbox.com/problem/blacklist/

  3. Go talk to Spamhaus by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, really, go talk to them... they've been doing just that as a community for a lot longer, and probably have nearly all the stuff on your list and then some.

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  4. How often are the addresses re-validated? by QuietLagoon · · Score: 4, Insightful
    If you publish a list, you then obligate yourself to keep that list up-to-date, not only by adding new addresses, but also by removing old addresses that no longer spam.

    .
    Many, many spamming IP addresses are hijacked hosts that are cleaned up eventually. Are you planning to ban those IP addresses permanently?

    So I ask the question, how frequently do you plan top re-validate the addresses that are on your list as still spamming?

  5. Please no by silas_moeckel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you think you can spoof a TCP connection you have no business running a RBL.

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    No sir I dont like it.
  6. Re:Someones new to the internet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Someone who doesn't know the existence of official blacklists really shouldn't be running a mail server.