Step one.  Which DSPAM is right for you?

The DSPAM project makes dspam part of the LDA (Local Delivery Agent).
Pydspam puts dspam into the MTA (Mail Transfer Agent - sendmail with pymilter).

The advantage of doing dspam in the LDA is that any aliasing has already been
resolved.  You need only configure mailboxes.

The advantage of doing dspam in the MTA is it can screen an entire 
company as a gateway with multiple domains.  Unfortunately, this
means you have to tell it about all the aliases that comprise each
account.  (Also, pydspam is still uses dspam-2.6.5.2 - the Dspam API
has changed for newer versions.)

If the LDA is right for you, you'll want to use the official Dspam 
package.  http://www.nuclearelephant.com/projects/dspam/

If the MTA approach is what you want, then pydspam is what you want.

In either case, you will still want pymilter to block forgeries, Windows 
executables, etc.

So, lets assume you want to install pymilter, and may or may not
wish to install pydspam.

	Step two.  Obtaining RPMS.

For basic pymilter you'll need:

python-2.4
milter-0.8.2	(the RH9 rpm should work on Fedora Core - let me know)
sendmail-8.13.x	(with milter support enabled)

and for SPF you'll need:

pydns-2.3.0-2.4

and for SRS you'll need:

pysrs-0.30.9-1.py24

I'm pretty sure you will want to have SPF and SRS available.

	Step three.  Activate basic milter.

Activate the basic milter by editing /etc/mail/sendmail.mc and adding:

INPUT_MAIL_FILTER(`pythonfilter', `S=local:/var/run/milter/pythonsock, F=T, T=C:5m;S:20s;R:5m;E:5m')

You can then "make sendmail.cf" and restart sendmail.

Tail /var/log/milter/milter.log while SMTP clients connect to your
sendmail instance.  This should show you what the milter is doing.

By default, milter-0.8.2 rejects on SPF fail, except for listed domains
(that are known to be broken).  Some admins don't like that, and 0.8.3 will use
the /etc/mail/access database to configure SPF responses.  For now,
if you don't like SPF, you can disable spf by replacing "import spf"
with "spf = None" around line 285 in /var/log/milter/bms.py.

	Step four.  Tweaking the basic config.

Most pymilter configuration is in /etc/mail/pymilter.cfg.

By default, milter scans attachments for executable extensions.  You can
turn this off by setting banned_exts to the empty list.  There are options
to scan ZIP attachments and rfc822 attachments.  When it finds a banned
file type, milter saves the original message in /var/log/milter/save,
and replaces the attachment with a plain text warning message.

Configure hello_blacklist with your own helo name and domains - which
you know cannot legitimately be used by external MTAs.

Configure trusted_relay with your secondary MX servers, if any.  These
should also run pymilter with similar policies.  (But this isn't
needed for initial testing.)

Configure internal_connect with subnets of your internal SMTP clients.
Internal connections skip SPF testing and other policies.

Configure internal_domains with domains used by your internal SMTP clients.
If they attempt to use any other domain, the attempt is blocked and the
client is logged as a "zombie".  Conversely, any attempt by an external
MTA to use one of your internal domains is treated as a forgery and
blocked (a simplified form of local SPF).

Adjust porn_words and spam_words - these block emails with a Subject
containing the listed strings.  They can be empty to disable Subject
string blocking.

	Advanced SPF configuration.

The sendmail access file, or another readonly database with that
format, can be used for detail spf policy.  SPF access policy
record are tagged with "SPF-{Result}:".  Results are
Pass, Neutral, Softfail, Fail, PermError.  Currently supported
policy keywords are OK, CBV, REJECT.  Currently, TempError always
results in TEMPFAIL.

The default policies are set in pymilter.cfg.  The defaults
if none of the config options are set are as follows:

SPF-Fail:	REJECT
SPF-Softfail:	CBV
SPF-Neutral:	OK
SPF-PermError:	REJECT
SPF-Pass:	OK

The tag may be followed by a specific domain.  For instance, to
require a Pass from aol.com:

SPF-Neutral:aol.com	REJECT
SPF-Softfail:aol.com	REJECT

The CBV policy requires a valid HELO name.  If the EHLO name is 
RFC2822 compliant, then a DSN is sent to the alleged sender.  The 
template for the DSN is selected according to the SPF result:

Fail:		softfail.txt
SoftFail:	softfail.txt
Neutral:	neutral.txt
PermError:	permerror.txt
None:		strike3.txt

An SPF-Pass is always accepted by the milter.  Domains can be blacklisted 
via sendmail in the access file or via a RHS DNS blacklist.

	To be continued.

Forthcoming topics:

SRS config


pydspam config
wiretap config