L2.APEWS.ORG False Positive #18

Here is the full email header for a newsletter that was found in the junk folder but that the recipient subscribed to;

Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:01: [7552:543] Accepting SMTP connection from [89.31.209.89]
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:01: [7552:543] --> 220 xxx.xxx.xxx ESMTP MDaemon 6.7.9; Thu, 13 Dec 2012 03:14:01 -0100
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:01: [7552:543] <-- HELO newsletter.gan.co.za
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:01: [7552:543] --> 250 xxx.xxx.xxx Hello newsletter.gan.co.za, pleased to meet you
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:01: [7552:543] <-- MAIL FROM:<bounce-00000000-00000000@ newsletter.gan.co.za>
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:01: [7552:543] Spam Blocker A-record resolution of [89.209.31.89.L2.APEWS.ORG] in progress (DNS Server: 192.168.1.2)...
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:01: [7552:543] Spam Blocker D=89.209.31.89.L2.APEWS.ORG TTL=(35) A=[127.0.0.2]
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:01: [7552:543] L2.APEWS.ORG LISTED
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:01: [7552:543] Message will be accepted and X-RBL-Warning: header will be inserted.
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:01: [7552:543] --> 250 <bounce-00000000-00000000@ newsletter.gan.co.za>, Sender ok
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:01: [7552:543] <-- RCPT TO:<xxx@ xxx.xxx>
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:01: [7552:543] --> 250 <xxx@ xxx.xxx>, Recipient ok
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:02: [7552:543] <-- DATA
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:02: [7552:543] --> 354 Enter mail, end with <CRLF>.<CRLF>
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:03: [7552:543] --> 250 Ok, message saved <Message-ID: SUPPORT-00000000-00000000-2012.12.13-00.00.00--xxx#xxx.xxx@ newsletter.gan.co.za>
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:03: [7552:543] <-- RSET
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:03: [7552:543] Shuffling message(s) into proper queue(s)
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:03: [7552:543] Message received from newsletter.gan.co.za [89.31.209.89] <bounce-00000000-00000000@ newsletter.gan.co.za> with SMTP for <xxx@ xxx.xxx> [Size 55311] {j:\localq\0000231504.msg}
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:03: [7552:543] SMTP session successful, 55322 bytes transferred.
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:03: [7552:543] --> 250 RSET? Well, ok.
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:08: [7552:543] <-- QUIT
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:08: [7552:543] --> 221 See ya in cyberspace
Thu 2012-12-13 03:14:08: [7552:543] SMTP session successful, 55328 bytes transferred.

L2.APEWS.ORG False Positive #17

Here is a newsletter that our user subscribed to but that ended up in the spam folder. User confirmed consent to receive this so the full email header is provided here for APEWS.org Admins to see and correct if they want to;

Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:27: [180:366] Accepting SMTP connection from [67.222.55.9]
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:27: [180:366] Looking up PTR record for 67.222.55.9 (9.55.222.67.IN-ADDR.ARPA)
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:28: [180:366] D=9.55.222.67.IN-ADDR.ARPA TTL=(1440) PTR=[oproxy7-pub.bluehost.com]
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:28: [180:366] Gathering A-records for PTR hosts
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] D=oproxy7-pub.bluehost.com TTL=(240) A=[67.222.55.9]
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] --> 220 xxx.xxx.xxx ESMTP ; Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:55:27 -0100
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] <-- HELO oproxy7-pub.bluehost.com
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] Performing reverse lookup on oproxy7-pub.bluehost.com (looking for 67.222.55.9)
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] D=oproxy7-pub.bluehost.com TTL=(239) A=[67.222.55.9]
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] --> 250 xxx.xxx.xxx Hello oproxy7-pub.bluehost.com, pleased to meet you
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] <-- MAIL FROM:<xxx@ box731.bluehost.com>
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] Performing reverse lookup on box731.bluehost.com (looking for 67.222.55.9)
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] D=box731.bluehost.com TTL=(240) A=[66.147.244.231]
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] Spam Blocker A-record resolution of [9.55.222.67.L2.APEWS.ORG] in progress...
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] Spam Blocker D=9.55.222.67.L2.APEWS.ORG TTL=(35) A=[127.0.0.2]
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] L2.APEWS.ORG LISTED
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] --> 250 <xxx@ box731.bluehost.com>, Sender ok
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] <-- RCPT TO:<xxx@ xxx.xxx>
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] 'Recipient unknown' given to divert future spam
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] --> 550 <xxx@ xxx.xxx>, Recipient unknown
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] <-- QUIT
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] --> 221 See ya in cyberspace
Wed 2012-09-26 11:55:29: [180:366] SMTP session successful, 124 bytes transferred.

Note for other posters here, we operate email servers that receive emails for our users, one has complained to us about this false positive, we are publishing it.

Still no False Positives

There simply haven't been any false positives to write about. A lot of people are requesting delisting and removal from Apews.org here but they are all email senders whereas this blog is aimed at receivers of email that use the apews.org data for filtering or blocking.

Anyone wanting a removal would do better to publish the email header from a receiver as we have done.

These days it's all about reputation and permission, even new allocations to existing ISPs that have a bad rep can expect to remain listed. Folks have had enough of snowshoe spamming out of newly acquired IP blocks.

IPv4 address space is nearly all allocated and most of it has been assessed by the apews.org team to great effect. Consistently trapping 95% or more of spam sent with less then 0.5% false positives is a great statistic so there can't be much wrong with the apews.org data. We encourage email receivers to publish errors here, prove the error with the full email headers, munge them for privacy if you want to. That way there is a public record of the error in your view, shame apews.org into fixing that error.

We can see that soon there will be no more IPv4 addresses for spammers to pollute, old existing allocations will have to be cleaned up in order to regain a good rep or stay listed. No residential IP address space needs to send email so outbound connections to port TCP 25 should be disallowed at the ISP firewall and it's so easy to do.

Right now there needs to be a 2 tier tariff for IP addresses, the price for apews.org listed IP address space should be dirt cheap to rent or even free since there is ad revenue from the http traffic. That is the usual business model, give free access with commercials which cover the costs incurred. ISPs are running all their user traffic through http proxy servers for ad tracking etc, try blocking their http server addresses at your firewall and you will lose your internet connection.

Clean IP address space that never gets listed by blacklists is obviously run professionally and volume email senders do so with the permission of the recipient. Their IP address space should command a premium in value and they deserve to earn more out of their email sending services e.g. providing smart hosts for clients. They won't take dirty email databases though :-) If you're really serious about inboxing then pay for a service from one of these guys.

Nice to see more email servers using the l2.apews.org for blocking as published on NANAE usenet newsgroup recently. Spam is no longer problem. We've had a lot of extra spare time for server maintenance and monitoring the whitelists, user complaints have stopped and the techs are up to date. In our server logs we've seen subscriptions to newsletter being honored, not bounced by using the apews dataset, what more can I say. Once we see the subscription process followed by an acceptance email we whitelist that enews server.

Some analysis of Apews data

This has taken a while since there is a lot of it! By comparing our own records with listings that exist in the Apews dataset we have been able to conclude the following;

Single IP addresses that have made a direct connection to our servers in order to send spam email have also been found in C-1, C-2, C-12, C-35C-52, C-53, C-66, C-67, C-73 and C-630.

Mostly /24 listings can mostly be found in C-3, C-11, C-13, C-21, C-36, C-41, C-130, C-1375 and C-1402. These /24 generally include the above single IP addresses suggesting that they are maybe escalations.

Single IP addresses that have done port scanning, SSH probes, attempted PHP or SQL injection, password guessing, hosting landing pages that contain virus, trojan etc have only been found in C-16 and C-86.

CIDR that contain residential customers, typically have no reverse DNS and generic host names (as noted in some records by Apews) have been found in C-22, C-1010 and C-1403. These are often referred to as dynamic since they can be large DHCP pools too. These CIDR would not be RFC compliant for the sending of emails.

Other CIDR, usually larger than /24, can be found in C-14, C-15, C-17, C-18, C-20, C-79, C-258 and C-813.

L2.APEWS.ORG False Positive #16

A /19 that was listed back in April caught this recently, definitely a user subscribed newsletter;

Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] Accepting SMTP connection from [109.123.106.210]
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] Looking up PTR record for 109.123.106.210 (210.106.123.109.IN-ADDR.ARPA)
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] D=210.106.123.109.IN-ADDR.ARPA TTL=(1439) PTR=[srv-eight.clevercherry.net]
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] Gathering A-records for PTR hosts
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] D=srv-eight.clevercherry.net TTL=(240) A=[109.123.106.210]
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] --> 220 xxx.xxx.xxx ESMTP MDaemon 6.7.9; Wed, 06 Jun 2012 08:55:21 -0100
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] <-- EHLO srv-eight.clevercherry.net
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] Performing reverse lookup on srv-eight.clevercherry.net (looking for 109.123.106.210)
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] D=srv-eight.clevercherry.net TTL=(240) A=[109.123.106.210]
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] --> 250-xxx.xxx.xxx Hello srv-eight.clevercherry.net, pleased to meet you
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] --> 250-ETRN
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] --> 250-AUTH=LOGIN
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] --> 250-AUTH LOGIN CRAM-MD5
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] --> 250-8BITMIME
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] --> 250 SIZE 0
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] <-- MAIL FROM:<xxx @ xxx.xxx> SIZE=16289
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] Performing reverse lookup on xxx.clevercherry.com (looking for 109.123.106.210)
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] D=xxx.clevercherry.com TTL=(240) A=[109.123.106.210]
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] Spam Blocker A-record resolution of [210.106.123.109.L2.APEWS.ORG] in progress (DNS Server: 192.168.1.2)...
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] Spam Blocker D=210.106.123.109.L2.APEWS.ORG TTL=(35) A=[127.0.0.2]
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] L2.APEWS.ORG LISTED
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] Message will be accepted and X-RBL-Warning: header will be inserted.
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] --> 250 <xxx @ xxx.xxx>, Sender ok
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] <-- RCPT TO:<xxx @ xxx.xxx>
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] --> 250 <xxx @ xxx.xxx>, Recipient ok
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] <-- DATA
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] --> 354 Enter mail, end with <CRLF>.<CRLF>
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] --> 250 Ok, message saved <Message-ID: E1ScCvc-0005YX-27@srv-eight.clevercherry.net>
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] <-- QUIT
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] --> 221 See ya in cyberspace
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] SMTP session successful, 15603 bytes transferred.
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] Shuffling message(s) into proper queue(s)
Wed 2012-06-06 08:55:21: [140:457] Message received from srv-eight.clevercherry.net [109.123.106.210] <xxx @ xxx.xxx> with SMTP for <xxx @ xxx.xxx> [Size 10502] {j:\localq\6443522.msg}

DNS Blacklist Editor

I came across a useful tool (freeware) at http://www.jhsoft.com/ which is for editing a DNS blacklist. By using RSYNC we got a copy of the APEWS dataset and opened it up using the above tool, great. For some people it might be easier to edit APEWS data for their own purposes in order to reduce false positives or blacklist more IPv4 than APEWS currently covers. There are reports of L2.APEWS.ORG dataset catching between 95% and 99% of all spam so that shouldn't take much editing to tailor it for any one system.

Some DNS blacklist databases separate the type of blacklisting by using a code number in the dns record of the listed IP address e.g. an email spam sender IP might get a DNSBL response of 127.0.0.3, a spam relay IP could show as 127.0.0.4 but a trojan hosting website IP come back with 127.0.0.5. Those different 127.0.0.* IP addresses can be used for filtering email or other traffic by e.g. using the "3" and "4" for an inbound email stream but the "5" for outbound HTTP traffic i.e. preventing users getting to the trojan host. However it looks like APEWS dataset returns just one reply to queries "L2.APEWS.ORG TTL=(35) A=[127.0.0.2]".

Looking through the listings and reviewing the comments that used to be written in the earlier records, we can see some groups of "Cases" that may be useful to some people if C number can be obtained. It should even be possible to extract the relevant data to build smaller datasets specific to a need. The groups of Cases and their text descriptors etc will be published shortly.

L2.APEWS.ORG False Positive #15

This one is a newsletter and although the listing was showing as /24, it has already been corrected at the time of writing. Posting the error here for archive purposes;

Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:58: [448:627] Accepting SMTP connection from [24.38.56.81]
Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:58: [448:627] Looking up PTR record for 24.38.56.81 (81.56.38.24.IN-ADDR.ARPA)
Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:59: [448:627] D=81.56.38.24.IN-ADDR.ARPA TTL=(1439) PTR=[mailb.info.humanevents.com]
Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:59: [448:627] Gathering A-records for PTR hosts
Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:59: [448:627] D=mailb.info.humanevents.com TTL=(1440) A=[24.38.56.81]
Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:59: [448:627] --> 220 xxx.xxx.xxx ESMTP MDaemon 6.7.9; Wed, 04 Apr 2012 08:50:59 -0500
Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:59: [448:627] <-- EHLO mailb.info.humanevents.com
Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:59: [448:627] Performing reverse lookup on mailb.info.humanevents.com (looking for 24.38.56.81)
Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:59: [448:627] D=mailb.info.humanevents.com TTL=(1440) A=[24.38.56.81]
Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:59: [448:627] --> 250-xxx.xxx.xxx Hello mailb.info.humanevents.com, pleased to meet you
Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:59: [448:627] --> 250-ETRN
Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:59: [448:627] --> 250-AUTH=LOGIN
Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:59: [448:627] --> 250-AUTH LOGIN CRAM-MD5
Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:59: [448:627] --> 250-8BITMIME
Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:59: [448:627] --> 250 SIZE 0
Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:59: [448:627] <-- MAIL FROM: BODY=8BITMIME
Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:59: [448:627] Performing reverse lookup on info.humanevents.com (looking for 24.38.56.81)
Wed 2012-04-03 07:50:59: [448:627] D=info.humanevents.com TTL=(1440) A=[74.201.50.22]
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:00: [448:627] P=030 D=info.humanevents.com TTL=(1439) MX=[mx2.info.humanevents.com] {74.201.50.6}
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:00: [448:627] P=010 D=info.humanevents.com TTL=(1439) MX=[mx1.info.humanevents.com] {74.201.50.4}
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:00: [448:627] Spam Blocker A-record resolution of [81.56.38.24.L2.APEWS.ORG] in progress (DNS Server: 192.168.1.2)...
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:00: [448:627] Spam Blocker D=81.56.38.24.L2.APEWS.ORG TTL=(35) A=[127.0.0.2]
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:00: [448:627] L2.APEWS.ORG LISTED
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:00: [448:627] Message will be accepted and X-RBL-Warning: header will be inserted.
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:00: [448:627] --> 250 , Sender ok
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:00: [448:627] <-- RCPT TO:
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:00: [448:627] --> 250 , Recipient ok
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:00: [448:627] <-- DATA
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:00: [448:627] --> 354 Enter mail, end with .
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:01: [448:627] --> 250 Ok, message saved
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:01: [448:627] <-- QUIT
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:01: [448:627] --> 221 See ya in cyberspace
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:01: [448:627] SMTP session successful, 34147 bytes transferred.
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:01: [448:627] Shuffling message(s) into proper queue(s)
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:01: [448:627] Message received from mailb.info.humanevents.com [24.38.56.81] with SMTP for [Size 3412] {j:\localq\0000000.msg}
Wed 2012-04-03 07:51:01: ----------

The sending server itself was not listed but the small group listing affected it causing a false positive for us. Resolved already.

L2.APEWS.ORG False Positive #14

This one came in over the weekend but has already been delisted by the APEWS Administrators. Just posting the email here for archive etc;

Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:29: [520:540] Accepting SMTP connection from [178.33.45.10]
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:29: [520:540] Looking up PTR record for 178.33.45.10 (10.45.33.178.IN-ADDR.ARPA)
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:30: [520:540] D=10.45.33.178.IN-ADDR.ARPA TTL=(1440) PTR=[18.mo5.mail-out.ovh.net]
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:30: [520:540] Gathering A-records for PTR hosts
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:30: [520:540] D=18.mo5.mail-out.ovh.net TTL=(1440) A=[178.33.45.10]
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:30: [520:540] --> 220 xxx.xxx.xxx ESMTP MDaemon 6.7.9; Sat, 30 Mar 2012 22:30:30 -0500
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:30: [520:540] <-- EHLO mo5.mail-out.ovh.net
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:30: [520:540] Performing reverse lookup on mo5.mail-out.ovh.net (looking for 178.33.45.10)
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:31: [520:540] D=mo5.mail-out.ovh.net TTL=(1440) A=[178.32.228.5]
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:31: [520:540] --> 250-xxx.xxx.xxx Hello 18.mo5.mail-out.ovh.net (may be forged), pleased to meet you
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:31: [520:540] --> 250-ETRN
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:31: [520:540] --> 250-AUTH=LOGIN
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:31: [520:540] --> 250-AUTH LOGIN CRAM-MD5
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:31: [520:540] --> 250-8BITMIME
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:31: [520:540] --> 250 SIZE 0
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:31: [520:540] <-- MAIL FROM: SIZE=6970
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:31: [520:540] Performing reverse lookup on yyy.yyy (looking for 178.33.45.10)
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:32: [520:540] D=yyy.yyy TTL=(1439) A=[213.186.33.5]
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:32: [520:540] P=100 D=webster.fr TTL=(1440) MX=[mxb.ovh.net]
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:32: [520:540] P=001 D=webster.fr TTL=(1440) MX=[mx0.ovh.net] {213.186.33.32}
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:33: [520:540] D=mxb.ovh.net TTL=(1440) A=[213.186.39.173]
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:33: [520:540] Spam Blocker A-record resolution of [10.45.33.178.L2.APEWS.ORG] in progress (DNS Server: 192.168.1.2)...
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:33: [520:540] Spam Blocker D=10.45.33.178.L2.APEWS.ORG TTL=(35) A=[127.0.0.2]
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:33: [520:540] L2.APEWS.ORG LISTED
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:33: [520:540] Message will be accepted and X-RBL-Warning: header will be inserted.
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:33: [520:540] --> 250 , Sender ok
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:33: [520:540] <-- RCPT TO:
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:33: [520:540] --> 250 , Recipient ok
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:33: [520:540] <-- DATA
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:33: [520:540] --> 354 Enter mail, end with .
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:33: [520:540] --> 250 Ok, message saved
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:34: [520:540] <-- QUIT
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:34: [520:540] --> 221 See ya in cyberspace
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:34: [520:540] SMTP session successful, 7307 bytes transferred.
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:34: [520:540] Shuffling message(s) into proper queue(s)
Sat 2012-03-31 12:30:34: [520:540] Message received from mo5.mail-out.ovh.net [178.33.45.10] with SMTP for [Size 796] {j:\localq\md00000000.msg}

OVH often have mail servers in the top 100 spam sources so no surprise that it was listed.

L2.APEWS.ORG False Positive #13

Typical eh, spoke too soon! Got a user claiming the following shouldn't have been in his junk folder and on further checking we find the IP address to be that of a website offering a newsletter. CIDR seems OK too, here is the email header;

Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:37: [7708:766] Accepting SMTP connection from [71.19.224.98]
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:37: [7708:766] Looking up PTR record for 71.19.224.98 (98.224.19.71.IN-ADDR.ARPA)
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:37: [7708:766] D=98.224.19.71.IN-ADDR.ARPA TTL=(59) PTR=[www3.tiltedpixel.com]
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:37: [7708:766] Gathering A-records for PTR hosts
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] D=www3.tiltedpixel.com TTL=(240) A=[71.19.224.98]
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] --> 220 xxx.xxx.xxx ESMTP MDaemon 6.7.9; Sat, 16 Mar 2012 13:06:38 -0500
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] <-- EHLO www3.tiltedpixel.com
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] Performing reverse lookup on www3.tiltedpixel.com (looking for 71.19.224.98)
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] D=www3.tiltedpixel.com TTL=(240) A=[71.19.224.98]
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] --> 250-xxx.xxx.xxx Hello www3.tiltedpixel.com, pleased to meet you
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] --> 250-ETRN
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] --> 250-AUTH=LOGIN
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] --> 250-AUTH LOGIN CRAM-MD5
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] --> 250-8BITMIME
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] --> 250 SIZE 0
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] <-- MAIL FROM: SIZE=1656
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] Performing reverse lookup on www3.tiltedpixel.com (looking for 71.19.224.98)
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] D=www3.tiltedpixel.com TTL=(239) A=[71.19.224.98]
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] Spam Blocker A-record resolution of [98.224.19.71.L2.APEWS.ORG] in progress (DNS Server: 192.168.1.2)...
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] Spam Blocker D=98.224.19.71.L2.APEWS.ORG TTL=(35) A=[127.0.0.2]
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] L2.APEWS.ORG LISTED
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] Message will be accepted and X-RBL-Warning: header will be inserted.
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] --> 250 , Sender ok
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] <-- RCPT TO:
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] --> 250 , Recipient ok
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] <-- DATA
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] --> 354 Enter mail, end with .
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] --> 250 Ok, message saved
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] <-- QUIT
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] --> 221 See ya in cyberspace
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] SMTP session successful, 959 bytes transferred.
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] Shuffling message(s) into proper queue(s)
Sat 2012-03-17 03:26:38: [7708:766] Message received from www3.tiltedpixel.com [71.19.224.98] with SMTP for [Size 948] {j:\localq\md000000.msg}

Hopefully this one will get resolved shortly too.

Over 1 month without any FP

As you can see, the last false positive that we found was on Feb 9 and nothing since. We are the only ones to have published email headers in support of those false positives and each one has been delisted by the APEWS.org Administrators. The folks you have seen posting removal requests here are people that believe that their IP addresses should not be listed. We have seen that most, but not all, have been delisted.

The SPEWS listing model was to use whole CIDR blocks in order to pressure the ISP. It involved listing the entire block without regard for individual IP addresses and therefore there was collateral damage which was not favored by many. In order for that method to work it requires that users tolerate the collateral damage until such time as the ISP cleaned up the CIDR. That method was flawed because users, network Administrators etc, would rather tolerate spam than collateral damage.

After analysing the APEWS.org data over a period of time we can see that they are no longer following the same model as SPEWS. A few years ago when they first became a replacement for SPEWS, it could have been said that their method was very close if not the same. However, the fact that false positives have reduced dramatically and having probed the listed CIDR, APEWS.org seem to be cutting holes in CIDR for trusted senders and accordingly reducing collateral damage leaving a binary reputation index.

L2.APEWS.ORG False Positive #12

This is another from the travel and tourism newsletters, not sure yet if the listing is tied to the recent "infomercials". We will check the listing, and delisting if it occurs, in due course. The email header follows;

Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:29: [60:170] Accepting SMTP connection from [98.158.230.106]
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:29: [60:170] Looking up PTR record for 98.158.230.106 (106.230.158.98.IN-ADDR.ARPA)
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:30: [60:170] D=106.230.158.98.IN-ADDR.ARPA TTL=(59) PTR=[business-travelupdate.com]
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:30: [60:170] Gathering A-records for PTR hosts
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:30: [60:170] D=business-travelupdate.com TTL=(1440) A=[98.158.230.106]
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:30: [60:170] --> 220 xxx.xxx.xxx ESMTP MDaemon 6.7.9; Thur, 09 Feb 2012 16:47:30 -0500
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:30: [60:170] <-- EHLO business-travelupdate.com
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:30: [60:170] Performing reverse lookup on business-travelupdate.com (looking for 98.158.230.106)
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:30: [60:170] D=business-travelupdate.com TTL=(1440) A=[98.158.230.106]
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:30: [60:170] --> 250-xxx.xxx.xxx Hello business-travelupdate.com, pleased to meet you
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:30: [60:170] --> 250-ETRN
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:30: [60:170] --> 250-AUTH=LOGIN
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:30: [60:170] --> 250-AUTH LOGIN CRAM-MD5
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:30: [60:170] --> 250-8BITMIME
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:30: [60:170] --> 250 SIZE 0
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] <-- MAIL FROM:
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] Performing reverse lookup on business-travelupdate.com (looking for 98.158.230.106)
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] D=business-travelupdate.com TTL=(1439) A=[98.158.230.106]
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] Spam Blocker A-record resolution of [106.230.158.98.L2.APEWS.ORG] in progress (DNS Server: 192.168.1.2)...
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] Spam Blocker D=106.230.158.98.L2.APEWS.ORG TTL=(35) A=[127.0.0.2]
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] L2.APEWS.ORG LISTED
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] Message will be accepted and X-RBL-Warning: header will be inserted.
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] --> 250 , Sender ok
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] <-- RCPT TO:
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] --> 250 , Recipient ok
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] <-- DATA
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] --> 354 Enter mail, end with .
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] --> 250 Ok, message saved
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] <-- QUIT
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] --> 221 See ya in cyberspace
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] SMTP session successful, 1453 bytes transferred.
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] Shuffling message(s) into proper queue(s)
Thur 2012-02-09 16:47:31: [60:170] Message received from business-travelupdate.com [98.158.230.106] with SMTP for [Size 1419] {j:\localq\500019.msg}

You may see fluctuations in your statistics which could be due to the rotation between IP addresses that some newsletter senders do. Where one IP address is listed and another is not, the newsletter will alternate between the spam folder and the inbox unless you have the IP address in your whitelist and/or a filter to move mis-placed emails.

L2.APEWS.ORG False Positive #11

First one this month so far, not bad going. This is another of the sending servers for the travel industry, some of our users found this in their spam folder, incorrectly. It must have been recently listed, I haven't checked as yet what the listing says but as far as we are concerned here, the IP is a trusted source. Here is the email header;

Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:25: [6810:112] Accepting SMTP connection from [205.201.136.59]
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:25: [6810:112] Looking up PTR record for 205.201.136.59 (59.136.201.205.IN-ADDR.ARPA)
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:25: [6810:112] D=59.136.201.205.in-addr.arpa TTL=(1440) PTR=[mail59.us4.mandrillapp.com]
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:25: [6810:112] Gathering A-records for PTR hosts
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:25: [6810:112] D=mail59.us4.mandrillapp.com TTL=(1440) A=[205.201.136.59]
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:25: [6810:112] --> 220 xxx.xxx.xxx ESMTP MDaemon 6.7.9; Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:33:25 -0500
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:25: [6810:112] <-- EHLO mail59.us4.mandrillapp.com
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:25: [6810:112] Performing reverse lookup on mail59.us4.mandrillapp.com (looking for 205.201.136.59)
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] D=mail59.us4.mandrillapp.com TTL=(1440) A=[205.201.136.59]
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] --> 250-xxx.xxx.xxx Hello mail59.us4.mandrillapp.com, pleased to meet you
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] --> 250-ETRN
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] --> 250-AUTH=LOGIN
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] --> 250-AUTH LOGIN CRAM-MD5
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] --> 250-8BITMIME
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] --> 250 SIZE 0
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] <-- MAIL FROM: BODY=8BITMIME
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] Performing reverse lookup on mail59.us4.mandrillapp.com (looking for 205.201.136.59)
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] D=mail59.us4.mandrillapp.com TTL=(1439) A=[205.201.136.59]
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] Spam Blocker A-record resolution of [59.136.201.205.L2.APEWS.ORG] in progress (DNS Server: 192.168.1.2)...
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] Spam Blocker D=59.136.201.205.L2.APEWS.ORG TTL=(35) A=[127.0.0.2]
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] L2.APEWS.ORG LISTED
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] Message will be accepted and X-RBL-Warning: header will be inserted.
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] --> 250 , Sender ok
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] <-- RCPT TO:
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] --> 250 , Recipient ok
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] <-- DATA
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:26: [6810:112] --> 354 Enter mail, end with .
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:27: [6810:112] --> 250 Ok, message saved
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:27: [6810:112] <-- QUIT
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:27: [6810:112] --> 221 See ya in cyberspace
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:27: [6810:112] SMTP session successful, 30303 bytes transferred.
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:27: [6810:112] Shuffling message(s) into proper queue(s)
Fri 2012-01-27 16:33:27: [6810:112] Message received from mail59.us4.mandrillapp.com [205.201.136.59] with SMTP for [Size 32292] {j:\localq\0005140404.msg}

We will check this and report back in due course.