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Filtering Malware

  • Most malware can be recognized via 
    • Telltale attachment file names and/or extensions
    • Active content in HTML mail
    • Malformed headers (buffer overflow exploits)
    • Attached documents bearing macros containing potentially destructive commands
  • John Hardin's procmail sanitizer currently best of breed (http://www.impsec.org/email-tools/procmail-security.html )
  • Anomy (http://mailtools.anomy.net/) is another malware filter inspired by Hardin's work
  • Filtering can also be done via Sendmail "Milter" filters
  • Best solution: Commercial virus checkers on clients in conjunction with heuristic filter on mail server