[JDEV] Jabber and spam?

[Justin Karneges]

With dialback, this may not be an issue.

Consider that it is not cost-effective for spammers to use a legit return 
address (bounces, complaints, tracking).  This is part of the reasoning 
behind challenge-response whitelist email filters.  There is a FAQ about such 
systems that asks: "What if the spammers respond to the challenge?"  Answer: 
"They won't, because they will never use a legit address!"

Of course, the weakness with these whitelist systems is that a spammer could 
spoof the address of someone in your whitelist.  This is not possible with 
Jabber, as there is no whitelist.  Every s2s connection is authenticated.

-Justin

On Saturday 21 June 2003 04:08 am, Bart van Bragt wrote:
> I was adjusting my email spam filters, again, and that started me
> wondering about Jabber and spam.
>
> IMO there are not many provisions to prevent spam from being
> sent/received in the jabber protocol. The only thing you can do is:
> - block everything from anyone not in your roster except auth requests
> - blacklist specific servers (very temporary solution)
> - Filter on certain words/patterns (brrrrr, no a very clean solution)
>
> I don't know of any clients/servers that implement the first 'solution'.
> Has this been though about? Any idea how spam can be prevented or at
> least reduced?