MailScanner
Encyclopedia
MailScanner is an open source
e-mail
security system for use on Unix
e-mail gateways and was first released in 2001. It protects against viruses
and spam
. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License
.
The author, Julian Field, won the 2004 Open Source Award from UKUUG
for the product.
Worldwide, the software is estimated by the author to be processing over five billion e-mails per week, with over 1,000,000 downloads. ISPs and mobile telephone networks are included in this list of users.
More recently, anti-phishing
measures have been introduced. The software spots attempts at obfuscating URLs (for example, to lure the user into thinking they are signing into their bank, when in reality they are using an imposter web site) and modifies the e-mail with a suitable warning.
. It links with other software packages in order to fulfill its duties:
As with any complex software platform, performance results can vary wildly depending on a wide variety of factors. That said, anecdotal evidence suggests that a quad Xeon
PC
with 2 GB
of RAM and 15 kRPM SCSI
disks can process something in the area of 2.2 million messages per day.
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
security system for use on Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
e-mail gateways and was first released in 2001. It protects against viruses
Computer virus
A computer virus is a computer program that can replicate itself and spread from one computer to another. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, including but not limited to adware and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability...
and spam
E-mail spam
Email spam, also known as junk email or unsolicited bulk email , is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by email. Definitions of spam usually include the aspects that email is unsolicited and sent in bulk. One subset of UBE is UCE...
. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
.
The author, Julian Field, won the 2004 Open Source Award from UKUUG
UKUUG
UKUUG is the UK's Unix and Open Systems User Group a non-profit organization and technical forum for the advocacy of open systems, particularly Unix and Unix-like operating systems, the promotion of Free and Open Source Software , and the advancement of open programming standards and networking...
for the product.
Worldwide, the software is estimated by the author to be processing over five billion e-mails per week, with over 1,000,000 downloads. ISPs and mobile telephone networks are included in this list of users.
More recently, anti-phishing
Phishing
Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT...
measures have been introduced. The software spots attempts at obfuscating URLs (for example, to lure the user into thinking they are signing into their bank, when in reality they are using an imposter web site) and modifies the e-mail with a suitable warning.
Technology
MailScanner is implemented in around 50,000 lines of PerlPerl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
. It links with other software packages in order to fulfill its duties:
- E-mail server (MTAMail transfer agentWithin Internet message handling services , a message transfer agent or mail transfer agent or mail relay is software that transfers electronic mail messages from one computer to another using a client–server application architecture...
) (e.g. sendmailSendmailSendmail is a general purpose internetwork email routing facility that supports many kinds of mail-transfer and -delivery methods, including the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol used for email transport over the Internet....
). - Anti-virus software (e.g. ClamAV – over twenty five different products are supported).
- Anti-spam software (SpamAssassinSpamAssassinSpamAssassin is a computer program released under the Apache License 2.0 used for e-mail spam filtering based on content-matching rules. It is now part of the Apache Foundation....
).
As with any complex software platform, performance results can vary wildly depending on a wide variety of factors. That said, anecdotal evidence suggests that a quad Xeon
Xeon
The Xeon is a brand of multiprocessing- or multi-socket-capable x86 microprocessors from Intel Corporation targeted at the non-consumer server, workstation and embedded system markets.-Overview:...
PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
with 2 GB
Gigabyte
The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...
of RAM and 15 kRPM SCSI
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...
disks can process something in the area of 2.2 million messages per day.
Related software
- MailWatch for MailScanner
- Baruwa is a web 2.0 front-end for MailScanner
- MailScanner Ruleset Editor
- MailScanner-MRTG
- WebMin Module for MailScanner
- Vispan