Reprising my Sunday, Feb 1st post for the midweek crowd:
The Rest Is Trash https://nxdomain.no/~peter/the_rest_is_trash.html (tracked https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-rest-is-trash.html) following up on #greytrapping, updating the 18 years piece https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html #openbsd #spamd #greytrappng #greylisting #antispam #cybercrime #networking #spam
The latest "Lazy reading" by Dragonfly Digest @dragonflydigest https://www.dragonflydigest.com/ has "Eighteen years of Greytrapping" https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html featured. Later this year it will be nineteen years :) (and updates will come) #spamd #spam #openbsd #antispam #greytrapping #greylisting #cybercrime
Heh. Looks like the tracked version of Why 451 is Good for You - Greylisting Perspectives From the Early Noughties https://nxdomain.no/~peter/why_451_is_good.html (tracked https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2025/12/why-451-is-good-for-you-greylisting.html) hit hackernews: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46414653
No, I willl not respond to those comments either :D
#greylisting #greytrapping #spam #spamtrapping #antispam #spamd #openbsd #smtp
The update you have been waiting for:
"Eighteen Years of Greytrapping - Is the Weirdness Finally Paying Off?" https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html (tracked https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2025/08/eighteen-years-of-greytrapping-is.html)
now has the complete 2025 data in place. #openbsd #spamd #greytrapping #spam #antispam #cybercrime #spamtraps #blocklists
Possibly not blogworthy, but: One puzzling side effect of running greytrapping (as chronicled in https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html) is seeing the uptick in password guessing using even the obviously generated gibberish local parts, and the sheer volume of tries (see https://nxdomain.no/~peter/should_i_stop_caring_and_let_ip_reputation_sort_them_out.html and links therein). #greytrapping #passwordguessing #passwordgroping #spamd #ssh #pop3gropers
Hm. log entries like
Sep 30 00:54:41 skapet spamd[83364]: (GREY) 171.4.7.241: <maillist@mailserver.com> -> <somethingreallystupid@bsdly.net>
Sep 30 00:54:41 skapet spamd[83004]: new entry 171.4.7.241 from <maillist@mailserver.com> to <somethingreallystupid@bsdly.net>, helo ns3000605.ip-37-59-46.eu
have me suspect they are actually reading my stuff such as https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html #spamtraps #greytrapping #antispam #cybercrime #spamd #openbsd
And yes of course, that became a fresh spamtrap, number 8205067 or thereabouts. see the old favorite https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html #greytrapping #openbsd #spamd #cybercrime
Now 8024921 imaginary friends (and counting), at https://nxdomain.no/~peter/traplist.shtml, mainly exhumed from logs.
For the bored but not restless, https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html (also https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2025/08/eighteen-years-of-greytrapping-is.html) #greytrapping #spamtraps #spamd #openbsd #spam #cybercrime
glancing at the #spamd log I see attempts like
Sep 15 14:53:06 skapet spamd[85002]: (GREY) 103.120.44.85: <cotompryor@bsdly.net> -> <cotompryor@bsdly.net>
Sep 15 14:53:06 skapet spamd[70382]: Trapping 103.120.44.85 for tuple 103.120.44.85 [103.120.44.85] <cotompryor@bsdly.net> <cotompryor@bsdly.net>
I suspect another #wankstortion campaign but won't know for sure until something actually inboxes (unlikely) or enough shows up in the log itself. In the meantime, https://www.nxdomain.no/~peter/despicable_no_good_blackmail.html
heh. with another 70 weeks of log data to sift through, the count of imaginary friends at https://nxdomain.no/~peter/traplist.shtml just rolled past seven million (also see https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html or tracked https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2025/08/eighteen-years-of-greytrapping-is.html) #spamtraps #imaginaryfriends #spamd #smtp #cybercrime #openbsd
Have you been wondering why the list of imaginary friends at https://nxdomain.no/~peter/traplist.shtml has been expanding quicker than usual this week?
It's because I found another batch of old logs that are now getting the more thorough treatment (also see https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html or tracked https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2025/08/eighteen-years-of-greytrapping-is.html) #spamd #greytrapping #spam #cybercrime #openbsd
Oh, the number of bsdly imaginary friends just rolled past 6 million, https://nxdomain.no/~peter/traplist.shtml (background https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html or tracked https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2025/08/eighteen-years-of-greytrapping-is.html), may update graphs at month end #openbsd #spamd #greytrapping #antispam #cybercrime #nastykidsister
Hm. It looks like my publishing the "Eighteen years of greytrapping ..." retrospective https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html (https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2025/08/eighteen-years-of-greytrapping-is.html) has generated an uptick in digital archaeology. People are fetching the archived lists at a surprising rate. #greytrapping #spamd #openbsd #pf #packetfiltering #antispam #cybercrime #security
Hey! My "Eighteen Years of Greytrapping - Is the Weirdness Finally Paying Off?" https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2025/08/eighteen-years-of-greytrapping-is.html (https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html) is on @vermaden's Valuable news https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2025/08/18/valuable-news-2025-08-18/ #openbsd #spamd #greytrapping #freebsd #valueablenews @nostarch
Aug 17 09:38:58 skapet spamd[36107]: (GREY) 141.98.10.53: <test@bsdly.net> -> <glinksbiz2025@hotmail.com>
Aug 17 09:38:58 skapet spamd[30363]: Trapping 141.98.10.53 for tuple 141.98.10.53 host-141-98-10-.domain <test@bsdly.net> <glinksbiz2025@hotmail.com>
Aug 17 09:38:58 skapet spamd[30363]: new greytrap entry 141.98.10.53 from <test@bsdly.net> to <glinksbiz2025@hotmail.com>, helo host-141-98-10-.domain
Yes, #greytrapping https://nxdomain.no/~peter/eighteen_years_of_greytrapping.html #spamd #spam #cybercrime #openbsd #mail #security
Eighteen Years of Greytrapping Retrospective Published https://www.undeadly.org/cgi?action=article;sid=20250812064257 #openbsd #spamd #greytrapping #antispam #security #cybercrime #spamtraps
In 2013 I wrote up "Maintaining A Publicly Available Blacklist - Mechanisms And Principles" (also https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2013/04/maintaining-publicly-available.html) . TL;DR: blocklisting is a kind of public shaming, be sure your process is verifiable and transparent.
Minor edits today, links to resources and #eurobsdcon inside. #blocklists #spamtraps #antispam #smtp #spamd #openbsd #freebsd #security #cybercrime
Following up on previous, the LinkedIn discussion revealed that there are people who have not heard about greylisting.
So here is my 2012 piece with updates, "In The Name Of Sane Email: Setting Up OpenBSD's spamd(8) With Secondary MXes In Play - A Full Recipe" https://nxdomain.no/~peter/in_the_name_of_sane_email.html
#spamd #antispam #spamd.conf #OpenBSD #blocklists #blacklists #greytrapping #greylisting #spam
"Oh yes, you signed up for this. You did. Honest." https://nxdomain.no/~peter/oh_yes_you_signed_up_for_this_2009.html A linkedin post (linked within) reminded me of this post (from 2009), now added here, almost pristine
#greytrapping #spam #countermeasures #email #scams #spamd #wellpoisoning #cybercrime #counterprank
September 7, 2022 the 300,000th spamtrap was added to our list of imaginary friends, see "The Things Spammers Believe - A Tale of 300,000 Imaginary Friends" https://nxdomain.no/~peter/spammers_believe_in_300k_imaginary_friends.html.
Today, the number at at https://nxdomain.no/~peter/traplist.shtml rolled past 5,000,000 (yes, five million). #spam #spamtraps #spamd #openbsd #cybercrime #scams #malware
