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by Alan Knowles.
Original Post: The final Solution to spam..
Feed Title: Smoking toooo much PHP
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After compaining for so long about spam getting through via my @php.net mail address, the php.net mail admins have at least partially answered my prayers, this has started appearing in the headers.
X-Host-Fingerprint: 00.00.00.00 the.host.name Windows 2000 SP2+, XP SP1 (seldom 98 4.10.2222)
After a bit of investigation, it appears the very nice tool p0f is being used transparently to recognize the sending machine type. I spent a bit of time here playing with this, although not perfect (it cant recognize hosts behind a NAT box), It's pretty darn good..
It does lead me onto the theory though
The real solution to spam is just to block all Windows boxes from public email servers....
Seriously, I cant imagine anyone dumb enough to have a public facing Windows box, sending email. And what the hell, they should have to pay a relaying fee if they need messages delivered (if they are dumb enough to pay for windows, they are sure dumb enough to pay for a relaying service..)
This solution is alot simpler and more reliable than SPF.. hell, lets fire up an RFC, and get this standard layed down for good.. (oops I forgot to patent it..)