As messaged to the Karmasphere-Users and Karmasphere-Announce mailing lists, the Karmasphere Reputation Services data feeds are being retired. This means that the associated blocking list(s), including the karmasphere.email-sender.dnsbl.karmasphere.com DNSBL zone, and any other DNSBL/DNSWL zones under karmasphere.com. It is unclear to the author if karmasphere.org is similarly affected.
Karmasphere has indicated that the feed service will be discontinued on November 16, 2009. It's very important that all Karmasphere-using mail administrators remove any Karmasphere-hosted DNSBLs from their configuration before that date, else inbound receipt of legitimate email messages could be delayed or otherwise impacted.
For more information, click on over to Spam Resource to read a copy of the Karmasphere notice.
All about DNSBLs, aka blocklists/blacklists // Since 2001 // Published by Al Iverson
| Thanks for visiting! Remember that nowadays, (most) blocklists don't really govern deliverability and inbox placement. Want to learn more about email marketing best practices, email technology, and deliverability troubleshooting? Then you'll want to check out my other site, Spam Resource. |
Status of rbl.cluecentral.net: DEAD
The rbl.cluecentral.net DNSBLs were created in 2001 or 2002 by Sabri Berisha. The goal: To list "all known assigned IPv4 address space, by originating AS and by country. [This is based on] a full routing view is extracted daily from a router in the default free zone. The AS->country mapping is done via the statistics which are being provided by the four RIR's, ARIN, APNIC, LACNIC and RIPE."
Today, the website warns that the rbl.cluecentral.net service is closed. Sabri notes that "[it has become] more and more difficult and time-consuming to maintain a trustworthy list I started to notice more and more errors. The list is no longer of the quality needed to use in a production environment."
The website warns that if DNS queries continue at a high level, the DNS servers are likely to be configured in a way that will cause 100% of inbound mail attempts to be rejected, for all mail servers still using rbl.cluecentral.net. This makes it imperative that you remove any rbl.cluecentral.net zones from your mail server configuration, as soon as possible.
Today, the website warns that the rbl.cluecentral.net service is closed. Sabri notes that "[it has become] more and more difficult and time-consuming to maintain a trustworthy list I started to notice more and more errors. The list is no longer of the quality needed to use in a production environment."
The website warns that if DNS queries continue at a high level, the DNS servers are likely to be configured in a way that will cause 100% of inbound mail attempts to be rejected, for all mail servers still using rbl.cluecentral.net. This makes it imperative that you remove any rbl.cluecentral.net zones from your mail server configuration, as soon as possible.
Status of blackholes.us: DEAD
Created by Matthew Evans in 2002, the goal of the blackholes.us site was "to create (yet more) DNS blocklists of spammers, spam supporting ISPs, spamware hosts, dialup networks, and other notorious email abusers originating in the United States." Matthew published many different DNSBL zones, listing various countries, ISPs, netblocks, etc.
Status of vox.schpider.com: DEAD
Scott Glassbrook writes: "I ran a dnsbl, vox.schpider.com many many years ago. I stopped the DNSBL back in June of 2006, and shut down the server it was running on.
"Since that time, all queries to vox.schpider.com have timed out. I made an attempt to bring the domain name back up in 2008, only to find that people are still trying to query the domain name. [...] Because of that, I see no other option than to start returning positives for *any* query issued to vox.schpider.com, beginning 10/16/2009. If you happen to be trying to use a dead DNSBL, please update your mail server configuration."
Scott indicates that random mail administrators are still "pounding the hell" out of his DNSBL hundreds fo times per second, all day and all night, ever day. Not cool.
If you're still querying this DNSBL, it's important that you immediately remove it from your mail server configuration. As of October 16th, use of this DNSBL will result in you rejecting 100% of your inbound email.
"Since that time, all queries to vox.schpider.com have timed out. I made an attempt to bring the domain name back up in 2008, only to find that people are still trying to query the domain name. [...] Because of that, I see no other option than to start returning positives for *any* query issued to vox.schpider.com, beginning 10/16/2009. If you happen to be trying to use a dead DNSBL, please update your mail server configuration."
Scott indicates that random mail administrators are still "pounding the hell" out of his DNSBL hundreds fo times per second, all day and all night, ever day. Not cool.
If you're still querying this DNSBL, it's important that you immediately remove it from your mail server configuration. As of October 16th, use of this DNSBL will result in you rejecting 100% of your inbound email.
Status of bl.open-whois.org: DEAD
As of July, it looks like a popular blocking list used in default SpamAssassin installations is no more. Users were reporting false positive issues, where every message checked by SpamAssassin would receive a score of 2.43, supposedly due to the sender being listed in the blocking list bl.open-whois.org.
The Open Whois list appears to have been created in 2007, with a goal of promoting transparency in domain registrations. According to the (now deceased) website, "It is a list of domains which are privately (or anonymously) registered, e.g. through services such as Domains By Proxy, or Moniker Privacy Protection."
As of July 18, 2009, it appears that a squatter has taken over the open-whois.org domain name. At first, the new owner of the domain used a "wildcard" DNS record, resulting in the return of a positive response for any DNS query. The net effect is that every domain checked against this blocking list results in a DNS response that makes your spam filter think that the domain is listed, usually incorrectly so.
Since the issue was first observed, the squatter must have noticed all of this DNS traffic coming from SpamAssassin users and decided that the traffic was undesirable, so they've modified the domain in whois so that its name servers point at obviously invalid IP addresses.
That's good, because it means there shouldn't be any more false positive issues, for now. But, it does mean that your SpamAssassin checks take longer than usual, as queries against this dead list will time out. (And who is to say the squatter won't resurrect the domain with valid DNS servers and perhaps another DNS wildcard, causing a whole new batch of false positives for a whole bunch of SpamAssassin users.)
If you're a SpamAssassin user, it would be wise to remove or disable the SpamAssassin rule that check for that list. The rule you're looking for is located in the "72_active.cf" file in the rules subdirectory of your SA installation.
To disable this check in your SpamAssassin installation (manually), move or delete the "72_active.cf" file from your rules directory. Where this directory is exactly located is going to depend on your installation. On my friend's Linux installation, the directory path is /etc/mail/spamassassin/rules .
The better thing to do, I was advised by friendly SpamAssassin user Phil Randal, is to run sa-update. It's best practice for SA users to run sa-update every week or few to load the latest "in between-release" updates. Running sa-update will ensure that the bl.open-whois.org check is disabled.
I suspect that this blocking list check will be removed from SpamAssassin in future releases, but as of today (8/18/2009), the check is still in the most recent version available for download (3.2.5). As long as you run sa-update or manually disable this check, you should be all set.
The Open Whois list appears to have been created in 2007, with a goal of promoting transparency in domain registrations. According to the (now deceased) website, "It is a list of domains which are privately (or anonymously) registered, e.g. through services such as Domains By Proxy, or Moniker Privacy Protection."
As of July 18, 2009, it appears that a squatter has taken over the open-whois.org domain name. At first, the new owner of the domain used a "wildcard" DNS record, resulting in the return of a positive response for any DNS query. The net effect is that every domain checked against this blocking list results in a DNS response that makes your spam filter think that the domain is listed, usually incorrectly so.
Since the issue was first observed, the squatter must have noticed all of this DNS traffic coming from SpamAssassin users and decided that the traffic was undesirable, so they've modified the domain in whois so that its name servers point at obviously invalid IP addresses.
That's good, because it means there shouldn't be any more false positive issues, for now. But, it does mean that your SpamAssassin checks take longer than usual, as queries against this dead list will time out. (And who is to say the squatter won't resurrect the domain with valid DNS servers and perhaps another DNS wildcard, causing a whole new batch of false positives for a whole bunch of SpamAssassin users.)
If you're a SpamAssassin user, it would be wise to remove or disable the SpamAssassin rule that check for that list. The rule you're looking for is located in the "72_active.cf" file in the rules subdirectory of your SA installation.
To disable this check in your SpamAssassin installation (manually), move or delete the "72_active.cf" file from your rules directory. Where this directory is exactly located is going to depend on your installation. On my friend's Linux installation, the directory path is /etc/mail/spamassassin/rules .
The better thing to do, I was advised by friendly SpamAssassin user Phil Randal, is to run sa-update. It's best practice for SA users to run sa-update every week or few to load the latest "in between-release" updates. Running sa-update will ensure that the bl.open-whois.org check is disabled.
I suspect that this blocking list check will be removed from SpamAssassin in future releases, but as of today (8/18/2009), the check is still in the most recent version available for download (3.2.5). As long as you run sa-update or manually disable this check, you should be all set.
TQMCUBE Status Updated
Here's a quick note to let you know that I've updated my page of information on the long-dead TQMCUBE blocking list. Click here for more information.
SORBS Status: Shutting Down or For Sale
As reported on Spamtacular and on SORBS' website:
"ANNOUNCEMENT: Possible SORBS Closure... It comes with great sadness that I have to announce the imminent closure of SORBS. The University of Queensland have decided not to honor their agreement with myself and SORBS and terminate the hosting contract.
"ANNOUNCEMENT: Possible SORBS Closure... It comes with great sadness that I have to announce the imminent closure of SORBS. The University of Queensland have decided not to honor their agreement with myself and SORBS and terminate the hosting contract.
Status of dnsbl.net.au: DEAD
The blocking list at dnsbl.net.au has announced it is winding down. As noted in a February 25, 2009 posting on its website, "Please note that as of Wednesday, April 1, 2009 the DNSBL.NET.AU blacklist will cease to exist."
As of this writing on April 29th, 2009, I do still see active entries when querying via DNS, but I assume that these are likely to go away soon. If you utilize this list, I'd recommend removing it from your MTA or spam filter configuration.
As of this writing on April 29th, 2009, I do still see active entries when querying via DNS, but I assume that these are likely to go away soon. If you utilize this list, I'd recommend removing it from your MTA or spam filter configuration.
Status of DSBL: DEAD
The DNSBL called "DSBL" is no more. As of March 11, 2009, their website reports: "DSBL is GONE and highly unlikely to return. Please remove it from your mail server configuration."
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