An insidious spam botnet attacks Charly
BOT POSSE
While going about his normal duties, Linux Magazine author Charly Kühnast was hit with a mean attack. Charly’s separate anti-spam server, which sits in front of his mail server, saved him from the mail storm.
A sunny Tuesday in July. I’m just typing my Sysadmin column for Linux Magazine. It’s 2.00 pm by the time I take a glance at the monitor that gives me the latest load and traffic data for the critical servers I manage. Lo and behold, the reject line in the spam filter graph has just skyrocketed (See Figure 1). The article will have to wait. The server is rejecting large quantities of mail at an early stage of the SMTP dialog. I suspect a wave of spam with clumsily spoofed envelopes. That’s nothing new: for each legitimate email I receive, I get at least two spam mails. But I still decide to open an SSH connection to the spam filter, which is running on a separate machine, and I can’t believe my eyes when I discover 140 parallel SMTP connections. That’s ten times the normal level. And it’s unusual for the server just to drop the connections like that.
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
News
-
Patreon Project Looks to Bring Linux to Apple Silicon
Developer Hector Martin has created a patreon page to fund his work on developing a port of Linux for Apple Silicon Macs.
-
A New Chrome OS-Like Ubuntu Remix is Now Available
Ubuntu Web looks to be your Chrome OS alternative.
-
System76 Refreshes the Galago Pro Laptop
Linux hardware maker has revamped one of their most popular laptops.
-
Dell Will Soon Enable Privacy Controls for Linux Hardware
Dell makes it possible for Linux users to disable webcams and microphones.
-
Linux Mint Unveils New Packages
The Linux Mint team has announced it'll bring an official Chromium package to the distribution
-
Pop!_OS 20.10 Now Supports DEB822 Format
The Linux distribution from System 76 has converted over to the friendlier apt format.
-
Ubuntu 20.10 Now Supports Raspberry Pi
Ubuntu 20.10 is the first release from Canonical to support the Raspberry Pi single board computer.
-
A New Linux Distribution has been Released
Emperor-OS is a new Linux distribution focused on programming, developing, and data science.
-
Ubuntu Groovy Gorilla Beta Available
The beta version for Ubuntu’s latest release is now available for testing.
-
Microsoft is Finally Set to Release Edge Browser for Linux
Chromium-based MS Edge browser will soon be available for testing on Linux.