Cloudmark Authority Plug-in for SpamAssassin -- connects SA to locally-running Cloudmark anti-spam filtering system. Jeremy Robin, Kent Brake, Doug McCasland Cloudmark Inc. 2007-8 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Introduction For several years, SpamAssassin has had built-in support for connecting to Cloudmark's free Razor2 spam-checking service. For each message being checked, SA calls a Razor2 agent program. The agent generates two type of message fingerprints and then connects to Cloudmark via the Internet to see if the message has been reported as spam by others. SA uses the results to increase or decrease the message's spam score. Because Razor2 is not suited to high-volume email traffic, Cloudmark developed a carrier-grade product called Authority, now used by major ISPs to handle millions of messages per day. Here are some benefits of the Authority product. * The Authority daemon runs continuously, accepting requests to check messages. * An in-memory fingerprint database is maintained, with micro-updates from Cloudmark downloaded every minute. * Each message is checked using that database, not over the Internet, so message checking is much faster. * Expanded set of fingerprints (currently 12), resulting in much greater accuracy than Razor2. Rapid response to the latest spam campaigns is automatically enabled. ISPs and other email providers who already use SpamAssassin can now get the same benefits of Authority -- without a big server integration project. The Cloudmark Authority Plug-in for SpamAssassin lets SA do spam-checking via Authority. Razor2 is turned off, as are most of the SA rules. It is a simple installation, and it works entirely within pre-existing MTA and SpamAssassin setups. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Cloudmark Plug-in Architecture Here are the server components: * Cloudmark Authority Engine (CMAE). A server daemon. Loads the Cartridge, maintains an in-memory database from Cloudmark micro-updates, accepts client connections, generates fingerprints, and provides results. * Cloudmark Cartridge. A dynamic library. Contains the latest fingerprint algorithms and micro-update technology. This component can be updated independently of CMAE. And the client components: * Cloudmark CMAE client Perl interface (Cloudmark::CMAE::Client.pm). Used by Perl scripts to talk with CMAE, employs CMAE Client API. * CMAE.pm (SpamAssassin::Plugin::CMAE.pm). The Cloudmark Plug-in, located in SA's Plugin directory. It uses the CMAE client Perl interface to interact with the CMAE server. * /etc/sa_cmae_plugin.cfg. Configures the behavior of the Plug-in. All of these components, except for the Cartridge, are in this tar file (named CMAE-SA-Integration-x-x-x-x.tar.gz). You need to download the Cartridge tar file separately. Both tar files must be correct for your platform (Linux, Solaris, 64-bit, etc.). The CMAE daemon runs all the time. SpamAssassin (either the spamd daemon or the spamassassin command) connects to CMAE, via the client side of the Plug-in, to request Cloudmark spam filtering. If CMAE is not running for some reason, spamassassin/spamd will simply skip to the next phase of its processing. Note that spamassassin and spamd do not explicitly log this problem. So it's a good idea to monitor the CMAE daemon (cmae_server) to ensure that it is always running. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Installation Please follow the steps in the INSTALL file. If you prefer to install the Plug-in manually (that is, without using the provided install script), then consult the INSTALL.manual file first, and continue with the main INSTALL file. ====================================================================== Copyright (c) 2008, Cloudmark, Inc. All rights reserved. Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. * Neither the name of Cloudmark, Inc. nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission. 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