Ming the Mechanic:
Ingenious email-harvester honeypot
The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
 Ingenious email-harvester honeypot2003-06-19 23:59
3 comments
by Flemming Funch

From BoingBoing:
Merlin Mann outlines an ingenious procedure for identifying spammers' email-harvesters' IP addresses and user-agents:

"In each page I serve, I include a bogus email address, encoded with the date of access as well as the host IP address and embedded in a comment. [Apache's server-side includes are great!] This has allowed me to trace spam back to specific hosts and/or robots.

One of the first I caught with this technique was the robot with the user agent "Mozilla/4.0 efp@gmx.net", which always seems to come from argon.oxeo.com - it's identified it above as simply rude."
Simple and clever. Well, relatively simple for a programmer. Now, if we could coordinate the gathering of a lot of that kind of data. I.e. mapping spam to who mined the address in the first place.


[< Back] [Ming the Mechanic]

Category:  

3 comments

22 Jun 2003 @ 20:42 by James @63.226.55.9 : Interview with the Spammer
The following from a recent email regarding this issue:

"You’re invited to a first-ever webcast interview that will give you exclusive
insight into the mentality and tactics of today’s leading spammers.

Interview with the Spammer
*Sponsored by Encounter Collaborative and IntelliReach
Date: Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Time: 12:00 PM US Eastern
(other time zones - see the time zone converter link at the end of this email)
View the Privacy Policy

To sign-up for this webcast, go to:
http://www.intellireach.com/events/0625e1.html

In an interactive, 1 hour webcast interview with Ronald Scelson, nicknamed “The Cajun Spammer,” you will learn:

• What techniques he uses to continuously evade anti-spam solutions

• What users can do stay one step ahead of spammers' changing tactics

• How Scelson plans to prosper despite the growing number of anti-spam technologies

• His opinions on upcoming legislation and how spammers will do business if passed

Attend this live webcast and you'll have a unique opportunity to ask Ronald your specific questions during an interactive Q&A session.

Don't miss this unprecedented opportunity to hear the thoughts and opinions of a spammer responsible for sending millions of unsolicited email messages per day.

Click here to sign-up for this free webcast.

Sincerely,

Ann Murphy
Vice President of Sales
Encounter Collaborative"

James  

12 Jul 2003 @ 17:49 by maxtobin : Thanks for this link Ming.
The integrity of any system requires the ability to have a transparent way to control what comes in and then goes out. I believe it is very important to develop open robust systems that allow for only integral communications. Hell when I'm already at my best 'fighting weight' I don't need all that spam that promises me I can loose unwanted weight or increase the size of certain parts of my anatomy. Hee hee. I feel like Poo the Bear with these honey pots coming into my world view.  

22 Aug 2016 @ 04:49 by National drink of Pakistan @39.36.247.24 : Malik
A tragedy around Pakistan is constantly on the worsen when relief resources and guide fall far wanting what is called for. More guide is frantically needed as being the potential for scores of fatalities takes place to loom.  

Your Name:
Your URL: (or email)
Subject:       
Comment:
For verification, please type the word you see on the left:

Other stories in
2014-11-01 17:33: The conversation of work
2007-02-24 14:20: Writing books in HTML/CSS
2007-02-05 15:21: Software is hard
2006-11-19 21:30: Thingamy
2005-12-14 15:15: Ruby on Rails
2005-03-19 16:04: Comment and Refererrer Spam
2005-02-23 21:34: Wikipedia
2005-02-22 17:32: Mail
2005-02-10 16:00: More Google wizardry
2005-02-04 15:14: The Six Laws of the New Software


[< Back] [Ming the Mechanic] [PermaLink]? 


Link to this article as: http://ming.tv/flemming2.php/__show_article/_a000010-000845.htm
Main Page: ming.tv