RFE: dnsbl-support for dovecot

Reindl Harald h.reindl at thelounge.net
Tue Jun 17 18:32:55 UTC 2014



Am 17.06.2014 20:23, schrieb Giles Coochey:
> On 17/06/2014 18:56, Reindl Harald wrote:
>>
>> Am 17.06.2014 19:43, schrieb Giles Coochey:
>>> On 17/06/2014 18:16, Reindl Harald wrote:
>>>> after having my own dnsbl feeded by a honeypot and even
>>>> mod_security supports it for webservers i think dovecot
>>>> sould support the same to prevent dictionary attacks from
>>>> known bad hosts, in our case that blacklist is 100%
>>>> trustable and blocks before SMTP-Auth while normal RBL's
>>>> are after SASL
>>>>
>>>> i admit that i am not a C/C++-programmer, but i think
>>>> doing the DNS request and in case it has a result block
>>>> any login attemt should be not too complex
>>>>
>>>> setup a own honeypot and feed rbldnsd with the sources
>>>> is quite easy and in case of a own, trustable RBL where
>>>> no foreigners report somebody by mistake it's relieable
>>>> and scales well over many machines and services as long
>>>> services supporting it
>>>>
>>>> mod_security:
>>>> http://blog.inliniac.net/2007/02/23/blocking-comment-spam-using-modsecurity-and-realtime-blacklists/
>>>>
>>> If you have the bllist as a file then you may as well drop with iptables (in Linux) or ipfw (BSD).
>>>
>>> Use an IP tool for an IP block, not the application.
>>>
>>> Spamhaus project has a kind of script for this type of thing:
>>>
>>> http://www.spamhaus.org/faq/section/DROP%20FAQ
>>>
>>> I'm quite happy to use fail2ban, yes - dovecot has to handle a few failed logins for each blocked IP, but it works
>>> for me and pretty much mitigates the attack
>> that's not the point, to achieve the same as with a RBL you
>> need to manipulate iptables on every machine - the RBL is
>> centrally for HTTP/SMTP and so it makes sense to use
>> it also for IMAP/POP3
> Or just do it on the firewall...

* you need to centralize it
* it don't fit my environment

>> additionally you have no log - thats bad with a RBL you have a
>> dedicated log containign much more data than source / target IP
>> and ports
> Iptables has a log option

please read again what you quoted

iptables logs hardly contain the username
postfix rejections based on RBLs contain From/To

a huge difference if it comes to analyze logs

iptables logs are *packet based*

>> also i don't want to have fail2ban on every machine, the point
>> of a RBL with a honeypot is that bad machines are blocked
>> for 7 days just beause they touch any unused IP and likely
>> before they even hit the production servers
> That's your personal choice

yes, and that's why i asked for RBL support and not fail2ban

>> iptables-rules are managed here also centralized over a lot
>> of machines and i really don't want to marry the honeypot with
>> the iptables
> That's specific to your deployment

yes, that's why i ask for a feature
i know fail2ban and like tools well

> I don't know how much use such a feature within dovecot would get as there are quite a few specific tools that
> could accomplish pretty much the same goals of what you're looking for -  it is just unfortunate that they don't
> fit in your own environment.

yes


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