August 2004
Omsoft is now using a dedicated system from Barracuda Networks to help combat the scourge of spam and e-mail bourne viruses.

Virus Removal
Any e-mail message that contains a known virus signature will be caught and deleted by this system.

Spam Tagging
The presence of the text
X-Barracuda-Spam-Flag: YES
In a message header can be used by your e-mail program to reject suspect messages or to contain them in a separate folder.

NOTE     We suggest you use this feature cautiously. The tagging mechanism may help you sort meaningful e-mail from unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail. But, it is no substitute for your own judgment.

Here are links to examples of how to create spam filters with some of the common e-mail programs.

Macintosh
Eudora
Entourage
Outlook Express 5


Windows
Eudora
Outlook




The Gory Details

For our more savvy users, here is information on the extra headers that each message will contain.
  • X-Barracuda-Spam-Flag: YES
    • This tag will be present if the Barracuda believes the message to be spam, if it has a score of 3.5. If you believe this is too restrictive, you may base your filter on the X-Barracuda-Spam-Score header instead. This header will not be present otherwise if the score is lower than 3.5.
  • X-Virus-Scanned: by Barracuda Spam Firewall at dcn.davis.ca.us
    • This tag will be present in all messages scanned by the Barracuda.
  • X-Barracuda-Spam-Score
    • The Barracuda scores messages by using SpamAssassin, and this tag reports that score. Messages with a score of 3.5 or higher will contain a "[SPAM?]" subject prefix. Messages that score 9 or higher will not be delivered to your mailbox.
  • X-Barracuda-Spam-Status
    • This tag mentions which SpamAssassin rules matched with the message.
  • X-Barracuda-Spam-Report
    • This tag includes a detailed report on the rules matched with the message. It will look something like this:
    pts  rule name              description
---- ---------------------- -------------------------------------------
0.3 NO_REAL_NAME           From: does not include a real name
1.7 HTML_IMAGE_ONLY_06     BODY: HTML: images with 400-600 bytes of words
0.1 HTML_60_70             BODY: Message is 60% to 70% HTML
0.6 HTML_WEB_BUGS          BODY: Image tag intended to identify you
0.1 HTML_FONTCOLOR_BLUE    BODY: HTML font color is blue
0.0 HTML_MESSAGE           BODY: HTML included in message
0.1 HTML_FONTCOLOR_UNSAFE  BODY: HTML font color not in safe 6x6x6 palette
0.1 HTML_TAG_EXISTS_TBODY  BODY: HTML has "tbody" tag
0.1 MIME_HTML_ONLY         BODY: Message only has text/html MIME parts
1.5 HTML_FONT_INVISIBLE    BODY: HTML font color is same as background
0.1 HTML_FONTCOLOR_RED     BODY: HTML font color is red
1.1 MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR    URI: Includes a link to a likely spammer email
0.2 HTTP_WITH_EMAIL_IN_URL URI: 'remove' URL contains an email address