Developed by two spam-weary persons at the
EECS department of Case Western Reserve University:
Michael Rabinovich
Tu Ouyang
We propose SpamWeeder, a simple idea for spam prevention, which targets the root of the spam problem - the email address trafficking. SpamWeeder can track the email address trafficking channels, expose the parties at the source of these channels, and precisely block all email from all and only parties belonging to a given distribution channel.
Our approach involves cooperation of user’s Web browser, email client and client’s
mail server. Many web sites require users to input their email, as part of registration
or subscription process, to send a confirmation to an on-line purchase, to submit
an information request, or to post on a discussion board or a blog. This has
become so pervasive that not complying entails severe limitations in what one
can do on the Internet. The original web site becomes the root of an email address-trafficking
tree, which we refer to as a ”spammer tree”. SpamWeeder provides
a precise and user-transparent way to identify the roots of the spammer trees
and selectively block email from any party that belong to these trees.
We have implemented a prototype of SpamWeeder. Our prototype uses an unmodified Xmail mail server and is built in the form of extensions to Mozilla Firefox browser and Mozilla Thunderbird mail client as well as a new component referred to as the coordinator.
Install and try the prototype:
1. We have deployed a mail server hosted at ipl.eecs.case.edu
for the trial, anyone interested in obtaining an email account for trial, please
drop Tu an email. After receiving response
with the account information, following these steps:
2. Download Firefox 2.0.*.* version
and Thunderbird 2.0.*.* version.
3. Download our extension to Firefox,
and extension to Thunderbird,
( platform independent )and follow the
normal installation instructions.
NOTE: Internet Explorer and Safari would automatically save "xpi"
file as "zip" file, Please modify the downloaded files' extension
to "xpi" instead of "zip". On MAC, please do the extension
modification in a terminal window.
4. You have two choices now. One is to download the
coordinator, and configure it by yourself.
The other is to use the centralized coordinator that we operate at ipl.eecs.case.edu.
5. Configure Firefox extension. Open Firefox, then
For Windows and Linux: Tools->options->Spamweeder
For Mac: Firefox->Preferences->SpamWeeder
Email Address:
The email address you input when surfing which is your "true" email
address you received at ipl.eecs.case.edu mail server (we do not want to get
into the details that this might be a different address - it's confusing).
User@Domain:
This is, again your "true" email address. Sorry for asking for the
redundant information - we will fix this later. E.g., if Tu's user name is tu.ouyang
from us, he would input tu.ouyang@ipl.eecs.case.edu
Passowrd:
The account password
Coordinator IP,Coordinator Port:
If using a local coordinator, leave the pre-filled defaults for these fields,
"127.0.0.1", "1089" ,
Otherwise (if you are using the central coordinator) enter "ipl.eecs. case.edu"
for the coordinator IP and leave "1089" for the port. Coordinator
IP: "ipl.eecs.case.edu", Coordinator Port:
"1089".
Reset to Default:
The button will reset the coordinator IP and Port fields to point to the local
coordinator (as shown in the figure above).
Enable SpamWeeder for Firefox
If this checkbox is checked, the SpamWeeder will take effect, otherwise the
SpamWeeder will be disabled. It's checked after first installation.
6. Configure thunderbird extension. Open Thunderbird, then
For Windows and Linux: Tools->options->Spamweeder
For Mac: Thunderbird->Preferences->SpamWeeder
It's pretty much the same as Firefox, excpet:
Enable Expose and Block:
If this checkbox is checked, the SpamWeeder extension for thunderbird
will check every incoming email and generate report to coordinator, otherwise,
no action would be took on incoming emails.
Enable disguise-sender:
If this checkbox is checked, SpamWeeder will use alias insteand of the real
email address as the sender for every newly composed email. This function could
protect you from accidently leaking email address to those recipients who would
send spam or doing email-trafficking. If unchecked, this function will be disabled,
when you are sending email to old friends, please disable this function to use
your real email address.
7. Configure the coordinator (optional).
Unzip the coordinator.zip and place all its files in the same folder, there
are files "Run,windows.bat" and "Run,Linux.sh" among the
unzipped files. Run "Run.windows.bat" on Windows or "Run.Linux.sh"
on Linux to start the coordinator. After coordinator is started, several xml
files(MaintainInfo.xml, etc.) and a log file (log.txt) will be generated. You
could configure the coordinator before it started by rewriting the configuration
file: Config.xml, which is in the same directory as coordinator.
Software list:
Extension to firefox
Extension to thunderbird
Coordinator
Interested in a trial email account like yourname@ipl.eecs.case.edu? Please contact Tu Ouyang , tell me what user name you covet, and some necessary information of your identity (like your name, your affiliated address, just used for preventing improper usage).
Here is an account manipulation page , where you
can change your account password or generate a alias served as "out of
band address" for you to use everywhere.
Last modified 05/20/2008 by Tu Ouyang