SpamAssassin: HTML_IMAGE_ONLY_XX

spamassassin

Spam Assassin is flagging my messages for the following violation:

1.6 HTML_IMAGE_ONLY_24 BODY: HTML: images with 2000-2400 bytes of words

It seems to be telling me, literally, that:

My message contains an image.
My message only contains 2000-2400 bytes of words.
These are typical attributes of spam.

My Question:

Is the remedy for this problem to
simply add words? [Dare I say,
filler?]

Best Answer

Yes, it's flagging your message because the HTML version apparently contains an image, and the whole e-mail is only 2000 to 2400 bytes (which is pretty small). A piece of spam that contains just an image would appear like this.

The "solution" would be to add more words, specifically the e-mail size has to be over 3200 bytes to not be flagged by the set of HTML_IMAGE_ONLY_xx rules.

You seem to be really hung up on the fact that your e-mails fail a test here and there. It's really very normal for any given e-mail to fail a few tests. SA isn't a strict filter, it uses heuristic filters to determine spam likeliness.

Related Solutions

Spamassassin on 1and1 dedicated server

Your major problems & their solutions:

FH_HOST_EQ_DYNAMICIP + RCVD_IN_PBL RBL + RCVD_IN_SORBS_DUL RBL
- Your IP is not supposed to be sending email to the internet on its own (According to your ISP's policy and SA's preconceptions about dynamic IPs). Use Telefonica's SMTP server to relay your mail.
DOS_OE_TO_MX / DOS_OE_TO_MX_IMAGE
- Your email is being sent from Outlook Express (and has an image in it): It smells of spam. It will smell less spammy if you use Telefonica's SMTP server since it won't be "direct to MX" anymore.
HTML_IMAGE_ONLY_08 BODY
- Your email is "mostly pictures": It smells of spam. Use more words or fewer pictures :)

You can also set up SMTP Auth and exempt authenticated connections from SpamAssassin filtering if you really can't use Telefonica's servers to relay. (Implementation of this is MTA dependent and left as an exercise for the reader.)

Spamassassin? update channels

The SA Wiki has a section on Updating that's still relevant. The channel updates.spamassassin.org should work, provided your on a 3.x version (IIRC). If you're on an older version, time to upgrade.

I should mention that SpamAssassin is so well known that most spammers these days craft their spam to avoid it's rules. This makes it only marginally useful. The best way to combat spam is through a multi-layered approach, RBLs/SpamAssassin/Graylisting/SPF/DKIM/etc.

Update:
Running sa-update -D on my mail server fetched the Feb 25th update; I forgot to catch the output the first time, but this is what it looks like when I rerun:

Mar  8 19:08:59.093 [54937] dbg: channel: attempting channel updates.spamassassin.org
Mar  8 19:08:59.093 [54937] dbg: channel: update directory /var/db/spamassassin/3.003002/updates_spamassassin_org
Mar  8 19:08:59.093 [54937] dbg: channel: channel cf file /var/db/spamassassin/3.003002/updates_spamassassin_org.cf
Mar  8 19:08:59.093 [54937] dbg: channel: channel pre file /var/db/spamassassin/3.003002/updates_spamassassin_org.pre
Mar  8 19:08:59.093 [54937] dbg: channel: metadata version = 1293136
Mar  8 19:08:59.112 [54937] dbg: dns: 2.3.3.updates.spamassassin.org => 1293136, parsed as 1293136
Mar  8 19:08:59.112 [54937] dbg: channel: current version is 1293136, new version is 1293136, skipping channel

I'm running version 3.3.2_1, not sure what a 3.31 is.
Sounds like your installation is borked, or your DNS isn't working right...

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Spamassassin on 1and1 dedicated server

Spamassassin? update channels

Related Topic