SpamAssassin does not do virus checking for one simple reason: it would be horrendously innefficient at it. Virus checking vs Spam checking is analogous to the different between cmp and diff. One is looking at the bit-level (more or less), while the other is looking for much higher-order patterns.
There are certainly grey areas, such as the attached auto-porn-dialler things, but I think I have a pretty decent way of clarifying what I think SA should scan for vs what a Virus checker should scan for. SA will try to identify messages; Virus scanners should try to identify "bad" executables. Most messages are not executable. Some messages might be "executable", which for example is why we do look for IFRAME tags in SA at the moment. The case of the porn-auto-dialler though is not a case of a message which happens to be executable -- the dialler part is more like a virus/trojan than it is part of the message the porn guy's trying to get across. If you want to look for particular MIME types, try something like MIMEDefang which specializes in that, and can even invoke SA as part of its scanning. If you want to look for viruses in general, use Amavis or some such in parallel with SA. The argument "Well, SA is already looking at the message, so it's convenient to add it in there" is akin to "Well, I've just landed in the 747 at the airport; it's a transportation device, why can't it just transport me right to my front door?". Sure, there are some similarities between virus and spam scanning, in that both involve scanning email content. A car and an airplane both have engines. But the engines are very very different in both cases. C _______________________________________________________________ Have big pipes? SourceForge.net is looking for download mirrors. We supply the hardware. You get the recognition. Email Us: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Spamassassin-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/spamassassin-talk
