Off to do a build now. I'll report back on how it does with SA later. rOD.
-- I think I'm in love. Probably just hungry. >> Doing the blogging thang again at http://www.groovymother.com/ << ----- Original Message ----- From: "Vipul Ved Prakash" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2002 2:38 PM Subject: [Razor-users] Announce: Vipul's Razor v2 > Hi, > > I am happy to announce that the first beta of Vipul's Razor v2 is now > available for public download. The software is comprised of two source > packages, razor-agents and razor-agents-sdk that can be downloaded by > following these links: > > http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/razor/razor-agents-sdk-2.01.tar.gz?downlo ad > http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/razor/razor-agents-2.01.tar.gz?download > > For the most part, Razor v2 is a drop-in replacement for Razor v1. > Installation instructions are available in the INSTALL file which is a > part of the razor-agents distribution. The new website at > http://razor.sf.net also provides access to documentation online. > > Razor v2 uses multiple signatures for checking if a message is spam, > including Razor v1 signatures from the old database. This means Razor v2 > users will continue to benefit from Razor v1 signatures in addition to new > signatures that will be created by Razor v2. > > Razor v2 is a significant update (that's why we refer to it as v2), with > the following new features: > > 1 New Protocol > > The Razor v2 protocol has been completely redesigned. The new protocol > is based on exchange of _Structured Information Strings_, that are > similar to URIs and can be parsed with URI decoding libraries. v2 > protocol supports _Pipelining_, which means Razor Agents can keep a > connection open with server to eliminate the latency introduced by TCP > 3-way handshake and 4-way breakdown for every connection. The new > protocol semantics allow seamless introduction of new signature > schemes. Razor v2 protocol specification will be available shortly. > > 2 Nilsimsa Signatures > > Nilsimsa is a _fuzzy signature_ algorithm based on statistical models > of n-gram occurrence in a piece of text. Nilsimsa disregards small > changes (mutations) in text that are statistically irrelevant. > Nilsimsa signatures can be compared to determine the similarity > (between 0 - 100%) in source texts. Razor v2 includes support for > Nilsimsa signatures. > > 3 Ephemeral Signatures > > Ephemeral Signatures are short-lived signatures based on > collaboratively computed random numbers. Ephemeral Signatures select a > section of text from the spam message based on a random number that > changes every so often. This makes the hashing scheme a moving target, > and spammers can't exploit it because they don't know which part of > the message will be hashed after the random number rollover. > > 4 Preprocessors > > Razor v2 supports several preprocessors. Preprocessors alter the the > text of a spam before a hash is computed. This version includes > preprocessors to decode Base64 encoded messages, decode QP encoded > messages and convert HTML to plaintext. Spammers employ several > techniques that hide mutations in various encoding. Preprocessors > defeat such techniques by hashing the content that a recipient > actually sees in his/her mail user agent. > > 5 Multiple Filtration Engines > > Razor v2 supports multiple engines. An engine is logical unit that > encapsulates a particular type of filteration service. Razor v2 > currently supports four engines - VR1 which is equivalent to Razor v1, > VR2 that is based on SHA1 signatures of bodytext, VR3 that is based on > Nilsimsa signatures, and VR4 based on Ephemeral hashes. New engines > can be seamlessly plugged into the service as and when required. > > 6 Complete Backward Compatibility with Razor v1 > > The VR1 engine is functionally equivalent to the Razor v1 service and > uses the same database. This means users who transition from v1 to v2 > will still get the benefit of several million signatures known to the > v1 service. > > 7 Base64 signature encoding > > Signatures are now encoded as base 64 numbers instead of base 16 (hex), > reducing traffic that goes over the wire by 33%. > > 8 Truth Evaluation System (TeS) > > Razor v2 has a transparent, back-end component known as TeS. TeS is a > combination of a reputation system and pattern recognition heuristics > that assigns trust to reporters and confidence values (between 0-100) > to every signature. Users can set an acceptable confidence level in > their Razor configuration. The server also publishes a recommended > confidence level. TeS has been designed to eliminate false positives > of legit bulk email that were occasionally generated by bad reports > in Razor v1. > > 9 Submission of entire spam messages > > Razor v2 accepts the entire body text of spam messages not previously > known to the system. This lets Razor v2 compute new Ephemeral > Signatures every n hours as well as seed the database whenever a new > signature scheme and/or preprocessor is introduced. It should be noted > that Razor v2 _does not_ accept contents of legit email during a check > dialogue. Only signatures are sent when checking email. > > 10 Revocation > > Razor v2 allows users to revoke messages that they don't consider to > be spam. Revocation input is fed into TeS, that adjusts the confidence > value of a signature or remove it from the database as necessary. > Revocation is done through a tool called razor-revoke, which is a part > of the new Razor distribution. > > 11 Reporter Registration > > Razor v2 requires reporters to be registered. This lets reporters > build a reputation over time, so their reports and revocations are > weighed according to their reputation value. Report requires users to > authenticate which is done using a CRAM-SHA1 authentication scheme. > > 12 Content classes > > Razor v2 introduces the concept of content classes. A content class is > a set of messages that represents variations on the same content. As > new reports come in, Nomination Servers associate them to an existing > content class, if a (close) match is found. Additionally, Razor v2 > treats each MIME attachment is a separate content class, so spammers > MIME attachment can be individually tracked (which is very useful in > case of viruses). > > Please feel free to forward this announce to your friends and others > interesting in Razor. > > best regards, > vipul. > > -- > > Vipul Ved Prakash | "The future is here, it's just not > Software Design Artist | widely distributed." > http://vipul.net/ | -- William Gibson > > > _______________________________________________________________ > > Don't miss the 2002 Sprint PCS Application Developer's Conference > August 25-28 in Las Vegas - http://devcon.sprintpcs.com/adp/index.cfm?source=osdntextlink > > _______________________________________________ > Razor-users mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/razor-users > _______________________________________________________________ Don't miss the 2002 Sprint PCS Application Developer's Conference August 25-28 in Las Vegas - http://devcon.sprintpcs.com/adp/index.cfm?source=osdntextlink _______________________________________________ Spamassassin-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/spamassassin-talk
