Re: Wacky SPF Policy

>>>>> "alex" == Alex van den Bogaerdt <[email protected]> writes:

>> I was directed by a young whippersnapper at the pobox help desk to
>> sign up on the SPF mailing list to learn something about it.  He
>> offered the comment that pobox invented SPF (so there!).
>> 
>> I had complained to them about this mail stalling in my outbound
>> server:
>> 
>> -----Q-ID----- --Size-- -Priority- ---Q-Time---
>> --------Sender/Recipient-------- s15Dbwo2018764 250 1290946+Feb 5
>> 08:37 <[email protected]> (Deferred: 453 Please see
>> http://spf.pobox.com/[email protected]&ip=65.254.18.67)
>> <[email protected]> (Deferred: 453 Please see
>> http://spf.pobox.com/[email protected]&ip=65.254.18.67)
>> s15DtnEW027481 501 1291256+Feb 5 08:55 <[email protected]> (Deferred: 453
>> Please see
>> http://spf.pobox.com/[email protected]&ip=65.254.18.67)
>> <[email protected]> (Deferred: 453 Please see
>> http://spf.pobox.com/[email protected]&ip=65.254.18.67)

alex> You say this is your email queue, and pobox says it is contacted from IP
alex> address 65.254.18.67 .  If both are correct, then the email policy as
alex> published by wpi.edu is to NOT authorize this message.  Reason: you are
alex> sending from 65.254.18.67 which is not authorized in the wpi.edu policy.

alex> Did I miss anything relevant from your message perhaps?

The outbound queue I can see, with that failure message, is on VALID SPF
SENDER of WPI.EDU messages.

I never ever sent a message from 65.254.18.67.

Some spam came out of that IP forged as being from my address, I guess.  I
never saw the message.  I get the reference when I follow the web link that
pobox gives me.

So, some pc in Long Island, at IP 65.254.18.67, sent a message as if it came
from "me".  That violated SPF, since I established a list of IPs which can sent
email from @wpi.edu and it DOES NOT include that Long Island IP address.

pobox is absolutely correct that the message violated SPF.  I wish they just
dropped the damn thing.

However, as a result of that bogus message, pobox has poisoned my email
address, even if I send email from a valid, SPF-correct, sending system.