SpamAssassin and Razor

SpamAssassin is an anti-spam mail filter.

Additional Resources:

Note: This chapter only installs SpamAssassin and Razor. We will configure Exim, the MTA, to use SpamAssassin as a filter in a subsequent chapter.

Login as the root user.
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Update the package list.
# apt-get update
Install the libnet-dns-perl and libmailtools-perl packages.
# apt-get install libnet-dns-perl libmailtools-perl
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Note: These packages improve the performance of SpamAssassin, but they are not required.
Install a recent version of the Razor package.
# apt-get install --target-release testing razor
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Note: Razor improves the performance of SpamAssassin, but it is not required.
Install a recent version of the SpamAssassin package.
# apt-get install --target-release testing spamassassin
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Copy this schema file to the target computer:
[spamassassin-userpref.sql]
Use the schema file to create a database table for SpamAssassin.
# mysql < spamassasin-userpref.sql
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Start the MySQL monitor.
# mysql
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Notice how the command prompt changes from "#" to "mysql>".
Verify that the spamassassin database was created.
mysql> SHOW DATABASES;
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The spamassassin database should appear in the list.
Connect to the spamassassin database.
mysql> USE spamassassin;
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The spamassassin database should appear in the list.
Verify that the userpref table was created.
mysql> SHOW TABLES;
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The userpref table should appear in the list.
Verify that the userpref table was populated.
mysql> SELECT * FROM userpref;
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Create a MySQL user for the spamd daemon.
mysql> GRANT SELECT ON spamassassin.* TO spamd@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'def456';
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This command creates a MySQL user named spamd with password def456 that has read-only access to all tables in the spamassassin database.
Note: Use a different password than def456.
Note: The password must be given within single quotes.
Note: The MySQL accounts database is separate from the domain. Domain users cannot login to MySQL.
Exit the MySQL monitor.
mysql> exit
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Notice how the command prompt changes back to the "#".
Login to MySQL as the spamd user.
# mysql -h localhost -u spamd -p
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Verify that the spamd user can read the spamassasin database.
mysql> SELECT * FROM spamassassin.userpref;
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Exit the MySQL monitor.
mysql> exit
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Notice how the command prompt changes back to the "#".
Create a local system user for the spamd daemon.
# adduser --system --home /var/lib/spam --shell /bin/false --disabled-password --disabled-login spamd
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Edit the /etc/spamassassin/local.cf file.

# mcedit /etc/spamassassin/local.cf
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Change the file to read as follows:

auto_whitelist_path /var/lib/spam/whitelist
user_scores_dsn DBI:mysql:spamassassin:localhost
user_scores_sql_username spamd
user_scores_sql_password def456
user_scores_table userpref

Remember to substitute the appropriate password for def456.

Edit the /etc/default/spamassassin file.
# mcedit /etc/default/spamassassin
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Change the file to read as follows:
```
ENABLED=1
OPTIONS="--username spamd --nouser-config --sql-config --whitelist"
```
Start the SpamAssassin daemon.
# /etc/init.d/spamassassin start
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Test SpamAssassin with the sample spam message.
# zcat /usr/share/doc/spamassassin/sample-spam.txt.gz | spamc | more
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SpamAssassin is working properly if this line exists in the output:
X-Spam-Status: YES
(This is the 9th line in the screenshot.)