[RFCI-Discuss] Rejected listing for gruver.net

Jamie L. Penman-Smithson lists at silverdream.org
Fri May 12 11:10:48 EDT 2006


The MX for GRUVER.NET is a tarpitting SMTP server that will never  
deliver anything. Despite this, my requests for it to be listed have  
been rejected.

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;gruver.net.                    IN      MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
gruver.net.             3600    IN      MX      10 mailboxen.gruver.net.

Meet mailboxen.gruver.net the spamd IP-based SPAM(tm) blocker:

Trying 65.68.190.231...
Connected to mailboxen.gruver.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mailboxen.gruver.net ESMTP spamd IP-based SPAM blocker; Thu May  
11 18:14:24 2006
HELO sdf.lonestar.org
250 Hello, spam sender. Pleased to be wasting your time.
MAIL FROM:<>
250 You are about to try to deliver spam. Your time will be spent,  
for nothing.
RCPT TO:<postmaster at gruver.net>
451 Temporary failure, please try again later.
Connection closed by foreign host.

After several retries, it changes to rejecting after DATA.

I have an inkling that the rejection is because of this:

"If the right-hand-side of an address doesn't have a postmaster  
address (e.g., given an address of <foo at example.tld>, if  
"postmaster at example.tld" bounces as non-existent (on any of the valid  
MX servers for 'example.tld'), then example.tld would be listed."

However, there is nothing in the RFCs that differentiate between  
rejecting after DATA or rejecting after RCPT.

"Further, if a postmaster address is inbound-only, (i.e., it is never  
used in any of the following: SMTP Envelope From, RFC 2822 'From'  
Header, or the RFC 2822 'Sender' header), then it is permissible  
under our policy to reject mail to the postmaster address from the  
null-envelope ('<>'). "

They do not just reject from the null-envelope sender:

Trying 65.68.190.231...
Connected to mailboxen.gruver.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mailboxen.gruver.net ESMTP spamd IP-based SPAM blocker; Fri May  
12 09:38:58 2006
HELO sdf.lonestar.org
250 Hello, spam sender. Pleased to be wasting your time.
MAIL FROM:<jlps at sdf.lonestar.org>
250 You are about to try to deliver spam. Your time will be spent,  
for nothing.
RCPT TO:<postmaster at gruver.net>
451 Temporary failure, please try again later.
Connection closed by foreign host.

"In the interests of openness, this does allow sites which have local  
rejections on certain IP addresses to accidentally end up listed if a  
site gets a bounce from a "single-IP rejection" that is vague (e.g.,  
"551 5.7.1 Message Rejected") - however, since this has happened only  
once, it is not at present something that generates undue concern for  
us."

Is "451 Temporary failure, please try again later." vague? I think it  
is.

"In the case of "temporary failures", where the MX returns a 4xx  
series response to e-mails under consideration, it shall be  
considered a "fatal error" if, after the default sendmail queue- 
return time, (5 days), the recipient MX fails to accept the mail. In  
the case of a fatal error, the domain shall be considered to meet the  
listing criteria."

All attempts to contact anyone human at GRUVER.NET have failed, mail  
to <postmaster>, <abuse> gets rejected from multiple sites (not just  
one IP - not narrowly tailored). After sitting in the queue for 5  
days it was returned as undeliverable:

WHOIS contact (same MX):

Registrant:
aeroflight tech data
    433 main po box 854
    gruver, TX 79040
    US

    Domain Name: GRUVER.NET

    Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
       Johnson, C E              cejohnson at AEROFLIGHTTD.COM

<cejohnson at aeroflighttd.com>: host mailboxen.gruver.net
[65.68.190.231] said:
      450 go away, leave me alone (in reply to end of DATA command)

<postmaster at gruver.net>: host mailboxen.gruver.net[65.68.190.231]
said: 450 go
      away, leave me alone (in reply to end of DATA command)

If I've missed something, let me know.

-j
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