Eighteen Years of Greytrapping – Is the Weirdness Paying Off?
14 days ago
- #OpenBSD
- #email-security
- #spam-prevention
- The number of spamtraps (imaginary friends) exceeded Norway's population on August 7, 2025.
- Greytrapping experiment started in 2007 with OpenBSD's spamd to combat spam effectively.
- Centralization of email services ('The Cloud') has changed the landscape since the mid-2000s.
- Greylisting and greytrapping remain effective network-level techniques for reducing spam.
- IPv4-only limitation of spamd is a significant drawback as IPv6 adoption grows.
- Data shows fluctuating trends in spamtraps and trapped hosts over the years.
- Author recommends Michael W. Lucas' book 'Run Your Own Mail Server' for aspiring mail admins.
- Historical articles and field notes document the evolution and challenges of greytrapping.