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Postfix Documentation
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Example 2: Deferred queue full of dictionary attack bounces

This is from a server where recipient validation is not yet available for some of the hosted domains. Dictionary attacks on the unvalidated domains result in bounce backscatter. The bounces dominate the queue, but with proper tuning they do not saturate the incoming or active queues. The high volume of deferred mail is not a direct cause for alarm.

$ qshape deferred | head

                         T  5 10 20 40 80 160 320 640 1280 1280+
                TOTAL 2234  4  2  5  9 31  57 108 201  464  1353
  heyhihellothere.com  207  0  0  1  1  6   6   8  25   68    92
  pleazerzoneprod.com  105  0  0  0  0  0   0   0   5   44    56
       groups.msn.com   63  2  1  2  4  4  14  14  14    8     0
    orion.toppoint.de   49  0  0  0  1  0   2   4   3   16    23
          kali.com.cn   46  0  0  0  0  1   0   2   6   12    25
        meri.uwasa.fi   44  0  0  0  0  1   0   2   8   11    22
    gjr.paknet.com.pk   43  1  0  0  1  1   3   3   6   12    16
 aristotle.algonet.se   41  0  0  0  0  0   1   2  11   12    15

The domains shown are mostly bulk-mailers and all the volume is the tail end of the time distribution, showing that short term arrival rates are moderate. Larger numbers and lower message ages are more indicative of current trouble. Old mail still going nowhere is largely harmless so long as the active and incoming queues are short. We can also see that the groups.msn.com undeliverables are low rate steady stream rather than a concentrated dictionary attack that is now over.

$ qshape -s deferred | head

                     T  5 10 20 40 80 160 320 640 1280 1280+
            TOTAL 2193  4  4  5  8 33  56 104 205  465  1309
    MAILER-DAEMON 1709  4  4  5  8 33  55 101 198  452   849
      example.com  263  0  0  0  0  0   0   0   0    2   261
      example.org  209  0  0  0  0  0   1   3   6   11   188
      example.net    6  0  0  0  0  0   0   0   0    0     6
      example.edu    3  0  0  0  0  0   0   0   0    0     3
      example.gov    2  0  0  0  0  0   0   0   1    0     1
      example.mil    1  0  0  0  0  0   0   0   0    0     1

Looking at the sender distribution, we see that as expected most of the messages are bounces.

Postfix Documentation
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