Repeated Blacklisting / IP reputation

Tue Sep 8 20:00:46 UTC 2009

Joe Greco wrote:
>> there is a fundamental disconnect here.  the IP space is neutral.
>> it has no bias toward or against social behaviours.  its a tool.
>> the actual/real target here are the people who are using these tools
>> to be antisocial.  blacklisting IP space is always reactive and 
>> should only beused in emergency and as a -TEMPORARY- expedient.
>>
>> IMHO of course., YMMV.
>>     
>
> Show me ONE major MTA which allows you to configure an expiration for
> an ACL entry.
>
> The problem with your opinion, and it's a fine opinion, and it's even a
> good opinion, is that it has very little relationship to the tools which
> are given to people in order to accomplish blocking.  Kind of the question
> I was contemplating in my other message of minutes ago.
>
> If people were given an option to "block this IP for 30 minutes, 24 hours,
> 30 days, 12 months, 5 years, or forever" - I wonder how many people would
> just shrug and click "forever."
>
> This may lead to the discovery of another fundamental disconnect - or two.
>
> Sigh.
>
> ... JG
>   
A cron job/schedule task with a script that removes said line would most 
likely do wonderous things for you.  I could see a comment before each 
listing with a time/date that you use some regex fu on to figure out how 
long it was there and how long it should be there for.  Simple!  You 
could also automate it with a web frontend for noobs so they don't have 
to manually edit configuration files.