SpamAssassin users beware….2010 brings a Y2K10 Bug

It’s been a mere 10 years since the famed Y2K bug threatened to end the world.  It seems like just yesterday that we all waited with baited breath to see how computer systems would shift from 1999 to 2000.  Gas was $1.26 per gallon, a U.S. stamp cost 33 cents and AOL combined with Time Warner.  We all felt relief that year as the millennium bug scare, that was thought to cause computer systems all over the world to fail, ended with minimal glitches.  Crisis averted.

Here we are 10 years later….gas is up to $2.60 per gallon, a U.S. stamp costs 44 cents and AOL and Time Warner are through.  And once again, news of the next Y2K bug spreads…this time dubbed the Y2K10 bug.  While this bug didn’t get anywhere near the attention that its predecessor did, it still caused significant damage.  The following Commtouch blog post goes into more detail about the bug but basically what happened is this….SpamAssassin, an open source mail filter has a rule in place that checks to see if a message is sent from the “far future.”  Now, it may be difficult for you and I to remember back when 2010 was considered the “far future” but it was and based on this rule, all messages with 2010 in the date header were given an increased spam weight which has now resulted in false positives and the rejection of legitimate emails.  This is major issue considering how critical email is to all of us, particularly in business.   Commtouch reports that the bug had a significant impact on the ratio of false positives, topping almost 20%.

SpamAssassin has issued an update to fix the bug but as Commtouch notes, the rule was changed to flag messages after 2020 so this bug could rear its ugly head once more for SpamAssassin users in the “far future” if they aren’t careful.

For a real-time spam outbreak monitor from Commtouch, check out http://www.imailserver.com/resources/spam-stats.asp