RHSBL Blacklisted

Problem reported by Nicolas Le Merle - 1/8/2015 at 2:47 AM

Resolved

Hi,

I received an alert to say my server has been blacklisted: "The test RHSBL has changed to a status of Blocked" and upon investigation I found that the zone SM uses to check RHSBL (rhsbl.ahbl.org) has been decommissioned

FYI: http://www.ahbl.org/content/last-notice-wildcarding-services-jan-1st

34 Replies

Reply to Thread

PennineNick Replied

1/8/2015 at 3:40 AM

It would be nice to have a way of manually selecting which Server Blacklist Checks to enable/disable.

Employee Replied

1/8/2015 at 12:47 PM

Employee Post

Hello all. I've already seen this RBL falsely return positives. I would recommend disabling the RBL: RHSBL check in Security >> Antispam Admin >> Spam Checks. I'm told we'll be removing this RBL from the SmarterMail web interface.

Employee Replied

1/8/2015 at 12:51 PM

Employee Post

You can also manually remove it from the Server Blacklist Checks by modifying the BlacklistAwareConfig.xml file found at the default path of C:\Program Files (x86)\SmarterTools\SmarterMail\Service. After you make the changes be sure to restart the SmarterMail service for them to take affect.

Steve Reid Replied

1/9/2015 at 7:06 AM

Rod's instructions don't seem correct. He's talking about something else, we have no ability to fix this from within the webui. Very confusing.

Steve Reid Replied

1/9/2015 at 7:08 AM

So is there a new release coming out soon with this problem fixed? This would be a shining example of why the blacklist checks within smarter mail are problematic and really not needed. Blacklist checks can be done easily outside of smartermail.

PennineNick Replied

1/9/2015 at 7:57 AM

I don't think they would be problematic if we could configure it more easily - in a similar way to the table of spam checks - so we can disable and add/remove lists to be checked. For us, the regular and automated check on a group of blocking lists is a great help.

Employee Replied

1/9/2015 at 8:31 AM

Employee Post

Steve, from my understanding, you wouldn't disable but DELETE the RHSBL check from your spam checks.

Steve Reid Replied

1/9/2015 at 8:51 AM

I guess I am the confused one then. I thought this was in reference to the Server Blacklist Checks... Which is different than RBL spam checks.

Employee Replied

1/9/2015 at 5:17 PM

Employee Post

I think it applies to both. To modify the Server Blacklist checks you'll want to follow my steps above with modifying the BlacklistAwareConfig.xml file.

David . Replied

1/10/2015 at 4:56 AM

yes ... +1

Employee Replied

1/12/2015 at 8:05 AM

Employee Post

Yes, this will be corrected in a minor release of SmarterMail. The RHSBL check will be removed from the spam checks and server blacklist check.

good2 Replied

2/20/2015 at 2:52 PM

Nice link, thanks.

Gary Steiner Replied

3/6/2015 at 4:58 PM

So, when is the minor release that fixes this going to come out? It still exists in 13.3.5535.

Employee Replied

3/9/2015 at 12:49 PM

Employee Post

This was removed in version 13.2.5507: "REMOVED: The AHBL.org RBL from the server blacklist and spam checks as that service is no longer available." A brief check shows ahbl.org checks should definitely be skipped, but I'll let the developers know to check into this a bit more and confirm that it's working as expected.

Employee Replied

3/10/2015 at 8:24 AM

Employee Post

Gary, the check for AHBL.org was removed from the code. New system will not have this check available. However, for existing systems, you will also need to remove manually the check from your antispam administration settings.

David Fisher Replied

3/10/2015 at 3:55 PM

Hi Robert, how do you remove it from Server Blacklist Check? It still shows under there for me, as True and last checked was in January 2015. I do not have RHSBL in the Antispam Administration.

Employee Replied

3/10/2015 at 4:16 PM

Employee Post

David, you can manually remove the results and, if necessary, the actual check from the following two XML files:

SmarterMail\Service\BlacklistAwareResults.xml -- this contains the results

SmarterMail\Service\BlacklistAwareConfig.xml -- this contains the checks to perform

Nicolas Nicolas Replied

7/23/2017 at 11:15 PM

How we can disable the RHSBL in SM 16?

there isn't any RHSBL in RBL list.

But we can see that the RHSBL blacklisted the mail server IP (Itself) in the server blacklist section.

Please inform us how to disable it in SM 16

Nicolas Nicolas Replied

7/29/2017 at 8:02 AM

can it be disable in SM 16?

Nicolas Nicolas Replied

8/15/2017 at 8:26 AM

When you go to "manage" and then in "Server Blacklist" section we can see this Mail Server IPs (Its IPs) are listed here.

Whit this content :

This IP address is blocked by the following RBL : RHSBL

We can this problem in all of our servers in SM16. How it can happen?

Steve Rogers Replied

8/15/2017 at 3:16 PM

Bump - same problem

Steve Rogers Replied

8/15/2017 at 3:16 PM

Bump - same problem

Nicolas Nicolas Replied

8/25/2017 at 10:56 AM

I have updated the servers but the issue is still exist.

Employee Replied

8/28/2017 at 7:28 AM

Employee Post

Nicolas, when you are looking at the "Blocks by RBL" in the server blacklist, what is the Changed and Checked dates associated with RHSBL?

Steve Rogers Replied

8/28/2017 at 12:31 PM

Robert. I am having the same problem on a new SM16 install. In my case the Changed date is 6/3/15 and the checked date is 8/28/17

Employee Replied

8/28/2017 at 1:01 PM

Employee Post

Steve and Nicolas, there are two files used for RBL checks and the black server check:

BlacklistAwareConfig.xml

BlacklistAwareResults.xml

There results file retains indefinitely any RBL checks are run; the config file lists any configured RBLs. You can remove any of the results without restarting the server; modifying the config file does require a server restart.

Please verify that RHSBL is not in either file.

Nicolas Nicolas Replied

9/1/2017 at 9:28 PM

Dear Robert Emmett,

Thanks for your reply.

The main question is that why SM put itself IP's in RHSBL ?

We don't know yet what kind of problems it makes?

Nicolas Nicolas Replied

9/22/2017 at 5:29 AM

We have update the SM to V 16.3, The problem is still exist

Employee Replied

9/24/2017 at 7:32 PM

Employee Post

I recommend you open a support ticket.

Nicolas Nicolas Replied

12/4/2017 at 10:01 AM

why always you us wants us to use the support feature and pay for that?

This is a bug for the smarter mail ans is not a system issue.

Please check this issue on any server(install by yourself) and see the issue explained.

David Sovereen Replied

3/6/2018 at 12:10 PM

I just upgraded to SM 16 from SM 15 and my server is also showing RHSBL as blocking our server. When I look at BlacklistAwareConfig.xml, RHSBL is *NOT* there. It is in the results file.

I clicked Run Server Blacklist Check on the Server Blacklist page, and RHSBL remains.

I deleted BlacklistAwareResults.xml and then clicked Run Server Blacklist Check on the Server Blacklist page.

Waited 10 minutes, and SM apparently checked three server IPs against 1 blacklist, UCEProtect Level 3. That's all.

Clicked Run Server Blacklist Check on the Server Blacklist page again. Waited 10 minutes, and 4 additional IPs (7 total) had been checked against UCEProtect Level 3. That's not all of this servers IP addresses, and there are many more RBLs that should have been checked.

Fixes and suggestions for the Server Blacklist page:

1. The page never purges results from the BlacklistAwareResults.xml file. As a result, even though RHSBL has been removed from BlacklistAwareConfig.xml, the RHSBL results stay in BlacklistAwareResults.xml, and so until operators manually delete the BlacklistAwareResults.xml file, the Server Blacklist page with permanently warn about RHSBL (or any other old RBL it has ever checked in the past). The "Run Server Blacklist Check" Action should delete the file BlacklistAwareResults.xml and build new results from scratch using only the servers listed in BlacklistAwareConfig.xml. This should probably be characterized as a bug and fixed.

2. Would be nice if there were a button that automatically added all of the RBLs configured at Settings -> Antispam -> RBLs with a single click.

3. Would be nice if SmarterTools maintained a BlacklistAwareConfig.xml on their web site that SmarterMail could download and add to the local BlacklistAwareConfig.xml with a single click.

Note that for requests 2 and 3, I don't think using either of these buttons should delete and replace the existing items in the
existing BlacklistAwareConfig.xml, they should simply add to the existing BlacklistAwareConfig.xml. If someone wants to delete and start over, they should be able to select all of the RBLs being checked, Delete them, and then click these buttons again to re-add them (see #4).

4. There should be an interface for adding, editing, and removing Blacklists from the Server Blacklist check area. Most of the code is already in the Settings -> Antispam -> RBLs area. Just needs to be told to read/write BlacklistAwareConfig.xml instead of spamConfig.xml.

5. Clicking Run Server Blacklist Check doesn't seem to be working. Each time I click it, I get a few more entries in BlacklistAwareResults.xml, but it keeps getting hung. There's a bug somewhere in here that needs to be fixed.

Thanks,

Dave

David Sovereen Replied

3/6/2018 at 12:11 PM

Oh, and please remove the "resolved" flag from this issue. It is NOT resolved!

They Call Me Matt Replied

4/23/2018 at 8:16 PM

April 23rd and still not resolved... Not even sure why a RHSBL type of blacklist is being used to check for blocks since they are typically used on the Mail From address in the SMTP communications. The cleanup should be done by code and not manually as this likely affects every installation that started on v15 and before.

Richard Frank Replied

6/10/2018 at 2:26 PM

I don't want to edit xml files, next update they are rewritten.

remove this blacklist server check please.

Back to Community Threads

Please leave this box unchecked